In the whole of the Doctrine and Covenants there are only two women mentioned by name. The first being Emma Smith, whose story most of us are familiar with. But the second is a woman provides an insight into what life was like as a saint in the early Church. Today's conversation is all about Vienna Jaques. And her story will help illuminate our study of the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

In preparation for the Easter Season we are spending this episode learning about the Atonement of Christ. Elder Cook said in this weekend’s General Conference that “The Atonement of Jesus Christ provides the ultimate rescue from the trials we face in life.” And doesn’t that sound like the kind of saving we all need.

We might have all at one point asked ourselves, “Why do we have prophets? Why should we listen to them?” In the restored gospel, we believe that the counsel we receive from prophets prepares us for all that lies ahead. The revelation they receive is for us today—revelation that takes into account the unique circumstances in the world now.

As Latter-day Saints, we’re connectors. We care about creating and maintaining relationships both on earth and after death. And we want to better understand our unique doctrine of eternal relationships so we can better love and appreciate our relationships now, across the veil, and in the eternities.

Forgiveness is a principle of the gospel that serves as a salve to any and all of our relationships. We hope to receive it from the Savior, and we are promised that through His divine atonement, it is possible. Elder Anderson writes, “As surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, the Savior's divine gifts of repentance and of forgiveness, offered in the beauty of His encompassing love, are certain for those who come unto Him with full purpose of heart.”

In the church, we often colloquially refer to a trial as something we’re “going through.” As if there is a finish line, or even a moment in time that we just need to get by. But perhaps the real need is to slow down in our hard times and find out what it is we can learn when we simply sit with them.

As we self-examine our own process of conversion, there may be big, miraculous moments that we can point to, but lasting conversion is generally a slower process. That process builds up over time and brings us a continued conversion. And learning to embrace this process, despite the hard, will bring us as much joy as the miraculous big moments.

This episode explores a topic that is going to answer a crucial question of faith many of us have asked before: why does this church matter? And with our study of the Doctrine & Covenants for the Come, Follow Me year, this chapter from Steven Harper’s Wrestling with the Restoration: Why this Church Matters will add to your knowledge of prophetic revelation. It will change the way you respond the next time you encounter prophetic revelation.

This episode jumps into something that is right the Out of the Best Books alley. It’s all about asking this crucial question of our faith: why does this church matter? We'll explore how we can encourage the wrestle of that. Hopefully we can see our study of the Doctrine and Covenants this year in a new light, and it may enlighten the conversations we have around the Sunday dinner table.

My Lord He Calls Me: Stories of Faith by Black American Latter-day Saints edited by Alice Faulkner Burch celebrates the stories of Black Latter-day Saints. It’s an essay compilation by active Black American members of the Church whose ancestors were brought to the United States from Africa and enslaved. Because it's Black History month, we wanted to hear about their conversion stories, what life is like as a Black Latter-day Saint, and why they choose to remain in the Church. You will be inspired by the faith, testimony, endurance, wisdom, and spiritual strength of these faithful Saints.

Revelation is crucial to the restored gospel and crucial to our lives today. As Latter-day Saints, we know the heavens are open, but perhaps we all want to know how to hear God better and understand what revelation looks like in our own lives.

Today we’re talking all about how to slow down and commune with God. It’s a topic that we hope will help remind us how to draw closer to God without doing more.

In this episode, we’re sharing audio from chapter 5, The Face of Christ, from Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch’s book Seven Visions: Images of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Deseret Book authors Rosalynde Welch and Adam Miller join this episode to discuss their book Seven Visions: Images of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants.

In this episode, we’re sharing audio from chapter 2 of Tad R. Callister’s book A Case for the Book of Mormon called, “Man-Made or God-Given?”