For the last 18 years, Brigham Young University archaeology professor Jeffrey R. Chadwick has been involved in excavating the ancient Biblical site of Gath, the capital city of the Philistine pentapolis and hometown of the towering warrior Goliath.

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.

Julie de Azevedo Hanks, Ph.D., LCSW is the owner/director of Wasatch Family Therapy, a popular blogger, an online mental health influencer, and a local and national media contributor.

There’s no shortage of pronouncements on what Mormons believe, ironically from people who aren’t members of the LDS Church; many who have skewed information. It has become evident that Mormonism is a trending topic and there is amplified interest in all things Mormon. This provides a great opportunity for members of the Church to set things straight.

Recently, the Church announced a new approach to worship, with an emphasis on making gospel learning more self-reliant and family-focused. As with any change, we can become overwhelmed at first. So to help make this change just a little easier, here are a few techniques on how to be a self-reliant learner.

Everyone feels pressured and is busy. No one likes to waste their time or at least feel like their time has been wasted. So why not put our time to the best use possible? This is a rhetorical question that puts most of us to shame. Either we believe there is nothing more important to learn than the word of God or we don’t. If we do believe it, why aren’t we spending more time studying His word and less time online in social media, in gaming, or with other fun activities?

These introductory paragraphs are excerpted from a 1995 manuscript by Herbert Kurt Ludwig and the author. Ludwig was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who served in the German infantry in World War II. His journey through World War II took him from the freezing steppes of Russia to the burning sands of North Africa, where he served as a motorcycle messenger in the headquarters of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Along with a 136,000 other Germans, he was abandoned by his country in North Africa, facing new dangers, opportunities, and challenges throughout the rest of the war.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has described a conversation he and his wife had years ago with an insightful dinner guest. The guest asked, “What is the one thing people can’t live without?” Sister Holland suggested that perhaps it was love. Elder Holland thought maybe it was faith. Their guest observed, “No, you’re both wrong. Many people in this world live without faith. And sadly, many people have to live without love. But without hope, there is no reason to go on. People cannot live without hope.”

In a candid, very personal video directed to one Latter-day Saint, Elder Holland explained that every member has a different mission. Some might serve for two years, others just four months, but all of their service is significant and valuable to the Lord. Elder Holland explained all of this is response to a question he received from a returned missionary who wanted to know how he should feel after needing to return home early from his mission because of mental health problems.

It’s the first multi-series TV show about stories from the life of Christ told from the perspective of those who knew Him, and for the show’s second season, Latter-day Saints will likely recognize the set.