Gospel Story Finder

A few years ago a faithful family exemplified for members of our ward that same trust in the Lord. Arn and Venita Gatrell were living a happy life when Arn was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. The prognosis was devastating—he had just a few weeks to live. The family wanted to be together one last time. So all the children gathered, some from distant locations. They had only 48 precious hours to spend together. The Gatrells carefully chose what mattered most to them—a family picture, a family dinner, and a session in the Salt Lake Temple. Venita said, “When we walked out of the temple doors, it was the last time we would ever be together in this life.”
But they left with the assurance that there is so much more for them than just this life. Because of sacred temple covenants, they have hope in God’s promises. They can be together forever.
The next two months were filled with blessings too numerous to recount. Arn and Venita’s faith and trust in the Lord were growing, as evidenced in Venita’s words: “I was carried. I learned that you can feel peace in the midst of turmoil. I knew the Lord was watching over us. If you trust in the Lord, truly you can overcome any of life’s challenges.”
One of their daughters added: “We watched our parents and saw their example. We saw their faith and how they handled it. I would never have asked for this trial, but I would never give it away. We were surrounded with God’s love.”
Of course, Arn’s passing was not the outcome the Gatrells had hoped for. But their crisis was not a crisis of faith. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of things to do; rather, it lives in our hearts. The gospel “is not weight; it is wings.”4 It carries us. It carried the Gatrells. They felt peace in the midst of the storm. They held fast to each other and to temple covenants they had made and kept. They grew in their ability to trust in the Lord and were strengthened by their faith in Jesus Christ and in His atoning power.

My family has a problem with small things like not turning off the lights and leaving on the water when we brush our teeth. When I read the July FYI I knew I could help save the earth. I made a copy of the article, then cut out each section and put them around the house. Thanks!
Anne ParkerSalt Lake City, Utah

A few weeks ago I listened to a local New Wave station as I drove the car. In one 15-minute period I heard a song encouraging homicide and one with explicit sex. Although this may not have been a typical 15-minute period, whenever the music isn’t up to our standards, we need to turn the radio off. There are so many worthwhile things for us to do with our time. I want to spend my time with things that will help me to grow into a more gracious, loving, useful human being.

My brothers and sisters: This has been a wonderful conference. Most worthwhile messages have been given, which recalls a statement by a young man in his late teens. He sought out his stake president following a stake conference attended by our beloved brother, the late Elder Thorpe B. Isaacson, and enthusiastically said, in the jargon of youth, “President, this conference really shook me. Elder Isaacson was really round.” And then he added, “This was a hairy conference.” Now you dig his meaning.

I am no longer a teenager. But I understand. My mother died when I was 15. That was 20 years ago. I have experienced all the feelings you have—the anger (at my mom and Heavenly Father), the frustration, the loneliness, the shock. All of these feelings are very real.
When my mom died, we did not talk about it. I think it took me years to work through her death because of that. Hopefully, your family can talk about your feelings and losses. Your mother still exists; that doesn’t end with death. Your mother is simply living somewhere else. She loves you very much.
If your family can’t talk about your mom, you need to find someone who can. I don’t think that necessarily means your best friend. Very few people have experienced the loss of a parent. Although they may be well meaning they may not connect with your feelings. You have already discovered that. Pray to Heavenly Father so that he can help you find a support group, a counselor, or a friend who will listen to you. You need to feel sad in order to understand your mother’s death and be happy again.
Something that helped me very much (although I didn’t realize it until years later) was staying close to the gospel, praying, and keeping the commandments. I allowed myself to be angry at Heavenly Father. I said so in my prayers. I think he probably expected that and allowed me to work through my feelings. In looking back, I can see that Heavenly Father surrounded me with his love. He protected me from myself and my grief.
You will always miss your mom. And finding peace might take a long time. For me, it took years. But I promise you that if you desire it, it will come. I decided that I owed that to my mom and myself. When you’re at peace you feel watched over and warm.
I may never understand why my mother died when she did. But it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s okay. I wish you success.
Stephanie Ransom, 35West Valley City, Utah

Marco D., 17, points out the importance of obeying the commandments, specifically the law of chastity. “The adversary tempts us in every way, trying to get us to mess up,” says Marco. “Friends can also be a bad influence.” Several years ago Marco had to change the friends he spent time with because he recognized the negative influence they were making on his choices. “I had to find friends who accepted me for who I am and not for who the world expects me to be.”

Brother Artel Ricks tells an interesting story of an inspired Primary teacher. Artel was a little boy five or six years old. One night his family sat around the dinner table and talked about tithing. They told him “that tithing is one-tenth of all we earn and that it is paid to the Lord by those who love Him.”
He loved the Lord, and so he wanted to give the Lord his tithing. He went and got his savings and took one-tenth of his small savings. He says: “I … went to the only room in the house with a lock on the door—the bathroom—and there knelt by the bathtub. Holding the three or four coins in my upturned hands, I asked the Lord to accept them. [I was certain He would appear and take them from me.] I pleaded with the Lord for some time, but [nothing happened. Why would He not accept my tithing?]. As I rose from my knees, I felt so unworthy that I could not tell anyone what had happened. …
“A few days later at Primary, the teacher said she felt impressed to talk about something that was not in the lesson. I sat amazed as she then taught us how to pay tithing [to the bishop, the Lord’s servant]. But what I learned was far more important than how to pay tithing. I learned that the Lord had heard and answered my prayer, that He loved me, and that I was important to Him. In later years I came to appreciate still another lesson my Primary teacher had taught me that day—to teach as prompted by the Spirit.
“So tender was the memory of that occasion that for more than thirty years I could not share it. Even today, after sixty years, I still find it difficult to tell about it without tears coming to my eyes. The pity is that a wonderful Primary teacher never knew that through her, the Lord spoke to a small boy” (“Coins for the Lord,” Ensign, Dec. 1990, 47).

My sister-in-law Janey (name has been changed) was raised in the gospel and was a very committed member of the Church. After her seemingly happy temple marriage dissolved, people in her small community began to spread rumors and make judgments about her. She distanced herself from many of her friends and eventually the Church.
She started dating a young man, Andy, who soon moved in with her. I worried about what to tell my kids. My three young daughters loved their aunt Janey. Not only are our families very close, but she was their dance teacher, so they saw her several times a week.
For many months, they thought that Andy was visiting a lot, but I finally had to tell them that Janey and Andy were living together. I explained that the choice they made was a serious sin. My daughters seemed to understand, and we had a good discussion about the importance of living gospel principles.
Then a bomb hit. Janey happily announced to the family that she and Andy were expecting a baby. Again I worried about how this news would affect my children. Did they realize that this is not how Heavenly Father wants His children brought to earth? If they were around this situation, would they think it was acceptable and normal?
I fretted for weeks, not wanting to tell my children of this newest development. A month later Janey and Andy decided to get married. Why hadn’t they waited to announce the pregnancy until after they were married?
Resentment boiled up inside me. How could I love Janey but not what she had done? How could I teach my kids to continue to love their aunt but not the choices she had made?
I wondered if Janey had gone through something similar. Had she regretted her choices but, unable to change the consequences, accepted them and decided to move forward?
I felt shame at my harsh judgments and at my inability to love the way Jesus Christ expects us to love. As I reflected on the Savior’s life, I remembered that He always sought out the sinners, teaching them through His words and example, and loving them. It was this love that softened hearts and changed people.
I realized that too often I loved people as long as they were acting the way I thought they should, but as soon as they made a mistake, I condemned them in my heart. What a hypocrite I was! I realized I needed to repent. I needed to learn to love the sinner without endorsing the sin. Finally, I was able to release the anger I held against Janey and truly love her again.
I had another good discussion with my children. I emphasized the importance of getting married before having a baby. We were able to look forward to the birth of a new baby in the family. We all wanted to support Janey and share in this special time of her life. My kids realize that Aunt Janey did something wrong, but they still love her and Uncle Andy and hope their beautiful family will someday decide to come back into the waiting arms of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The first district in Togo was organized in Lomé in 2009. Just four years later, it became a stake. “Where rapid growth sometimes comes at the cost of maturity and depth, that is not the case in Lomé,” Elder Terence M. Vinson of the Africa West Area Presidency observed at the time. Saints in Togo heeded the scriptural call for Zion to “strengthen [its] stakes and enlarge [its] borders” (Moroni 10:31), and as a result, a second stake was organized in 2017.

Rafael loves his great-grandma Mimi. She often visits his family at their home. Rafael’s family lives on the second floor, and Mimi is blind. So when Mimi visits, Rafael always helps her walk up the stairs.
“I feel happy when I help Mimi because then she knows that I love her very much,” Rafael says.

A little over two years ago at a meeting when President Gordon B. Hinckley announced this building would be built in the year 2000, he then turned to me and said, “David, I expect you to be there.”
President, I’m here. And I hope that if he says that we need another year or so or whatever and that he expects me to be there, I hope that he says so, because I will follow his instructions.

When I was a little girl I participated in a program here in the Tabernacle. At that time an impression came to me that I have never forgotten, even though I did not understand it then. I was filled with an awareness that sometime I would stand before a vast congregation of the Church in this building.
I thought this vision of my childhood was realized in the 1974 Relief Society conference when I was sustained as the general president of the Relief Society. But now I feel certain that this is the day I saw. And perhaps because of prayerful people like President Zina Young our voices are heard proclaiming the truths of the gospel to all the world, truths that can be transmitted into the very hearts and minds of people who will listen and try to understand.

Michael Oja, 18, of the Astoria (Oregon) Ward, Longview Washington Stake, met Mission President John A. Larsen following a fireside.

“Son,” President Larsen said, “I think you’d make a great minimissionary.”

By mid-July, Mike was in Oregon City, working with the missionaries assigned to the Cambodian branch. “With the help of a translator, the missionaries taught them lessons on the plan of salvation. I met a lot of wonderful converts and helped share the gospel with their families and friends.

“It’s not like an eight-hour job, where you go home when your time’s up. Sometimes it’s a real long day. But after a while, you start to see that you’re helping people. Their lives start to change, and you get to see it happen.”

Mike learned something about his wardrobe, too. “I hadn’t thought much about it before, but if I’m going on a mission, I ought to be buying clothing now that I can use then. I’m saving up for suits and white shirts.”

The day before he was to return home, Mike was interviewed again by President Larsen.

“One of the neat things about going on a minimission is that you get to know the mission president. You can tell he’s with you all the way,” Mike said.

Kamla Persand was from the Mauritius island, attending medical school in Bordeaux, France, when we met her in February of 1991. We had prayed as a family to be able to share the gospel with someone who was seeking the truth, and we taught her in our home. I was privileged to perform her baptism, but we were not the most significant influences in Kamla joining the Church. Friends, missionaries, and even family members had been “witnesses of God” in her home country, and one day in France, when the time was right for Kamla, she made the decision to be baptized. Now, 25 years later, the blessings of that decision are all around her, and her son is a missionary in Madagascar.

María and Richard are grateful that they can go to school, but it isn’t easy. Their family speaks Aymara in their home, but school is taught in Spanish. When María started school this year, it was very frustrating for her to suddenly have to learn and speak in Spanish. But she loves learning how to write, and she likes drawing—especially pictures of ducks.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck the Hawaiian Islands early in the morning of Sunday, October 15, 2006, caused minor damage to the Kona Hawaii Temple and several meetinghouses, according to early estimates.
The Kona Hawaii Temple, located in Kailua-Kona, had some chandelier damage and other minor damage, but the temple was open for patrons two days later, according to Elder Eric B. Shumway, an Area Seventy and president of BYU–Hawaii. No members or missionaries were hurt, but all the meetinghouses on the Big Island received some damage, Elder Shumway added.
Elder Shumway noted that emergency and disaster plans quickly fell into place after the quake. “How wonderful it is to see members of the Church rallying together,” he said.

Suppose you read the following ad in a respected magazine: “Radium is restoring health to thousands. Just a light, small, comfortable radioactive pad, worn on the back by day and over the stomach at night. … Thousands have written us that it healed them of … heart, liver, and kidney trouble.”
You would not believe it, would you? Now suppose you heard a nationally known psychologist say on TV that since the old standards of chastity, virtue, and marriage don’t fit the way many people now live, we ought to lower the standards.
Both claims have actually been made. The magazine ad appeared in 1930. The TV statement was made just a few years ago. No sane person today would believe the radiation claims. The laws and effects of radiation have been scientifically studied, and even we nonscientists understand radiation is not something to fool with.
Unfortunately, the claim made by the psychologist—and many others—is a different matter. Millions of people are buying the rationale that chastity is outdated. At least the ad for the radium “cure” openly told people they could try it now and pay later. However, in any promotion for promiscuity, “pay later” is hidden in the fine print, if it is owned up to at all.

Edward Dube
(15) Young Edward Dube’s mother tells him to look ahead, not behind, as they work together in a field.

One day my best friend and I were walking around at recess. We saw a girl from our ward sitting up against the fence with a frown on her face. My friend said we should go talk to her. So we walked over and asked why she was so sad. She said her friends told her that she couldn’t play with them. We asked if she wanted to play with us, and she said that she did. A smile was on her face.
We had a lot of fun that recess and played with her every day. Before we played with her, we hadn’t known that she was so fun. I felt good inside to play with someone who had looked sad.
A few days later, my mom and I rode our bikes to the park. We saw my new friend there too. She and I played on the playground while our moms talked.
After we left, my mom told me what her mom had said. The girl’s friends had been mean to her over the last few days. She and her mom had been praying that she would find some friends, and my friend and I were the answer to her prayers. I felt warm inside and was happy that I had played with her.

Gillian Geddis, 16, of the Bangor Ward, Belfast Northern Ireland Stake, is an excellent Irish dancer. But after seven years of medals and awards, she gave up dancing because Mutual falls on the same night as dance practice. She would rather attend Mutual and seminary.
In addition to her dancing, Gillian plays the trombone and the piano. She has taken modeling courses and has worked part-time for some Belfast fashion stores. “If I don’t become a full-time model,” she adds, “then I’ll study to be an architect as my best subjects at school are art and design.”