In his address to the Nephite people, King Benjamin told of his recent visit from an angel of God. The angel woke up the righteous king, giving him the good news repeated everywhere from Isaiah to Luke to Romans to the Doctrine and Covenants. But while the Judean shepherds heard of "tidings of great joy," the angel who appeared to Benjamin worded his announcement slightly differently: "I am come...

You hear a knock on your door. You aren't expecting visitors, so you glance through the window first, and your jaw drops. In a daze, you open the door and greet the Prophet of God. He tells you he felt impressed to visit your house and give you a personal priesthood blessing.

Three weeks ago, my wife and I got a phone call. Hope, my 57-year-old mother-in-law, had run out of options for chemotherapy and was starting in-home hospice. Doctors estimated she had some weeks left. Hope wanted to hug her grandchildren again while she could, so we loaded the kids in the car and started the 8-hour journey to North Carolina.

2 hours away from my in-laws' house, we received another...

Like everyone else, my heart is broken watching Ukrainians stand alone against an evil dictatorship. Political leaders are debating about how involved we will be collectively, but God-fearing believers already want to be involved personally. But we individuals can't send military aircraft or fight alongside the Ukrainian soldiers. What can we do? We can follow our Prophet's example and pray.

If you think that sounds like a cop-out answer,...

Right now in Come, Follow Me, we are studying the journeys of Abraham and his family. His people, including his father, had turned from the Lord to serve other gods, even going so far as to sacrifice innocent children to their false gods. Soon, the sacrificial knife turned on Abraham himself. When God intervened, what was Abraham told to do? Get out of Dodge, of course!

Sacrament meetings are usually hectic for me. With three kids five and under, there's little opportunity for reverent reflection. Even when I do get a respite from the craziness, I find myself thinking more about the people I need to reach out to and the lessons I need to figure out than pondering on the words of the Sacramental prayers. But a few weeks ago, that all changed, and I...

It was five years, almost to the day, but if you saw a picture of that Bishop from the start of his term, you'd be forgiven for thinking 15 or 20 years had passed. The marital disputes, the midnight runs to the chapel to forestall eviction, and the last-second interviews had taken their toll on both his hairline and his beltline. "Busy as a man can be," indeed. But...

In part 1 of this series on member missionary work, I talked about why member missionary initiatives always seem to fail– because we keep creating new programs instead of addressing the problem of perspective. In part 2, I talked about starting to change the perspective by getting ourselves "into the zone" through a greater understanding of, conversion to, and immersion in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our...

I pointed out in my previous post that the Lord and His servants have made it clear that when it comes to encouraging member missionary work, we need go beyond gimmicks and corporate management tactics. The Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't need salesmen. Motivating members to occasionally perform missionary actions is not enough. God wants us to become missionaries in our hearts. We don't need a new program– we...

What is the number one complaint among full-time missionaries? Zealous missionaries everywhere are disappointed that members are not inviting their non-member friends to hear the message of the Gospel.

They are frustrated with good reason– members generally are not doing our part to live our covenant to "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places." Investigators, less-actives, and even the random people...