In the most important news of the week, some enterprising students at BYU-I have filed a petition to ban tight yoga pants at the gym because #naughtythoughts. We're sure you can imagine where we fall on this.

Ammon Bundy and his comedy troupe have been arrested after they left the occupied federal facility for a meeting. One man was reportedly killed in the "routine traffic stop." Uh huh.

Sex trafficking of youth is an issue and we don't talk about it enough in the Church. Famed EFY all-star Peter Breinholt has re-released a remix of one of his songs to raise money for Operation Underground Railroad, which aims to combat trafficking. Get involved, folks.

President Uchtdorf meets the Candy Bomber and Han Solo. This is the best.

What on earth is Miss Utah Model International?? Some Brazilian who married her missionary won it in Utah. But WHAT IS IT?

Apparently Ted Cruz is bad at paying tithing. Should we care? Is this personal or is it public?

Jana Riess is confused about what it means to be the "one true church," and she writes one of her weaker pieces in some time about it.

How do we deal with a kid leaving the Church? What can parents do? Another great blog from LDS.org.

Have you ever wanted to learn about the Church in Iceland? Well now you can, thanks to our friends at LDSLiving.

Other news: The Mormon err LDS Bachelor is now the Modest Bachelor; the American Bar Association is "reviewing" a complaint about BYU's perceived lack of religious freedom; a new Adam and Eve show (see below); and a big map of temples!

These are links:

* The true purpose of the Sabbath day push

* Ted Cruz is failing at tithing

* Jana Riess is confused

* Big temples map

* The Church in Iceland

* ABA reviewing complaint against BYU

* BYU-I hates tight pants

* Ammon Bundy goes down

* Uchtdorf and Han Solo meet the Candy Bomber

* Peter Breinholt wants to stop sex trafficking of kids

* Miss Utah Model International

*

In important request, Al wants to be given a heads up when the estranged lovers/spouses pass away so he can attend the funeral in the hopes one of the widowed estranged partners brandishes firearms. Of course, because this just happened in Idaho.

Julie de Azevedo Hyphen Hanks has a wild week across Mormon blogs discussing healthy sexuality, namely dumb questions we ask women but don't ask men, and how to talk to your kids about steamy, physical passion. It's a good'n.

Hey, there's now an app to report on problems with your church building. This won't blow up in our faces or anything. No, never.

We've got open house dates for three temples! And the prime minister of Fiji visits another temple. Temples everywhere!

In a sad note for America, in a new poll, respondents believe Muslims are less deserving of religious freedom than Christians, and Mormons less so than other Christians and Jews. You go, America. Religious freedom for all, unless that includes Muslims.

Other stuff: University of Utah fellowship for Emeritus Seventy Marlin K. Jensen; Elder Maxwell's widow dies; Larry Echo Hawk attends MLK events; "quirky" Mormon girl on American Idol; posthumous stereophonic Grammys...

...and that good-times TWiM humor you've come to know and love.

Greg Harris of North Star International, a support organization for believing LGBT Mormons, joins us to talk about being gay in the Church, including reactions to the November handbook changes and some of President Russell M. Nelson's remarks this past weekend regarding revelations vs. policy.

Also, Kurt francom is with us to be a great guy and round out the discussion.

We'd be remiss if we didn't talk about some other news, as well, including the Provo City Center Temple open house, a fabulous temple dress company, Daybreak - the celestialized city, and much, much more.

North Star has a conference at the Provo Marriott from March 17-19. If you get tickets early, you get a discount. Tell them TWiM sent you!

We'd be remiss if we did not talk about all that Bundy stuff up in Oregon, but we'd like to take a particular angle with it. Why are so many calling for the excommunication of Ammon Bundy? Seriously, folks? Let's talk about this.

After prodding for a bit, we got a response on the redistricting in Crimea, placing it under the Russia Rostov Mission. There's still work to be done, but we thought you'd like an update.

Apparently one can play Quidditch at BYU. One can also deny oneself the blessings of marriage.

Demand for the open house of the Provo City Center Temple is so high that it broke the ticket reservation system and crashed the site. More importantly, we discuss what on earth Provo will do for its cultural celebration. Provo. Culture.

Other news: Yes, Mormons can (and do) drink Coke; Moroni tops the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple; there is a Mormon chocolate king; BYU produces good people, and more.

Also, let's all celebrate the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's endearing, if misguided social media efforts.

Happy New Year!

Did socialism save the early Church? Defying convention, a very left-leaning LDS publication thinks so, but so does Al. Sort of.

Many folks are upset over a "Giver or Getter" graphic appearing in the most recent issue of the New Era. What's all the fuss about? Can we be both givers and getters?

An enterprising individual posts to Craigslist to trade missions with someone else. We love it. Fools don't.

And a bazillion mentions, including: Tayson Hill wooed to University of Virginia; is the Star Valley Wyoming Temple being rushed to make sure President Monson sees it? There's a useless LDS guide to Starbucks. Missionaries create their own Haka. The Church isn't into paid maternity leave. Dieter visits Tijuana. The Friend adds new section for... kids. And more!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

The Church's #ASavoirIsBorn campaign and associated video have done remarkably well during the holiday season, with the video ranking in the top ten viral videos of the season. It's mostly just retailers and Boncom, folks. Go, Boncom.

Down in Hildale, Utah (polygamous FLDS country), some are celebrating Christmas for the first time in decades. Why no Christmas for the FLDS? Why Christmas now? Let's find out.

Keeping with southern Utah, the Church fought to prevent a restaurant from getting an alcohol permit. Why? Why does it care? Should we care? Let's learn about some interesting dynamics between church and state in Washington County.

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich (whom all Republicans should consider) visits Welfare Square, openly wishing that all of America knew about it. It's a pretty cool endorsement, especially considering most candidates skip Utah and very few area aware of the Church's welfare model.

In other do-gooder news, an American Fork stake spends every Wednesday engaging in service and humanitarian efforts. Also, President Monson dooms pet rabbits to their death.

Aside from that, plenty of banter and about forty potential episode names, but we stuck with this one because reasons.

Have a great holiday, everyone!

Welcome to our Latin American bonanza!

Scientists have figured out that Jesus was a short man with curly hair. Find out why.

Facebook is mad at Elder Oaks for apparently knocking folks' Christmas cards. But is that really what it's all about?

Mormons and Muslims have shared a lot of news space this week. It's interesting, no? What do the two share? And why so much cross-news traffic?

Ken Niumatalolo is reportedly taking meetings with BYU to replace Bronco Mendenhall. If so, we demand his segment from Meet the Mormons be removed.

We have lots of temple news, including the dedication of the Tijuana Mexico Temple and groundbreaking dates for the Barranquilla Colombia Temple and the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple. The DRC temple, in particular, is quite interesting and breaks with tradition.

Did you know the Church is against dowries? This is the sort of stuff we don't hear about much in the US, but these are real issues that face Mormonism in other parts of the world.

Peggy Fletcher Stack really stretches to publish an Ordain Women article, but would "most" Mormons really get behind such a radical change if it came from the Prophet?

 

It's Christmas time! And what better way to commemorate it than to talk about the Church not-so-opaquely pushing out a press release on religious freedom in the wake of Donald Trump's ridiculous remarks about Muslims. Yep.

The Church's Twelve Days of Social campaign keeps going, with Alex Boyé continuing to refuse to write his own music and Lindsey Stirling dancing around the New York Subway while the public looks on unawares.

A visitor to the Beehive House alleges the guides claimed Brigham Young only had two wives, and this is CLEARLY an indicator of the evil conspiracy in Salt Lake. Clearly. Or just poorly trained guides. It might be that, Rolly. It might be that.

Also, lots of Word of Wisdom talk.

BYU Broadcasting wins 10 Emmys. TEN!

Bronco Mendenhall, if that's really his name, is leaving BYU for the bucolic hills of Charlottesville, VA to coach at University of Virginia. Will you miss him?

Other news: the Church is now redeveloping Riverton. No suburb unturned. A Zombie nativity. Jon McNaughton on submissions. Elder Holland tours the Middle East. Women in combat roles: what does it mean for Mormons?

Can you be "loyally opposed" to stuff in Church? There are key differences between doctrine and policy, and it's also important that we define what it means to sustain our leaders. So how do we navigate the turbulent waters of disagreement with stuff that happens sometimes in church? Even famed Jeopardy contestant and apparent official analyst of Mormon issues Ken Jennings has something to say about it.

With the Church's push to make the Sabbath a delight comes the inevitable judgment and oneupmanship with trying to gauge how "well" we keep the Sabbath vs others. But the Sabbath will be different for all of us, no? Should it?

Pope Francis is aggressively opening up the Vatican's finances but Salt Lake continues to keep the Church's finances on lockdown. Why is that? What risks are there in revealing the LDS Church's finances?

LDS Living asks how it would be if we treated our Book of Mormon like our cell phone. Our answers are sarcastic and glib.

After a hiatus much shorter than we anticipated or hoped, end-of-days-er Julie Rowe is back with a new book. Help us get her on the show!

Other news: Donald Trump's spokeswoman is a naif on Mormonism; Utah has dirty soda wars; the AV Club covers Mormon Cinema; MTC missionaries prepare 350,000 Thanksgiving dinners; and don't forget the First Presidency Christmas Devotional this Sunday!

A Boston stake decided to toy with a two hour, forty-five minute block, but backed off after consulting with Salt Lake. Why do we have three-hour blocks and if we were to modify and/or shorten the Sunday block, what's the best approach?

There's a new Christmas campaign being pushed out by the Church, #ASaviorIsBorn. Get your hashtaggery ready, folks.

Thanks for your comments on refugees last week. As luck would have it, Elder M. Russell Ballard visited refugee camps in Germany and Greece last week, stressing how important it is for we, as Latter-day Saints, to take care of the less fortunate. All politics aside, that is our charge.

A Satanic group wants you to have the chance to put your name on a list so the Church can't perform proxy baptisms on you and your beloved when you die. But we think that this is all a front for something bigger!

Other news: Tijuana Temple photos; Montréal Temple rededicated; Bryce Harper is MVP, and general ennui.