With all the Christmas shopping, decorating, and holiday-themed activities going on this time of year, it's easy to lose focus of the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ.

This lesson is about the Lord’s promise to give us help while we are in mortality. That help can come in times of peace and in times of need. It can come through prayer, not just the noun, the thing called prayer, but the verb, the thing we do on our knees and in our heart. Help is also found in the scriptures and through meditation or pondering.

I may or may not have announced on Facebook a couple of weeks ago: “If you post pictures of your Elf on the Shelf I will unfriend you for the month of December.” Partly to be funny, but partly out of spite I felt I needed to issue my warning. Some people like this “tradition” (Nobody was doing it five years ago so it’s not really that much of a tradition), but some people really despise it (me!). There are so many reasons I hate it: using weird bribery to get kids to behave, furthering the “I Believe” cult of people bearing their testimonies of Santa, and it does have such a creepy little face. Mostly, though, I hate this Elf on the Shelf thing because it symbolizes all the crazy stuff we do to ourselves during the holiday season. Somehow Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day have come together to create a completely bizarre tradition: an Elf that gets into crazy mischief every single night. As if buying presents, giving neighbor gifts, attending concerts and/or parties, making travel arrangements, decorating our houses, doing one or more advent calendars, and baking at least a few more times than we usually do isn’t enough. Now we have this Elf to worry about, too.

Each November, as the air turns from crisp to chill and pumpkins on front porches are replaced with evergreen wreaths, the excitement of the season starts to settle in. Just before the hustle and bustle takes over, there is a small window where we can simply soak in the anticipation of all that is to come and relish in the nostalgia of holidays past. It is a season of gathering: heads bowed in unison as prayers of thanks are offered over turkey dinners and extra slices of pecan pie, familiar carols sung a bit off-key with those you love most, and the hope and peace that come from setting aside differences and distractions to worship together in honor of the Christ child.

The Dental Clinic at Primary Children’s Medical Center is one of the last places you might expect to find a former major league baseball player, especially one with a sparkling World Series championship ring. Yet there is Brian Banks, standing 6-foot-3 and dressed in green scrubs, in the final weeks of his residency. Becoming a pediatric dentist is a goal the 42-year-old has worked toward since retiring from baseball in 2004.

I think my understanding of how angels help us has been wrong my whole life.

Two weeks ago I walked out of a temple session and powered on my phone to a smattering of notifications: a Utah Jazz player had tested positive for COVID-19, large gatherings at CES institutions including graduations had been canceled, and it looked like I was going to be working remotely for some time.

The North Visitors’ Center on Temple Square will be demolished later this year as part of the ongoing Salt Lake Temple renovation project.