Charlie Bird rotated his body in a perfect flip. It was the type of movement that was so familiar, the execution was more than just muscle memory now—it was a part of him. The man who had performed as Brigham Young University’s mascot, Cosmo the Cougar, and who had danced in ESPN’s 2017 College Football Awards, was simply doing what he had always done, defying gravity and soaring through the air.

This will undoubtedly be the hardest post I've ever written.

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.

Author’s Note: Once again, I feel a need to explain the purpose of these lessons. They are not designed to take the place of the Gospel Doctrine Manual nor of your Sunday experience in a Gospel Doctrine class. My hope is that they will provide additional insights and increased understanding and that those who use them will have a greater love for the scriptures. —T. L. G.

Every month can feel like a whirlwind of revelation, insights, and adjustments in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—both in our personal lives and in the worldwide Church. And that's the way we should feel as members of a Church who believe in a living God, a living Savior, and ongoing revelation.

The LDS hymnal is full of uplifting music and poetry from a host of different sources, but they all share one commonality—they inspire and lift our minds toward heaven. Just as powerful as many of the words in these hymns are the stories behind them. Here are just a few.

For more resources, videos, and tools to help you speak to your children about pornography, visit the Church's website ChurchofJesusChrist.org/addressing-pornography.

Following are the incredible stories of Justin Bisimwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Collins family, a family of 15 in San Diego, California, who have now teamed up to create a non-profit organization called New Neighbor Relief that helps refugees in San Diego become self-reliant.

If you’re like me, you have probably had someone tell you recently—or perhaps you have said it yourself—that 2020 has been a total wash. Just look at some of the major events of this year: devastating wildfires in Australia, the eruption of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines, the third impeachment trial in US history, the killing of George Floyd, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said in April 2020 conference, COVID-19 is “a solemn reminder that a virus 1,000 times smaller than a grain of sand can bring entire populations and global economies to their knees.”