In his October 2015 general conference talk, Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke of the final years in the lives of recent church leaders.

Heather James was raised (mostly) in California, met her husband, Harvey, at BYU, and has two adult children. After 35 years (and with much trepidation), she recently applied to BYU to finish her bachelor’s degree. Heather is a recent brain cancer survivor and gives thanks every day for her life, her faith, and her Savior who was by her side every step of the way. She loves history, puzzles, ice cream and playing the piano (not necessarily in that order). Heather and her husband live in Columbia, Missouri.

It's likely that you've heard at least once in your life that Jesus was born on April 6. But is that really a true doctrine? How do we know?

James the Mormon is no small name among Mormons.

Making a pilgrimage is to undertake a journey to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion. Anciently, pagan pilgrims sought to consult the oracles and offer sacrifices at places now familiar to us as impressive ruins. Millions of Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus annually seek enlightenment through the very act of making a journey to sacred sites around the world—not as tourists but rather as pilgrims. The four Gospels tell us that Herod’s temple in Jerusalem was the destination for pilgrims who attended three annual pilgrimage festivals. The journeys were required for all adult Jewish men until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. The Gospels record that Jesus, His family, and His disciples made their way to Jerusalem in obedience to tradition and to express their religious devotion. The most familiar pilgrimage was, of course, the Passover Feast, a celebration meant to commemorate the release from bondage of the Children of Israel in Egypt.

At one point in our study of the four Gospels, we had been thinking about Jesus’s 40-day trial in the Judean wilderness. In only two verses, Mark tells us about those days (Mark 1:12–13). Matthew and Luke, on the other hand, make use of a time-honored literary structure to tell us of the tests put to Jesus as He prepared to begin His messianic responsibilities. All three accounts express Jesus’s perfect discipline in response to evil enticements that offended the laws of God. Matthew and Luke may clothe the testing in the elegance of traditional poetic forms, but the themes in all three accounts of Jesus’s experiences in the wilderness remain the same. Whether the accounts are cryptic or complicated, it became clear to us that the devil perverted what Alma described as the relationship between the principle of justice, our ethical responsibility to love God and each other, and the merciful application of His laws in an individual’s life.

President Dallin H. Oaks announced six new General Authority Seventies during the April 2022 general conference. Read about these Church leaders here.

With a name full of the weight of Latter-day Saint heritage, it's not surprising to find Thomas Wirthlin McConkie's pedigree includes Bruce R. McConkie, a former Apostle and scriptorian, and Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, another beloved Apostle.