Gospel Story Finder

A little more than 20 miles (32 km) from Nauvoo is the small community of Carthage. Carthage Jail, where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred, still stands not significantly changed in 160 years. Visitors to this place are reverent and respectful as they tour the rooms and walk up the stairs and into the small room where the Prophet, his brother, and two others were held prisoner.
Looking from the windows and imagining the crush of an angry mob on the narrow stairs, visiting teens become lost in thought as they sit for a moment in the room where the beloved Prophet of the Restoration became a martyr.

I had a good experience when I was seven years old. I wanted to know if the Church was true. So I said a prayer and asked our Heavenly Father. I finished praying, and I lay down to sleep. I had a dream where Jesus Christ told me, “This is the true Church.” When I woke up, I remembered my dream, and I knew that I was in the true Church.
Miranda R., age 9, Querétaro, Mexico

I was living a life that would never help me in any way. But through the help of a friend, I came to know that God lives. If my friend had allowed me to remain in darkness, I wouldn’t have seen the light of God. Let us look for the lambs who wander, because our Heavenly Father loves us all and wants us to return to Him.

Brother Elian González from Mirador Ward, recently returned from his mission, made it his goal to attend the temple with his girlfriend every Saturday: “Regular temple attendance has filled my life with countless blessings. Returning from a full-time mission, I was very concerned about how I could constantly keep myself in a holy place. As I try to have the Holy Ghost present in my home and become holy, I have made it a goal to attend the temple as regularly as possible, each week. By going to the temple, I do not escape from problems, but rather I find solutions for them. I do not hide from the world, but rather I find the spiritual forces to conquer the world and its desires. As I consistently attend the temple, I receive guidance from Heavenly Father and divine comfort from the Savior. As I perform temple work, I have seen the promise fulfilled to become a savior on Mount Zion. I was blessed to do the ordinances for my father, and I have felt peace and immense love knowing that, thanks to temple ordinances, families can be eternal. I testify that temples give us hope and peace, I know that they are the house of the Lord and that in temples we can be instruments in his hands to help gather Israel on the other side of the veil.

Born 9 July 1936 in Grass Valley, Oregon, to Merrill and Mal Berg Oveson, Stephen was the third of four children. He grew up in Oregon, then attended Brigham Young University before serving in the Northern Mexican Mission from 1956 to 1959. Upon his return to BYU to study finance and banking, he met Dixie Randall of Tempe, Arizona. On 7 September 1960, they married in the Arizona Temple. After they graduated from BYU in 1961, they moved to Tempe.

6. Soon after arriving home from World War II, I had “promises to keep” (Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” in The Poetry of Robert Frost, ed. Edward Connery Lathem [1969], 225)—meaning going on a mission now. I grew tired of waiting for the bishop. And in some early ark-steadying, I went to the bishop’s home and said I had saved the money and wanted to go, so let’s “get this show on the road.” The good bishop hesitated, and then said he’d been meaning to ask me about going.
Years later, I would learn from that bishop’s devoted ward clerk that the bishop had felt I needed a little more time with my family after having been away so far and for a tenth of my life. Hearing this, I chastised myself for having been too judgmental. (See Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple’s Life: The Biography of Neal A. Maxwell [2002], 129–30.)

Someone’s sneaking down the stairs—it’s only 5:00 A.M.! But it’s Christmas morning. That explains it. You see him carefully rummaging around through the wrapped packages under the tree. There it is—a big, huge bag with his name on it. What is it? He’s been stealing squeezes ever since you slipped it under the decorated evergreen. The bulges inside haven’t given away the secret yet, but now the wait is over, and he gets to open it.
“What a surprise! And I get to do it myself!”
He liked it! What a nice feeling: you gave a gift that was just what he wanted. Is that the reaction you usually get? Wouldn’t it be nice if it were? It’s difficult to find the perfect gift and give it that special “just-for-you” touch that homemade, unique gifts have without a lot of time and expense.

Catherine’s faith was mighty, and she had many occasions to exercise it. On one occasion when Miles was away, three-year-old Junius, their third child, suffered so terribly with an ear infection that she feared he would die. Desperately she prayed for help and felt inspired to ask the stake patriarch to bless him. Wrapping up her son, she carried him to the patriarch who, in the blessing, promised Catherine that if her faith was strong enough, Junius’s ear would bother him no more and that he would become a great leader in the Church. Even while he spoke, Junius stopped crying and fell into a deep sleep, for the first time in weeks. He raised a family of six children and became president of the Juarez Stake in Mexico before he was thirty.

I came to college.
I thought I knew myself—
Each day I was the same.
Until one day
I awoke
To discover I was different.
I grew to know myself,
To understand my mind.
My thoughts, my feelings
Became my own, not others’.
It happened
Slowly, continuously.
No one noticed
Until one day
I was different.
Each day I changed.
With each experience.
With each new friend,
I changed; I grew.
But no one noticed
I was different
Until one day.

I recall my surprise when visiting ancient pagan temples and tombs to discover the main “blessings” for which the idol worshippers repeatedly asked their gods: immortality, reproduction of life, and fertility for flocks, herds, and farms. These blessings were asked for in carnal and sensual rituals which appealed to the Israelites’ natural appetites, in contrast to the austere, moral, and spiritually motivated codes of behavior asked by Israel’s God for the same blessings.

Sister Mabel Khumalo, a visiting teacher in Zimbabwe, Africa, was concerned when a sister she visited stopped attending church meetings because she was embarrassed by her inability to read the scriptures or Church manuals. Sister Khumalo and her companion helped the sister sign up for a literacy class available through the Church. “Sister Khumalo!” exclaimed the sister when she heard about the class, “A dream has come true!”

I have a simliar situation. I tried to invite one of my friends to church and to Mutual. His parents haven’t been interested. After a few more tries, I’ve realized I need to respect their privacy. Pray to our Heavenly Father to help soften their hearts about the Church if it is His will. And if it is, then they may change their minds about letting your friend come to Church activities.

Sister Babata Sonnenberg was discouraged. As a young mother of five girls age eight and younger, she was surprised to be called to teach the 16- to 17-year-old Sunday School class in her ward. Months into her calling, she found class attendance sporadic and usually sparse. One Sunday a single boy showed up for class. Rather than teach just one student, she combined her class with another. She was ready to give up. But as she pondered and prayed about her bleak situation, inspiration came, and she had a change of heart.
Her husband, Ken, was the ward mission leader. The two of them felt prompted to combine their efforts to reach out to the youth of the ward. She would make chocolate cake, and he would invite the young people in the ward to come to their home each Sunday evening to eat the cake and discuss mission preparation. While the teens ate her cake, Sister Sonnenberg would invite them to her Sunday School class.
As a result of this “sweet” invitation, attendance climbed in the Sunday School class. But one young man, Nate, was not swayed by persistent invitations. Sister Sonnenberg felt she was losing one of her sheep. Her response to that feeling was to “go after that which [was] lost, until [she found] it” (Luke 15:4).” So rather than give up on Nate, Sister Sonnenberg came up with a plan.
One Sunday evening she went to Nate’s house. She found him home with another member of her class, who also hadn’t attended that day. She told both of them she had missed them in class and proceeded to teach them the lesson right then and there. Nate’s father, who had been recently released as bishop of the ward, was touched by this teacher’s persistence. He sent a text message to her husband that read: “Ken, please tell your wife thank you for me. Coming here and teaching Nate and McKay was inspired.”
Nevertheless, the next Sunday Nate again chose not to attend Sunday School. So Sister Sonnenberg went again to his home to have a gospel discussion with him. Nate figured that might happen, and he had gone to a friend’s house to hide. Sister Sonnenberg discovered him a few doors down from his home and shared the lesson there.
Finally, Nate decided to return to his Sunday School class.
Why did Nate come back?
Was it the chocolate cake Sister Sonnenberg served in her home?
Was it the visits she made to Nate’s home (and the neighbor’s home) to find him?
Was it encouragement from friends and family to attend church?
Or was it the love he felt from Sister Sonnenberg, his Sunday School teacher?
The answer is probably all of the above. For all these reasons and more, Nate began to attend Sunday School consistently, along with his friends.
So let me add the rest of the story. Because of how Nate came to feel about his Sunday School teacher, he didn’t pass up the opportunity to buy her chocolates when he later saw her at the mall. Sister Sonnenberg, who had shown him so much love, became a recipient of his love.
Soon thereafter, in September 2015, Nate completed his mission application and is now serving in the Mississippi Jackson Mission.
Other class members who struggled to attend Sunday School also decided to serve missions. Five young men and three young women who attended Sister Sonnenberg’s 16- to 17-year-old Sunday School class during her time as the teacher have served, or are serving, missions, and several others may yet serve.

A sister missionary told the story of three men she met during a district conference in Africa. They came from an isolated village far away in the bush where the Church had not yet been organized but where there were 15 faithful members and almost 20 investigators. For over two weeks these men had walked on foot, traveling more than 300 miles (480 km) over paths rendered muddy by the rainy season, so they could attend the conference and bring the tithes from the members of their group. They planned to stay for an entire week so they could enjoy the privilege of partaking of the sacrament the following Sunday and then hoped to set out on the return trip carrying boxes filled with copies of the Book of Mormon on their heads to give to the people of their village.
The missionary testified how touched she was by the sense of wonder these brethren displayed and by their wholehearted sacrifices to obtain things that for her had always been readily available.
She wondered: “If I got up one Sunday morning in Arizona and found that my car wasn’t working, would I walk to my church only a few blocks away from home? Or would I just stay home because it was too far or because it was raining?” These are good questions for all of us to consider.

Ruby B., age 10, Massachusetts, USA
My friends and I like to bake treats and give them to our neighbors. We leave a little note to cheer them up. Then we ring the doorbell and run away fast!

In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, President Bokolo shares how he and his family joined the Church in France. One day, as he was reading his patriarchal blessing, the Spirit inspired Brother Bokolo to return with his family to the DR Congo. Brother Bokolo knew they would face many challenges if they returned. And their church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was not yet established in Kinshasa.

Yet, in faith, as have many others, the Bokolos followed the Lord’s Spirit. In Kinshasa, they ministered to and blessed those around them, overcame challenges, received spiritual and temporal blessings. Today, they rejoice in having a house of the Lord in their country.

I believe that the most important job in the Church is the one we hold right now. Maybe you don’t even hold a specific position. I remember being in a ward where there were just not enough ward positions for everyone to have one, so the bishop called certain people into his office and asked them to be celestial members—to set a good example for others; to fellowship those in need; and to be one-hundred-percent participators. That was an important calling—as is any calling we now or in the future will hold in the kingdom of God. For it is through righteously serving others that we bless our own lives, enrich the lives of our neighbors, and further the work of the Lord.

“We have a tradition of having a dance party and playing hide-and-seek after home evening each week. This helps our children engage in the lesson because they know they will get to have fun afterward.” —Shannon T.

During the 13th century another important decision was made when the Mongol hoards came out of Mongolia, swept across the part of the world that we know as Turkey and Iran, and then entered into Europe. They were at the gates of the city of Vienna; it looked as though western Europe and its civilization were doomed as that leader of the Mongol hoards, Subedei, stood there, ready to lead his cavalry in an annihilation of western culture. Then something happened. A messenger from Mongolia brought the news that the Great Khan, Ogedei, had died; and Subedei had to make the decision to go on and conquer western Europe or to return to Mongolia and never again threaten western Europe. A small decision, but oh, its consequence!

Looking at the dark side of things always leads to a spirit of pessimism which so often leads to defeat. If ever there was a man who gave encouragement to a nation in its time of deepest distress it was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It was during World War II. Bombs were falling on London, England. Nazi troops had conquered Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, and were moving into Russia. Most of Europe was in the grasp of tyranny, and England was to be the next victim. In that dangerous hour, when the hearts of many were failing, Churchill spoke:
“Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our position in life, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.” (Address at Harrow School, England, 29 October 1941.)
A year earlier, following the terrible military disaster at Dunkirk, France, when Britain tried to invade Europe and beat back the enemy, many prophets of doom foretold the end of Britain. But in that dark and solemn hour this remarkable man, Churchill, said, and I heard him say these words as they were broadcast to the world: “We shall not weaken or fail … we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” (Speech in British Parliament, London, England, 4 June 1940.)
It was this kind of talk, which saw victory distantly through the dark clouds of war, and not the critical faultfinding of pessimists, that preserved the people of Britain and saved that nation from catastrophe.