During the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 4, a new Church inspirational message video featured narration from Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Church released daily services calendars — including one for children — to help #LightTheWorld with love. BYU announced the cancellation of the 2022 women’s conference.
An article featured how the Relief Society general presidency and Latter-day Charities are empowering families to improve children’s nutrition. In the Church News podcast, Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf and her daughter, Antje Uchtdorf Evans, share their German Christmas traditions and memories. And an article highlighted how a Latter-day Saint congregation served their neighbors following the devastation caused by Storm Arwen’s 98-mph winds.
Ensign College hosted a grand opening for an employment center to help connect students and alumni with businesses. A profile about Utah State University’s basketball guard Brock Miller discusses his faith and how he’s turned challenges into strengths. And a Church News article explains how the For the Strength of Youth Conferences anchor the Children and Youth program.
Read summaries and find links to these nine articles below.
1. Elder Soares describes what a magnet teaches about resisting temptation
In a new Church inspirational message video — titled “Temptation Fades as We Seek Christ in Every Thought” and released on Thursday, Dec. 2 — Elder Soares assured those who have fallen into temptation that there is a way back, and there is hope in Christ.
His narration for the video is based on his October 2020 general conference talk “Seek Christ in Every Thought.”
Watch the video
2. See the #LightTheWorld daily service calendars
This Christmas season, Latter-day Saints worldwide and their friends are invited to “Light the World with Love” by following the Savior’s example to help someone feel seen, included and cared for.
“Whether it’s a family member, a friend, a neighbor or someone you’ve never even met, together we can #LightTheWorld with love,” says the calendar of daily service ideas on LightTheWorld.org. This calendar offers some suggestions for how to start.
Download the traditional calendar or the children’s calendar
3. BYU Women’s Conference canceled in 2022
BYU Women’s Conference — one of the largest gatherings of Latter-day Saint women in the world — will take a one-year pause in 2022 as options are explored for a 2023 women’s conference, according to a BYU announcement released Friday, Dec. 3, in the campus newsletter, Y News.
Find out more about the announcement
4. Empowering families to improve children’s health
In coordination with Church Welfare and Self-Reliance Services, the Relief Society General Presidency is helping to get messages directly to parents about general child nutrition and health knowledge. They are sharing simple actions families can take to improve things like hand washing, clean drinking water, healthy food choices, breastfeeding, vaccination, sanitation and clinical visits.
Read more about their efforts
5. Sister Uchtdorf and her daughter share German Christmas traditions
This episode of the Church News podcast explores one family’s Christmas traditions and the beautiful way they share them with others. Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf and Antje Uchtdorf Evans, the wife and daughter of Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, discuss how family traditions from their German homeland help them focus on the Savior during the holiday season. And they also share some of these European traditions as they help plan the The Christkindlmarkt at This Is The Place Heritage Park.
Listen to the podcast
6. How England’s most northerly congregation aided neighbors following Storm Arwen
Storm Arwen arrived Friday, Nov. 26, packing the worst winds to hit the British Isles in four decades that particularly pummeled the eastern coasts of Scotland and northern England.
Two days later the Anlwick Branch — the most northerly Latter-day Saint congregation in England — transitioned from Sunday services to providing Sunday service in helping those in the surrounding towns and villages who were still reeling from the devastating impact of Storm Arwen.
Learn more about their service
7. Ensign Center for Employer Connection
Ensign College, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, seeks to supply students with practical, job-ready skills. The launch of a new employment center — the Ensign Center for Employer Connection, nicknamed EC2 — marked another important step in that quest.
With many college, community and business leaders in attendance, the school hosted a “grand opening” at its downtown Salt Lake City campus on Thursday, Dec. 2.
Read more about how the center is blessing students and businesses
8. Why faith, family and basketball mean everything to USU’s Brock Miller
To the nation, he is the tall, bald, headband-wearing guard from Utah State University. To his youth Sunday School class, he is Brother Miller, the fun energetic teacher bringing “Come, Follow Me” to life. To his family, he is Brock, a husband, son and younger brother, about to get an MBA and become a new father in the spring.
He’s also an advocate, personally meeting with kids and teens and starting an Instagram account this last year to connect families and individuals with alopecia. Brock Miller has alopecia universalis, an autoimmune disease which means his body cannot grow any hair.
Find out more about the basketball star and his faith
9. How FSY conferences anchor the Children and Youth program
“A lot of young people think that personal development is just about goal setting,” Brother Brad Wilcox, second counselor in the Young Men general presidency, said. “At FSY they learn that it’s about receiving personal revelation. It’s not, ‘What does the book tell me to do?’ It’s, ‘What is God telling me to do?’”
That is the reason FSY plays such an integral role with the Children and Youth program, Brother Wilcox said. It is why parents and leaders need to give it the proper emphasis with their youth.
