Gospel Story Finder

As missionaries in central Germany we often find ourselves relating the Joseph Smith story to people during the day. This story sometimes becomes just words to us, and we often do not realize the importance of it. The December issue of the New Era really helped us to realize the magnitude of Joseph Smith’s calling and its importance to the whole world. The issue was and still is a terrific inspiration to us. In our district we have all read it three or four times and often turn to it for strength and support.
Elders William R. Shupe and David R. ZillesGermany Central Mission

Two weeks later, the missionaries invited me to a Christmas party at the church. When I arrived, everyone was so friendly! They greeted me with smiles and handshakes and called me Brother Wada. I wondered how they knew my name and why they called me brother. Come to find out, the missionaries told everyone I was coming. I felt very welcomed and needed.
When everyone started singing Christmas hymns, they asked me to join them. As we sang “Joy to the World” (Hymns, no. 201)—a new hymn for me—the members of the Nagano Branch made me feel like I belonged. They soon became my good friends.

In his October 2016 conference address “Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It?” Elder J. Devn Cornish of the Seventy says, “The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Please sincerely ask Him what He thinks of you. He will love and correct but never discourage us.” When I think I will never be as good as the people around me, I turn to my Heavenly Father and try to remember that I am the daughter of a loving God who is willing to help me reach my full potential and be who He knows I can be if I seek Him.
Amanda M., age 19, Paraná, Brazil

During World War II, in the early part of 1944, an experience involving the priesthood took place [and] was related by a correspondent—not a member of the Church—who worked for a newspaper in Hawaii. … He and other correspondents were in the second wave behind the marines at Kwajalein Atoll. As they advanced, they noticed a young marine floating facedown in the water, obviously badly wounded. The shallow water around him was red with his blood. And then they noticed another marine moving toward his wounded comrade. The second marine was also wounded, with his left arm hanging helplessly by his side. He lifted up the head of the one who was floating in the water in order to keep him from drowning. In a panicky voice he called for help. The correspondents looked again at the boy he was supporting and called back, “Son, there is nothing anyone can do for this boy.”
“Then,” wrote the correspondent, “I saw something that I had never seen before.” This boy, badly wounded himself, made his way to the shore with the seemingly lifeless body of his fellow marine. He “put the head of his companion on his knee. … What a picture that was—these two mortally wounded boys—both … clean, wonderful-looking young men, even in their distressing situation. And the one boy bowed his head over the other and said, ‘I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the priesthood, to remain alive until I can get medical help.’” The correspondent concluded his article: “The three of us [the two marines and I] are here in the hospital. The doctors don’t know [how they made it alive], but I know.”
President Thomas S. Monson, “Willing and Worthy to Serve,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 67, 68.

Anna’s heart sank as she walked into the room and saw the Christmas tree. The water heater in their house had burst, and water was all over the floor. Dad was still trying to clean up the mess. The few presents under the tree were completely soaked.
Anna and her little brothers grabbed some towels and tried to dry the presents. But it didn’t really work. They were a soggy mess.
Anna’s family was going through a hard time. Her dad didn’t have a job right now. Her mom was going to have a baby soon, and she felt sick a lot. And now they wouldn’t have any presents for Christmas.
That night as Anna got ready for bed, she could hear Mom and Dad talking in the kitchen.
“What are we going to do?” Mom asked. It sounded like she was crying. “We don’t have enough money for the house payment, and now we don’t even have presents for the kids.” Anna had an empty, twisty feeling in her stomach.
“We’ll figure something out,” Dad said.
Anna walked into the kitchen. Mom reached out and gave her a big hug. With her arms around Mom’s tummy, Anna felt the baby move. She smiled. “We have a new baby coming. You always say that a baby is a miracle.”
Mom smiled back. “That’s right. We have a lot to be grateful for.”
“We have each other,” Dad said. He kissed the top of Anna’s head. “It’ll be OK.”
On the way to her room, Anna heard her brothers crying. She sat down on David’s bed.
“Everyone is so sad,” David said quietly.
“And we won’t have any presents,” Robbie said, sniffling.
“It’ll be OK,” Anna said again. “You’ll see.”
Before she got into bed, Anna knelt and asked Heavenly Father what she could do for her family. She didn’t have any money to buy presents, but she still had a warm, comforting feeling in her heart.
The next morning, she stayed in bed thinking for a few minutes before getting ready for school. Then an idea came to her! That afternoon she hurried home and did her chores and homework. Then she found some paper and string and a few markers and stickers she had gotten for her birthday. She took them all to her room and closed the door.
Anna almost laughed when she thought about how surprised her family would be. First she folded the paper and tied it together with string to make four booklets. She chose a star sticker to put on Mom’s booklet and a planet for Dad’s. She put a dog for David’s booklet and a rocket for Robbie’s.
Then Anna started drawing. For Mom she drew a picture of herself sweeping the floor. She drew a picture of herself cooking dinner with Dad, one of her playing soccer with David, and one of her reading a book to Robbie. It took her several days to fill each booklet with pictures.
Finally it was Christmas Eve, and Anna carefully placed her booklets under the tree.
The next morning, she gave each person in her family a booklet. “I like these pictures,” David said. “I like playing soccer.”
“They’re not just pictures,” Anna said with a sparkle in her eyes. “They’re coupons! The pictures all show things I’ll do for you.”
“This is the nicest gift you could have given us,” Mom said as she looked through her booklet. Anna was thankful that Heavenly Father helped her think of making Christmas coupons. A new baby was coming, and with Heavenly Father’s help, everything really would be OK.

Activity-day girls from the Cortez 1st, 3rd, and 4th and Mancos Wards, Colorado, USA, worked together to serve the people in their community. They learned how to shine shoes and enjoyed working hard and visiting while they served others.

It was too late to stop. As I crashed into the car in front of me, the splinter of glass and crumple of metal dimly registered, an echo of my own shattered breathing.
I started to cry, and my brother Rob said, “It’ll be okay, Alanna. Everything will be all right.” But everything was not all right. I had caused a four-car accident.
Minutes later, a policeman told me no one was seriously hurt. Fortunately, everyone involved was wearing seatbelts. A paramedic treated me for minor cuts, and after I complained of a sharp pain in my neck, I was put on a stretcher.
On the ride to the hospital, a paramedic said, “Alanna, you’re a very lucky girl.”
Lucky? I was strapped in a stretcher with my neck immobilized in a brace. I had totaled my dad’s car, and was responsible for the damage to three other cars. How could he say I was lucky?
“The only reason you’re still alive is because you were wearing your seatbelt,” he added.
For as long as I can remember, my parents stressed the importance of wearing seatbelts. Because of my parents’ example, I wore my seatbelt without fail. This one small act may have literally saved my life.

Several stakes chose to serve the older members of their areas. In the Salt Lake Holladay North Stake, each Young Women class adopted a “grandmother” or “grandfather” to help throughout the year. They took turns helping with transportation and home cleaning. As a special service, they made white handkerchiefs for their newfound friends to take to the Jordan River Temple dedication. In addition, the girls arranged to tape record the older members’ personal histories. They transcribed the tapes and made a typewritten copy for each grandmother or grandfather to keep, with enough extra copies to give to their children.

Backstage in the Philippine International Convention Center, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley was talking to a man whose face glowed with spiritual excitement and joy beyond description.
The date: Sunday morning, the 29th of May, 1977. The time: 5 minutes before the opening ceremony of the Combined Special Conference that was to culminate in the writing of Church history in the Philippines. The topic between them: an Apostle of the Lord making a divine call—the man accepting the call with happiness overflowing in his heart.
This was the man Elder Hinckley introduced the day before to Elder Jacob de Jager as the man called Moses.
The only other person who learned a few minutes after about this divine calling was his wife and later, when he was sustained by the multitude as one of two Filipino Stake Patriarchs, the spiritual events in their lives flashed back in their minds.
During this moment of unbridled job, Moises Marzan Mabunga, Sr., who first saw the light of day in Naguilian, La Union February 13, 1917, and Vicenta Mercado of Manila, silently shared with each other their testimony of finding the gospel of truth and live after many years of searching, radiantly recalling the day, 13 years before, when two missionary sisters (Sisters Garrison and Smithen) knocked on the door of their home at Molave Street, Project 3 in Quezon City, to bring the message of the restoration.
And now, the Filipino called Moses has a new calling worthy of his name.

When I was called to serve as a General Authority, I had an interview with President Faust. He noticed that I was concerned because I felt inadequate for such a call. In his tender way, President Faust told me, “Athos, be yourself. Be yourself.” That night I lay awake in bed, thinking of my new responsibilities and of President Faust’s words. And I prayed. I asked myself, Who am I? And the answer came as clear and bright as the dawn of that brand-new day. I am, like each one of you, a child of God who wants to obey the Lord and serve wherever He sends me and thus be a better child of our Heavenly Father and a faithful member of the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Melissa gave the opening prayer at family home evening. After she said amen, Daddy thanked her and said, “We each agreed to bring a reminder of something we want to thank Heavenly Father for. Melissa, would you like to go first?”
She shook her head firmly, swinging her hair back and forth. “Not this time, Daddy. I have the most thankful thank-you of all, and I want to save it till last.”
Daddy nodded. “Very well then, since baby Billy is too young to take part, I guess it’s Mommy’s turn.”
Mommy lifted a picture that had been facedown on her lap. “Who can tell me what this is?”
Melissa raised her hand. “It looks like a big blue-and-white marble.”
“It does,” Mommy agreed. “But it’s really a picture of the earth that was taken from space. All the trees and flowers and other beautiful things we see around us are part of the earth, and I feel very grateful for such a wonderful place to live.”
“Thank you,” Daddy said. “So do I.” He picked up a chalkboard. A frowny face was drawn on it. “Even though I love Heavenly Father, I still make mistakes, and that makes me sad.” With an eraser Daddy wiped away the frowny face and drew a smiley face. “I’m grateful for repentance because it lets me change my actions and be happy again.”
Mommy reached over and squeezed his hand. “So am I.” She turned to Melissa. “And now let’s hear your thank-you. I’m sure it is a good one!”
With a huge smile, Melissa picked up a copy of the Liahona and slowly opened it to reveal a picture. “I’m thankful for Jesus,” she said.
Mommy hugged Melissa. “Jesus Christ helped create our beautiful world, and his Atonement makes repentance possible.”
“You were right,” Daddy said. “You do have the most thankful thank-you of all.”

Amber Martin and Kortney Kline are closer to earning their Young Women Personal Progress Award after organizing all the youth in the Valley Forge Pennsylvania Stake to donate their reading books to an inner-city school in Philadelphia. A stake youth dance was held and the “admission fee” was to bring some books. Amber and Kortney managed to collect over 500 books. These two young women said it was an awesome experience to give youth in their stake an opportunity to donate books to students in need.

The Lord told Joseph Smith that it was time to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio, USA. It would be a special place where the Lord would visit His people and make promises with them.
The Saints started to build the temple. It cost a lot of money and took a lot of work. But they were excited to receive the Lord’s blessings.
As the Saints worked on the temple, they began to run out of money. They prayed to God for help.
A woman named Caroline Tippets and her family had saved a lot of money. They let the Church borrow money to help build the temple.
The Saints worked hard. Some drove wagons full of stones. Others made clothes and food for the workers.
Children collected pieces of broken glass to grind up and put on the walls of the temple so they sparkled in the sunlight.
Soon the temple was finished! The Saints were excited to go into the house of the Lord to receive the blessings He had promised them.
Read and watch Doctrine and Covenants Stories in the Gospel Library under Scriptures and Scripture Stories.

Mathias Inum – “When I came to the temple, I knew that I was there to receive the light of Christ. When I return to Papua New Guinea, I am going to show this light to everyone and be a light to this world.”

Nearly a hundred young women and men in the Toa Baja Puerto Rico District sang as they pulled their handcarts up and over the steep hills of Monagas Park in the morning sunshine one day in March. Reenacting the trek of the Latter-day Saint handcart pioneers, the youth sang first in Spanish—“Como os he amado, amad a otros”—and then in English—“As I have loved you, love one another” (Hymns, number 308).
Stopping along the way in small groups at predetermined spots, the youth read of the experiences of Latter-day Saint pioneers. Several were weeping by the time they finished. The group moved on, singing, “¡Grande eres tú!”—“How great thou art!” (Hymns, number 86).
“We want our seminary students to realize that our sacrifices, no matter how great, are little compared to those of the pioneers,” says Alberto Zayas, associate CES director for the Caribbean. “Seminary helps our youth develop testimonies, so every branch on this island has a class, and two universities each have a Latter-day Saint Student Association.”

These tools allow organizations and individuals to completely bypass the news media and publish or broadcast their messages in their entirety to the intended audiences. For instance, last year the Church Public Affairs Department conducted an interview with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Lance B. Wickman of the Seventy regarding the Church’s position on same-gender attraction. In the old days, to communicate our message to the public on an issue like this we would have had to rely on the news media. But this probing interview was conducted by Church Public Affairs staff and posted in its entirety on the Church’s Web site, unfiltered by the news media.

A much more welcome shower fell on a seaside town in Ireland in 1945. The streets were transformed into carpets of gleaming silver by a downpour of herring! People with an eye to business scooped them up by the basketful to sell in neighboring villages.

“Mom is coming back tonight,” Dad said when he picked up Cassie from school. “That means today is clean-the-house day.”
“Yes!” Cassie cheered. Cassie wasn’t too excited about cleaning, but she was excited that Mom was finally coming home. She had been gone for two long weeks taking care of Grandma, who lived far away.
Cassie had missed her so much that some nights she had even listened to the old cassette-tape recordings that her mom had once made for her. On these tapes Mom had recorded herself reading stories to Cassie. Before Cassie knew how to read, she would listen to these recordings over and over while looking at the pictures in the books. Cassie hadn’t listened to them in a long time—until now.
After the house was sparkling clean, Cassie and Dad went to the airport to pick up Mom. When she got off the plane, Mom was happy to see them, but she looked tired.
“I don’t think I should give kisses today,” Mom said. “I think I caught the flu on my trip. I don’t feel so good.”
Mom went straight to bed when they got home. Cassie came in to see her later, and she had a cold cloth across her eyes.
“Do you want to play a board game?” Cassie asked.
“No, sorry, sweetie,” Mom said. “I have a bad headache, and I need to rest my eyes. But there’s nothing wrong with my ears. Why don’t you sit with me and tell me everything that happened while I was gone?”
Cassie smiled and pulled a chair close to the bed. She talked and talked, and Mom listened.
The next night Mom was still sick. Cassie had to go to school the next day, and Mom would be home by herself. She’ll be so lonely, just like I was, Cassie thought. Then she had a great idea. She went to the bookshelf and got down one of Mom’s favorite stories.
In the morning before she left for school, Cassie brought a shoebox to her mom. “This is for you,” she said. “I also made you a sandwich. Peanut butter with strawberry jam. It’s in the fridge.”
“Oh, thank you,” Mom said. She opened the box and took out the tape recorder. “What’s this?”
Her mom pushed “Play” and Cassie’s voice said, “Dear Mom, I’m going to read your favorite story. Just close your eyes and have fun listening.”
She pushed “Stop” on the recorder and laughed. “This is wonderful,” Mom said. “I’m so excited to listen to this.”
“I did all the voices,” Cassie said. “Just like you used to.”
“Thank you, Cassie! How did you get to be so thoughtful?”
“I learned from you, Mom.”

“My parents took me to the temple for the first time on my 12th birthday. I loved it so much I wanted to stay forever. That’s how I feel each time I go. I want to go as much as possible, all that I can.”
—Melissa A., 17

Joseph Fielding Smith spent many hours riding his horse, Junie, and he took good care of her. After a ride, he always walked her and brushed her. At night he was careful to lock her in her stall in the barn.
But Junie was a smart horse. After Joseph left the barn at night, she used her nose and teeth to undo the strap that held the door of her stall shut.
Whenever she got out, she never ran away. Instead, she turned on the water tap in the Smith’s yard, then walked through the garden or across the lawn.
4. If Joseph heard the water running in the night, he knew that Junie had unlocked her stall—again. Joseph’s father teased him, saying that maybe the horse was smarter than Joseph.
5. Joseph’s father decided that he would lock Junie in so that she could not get out. He buckled the strap around the post and under a crossbar. “Young lady,” he told the horse, “let’s see you get out now.”
6. As Joseph and his father walked back to the house, they heard Junie walking along behind them. Joseph couldn’t resist asking his father who Junie was smarter than now!
7. Joseph Fielding Smith had a good sense of humor, and he enjoyed life. Many years later, when he became the tenth President of the Church, he encouraged other Church members to enjoy life.