When Senior Airman Christopher Burns returned home Nov. 22 from a six-month deployment to the Middle East, his unit made sure he was the first person off the plane. Like so many of the men returning home, he had a wife waiting for him on the ground, but he also had someone very important to meet for the first time: his 4-month-old daughter.

Citing what he believes will be a “lasting effect for good,” Elder Todd B. Hansen, an Area Seventy and a resident of Gilbert, reflected upon the experiences he had personally and the many others he heard about during the 25 days of the Gilbert Arizona Temple public open house and a week of VIP and media tours prior to that.

Try this experiment. Type the expression in quotes “I know the church is true” into a Google search, and see what you get. Page after page after page of material set in a Mormon context. That kind of affirmation is a specifically Mormon thing; it is not something other Christians are in the habit of saying about their churches. If you can go through an entire Fast and Testimony Meeting and not get at least a dozen recitations of that statement, it has been a slow Sunday.

Miraculous claims surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon are an evidence of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. Critics intent on discrediting the Restoration point to DNA studies on indigenous American peoples in an attempt to expose Joseph, the Book of Mormon, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as frauds. Claiming that scientific evidence excludes any possibility that Middle Eastern or ancient Jewish travelers came to the Americas in antiquity, such critics attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of Latter-day Saints and those of other faiths concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient religious text.

Chris Jones has created all kinds of media presentations for clients, but his latest project is the most powerful and the most personal. He is documenting his 11-year-old son’s final journey in this life.

In 1982, Elder Hugo E. Martinez and his wife, Sister Nuria Alvarez de Martinez, were both in their medical residency training in Mississippi when an unexpected knock came at their front door.

Last Thursday night I zipped up my going-out boots and drove through fat snowflakes to the Fox theater. The touring production of the 2011 Tony-award-winning musical The Book of Mormon was in town. I love musical theater and I’ve attended many performances at the Fox, but that evening was different. I was about to see a show that famously satirizes Mormonism, and I was probably the only Mormon in the sold-out house.

There is no trip one can experience in the world as spiritually refreshing as the Holy Land. There is something wonderfully unique in walking, as we say, in the footsteps of Jesus. Galilee, the Garden Tomb, Gethsemane and Bethlehem will always warm the heart with renewed faith and understanding of the love of God for all his children as that love was manifested in the life, teachings, and sacrifices of His Son. There is perpetual homesickness within me when I think of these places. Yet the great story of Christ did not end when Jesus softly called Mary’s name by the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. It spread forth to distant horizons where searching men and women waited for the good news of God’s divine intervention in the affairs of men. That is a story in and of itself, written on the stones of Ephesus, Cappadocia, Athens, Galatia, Patmos, and Rome. These “holy” places also awaken the divine homesickness within.

Among the customers browsing the light-infused Jesus paintings and spiritually tinged volumes of a Mormon bookstore here, you will find some of Mitt Romney’s most passionate supporters. But don’t expect them to go starting a “Mormons for Mitt” group anytime soon. Mormons, one of Romney’s most loyal voting blocs, are often quiet about their support. That might be because the church discourages political involvement. But Mormon voters also describe another source of personal reticence — the danger they see in associating Romney too closely with his faith.

We have all, at times, staggered under the weight of difficult moral dilemmas. Sometimes, determining the right course of action poses the greatest challenge. At other times, carrying the right thing through becomes the stumbling block. Thankfully, we have not been left alone when seeking moral courage for the tough moments. Jesus Christ is the light to whom we can look for help and strength when facing moral challenges (see Look to the Light). Said He, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46). His light, the Light of Christ, influences us for good as we look to Him for courage to act according to the “dictates of our own conscience” (Articles of Faith 1:11).