The signs of the times can sometimes have us feeling gloomy or despondent. But the Savior’s promise can give us hope and optimism.

Read Robert Millet inspiring response to a widow who had been told doing her late husband’s temple work would be a waste of time.

“Because housework is an essential means of serving others, I believe He will help us to do it.”

Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise?

INTRODUCTION: Neighbors who lived near my home in a small Arizona town suffered the misfortune of having the foundation of their home crack. The displacement left three- and four-inch gaps between the bricks of the west and north walls. It was a preventable calamity. Everyone knew that the soil was sandy and that the foundation, in order to remain secure, had to rest on bedrock. But in an effort to cut costs and save time, the owner and contractor agreed to shortcuts that led to disaster.

INTRODUCTION: If I were teaching this lesson, I might begin by pouring water into several different shaped containers and asking class members to comment on what we can learn from that activity about the qualities of water. Someone will probably say that water takes the shape of its environment. If you then ask for words that describe water, you might get words like these: Flimsy, unsound, mercurial, capricious, changeable, wobbly, fickle, erratic, unreliable, undependable, vacillating, untrustworthy, variable, mutable, impermanent, unsteady, uncertain, transitory, ephemeral, inconsistent, precarious, and unstable. I am amazed at how many words the English language has to describe this rather undesirable characteristic. But this lesson will require us to think about them, because we are going to talk about three people who were much like water (one was even compared to water), and one young man who was as unlike water as it is possible to be.

To say that the law can only be fulfilled by Christ is to say that the law can only be fulfilled by love. Love is the point of the law. “All the law and the prophets” hang on this imperative to love (Matthew 22:40). Without love, the law comes unplugged from Christ. It stops functioning as a type and leaves me hopeless. When, instead of love, the law generates fear, anger, guilt, envy, and frustration, then the law is broken. A loveless law is a broken law. A loveless law is a law incapable of mercy or justice. A loveless law is an occasion for selfishness, pride, and hypocrisy.

Visiting teaching. In years past, these two words spoken in any Relief Society gathering evoked a myriad of conflicting emotions. Joy. Guilt. Gratitude. Annoyance. Peace. Guilt. Excitement. Frustration. Love. Guilt. Some loved the watchcare program set forth nearly 200 years ago—others, not so much. And most of us, whether we loved it or not, have carried some guilt associated with it. But now, no more guilt, and as of April 1, 2018, no more visiting teaching.

Some years ago there was a rather serious tragedy in our ward. A great woman, the wife of our former bishop and a woman beloved and respected in our ward family, contracted cancer of the worst kind. This was a vivacious, effervescent woman who lifted and inspired everyone she met. As the disease became worse, I gave her blessings. Other General Authorities gave her blessings. One of the blessings I gave was in the presence of her seventeen-year-old son. Another blessing was given to her when her son was eighteen. Our Heavenly Father, though, had something else in mind for her, and she was taken home to Him.

From the time Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf first took the pulpit at general conference, members around the world have loved his stories about airplanes and the poignant gospel lessons he draws from them. In fact, his history of sharing tales of flight has led many listeners to find themselves internally asking a question as soon as he gets up to speak—the same question Elder Uchtdorf voiced one memorable conference: “What does it have to do with flying an airplane?” Here is a collection of just a few of those aerodynamic analogies.