"(The children) still say their sweet little prayers that Daddy will get better, and we explain to them that he’s getting more sick," says Erica Means, whose husband was given about 12 weeks to live.

When Senior Airman Christopher Burns returned home Nov. 22 from a six-month deployment to the Middle East, his unit made sure he was the first person off the plane. Like so many of the men returning home, he had a wife waiting for him on the ground, but he also had someone very important to meet for the first time: his 4-month-old daughter.

People around the world now have a new way to learn about Joseph Smith, the founder and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A film called Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration is now available online, marking the first time the Church has shared a full-length film on the Internet. A similar film has been shown since 2005 in Salt Lake City and 19 Church visitors’ sites around the world. Now the film is available to everyone on MormonChannel.org/Joseph and has been revised to be more easily understood by a wider audience.

My favorite method, which just happens to be perfect when you don’t have electricity, cooking fuels, or time to spend over the stove (like in emergency situations), is to let the berries soak overnight in a thermos of hot water. Bring your water to a boil and add it to the thermos. But, if you don’t want to wait overnight, bring water to a boil, add grain, boil until the berries are soft. Depending on what type of grain you’re using, it could take 30 to 60 minutes to soften. You could also use your crockpot.

Dear Dave,

Hi, friends!

This was a rut I was grateful to be stuck in one crisp, blue-sky morning in western Wyoming. Standing deep in a trough on a sparsely wooded hill overlooking the North Platte River near the outskirts of Guernsey, I felt the earth rumble as oxen mooed, whips cracked, and covered wagons creaked up the steep rutted incline hauling heavy loads of the essentials, and the trivial. Hardened women in bonnets and long skirts followed coughing in the dust, and men in hats on horses yelled at their livestock and encouraged children and the old staggering to keep pace. Among this rolling wave of humanity were hundreds of poor English and Scandinavian Mormons on foot who had no idea what awaited them in October of 1856 as they pushed and pulled two-wheeled carts with bloody hands ever-onward to Zion and the Valley of the Salt Lake for 1,300 tiresome miles in the ultimate test of their faith.

Along with this stunning Christmas lullaby, "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," LDS artist Valaura Arnold wrote on her YouTube channel, "If we can look through the eyes of a child we will truly see those who need our help. Light the world!"

For the last three nights, the musical "The Book of Mormon" has served up an irreverent dose of humor at the Landmark Theatre. Much of that humor comes at the expense of the Mormon faith and its missionaries.

When we come across something in Church history or when we struggle with a point of the Church's doctrine, it can feel uncomfortable to ask questions about it.