Gospel Story Finder

I have been instructed in the gospel since I was very small. When I was eight, I made the decision to be baptized. I memorized all 13 articles of faith for that special day. When I came out of the water, I felt something very strong. My mother told me those feelings came from the Holy Ghost. I know that Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet.

I wonder about our undue concern for material possessions, for shrines and monuments, which crumble and decay. Just the other day I read a news item telling of the deterioration of the Lincoln Memorial. This is disturbing news indeed to all of us who honor those who have done so much to build and serve their country. But as we read in detail about the limestone walls and marble columns of the forty-eight-year-old monument deteriorating, its mortar flaking away, stalactites and stalagmites transforming its basement into an eerie cavern, millions of spiders and tiny, winged midges swarming over the ceiling, it gives us an outstanding example of the fact that moth and rust doth corrupt treasures on earth. As we pay homage to the revered memories of persons and places, let us at the same time be diligently engaged in our spiritual duties and the preservation of treasures which cannot be effaced by time.

The bond of trust that grew between my father and me was so strong that when my father asked me what I would think if he remarried, I was able to answer truthfully, “Do what you think is right.” Some of my older brothers and sisters didn’t agree with me, but I trusted him to do the right thing.
As the time grew closer, I grew excited to meet the woman my father loved and wanted to marry. But as I walked into the room, I saw a tall, slim, dark-haired woman who wasn’t my mother kissing my father. For a split second a door within me burst open, spilling all the hurt, jealousy, and anger that I felt for this woman. Then just as quickly, it closed without ever changing the smile on my face. That door was destroyed then, never to be opened again.

Perkins David really needed a pet, but Dad was allergic to cats. When Grandpa came, he told them that it was Dad’s brother who was allergic, and David finally gets Perkins. Then, when they come home from a trip, a double has taken Perkins’s place.Linda Yeatman7–10 years

My family had family prayer and family home evening, and during those times, I learned the importance of communicating with Father in Heaven.
I remember one time when one of our puppies was run over by a car. Heartbroken, I carried the puppy into my mother. “He’s not going to live!” I cried. With her infinite wisdom, she helped me place the tiny body in a box and suggested we say a prayer. We knelt and prayed, then headed to the vet.
When the vet came into the room, he took one look at the puppy and asked why we had come. “There’s nothing wrong with this animal,” he said. But I knew that there had been—I had seen the car run over him. That was a great testimony to me about the power of prayer. I knew then and know today that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.

Shortly after my baptism, the branch president called me and said, “Sister Gamanga, the Spirit has directed me to call you to be the Relief Society president.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. “I don’t know how to read, I don’t know how to write, and you want to call me? What is the meaning of that?”

He explained that I would invite the women to church, talk to them, and help them. “With God, I can do it,” I said.

Since that day, so many things have happened in my life. I started reading only two-letter words, then three-letter words. I then moved from three-letter words to four-letter words, then five to six-letter words. This has helped me teach in Relief Society.

If there is something I don’t understand, I ask for help. My problem is spelling. I don’t know how to pronounce some spellings, but I get help so I can understand. When I’m teaching, I ask one of the Relief Society sisters to help with any words I don’t know. That is the way I teach in class. Each time I ask for help, I learn more.

One Friday, he and Sister Benson followed their usual practice of attending a session at the Jordan River Temple. While there, President Benson was approached by a young man who greeted him with joy in his heart and announced that he had been called to fill a full-time mission. President Benson took the newly called missionary by the hand and, with a smile on his lips, declared, “Take me with you! Take me with you!” That missionary testified that, in a way, he took President Benson with him on his mission, since this greeting demonstrated President Benson’s abiding love, his devotion to missionary work, and his desire to ever be found in the service of the Lord.

Throughout his life, President Spencer W. Kimball faced many health challenges.
Doctor: You may have cancer in your throat. I recommend we operate.
Elder Kimball: My sister died of cancer. I’d better have the operation.
The surgeries that worried him the most were on his throat.
Elder Kimball: How can I continue to serve as an Apostle of the Lord if I lose my voice?

Your October 1987 issue came right on time. I had to give a talk in Young Women in two days, and I hadn’t any ideas about what I was going to talk about. When I saw the New Era sitting on the counter when I got home from school, I picked it up and started looking through it.
In our ward we have a small problem when it comes to making everyone belong. I had been planning on saying something about our problem in my talk on Sunday. The story “Everyone Belongs” was perfect. It was just what I needed. It took care of two things I needed to do at once.
Dawn S. SkidmoreSt. George, Utah

The time for music lessons seems to come along when there are so many other expenses for the family with little children. But we encourage parents to include musical training in the lives of their children.
Somehow Andrew and Olive Kimball did, and Spencer learned to play. Somehow Samuel and Louisa Lee managed to do it, and Harold learned to play. And now, as the leaders of the Church assemble for our sacred meetings in the upper room of the temple, we always sing a hymn. At the organ is President Spencer W. Kimball or President Harold B. Lee.

The first of these tests was Zion’s Camp in the spring and summer of 1834. The second came just four years later in removing thousands of Saints from the state of Missouri to Illinois. Twelve years later came the epic exodus from Illinois to Winter Quarters and the next year to the mountain valleys of the western part of the continent.
Zion’s Camp was formed to reestablish the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. In this “effort to redeem Zion,” some 200 men traveled more than a thousand miles in the most trying circumstances under the personal leadership of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
George A. Smith, age 16, was selected to go on the camp and recorded some of the suffering, trials, and hardships the brethren endured. He stated that on May 26, 1834, “The day was exceedingly hot and we suffered much from thirst and were compelled to drink the water from sloughs which were filled with living creatures. Here I learned to strain wigglers with my teeth.” The next day, an exhausted Solomon Humphrey lay down on the ground and fell asleep. “When he awoke he saw a rattlesnake coiled up within one foot of his head … [lying] between him and his hat, which he had in his hand when he fell asleep. The brethren gathered around him, saying, ‘It is a rattlesnake, let us kill it.’ Brother Humphrey said, ‘No! I’ll protect him, you shant hurt him for he and I have had a good nap together.’” I have no desire to have a nap with a rattlesnake!
Brother George A. Smith recorded: “The Prophet Joseph took a full share of the fatigues of the entire journey. In addition to the care of providing for the Camp and presiding over it, he walked most of the time and had a full proportion of blistered bloody and sore feet, which was the natural result of walking from 25 to 40 miles a day in a hot season of the year. But during the entire trip he never uttered a murmur or complaint, while most of the men in the Camp complained to him of … scanty supply of provisions, poor quality of bread, … maggotty bacon and cheese, &c. … Yet we were the Camp of Zion, and many of us were prayerless, thoughtless, careless, heedless, foolish or devilish … . Joseph had to bear with us and tutor us, like children. There were many, however, in the Camp who never murmured and who were always ready and willing to do as our leaders desired.”
Although Zion’s Camp failed in its stated purpose of restoring the Saints to their lands in Jackson County, Missouri, it was invaluable as a stern schooling. They learned that faith is more important than life itself. At a conference held February 14, 1835, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy were chosen from the ranks of those who had served in Zion’s Camp. These valiant brethren led the Church for the next 50 years.

When President J. Reuben Clark Jr. counseled those called to positions of authority in the Church, he would tell them not to forget rule number six.
Inevitably, the person would ask, “What is rule number six?”
“Don’t take yourself too darn seriously,” he would say.
Of course, this led to a follow-up question: “What are the other five rules?”
With a twinkle in his eye, President Clark would say, “There aren’t any.”

My Grandma Fischer died when I was ten, and the only knowledge my children have of this great-grandmother is what I relate to them. One of the special things I remember about Grandma Fischer is her cooking. She loved to cook and loved even more to share her cooking. She joined the Church in Germany along with her fiance, my grandfather Fischer, and came to the United States. She brought with her many of her mother’s and grandmother’s favorite recipes from the old country. A Christmas tradition in the Fischer family is stollen, a sweet, fruited and glazed bread.

First, the music. Jake Anderson of the Fenton Ward remembered a bad experience with music at his school prom. He said, “They had one line in one song with cuss words in a row. They quieted the music so everyone could scream out the line. The songs were degrading.” But he knew he didn’t have to worry about that happening here. The disk jockey was a member of the Church and was sensitive to what would be appropriate. Plus, he had help in picking out the songs.

Many people in Missouri did not like the Saints. The governor sent soldiers to make them leave.
The soldiers arrested Joseph Smith and other Church leaders. One night, the guards were laughing about bad things they had done to the Saints.
Joseph stood up and yelled, “Silence!” He spoke with God’s power. The guards said they were sorry and stopped talking.

In 1839 some members of the Quorum of the Twelve left for missions in England under very trying circumstances:
“Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor were the first to start out. Wilford, in Montrose, had been suffering for days from chills and fever. His infant daughter, Sarah Emma, also seriously ill, was being cared for by friends with more suitable accommodations. On August 8 he finally bade [his wife] Phoebe a tender farewell and walked to the banks of the Mississippi. Brigham Young paddled him across the river in a canoe. When Joseph Smith found him resting by the post office, Wilford told the Prophet that he felt and looked more like a subject for the dissecting room than a missionary. …
“It took Elders Woodruff and Taylor, traveling together, the rest of the month to make it as far as Germantown, Indiana. …
“By the time they arrived in Germantown John Taylor was so desperately ill that it was impossible for him to continue. …
“[He] remained ill, sometimes near death, for about three weeks. His optimism was tenacious, however, as suggested in a tender letter to [his wife] Leonora, dated September 19 [1839]:
“‘You may ask me how I am going to prosecute my journey. … I do not know but one thing I do know, that there is a being who clothes the lillies of the valley & feeds the ravens & he has given me to understand that all these things shall be added & that is all I want to know. He laid me on a bed of sickness & I was satisfied, he has raised me from it again & I am thankful. He stopped me on my road & I am content. … If he took me I felt that it would be well. He has spared me, & it is better’” (James B. Allen, Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker, Men with a Mission, 1837–1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles [1992], 67–70).

In 1936, eight-year-old William Forward travelled with his family and fellow Saints to the cottage of Charles Jones, located close to the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal at Llanover (in the Usk Valley, Brecon Beacons National Park).
From their Varteg home, they headed east descending the valley side down the Snail Creep, to Cwmavon (Pontypool), then walked up the other side to Llanover Road, and crossed fields and trod lanes until they arrived at the Goose and Cuckoo pub (near Llanover) where they took a break with lemonade.
Refreshed, they continued to the Jones’ cottage, adjacent to the Pantglas Mill on Gwenffrwd Brook. William and his cousin Glyn changed their clothing in the mill to prepare for their baptism.
The boys then walked up the farmer’s field and across the canal bridge to join the Saints for the baptismal service, before going down into the canal for their baptisms. William was baptised, then Glyn. They were confirmed in the Jones’ home. Following the service, the company made their way home to Varteg the way they had come, a ten-mile round trip.

Book of Mormon commuting. My fiancé and I were proceeding very slowly in our Book of Mormon study. Then we learned about the challenge, and we began in earnest to meet it. We both take the train to work, and during the commute I was able to let go of the things of the world. When several people on the train were interested in what we were doing, I shared my testimony and gave out pass-along cards. I know the Book of Mormon can transform our lives for the better. Luciana Martins, São Paulo, Brazil

Some years ago I heard a radio interview featuring Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Anglican archbishop in South Africa. He had just published a book with his daughter about the reconciliation that had taken place in South Africa following apartheid.1 Basically, the book’s message is that there is good in all people.

During the interview the host asked a perceptive, inspired question of Bishop Tutu: “Have you found that your relationship to God has changed as you’ve grown older?”

Bishop Tutu paused and then said, “Yes. I am learning to shut up more in the presence of God.”

He recalled that when he prayed in his earlier years, he did so with a list of requests and solicitudes. He would approach heaven with what he called “a kind of shopping list.” But now, he said, “I think [I am] trying to grow in just being there. Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter, you are just there in front of the fire, and you don’t have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.”2

Richard G. Scott
(32) The love and example of Richard G. Scott’s grandmother and his future wife aid him in his spiritual progression.