Around the Church

This year’s Mutual theme is “Stand ye in holy places and be not moved” (D&C 87:8). Young men and young women, the Liahona is looking for photos of you standing in holy places. Photos could show you spending time with family, serving, doing missionary work, creating art, studying the gospel, exploring nature, and more! Here’s how to submit your photo:

• Have someone take a picture of you standing in a holy place.

• Email your high-resolution photo to liahona@ldschurch.org.

• Add a message about why this is a holy place for you.

• In your email, please include your full name, birth date, ward and stake (or branch and district) name, and an email address for your parents.

Photos of youth from around the world will be featured in an upcoming issue.

In December 2012, after creating the 3,000th stake of the Church in Sierra Leone in West Africa, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles paid a special visit to a tiny and remote branch of the Church in Rabat, Morocco.

In a special Sunday evening devotional, Elder Holland shared the love Church leaders have for every member of the Church throughout the world, no matter how few in number or distant in location they may be.

“You are not forgotten, and you are part of a marvelous work as the Lord identifies and hastens the gathering of Israel in this great last dispensation,” he said.

On Sunday, March 17, 2013, following a cultural celebration and three-week open house, the Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple was dedicated in three sessions, which were broadcast to all Church units in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Honduran members, who have traditionally traveled several hours to the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple, rejoiced to see the country’s first temple dedicated. The temple was first announced by the First Presidency in a June 9, 2006, letter, and ground was broken on the current site on September 12, 2009.

Late in 2012 President Thomas S. Monson traveled to Germany to meet with members of the Church in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt, Germany, and to exhort them to follow Jesus Christ.

“He taught forgiveness by forgiving,” he told members in Frankfurt. “He taught compassion by being compassionate. He taught devotion by giving of Himself.”