Gospel Story Finder

Brant sat on the curb and ran his fingers through his hair. “Look at this stupid report card!”
At the corner, they turned down the alley. “How am I going to handle this report card?” Brant said.
“What’s to handle? You usually get good grades.”
“Yeah, right! Then how do I explain a D in math?”
Willard laughed. “That will take some explaining!”
“Not funny, Will.”
“It is to me. I’m the one with bad grades. What happened to you?”
Brant shrugged and looked ahead toward his house. “Math happened. I’m lost.”
Willard patted Brant’s shoulder. “I don’t even show my folks my report card. Try that.”
Brant frowned. “Yeah, right! Hide it for a whole year? Get serious.”
“That’s what I do.” Willard flipped the ball in his hand. “My folks are too busy to even notice.”
“My folks know when report card day is. And if they forget, Randy reminds them.” Brant nodded toward the end of the street, where his little brother was walking home with a friend.
“Hi!” Randy called excitedly. “I got my report card!”
Brant jabbed Willard’s side. “See what I mean?”
“Wanna see my grades?” Randy offered eagerly. He shoved his report card into Brant’s face. “All A’s except one B!”
Brant patted Randy’s head. “Good work, Ran.”
“I get a dollar for every A,” Randy announced proudly.
Willard leaned close to Brant. “How much for a D?” he snickered.
Randy looked up quickly. “I didn’t get any D’s. After I tell Mom, I’m calling Dad at work and telling him my grades!” He raced toward the house.
Brant’s head throbbed. He knew he was slipping in math, but he hadn’t expected a D! Was this his year to hit his head against a brick wall? Please, Heavenly Father, he prayed silently, help me convince Mom and Dad I haven’t been goofing off. He opened the door and heard his brother’s excited voice.
“Yeah, Dad, all A’s and a B! Thanks! Do you want to talk to Brant?”
Brant shook his head and shivered, but it was too late. Randy shoved the phone into his hand. “Here, Brant, Dad wants to hear about your grades.”
At dinner everyone listened as Randy babbled about his good grades. Brant knew that Dad and Mom would wait till they were alone to drop the ax. After dinner, Randy ran out to play, leaving Brant alone. He wished he could disappear too. Instead, he went out onto the deck, where Dad was restringing the lawn trimmer.
As Brant slumped into a lawn chair, Dad looked up. “OK, so what’s with the D?”
Brant shrugged. “I’m having trouble with math.”
Dad leaned back and wiped his hands with a rag. “That’s no news flash.”
“I’ll do better next report period.”
“Good, but how do you plan to do that?”
Brant squirmed. “I’ll spend more time on my homework.”
Dad smiled. “That’s a step in the right direction. Another is no more after-school street hockey—homework first. No friends in, and no TV while you’re doing it. Plus, doing homework doesn’t mean rushing through and putting answers on paper. It means understanding how to solve the problems. Got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Now get your homework, and we’ll look at it. I used to be pretty good at math.”
The following morning, Willard and Brant hurried to school. “How’d it go with the report card?” Willard asked.
Brant shrugged. “I’m kind of grounded till I get this math thing right.”
“What’s ‘kind of grounded’?”
“It means that homework gets top priority. Dad explained some things, and I understand the math a little better already. What happened with you?”
Willard grinned. “Nothing. I told you I’d get away without showing them my report card.”
Brant frowned. Willard got away with everything! Then they passed Mr. Lawson’s home, and he remembered how Willard had wanted him to get the ball because “you handle stuff better.”
Brant smiled to himself. If he did handle stuff better, it was because his folks took the time and trouble to show him and Randy the right way to do things. Thank you, Heavenly Father, he prayed silently. Thanks for giving us parents who love us enough to not let us get away with anything.

I know I was choosing the right and following Jesus Christ’s example by being baptized. I felt happy and warm afterwards. I love my Savior.
Zion M., age 9, Waikato, New Zealand

I remember when it was my turn to help teach a lesson at church. Inside, I didn’t really want to do it. But after I did it successfully, I felt joy. This taught me that the gospel is really beautiful. It feels indescribable in a good way.

A good man had been given the assignment in his ward of arranging the Boy Scout banquet. He had worked hard, made his choices, and carried them through. The tables were set, the food was in the pot, and the hour was drawing nigh.
His wife came over early to check things out. Everything seemed in order, but it looked mighty colorless to her trained eye. She turned to him and said, “Okay, Honey, but what are you going to use for the centerpieces?”
Surprised, he looked at the stark setting and considered the matter gravely for a moment. Then, in the full agency of his manhood, he replied, “Butter—squares of butter!”

In third or fourth grade a friend and I were riding our bicycles home from school. Some older children saw us riding by and started chasing us. I was terrified! We rode as fast as we could, with the bullies on their bikes just behind. When we made it safely to my friend’s house, I promised myself that I would never be a bully. Of course, I wasn’t always perfect. But I did try to look out for classmates whom others did not treat kindly. When I stood up for these friends, I felt the Savior’s love for them and for me.

As he contemplates the responsibilities of his new calling, Elder Giménez finds faith and courage in the adage “Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies” (Thomas S. Monson, “Duty Calls,” Ensign, May 1996, 44).
“I’ve taught that saying many times in the past, and now I’m trying to apply it to myself,” he says. “Heavenly Father calls you. He knows you. So just go and do what He wants, and everything will be fine.”

As his home teaching companion, Darron has found that Scott adds a new dimension to his calling. “I resolved to be 100 percent in visiting our families, and Scott definitely makes that possible. He calls me to make sure I’ve made the appointments. And when he taught the lesson the first time, he asked me to go early so I could hear what he’d prepared. Even the little children we taught listened to him.”
And how does Scott feel about being a home teacher? “I like going home teaching with Brother Moller. If it were two teachers going together, we just wouldn’t know as much. But by having someone older than me, I get to hear different viewpoints from different age groups. Sometimes it’s scary giving a lesson to just a few people—you don’t know how you’re going to be received. But it feels good when they listen.”

At a meeting a few days later, I told both stories. The next day I received another e-mail which began, “That’s my father’s story too.” That e-mail, from a stake president, told how his father was invited to serve in the Church even though he had not been active and had some habits that needed changing. He accepted the invitation and, in the process, repented, eventually served as a stake president and then a mission president, and laid the foundation for his posterity to be faithful members of the Church.

A young woman came to our office recently to talk about Relief Society; and when asked if she might like to help with a project we had to do, she replied, “I would like very much to do that, but I should tell you that I will ask some hard questions.” We could tell her that we do not turn from hard questions. Fortified by the true principles of the gospel, Relief Society women must accept the challenges of the day.

Delete all your social media apps or anything that is distracting you. I have found that when you don’t have access to those apps, you focus more on what’s important. It not only helped me in my studies, but I found myself less hooked on social media and more interested in the real world.
Michael S., 21, California, USA

Eagerly looking forward to his eighth birthday, Nick loves going to his CTR class. His favorite Primary song is “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission”; he is already preparing by helping whenever someone is taking the missionary discussions in his home. He was delighted this month when a General Authority came to his stake for a change in the stake presidency. He listened carefully to the General Authority’s talk, then after the session, made his way to the front to shake his hand. Nick knew for himself that this man was called of the Lord.

Brother Garner coaches the Alta High soccer team, but a leg injury sidelined Dene for his entire freshman soccer season. As soon as the leg was healed, the two of them were back practicing field goals, kicking late into the night until the goal posts were nothing but silhouettes against the lingering brightness of the summer sky, or even ghostly white prongs in the darkness. All summer long they worked, kicking and kicking and kicking the five old balls the coach had loaned to them.

In a university psychology class I once attended the professor made the statement: “It’s unscientific to believe in God.” Questions about religion sprang up. As a result, the class decided that organized religion was bunk.
I began to boil inside, but since my army experience still lingered vividly in my mind, I didn’t challenge the turn of the discussion. But a student in the back of the classroom began to ask some piercing and penetrating questions: “Exactly why do you feel that organized religion is not desirable?” The professor listed all the standard reasons: religious wars, inquisitions, wealth of church, poverty of members in many countries. “I understand how you feel, Professor X, but considering the fact that there are over twelve hundred different Christian forms of organized religion, won’t you concede the possibility that there are at least a few with meaningful programs?” The professor had to admit that was a possibility. He did not have even a casual knowledge of so many different religions.
Then the shock question came: “What is your religious background, Professor X, and what religious education have you had?” The answer became obvious. The professor hadn’t had much. “Then you are not an expert in the field of religion like you are in psychology?” Several of the students gasped loudly, including me. The professor unwillingly confessed that he was not an expert but that his position was one of personal feeling. The discussion rapidly drifted back into psychology.
The point had been made; the professor knew it, and we students knew it. Furthermore, the professor knew that we knew. I felt like shouting, “Whoopee!”

Lisa Hill, 13, of Nampa, Idaho, was undefeated in the cross-country track season. She even finished one race first overall, defeating the boys.
As a ninth grader, Lisa was invited to run with the high school team.
Lisa served as the first counselor in her Beehive class in the Nampa Fifth Ward, Nampa Idaho South Stake.

Our hearts were filled with gratitude when on 22 December 2020, we received our mission call from the prophet of God to serve a 23-month member-and-leadership-support mission in the Enugu Nigeria Mission, 250 kilometers away from our home. For over two decades of marriage, we had prepared every needful thing including serving as senior service couple for BYU-Pathway Worldwide, waiting for a time that serving a full-time mission would be possible for us.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lord inspired modifications in the full-time missionary service to include live-at-home, live-near-home and remote service options. In faith, we completed the missionary recommendation form with the encouragement of our dear stake president, Samuel Ekpolo, and we were called to the work. The missionary training center provided us with opportunities for interaction with other senior missionary couples, to learn from Preach My Gospel and other specifics necessary for our labors and safety in the field.
Following the training, we reported to our mission president who outlined our duties. These included supporting the Children and Youth Development program in the mission and working with the Area Office for another young single adult program—The Gathering Place. We became one of ten couples who pioneered the Gathering Place and missionary transition initiatives in the Africa West Area. This assignment was definitely an overwhelming task initially, but we are so grateful for understanding companions who encouraged us, especially Brothers and Sisters Mortensen and Elder and Sister Mondragon.
Ministering among our assigned 33 stakes and districts in three coordinating councils meant days of traveling and extensive work as we encourage the stake presidents to establish and sustain Gathering Places.

Elder Richard Lyman, a missionary serving in her branch, gave Karina a harmonica. She was timid and unsure at first. But in just a few minutes, she was using her feet to hold the harmonica and make music.

Only six months ago you faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ sustained me as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This calling came as a great surprise to many, but especially to our grandchildren, who said, “But he is our Opa! He is just a regular person. He played with us, and he used to cut our hair!”
After the October general conference, my wife and I talked to our children on the telephone, and one of our grandsons said, “Since we were so far away from you and could not be with you in Salt Lake City, at least you should have waved to us when you were giving your conference talk.” We have not yet been with our children and grandchildren until this general conference, and so I wave today, hoping to make a grandson happy. I also wave to all of you wonderful members, whose prayers and love are so important and appreciated by my wife and me.

Each of the three wings of the Logan Junior High holds its own hidden terrors and delights. The west wing houses, among other things, the homemaking department. The hidden pitfalls here are many. I picture myself on the day we begin to sew with my fingers securely fastened onto the edge of the needle after a case of faulty navigation. I suppose after I bring home my first sad excuse for a dress, my mother will make we wear it to school, thereby ending all my prospects of social life for the next three years. Cooking should be another interesting experience. In the future I picture some days of great stomach distress because I’ve had to eat my own cooking.

1. One day Tanner got a picture of Jesus. He loved the picture. He wanted to share it with somebody. He knew that not everybody knows about Jesus.
2. “Mom, can I give my picture of Jesus to somebody?” Tanner asked.
“Sure,” Mom said. “Who will you give it to?”
“I’m going to give it to my teacher, Mrs. Young. I like her because she reads me lots of stories.”
“That’s a wonderful idea,” Mom said. “I’m proud of you.”
3. When Tanner got to preschool, he gave the picture to Mrs. Young. She was happy to get a picture of Jesus. Tanner was happy she liked it.
4. A few days later, Tanner and his family made a book that looked like the Book of Mormon golden plates. Then they wrote their testimonies in the book.
“Mom, can I take our book to school to show Mrs. Young?” Tanner asked.
“Yes, you can,” Mom said.
5. The next day at school, Tanner carried a backpack with his family’s golden plates inside. He told Mrs. Young about the book his family had made. Tanner’s teacher was very interested.
6. When Mom picked up Tanner from school that day, his teacher went to talk to Tanner’s mother.
“Tanner brought something very interesting today,” Mrs. Young said. “Can you tell me more?”
“How would you and your husband like to come to dinner at our house?” Mom asked. “We can talk more then.”
“That sounds great,” Mrs. Young said.
7. A few months later, Tanner and his mother went to Mr. and Mrs. Youngs’ baptism.
“I’m very happy I shared my picture of Jesus with my teacher,” Tanner said.
“I know that she is too,” Mom said. “You are a big reason why Mrs. Young and her husband are being baptized today.”
8. Tanner had a happy feeling as he watched Mrs. Young be baptized. He smiled as Mom leaned over and whispered, “Four-year-olds are great missionaries!”

“As a former president of [Brigham Young University], I was pleased to speak to students and faculty during this morning’s devotional. …

“I invited the students to consider if they dare to be different and if they are going forward against the world’s opposition. More important than what an individual does as a student are the choices they are making in their personal lives—the priorities they are adopting consciously or subconsciously.

“We must not forget the Savior’s teaching that the ‘first and great commandment’ in the law is to ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,’ and the second commandment ‘is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’

“The love of neighbor—however important—does not come ahead of love of God and obedience to His commandments. If we truly love God and serve Him as He has taught us, we will love our neighbor as God loves him or her and as He would have us love and serve them.

“Jesus was ever-loving, but invariably direct in His commandments and expectations. To the woman taken in adultery He refrained from condemning her then, but concluded by directing her to ‘go thy way, and sin no more.’

“And He concluded the rigorous teaching of the Sermon on the Mount with the incomparable direction ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ We proceed toward that divine condition by priorities that follow the Savior without being compromised by worldly values and behavior.

“Keeping gospel standards does not make you second class or condemn your example to obscurity. All of us know of persons whose performance is enhanced in quality and visibility by being different from the crowd.

“I echo the words President Russell M. Nelson has taught: ‘Please believe me, that when your spiritual foundation is built solidly upon Jesus Christ, you have no need to fear. As you are true to your covenants made in the temple, you will be strengthened by His power.’”

President Dallin H. Oaks, Facebook, Sept.13, 2022, facebook.com/dallin.h.oaks.