The first group of missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived Wednesday to officially launch the church's new Missionary Training Center facility in Mexico City. LDS officials said the inaugural group at the new MTC facility consists of some 100 new missionaries. Previously, the church had an MTC near its Mexico City Temple at which some 125 missionaries at a time — most of them from Mexico and Central America — were trained. The new facility has been created on the 90-acre site of the church-owned Benemerito de las Americas School, which graduated its final class earlier this month before making the transition to an MTC to help accommodate the surge of young missionaries that will report for training this summer. It will eventually accommodate about 1,000 missionaries at a time, with many of those missionaries coming from North America.

Stories from the Book of Mormon are coming to life in a new live-action video series being produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Filming is underway in Utah on the project and is expected to take up to six years to complete.

Mr. Romney is a former bishop of the ward in the Mormon Church -- one who has given what is estimated as tens of millions of dollars to its core operations and numerous programs of community service and hopeful proselytizing. With the possibility of such a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints becoming the 45th President of the United States, taking stock of its temples and meeting houses emerges as one way to understand the unique cultural contribution this native religion has made across the country. However, as the interiors of these various Mormon houses of worship are inaccessible except to members in good standing who present a validating card known as the "recommend," and as the faith's dogma and rituals are cloaked in discretion (born in part from decades of murderous persecution), the exteriors and their placement in the landscape are for many the only source of prospective insight.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirms that the Book of Mormon is a volume of sacred scripture comparable to the Bible. It contains a record of God’s dealings with three groups of people who migrated from the Near East or West Asia to the Americas hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans.

Jazmyn Jeppson returned from her mission on December 16, just in time to spend Christmas with her family. But, a little after a month after returning from her work serving the Lord, she was hit and killed by a man attempting to flee the police.

The Spirit of Christmas creates in our hearts a desire to give joy to others and to serve them. At this time of year we feel a spirit of giving and of gratitude for what we have been given. The celebration of Christmas helps us keep our promise to always remember the Savior and His gifts to us and, in turn, to serve others.Each act of kindness to anyone becomes a kindness to the Savior because He loves all of Heavenly Father’s children. And because that brings joy to Him it also brings joy to His Father, to whom we owe thanks beyond measure.

Speaking on the importance of every priesthood holder being able to trace his own line of authority, President George Q. Cannon, First Counselor in the First Presidency to John Taylor, said, “I believe the time will come when it will be necessary for every man to trace the line in which he has received the Priesthood that he exercises. It is therefore of great importance in our Church that records should be kept and that every man should know whence he derives his authority—from what source, through what channel he has received the Holy Priesthood and by what right he exercises that authority and administers the ordinances thereof. I believe this is of extreme importance and that where there are doubts as to a man’s legitimately exercising that authority, that doubt should be removed” (Gospel Truth: Discourses and Writings of George Q. Cannon, sel. Jerreld L. Newquist [1957], 224).

In 1960, I was living near Hamburg in West Germany and was called to be the mission YMMIA president. Half of the members of our mission lived in East Germany, which necessitated having counterpart Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ presidents serving in the same capacity in East Germany. Because the Church members were scattered over a large area, we made a special effort to plan as many activities as possible that could be attended by all the youth of the mission. This presented some problems peculiar to our mission, since half the mission was in West Germany and West Berlin, and the other half was behind the Iron Curtain. It was impossible to hold any activities in the eastern sector, so we scheduled all of our programs in West Berlin so that the East Germans could also attend. They could easily board a subway in East Berlin, ride across the border into West Berlin and attend the meeting, then return to their homes without difficulty.

The Isaiah Map is the tool you never knew you needed—let it help you study and teach this tricky book of scripture.

On one of my visits to the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i to work on the book The Way of Aloha: Moloka‘i, I was invited to ride a mule down the largest sea cliffs in the world to visit the leper colony of Kalaupapa. From 1866 to 1969, more than 8,000 people diagnosed with leprosy were quarantined to Kalaupapa. The small peninsula of Kalaupapa on Moloka‘i was chosen because of its extreme isolation. The peninsula is surrounded by rough water on three sides and large sea cliffs on its fourth.