With both Memorial Day and Flag Day having come and gone in the past couple months, the season of celebrating freedom in the United States is approaching its peak on July 4, when the country commemorates the day it declared its independence.

This year marks the 165th anniversary of the creation of the Beehive House. Completed in 1854, the Beehive House was designed as the official governor’s residence of President Brigham Young. After serving as home for three Church leaders, a shared place for visitors, and a house of revelation, it now stands as a historical museum for all to enjoy. Here are some facts you may not know about this inviting 13,000-square-foot home:

Editor's note: This article was updated on April 5, 2021, to include the 20 temples announced in April 2021 general conference.

After 20 years of Latter-day Saint cinema (and 19 years of the festival itself), the annual LDS Film Festival is going stronger than ever, offering a wholly unique and wholesome spin that Sundance, Cannes, and other festivals can’t match. By showcasing the talents of Latter-day Saints and other Christian filmmakers, this weeklong event offers much by way of worry-free entertainment, learning about filmmaking, and rubbing elbows with the artists themselves. It all starts tonight and runs all week at the SCERA theater in Orem, Utah.

Marie-Françoise Euvrard was born in Paris, France, and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1960. She is the mother of two wonderful boys whom she and her husband adopted from Nepal. Professionally, she is a piano teacher and translates hymns and songs for the Church. She and her husband, Christian, serve as directors of the visitors’ center adjacent to the temple in Rome, Italy.

Books, articles, and numerous Internet websites work to undermine faith in Joseph Smith’s first vision, but historically there have been just three main arguments against it. The minister to whom Joseph reported the event responded that there were no such things these days. More than a century later and in a literary style that masked her weakness in following the historical method, Fawn Brodie wrote that Joseph invented the vision years after he said it happened. A generation later, Wesley Walters charged Joseph with inventing revivalism when, Walters claimed, a lack of historical evidence proved that there was none and therefore there was no subsequent vision as a result. By now it has become a foregone conclusion for some that there are no such things as visions, that Joseph failed to mention his experience for years, and that he then gave conflicting accounts that failed to match historical facts. 1 But these three claims assume much more than they prove.

July 1st is Canada Day—a celebration of the Constitution act and Canada’s equivalent to America’s Independence Day. To celebrate, here are a few facts you might not have known about this important country in Church history.

Alma 30-31

President Heber J. Grant made an applicable remark:

I never expected I would be the mother of a child with disabilities, let alone two children with disabilities. But sometimes life detours have a way of teaching us things Heavenly Father knows we need to learn.