Single adults comprise more than one-third of the total adult membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For the United States and Canada the figure is 38 percent.

However, despite their considerable representation, some single adults say they feel excluded and isolated in their own wards, as if they're relegated to some undefined category.

That connotation was noted by President Gordon B. Hinckley during an address to single adults on Sept. 22, 1996, in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

"We have put a badge on you. . . . That badge reads S-I-N-G-L-E-S. I do not like that. I do not like to categorize people. We are all individuals living together, hopefully with respect for one another, notwithstanding some of our personal situations."

President Hinckley then shared one of many letters he has received from single adults who have been frustrated by their lack of acceptance:

"For more than 20 years I have endured a lack of sensitivity of members of the Church with respect to my single state. As I have pursued my profession, I have moved to various areas of the country. In seeking participation in local Church activities, I have encountered a variety of levels of welcome and acceptance, ranging from a warm, friendly welcome to a very cool indifference and an air of discomfort that seems to stem from their lack of knowing what to do with me. In one ward I felt strongly that the members would prefer that I not attend. This continued for nearly six months, and I finally sensed a passive acceptance, as though I were a nuisance that wouldn't go away, and so, must be tolerated."

President Hinckley remarked that the letter, if accurate, was a tragedy. "It represents a betrayal of the spirit that should be found in all of our congregations." Single adults, he noted, "have great talents and can add immeasurably to the quality of the teaching and leadership in almost any ward in the Church."

Then he added:

"For when all is said and done, we should not be classified as married or single but as members of the Church, each worthy of the same attention, the same care, the same opportunities of service.

"We are all individuals, men and women, sons and daughters of God, not a mass of 'look-alikes' or 'do-alikes.' All of us are very much alike in our capacity to think, to reason, to be miserable, if you please; in our need to be happy, to love and be loved. We are subject to the same pains, the same sensitivities, the same emotions."

There are not separate keys to happiness for married couples or single adults. As the Prophet Joseph Smith noted:

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, providing we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness and keeping all the commandments of God" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 255).

Critical to happiness is service. As the scriptures and life experiences clearly demonstrate, the happiest people in the Church, single or married, are those who reach out and serve others.

As President Hinckley counseled in the aforementioned address to single adults, which also is certainly applicable to couples, "Lose yourself in the service of others. As Jesus said, 'Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life . . . shall find it.' (Matthew 16:25). Share and the world will become a sweeter, more delightful place for you."

All members of the Church are embarked on the journey to eternal life. Obtaining it should be the common goal of all, without any differentiation.