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In the hustle and bustle of holiday activities, make time to enjoy the peaceful spirit of the season. To help you take your mind off of your dinner parties and visitors, we’ve put together a list of good holiday reads in the true spirit of the season for you and your family to enjoy.

Fun

The Unexpected Way the Church Responded to a Blackmail Attempt

By Danielle B. Wagner

Author's note: The pictures shown in this post are not intended to be disrespectful or make light of sacred things. They were commissioned by Church leadership in the early 1900s and are illustrative of the physical changes the temple has gone through since that time.

Fun

Hidden Joseph Smith LEGO Portrait, Giraffes on Temple Square + Other Bizarre Latter-day Saint Connections to Video Games

By Danielle B. Wagner

What do Fallout, World of Warcraft, The Last of Us, Need for Speed, and the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean have in common?

Latter-day Saint Life

How One Man's Dream on His Deathbed Led His Nephew to the Church

By José Angel Seferino Raya y Gonzales

Many years ago in my native home of Mexico, my uncle became very ill, and it was clear that he would soon pass away. Relatives gathered at his bedside, crying and mourning his passing. I was only a child at the time, but I felt very sad about my uncle.

Latter-day Saint Life

What the Prophet Joseph Told a US President Is the Most Unique Feature of the Church

By Robert L. Millet

In December 1839 the Prophet Joseph Smith and Elias Higbee traveled to Washington D.C., to seek redress from the government for the losses suffered by the persecuted and beleaguered Latter-day Saints. In their meeting with President Martin Van Buren, Joseph recorded that the president “interrogated us wherein we differed in our religion from the other religions of the day.” If you had been in the room and had been asked to respond to President Van Buren’s question, how would you have answered?

Latter-day Saint Life

What 2 Engineers Discovered After Using Statistical Analysis to Determine Whether the Book of Mormon Was Fiction

By Daniel Peterson

Michael Coe, Yale University’s Charles J. MacCurdy professor emeritus of anthropology, is an eminent scholar of ancient Mesoamerica and the author of a widely read book, The Maya, that is now in its ninth edition.

Latter-day Saint Life

5 ways life would be radically different if Christ never made His Atonement

By Tad R. Callister

The following excerpt from The Infinite Atonement originally ran on LDS Living in March 2018.

In case you missed it: Top LDS Living articles from this week

Here’s a snapshot of what you may have missed on LDS Living this week. You can also subscribe to the LDS Living newsletter for daily inspiration right to your inbox.

Seeking happiness will determine destiny, Elder Martino teaches at BYU–Hawaii; Sister Aburto talks mental health on Church News podcast

Happiness. It is the elusive thing we all seek. But as Elder James B. Martino taught graduates at BYU–Hawaii, “The degree to which we seek [happiness] will ultimately determine our destiny,” while acknowledging that in the case of clinical depression, professional help is needed. Sister Reyna Isabel Aburto also addressed depression and mental health this week on the Church News podcast.

Podcasts

How a mother’s imprisonment led her daughter to devote her career to helping the incarcerated

When she was a little girl in Iran, Shima Baughman’s mother was imprisoned for her political activism. Baughman has made it her mission to "remember them that are in bonds" (Hebrews 13:3).