“Without Sarah, the full expression of the Abrahamic covenant could not have taken place.”

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

Looking at the teen with long blond hair standing in the middle of the lit-up stage, Adam Levine made an almost prophetic prediction.

When I got out my camera, a Mormon security guard made it clear that he didn’t like what I was doing. “Excuse me sir,” he said. “Please don’t feed the trolls.” The “trolls” were the anti-Mormon protesters carrying anti-Mormon signs and yelling anti-Mormon slurs—some of them using bullhorns. They amass at dusk on the seven nights in July when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts on its annual Hill Cumorah Pageant. It’s here, on a tree-lined hill that rises above the flat farmland of western New York state, that the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, claimed to have unearthed metal plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon. And for each of the last 75 years—except during World War II—Mormons have staged an elaborate production dramatizing the Book of Mormon’s sacred history of a Pre-Columbian Christian civilization.

During the early years of my marriage, I was often overcome with feelings of disappointment that my relationship with my husband wasn’t very strong. In fact, as time continued, I grew apprehensive whenever we had to be together for any length of time. I wasn’t enjoying life, my children, or my marriage. It seemed to be all work and no fun.

When mother of three Jenny Lynn suffered a massive brain stem stroke, doctors encouraged her husband, Mark, to remove her from life support. But for the Lynns, eternal marriage means more than temporal comfort—it means hope, love, and sacrifice.

In a recently released interview with the Mormon Channel, beloved LDS singer Donny Osmond shared his advice for those struggling with their faith in God:

Kenna Stansfield, a junior at Ben Lomond High, loves going to seminary. “It’s like a family in here,” she said. Kenna told of her experience inviting one of her friends to attend so he could see what it was like: “At first he was nervous, … but he really liked it, so he transferred over.”

A wise therapist once told me that life isn’t really about being happy. It’s about finding peace. This lesson struck me with renewed force when I learned the story behind our beloved Latter-day Saint hymn “Where Can I Turn for Peace?”

This is a whole different way of thinking about how we can avoid becoming a "stiff-necked people."