Everyone wants to be happy—and for good reason. Happy people earn more money and are more likely to get married and stay married. They also attract more friends, are more productive at work, and even outlive their gloomier counterparts by about nine years.

All my life I have been taught to accept Church callings, knowing that despite my inadequacies, with the Lord’s help I could do my best. However, in September 2009, the bishop of our ward came over to our home for what my husband and I assumed was a friendly, get-to-know-you-better kind of visit. We were both completely stunned when he asked me, at age seventy-eight, to be the Primary president in the Bloomington Seventh Ward. My first response was, “Bishop, what are you thinking?” Why the surprise? My age aside, I informed him that I don’t see very well, I don’t hear very well, and I certainly don’t breathe as well as I did when I was younger. The bishop explained to me that as he reflected upon a new Primary president, my name kept coming to his mind. Although he tried to dismiss the feeling, after praying about the matter, he still felt impressed to call me. He even went to the temple to pray about who should be Primary president, and the impression continued that I should be called to this position. And so when he came to my home and offered his explanation as to why I was being called, I knew I could not say no. Could you say no, with such an explanation? Of course, when I told my daughter about the conversation, she said, “But did you tell him that you can’t sing?”

No one would have guessed that Debby Montgomery Johnson, a former paralegal, Air Force intelligence officer, and bank teller, would be taken for over a million dollars by a scammer on an online Latter-day Saint dating site. In fact, no one would even know if she hadn’t spoken up about it. Debby could have continued to hide behind her smile, keeping her secret buried deep.

Can one choose to love, or is love something you fall into? Is agency involved, or is love something that just happens to you? If love is something you fall in, how can you act rather than be acted upon?

“After a few years of hiding, my cover was blown when I, in full uniform, dropped a child off for school and saw another sister from the ward. The surprised look on her face didn’t help ease my anxiety.”

The following post comes from hopeandhealinglds.com and has been republished with permission. This article is one of a series of posts addressing education on and recovery from pornography addiction and betrayal trauma. For more on this series, including the husband's perspective in this story, click here.

2 Nephi 6-10

The Bible is certainly a magnificent witness of Jesus Christ and His divinity, but the crowning witness of the Savior and His Atonement is to be found in the Book of Mormon. Here are some of the ways the Book of Mormon deepens our understanding of Christ's Atonement.

Pornography is an issue that’s been swept under the rug for years. But it’s 2012, and we’re running out of rugs. In a world where pornography is not only accepted but applauded, our brooms need to be used for clean combat rather than hidden anguish.

From Easy-Bake Oven enthusiast to celebrated cookbook author and chef, Tara Bench has risen to sweet culinary success in New York City.