Seventy-six-year-old cancer survivor Shepard Adams and his wife, Gracelyn, age 69, were the first to raise their hands to volunteer when the Amite Louisiana Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was called upon to serve in Hurricane Michael cleanup efforts in Florida. When she didn’t see hands immediately go up amongst the gathering of some of the older couples, Gracelyn said to herself, “Could we do it next year? Well, better do it while we are able and can.” The Amite couple was not alone as they joined over 2,700 Church volunteers from five different states traveling to Florida weekly since the storm hit. Volunteers are hauling debris, chopping up large trees, and tarping damaged roofs.

Jill was born and raised in the small town of Heber, Arizona, where God chose to concentrate a high percentage of “salt of the earth” people. Raised by two great parents, one Latter-day Saint and one who doesn’t believe in God, her 50/50 upbringing shaped her perspective on God, families, the gospel and the Church (pssst they aren’t the same thing). She graduated from ASU in ‘97, worked a while, then stayed home to raise kids, and in 2014 jumped back into the workforce where she created and ran a youth program for kids who have a loved one with ALS. She has a super cool and genuinely nice husband (Kristin’s brother) who is a really good psychiatric nurse and amusing storyteller. They have four very fun kids each with hair that spans the neapolitan ice cream spectrum (strawberry = redhead) which draws amused comments from most people. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where God prompted them to move during a pandemic because apparently He wanted to have more conversations with her. That hope was fulfilled as she honed her skills of sincere and honest prayer conversations because as it turns out, pandemic + teenagers + move across the country = hard. She hearts all the good things in life: road trips, going barefoot, artisan ice cream, and Canada.

Two brothers are chasing their dreams of competing on Team Canada 2015 at the World Special Olympic events in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Elder Dale G. Renlund's older brother, Gary Mats Renlund, passed away. On Thursday, Elder Renlund shared a tribute that gives insight into the influence an older sibling can have in someone’s life.

Have you ever built something with your bare hands? Maybe you’re savvy with tools, or maybe assembling IKEA furniture is the closest you’ve gotten to building something. Either way, we all know building includes a lot of different pieces and finagling to get it to all come together. This weeks study group we dig into Doctrine and Covenants 102–105 that is all about building up Zion, and what sort of finagling is involved in helping us become one, together.

Some wonder whether certain beliefs and practices in the Mormon Church help its members inordinately contribute entrepreneurship, innovation and management to the economy. Things like honesty and respect for others and their property are taught and practiced in most churches. A few other principles, however - though they can be followed by anyone and are not uniquely “Mormon” beliefs per se - might be followed more consistently in our church than in some others. I’ll summarize just two of these.