We all have pet peeves. Further, it is inevitable in family life that our pet peeves will collide and create conflict. One wife’s pet peeve was irresponsibility; she expected people—especially her husband—to promptly do as they should. She could be quite impatient when people failed to be responsible. Her husband’s pet peeve was nagging; he hated to be pestered. He was likely to bristle if nagged. You can probably guess what their chronic struggles looked like.

One day the wife bought a load of groceries at the store including a large box of laundry detergent. Because she was pregnant, she had a store clerk help her load the items into the trunk of her car. When she arrived home, she made several trips carrying the groceries into the house. She asked her husband if he would carry the heavy box of laundry detergent into the laundry room.

He promised he …

The following is written by Heather Roberts Butler and is excerpted from Third Hour. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

In his General Conference talk in October 2020, “Tested, Proved, and Polished,” President Henry B. Eyring made an interesting statement: 

My hope is to give encouragement when life seems especially difficult and uncertain. For some of you, that time is now. If not, such a time will come. That is not a gloomy view. It is realistic—yet optimistic—because of God’s purpose in the creation of this world. That purpose was to give His children the opportunity to prove themselves able and willing to choose the right when it is hard. In so doing, their natures would be changed and they could become more like Him. He knew that would require unshakable faith in Him.

In this simple statement, President Eyring makes the most subtle correlation: …

With the COVID restrictions, the Church history sites are locked up. Temporarily gone are the eager families able to visit the Newell K. Whitney store in Kirtland or Nauvoo’s Social Hall. Yet, the Church, ever innovative in its approach to difficulties has come up with a winning solution.

You can visit these sites on a virtual tour with missionaries on Zoom right from your own home. Because my husband and I are serving at the Joseph Smith Birthplace, we have seen first-hand the power of these virtual tours. During the COVID lock down, we have hosted visitors from all over the world on these tours, including many who will likely never travel here in person.

Virtual tours have been great for families, Young Women/Young Men groups, Relief Society Activities, and Institute/Seminary Classes. The 2021 Come Follow Me Curriculum is Doctrine and Covenants which features these sacred sites. The Joseph Smith …

When it comes to religious affiliation, the 117th U.S. Congress looks similar to the previous Congress but quite different from Americans overall, a new Pew Research Center analysis finds.

While about a quarter (26%) of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – just one member of the new Congress (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.) identifies as religiously unaffiliated (0.2%).

Nearly nine-in-ten members of Congress identify as Christian (88%), compared with two-thirds of the general public (65%). Congress is both more heavily Protestant (55% vs. 43%) and more heavily Catholic (30% vs. 20%) than the U.S. adult population overall.

Members of Congress also are older, on average, than U.S. adults overall. At the start of the 116th Congress, the average representative was 57.6 years old, and the average senator was 62.9 years old. Pew Research Center surveys have found that adults in that …

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Contributed by Tori Black

“How can you convince somebody that has never met you and the only thing they’ve ever seen of you is that three-second clip?” Mimi Groves was a freshman in high school when she posted a video celebrating her new driver’s permit, in which she used a racial slur: “I can drive.” Followed by the “n-word.” She posted it and promptly forgot about it. But one of her classmates, Jimmy Galligan, saw it and thought it could be useful in the future, so he saved it. Jimmy had suffered from classmates’ racist behavior, and wanted Mimi to understand the severity of the language she had used. Earlier this past year, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, he shared the …

The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

In 2021’s first temples-reopening announcement, seven South American temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will return to performing all living ordinances beginning Jan. 11, nearly 10 months after the Church closed all of its temples due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, operations at four temples in England and South Africa are being paused due to local COVID-19 conditions.

The seven temples in the South America Northwest Area moving to Phase 2 — allowing for all living ordinances — in the Church’s four-phase reopening plan include:

• Arequipa Peru Temple
• Barranquilla Colombia Temple
• Bogotá Colombia Temple
• Caracas Venezuela Temple
• Cochabamba Bolivia Temple
• Lima Peru Temple
• Trujillo Peru Temple

And the four temples pausing operations are:

• Durban South Africa Temple
• Johannesburg South Africa Temple
• London England Temple
• Preston England Temple

To read the …

The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

Resources for the 2021 youth theme, including the music album “A Great Work,” are now available on youth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

The music album and other resources all support the 2021 youth theme: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34; emphasis added).

The album of songs written and composed by Nik Day and performed by Latter-day Saint youth and young adults reached #8 in the Christian Music chart on iTunes during the first weekend of its release. It may be streamed on the Sacred Music app, Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube under the artist “Strive to Be.” It’s also available on Gospel Library under Music.

Kimberly …

View the article on Book of Mormon Central.

Cover image: Prospect of the City of New York. Image via the JCB Library.

“For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord’s; and . . . they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another; and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance” 2 Nephi 28:3–4

The Know

For a young Joseph Smith living on the frontier of western New York in the early 1800s, amidst a cacophony of religious fervor from various denominations established in the vicinity, the burning question of the day was, which church should he join? Which one was …

In every dispensation of the world a witness is called to testify to the people of that day and age that he has seen God and has talked with Him and has received instructions and guidance from Him. Faith comes and is increased by listening to and heeding the testimony of that witness.  In our day, in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, that witness is Joseph Smith.

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In every dispensation of the world a witness is called to testify to the people of that day and age that he has seen God and has talked with …

The following is excerpted from the Deseret News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

Kylee Keele-Blackburn felt her grandfather’s spirit throughout the party, but in retrospect, she now believes he was there, watching over them, because without their grandpa “guardian angel,” she may not be alive to tell the story of Christmas 2020.

A month before the Christmas party, Keele-Blackburn and her husband Slate Blackburn were the live-in caretakers for her grandparents. Hall, 81, and his wife of 61 years, Alberta, relied on Keele-Blackburn for nearly everything, especially as her grandpa became less and less mobile. Shortly after Thanksgiving, Keele-Blackburn said she started feeling sick and immediately went to the free testing offered to her as a Utah Valley University employee.

“I tested negative,” she said. “Then my sister started feeling sick, and she got tested a couple of days after me. She tested positive. So I went …