Ensign

January 2001

Volume 31 Number 1

Contents

• First Presidency Message: A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth

  President Gordon B. Hinckley

• Weightier Matters

  Elder Dallin H. Oaks

• Inseparable Witnesses of Jesus Christ

  Elder John M. Madsen

• A Latter-day Testament of Biblical Truth

  Rex C. Reeve Jr.

• A Mission Long Foreknown

  W. Jeffrey Marsh

• “Take Heed Continually”: Protecting the Gold Plates

  Andrew H. Hedges

• Cradle of the Restoration

• Faithful from the First

  Donald L. Enders

• Debt Doesn’t Have to Be Forever

  Bernard Poduska

• What We Did to Strengthen Our Marriage

• Latter-day Saint Voices

  • How the Book of Mormon Found Me

    Kwame Opare

  • “Please Help It Stop Bleeding”

    Janis Johnson Farrell

  • Charity and the Cyclops Cake

    Nikki O. Nelson

  • After 20 Years, Indifferent No More

    Félix López Marchán

  • I Felt Comfort—but Why?

    Alan L. Olsen

• Visiting Teaching Message: Putting on the Whole Armor of God

• Random Sampler

• News of the Church

• Making the Most of This Issue

On the covers: Front: “Joseph, This Is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” by Leon Parson, oil on canvas, 25″ x 47″, 1999. Courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art, Fifth International Art Competition.

Inside front: Prophet of the Lord, by David Lindsley, oil on linen, 24″ x 30″, 2000. “He has translated the book, … and as your Lord and your God liveth it is true” (D&C 17:6), the Lord said of the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith in bringing forth the Book of Mormon. “Thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, … through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ” (D&C 21:1).

Inside back: Pastoral Scene near the Birthplace of Joseph Smith, by Frank Magleby, oil on gesso panel, 30″ x 40″, 1994. The rolling green hills of Vermont near the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith still offer the peaceful environment that might have existed there when he was born at Sharon, Windsor County, on 23 December 1805. The boy Joseph spent the early years of his life in this area.