Mike Higgins

First ordinances on the left, temple ordinances on the right, keystone is the tree of life—the love of our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost—and a reference to the eternal nature of the family, roots and branches, progenitors and progeny. I don’t know who generated this image, but I love it. Okay then, family of earth. “Even if ye can no more than desire to believe,” do it. Let’s start with the love of God in your heart. Come and see. (Alma 32:27)

From David O McKay on the Book of Mormon: Neglecting it brings darkness. Using it brings light and joy. "I said to you that I know that the Lord communicates with his servants. I have not doubted this as a fact since I was a boy and heard the testimony of my father, regarding the revelation that came to him of the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph. I feel impressed to relate that circumstance and add his testimony to the one that I am now giving. He accepted a call to a mission about 1880. When he began preaching, in his native land, and bore testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he noticed that the people turned away from him. They were bitter in their hearts against anything ''Mormon," and the name of Joseph Smith seemed to arouse antagonism in their hearts. One day he concluded that the best way to get these people would be to preach just the simple principles, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first principles of the gospel, and not bear testimony of the restoration of the gospel. It first came simply, as a passing thought, but yet it influenced his future work. In a month or so he became oppressed with a gloomy, downcast feeling and he could not enter into the spirit of his work. He did not really know what was the matter, but his mind became obstructed, his spirit became clogged, he was oppressed and hampered; and that feeling of depression continued until it weighed him down with such heaviness that he went to the Lord and said: ''Unless I can get this feeling removed, I will have to go home. I can not continue my work with this feeling." It continued for some time after that, when, one morning, before daylight, following a sleepless night, he decided to retire to a cave, near the ocean, where he knew he would be shut off from the world entirely, and there pour out his soul to God and ask why he was oppressed with this feeling, what he had done, and what he could do to throw it off and continue his work. He started out in the dark towards the cave, and he became so eager to get to it that he started to run and was hailed by an officer* who wanted to know what was the matter, as he was leaving the town. He gave some non-committal but satisfying reply and was permitted to go on. Something just seemed to drive him; he had to get relief. He entered that place and said: ''Oh, Father, what can I do to have this feeling removed? I must have it lifted or I cannot continue in this work;" and he heard a voice, as distinct as the tone I am now Tittering, say: "Testify that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God." Remembering, then, what he tacitly had decided six weeks or more before, and becoming overwhelmed with the thought, the whole thing came to him in a realization that he was there for a special mission; and that he had not given that special mission the attention which it deserved. Then he cried in his heart, "Lord, it is enough," and went out from the cave. You who know him know the mission he performed. As a boy, I sat and heard that testimony from one Whom I trusted and honored, as you know I treasured no other man in the world, and that assurance was instilled in my youthful soul. The Inspiration and testimony of God has come since, and today I testify to you that God lives, and that lie is guiding this Church, that he has inspired those at the head, and that he will continue to inspire them and lead them through this turmoil and unrest in the world, caused by unrighteousness, wickedness and lack of faith in God.   - Millennial Star March 24, 1921

For those who think that the Church's billions would be better used in government hands, I give you BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Centers. Pacific Island students get an education paid for by working at the PCC. Tourists get a great cultural experience. Pacific Island culture gets preserved. Everybody wins. No one in government is smart enough to think of this. All government knows is force - tax, bomb, and arrest.

My tux was not nearly as flashy as Eric’s, but I did rent a very subtle tux My wedding was in 2012 and I think the tux to suit phase transition was just beginning What did you all wear and what year?

Is it lame to say where it all began? The First Vision profoundly impacts me each time I read it.

Elder Corbridge: "So what was the gloom I felt several years ago while reading antagonistic material? Some would say that gloom is the product of belief bias, which is the propensity to pick and choose only those things that accord with our assumptions and beliefs. The thought that everything one has believed and been taught may be wrong, particularly with nothing better to take its place, is a gloomy and disturbing thought indeed.  But the gloom I experienced as I listened to the dark choir of voices raised against the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ—the gloom that came as I waded, chest deep, through the swamp of the secondary ­questions—is different. That gloom is not belief bias and it is not the fear of being in error. It is the absence of the Spirit of God. That is what it is. It is the condition of man when “left unto himself.” It is the gloom of darkness and the “stupor of thought.” The Lord said: "And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." Revelation from the Spirit of God supersedes belief bias because it is not premised only on evidence. I have spent a lifetime seeking to hear the word of the Lord and learning to recognize and follow the Spirit of God, and the spirit associated with the dark voices that assail the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration is not the spirit of light, intelligence, and truth. The Spirit of God is not in those voices. I don’t know much, but I do know the voice of the Lord, and His voice is not in that dark choir, not at all in that choir.

Only two more months until the Jedi Order (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) sends me, a prospective Jedi Knight (Elder of the Melchezidek priesthood), to fight in the Clone Wars (Gathering of Israel) on Geonosis (Chile)

In a world that increasingly may mock our beliefs, we will be known by our kindness, our service, our integrity. What a remarkable time to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to never be ashamed of His gospel.