Ensign

February 2006

Volume 36, Number 2

Contents

• First Presidency Message: Refined in Our Trials

  President James E. Faust

• Our Stillborn Baby

  Melinda E. Jennings

• Picturing Myself in the Temple

  John Cox, as told to Janine Simons Creager

• Young Adults and the Temple

  Elder Russell M. Nelson

• Confidence to Marry

  Melissa Howell

• Lesson for a Busy Bishop

  Michael B. Wixom

• “I, the Lord God, Make You Free”

  Elder Shirley D. Christensen

• The Fulness of the Gospel: Life before Birth

• Helping Children Develop Feelings of Self-Worth

  Brent L. Top and Bruce A. Chadwick

• Abraham: Father of the Faithful

• The Dead Sea Scrolls and Latter-day Truth

  Andrew C. Skinner

• Living Water in the Rain Forest

  Bruce C. Kusch

• Visiting Teaching Message: Building Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

• Lessons from the Old Testament: In the World but Not of the World

  Elder Quentin L. Cook

• Teaching with Church Magazines

  Don L. Searle

• The Lord Closed the Book

  Roger Terry

• Letting My Bitterness Go

  Paul Havig

• Put Your Trust in God

  President Gordon B. Hinckley

• In Tune with His Will

  April Moody

• Latter-day Saint Voices

• Random Sampler

• News of the Church

• Making the Most of This Issue

On the cover: Front: Photograph by Matthew Reier, posed by model. Back: Angel Moroni, by Avard T. Fairbanks, courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art.

Inside front cover: Joseph’s Coat Brought to Jacob, by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69); courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art. Joseph’s brothers “took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; … and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no. And he knew it. … And Jacob rent his clothes” (Gen. 37:31–34).

Inside back cover: Jacob Blessing Joseph, by Harry Anderson. Jacob gathered his 12 sons to bless them and their seed. In blessing Joseph, Jacob said: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: … The blessings of thy father have prevailed … : they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren” (Gen. 49:22, 26).