The Church History Department has been working incredibly hard to publish as much information as possible about the early history of our church and church leaders. Perhaps there is no other religion today trying to be as transparent with their past as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or as encouraging to its members to study their own personal ancestry and history.

Just two and a half months ago, Elder Michael Fauber was hit with five bullets in a meetinghouse in Alabama. Today, he is on the slow road to recovery and has an even stronger testimony of the plan of salvation.

We hope you will take the time to watch and listen to some of these stories and acknowledge the beauty of diversity, the importance of equality, and the power of discussion and conversation.

On September 12, 2004, Nathan Pacheco wasn’t a Billboard chart-topping artist. He hadn’t yet been on tour with Yanni or performed with the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square. In 2004, he was just a senior at Brigham Young University who had a dream of pursuing a career in music. The classically trained tenor was sitting in the nosebleeds of the Marriott Center at a Church Educational System fireside when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland made a statement that served as the catalyst Pacheco needed to have faith to chase his dreams.

It is a shame to say that I do not have many memories with my grandpa. Since the time I can remember, he had always been confined to a bed because of his multiple health problems. Being one of the youngest children in my family, I did not experience those times when Grandpa was young and healthy.

This excerpt originally ran on LDS Living in December 2019.

The year 1940 might have been a banner year for our family. The health and financial hardships that followed my father’s 1930 graduation from medical school in Philadelphia were past. The family was happily located in Twin Falls, Idaho, where my father’s medical practice (eye, ear, nose, and throat) was thriving and where he served on the high council of the Twin Falls Stake. In January 1938, he and my mother had returned from his four months of valuable postdoctoral training in ophthalmology in Vienna, Austria, and Cairo, Egypt. After years of sacrifice since their marriage in 1929, my mother could at last contemplate a life of security as the wife of a prosperous physician. In January 1940, son Merrill would be four, and in March, daughter Evelyn would be one. In August 1940, I, their eldest, would be baptized following my eighth birthday.

How do we react when someone uses the scriptures as a weapon? And how do we overcome the contradictions we find in the scriptures? Read on for powerful insights from LDS scholars Fiona and Terryl Givens.

Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News editor, remembers exactly what she was doing on November 5, 2015. At the time, she was near the 600 South exit on Interstate 15, driving near Salt Lake City, when she got a phone call from a coworker.

This is an excerpt from the book Refuge and Reality: The Blessings of the Temple by John H. Groberg.