Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, had a big decision to make.

Now, I'm the first to admit that when it comes to Mormon culture or membership, we haven't worked out all the kinks quite yet. Sure, none of us are perfect and I don't expect a mass translation anytime soon. But you know what? That's part of what I love about this Church.

Most 16 year olds are focused on getting their driver license.

My 2-year-old had been battling a chest cold for a few days, and the back-to-back sleepless nights were really taking a toll on me. The brain fog was very real, my eyes burned, and my limbs throbbed with exhaustion. I yearned for rest, but sleep eluded me. I just had too much on my mind. I am a chronic worrier, you see, and I couldn’t kick the anxiety I was feeling. Then, for whatever reason, I thought about a nearly empty photo box on a shelf in my closet.

Our baby son had just finished a month of being on ECMO, the most extreme form of life support. He had survived, and so had we, and we thanked God for it.

For Moroni to engrave the sacrament prayers on the plates is a testimony that the sacrament was an essential, not an optional, part of their worship.

Jane Elizabeth Manning was born in Connecticut in about 1820. Her mother had been enslaved, but she was emancipated by the time Jane was born. Jane’s father died when she was a young child and, perhaps in part for that reason, Jane began working as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family in the next town over. As a young woman, she was baptized and joined the local Congregational Church, but not long afterward she heard a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preach and she was convinced by his message. She was baptized a short time later, and she appears to have persuaded her family to join the Church as well. In 1843, the Mannings joined an interracial group of converts for the journey to Nauvoo. Although they left the Northeast together, the group was separated at some point during the journey. The white members continued to Nauvoo on public transportation; the black members walked. When Jane and her family reached Nauvoo, they were welcomed by Emma and Joseph Smith and stayed in the mansion house for a short time while they found jobs and housing. Jane remained in the mansion house, working for the Smiths as a domestic servant.

Latter-day Saint Mark Henshaw never anticipated writing a religious book. For 15 years, the security analyst, military historian, and author had been writing well-reviewed espionage thriller novels that follow CIA agents in their chase to secure American safety. He had never imagined that writing stories of spies and secret missions was actually training for a special, spiritual project down the road.

The nomination of Mitt Romney as the GOP presidential candidate may have brought the Mormon faith into the mainstream, but Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch believes the religion still has a long way to go. "People don't think Mormons are Christian," he tells Whispers. "That's totally wrong. [As a Mormon] you can hardly move without hearing the name of Jesus Christ. We're fervent believers in Jesus Christ."

Famed pastor Joel Osteen reiterated his position that Mitt Romney is a Christian on Tuesday, saying as long as the likely GOP presidential nominee believes that Jesus is the Son of God then he subscribes to the Christian faith. "When I hear Mitt Romney say that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God–that he's the Christ, raised from the dead, that he's his Savior–that's good enough for me," Osteen said in an interview to air on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."