President Packer learned and shared many words of wisdom and insights over his 50 years as an apostle. From that treasure trove of knowledge comes the eternal truths that President Packer felt were most important to know and share. Truths that have become a powerful final witness that Jesus is the Christ.

When you want to be inspired, you read the scriptures. When you want answers to questions burning in the depths of your very bones, you turn to the scriptures. When you want to feel God's love, you read the scriptures.

At three o’clock in the morning, 38-year-old Theresa Marie Pitts awakes with her 5-month-old baby. As a mother of eight children, she’s become accustomed to early-morning wakeups and feedings, but on the morning of July 9, 2017, her early rise was for a different reason. That was the day she would finally conquer what her kids had named “The Big Race.”

When I was very young, my parents planted a magnolia tree in our yard, in hopes of my having magnolias at my wedding. Plans for my future wedding also came up when I was 16 years old. Daddy arrived home from a church meeting with a rolled-up drawing of the soon-to-be Methodist church building. He unrolled the plans and pointed with pleasure to the chapel, saying, “Look, Neill, the new church will have a center aisle, instead of the side aisle of our church now, so at your wedding, I can walk you down the center of the sanctuary!” That anticipation held a particular poignancy since I was the only daughter in a family with six sons. I expected that trip down the church aisle and planned on it. Those expectations vanished like the dew of a Louisiana morning when I took an eternal step and entered the waters of baptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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.

My wife and I were in France for a stake conference. During a new convert meeting, I noticed two young men in their mid-twenties sitting together. One of them stood and introduced himself. He said that he was a refugee from Russia. He had come to France to escape oppression and there had found the Mormon missionaries and joined the Church. When he sat down, the other young man got to his feet. Speaking in halting French, he told his story. The mission president, who was sitting beside me, translated for us. Here, as best as I can remember it, is what he said:

When it rains in Paraguay, it pours. Sheets of rain turn the dirt roads of small rural towns into rivers of mud, driving everyone indoors and stopping transportation.

It seems like general conference surprises are increasing at an alarming rate. Here are a few past general conference moments no one saw coming.

We recently sat down as a family to talk about how we want to honor the Lord’s day. We began the conversation by talking about Christmas. It is one of our favorite holidays. We begin preparing for it months in advance. We talked about the food that we love to eat, the traditions we participate in, and the reasons why we look forward to the gathering. We made a list of our traditions: new pajamas, ebelskivers for breakfast, fun games, and quiet moments gathered around burning candles when we remember the times we have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. Those are just a few. It became clear that the reason we love Christmas isn’t because it is December 25; it is because we have set apart that day as a celebration focused on Christ with good food, fun, and time spent talking about what is important. Then I asked if we might be able to set apart the Sabbath as a holy celebration similar to Christmas. If the day were filled with family, good food, and fun and conversations centered on Christ, would it become a day we looked forward to, similar to the way we look forward to December 25? We decided to give it a try. We started establishing traditions that would intentionally set that day apart from every other day of the week. I call these our sweet Sabbath moments. In our home it is a family-only day. We spend time together playing games or making cookies. Grace loves to make and decorate sugar cookies; I like to make meringues. We trade off. For one hour each Sunday we gather in the family room with a journal and spend time talking about what matters most. This is a time for reading the scriptures, studying doctrines and principles, goal setting and family planning—a weekly time to center our life again, with God’s purposes in mind. The evenings are for large family gathering. Married kids, aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandma and grandpa usually gather to eat dinner and share stories and laugh. With deliberate planning, Sundays have become my most favorite day of the week.

Is Santa Claus a part of your Christmas tradition? Check out these charming and insightful stories from Church leaders about old Saint Nick.