It can be hard to ask for help, but sometimes hardships come about and we need each other. Once we get back on our feet we can return the favor by helping others in need. These five recent acts of service highlight moments when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints help others help themselves.

Although the Broadway musical comedy "The Book of Mormon" spoofs their faith, Alabama members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made the best of it during its six-day run in Birmingham that ended Sunday.

Before he forces himself to forget about everything but football, Nathan Honey summons the faces of his brothers.

The life and legacy of Frances J. Monson — "a legacy of humility, service, faithfulness and love," according to her daughter, Ann M. Dibb — was celebrated during funeral services Thursday in the Salt Lake Tabernacle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister Monson's husband, LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson, was seated with his family on red chairs that formed the Tabernacle's front row, just a few feet from his beloved wife's flower-bedecked casket and close to Dibb, her brothers Thomas and Clark and their respective spouses.

When Mitt Romney ran for president three years ago, calls from reporters came pouring into the public affairs office at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The reporters' questions made it clear that they didn't know much about Romney's faith, church officials said.

The Latter-day Saints in Brussels are making an impact as they do their part to help in the refugee crisis. Major Mike Stannett, leader of the Salvation Army in Belgium, took notice of their efforts and came together with these Saints to collect the care packages they created for refugees. "It's great that people of faith can work together in partnership for the need of other people," Stannett observes.

Outside of Utah, the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the Mormons – is in the minority. Inside of the state that trend is reversed. Newcomers to Utah suddenly find themselves in the minority if they are not a part of the dominant religion and its accompanying culture. To members of the LDS church, religious and cultural intolerance is nothing new. A quick run-through of the church’s early history in the American East and Midwest is full of tales of persecution and forced expulsion.

As a professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University (1972-2011), I have rationally defended the restored gospel in local, national and international venues. Indeed, in all my published work, I have done nothing else. Yet my own conviction of the restored gospel is not based on philosophical or theological reasoning; it is grounded in personal manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Though these are sacred experiences, not often communicated or communicable, I share one such experience here. Several years ago I attended an eight-week Institute in the Philosophy of Religion at Eastern Washington University in Bellingham, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Institute was directed by Professors William Alston and Alvin Plantinga and included as faculty some of the most prominent philosophers of religion in both the U.S. and Great Britain.

More than 2,000 people converged on rural North Carolina earlier this month for the third annual Wild Goose Festival, a gathering featuring music, art and speeches on religion and social issues — all with a liberal twist. The festivalgoers fit the description of what some call "religious progressives," a label that riffs on the idea of "religious conservatives" to describe those who exhibit both faith and left-of-center politics. According to research released recently by two liberal-leaning research groups, Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution, this group may have the potential to change the dynamics of religion and politics in America.

On this day, in the year 1983, Larry Nielson was the first American to complete a task that less than ninety people have achieved. That mission was to climb Mount Everest without using any supplemental oxygen. A neat fact about Nielson is that he is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From his monumental experience of climbing the tallest mountain on the Earth, he penned this quote: “You don’t conquer it, you survive it.”