*This version is edited to reflect the Tuesday, October 16 event at the Washington D.C. Visitors' Center is not a fireside with Mike Reid as previously listed, but is a musical fireside. Mike Reid will visit the Visitors' Center on Sunday, October 21.

Our baptismal covenant requires us to stand as witnesses of Christ at all times and in all places. What better way for us to represent our belief in Christ than to live and act as He would?

Knowing the gospel and understanding the doctrine is all well and good, but until there is action in the form of living those principles we know and understand, we won’t ever develop deep testimonies. The teacher’s charge is to instruct then invite to act.

Years ago, before the Church instituted the three-hour block schedule for our Sunday meetings, we used to go to the chapel for meetings three times every Sunday—once in the morning for priesthood meeting, a second time for Sunday School opening exercises and classes, and finally a third time for a ninety-minute sacrament meeting. When I was a very young man, our ward’s Sunday School superintendent, Brother Marchant, came to our class one Sunday to ask for volunteers who would be willing to give the prayer, the 2½-minute talks, and the sacrament gem (a verse of scripture shared before the sacrament was passed) in the following week’s Sunday School opening exercises. My strategy was to quickly volunteer to say either the prayer or the sacrament gem. I was motivated by the desire to avoid having to give a talk at all costs! Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t the only person in the class with that strategy, and I missed out on my first choice, the prayer. I was quick enough, however, to score the sacrament gem assignment. Given the other alternative, I felt lucky.

The following story originally ran on LDS Living in June 2015 but has been updated.

The following is an excerpt from That We May Be One, A Gay Mormon's Perspective on Faith & Family by Tom Christofferson.

To receive a Young Womanhood medallion, girls must complete six experiences in each value and then plan a ten-hour project for that particular value. For each value, they are asked to complete three recommended activities and then to choose three additional projects, two of which they may design.

Image from LDS.org.

I grew up in a strange household religiously. My parents divorced because they couldn’t decide if I would be raised Jewish or Catholic. One would think this is a decision that would have been reached before having a baby (especially when you’ve been married a decade before the baby comes into the picture), but alas, religion opened a hole in their marriage that my parents found impossible to bridge. My father was Jewish, my mother Catholic, and despite living full-time with my mother, I decided I would be Jewish. My mother told me Jews were “people of the Book,” and I liked books. My favorite food, then and now, was also matzo ball soup, and once my mother told me that recipe was also Jewish, well, I was sold. And so, at the wise age of 7, I declared I was Jewish, and almost 25 years later, I still am.

After a highly successful 15-year career, MLB pitcher Jeremy Guthrie accomplished many historical firsts as a Latter-day Saint pitcher. Now as a mission president, Guthrie is serving with baseball players who are willing to put their careers on hold to serve the Lord, much like he did two decades ago.