3 Nephi 16, 20-21

When it comes to heavenly communication, does it ever feel like the Lord has everyone else on speed dial—and you’re just sitting there hoping for any little bit of communication, even a generic “new phone, who dis” text?

I remember riding in the back of a cramped truck through the dirty streets of Santiago, Chile, en route to my very first general conference as a full-time missionary. As we navigated the small, crowded roads on our way to the local Stake Center, one senior missionary clicked on the radio which began playing a Tabernacle Choir CD. Involuntarily and instantly, I was flooded with nostalgic images and emotions of general conference back home in Idaho. I couldn’t help but wonder what my family was doing right at that very moment as they and I prepared for the same marvelous event, at the same exact moment, but in entirely different hemispheres.

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Growing up and doing baptisms for the dead, I never thought much about all of the people dressed in white who gave me directions and performed the ordinances in the temple. But these faithful members actually come in a variety of ages and volunteer their time and resources in a miraculous way. Serving in the temple has been a valuable blessing in my life that I didn’t know was a possibility for me to do at this stage of my life. However, I have served as an ordinance worker for over a year and a half now and have seen the blessings in my life as a result of it. Because of this calling, I am frequently asked about what it's like and what I do during my six-hour shift. Here are a few insights and answers to some of the most common questions I've found people wonder about working at the temple.

From film to television to music, Latter-Day Saints have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, starring alongside legendary performers in the process. Here are the lucky few whose careers have been immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California.

So here are some of the most important and interesting ideas from the book 'The Infinite Atonement.'

Perhaps one of the most discouraging struggles women endure is that never-ending battle with our own bodies. A woman’s attitude toward her own body is fraught with misconceptions fueled by a world that celebrates an almost prepubescent female body as the ideal norm. Unfortunately for most of us, time moves on. We are no longer seventeen, a number of children have made their way through our birth canals, and gravity is exerting its inexorable pull. Whenever we look in the mirror, we are reminded of what we are not. Satan would have it just that way. He would have us think that because our bodies do not look a certain, supposedly desirable, way, they are not worth having at all. Thus, we enter into a war with our bodies, hating the very tabernacle our Father has given us, despising the flesh. If Satan can get us to fixate on our bodies, either in vanity or self-loathing, then he has caused us to misunderstand completely the role our bodies play in our salvation.

The year was 2001 and Shawn Nelson was ready to throw in the towel on the small business he had started as a student at the University of Utah. After returning home from serving as a full-time missionary in Taiwan, Nelson broke out a giant foam-filled bag he had made pre-mission. The bag was used to sit on at drive-in movies or on camping trips, and it started to catch the eye of neighbors and friends who asked if Nelson would make them one. The bags gave Nelson something to do during college, but they never really made him a profit. So as he entered his final semester of college and in anticipation of moving to China after landing a “dream job,” he decided to close up shop—figuratively speaking.

The August pick for LDS Living Book Club is Without the Mask by Charlie Bird. Follow the LDS Living Book Club Instagram for more insights with the author.