Shortly after Gina Penny-Headen's father passed away, she was pulled over for going 65 mph in a 55 mph zone.

1. They Are Not All the Same Person Sure, you know in theory that every human being is a complicated piece of work, but in practice it's always easier to lump together those who belong to a group a) we don't understand, b) we don't like, c) we do like, or d) whose constituent members dress almost exactly the same.

Allen Ostergar stood at the front of the lecture hall with a stiff and bashful smile, or maybe it was just stage fright, and started his pitch. Open on a deadly pirate ship, he said— “the deadliest of all the pirate ships to, like, sail the seas.”It was a Tuesday evening at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, and the school’s computer-animation program had assembled its 70-odd students to choose their next project — the one film they would be producing over the next three semesters. Ostergar, a junior from Southern California, was up first.

Description from YouTube: "This is merely a song visually altered to describe the story of a missionary (Adam Tanner) who receives his mission call and must say goodbye to his needy BYU girlfriend (Jenni Zackrison). Also following the loneliness and despair of Eponine (Julie Jacobs) who continues to stalk the elder to no end. On the other side of the earth, a district leader breaks the rules by watching a movie in a theater while on his mission and remains afraid that he will soon be in deep doo-doo. Back at home- as the mission prep instructor (Grant Amann) prepares his students, the missionary must come to a choice on whether to serve the Lord or to shrivel away forever. At the same time, a punk (Ryan Humphrey) watches the prep-class and decides to serve a mission as well........ while two hungry members sneak into the church kitchen and find the LDS church's beloved green-jello and diet products."

We spent an hour with Gary Lawrence last night. He was gracious enough to come up to visit our stake in Camarillo from his home in Orange County. Dr. Lawrence is an American opinion pollster who also happens to be a Latter-day Saint. He has been travelling around the church sharing the results of a poll he conducted in the spring of 2007 on American’s perception of Latter-day Saints in the United States. He published a book in 2008 with the findings of his poll, How Americans View Mormonism: Seven Steps to Improve Our Image. Dr. Lawrence received a PhD in communications psychology from Stanford University in 1972. He said that of over twenty doctoral candidates in his group, he was the only LDS, Republican, conservative hawk among them. So he knows a little about being in the minority.

What a creative way to turn something you love into a way to serve others.

About a month ago, we had an event called Magnify Learning Together where author Melinda Brown shared some insights about the temple from her book An Endowment of Love, and something she said has been on our minds ever since: “I believe that when we see our covenant relationships as eternal principles of loving relationships, that it’s life-changing today—not just in some distant future.”

This article is sponsored by The Family Nexus.

Elders Mason Wells and Joseph Empey received a wonderful surprise Wednesday when Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Brent H. Nielson, the executive director of the Missionary Department, visited the mission companions at the University of Utah medical center.

Are we being careful not to judge when others sin as well as when they live the gospel differently than us?