What's new: 'Mormon Messages'

There's a Mormon Messages video that features a little girl as she puts together a Nativity display in her room.

But she can't reach the Baby Jesus that's fallen under the storage bins.

When she lays the rescued little figurine on a manger of crayons as the holy family and a few toys look on, it always brings out the tears.

That three-minute, 57-second video, "The Christmas Spirit," is one of the 20 most popular Mormon Messages videos that are now on DVD and can be watched in English, Spanish or with subtitles.

Previously, they were available on the Mormon Messages' YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/user/MormonMessages. Collectively, the Mormon Messages have had more than 16 million views. ("The Christmas Spirit" has had nearly a half million page views.)

Now, an Internet connection and a working computer aren't required to see these favorites.

The DVD includes seasonal-specific ones like "The Christmas Spirit," "An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve and "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving," which features Elder Dallin H. Oaks along with interviews of New Yorkers. Most of the videos feature a member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve.

Others, like "My New Life," highlights plane crash survivor Stephanie Nielson, and "Finding Hope" is about a 9/11 survivor. The videos are a minute and a half to eight and half minutes long.

The "Mormon Messages" DVD is $9.98 and is available at Deseret Book.

Christine Rappleye

rappleye@desnews.com