March 11, 1898, the First Presidency of the LDS Church held a regularly scheduled business meeting that would turn out to be of far-reaching significance. President Wilford Woodruff and his counselors, Joseph F. Smith and George Q. Cannon, had recently received a handful of letters from mission presidents around the world requesting women missionaries. One of these letters came from Joseph W. McMurrin of the European Mission presidency, who submitted “instances in which our sisters gained attention in England, where the Elders could scarcely gain a hearing.” He believed, the letter continued, “that if a number of bright and intelligent women were called on missions to England, the results would be excellent.”

Last weekend, singer Christina Grimmie was shot dead during a meet-and-greet after her concert. Grimmie, a long-time YouTube sensation and recent star of NBC's The Voice, was only 22. In the aftermath of her murder, many Latter-day Saint musicians took to social media to express their grief.

Good parents give their children roots and wings: roots to know where home is and who they are and wings to fly off and practice what has been taught them. This is the contradiction of parenting—juggling the act between setting limits while simultaneously encouraging independence or ultimately teaching them the gospel and allowing them the freedom to live it.

This month's edition of weekly FHE lessons is based on the new family movie Trek, which follows a young Mormon teenager named Tom and his friends on their handcart journey. Each lesson includes a scene from movie to watch and discuss. Your whole family will laugh along and be inspired by Trek: The Movie, available at Deseret Book stores and deseretbook.com.

Check out this beautiful music video of "O Holy Night" sung by GENTRI. About the video, GENTRI posted to Facebook. "We live in a world where we are sometimes prone to judgment. Perception becomes our reality. In our haste, we can jump to false conclusions and lose opportunities to lift and lighten the loads of others. As we allow the light of Christ to work miracles within our own heart, we then are empowered to work wonders in the lives of others. May His perfect example of love and compassion for all guide us in our own charity towards those around us this Christmas season and always.

Years ago, before the Church instituted the three-hour block schedule for our Sunday meetings, we used to go to the chapel for meetings three times every Sunday—once in the morning for priesthood meeting, a second time for Sunday School opening exercises and classes, and finally a third time for a ninety-minute sacrament meeting. When I was a very young man, our ward’s Sunday School superintendent, Brother Marchant, came to our class one Sunday to ask for volunteers who would be willing to give the prayer, the 2½-minute talks, and the sacrament gem (a verse of scripture shared before the sacrament was passed) in the following week’s Sunday School opening exercises. My strategy was to quickly volunteer to say either the prayer or the sacrament gem. I was motivated by the desire to avoid having to give a talk at all costs! Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t the only person in the class with that strategy, and I missed out on my first choice, the prayer. I was quick enough, however, to score the sacrament gem assignment. Given the other alternative, I felt lucky.

Tis the season to be merry. In order to help you have a more holly, jolly Christmas, we've compiled a little bit of Mormon humor with these 15 hilarious Christmas comics from Arie Van De Graff.

On the last day he would run and walk unencumbered, Jeff Griffin noticed that it was a beautiful summer morning, with only a few clouds in a blue sky. He noticed this as he stared at a barn that he had contracted to paint.

With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, there are so many great things to look forward to: more time spent with family and good friends, elections will be over, and Gilmore Girls returns on Netflix with four new episodes.

In the early 1900s, missionaries in England were experiencing increasing prejudice and aggression. This prompted the British Parliament to investigate the Latter-day Saint missionaries, and the duty to head up the investigation fell to Winston Churchill, who was Secretary of the Home Department.