Third Hour

Yes, this is real. According to a February 15 news release published on the Church's Newsroom, Latter-day Saint missionaries are now allowed to communicate every single week with their families via "text messages, online messaging, phone calls and video chat in addition to letters and emails." WHAT?! As someone with a brother currently on a mission halfway across the world, this is HUMONGOUS NEWS. The news release references an official letter from the First Presidency to Church leaders around the world. Here's a copy of the letter: Click to enlarge. Overall, the new policy grants a huge amount of leeway to Elders and Sisters worldwide. Not only are they encouraged to communicate with their families every week on preparation day, but also on other special occasions such as family birthdays. According to the news release, "Elder Uchtdorf said the new guidelines offer several additional benefits, including accommodating varied family circumstances as well as better supporting those missionaries who would benefit from increased personal contact with family at home." What do you think about the... View the full article

I am an avid window shopper... Or whatever the online equivalent of window shopping is. (Tab shopping? Virtual storefront surfing? I have no clue.) At any given moment, my Amazon cart has approximately 25 things in it as I not-so-patiently wait for the price to be right. Just, you know, with less Drew Carey and more Kindle deals. Because of my window shopping fascination, I'm always on the lookout for cool, unique products — and this slate of Latter-day-Saint-themed merch did not disappoint. 1. The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints Description: "This new translation renders the New Testament text into modern English and is sensitive to LDS beliefs and practices. This translation is readable and accessible for a wider range of readers than the King James Version. The original structure of the New Testament is restored and highlights features such as quotations, hymns, and poetic passages. New and extensive notes provide alternate translations, commentary upon variant manuscript traditions, and historical insights. Where applicable, the Joseph Smith Translation has been included. The... View the full article

1. "Are you the first book of Nephi? Because I can't seem to stop coming back to you." More like the first CHAPTER of Nephi, AMIRITE? 2. "Did you bring the brother of Jared across the sea? Because that body is tight like unto a dish!" 3. "I think you need to reread the Word of Wisdom, because you're SMOKIN'." #STEAMY 4. "Are you Laban's sword? Because you're exceedingly fine." 5. "Are you a good cause? Because I'd like to become anxiously engaged to you." ^This line sounds like something a returned missionary would say to the first girl he meets after he gets home. 6. "The tree of life called — it wants its sweetness back." 7. "I know you're not Ammon, but I find you completely disarming." 8. "Are you Jonah? Because I can't figure out where you've been hiding all my life." "Jonah on the Beach at Nineveh" by Daniel A. Lewis Although hopefully you haven't been hanging out in a whale's belly, because... I mean, yuck. 9. "I lived in Heaven a long time ago, it is... View the full article

As a twenty-something-year-old who lives in Provo, I’ve had my fair share of awkward, weird, and just plain awful dates. Luckily, all of this was not for naught since I can share some of the tips I learned with you. If you’re a young single adult (YSA) reading this, then you probably know by now that dating is a serious endeavor. You’re not out in the battlefield to have fun; you’re trying to find an eternal companion. And what better opportunity to do so than Valentine’s Day? Use these four tips to make sure you find the perfect date for Valentine’s Day. 1. Show Your Marriage-Hungry Side No one wants to waste their time dating, show your potential valentine you mean business by flashing your marriage-hungry side. This one’s a little tricky since you don’t want to come off too strong. However, working in questions like “How many kids do you want to have?” or “What temple do you want to get married in?” are goods ways to introduce the... View the full article

What do you do when you feel nothing? What do you do when you have been pleading with God—for weeks, months, years—and you receive no answer? This is the question that Michael McLean asks in Mormon Channel’s video “What Do We Do When We Feel Nothing?” After Michael experienced a moment of intense heartbreak, he sought for God’s guidance and light to help him through. He searched for nine years, but he felt like heaven was closed to him. So how do we hold on to hope through heartbreak when we don’t feel God’s presence? Have I Offended God? The first thing I think when I don’t receive an answer from God is that I have done something wrong. Is there a sin I haven’t repented of? Am I not reading my scriptures enough? Did I not pray long enough/hard enough/in the right way? How can I become worthy of an answer? This is the wrong way to think (though occasionally reevaluating our lives every once in a while is probably not... View the full article

I can't even count the number of times I've wondered if my missionary service was worthwhile. Firstly, because I can't count very high (math is my nemesis now and forever) and secondly, because I question all the time whether I made even the slightest difference in anyone's life. It's easy to become discouraged and to feel like all that time I spent as a missionary was a huge waste. After all, almost all of the people I taught that were baptized are no longer active despite my efforts to stay in touch and encourage their gospel activity. Then, on top of that, I look back and see all of the mistakes I made as a missionary. I was inadequate in so many ways. So I wonder, did I even do any good? Was there any point to my service? Did I make a difference at all? Not to toot my own horn — like I said, I made A LOT of mistakes as a missionary — but the answer is yes.... View the full article

Peter’s Denial by Carl Heinrich Bloch shows Peter moments after he denied Christ three times. An incident so important, that all four gospels include it. Peter’s deep shame at having denied knowing the Son of God is clear on his shadowed face. We often interpret Peter’s actions as an act of cowardice. How in these final moments he couldn't stand with the Savior. That he chose his own life over Christ. But could Peter have had different reasons for his denial? In 1971, President Spencer W. Kimball gave a talk at Brigham Young University titled “Peter, My Brother.” In it, President Kimball recounts of a time when he heard a minister condemn Peter for his cowardice. But President Kimball could not reconcile this minister's words with his own beliefs. He saw Peter as a man of tremendous faith and courage, befitting an Apostle of the Lord. Peter may not have had enough faith to stay afloat, but he had enough faith to take the first step. President Kimball recounts times before Christ’s crucifixion... View the full article

These New Testament Valentines are not just clean, they are almost holy. Impress your sweetheart by downloading one or two of these to go with your flowers or chocolate this Valentine's Day. Submit one of your own, and if it's good, we'll add it to this article. Go for 800x800 px. Good luck! 1. I feel like I could walk on water 2. Light of my world 3. You're a good reason to come home 4. I'd leave the 99 for you 5. Not a whited sepulcher 6. Where my treasure is 7. More valuable than sparrows See our Book of Mormon Valentines here. See our D&C Valentines here. See our Old Testament Valentines here. View the full article

The scriptures refer to us as a “peculiar people” for a reason; sometimes we do things that don’t make sense. Even within the Church we catch ourselves doing things that probably aren’t considered “normal” by the rest of our congregations. If you do any of these seven things, you might be a highly peculiar Latter-day Saint. 1. Be the epitome of the phrase “LDS Standard Time” We’re all guilty of being late to church. In fact, just a few weeks ago on my first Sunday in a new ward, I walked into sacrament meeting half of the way into what I thought was the opening hymn. Sadly, it was actually the closing hymn. I don’t know if you can get any later than that honestly. But just because we struggle with being on time — maybe you even struggle every Sunday — doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be better. Doctrine and Covenants 132:8 states: “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not... View the full article

Just a year ago, Deseret News released the article “Why young adult fiction — and YA authors — thrive in Utah.” The article explores the culture of Utah and how it creates countless YA novel-aholics. How many writers and writing groups thrive throughout the state. How young adult fiction is gaining reputation as a genre. It even mentions that Salt Lake City sells more YA novels compared to similarly sized cities. Clearly, a pandemic of YA novels plagues Utah. (And I for one, welcome it). Friendship, family, choosing the right. No wonder Latter-day Saints love Harry Potter. But the article made me wonder how this all started. And why specifically YA? The article mentions how YA novels have cleaner content. Or maybe it's because Utahns are also Harry Potter-aholics. The latter a topic not foreign to us, as we've published nearly a dozen articles about Harry Potter. From Mormon Moments from Harry Potter, to the quiz General Authority or Harry Potter? But I think there's more to it than that. I think there... View the full article

Music is undeniably powerful. It can inspire you to be a better person (thank you, brother Groban), it can comfort you when you're down, it can invite the Spirit of God. OR ... it can incline Libyan rebels in the 1990s to say, "I only listen to 2Pac before going to shoot Gaddafi boys." Music has consequences. We readily recognize and embrace the positive influence of music, but how often do we brush off lyrics promoting violence, sex, sexual violence, or illicit drug use, as something that "doesn't affect" us? It does. And that's why the top music charts I'm looking at right now are deeply troubling to me, as they should be to you. Take a look at just the first half of the United States Top 50 playlist, according to Spotify as of January 29, 2019 (click to enlarge): This is a problem Notice something? Out of 25 songs, 21 are marked "EXPLICIT." The second half of the list is slightly better, but not good by any means (total of 34/50 explicit). These are cold,... View the full article

I’m not part of the President Oaks fan club. I have seen more than one social post over the years that is full of anger and hurt with a finger pointed at him. There have been things he has said that I don’t agree with. More than one quote from President Oaks has triggered the forgiving voice of Elder Uchtdorf to play in my mind, “They are also painfully imperfect. They make mistakes. From time to time they say things they shouldn’t. They do things they wish they hadn’t.” Despite my nature to hold these leaders to a perfect standard, Elder Holland humbly reminds me that there is only one “who has never been clumsy or inadequate but who loves all of us who are.” I understand this is not a popular opinion to have in the midst of faithful believers. Even including quotes by our leaders admitting their fallibility does not make the phrase “I don’t always agree,” any easier to swallow. I’m asking you to allow me... View the full article

Chinese New Year is February 5th and people all over the world gather to celebrate. This is a time for friends and family to gather and preparations are made weeks in advance. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also gather together to celebrate and enjoy this time of family togetherness. Some visit the burial sites of ancestors and others tell stories about them. Each year is represented by a different animal from the Chinese zodiac. This year is the year of the pig. So if you were born in 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, or 2019, then congrats! You were born in the year of the pig. Now before you complain about narrowly missing being born in the year of the dog, read up on some awesome pig facts. Pigs value cleanliness, which is next to godliness Pigs don’t have sweat glands, so they roll around in the mud to cool down and avoid sunburns. This has given pigs a dirty rep for being messy and... View the full article

Class discussions, talks, callings, meetings, ward parties, dances, and activities... combine these all together, and it can begin to look like an overwhelming nightmare to an introvert. Don't get me wrong, we introverts enjoy being around people (well, most of the time). And The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides many awesome opportunities to get to know and interact with the people around you. But, like many places today, it can sometimes feel like we're playing on the extroverts' home field, which can be tiring. As someone who grew up preferring books to parties and who constantly had teachers prodding me to participate, I often felt out of place. I sometimes wondered what was wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with you Susan Cain, author of Quiet, notes in her TED Talk that being an introvert doesn't necessarily mean you're shy or socially anxious. It just means you prefer less stimulation than extroverts. Personally, I like to think of it as a "social battery." And an introvert's social battery usually drains... View the full article

When I started writing this article, I did a Google search of the word "God." It yielded more than 2,800,000,000 results — nearly 3 BILLION. That accounts for millions upon millions of questions about Him, speculations as well as doctrine about what He's like, links to the Bible (and the Book of Mormon, Quran, Torah, etc.), and everything in between. People all across the world long to know about God; they want to feel Him in their lives, know who He is, and have a personal relationship with Him. But sometimes I think we make it harder than it needs to be. The truth is, coming to know God isn't all that hard. It takes effort on our part, but honestly, it's not rocket science. Here's the thing: having a relationship with God isn't all that different (if at all, actually) than having a relationship with anyone else. You want to make a new friend or maintain a relationship with an old one? You consistently put in the time talking and sharing... View the full article

The Superbowl is coming up and you know what that means? Superbowl parties, food, friends and family, and more food. But what about Church? Are you someone who can't wait for it to be over (two-hour church, hallelujah) or do you record it, avoid spoilers, and then watch it the next day? Which one is “right”? Which one will the neighbors peeking through the window judge you for? Superbowl Sunday may be the day that we judge each other the most. A lot of times members of the Church can be so consumed with living the gospel the “right” way that they don’t realize that there isn’t one “right” way. It isn’t a bad thing to try and live the principles of the gospel to the best of your ability. What is bad is judging others for not living it the same way you do. The Church does not give its members a checklist or strict guidelines on how to give the gospel. The Church teaches principles and counsels its members... View the full article

Harmon Brothers — the guys that somehow made a product about poo something people actually wanted to talk about — are back with their latest advertising success: a campaign promoting Lumē Deodorant. With 7 million views, 30,000 shares and a sales increase of 526 percent, to say it’s been successful would be an understatement. The ad features a singing and dancing French woman to show audiences that Lumē can be used anywhere. Yes, you heard that right anywhere. Jonny Vance, the creative director over the campaign, said the idea behind the ad wasn’t random. “We thought ‘what’s the opposite of stinky private parts and armpits? Probably a classy, Persian woman in a café and then having her sing about these problems on a glamorous stage,” said Vance. “We thought that would be the perfect juxtaposition for this taboo subject.” The ad stars Whitney Meek, a cast member of Studio C. For those of you who haven’t assimilated to Utah culture yet — and I get it, after three years of... View the full article

I was one of the sister missionaries who went out within a year of President Monson’s historic 2012 announcement. You know, the one where the age of missionary service was lowered to 18 for young men and 19 for young women? Kind of hard to forget. Serving as a missionary at that time, I am no stranger to change. I served from August 2013 to February 2015 in the Texas Houston Mission, and in that time I saw a lot of change. Sister missionaries were called as Sister Training Leaders (STLs), the Church initiated the 12-week training program, and not to mention the number of sisters serving went way up. During the peak of the wave, my mission was half-and-half elders and sisters (though I realize this was not the norm in every area). I have been back from my mission for almost four years, but in that time I have seen some major changes. Between reading my younger sister’s mission letters and research I have conducted on my own,... View the full article

We need water to live. Thankfully, God has provided us water. That said, too much water can kill you. Too little water, and you're still dead. Only a healthy amount of water (which, fun fact, is apparently about two liters per day) will keep you alive. The same principle applies in many other arenas of life, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. This article explores how appropriate levels of doubt can keep us spiritually healthy. Disclaimer: This is a heavily nuanced subject. Surely, faith, knowledge, and doubt have several different meanings and philosophies attributed to each of them. I don't propose that this perspective is absolute truth across all interpretations and usages of these terms, nor is my method the only way of looking at things. That said, I believe there is great value in the following principles... Opposition in all things? We talk about opposition a lot in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We fully recognize both the difficulty and the necessity of opposition. Our scriptures teach, It must needs... View the full article

Most of us in the Church know that we have a Heavenly Mother. After that, things get a little murky. There’s a lot of myths concerning her, and one of those is that there are just not a lot of direct references to her as an individual. Actually, that’s not true. But if you’re just looking at things on a surface level, it’s easy to get the wrong idea since a lot of these references, such as 1 Nephi 11, are hidden under layers of cultural nuances that we just aren’t familiar with as modern readers. Appreciating How Ancient Israel Helps Us Understand Heavenly Mother If you want to pick up on some of the references to Heavenly Mother in the scriptures, then we’re going to have to go back in time a little bit. Well a lot actually, all the way back to ancient Israel. The first thing you should know about the ancient Israelites is that they were actually a lot more polytheistic than we’re probably comfortable... View the full article

The other day I received a text from a concerned friend regarding new church policies for youth. Her concern was that now young men would be asked to stand up and be recognized in January of the year they turn 12, 14, and 16, but young women no longer will. She is right, there is a problem, but it is not an equality/ recognition problem. The problem is that a young man standing to be sustained is viewed as a recognition, when really, it is to agree or disagree with the bishop’s discernment that the boy is spiritually worthy of ordination (much like the sustaining of any other calling). The fact that it is perceived as recognition is one of the unfortunate flaws of our collective church culture. Scout Culture vs Church Culture One of the largest culprits for this emphasis on achievement and recognition is the implicit influence of Scouting on the Church. Scouting is about what marketing experts call, Leveling Up, Badges, and Quests. It works well in limited... View the full article

A long time ago in a student ward far, far away, my bishop stood at the pulpit and called a few members out of the audience to share their testimony. I relaxed, because no way this Bishop even knew my name and listened as one by one these students shared their beliefs that the Church is true, President Hinckley is a prophet, and they loved their mom and dad. Well okay, maybe not the last part. Sorry, Mom. I remember that everything felt safe. Everything felt normal. That was until the last young man got up and said, “I don’t know the Church is true. I pray every day to know. I hope it is. But that feeling that you’re supposed to get when you know it’s true? I’ve never felt that. I want to believe. There is nothing I want more than to know that God is there and I’m not alone, but I don’t.” I was shocked. Is he allowed to say that? I don’t think this is... View the full article

A new stake center for the St. George East Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was heavily damaged by fire early Saturday according to the Deseret News. The stake center was being rebuilt and was about a month away from completion. It appears that the fire began at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. The sprinkler system for the building had been installed but was not yet functioning. Local church members had built the original building in the 1960s, and it was demolished to make way for the new building. Reconstruction of the new building began in February 2018. The stake center was located across the street from the St. George Utah Temple. It appears that the fire was ignited using some sort of fuel on the exterior of the building. The steeple and much of the roof collapsed during the fire. Officials with the local police, fire, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping with the ongoing investigation. The fire displaced three wards (congregations). The... View the full article

Netflix doesn't know me as well as it thinks it does, I thought to myself, rolling my eyes at the screen. Like I need to tidy up, I silently stewed, struggling to see the television over the pile of laundry I'd set on my coffee table. But then the trailer played and all those hours I'd spent watching HGTV with my DIY-loving stepmother got the best of me. I hit play. And oh boy, did it suck me in. Word to the wise: "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" is going to change you... Or at least make you itch to sort out all of your dresser drawers. (Which I did. I'm also proud to report my desk drawer no longer holds year-old coupons and one stray sock... Don't even ask.) As I sorted out the miscellaneous items around my house, pondering if that zucchini in the fridge was really sparking joy in my life, something became clear to me: Marie's advice can totally be looked at from a gospel perspective. Not just in... View the full article

I'll never forget learning about Joseph Smith in my 11th-grade American History class. As a student — and especially as a teenager — it's easy to take everything your textbook says as gospel. After all, they're supposed to be impartial, well-researched, and completely factual, right? Bad news: they're supposed to be, but... Well, sometimes they're not. That day in class became the first time in my life I realized that you need to question what you read — and that even history (or more appropriately, how we perceive history) can get things wrong. How the World Views Joseph Smith The textbook presented Joseph Smith as a treasure-hunting conman from a line of poor, scheming (though usually unsuccessful) ancestors. There wasn't any acknowledgement of the young boy with a thoughtful question or his hardworking parents who fell victim to hard times — instead, the book relied on gossip about who Joseph was without much real research, glossing over any goodness he (or the Church he helped to restore) possessed. Today, that sentiment seems to be popular... View the full article