We’ve talked a lot about trusting in the Lord this year. And in this week’s lesson of Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150, that trust is an important theme. To help us dive deeper into this topic, we invited Chad and Kymberly Wells to talk with us. The Wells' are the parents of Mason Wells, who was severely injured as a missionary in the 2016 Brussels attacks. Their perspective on those harrowing events is anchored in trusting the Lord even through days of great distress and heartache. Their story, along with these chapters in Psalms, will teach us what trust in the Lord can do in our darkest moments.

Carly (not her real name) was 8 years old when she received a mobile device for her birthday. Carly had also just learned where babies come from because her mom had given her “the talk.” Being curious and imitating how the adults in her life seek information, Carly typed the word “sex” into a search engine to learn more. Four months later, her mom discovered the horrific pornographic videos that her daughter had been viewing from her mobile device.

In November 1997, an Isuzu trooper carrying two missionaries, a counselor in the mission presidency, and his wife traveled through the jungle of Suriname, 25 miles away from the nearest city, Paramaribo. Baby alligators crawled among the dense coconut trees that hung heavily with heat and humidity.

Funeral services were held Monday, October 8, 2018, in Salt Lake City for Sister Barbara Bowen Ballard, wife of  President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the  Quorum of the Twelve Apostles  of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister Ballard died at home at the age of 86, Monday, October 1, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and other health issues.

From Salt Lake to Hawaii and Australia to Switzerland, find out the new temple presidents called in 2017. See the full list here.

“There comes to us from the voice of the Book echoes as from some word that we have heard long since and have well understood; they are the whisperings to us of familiar truths. We recognize them, for they are attested by the reasoning of the mind and the sanction of the spirit within us. They tell us that the end of life is that we shall be born again (Mos. 27:25), redeemed and become the sons and daughters of God; that there is no happiness in sin, and that obedience is the way to joy (Alma 41:10; 2 Nephi 2:25). It teaches that an element of faith is a recognition of God's superior knowledge (Mos. 4:6 12), and how that faith is nurtured and grows in the heart of man (Alma 26:22); and how it may become so powerful that nothing can be held from it (3 Nephi 7:18; Ether 12:19). That spiritual gifts to man cease only because of his wickedness (Mormon 1:14), and that God to be unchangeable must be a God of miracles (Mormon 9:19). It gives full light on the comprehensiveness of the plans of the Almighty (2 Nephi 27:7 10), and shows that all men have been alike to him from the beginning of creation, and that his atonement applied as well before as subsequent to his coming in the flesh (Mos. 3:13). That baptism, necessary now, was always necessary (2 Nephi 31:9; Mos. 2:22; 3 Nephi 11:38 39). That the mission of all prophets has been to testify of the Christ (Jacob 7:11). It teaches that purity of heart alone gives access to God (Jacob 3:1). And with unanswerable authority is given again, by the Lord himself, the essence of his Gospel” (3 Nephi 27:13 16) (John A. Widtsoe and Franklin S. Harris, Jr., Seven Claims of the Book of Mormon, pp.167,168).

Three of my children are in a French-Immersion program at their elementary and middle schools. This past weekend, my 12-year-old texted me: “Did you hear about Paris?” As we texted, I could sense her confusion and sadness for a place she feels a personal connection to. One of her friends texted her to “wear black tomorrow—For Paris” at school the next day, and they all did. But when I asked her what they talked about in school, she told me her teacher said, “We’re not going to talk about Paris today.”

Photo from Can You Stay for Dinner?

“I believe in a God who suffers with us. A God who promises us meaning out of our sorrow and who will stretch and deepen our hearts as we will let Him and that that is the meaning of all of this,” says David F. Holland, Harvard Divinity School professor and son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

Jazmyn Jeppson, a former missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who returned in December from serving in Texas, was killed when a carjacker attempting to flee the police slammed into her car.