As a single Latter-day Saint, church experiences are different from the “norm.” I took some time to talk with a dozen or so singles and former singles (particularly those who spent some real time being single past the age of 21) and invited them to tell the rest of us what they’d like us to know about their experience as singles in the Church.

When I was about 19 years old, I started to have a bunch of "concerned adults" come up to me on a regular basis and tell me that I needed to change this behavior and that behavior so that I'd be able to go on a mission. You know what? They were exactly right. But at the time I wasn't having any of it.

We deal with two definitions of peace in this life. The world’s definition of peace is the cessation or absence of hostility. The Lord’s definition of peace is a calm that surpasses all description. The Lord’s peace carries an assurance of being right with the Lord, it carries a clarity of mind and heart that allows us to think and feel clearly in any situation, no matter how chaotic. The Lord’s peace is sweet to the soul - it is a sense of safety in times of danger, solace in times of suffering, and allows a healing sleep during life’s most bitter storms.

"Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving [. . .] Honesty is a moral compass to guide us in our lives [. . .] Honesty is a principle, and we have our moral agency to determine how we will apply this principle. We have the agency to make choices, but ultimately we will be accountable for each choice we make. We may deceive others, but there is One we will never deceive."

Pride is often referred to as the universal sin. From the perspective of Latter-day Saint theology, this seems pretty accurate; pride caused Satan to rebel against heaven, pride led to the downfall of ancient civilizations, pride is the driving factor that has caused evil individuals throughout history to come to power, and anyone who has studied the Book of Mormon has probably heard of the pride cycle. However, for this discussion, I’d like to move away from the archetypal, “big picture” idea of pride to focus on the perspective of it as an individual characteristic, that is, of personal pride.

My husband and I are infertility survivors. After learning that our mortal bodies were not able to create children, our hearts began to turn toward adoption. This decision came with serious prayer, contemplation, and faith. For me, there was even some healthy mourning for the dream of being able to physically carry and deliver a child.

Editor's note: This press release was first published on March 12, 2021, and updated on March 24, 2021, with the following information about the Manti Utah Temple:

My dear grandmother recently passed away just a few days shy of her 100th birthday. My father tells the story of speaking with her many years ago, not long after he married my mother.

Brigham Young was lying in the bed of a wagon, having been severely ill for the last twelve days, when he saw the valley for the first time.1 He was forty-six years old, short and quite stocky, a carpenter by trade and physically robust; but “mountain fever” could put even the strongest men flat on their backs. Several diseases fell under that generic name because they all produced high fever, severe head and body aches, deep pain behind the eyes, chills, nausea, and vomiting. Colorado tick fever was one of the least severe of these illnesses, usually passing in a few days after the onset of the symptoms, but Brigham had been down for almost two weeks, suggesting that he may have contracted the more serious Rocky Mountain spotted fever. If so, it was remarkable that he was still alive. That strain persisted for weeks, and the fatality rate was high owing to the inflammation of the heart, lungs, and brain or the kidney failure it produced. The only known treatments were home-brewed remedies and rest, but sleep was hard to come by in a wagon on the plains. Summer days were bright and hot, and Brigham would have felt every bump in the road as the wooden wheels rolled over the uneven land. And he wasn’t alone in his suffering. Thirty-seven other Latter-day Saints traveling with him had also contracted the fever—a full quarter of the company. But they did not have the luxury of time to grant the sick much rest.2

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught an important principle when he explained that “all revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses and all the prophets. He is the God of Israel, the Holy One of Israel. . . . The Father has never dealt directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son.”1 Elsewhere President Smith pointed out that “after Adam’s transgression he was shut out of the presence of the Father who has remained hidden from his children to this day, with a few exceptions wherein righteous men have been privileged with the glorious privilege of seeing him. . . . Since the fall all revelation and commandments from the Father have come through Jesus Christ.”2