INTRODUCTION: I spend a lot of time on the computer, and I do all right until I have to figure out how it was put together and what makes it work. The truth is, I can’t tell a hard drive from a happy meal. When I have to install stuff or hook up stuff or figure out stuff, I find myself in serious distress. But there are those for whom the whole process is simple. Fortunately, two of them belong to my family. I don’t use my brain to make computers work; I use it to remember the phone numbers of people who know how to make computers work.

While I generally like to challenge–if not completely burst–historical myths, both in and outside the classroom, I sincerely hesitated to write and publish this post on Pioneer Day. I don’t like being an iconoclast for iconoclasm’s sake. But in hearing the story discussed below several times over the last week (including in the ward I am currently attending, in the classroom, in the Ensign, and even on the internet), I thought this was an issue that needed to be addressed. Thus, I hope that the discussion is more sophisticated than merely degenerating into “average Mormons don’t know diddley squat about history.” That would, indeed, be missing the point. Everyone knows the traditional story of the Sweetwater Rescue–and I imagine that most readers of this blog know the problems with it. In November, 1846, the beleaguered Martin Handcart Company reached the Sweetwater River in Wyoming. Plagued by a late start, they faced terrible weather conditions that slowed them down and made the trek nearly unbearable. Brigham Young, when hearing of their plight, sent out rescuers to help them finish the final leg of their migration. The rest of the story is the stuff of legend.

Mauli Bonner came away from the 2018 “Be One” celebration a changed man with an intense desire to learn more about Black pioneers and to teach others about them.

The following is adapted from Possibilities: Partnering with God to Become Your Best Selfby Kiersten Lortz.

Sunday will be my first real Mother's Day. Last year on that day, I was unhappily sitting in church, very pregnant, one day overdue with my son. Why couldn't he have arrived in time for Mother's Day? I thought. (Obviously the wound is still fresh.) But I digress.

For many many years, I was ashamed to admit this, ashamed that it would reveal me as a party pooper or (worse) an uptight reactionary or (even worse) a selfish adult who can’t enjoy a holiday that’s mostly geared toward children (except when it’s geared toward grown women wearing “sassy” Minnie Mouse costumes, or, you know, the glorification of chainsaw murderers, no embedded link necessary). But I’ve been in the business of begrudgingly half-smiling through the month of October for a good long time now, and I’m finally comfortable enough with myself to say it: I do not like Halloween.

According to The Family: A Proclamation to the World, “Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan.” And yet, hundreds of thousands of Latter-day Saints now find themselves in a predicament few of them imagined: never married or divorced after what they expected would be an eternal marriage.

Tomorrow's daylight savings! I know it can be difficult if not downright painful waking up that extra hour on Sunday morning to get to Church on time, so here are a few memes to help inspire you!