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Thurl Bailey: The Impact of Seeing Potential

When someone sees our potential it can make all the difference in what we become. But what has that looked like in the life of former NBA player Thurl Bailey? It meant his mother believing that she was not raising average kids, and therefore Cs were not acceptable. It meant not making the middle school basketball team again and again until a coach finally offered to put in some extra work with the 6'10" 9th grader. And it meant overcoming obstacles in marrying his wife when the odds were against them. But perhaps most important, it has looked like Heavenly Father knowing Thurl's potential as a disciple of Jesus Christ. On this week's episode, we talk with Thurl about potential in all its forms and what we can learn from it.

Alex Boye's American dream comes true with U.S. citizenship

By Emily McClure

The American dream—it’s an evolving concept that covers anything from the Leave It to Beaver house on 211 Pine Street to a vision of driving the classic 1966 Ford Mustang. Many American dreams never become reality, but on February 22, Alex Boyé, the famous pop singer and member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, watched his dream of becoming an American citizen come true.

Fun

BYU Professor Helps Create New Civil Rights American Girl Doll

BYU history professor Rebecca de Schweinitz helped create the newest addition to the American Girl BeForever doll series, which pays tribute to young girls throughout American history. A board of experts, including de Schweinitz, created Melody and her story to represent "a 1964 Detroit civil rights character" to share important, yet difficult, elements of history with children.

Latter-day Saint Mom Competes on American Ninja Warrior

By Jeff Hampton

Despite having aired for six seasons, no contestant of the hit NBC show American Ninja Warrior has ever won the grand prize. This year, though, a Mormon mother of three hopes to change that.

Fun

Latter-day Saint Nurse Advances to "American Ninja Warrior" National Finals

Mady Howard had a secret.

Famous Latter-day Saints

Tolstoy's Surprising Opinion of Mormons and 'The American Religion'

In his diary, Leo Tolstoy wrote: “God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.”

From the Church

Church Donates $1.8 Million 'Meet the Mormons' Proceeds to U.S. Non-Profit

LDS Charities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave a $1.8 million donation to the American Red Cross Thursday from the proceeds of “Meet the Mormons,” a film the Church released last October. Gary E. Stevenson, the Church’s presiding bishop, presented the check to Cliff Holtz, president of Humanitarian Services of the American Red Cross, at an event in Salt Lake City.

American Icons James Taylor and Mormon Tab Choir Relish Chance to Collaborate on Concert

In a match that was years in the making, on a stage in the Salt Lake LDS Conference Center, two American icons formed an unlikely union, and the result was a remarkable night of music, with an encore still to come. Who knew James Taylor and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would ever even appear in the same sentence, yet alone on the same stage, but there they were Friday night. Tonight they will do it all over again.

Church Announces Early Releases for Many American and Canadian Missionaries

Editor's note: Additional updates regarding which missionaries will return to their native countries were announced Monday evening at 10 p.m. MDT. Read more here.

African-American Christians waver over vote

Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That's a worrisome message for the nation's first African-American president, who can't afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race. The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.