Ken Hutchins was a 27-year-old police sergeant in Walpole, Mass., when two Mormon missionaries visited his home in 1968 and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. A few visits later they taught him what they termed "the pattern of prayer" – address Heavenly Father, speak from the heart, and close in the name of Jesus Christ. Hutchins, a protestant, had never prayed aloud. But at the missionaries' urging, he tried it and soon thereafter joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was forty-four years ago. Since then he has given hundreds of prayers from the heart in Mormon congregations throughout the greater Boston area as a bishop and later as a stake president. Next week, at Mitt Romney's invitation, the 71-year-old retired police chief from Walpole will give the opening prayer on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

The Church’s second temple in Argentina was dedicated on Sunday, May 17, 2015. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presided over the services and gave the dedicatory prayer. Joining him was Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has publicly distanced himself from the anti-Mormon rhetoric of a prominent Baptist minister who has endorsed his presidential campaign. But new evidence suggests that Perry’s team may be quietly advancing the notion that Mitt Romney’s faith should disqualify him from the White House. The Daily Beast has obtained a series of emails that show an influential evangelical activist with close ties to the Perry campaign stressing the political importance of “juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false God of Mormonism,” and calling for a “clarion call to Evangelical pastors and pews” that will be “the key to the primary” for Perry.

As the concluding speaker in the last session of general conference, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles took a moment to share a few sentences from the talk Elder Robert D. Hales had prepared before passing away on Sunday afternoon.

Raw stories. Real people. Genuine gospel connections. That's the mix that has made LDS Living's This Is the Gospel video seriesresonate with Latter-day Saints across the world.

The Memphis Tennessee and Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been renovated and will be rededicated in May.

A new video tour of the Rome Italy Temple from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints features an introduction by President Russell M. Nelson and a tour led by two apostles, Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Ronald A. Rasband. They show and discuss the Rome Temple’s various rooms and areas, which mirror what is found in all Latter-day Saint temples around the world. These include the baptistry, instruction rooms, the bride’s room, marriage sealing rooms and the celestial room.

The MMM family is going to have it's first wedding! I mentioned it the other day in the "Diddy Kong" post here. The good news is that they are still engaged, and the even better news is that we are all still happy about it - giddy, in fact. (Giddy in a "manly" sort of way.) A short time after the engagement was made official, Monkeyboy and the future Monkeygirl came over to the house, along with the future in-laws. It was a chance for us to all get to know each other a little better, and to talk about wedding plans, dates, and all the crap things that come with a wedding. We started with a prayer, and then I asked if I could make a few observations. ("Observations" was code for the speech that I had written in my head over the previous few days.) I had a captive audience, and was my kitchen table...

Manual 1; Excerpt from "Obedience to the Prophets," by Claudio R. M. Costa

MR says: Many Mormons have been talking about the possibility of getting three new apostles this conference. But past conferences have shown that vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve don't always get filled.