Leave it to mom to deliver the best news.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon church is creating 58 new missions around the world to accommodate an influx of missionaries triggered by the lowering of the minimum age.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday that it reached a historic milestone in its ministry outreach — sending out its millionth missionary.

Luis Cruz grew up in the Catholic tradition that his parents taught him in Chiapas, Mexico. But when he came to Phoenix more than three years ago, he developed a spiritual void that the Catholic Church was unable to fill.

SALT LAKE CITY - The quip illustrated the subtext of Gov. Janet Napolitano’s trip to meet with top leaders of the Mormon Church.

September 26, 2004

Being excommunicated for apostasy by the Mormon church is one thing, but Lyndon Lamborn is livid that his stake president has ordered bishops in eight Mesa wards to take the rare step of announcing disciplinary action against him to church members today.

Finding the two missionaries’ apartment was easy. A portrait of a redhaired Christ in a red robe, a depiction by artist Del Parson that is widely displayed in entrances to Mormon buildings, was taped to their window facing 82nd Street just north of McDonald Drive in Scottsdale.

August 21, 2004

A mom’s tender heart is tested any time her child goes away, no matter the age.

Chad Hardy wants the public to know that underneath their short-sleeved white dress shirts and muted ties, Mormon missionaries are the same as everyone else.

Cut and a little bit battered, a young missionary said he was doing OK on Saturday, a day after he was attacked in what Mesa police called a possible anti-Mormon hate crime.

SALT LAKE CITY — Tens of thousands of the Mormon faithful are descending on Utah's largest city for their church's semi-annual general conference to hear gospel-centered talks about faith, family and mission work from senior church leaders.

Thomas S. Monson will serve the rest of his life as the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints.

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party, sat in the Wolfeboro Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday as, one by one, members of his congregation credited him for bringing the faith more into the public eye.

SALT LAKE CITY - The creator of a 2008 calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries was excommunicated Sunday after a disciplinary meeting with local church leaders in Las Vegas.

SALT LAKE CITY - A Las Vegas man who was the creative brains behind a calendar that features shirtless Mormon missionaries is facing a disciplinary hearing and possible excommunication for the project.