Today's Miracle Monday, written by Sister Edith Terrill, comes from the pages of the September 1949 issue of The Gospel News. This one is for all of you who are living in small outposts, away from the main body of The Church.

I wish to relate an experience as told to me by a woman here in Meadville. She had been ill with a nervous breakdown for two years. She had been under a severe strain during the illness of her aged mother and had overworked taking care of her.

She walked two and one-half miles to her mother's home, bathing, dressing, and feeding her, then walking back to her own home and doing her own work. At the end of six weeks, the mother died, but she (the daughter) could not shed a tear and became very ill.

Today's Good Word is another pearl of wisdom from Proverbs. 

What is wealth gotten by vanity?

Well, as followers of Christ, we believe that we earn a living by doing honest work. If we try to obtain wealth by any other means, then that's probably vanity. Any kind of get-rich-quick scheme constitutes vanity, as well as any type of dishonest work.

A few weeks ago at GMBA Camp, my husband, Brother Michael, and I recruited our 12-year-old nephew, Robby, to perform a short skit at kids' chapel.

In the skit, Michael and I pretended to be the proverbial "good angel" and "bad angel" whispering in Robby's ears, trying to persuade him to do either right or wrong. For example, I tried to get Robby to thank his mother for preparing breakfast and recruit an outcast schoolmate for a game of ultimate Frisbee at recess. Michael tried to get Robby to fib to his teacher and clandestinely pocket a candy bar at the grocery store.

By the end of the skit, Robby withstood temptation in each instance and showed a lot of inner strength in doing so. After we were done performing for the kids, I asked them a series of questions that I want to ask you, too!

Up until this point in the narrative, the Nephites — as all God-fearing Israelites were expected to be doing at the time — were performing sacrifices as directed by the Law of Moses. A couple of examples were when Lehi's family was traveling in the wilderness (1 Nephi 5:9) and when the people of King Benjamin gathered at the temple to hear his final address (Mosiah 2:3).

The Law of Moses provided for different types of sacrifices for a variety of purposes, but a primary reason for the people to sacrifice was to atone for their sins. In these instances, killing an animal (typically, one that they owned) and burning its body as an offering to God was the prescribed way of obtaining forgiveness from God for sins committed.

In Alma 34, Amulek describes what he refers to as a "great and last sacrifice" that would provide atonement for all mankind:

We all go through tough times. None of us are immune to them. In the moments I feel weak or uncertain about what’s to come, I turn to God for comfort. I want to know He is there, that He’s listening, and He has a plan. God most often speaks to me through song, so I put together a list of 10 hymns that give me comfort when life gets hard.

10. My Lord Can

I love the many examples this song provides of what God can do. We often find ourselves with problems to which we can’t fathom a solution, but God can. He can do the impossible.

Today's Miracle Monday is a short, sweet dream submitted by Sister Virginia Surprenant.

Years ago, I had a dream where I was being examined by an eye doctor who I was working for at the time. The doctor had his back to me and told me that I needed glasses and showed me the glasses. To me, they were not what I would have chosen, as they had clear lenses.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to focus our Good Word Fridays on the book of Proverbs. If you want words to live by, then Proverbs is a great place to go looking. 

So, we're starting with a simple verse from the first chapter. Have you noticed that the phrase "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom" is repeated again and again in Proverbs? Must be important to keep showing up like that.

What do these words mean?

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

Recently our family spent a warm summer evening together at a lantern festival. For these events, participants gather at a local county fairground in a wide-open field with blankets, lawn chairs, coolers, and picnic baskets listening to live music until the sun sets. Each person is given a paper lantern to decorate with personal dreams, wishes, inspirational quotes, and doodlings. At dusk, tiki torches are lit and the excitement begins.

There is a small square fuel cell at the base of each lantern. Once it's lit via the torch, the heat expands and fills the lantern to be released glowing against the night sky.

TYPOLOGY: The study of things in Christian belief that are prefigured or symbolized by things in the Old Testament

In Alma 33, Alma continues with his teachings to the people who were cast out of the synagogue in the previous chapter. Among the things he teaches them is an episode from the Old Testament in which Moses did something that is considered a "type" of Jesus Christ:

"A type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live … But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished." (Alma 33:19-20)

Today, we're bringing you the first posthumous Meet the Pillars interview, featuring Brother Rudy Meo, who passed away on June 7, 2010. Two of his children, Brother Craig Meo and Sister Debbie Kyriakakos, worked with Sister Zarella on this one. Enjoy!

Brother Rudy Meo, birth name was Rodolfo Pietro Meo, was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1928 and baptized in the Pacific Ocean along the Southern California coast in 1953 at the age of 25. He was ordained into the ministry at age 27, in 1955. He served in the ministry for 35 years. He was the oldest child of Rocco and Connie Meo, who moved to California in 1945. His father, Brother Rocco Meo, was the first minister of The Church of Jesus Christ in California. His brother, Brother Bill Meo, and sister, Sister Rachel Fallavolita, were both lifetime members of the Bell California Branch.

Today's Miracle Monday comes from the pages of the February 1948 issue of The Gospel News, originally titled, "A Vision," written by Sister Marietta Ruzzi.

On Thursday December 11, '47 while lhe Ladies Uplift Circle was united in fasting and prayer at the Divine Church, Detroit, I saw the following vision:

"I saw a beautiful tree which stood right in front of the pulpit, where the sacrament table stands. This tree was all gold, even the leaves and the fruit were gold, and its brightness was beyond description.

Today's Good Word is one of the most famous and quoted verses in the Bible. At GMBA Camp, one of the days was devoted to discovering what true strength is.

When the doctor placed my firstborn in my arms, I knew my life would never be the same. I stared into the sweet eyes of this baby boy, and I felt like I was staring into the eyes of an angel. The pure innocence was breathtaking. This baby that I had carried inside of me was now in my arms, and I knew I would do everything I could to protect him.

I felt that same exact feeling when our second son was born, and then our daughter. It's a feeling that is so hard to put into words.

In Alma 32, the people who are poor find themselves without a place to worship. The wealthy people — and especially the priests — decide they don't want these poor people in Church with them anymore, so they forbid them from entering their synagogues. One of the leaders of this displaced group meets with Alma and bemoans their situation:

"They have cast us out of our synagogues…because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God…what shall we do?" (Alma 32:5)

In one way, Alma is actually happy for these people — this experience has made them more humble, putting them in a position to be closer to God — but he does address their concern over the lack of a Church building by asking them, "Do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only?" (verse 10).

At home, I have quite a large collection of indoor and outdoor plants. I thank my grandpa, Brother Russ Martorana, for my green thumb. The indoor ferns help to clean the indoor air, and the outdoor plants are great for harvesting (herbs, tomatoes, basil) and provide overall plant therapy!

The week before GMBA camp, the temperature at home had been climbing into the triple digits during the daytime, and I was watering my plants daily to keep them from getting burned or dried out.

Now, this may seem a bit trivial, but I've been nurturing some of them for four years, and I was pretty concerned about them dying when I went to camp. Plants need plenty of water; in 100-degree temperatures they can die in less than a day sometimes.