I have been Covid-isolated all week, and haven’t had a chance to talk with anyone about General Conference. I would love to know what your favorite parts were. I’ve asked a few folks to start off the discussion. Please add your favorite quotes in the comments, and maybe a sentence or two about why they spoke to you. For me, predictably, the best part of conference was the Saturday afternoon choir, and especially the (ever so slightly daring!) arrangement of Jesus, Once of Humble Birth by Timothy Johnson. (Did you know you can find all the conference music in the music section of the church website?https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/…/conference-music…) Rachel Fisher Scholes “Religion…

I wanted to share some thoughts I had this week as I read in the New Testament with the Come Follow Me readings. In 1 Corinthians 12 we read “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor. 12:25-26) I have been thinking about what it means to be a member of the body of Christ. This charge to care for others resonates deeply with my desire to routinely consider how I might be…

Facebook makes me cry a lot this time of year. The month-long onslaught of back-to-school photos wrings my heart and wets my eyes. My nest has been empty for a while, but apparently still not long enough for the ache to go away. It isn’t exactly envy of my friends who still have their babies at home, although it is partly that. I don’t necessarily want to go back in time, although I think I would if the choice were offered. But those days were hard, and I don’t have any confidence I’d do any better a second time around. I’d just make different mistakes. I don’t think there is…

My favorite moment in the film “Babbette’s Feast” is at the beginning of the feast from the film’s name. The feast is being shared by the lowly parishioners of a tiny country church in 18th-century Denmark. The foods, prepared by the French immigrant maid, Babette, are utterly exotic and strange to the villagers, who have lived lives of uncompromising plainness. As they taste the first course of this real French meal, they look around the table, wondering if what everyone is tasting is as sublime as what they are tasting. As the courses follow, the villagers blink in disbelief, transfixed with the sensory delight of beautiful food, the likes of which they…

An early typewriter, patented by Dr. Samuel Ward Francis in 1857, was nicknamed a literary piano. When I think about what could be created on a literary piano, it is certainly different from the document made by the monotone tapping of the word processors I know. Under the direction of Orson Pratt, my great-great-grandfather, John Davis, translated the Book of Mormon into Welsh. At that time, Dan Jones had done a great missionary work in Wales and there were thousands of converts, who were anxious to read the Book of Mormon in their native tongue. John Davis knew the urgency of getting the translation completed. Although his translation was accurate,…

This weekend I had the opportunity to see “The Hunchback of Notre Dame“. As it often does, the song “God Help the Outcasts” resonated deeply with me. For those less familiar with the musical, Esméralda (a French Roma girl) sings this song in the Notre Dame cathedral. As a French Roma girl, she has suffered much persecution, poverty, and misfortune. She finds herself there because she came to check on Quasimodo, who has been ill-treated. While there, she sings this song as a sort of prayer. She begins by saying she doesn’t know if he is listening or even there, but “Still I see your face and wonder, Were you once…