The following has been republished with permission from taylorhalverson.com.

Elder Uchtdorf often tells stories that remind us of bedtime stories as a kid—but even better because these are based on eternal truths.

In honor of the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, LDS Living is sharing a series of articles about early Church history. The following article originally ran on LDS Living in June 2016.

The following has been republished with permission from taylorhalverson.com.

“I had no money. I could not afford school. In some way, I felt I had to give up on my dream to finish an education.”

“Acts 2 has frequently caught the attention of students of the New Testament, for it is here that the power of the Holy Ghost begins to show itself in the life of the nascent church.”

The history of Latter-day Saints and Hollywood is more exciting and far-reaching than most people realize. Check out these 40 ways Church members have left their mark in television and on the silver screen.

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.

Mary Magdalene is one of the best-known characters in the New Testament, yet we know surprisingly little about her. In all but one of the twelve times that she is mentioned in the four Gospels, she is either named alone or first in a list of women. The sole exception is in John’s account of the women who stood by the cross in which the mother of Jesus is listed first (John 19:25). Nevertheless, in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is the premier witness of the Resurrection and the only one commissioned to tell others the stunning truth. The primacy of her name in these accounts, the frequency of her mention, and her role on the morning of the Resurrection suggest that she was a prominent and respected disciple in the first century. From the earliest interpretations of her, however, she has been assigned polar opposite roles: at one extreme, a repentant sinner who quietly served; at the other, the apostle to the apostles.

I often overhear people talking about their fears of being more than one thing. One side of the conversation regularly goes something like this: “I can’t be both _____________ and a member of the Church.” And if they’re not saying it about themselves, they’re talking about somebody else. Sometimes it comes in the form of a question: “Can you be gay and still be a member of the Church?”