It seems as if every returned missionary has the phrase “GIVE ME ADVICE” posted on their foreheads. This is fine until we start receiving conflicting counsel, or we’re given guidance that we don’t necessarily want. I mean, sometimes we’re given suggestions that are legitimately crazy.

Forgiveness is fundamental to personal peace and happiness. Forgiveness is fundamental to civilization.

I don’t believe in a one, true love.

On Saturday, February 11, President Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy W. Nelson, spoke at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, but their counsel applies to all Church members around the world.

Erastus Snow, an early apostle of the LDS Church, served 14 missions in his lifetime. He began preaching the gospel at age 15 with a brief mission to New York and New Hampshire in 1834. By age 18, he had served five missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he continued serving missions of varying lengths in locations from Ohio to Denmark until he was 41 years old.

Two well-known Utah women are lending their voices to raise awareness of breast cancer. The Utah Department of Health Cancer Control Program created a series of TV and radio ads featuring KUTV news anchor Mary Nickles and Sheri Dew, president and CEO of Deseret Book Company. Both share their stories of how getting a mammogram saved their life.

How can we find answers to difficult questions or receive inspiration, even while we sleep? Dr. Judith Orloff offers some interesting insight and suggestions.

God chooses his leaders. This is true at every level of Church administration. Joseph was chosen by the Lord and so were those who came after him. But in those early years, before the practice of succession in the Church had been formalized, some members were uncertain of the format succession ought to follow. In an August meeting held to resolve the matter of succession, the Lord placed the stamp of his approval on Brigham Young. One account gives the record in these words:

Valentine’s Day is coming up in less than a week. Mostly, I’ve been trying to ignore it (it’s not my favorite holiday), but my five-year-old won’t let me. For weeks now (literally) he has trailed me around the house, asking me to help him make valentines. In turn, I haul out the red, white, and pink construction paper, the markers, scissors—and, reluctantly—the glue. For ten or fifteen minutes he works happily, cutting out misshapen red paper hearts and gluing them onto white paper cards, before losing interest and moving on to other tasks, leaving a detritus trail of paper clippings in his wake. Because I have also had this post on my mind, my son’s incessant reminders have forced me to think about Valentine’s Day and social conceptions of love. I don’t want to rehash familiar arguments about the loneliness of a “couple’s holiday” for single people; I don’t even want to criticize the glorification of romantic love (although I have more than enough to say on that topic). But I do want to talk about a kind of love that too often gets overlooked in the glamor of romantic love—the strong, affirming love that can exist between good friends, particularly between women. I’m not sure it was coincidence that Sunny posted about Relief Society yesterday (after I had written this post)—for me, it is this very connection between women that characterizes Relief Society at its best.

UPDATE: As of this morning (5/8/2014), in addition to the 8 apostles who joined Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6 more of the Brethren joined Twitter, to make it 14 of the 15 who're on the social media site! Scroll to the end of the story for a complete list of their official handles!