When the first company of Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, it was uncertain if crops could be grown in the high, dry climate.

Members the world over were inspired this year by the conversion story of member Tito Momen, a Muslim from Nigeria who was imprisoned for his faith. Formerly a jihad cleric named Muhammad, Momen shares his his journey from Muslim to Mormon, through imprisonment in Egypt as an infidel, and back home again in one of the most touching, faith-promoting stories we have ever had the privildge to hear.

We’ve all felt it—the nervousness, stress, and worry that come with anxiety. Anxiety, after all, is a normal and expected human emotion. In fact, it has become instinctual for us to avoid things that make us feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

INTRODUCTION: We all have ancestors lost in history. They languish in the spirit world, waiting and hoping for someone to find them and reunite them with their families. Our longing to locate the dead who are lost should be as compelling as our anxiety to find the living who are lost.

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The next two weeks of Come, Follow Me cover the book of Ephesians. While a prisoner in Rome, the apostle Paul wrote an epistle to the Ephesians with the purpose of helping the converts grow in their spiritual knowledge of God and the Church. Today, rather than by epistles, we hear the words of the prophets during general conference. This week’s family home evening lesson features a fun activity to help your family prepare to find answers to questions through general conference.

With both Memorial Day and Flag Day having come and gone in the past couple months, the season of celebrating freedom in the United States is approaching its peak on July 4, when the country commemorates the day it declared its independence.

In the October 2012 general conference, President Thomas S. Monson announced that young men could now be recommended for missionary service at age 18, and young women could serve at age 19. At a press conference held between the Saturday morning and afternoon conference sessions, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland invited parents “to take a strong hand in this preparation and not expect that it is somehow the responsibility of local church leaders, or the missionary department of the church or MTC’s to provide and direct all of that.” Notice where Elder Holland placed the responsibility to train the future missionary force—not on local church units or missionary training centers but on mothers and fathers!

Like birth, death is a necessary and essential part of the plan of salvation (see Moses 6:59–62)—which Jacob and Alma both called the “great plan of happiness” (2 Nephi 9:6; Alma 42:8). Facing death can be one of the most fearful experiences of mortality. For the righteous, though, death can be sweet and need not be feared (see Alma 27:28). Indeed, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that “those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:46). On the other hand, for people who die not in Christ, death can be a bitter experience (see Doctrine and Covenants 42:47), and the thought of an approaching death can create foreboding, trepidation, and fear. Dreams regarding death can serve as a powerful reminder that this life is the time for us to prepare to meet God (see Alma 12:24; 34:32). . . .

For my first six months as a full-time missionary, I felt like a rising star. I was entrusted with training a new missionary, serving as a district leader, and had completed all of the mission mastery goals in record time. Surely the Lord had great things in store for me as a leader in my mission.