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.

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 following article originally ran on LDS Living in May 2015.

Al was told in a priesthood blessing, right when we got married, that the temple should be our centerpiece. A centerpiece is pretty self-explanatory: it is placed in the center and everything else is placed and works around it. In that same blessing, we were told that we should have a picture of a temple in every room of our house, even the bathrooms, to help us be mindful of the temple when we weren’t inside its walls. With the help of Deseret Book and pass-along cards, we listened.

In a “friend of the court” brief, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined a number of other religions to ask the US Supreme Court to rule against same-sex marriage becoming legal nationwide.

Missionary work as we know it is changing--not only are we in the midst of experiencing a huge influx of young men and women who are willing to serve, but the way that missionaries are spreading the gospel is also being revolutionized: new technology is opening doors never before thought possible.

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” (Henry David Thoreau)

This lesson is all about finding our why, our reason for service in the kingdom. If sacrifices in our lives are going to be required, they will be easier to make if our reason for service is based on eternal commitments rather than on earthly social obligations.

Throughout my service as a full-time missionary, I was blessed to serve closely with many people who touched my life in unique ways. Many of these individuals faced emotional struggles, like anxiety and depression. One of them was my own companion.

We were thrilled when the test came back positive.