Throughout his service in the Church, President Nelson has often spoken of our Savior and the sacred night of His birth. Here are a few of President Nelson's teachings on the topic, excerpted from the new book Teachings of Russell M. Nelson.

When tragedy hits, it is human nature to want to help. We bring food; we do laundry; we offer childcare. We want to connect! Some people do this through service; others do it through commiseration. We often feel the need to relate to the person suffering by sharing our own experiences.

President Russell M. Nelson recently invited Church members during the general women's session of conference to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. He recognized that the challenge might seem impossible for some but promised that if we accepted the invitation with “full purpose of heart,” the Lord would provide a way for us to get it done.

Not long after my call to serve as one of the Twelve Apostles, I was summoned to the office of the President of our Quorum, President Ezra Taft Benson. He expressed deep concern that members of the Church did not fully appreciate the value of the Book of Mormon. With emotion in his voice, he read to me from the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants:

It has been nearly 15 years since I met my forever sweetheart on a singles website. And although it has become a common way for people to meet, we still get the occasional eyebrow-raise when we explain that we met online. We know many other couples have found success dating this way, but we’ve also heard the horror stories—so we get it.

Early in my career as a psychologist, I worked with a client who suffered from depression. Knowing that depression is primarily fueled by inaccurate, negative thoughts, I set out to help him change his thinking. Each week he would come in with a very pessimistic view of life. I’d tell him to try to focus on the positive. One particular time, he responded by providing a long list of negatives in the world, including widespread poverty, school shootings, dread health crises, pollution, domestic violence, hatred, ethnic genocide, social inequality, etc. He said, “How can I focus on the positive when there is so much negative all around us?” His answer gave me pause. I didn’t know how to respond. Was he actually correct? Were my attempts to get him to “think positive” simply a naïve overlooking of all the drama, death, and injustice that seem to plague the world every day?

If you expect your patriarchal blessing to make wild or unusual promises and predictions, you may be misunderstanding what a patriarchal blessing is. Your patriarchal blessing isn’t a fortune cookie, and the patriarch isn’t a fortuneteller.[1] The patriarch is a prophet, called to convey God’s words and will to you. He is only authorized to pronounce the promises he is prompted by the Holy Ghost to give. Patriarchs are counseled by their leaders to avoid making sensational or extravagant promises in the blessings they pronounce, even if the Spirit shows them rather remarkable things about the blessing’s recipient. President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972), tenth President of the Church, explained, “I know of one or two cases … where a brother has been blessed by the patriarch and told that he would become a member of the Council of the Twelve [Apostles]. Usually [the patriarchs] don’t say that … even if the patriarch felt that the chances are [very good] that a man will be called to the leading councils of the Church.” President Smith added, “Patriarchs should be very careful in giving their blessings not to make extravagant expressions and to be conservative in what they say.”[2] Thus, you should not expect extravagant things to be mentioned in your blessing. Patriarchs generally avoid, for example, talking about things like the timing of the Second Coming when they give a blessing. While the young man or young woman being blessed may live to see the second coming of Christ, most patriarchs simply wouldn’t mention that in the blessing. President Smith further explained:

This is the first article a two-part series about Ron Leishman: his conversion, his faith, and his career. For more about Ron's mission, his role in creating a superhero legend, and the miracles that fill his life, check back for part two.

“I have sat in Relief Society, looking around at the sisters, certain that none of them knew how I felt. I was sure that they had no clue what it was like to feel the deep sorrow and grief caused by infertility.”

My first encounter with pornography was when I was about 9 years old. I was visiting my best friend who lived on a dude ranch. She always had more information than I did about the mysterious things of the world, and she told me that she knew that one of the employees on the ranch had a stack of magazines with pictures of naked ladies in it.