Today's article is another installment in Sister Alena X. Ricci's series on the women of the Bible.

For such an amazing story, Dorcas doesn’t have a lot of “screen time” in Scripture. You can read her story in Acts 9, but, basically, she is an early Christian and is active in her new faith and church, and she dies. Peter is called, and she is brought back to life.

That’s a pretty amazing miracle for only eight verses.

The lesson here for me is the first verse of her story. In Acts 9:36, it says, “This woman was full of good deeds.”

That’s passable, right?

We read it and we’re like, “OK, cool, she did a lot of stuff. Great.”

But hang on, that is a big deal.

Most of us are familiar with the concept of recycling. In general, recycling is a process by which materials we no longer need can be submitted for eventual reuse by someone else, sometime in the future. Participating in this type of program helps ensure that resources will be available for future generations.

What types of resources does God provide to people as His servants? The scriptures outline the various spiritual gifts that are given to the servants of God. Some may receive one gift while others may receive many gifts. Some are blessed with great power from God to do great things in His name.

So, what happens to these gifts and power when someone passes from this life? Do they die too? Do they go in the landfill of the spirit realm to rot away? Or does God grant the same gifts and power to other people for the benefit of each generation?

In 3 Nephi 24, Jesus shares some of the words of the prophet Malachi and instructs the Nephites to include them in their records. He begins with the contents of Malachi 3, which includes the following statement from God:

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (3 Nephi 24:10)

Perhaps you've heard part of the above quoted from time to time in prayers in which the Lord is asked to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we cannot contain. As you can see from reading the full text though, this verse offers the opportunity to open the windows of heaven specifically when tithes are brought into the storehouse of the Lord.

At first glance, it may sound like this verse is saying we have to buy our blessings — as if God is saying, "IF you give me money, THEN I'll open the windows of heaven to bless you." But that doesn't really make sense. After all, does God need money? Obviously not. (Who would He buy things from?) And, even if He did need money, He could just create it Himself (see Matthew 17:27).

In 3 Nephi 23, Jesus encourages the Nephites to pay special attention to the writings of Isaiah, such as the verses he related to them in the previous chapter. He goes as far as to say, "Great are the words of Isaiah" (verse 1), stating that these writings apply not only to the House of Israel but to the Gentiles as well.

It may seem unusual for Jesus to specifically recognize an individual prophet, but He's not saying that the man is great; He's saying that the words (which actually come from God) are great.

Isaiah was actually a humble man who referred to himself as "a man of unclean lips." God sent an angel with a live coal with which to touch the lips of Isaiah, cleansing him from his sins and preparing him to be used to speak the words of the Lord (see Isaiah 6:5-8). After that, Isaiah was used by God for great things, including bringing forth many prophecies of the coming of Christ and also prophecies of the coming of Zion.

Today's article is another installment in Sister Alena's series on "Women of the Bible."

Not a lot is said about Anna except that she is older, she loves God, and she spends all day and night at the temple. She is a prophetess from the tribe of Asher.

But more importantly, she literally experiences the presence of God. 

Mary and Joseph had come with Jesus, and she runs into them, recognizing Him for who He is. Can you imagine the sheer excitement she felt in that moment? That feeling of perfection and rejuvenation?

"Heritage" generally refers to practices or characteristics that are passed down through the years from one generation to the next.

For example, our family's recipe for making sauce for pasta (or gravy for macaroni, depending on who in the family you talk to) is part of our Italian heritage. For me personally, the lovely dark tan I get in the summer comes from that same heritage.

Speech mannerisms in different parts of the country — the way yinz or y'all pronounce certain words — are part of the heritage of those geographic areas. Historical landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell, are part of the American heritage — these items are not owned by any individual but are collectively owned by the American people and are passed down from one generation to the next.

For about the past 30 years, there has been a genre of computer games known as "city building" games. These games allow the participants to build virtual (pretend) cities on their computer, designing the individual buildings, laying out the streets, etc. The grandfather of all city-building games was called "SimCity," which is considered rather basic today but paved the way (ha ha) for many other games to be created over the years.

The top-of-the-line city-building game available today is one known as "Cities: Skylines." If you invest enough time in this game, you can build a sprawling metropolis for which you will determine how to run power lines and water pipes, which businesses should be established, how taxes will be collected, what type of transit system to create, etc. By the time you're done, you will have put in enough effort to have built a real city.

In 3 Nephi 21, Jesus describes to the Nephites a city-building opportunity that will be presented to their descendants as well as others of the House of Israel:

Welcome to today's beauty tips column. Here are a few tips for maintaining your feet that come from actual websites on this subject:

• Wear comfortable, well-fitting shoes.
• Perform regular self-examination; deal with problem areas immediately.
• Moisturize the skin; remove dead skin.
• Exercise on a regular basis — walking, etc.

In 3 Nephi 20, Jesus describes to the Nephites the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants, specifically the House of Israel. He mentions how the House of Israel has been scattered but will eventually be gathered together again in a place referred to as Zion. He then quotes Isaiah 52:7, which makes reference to those who will assist in bringing about Zion:

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings unto them, that publisheth peace;…that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!" (3 Nephi 20:40)

The above verse contains four actions that workers for Zion will undertake with the House of Israel to help bring them to a knowledge of Christ. These same activities can be undertaken by any of us as part of our Christian walk in the hopes that people we come in contact with can be brought to a knowledge of Christ. Let's see how we can make our feet beautiful upon the mountains in the way this verse describes.

For quite a few years, my family lived in the town of Thorndale, Pennsylvania, and we attended church services in the town of Levittown, Pennsylvania. If you look on a map, you will see that these two towns are both located in eastern Pennsylvania, but they are in fact 60 miles apart! Yes, every Sunday, my parents and my sister and I dutifully piled into the car by 8:45 a.m. to make the hour-plus trip to Levittown for Sunday school and the worship service and then traveled the same distance to return home, arriving home sometime in the mid-afternoon.

Every so often, one of us would be in a conversation with someone about the church, and when we mentioned where the church was, the same questions would be asked. Why do you travel so far for church? Isn't there a church in this area that you can attend?

I know that I’ve written about this woman before, as she is one of my favorite stories in Scripture. In my very humble opinion, this story has a million different layers and viewpoints, and that’s what makes it so compelling. For someone there that day, it was a day of business and activity, but for this woman, it was the day that she was healed completely.

That being said, there are a lot of different ways that this blog could go, but I’m going to talk about a concept that I think is really important. There’s a really popular phrase that Christians say: “God never gives us more than we can handle.”

The woman with the issue of blood is the antithesis of that statement.

God had given her a lot more than she could handle.

In 3 Nephi 18, Jesus instructs His twelve disciples to obtain bread and wine and then instructs them to distribute it to the multitude in remembrance of His body and His blood. This, of course, corresponds to what we do today, which we refer to as communion, sacrament, or "The Lord's Supper".

When the above is complete, Jesus further instructs His disciples to continue to do the same thing on an ongoing basis, distributing bread and wine to "those who repent and are baptized in my name" (verse 11). Jesus emphasizes the importance of not giving the bread and wine to those who have not repented and been baptized — He refers to them as being "unworthy" to partake of His flesh and blood and that "whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul" (verse 29).

Babies and little children are innocent in the sight of God. They have no sin and therefore have no need for repentance or baptism while they are in that innocent state. Later, when they reach an age of understanding and are able to comprehend sin and the commitment associated with being baptized, they are then able to consider taking that step and giving their lives to the Lord.

For children who have not yet reached an age of understanding, The Church of Jesus Christ offers the opportunity for a baby or little child to be "blessed" by a minister of The Church. This blessing consists of a prayer that is offered by the minister, asking God to watch over that child until he or she is old enough to be capable of making his or her own decision about serving God.

The process used for the blessing of children is based on the following scripture:

"Jesus…said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." (Mark 10:14,16)

In 3 Nephi 16, Jesus describes to the Nephites some of the consequences that will come about as a result of the unbelief of the House of Israel (of which the Nephites are a part). Specifically, He mentions the following:

• The House of Israel "shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief" (verse 4). History shows that this did occur, and the House of Israel remains in a scattered state as of today, even as we look forward to the time when they will be gathered together again.
• "In the latter day shall the truth come unto the Gentiles, that the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them" (verse 7). Because of the unbelief of Israel, God turned to the Gentiles in the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon, and He continues to use them today to share the gospel with the House of Israel.

Jesus adds, however, that after God has allowed the Gentiles to be used to smite some of the House of Israel (such as the Native Americans), if the Gentiles then become unbelievers, He will use the House of Israel to "tread them down" (verse 15). Without dwelling too much on what is meant by being "tread down," the tone of this prophecy makes me glad I'm not an unbeliever.

You sometimes encounter people who are completely wrapped up in themselves. Whatever happens, their first thought is, "How does this affect me?" For example, you fall and break your leg, and the other person says, "Oh no, now I'm going to have to take you to the hospital and we're going to be there for hours and I had so much I wanted to get done tonight" — and meanwhile you're lying on the ground, writhing in pain. Or, you come home and tell your family you've lost your job, and your teenager says, "You're still buying me a new cell phone, aren't you?"

If you want to show off your vocabulary, you could call this type of person a narcissist. Or, the phrase that's often used today is, "I guess it's all about you."

Quite frankly, if any of you reading this have done a deep-dive into Huldah before, then I am thoroughly impressed.

Here is a woman who played an important part in the execution of God’s plan, and yet.. how many times do we use her as an example of faith?

You can read her story in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, but basically, the King of Judah and the high priest come to her and ask her if the words on the scroll are true. She reads them, sharing God’s message with them, spurring them to action, and the rest is history.