Editor's note: "This Week from the Pulpit" highlights recent messages by General Authorities and General Officers of the Church.

The following is excerpted from President Thomas S. Monson's biography, To the Rescue, and illustrates a few moments from his military service in WWII.

When Carson Jones invited Chy Johnson to sit with him and his football buddies at lunch last fall, he didn't think it was a big deal. Since that time, Johnson's story has been a source of inspiration told through accounts in the national media and, most recently, the priesthood session of LDS general conference. Johnson, 16, has microcephaly, a brain disorder. She became a target for bullies at Queen Creek High School. After hearing her daughter express frustration about the other kids throwing trash at her, Chy’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, called up Jones to ask if he’d give her some names of the bullies. Instead, Jones befriended her daughter.

Two apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited Church members in India and Hong Kong to extend their love and blessings. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland visited Latter-day Saints in India on 22 May 2011, and Elder Holland was accompanied by Elder David A. Bednar on a visit to Hong Kong on 25 May 2011. The goal of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is to train local priesthood leaders on every continent and become personally acquainted with the unique challenges and needs of members from dozens of cultures. The Church now has more than 14 million members, most of whom live outside of the United States.

“After the revelation, the gospel spread out everywhere across Brazil,” Elder Soares said. “We saw many cities being opened for the teaching of the gospel, and more and more people accepting the gospel.”

Editor's note: "This week from the pulpit" highlights recent messages by General Authorities, General Officers, and leaders of the Church.

“I cried tears of joy that I had found the Lord’s Church on earth!”

The year 1940 might have been a banner year for our family. The health and financial hardships that followed my father’s 1930 graduation from medical school in Philadelphia were past. The family was happily located in Twin Falls, Idaho, where my father’s medical practice (eye, ear, nose, and throat) was thriving and where he served on the high council of the Twin Falls Stake. In January 1938, he and my mother had returned from his four months of valuable postdoctoral training in ophthalmology in Vienna, Austria, and Cairo, Egypt. After years of sacrifice since their marriage in 1929, my mother could at last contemplate a life of security as the wife of a prosperous physician. In January 1940, son Merrill would be four, and in March, daughter Evelyn would be one. In August 1940, I, their eldest, would be baptized following my eighth birthday.

Matt. 1; Luke 1

In the past five years of their service, the Relief Society General Presidency has ministered to Latter-day Saints around the world, organized relief efforts during the pandemic that produced more than 5.7 million masks, and shared wise council in countless addresses