When the new Primary General Presidency was sustained in April 2021 general conference, the experience was different from most. Rather than being in the Conference Center and taking a seat on the stand as many do in new Church leadership callings, the presidency watched the event from their home while surrounded by family.

Mauli Junior Bonner says when he first learned about enslaved pioneers, it strengthened him—he wanted to learn more about them, why they stayed, and what their experience had been like.

Editor's note: Our bi-weekly Friday column, “Found in the footnotes,” explores some of the footnotes from remarks given by General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Can you name the locations of all 10 of the Church’s Missionary Training Centers?

These teachings are so familiar to us that we may forget they’re unique to Latter-day Saint theology.

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.

Adam and Eve were the first mortals to discover the Atonement’s meaning, and they found it only when they were lost. Not long after they were left to wander as outcasts in the lone and dreary world, the Lord sent an angel to teach them: “As thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed” ( Moses 5:9 ). He urged them to accept the Atonement by repenting and calling upon God in the name of the Son. He promised that God would not only forgive their transgression in Eden—he would also cause the sorrow and the bitterness of both Eden and mortality to bring them great meaning and joy.

On the surface, the phenomenon that is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series may appear to simply be a well-crafted narrative about a young wizard destined to save his magical world from evil.

As Elder Mark E. Petersen observed, “The Book of Mormon is a literary and a religious masterpiece, and is far beyond even the fondest hopes or abilities of any farm boy” (“It Was a Miracle!” Ensign, November 1977, 11). From its discovery to its translation and publication, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon was simply miraculous—and the book itself continues to be a miracle in the lives of people all over the world. Here are three reasons why the Book of Mormon is such a miraculous work.

If we were to line up a dozen mission presidents and ask them the question, “Of all the important attributes a missionary can possess, which are the three most important to develop?” I’m confident that all would include in their reply the attribute of obedience.