The following is an excerpt from Sheri Dew's Worth the Wrestle.

Joshua Davis Osmond recently opened his mission call, making him the fifth and final of Donny and Debbie's sons called on a mission.

One family, one college, all returned missionaries and a debt-free graduation: there was something to celebrate when the Shauna and Merrill Gee family watched their youngest two children walk across the Brigham Young University stage last week, the last in a 17-year span of having a child in college.

Utah Republicans woke up with a political hangover on Wednesday. Mia Love missed her chance by a fraction. Mitt conceded defeat. Facebook and Twitter -- those gauges of the public fervor -- were not happy, at least in Utah, as the results came in. And that unhappiness continued with some anger on Wednesday morning. And calls for a return to grace, beginning with a statement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Pacific Northwest is home of the Hoh Rain Forest, where the majority of the trees are several hundred years old. The forest is so dense that the only chance young seedlings have of survival is when one of the great trees falls. Light that was once unable to reach the ground now breaks through the foliage to nourish the seedlings that begin to grow in the trunk of the fallen tree. This tree is called a “nurse log.” It provides moisture, nutrients, and disease protection to the young trees that have taken root in its trunk. Hundreds of years later the only evidence that remains of the nurse log is a perfectly straight row of magnificent trees. Like the nurse logs in the Hoh Rain Forest, our legacy as mothers is often evident only after our work is done.The world does very little honor the role of mothers. However, when all is said and done, what we do with our family within the walls of our own home has far more influence on society as a whole than anything else. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said:

Maybe the economy is a political black hole, sucking every other issue into an impossibly dense void. Maybe Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are just private, cautious men by nature.

There has been an undercurrent of interest among some Church members in the past decade or so about some highly publicized near-death experiences. What do the scriptures teach us about the purpose of near-death experiences?

Three LDS women were tired of wearing layers of clothing to stay modest in warm Arizona, so they created their own line of women’s apparel that is modest, trendy, and not layered. “It can be 100-plus degrees in Arizona. And added layers of clothing make it worse!” said Co-Owner Emma McBride of Thatcher, Arizona. “So we decided to design dresses that don’t need a tank, shrug, or cardigan for a more modest feel, without sacrificing trendy style and fashion.”

Any family who has signed up for competitive sports knows that avoiding Sunday games can be a challenge. Many competitive club soccer teams, for example, play up to 10 tournaments a year—and tournaments usually include Sunday matches, which is why Jeff Erickson created the No Sunday Fútball Club in Gilbert, Arizona.

I know Mormons are a little different. I don't expect every person everywhere to understand a religion and its culture so well to be experts in everything they say or write.