The following is an excerpt from President Kimball Speaks Out.

This lesson is about the Lord’s promise to give us help while we are in mortality. That help can come in times of peace and in times of need. It can come through prayer, not just the noun, the thing called prayer, but the verb, the thing we do on our knees and in our heart. Help is also found in the scriptures and through meditation or pondering.

Editor’s Note: Tammy Uzelac Hall is the host of LDS Living’s newest podcast, “Sunday on Monday,” a weekly podcast focused on Come, Follow Me that dives into the hidden treasures of the gospel. Here are four questions readers might have in their studies of the Book of Mormon this week, accompanied by Hall's insights that add new meaning to the beloved verses.

If you expect your patriarchal blessing to make wild or unusual promises and predictions, you may be misunderstanding what a patriarchal blessing is. Your patriarchal blessing isn’t a fortune cookie, and the patriarch isn’t a fortuneteller.[1] The patriarch is a prophet, called to convey God’s words and will to you. He is only authorized to pronounce the promises he is prompted by the Holy Ghost to give. Patriarchs are counseled by their leaders to avoid making sensational or extravagant promises in the blessings they pronounce, even if the Spirit shows them rather remarkable things about the blessing’s recipient. President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972), tenth President of the Church, explained, “I know of one or two cases … where a brother has been blessed by the patriarch and told that he would become a member of the Council of the Twelve [Apostles]. Usually [the patriarchs] don’t say that … even if the patriarch felt that the chances are [very good] that a man will be called to the leading councils of the Church.” President Smith added, “Patriarchs should be very careful in giving their blessings not to make extravagant expressions and to be conservative in what they say.”[2] Thus, you should not expect extravagant things to be mentioned in your blessing. Patriarchs generally avoid, for example, talking about things like the timing of the Second Coming when they give a blessing. While the young man or young woman being blessed may live to see the second coming of Christ, most patriarchs simply wouldn’t mention that in the blessing. President Smith further explained:

This summer, the Sunday on Monday podcast has decided to prove the scripture and see how we can truly “count it all joy.”

“I’m kind of nervous—it’s a beautiful song,” he shared with the audience before performing the Primary song.

To avoid confusion, we must learn to see patriarchal blessings not as a destination, but as a doorway to more revelation.

It was not only an improbable love story, it was an impossible love story. She was Mormon; he was Catholic. She was engaged; he was preparing to become a priest.

James E. Talmage wrote his groundbreaking book Jesus the Christ more than 100 years ago, and the powerful truths it contains continue to strengthen and inspire Latter-day Saints around the world. Here are a few things every Church member should know about this iconic work.

Recently, Religion News Serviceasked religious experts, including the director of the Vatican Observatory, about the long-debated theory that the darkness that descended over Jerusalem during the crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ was caused by a solar eclipse. It's a concept even Sir Isaac Newton entertained and pursued.