Since it’s my birthday today, I want to give you a gift: you can download a free e-book of Learning Through Life’s Trials in ePub format.

The file has no DRM (Digital Rights Management), so it should work on any e-reader that can read ePub format.

An abbreviated version of this booklet was given as a devotional address at Brigham Young University-Idaho on October 30, 2007. Listen to the devotional address.

An even shorter version was published as “Learning Through Life’s Trials” in the March 2010 issue of the Ensign magazine, pp. 27-31. Read text, see full graphic layout, or listen to it.

If you want to get a printed copy, you can find one at Deseret Book, other LDS bookstores, or directly from the publisher.

Learn about creating ebooks.

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We’ve previously published articles on how to optimize the links in your blog or Web site to increase their value to search engines. A knowledge of how to best structure your links can help your site and other useful sites be ranked higher by search engines.

I just read an article that is a useful refresher on what kind of links are the best: “All Links are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations on Search Engines’ Valuation of Links.” Below are the 10 points from the article. If this interests you, I recommend you read the whole article. It’s easy reading with good examples.

1. Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes
2. External Links are More Influential than Internal Links
3. Links from Unique Domains Matters More than Links from Previously Linking Sites
4. Links from Sites Closer to a Trusted Seed Set Pass More Value
5. Links from “Inside” Unique Content Pass More Value than Those from Footers/Sidebar/Navigation
6. Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value than those in Alt Attributes of Linked Images
7. Links from More Important, Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value (even from less important pages)
8. Links Contained Within NoScript Tags Pass Lower (and Possibly No) Value
9. A Burst of New Links May Enable a Document to Overcome “Stronger” Competition Temporarily (or in Perpetuity)
10. Pages that Link to WebSpam May Devalue the Other Links they Host

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Watch and share this great Mormon Messages video, “Charity: An Example of the Believers” with your friends and family. It is a video about a group of young women who reach out in kindness and charity to a student with a disability, fulfilling her dream and giving everyone something to cheer about. Very inspiring.

Watch other Mormon Message videos at MormonMessages.org

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Have you played online games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Cafe Wars, or Pet Society? These are referred to as “social games” because you play the game online on a social site (like Facebook) with other people.

Social games are becoming very popular–nearly half of US social network users now play social games. (Source: eMarketer) It’s the 5th most popular social networking activity, ahead of watching videos or searching for new contacts. And women are playing in greater numbers than men. 28% of female Internet users (vs. 22% of men) play social games. Men still play more games overall than women, including offline and online console gaming and playing in virtual worlds.

Do you enjoy interacting with people by playing social games? How do you find the balance between harmless, casual gaming and becoming obsessed and spending too much time with games?

Because social games are engaging and popular, what ways could they be used to teach or share the gospel?

I invite your comments below.

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The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeals for help to relieve the suffering in Haiti.

Please consider contributing to the “Humanitarian Services Emergency Response.“

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BYU Professor Daniel Peterson and Scott Gordon FAIR have launched a new website with the testimonies of Mormon scholars: Mormon Scholars Testify. Bro. Peterson explained his rationale to the Church News:

“I hope to gather up testimonies from, well, Mormon scholars,” Brother Peterson said. “I’m trying, thereby, to comply with a request made about a year ago by Elder M. Russell Ballard and reiterated by other authors in the October Ensign that we use the Internet as a way of sharing our testimonies of the gospel.” (via LDS Church News)

Bro. Peterson suggested this could be one of many “vertical” websites highlighting the testimonies of Church members:

“I think there ought to be similar on-line collections of testimonies from athletes, executives, farmers, housewives, morticians, retirees, chess players, stamp collectors, everybody. The possibilities are endless, and I hope many others will take to the Web with their expressions of faith.” (ibid.)

More Good Foundation’s website Mormons Believe, or the yet-to-be-built Why I Believe, announced at the Boston singles conference, could be the home for these many testimonies, organized by profession, location, interest, or some other attribute.

Mormon.org itself has a few select testimonies and could conceivably offer a repository of testimonies someday.

24 Hour Fitness has a website with the stories of members whose lives have improved through fitness. It includes categories such as life improvement, recovery, athletic, and social. Imagine a similar website for the stories of people whose lives have been blessed by the Gospel in even broader and more lasting ways.

CORRECTION (Jan 18, 2010): As Daniel Peterson mentions in the comment below, this website is not affiliated with FAIR.

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The story of Christ’s birth is the same no matter what language you speak or nation you are from. Please share this message with all.

See more great videos at Mormon Messages.

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The electronic text of the Chinese triple combination in traditional characters is now online on the Church’s scriptures Web site (scriptures.lds.org).

You can also find a link to these online scriptures on the individual LDS.org language materials pages. The online scriptures in Chinese includes the text of the triple combination (the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) with footnotes, study helps, maps, photographs, and the ability to mark scriptures. It also includes the Guide to the Scriptures, an alphabetical listing of gospel topics.

This brings the total number of languages on the Church’s scriptures Web site to 15: Chinese,  Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Tongan.

Japanese, Cebuano, and Tagalog versions are scheduled for later in 2010.

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The Church has posted a Christmas page on LDS.org. This page shares the message that by focusing on your loved ones, enjoying or building holiday traditions, and following the Savior’s example of service, you can give yourself and your family true, lasting Christmas gifts.

The page includes the Christmas story, Christmas videos, Christmas traditions, Christmas ideas, and Christmas media resources, including free downloads of Christmas music.

Please consider sharing this page with your family and friends this Christmas by sending them a link to lds.org/topic/christmas or using the sharing buttons on the page.

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Most stakes of the Church have begun to use the new version of FamilySearch (new.familysearch.org), which provides a searchable world index of about 1 billion names. With this program, people can collaborate on family research 24×7 at a home computer.

Want a sneak peek at upcoming FamilySearch programs being developed? Check out labs.familysearch.org, which showcases new technologies that aren’t yet ready for prime time. Anyone can access that site and provide feedback that will be used to refine these new programs. The labs version of FamilySearch includes:

• FamilySearch Beta
• Record Search
• Forums
• Research Wiki
• Family Tree
• England Jurisdictions 1851
• Standard Finder
• Community Trees
• and more

The FamilySearch staff and volunteers are busy. There are 185 camera teams filming 60 million new images annually. The Granite Mountain Vaults are digitizing their 2.5 million rolls of microfilm. City and county history books are being added to the FamilySearch site, which already has 50,000 books online. Some 100,000 FamilySearch volunteers are also sorting through a million names a day. This is one of the largest volunteer genealogical efforts in the history of the world.

You may be interested to note that the majority of users of FamilySearch.org are not members of the Church. According to Paul Nauta, FamilySearch public affairs manager, “The genealogical craze is phenomenal. It’s not indigenous to the LDS faith only.”

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