We’ve all heard them—stories that are widely circulated without a known origin that are frequently told over the pulpit. They are told and retold in hopes of building faith, but is it possible that these stories could be dangerous?

When I was very young, my parents planted a magnolia tree in our yard, in hopes of my having magnolias at my wedding. Plans for my future wedding also came up when I was 16 years old. Daddy arrived home from a church meeting with a rolled-up drawing of the soon-to-be Methodist church building. He unrolled the plans and pointed with pleasure to the chapel, saying, “Look, Neill, the new church will have a center aisle, instead of the side aisle of our church now, so at your wedding, I can walk you down the center of the sanctuary!” That anticipation held a particular poignancy since I was the only daughter in a family with six sons. I expected that trip down the church aisle and planned on it. Those expectations vanished like the dew of a Louisiana morning when I took an eternal step and entered the waters of baptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What if you paused every week to evaluate your life—not in terms of achievements, but in terms of relationships, discipleship, and faithfulness? For Gary Crittenden, that’s been a Sunday tradition for decades. Inspired by Stephen R. Covey’s “First Things First,” Gary developed a habit to help him keep his priorities straight and on this week’s episodes he shares the ways this practice has helped him in his efforts to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ, a better husband, father, and son.

“The true story of our faith is best seen in the countless lives of those who strive daily to follow our Savior Jesus Christ.”

David C. Dollahite is Professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University where he teaches classes and conducts research on the links between religion and family life. He is Co-Director (with Dr. Loren Marks) of the American Families of Faith Project. He received the Eliza R. Snow Fellowship for his research on religion and family relationships and was an Associate Director of the School of Family Life.

This past year was one for the books for Mormons. From volunteering and organizing relief efforts to sharing their talents on Dancing with the Stars and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mormons have rocked 2017.

Elaine Bradley is a wife, mother and Mormon who lives with her family in quiet and conservative Provo, Utah.

In 1841, rumors began to circulate that Martin Harris, one of the three Book of Mormon witnesses, had been murdered. The Mormons (who else?) had supposedly shot him to death. But, in fact, Martin Harris was perfectly healthy. He would live on until age 92, dying on July 10, 1875, in Clarkston, Utah. As Mark Twain later quipped after reading his own obituary, the report of Martin’s death was “an exaggeration.” He was now, the “Painesville Telegraph” wryly observed, “a living witness of what shall be said of him after his death.”

Most of us think all young Mormon males wear short-sleeved white shirts and ride bicycles and we enjoy the 400 melodic voices that make up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Ask us about Brigham Young and we’ll tell you he has a pretty good football team this year. But when two practicing Mormons want to be the president of the United States, we suddenly become experts on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Håkan Palm feels blessed to live a mere four miles from the first temple in Scandinavia and the only temple in Sweden. He served on the committee to find the wooded site about 15 miles south of Stockholm in 1981, was there for the groundbreaking and, as LDS public affairs director for the country and a member of the temple committee, organized the open house where an expected 2,000 visitors turned into nearly 50,000 before the Stockholm Sweden Temple was dedicated in 1985. Ten years later, he arranged for Sweden’s king and queen to visit the temple grounds and meet President Thomas S. Monson. Despite the impressive resume, it’s the value of the temple covenants to his posterity that matters most to him.