When the LDS missionaries came to Toronto in 1836, Mary Fielding Smith and her sister Mercy ran and warned their neighbors to avoid them, fearing the strange new church. Amazingly, only a few days later they were baptized. Parley Pratt wrote that the people in Toronto “drank in truth as water, and loved it as…
Read moreBattles with Grief: Then and Now
Memorial Service This summer my family and I participated in a memorial service at Smith Family Cemetery in Historic Nauvoo for the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith (June 27, 1844).1 The service included prayer, music, scriptures, and quotes all crafted into a dramatic retelling of that fateful June-day when…
Read moreHolding Together
Long-distance Engagement “You want to postpone the wedding?” I asked my fiancée. “We need more time,” he said. “We need to get to know each other better. We need time to plan and prepare.” We had set a date for the end of February, but now he wanted to move the wedding all the way…
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