Gospel Story Finder

Some time ago three young boys were discussing their fathers. One spoke out, “My dad is bigger than your dad,” to which another replied, “Well, my dad is smarter than your dad.” The third boy countered, “My dad is a doctor.” Then, turning to one boy, he taunted in derision, “And your dad is only a teacher.”
When the boy heard the taunts: “My dad is bigger than yours,” “My dad is smarter than yours,” “My dad is a doctor,” well could he have replied, “Your dad may be bigger than mine; your dad may be smarter than mine; your dad may be a pilot, an engineer, or a doctor; but my dad is a teacher.”

On a winter’s morn, a father quietly awakened his two sons and whispered to them, “Boys, it snowed last night. Get dressed, and we’ll shovel the snow from our neighbors’ walks before daylight.”
The party of three, dressed warmly, and under cover of darkness, cleared the snow from the approaches to several homes. Father had given one instruction to the boys: “Make no noise, and they will not know who helped them.” Again, the word anonymous.

The all-LDS Orem, Utah, High School a cappella choir was one of a number of outstanding musical groups invited to participate in the Bicentennial Parade of American Music in Washington, D.C., during the nation’s 200th anniversary celebration. While they were on the 12-day tour, the group emphasized its 100 percent Mormon background by bearing testimonies and giving away several hundred copies of the Book of Mormon.

Plans for the trip began several months before as students and their parents worked to gather the $36,000 needed to finance the trip for the 88 singers and their director, Ed Sandgren. They worked six days a week to prepare the numbers they were to present in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and elsewhere.

Early on a Wednesday morning the students met at the Salt Lake International Airport and boarded their flight for Washington, D.C. That afternoon they were taken to the Annandale Virginia Stake Center where they set up their equipment and had a short rehearsal. After dining with their host families, the members presented their first east coast concert.

Thursday morning they toured the nation’s capital, then gave their concert at the Kennedy Center. The next day they were guests at a performance of an originally written presentation about Joseph Smith’s First Vision given by a non-LDS school. A cappella members said the presentation was fairly accurate. The school’s religion teacher was given a Book of Mormon in appreciation.

The youth had a chance to show their religion in action that afternoon at a special luncheon in the Rayburn House Office Building when every member of the choir turned over their coffee cups. “The waiters made several rounds in the area to fill our cups, but found none to fill,” one student reported. “They had very puzzled expressions on their faces.” The restaurant had to send out for more milk to satisfy the individual demands at the luncheon.

Tours and concerts at Philadelphia, New York City, and in New Jersey were included in the 12-day trip.

Of particular interest to the choir was their concert in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. It was an overcast day, and the room where they sang was gloomy because the main source of light was through several windows near the top of the structure. Then, as the choir began “The Lord’s Prayer,” the sun broke through the clouds and streamed through the windows. No sooner had the group finished than the sun again disappeared behind the thick clouds.

Many times on their tour people asked where they were from. When they answered that they were from Utah, the next question usually was, “Are you part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?”

The spirit of the group inspired a number of nonmembers, including a clergyman, who after hearing them sing said, “They’ve certainly made my week.”

The missionary spirit was strong in the all-LDS choir. One member gave out 38 copies of the Book of Mormon, another 14. The tour was a chance to proselyte and to rehearse, not only music but for full-time missions planned to begin in the next few years.

For a long time a good friend of mine has put down my religion. She is a strong Christian and her father is a minister, so she always had “facts” about how the Church was wrong. I tried to ignore her and change the subject because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Her comments continued, so I finally told her that even if she didn’t believe it, it was my religion. I believed it, and it hurt me and our friendship when she criticized me. We talked a little about what she said that bugged me, and we haven’t had any problems since.
Kimmie B., 16, Arizona

The next Sunday, Cole sat with Mom and watched conference. Dad was upstairs watching basketball. Cole listened to the prophet talk about his life as a little boy. He was surprised to learn that President Nelson’s parents didn’t go to church either when he was young.
Then President Nelson talked about how he had longed to be sealed to his parents in the temple. Cole froze, listening closely. President Nelson had to wait for many years, even after his parents were 80! But then they were finally sealed as an eternal family.

President N. Eldon Tanner’s daughter, Isabel, says about her father, “When Mother married Daddy he was just a farm boy.” But she goes on to say that when Sister Tanner would give him a loving suggestion, he would simply say, “If you think that’s what I should do, I’ll do it.” Listening to a good wife, and listening to the Lord has made a very great man out of President Tanner.

“You were wonderful. I’m so proud of you,” my husband whispered after I delivered a talk in stake conference that took hours of preparation and over which I had much anxiety.

Her love for animals comes naturally. As a child she lived on a farm and had a pet horse. “I remember wondering when I was young if the Lord could love my horse as much as I did. I decided that he must, and that I must love all his creatures, too. They are, after all, part of this world he created for me and for you.”

I sat with my mother-in-law on her porch one morning. She said something that was so meaningful to me. For the first time in my life, I heard the Spirit testifying to me that Heavenly Father really existed.
“When you know Heavenly Father is really there,” she said, “everything changes.”
From there, everything did change! My testimony grew as I sought to know more. Now I know when the Spirit speaks to me. I know that sweet feeling when He is near.

Church activities were frequent, and Chauncey seemed to enjoy them. He was a regular at the still relatively young YM-MIA. He attended Sunday School. He sang in the ward choir. He attended conferences and other meetings and commented on some of the speakers. On February 16 he heard B. H. Roberts give a grand lecture on “Why I Am a Mormon.” This was before the great priesthood reform movement that occurred early in this century, and so his priesthood assignments and advancements were rather unpredictable. He attended at least two different meetings expecting to be made a deacon (remember that he was 19 years old and was a tithe payer), but he was overlooked or the bishop failed to show up. Finally he was suddenly ordained a teacher instead. Then, within a matter of weeks, he was ordained an elder. The fact remains that he was a faithful and conscientious young Latter-day Saint and took advantage of the Church programs available to him.

I plead that we will not procrastinate and that we will heed our Lord’s commandment to live the law of the tithe. I know of two missionaries who visited a very poor family. The family’s home was made of pressboard and sticks, with a dirt floor and no electricity or beds. Each evening the father, a farm laborer, spent his entire day’s wages on groceries for dinner. Departing from their humble home, the senior companion thought to himself, “The law of tithing will surely be a stumbling block to this family. Perhaps we shouldn’t bring it up for a while.” A few moments later, the junior companion, who had grown up in similar circumstances in his own country, voiced his own thoughts aloud: “I know the principle of tithing isn’t taught for four more discussions, but can we please teach it the next time we visit? They need to know about tithing now because they need the help and the blessing of the Lord so much.”
This missionary understood that “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” The Lord wants to bless this family and anxiously awaits their obedience so He can.

Except for the scriptures, I have never in my life read anything that has meant more to me than the July New Era, especially “Young Women Fireside 1980.” It truly brought tears to my eyes and strengthened my testimony of the gospel.
I am a 17-year-old girl who has been a member of the Church for just over two years. My parents are not members, and my family situation leaves a lot to be desired. During the past year I have spent time in the hospital because I was going to kill myself. I couldn’t handle things on my own anymore. With the help of the Church, I have been placed in a foster home and am doing great. I’ve come a long way in the past 4 1/2 months but still have a longer way to go. It really feels great to know that the Church is behind me 100 percent and that my brothers and sisters will always be there when I need them. When the Young Women fireside was broadcast, I was still very confused and didn’t go to it. I really wasn’t ready to hear it then. I’ve found that Heavenly Father only lets things occur when he knows we’re ready to handle them.
As I later read the talks in the New Era I felt as if every single speaker was talking to me personally, and I felt so full of the Spirit that I cried, as I am crying now. The youth of the Church don’t know how lucky they are to have the gospel in their lives and to have parents who love them very much. I’ve been on both sides of the street, and I know what it’s like. I know the Church is true with all that I am, and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for bringing it into my life.
Name Withheld

Prominent position—“hanging on the wall at seminary”—does not put anyone on a fast-track to exaltation. The criteria for that ultimate goal is the same for every person—leader or follower, prominent or obscure: Have we received the ordinances of salvation and kept our covenants? A member of the Church in Great Britain said it best. He had served as stake president. As that period of prominence came to an end, he told Elder Boyd K. Packer why it did not bother him to be released: “I served because I am under covenant. And I can keep my covenants quite as well as a home teacher as I can serving as stake president.” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1987, p. 26; or Ensign, May 1987, p. 24.)

My friend struggled because he worried about what others think of him, and he lost his self-respect. What helped him the most was remembering that God, his friends, and his family were all there to love and support him.
Matthew V., 16, Missouri, USA

I’ve spent quite a bit of time as a visitor at the Utah State Prison. Some of my best friends are there. I like to go there because every time I go, I learn something. I learn about personal pride. I learn something about performance. I learn something about people.
One day, when I was talking with the warden at the prison, I asked, “How many prisoners do you have here in the prison who might be classified as ‘impossible’?” I knew that the prison was overcrowded—over 800 prisoners in a facility large enough for only 600, and I knew also that there were a lot who were really problems. I remember one day being in the yard with some of them and seeing a tattoo across the chest of one man that said “A Born Loser,” and he was out to prove it. So I was impressed when the warden said that, of all the prisoners at the Utah State Prison, there was only one whom he would classify as being really impossible or incorrigible.
I asked him to tell me about the man. He said that that prisoner has to remain in his cell 23 hours and 40 minutes every day. He cannot be with anyone else. He isn’t insane; he’s just hardened. “We can’t give him any freedom,” the warden told me. “His meals are served in his cell through iron bars. He has toilet facilities and a bed, and that is where he stays all but about 20 minutes of the day, when he is taken out for a shower. The last time he was allowed to be with other prisoners he put a knife through another inmate. He would do this today if he were allowed any freedom.”
No personal pride. No worthy performance. No patience. The only thing he is accomplishing in his life is being number one—number one in impossibility, in incorrigibility.

I am grateful to my father and my mother, who, before passing on, wrote in their last will and testament not what you would expect—of material things, for they had few—rather, they left with us in their last will and testament a statement of their testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, their most precious possession. And now I think of the lines of that poem which says:
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields,” quoted in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, p. 912.)

KURIVA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA—The enthusiastic branch here of about seventy-five members began some three years ago when twenty-nine villagers were baptized the same day—the first converts in the area.
Papua New Guinea is a country of six hundred islands off the coast of Australia. The Kuriva village is about sixty-five kilometers from the capital city of Port Moresby.
Until September 1986 no one in Kuriva had heard of the Church. That’s when John Oii, a member living in Port Moresby, bore his testimony at his son’s funeral in Kuriva.
Members of the village were so impressed, they asked that the missionaries be sent. They quickly established Sunday services and began paying tithing. Even before their baptisms, they had constructed a small chapel with a palm-frond roof.
Traditionally, the villagers share everything. For example, even non-Latter-day Saints contributed to buy shoes for a local young man preparing for a mission.
The Kuriva Saints form a part of a growing church membership in Papua New Guinea, now about 2,300 strong, who hope to someday have a stake, a mission, and a temple.

Queen Eleanor: Independent Spirit of the Medieval World Eleanor was Queen of France when she went on the second Holy Crusade. She was Queen of England during the years ascribed to Robin Hood. The inspiration of poets and troubadours, she was imprisoned by her husband, besieged by her grandson—and loved by her subjects.Polly Schoyer Brooks11 years and up

For many years, I dreamed of serving a full-time mission. But when I returned home after university graduation, I saw how badly my family needed me. My father’s health was challenged, and the family needed financial help. As the eldest of four children, I felt I should stay home and help. Heavenly Father blessed me with a decent job. Though it didn’t pay much, it was enough to get by.
Whenever I was asked about serving a full-time mission, I answered that I would. Every time I said this, however, my mother would look at me with a mixture of excitement and sadness in her eyes. I knew that if I asked to go, she would say yes and quietly keep in her heart her apprehension of losing family income.

(15) Humble members in Austria allow the Holy Ghost to lighten the shed where they held sacrament meeting.