Gospel Story Finder

Often those who change the course of your life are leaders who have a Christlike ability to see you the way the Lord sees you. Whilst presiding at stake conference recently I greeted a brother in the foyer who introduced himself as Bishop Ormsby. This is a very common name in the Church, and I enquired who his father was. His dad, whom I hadn’t seen in probably 45 years, had been in my ward’s bishopric when I was a deacon and a teacher.
I remember this elder Brother Ormsby as diligent, interested, kind and present. He often provided rides to service projects and meetings. By then, my mother was raising us on her own and had to go out to work each day, so she depended upon the ward leaders like Brother Ormsby to fill in the gaps. Bishop Ormsby reported that his father was still alive, and I asked that he let his dad know how much I appreciated his influence. I was able to meet with Brother Ormsby the following week and I expressed my gratitude to him in person. He said something to the effect that he saw in me and my brother something beyond our youthful misbehaviour.
I am so grateful for Brother Ormsby. He exemplified the many servants of God who treat people as who they can become.

Be kind to new classmate at recessMake fun of new classmate at recessYou miss the chance to make a new friend.

I remembered a conversation between a father and son in Arthur Miller’s play AllMy Sons. The son discovers that his father has compromised ethical principles in business. Knowing that losing his son’s esteem is one of the greatest losses he could have, the father says, in effect, “Son, I know; I’m sorry. But really, I’m no worse than anyone else.”
The son replies, “Dad, I know; but I thought you were better.”

Denver Second Ward
Waving and smiling, children from the Denver Second Ward, Golden Colorado Stake, participated in a community parade. They and their families dressed in traditional clothing of their ancestors and carried colorful flags. They marched behind a banner that read, “Holding Hands around the World.” One woman watching the parade said that she was grateful for the Church and its members because she had received help in doing family history work.

Most games owe their birth to an adaptation of some earlier game and so it is with badminton. In 1873, in Gloucestershire, England, the Duke of Beaufort gave a party at his country home in Badminton. It began to rain and the guests were forced indoors. Several army officers who had just returned from India were at the party and they began to talk about how much fun it was to play the Indian game of poona.
The guests asked for a demonstration. Some of the officers took tennis rackets, stuck feathers into a cork, and began hitting the feathered cork back and forth to each other. The game was so much fun that others asked to play. This was the beginning of the sport known as badminton.

Thank you for the article “Four Heavenly Helps” (Aug. 2005). I really enjoyed reading this article, and I read and reread it often. It helps me to be prepared to overcome temptations. I am now carrying the small version of the For the Strength of Youth with me.Balmoris G., Guatemala

As you know, priests can now officiate in performing proxy baptisms in the temple. My 17-year-old son recently baptized me for some of our ancestors. We both felt deep gratitude for the Aaronic Priesthood and the privilege of acting for the salvation of God’s children.

“Time to get up, Kristina,” Mother called. Kristina rubbed her eyes and started to grumble about the early hour until she remembered. Today was Sunday.
Ever since they were baptized and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, things had been different in her family. Kristina liked the difference.
Mother’s face had a new softness to it, as though happiness came from inside and she couldn’t keep it to herself. She had started humming around the house. Kristina found herself humming, too. Father spent more time at home, and sometimes he took long walks with Kristina and her mother. Often they sat on the front porch and talked. Kristina liked those times best.
Now her parents paid tithing and encouraged Kristina to pay it, too. She enjoyed slipping the tithing from her allowance into an envelope and handing it to one of the members of the bishopric. It was one way to show Heavenly Father and Jesus how much she loved Them.
But the biggest difference Kristina noticed was inside herself. Knowing that Heavenly Father and Jesus loved her filled her with such happiness that she sometimes felt as if she would burst.
Kristina still remembered the look on her father’s face when he answered the door three months ago and found two missionaries on the porch. He had invited the young men inside. After introducing themselves, the elders had talked about families. “Would you like to know how your family can be together forever?” Elder Stark asked.
Kristina’s parents exchanged glances, their eyes filled with longing.
“More than anything,” Kristina’s mother said.
Father had asked the missionaries to come back. On each visit, they presented a lesson. When they challenged the family to be baptized, Kristina’s parents immediately said yes.
“You’re nine years old, Kristina,” Elder Sanderson said. “You’re old enough to be baptized, too.”
The day of her family’s baptisms was the most important day of her life. Kristina remembered every detail, especially the clean, warm feeling she had after the baptism.
Since that day, Kristina and her parents hadn’t missed a single church meeting.
Glancing at the clock, Kristina hurried to get dressed. She didn’t want to be late. She liked everything about church, especially her Primary class.
Kristina’s family arrived a few minutes early. They listened to the soft organ music. Today was fast and testimony meeting. Kristina liked listening to the testimonies. Someday, she promised herself, she would share her testimony.
At family home evening the following night, Kristina’s family took turns reading from the Book of Mormon. Kristina stumbled over some of the words, but she enjoyed reading about Nephi and his family building a boat to take them across the ocean.
When Kristina came home after school on Tuesday, she found her mother in the backyard digging neat rows of shallow ditches. “What are you doing, Mom?”
Mother looked up and smiled. “Getting ready to plant a garden.”
“A garden?” Kristina echoed. “We’ve never had a garden.”
Mother put down the spade and wiped her forehead. “We want to become as self-sufficient as we can, like the prophet told us to.”
Kristina understood now. It was part of the difference. She smiled as a warm feeling grew inside her.
Kristina’s mother handed her a packet of seeds. “You can drop these in, and I’ll cover them with dirt.”
An hour later, Kristina rocked back on her heels. Corn, beans, peas, radishes, onions—they’d planted them all. Her arms and back hurt, but it was a good kind of ache, the kind that comes from working hard to accomplish a goal.
That evening during dinner, she watched her parents smile at each other. They smiled a lot lately, another difference. It made Kristina smile, too.
“How long will we have to wait before we can go to the temple?” she asked her father later as they sat on the porch. Her last Primary lesson had been about temples.
“We have to wait a year after our baptism,” he said. “Then we can be sealed together as a family for time and all eternity.”
Tears pricked Kristina’s eyes that night as she said her prayers. A peaceful feeling settled over her like a warm blanket. The baptism difference was the best thing that had ever happened to her family.

I had a very special experience a few years ago on an assignment to Oregon. After a stake conference I was asked to bless a little child. A couple was ushered into a room, and I learned that day what the love of God really was. They had adopted six or seven abandoned, physically handicapped little children who would need their love and care the rest of their lives. I felt humble in their presence, and the love of God filled that room that day. They were no more strangers to God.

69. Nov. 1831 Oliver Cowdery had been appointed to carry the manuscripts for the Book of Commandments and some Church funds to Independence, Missouri. Because the wilderness was often hazardous, John Whitmer was called as a traveling companion.

My husband and I work on making our home a place to learn the gospel for us and our children. We help them to gain their testimonies on these principles. Through prayer, we receive inspiration on how to teach them as they are still young and do not yet have a clear understanding of all things yet.
We can also invite ourselves to follow Christ. Let us think about all those gospel principles we are not living and then commit ourselves as of this very moment to do what it takes to change. In my family, we have made a list of things we will work on during the year to improve ourselves and grow closer to the Savior.

I began attending LDS meetings when I was 10 years old. My family investigated the Church for nine months, and I was baptized when I was 11. I really enjoyed Primary. There was only one branch in the whole city in those days, and Primary was held on Saturday. We had to walk five kilometers to Primary each Saturday.

As missionaries we were especially pleased to read “The Language of the Spirit,” an account of Elder Anthony and his district in the MTC. Both of us began to feel the same nostalgic sort of feeling as we read about his first day, his teachers, the experiences in the temple, and the Tuesday night firesides—all well chronicled in our journals and more than fondly remembered often.
Fortunately, like Elder Anthony and his group, our experiences there in Provo were fantastic. Like 98 percent of the other missionaries that enter the MTC, we too were a bit apprehensive about changing our premission lifestyles to the lifestyle of the Lord’s servants. And, just as naturally, we had qualms over whether or not we would be able to meet the challenge. But we, like so many others, are indebted to the teachers and leaders at the MTC for giving us the help and confidence to succeed beyond our greatest expectations. To mention just the teachers that we had and the leaders that helped us would be unfair, because when an elder or sister leaves, he realizes that what he has experienced is just the tip of a great iceberg, that there are hundreds more men and women there helping and inspiring every missionary who passes through those glass doors underneath those flags. With so many people actively working and backing you up, it is difficult to feel unconfident for too long.
“The Language of the Spirit” also mentioned the feelings of growth and progression you feel in the work. That is so true! We have never felt greater satisfaction in our lives, because we’ve never been able to see ourselves learning so much so quickly. All it takes is a bit of willpower and the blessings literally flow—knowledge, confidence in the Lord and in self, discipline, and, as the article so aptly described, the Spirit of the Lord. It is humbling and yet exhilarating to see yourself grow and develop into a capable, confident servant of the Lord. We found ourselves looking at the gospel and our callings as missionaries like we never had before, with entirely new perspectives. Now, because of the experiences in Provo, we were able to begin to sense the great urgency of our responsibilities, to begin to realize the so minute but so necessary part we were to play in the great plan of our Father in Heaven. In short, we began to become the kind of servants of the Lord that are going to be effective in preaching the one true gospel and in changing people’s lives. Thank you so very much for giving us this one short reminiscence, a chance to once again remember those great experiences that helped make us what we are now. With the possibility of going through the experience that “The Language of the Spirit” described, no Latter-day Saint should think twice about going on a mission. Just the two months there in the MTC make a mission worthwhile—and it’s the sixteen that come after when the mission becomes priceless. Thanks again for giving everybody a peek at what we’ve been fortunate enough to experience, and for giving us a few moments to remember with gratitude the people and experiences we knew there. Please keep being the kind of magazine we came to know as youth and love as missionaries.
Elders Steve Wadsen and Robert JohnstunPeru Lima North Mission

The widow of one of my missionary associates, Sister Effie Dean Bowman Rich, is very busy with her family and with two businesses. In addition, she is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother of a large family. Some time ago, as she was struggling to meet the demands of these multiple roles, she said, “What I need is a wife!” Of course, what she meant was that she felt the need for support from someone who would take care of the countless details a righteous, caring wife handles so well.

Six-year-old Coleman Verburg of Lehi, Utah, and his three-year-old brother, Cooper, are best friends, even though the two had a rocky start. When Coleman was just two years old, he accidentally knocked his newborn brother out of his baby bouncer on Cooper’s second day home from the hospital.
But things have changed a lot since then.
“Coleman is very patient with his brother,” his mom says. “He is a good example because he shares his toys so freely. Cooper loves his big brother. Coleman is his hero.”

After interviewing the youth in his ward, a dedicated bishop recently commented on the lack of spiritual direction given by some parents to their own teenage sons and daughters. He said, “Bishops and teachers can’t do it all. Parents must teach their children of the pitfalls of evil.” This bishop then compared differences in priorities in the homes as reflected in his interviews with the youth. One girl said, “I know the gospel is true; I live it; I keep the commandments; no problems.” Another young lady remarked, “I don’t accept all of it; I’m battling with some parts; we never discuss it at home.”

Some of you may be familiar with Thornton Wilder’s classic drama Our Town. If you are, you will remember the town of Grover’s Corners, where the story takes place. In the play, Emily Webb dies in childbirth, and we read of the lonely grief of her young husband, George, left with their four-year-old son. Emily does not wish to rest in peace; she wants to experience again the joys of her life. She is granted the privilege of returning to earth and reliving her 12th birthday. At first it is exciting to be young again, but the excitement wears off quickly. The day holds no joy now that Emily knows what is in store for the future. It is unbearably painful to realize how unaware she had been of the meaning and wonder of life while she was alive. Before returning to her resting place, Emily laments, “Do … human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?”

Scared Silly Meeting a six-foot talking rabbit is a little scary. But for Jo-Beth and Mary Rose, their adventure in a zany museum is more silly than scary as they explore an upside down room and learn how to use a Spider Sniffer.Eth Clifford8–11 years

While I drew this, I thought how if I follow the commandments, I will be able to enter the temple one day, just like my parents, and be sealed and have my own eternal family. I love my family and Heavenly Father.
Manolita G., age 8 (at time of drawing), Chimaltenango, Guatemala

The Prophet Joseph wrote the Articles of Faith in answer to a question by John Wentworth, a newspaper editor. The Prophet wrote about many things that had happened when the gospel was restored. He told about the First Vision and translating the Book of Mormon. Then he wrote 13 statements that explained Latter-day Saints’ beliefs.