The following is a segment of an address originally given by Latter-day Saint Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., at the FAIR Mormon conference and reposted with permission:

As Thanksgiving day approaches, frenzied preparations for a magnificent feast, rampant thoughts of Christmas preparations, and busy family schedules can take over.

Carrying the gospel to the world is one hundred percent about missionary work. But missionary work is far more than just what the full-time missionaries do. In this lesson President Benson provides us with many good points on how to become the kind of people the Lord can use to teach the rest of His children about their one and only path home.

Today, I came across a disturbing study published in Pediatrics.

As faithful parents, we want to instill in our children principles that will guide them to reach their potential and find eternal happiness. We want them to have strong convictions of truth and be prepared to handle life. Yet to effectively teach all of that, we have to be that image as well.

A little more than 18 months ago, LDS author Jason F. Wright wrote an open letter to his daughter before she left on her mission titled Letter to Missionary Daughter: "A Mission Isn't for You." Now, after returning home from her mission, his daughter has a chance to respond to his letter.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

When asked who W. W. Phelps is and what he might be remembered for, most Latter-day Saints respond with something like this: “Didn’t he write (or compose) many of our hymns?” But when pressed, most even have difficulty identifying all of Phelps’s most frequently sung hymns such as “The Spirit of God,” “Now Let Us Rejoice,” “Redeemer of Israel,” “Praise to the Man,” “O God, the Eternal Father,” and “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” Virtually none realizes that in the Church’s most recent hymnal, Hymns (1985), Phelps has the largest number of songs attributed in some way to him. He has 15, more than any other composer or author except Evan Stephens.

Shortly before leaving with Team USA on July 19 for the XXXI CMAS World Spearfishing Championship in Portugal, Kelston McGuire met with his LDS stake president.

One of the most frequently asked doctrinal questions since the early days of the Church concerns the history and whereabouts of the Israelites sometimes called the "lost ten tribes." Yet "Where are the lost ten tribes?" is not a Latter-day Saint question at all. It was brought into the Church by early converts from other denominations, who were already speculating concerning it. It was asked more commonly in past generations, but even today the question still arises. It is unfortunate that it should be asked at all, however, because latter-day revelation gives clear teaching on the subject—as does the Bible. The expression "lost tribes" is found in only two verses of scripture—both in the Book of Mormon (see 2 Ne. 29:13; 3 Ne. 17:4). Both passages refer to members of the house of Israel outside their ancestral homeland. Nephi indicates that the word lost shows the perspective of the Israelites in Palestine: the "lost" tribes were simply "lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem" (1 Ne. 22:4). Thus those people are Israelites who were removed from Palestine and whose history was unknown to those who remained, including to the writers of the Bible and the Book of Mormon.