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- TWENTY-FIVE - Baptisms for the dead. Sam and Ray sat up in the front of Ray’s van, while seven young men of varying ages sat on the bench seats in back. They were heading to the Oakland Temple to perform vicarious baptisms for people who had died without having a chance to accept the restored gosp...

- TWENTY-FOUR - After church, Sam and Emily spent the rest of their Sunday in the usual way. They listened to classical music on the radio and Emily made an early dinner. Then they went for a long walk. The spring dusk was chilly and Emily had to take a sweater, and Sam draped his arm around her sho...

- TWENTY-THREE - My personal favorite is the one that has to do with the sister missionaries. Do you know that one? Well, it goes like this. These two sister missionaries are out tracting, just going from house to house in this suburban neighborhood. What? No, no, they tract sometimes, too. You’re r...

- TWENTY-TWO - Sunday. Sacrament Meeting. Before services began, people huddled in the foyer outside the chapel, talking. Sam and Emily said hello to all their friends: to Ray Haas and his wife, Vicky; to Bishop Gladden and Barbara, who made joyful exclamations over Emily’s swelling abdomen; to Arie...

Part THREE The Book of Abraham “Some things that are true are not very useful.” --Elder Boyd K. Packer, “The Mantle is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect” - TWENTY-ONE - Samuel Younger was happy, and he was in love. In the two years since his baptism into the Church, he’d been reborn. He was trim ...

- TWENTY - The next day, Elder Talmadge Steele summoned Grant Toynbee, Jr. of Church Security to his office in the Church Administration Building. Steele had known Toynbee’s grandfather, who had been president of the temple in St. George, and he’d also known (and indeed still knew) Toynbee’s father,...

- NINETEEN - In the tunnels beneath Temple Square, Elder Talmadge Steele was just making his way past the fountain when he saw President Baylor. The prophet was seated in a plush red chair with a blanket draped across his lap and his knees. He was apparently waiting, with his two body guards hoverin...

- EIGHTEEN - It was when I was out there hiking, up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. That was where I met this guy. I was finishing up for the day and the sun was starting to go down and I was on a trail down pretty close to the road, not far from where I’d parked. It was about to start getting cold in ...

- SEVENTEEN - The steam swirled around Elder C. Rigdon Pitt, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as he sat in his robe and sandals in the sauna. His doctor had warned him about the potential health effects of these sweat sessions, but Pitt limited them to only once a month or so. He ...

- SIXTEEN - It was just past 6:30 p.m. when Apostle Talmadge Steele received the call that President Baylor was in the hospital. He had to ask Elder Prince, of Church Security, to repeat what he’d said twice. Yes: they were certain that it was an attack aimed at the Church; No, he didn’t know what t...