Has darkness ever overwhelmed you? Have you seen cities sink and communities set ablaze? Has a voice saved you? If you know the Book of Mormon, then you are familiar with the tale I tell. After hundreds of pages chronicling the ebbs and flows of civilizations, the narrative reaches a climax. In Palestine, Jesus Christ was crucified and buried. The world felt the reverberations. “Thick darkness” fell upon the land. Nothing could bring light, “neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceeding dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all.” The sounds of howling and weeping pieced the darkness. Sadness reigned. It is difficult to overstate the drama and the beauty of the Book of Mormon’s rendering of these days. As one who watched silvery strands cloud the corneas of my infant son and darken his vision onto blindness, as one who takes the Christ story seriously in the depth of my soul, and as one who more and more considers the place of the sun and the moon, the land and the sea, in our religious imaginations, this scripture leaves me in tears. It also leaves me spinning about why the Book of Mormon is vital for American religious historians. It is not simply an artifact. It is also a treasure trove of ideas. To me, it should be required reading for anyone in my guild, and here are a few reasons.

Hand-The children of the Demerara Branch in Georgetown, Guyana, have never been to Los Angeles, much less California, but this Christmas the colorful handmade ornaments they inspired adorn one of a dozen Christmas trees that greet holiday guests at the Los Angeles Temple Visitors’ Center.

The only thing that rivals the Mormon church’s ability to spread the word is its ability to cope with emergencies.

NEW YORK – Book Expo America held its annual Benjamin Franklin Award ceremony on June 8 and Utah-based author Lisa Mangum, author of the The Forgotten Locket, the last book in the Hourglass Door trilogy, took first place in the category of Teen Fiction. The award was presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Instead of spending Valentine's Day eating chocolate, this LDS athlete will spend it running 26.2 miles, trying to make it into the Olympics. And did I mention he was the 2015 U.S. champion?

“One thing that I feel very, very strongly about, (is that) families are very, very important,” Mayor Robin Laubaugh said after being named the 2018 Ohio Mother of the Year.

Brad Mills knew he was ruining his hockey career. His pattern of late-night partying typically left him dehydrated the next day and translated into injuries and poor performances. As a result, the center/wingman was struggling in his role as a “depth” player for the Lowell Devils, an American Hockey League affiliate for the New Jersey Devils. It was like he was living in a dark cloud, he said.

A photo of a Muslim doctor and his 91-year-old Mormon patient has gone viral after the doctor posted it on Facebook this week.

Last summer, Bethany Paterno, a member of the Oak Ridge Ward, Spring Texas Stake, was reading an article in the Church News to her husband, Marcus, about some of the Latter-day Saint women who were being recognized by American Mothers, Inc. as the Mother of the Year for their states. “I told [my husband], ‘Wow, what an amazing honor. That is really cool,’” Sister Paterno recalled. A year later, she cried and jumped up and down when she learned she had been chosen as the 2015 Texas Young Mother of the Year.

Utah Valley University President Matthew S. Holland said Tuesday that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are learning to swim in contemporary religion's mainstream during what he referred to as "the post-Mormon moment." "It's one thing to think about loving others and getting along with people from different faith perspectives when you are insular and existing outside the main body of faith," Holland told a classroom full of students and professors during his appearance as a guest lecturer for UVU's special "Mormonism in the American Experience" class.