“Contents,” Ensign, Dec. 1999, 1 Ensign December 1999 Volume 29 Number 12 Contents First Presidency Message: A Pattern of Love President James E. Faust “I Am Jesus Christ the Son of God” Monte S. Nyman The Path of Growth Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander That Most Special Night Avalyn Butler Marquardt Lesson in a Box Kathleen Laycock Our Gift of Truth Christine Evans Koegler Witnesses through Trial and Triumph Marvin K. Gardner “Fair as the Moon” in a Darkening World Susan Easton Black Images of an Era: Becoming a Worldwide Family A Look at the Church: 1995 to the Present Steadfast African Pioneer E. Dale LeBaron Mormon Journal Our New Holiday Tradition Douglas Presença Had My Mission Made a Difference? Alan J. Johansen My Cork-and-Burlap Treasure Dianne H. Despain Why That Gift? Name Withheld The Visiting Teacher: Preparing for the Temple Portraits A Comforter for My Heart Karen Kamalu I Have a Question How sharing the gospel brings salvation James T. Johnson Random Sampler News of the Church Annual Index On the covers: Front: Shepherds Seeing the Star, by Minerva Teichert, oil on canvas, 50″ x 60″, 1946. Courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art. Back: Nativity by Janusz Mostyl. © courtesy of Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Inside front: Christ Raises the Son of the Widow of Nain, by Robert T. Barrett, oil on canvas, 36″ x 42″, 1999. Courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art. Inside back: Great Salt Lake Valley, 1893, by Al Rounds, watercolor on paper, 30″ x 43″, 1989. Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Rick Richmond. Framed in the background by the Wasatch Mountains to the southeast, this winter scene depicts the Salt Lake Temple and nearby homes as they would have appeared in 1893, the year the temple was dedicated.