Gospel Story Finder

Building relationships—as well as cutting down some unwanted trees—is in full swing where a third group of youth are stationed. Todd Swenson, age 17, is here, and he’s a little tired from pulling up roots and clearing leaves. But his attitude is not the least bit tiresome. “This is my first time doing anything like this, but I want to do it again. I think it makes the people we are helping feel that they have friends, that someone is looking out for them,” Todd says.
Ben Mullins, age 14, agrees. “I hope it makes them feel that Church members like to help other people. It also gives me a better attitude about serving.”
Besides, according to Heather Swenson, there’s not much better to do on a Saturday. “I can spare one Saturday. I’ve got a lot of time left in my life to help other people. I need to use that time well.”

When Fabian shares his testimony, Jordan says, he draws power from his conversion, his love of the gospel, and his blessings.

“He saw the blessings that came to his family, which is what inspires him to be so brave and straightforward in sharing the gospel with his friends,” Jordan says. “Once he was testifying to an investigator about what a big blessing it was for his parents to get married but how hard it was for him to wait four months after his baptism for his mother to get baptized. His emotions overcame him, and he was moved to tears. He then testified that if we keep the commandments, God will take care of us.”

Miracles were experienced by the instructors and by the students. Deborah Darkwah, a member of another faith and YSA Gathering Place student, also shared that learning how to make wigs has blessed her family and brought extra income to her.

While in high school in Alberta, Canada, I went to watch our junior and senior football teams play back-to-back games in the city playoffs. The games were in late October, and it was very cold. I had applied a number of thick layers of clothes, but I became very cold into the second game. I was so cold that I was shivering.
The people behind me noticed I was cold and offered a hot drink of coffee from their thermos. I was tempted as I saw the steam coming off the thermos and thought how good it would feel to warm my insides. It would only be one drink, and no one would know. Then I thought of my parents and teachers who had steered me straight and trained me to prepare for this situation. I could remember the lessons in family home evening, Sunday School, priesthood meetings, and seminary that taught me how freedom is gained by obeying our Father’s commandments.
As the cup was being poured, I remembered previous mistakes, and the result of those mistakes on my life. I resolved to do the right thing. I thanked them for their offer but refused the coffee. As I walked home after the games, my heart felt light. I now understood better than ever the freedom gained from obedience to the commandments and what my parents, teachers, and the general authorities were trying so hard to teach me.

Scott had asked. He had begged. When he was in first grade he’d worn out the dog pages in our encyclopedias. He’d bought books on dogs, too, and read them from cover to cover. (Scott could do that because he’d been reading since he was four.) But he never got a dog.

Daddy and Mother explained to him a dozen times maybe how dogs belonged in the country, how they were a nuisance in the city, and how it wasn’t fair to dogs or people to have dogs cooped up. “And besides,” they’d finally say, “Tom wanted a dog once, and he had to learn that a boy can’t always have everything he wants.”

Scott begged a whole yearful, but all he got was a rabbit. He kept him a few months and then gave him to Uncle George’s kids who live on a farm. But I didn’t want a rabbit. Rabbits don’t love you back the way a dog does. Scott’s rabbit hopped away without a backward glance when we turned him loose in Uncle George’s field.

“Joey’s dog would have howled his head off if he’d been turned out and left like that,” I said as the rabbit disappeared behind a haystack.

Susanna unlatched the gate and quietly entered the old churchyard next to her home in the tiny village of Essex, England. Tomorrow she and her family would be leaving for America—for Zion. In all her eleven years, Susanna had never been farther away from home than Great Dunmow. Even then, she had only been there twice, when Papa allowed her to go with him to market.
One year ago—May 31, 1860, to be exact—Susanna was sitting on the step of their cottage, tending little Henry so that Mama could get the twins, Samuel and Elizabeth, cleaned up for supper. Down the path walked two tall strangers dressed in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. They carried books that reminded Susanna of the Hayden’s family Bible.
“Hello, young lady,” one of the strangers addressed Susanna with a funny accent. “Are your parents home?”
And that was how her family found the true Church of Jesus Christ. Papa invited the missionaries inside. They began teaching the family the gospel, and Susanna soon learned about one of their books, the Book of Mormon.
Susanna’s family had always been good church-going people. Even before the missionaries came, she and her one-year-younger brother, Joshua, took turns reading the Bible to the family every night after supper since neither Papa nor Mama could read. Now the family began studying the Book of Mormon too.
Soon after they joined the Church, family and friends began treating them differently. Some just ignored them, others shunned them. Susanna and Joshua’s classmates teased them and even taunted them about their new religion.
One day Joshua asked his mother, “Why do kids at school throw rocks at us?”
Susanna added, “The minister’s children call our missionaries ‘preachers of the devil.’ Their father even told them to stay away from us.”
Mama said, “Even Nephi was tormented for his beliefs.”
After months of persecution, Papa and Mama decided to leave their tiny English village and journey to Zion. Susanna wondered what her new life would be like in America. Would she miss her beautiful village nestled among the lush green and rolling countryside of England?
Mama was due to have a baby soon, but she refused to delay their journey any longer. The family packed their few belongings; Susanna watched Mama tuck in their precious new scriptures next to the family Bible.
On Susanna’s twelfth birthday, June 1, 1861, Papa, Mama, Susanna, Joshua, Samuel, Elizabeth, and Henry climbed aboard the huge ship in Liverpool, England, bound for Boston Harbor. Susanna thought about Nephi’s family leaving for the promised land. She and Joshua read aloud from the Book of Mormon every day of their ocean journey.
One day a violent storm arose at sea. Winds heaved the ship to and fro. Waves slammed against the ship’s sides and dashed upon its deck. Below, passengers huddled together in fright. Children whimpered. Susanna wondered if they would be swallowed in the belly of the ocean like Jonah in the Bible was swallowed by the whale. Finally she cried out, “Are we going to sink, Mama?”
“No, my child,” Mama said. “The Lord will protect us if we have faith. Remember, He calmed the tempest for Nephi.” Then Papa, Mama, and the five children knelt and prayed for safety through the storm.
Two days later a baby girl was born to them. Papa named her Seaborn because she was born at sea. That night she died. Papa sang, “And should we die before our journey’s through, happy day, all is well.”* A few days later Mama died.
When the ship finally docked in Boston Harbor, Papa and the five children knelt upon the ground and gave thanks to God. Papa handed Mama’s Book of Mormon to Susanna. “I want you to be the keeper of the record,” he said.
They traveled by train to St. Louis, Missouri, where Papa worked all winter to buy provisions for the trek west; Susanna cared for the children. Finally, when buds burst forth on bare branches and robins began to sing, they headed for Utah in their covered wagon with other Mormon pioneers. Along the way, little Henry caught a fever and died. Susanna read Alma 22:14 in Mama’s Book of Mormon: “‘Christ … breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory.’”
Years later, when Susanna was a grown woman in Zion, with children and grandchildren of her own, she carefully penned these words in her mother’s Book of Mormon, “To my posterity: Treasure this book as my mother—your ancestor—did. She gave her life for the gospel’s sake. She was a true pioneer. Remember, you may be a pioneer in your own time, for a pioneer is someone who goes before others and prepares the way for them. Live faithfully so that you may be a true pioneer.”

His military obligation fulfilled, Hal enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Business, where he earned a master’s degree in 1959 and a doctorate degree in 1963, both in business administration. Though he had the intellect to succeed in a career in science, Hal found that his passion lay in teaching, lifting, and strengthening others.
While attending Harvard during the summer of 1961, Hal met Kathleen Johnson, the daughter of J. Cyril and LaPrele Lindsay Johnson, of Palo Alto, California. She was attending summer school in Boston, and Hal was smitten the first time he saw her. He felt an immediate desire to do his best when he was in her presence—a feeling that has continued throughout their lives together.
They dated that summer and continued their courtship through phone calls and letters after Kathleen returned to California. They were married in July 1962 in the Logan Utah Temple by Elder Spencer W. Kimball. That same year Hal became an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Laurels from Garland, Utah, got to know several women in their ward by becoming a “secret granddaughter” to them. Each girl chose a woman from the ward and then spent three weeks leaving small surprises and sending good wishes through the mail. During the fourth week, the girls interviewed their grandmothers about their lives. At the end of the activity, the Laurels gave a dinner party honoring their grandmothers.

The girls provided much-needed fellowship for the sisters, many of whom are in poor health. And they had a great time doing it. “This is the most fun activity we have ever planned,” said one Laurel.

Our attitude toward any “rule” has a lot to do with what we’re used to. If your friends were used to never brushing their teeth and you told them that you brush every day because you had been taught to, they might find this to be an oppressive rule. But you really don’t even think of it as a rule at all because it has simply become a habit, a way of life. While they might think never having to brush their teeth is a kind of freedom, you know the problems it leads to and how much better it feels to have clean, healthy teeth.

The Young Women of the Seaside Ward, Monterey Bay California Stake, undertook the project of recording the cemeteries on the Monterey Peninsula. They created a slide show to generate enthusiasm for the service project to index the largest cemetery in their area.

“Faith in God,” p. F8: Invite family members to tie their shoes using only one hand. Discuss why this is difficult. Now have them tie each other’s shoes. Discuss how working together made the task easier. Read the article, and discuss how your faith in God will be strengthened as you work together to complete this program. Choose an activity from the Faith in God guidebook to work on together this coming week.

President Monson and his wife, Frances, had three children. While serving as a mission president in Canada, he was busy helping missionaries, but he still took time each night to play with his children. He and his oldest son liked playing checkers every night.

You don’t have to be on a mission to do those things. You can take any of the principles of the gospel and work on them until they work for you. Don’t be like the girl I read about in the paper. Her mother promised her $2,000 if she could go for a year without taking one drink of an alcoholic beverage. Her mother wanted her to see that she could enjoy her new life away at college—enjoy friends and social events without participating in the drinking. And she did it! One year later she testified that she had indeed proven to herself that it could be done. But do you know what she did with the money she won? She threw a great big beer bash for all her friends. The liquor flowed freely, and they danced in the streets as they drank. She had learned a principle and then threw it away. Don’t do that. Work on a principle until it is part of you—a habit, like praying every morning or reading the scriptures every night, and then hang onto it and move on to tackle another one. There are people all around you who don’t have the light of the gospel in their lives. Share with them—friends at school, at work, your neighbors, the stranger on the bus. The more you give away, the more you’ll have.

My grandma made me the perfect gift!
It’s so many things to me—
A flying carpet for my toys,
A ship out on the sea,
A magic cape, a hiding place,
An indoor cave I built.
Cozy and warm at the end of the day,
I’m under my favorite quilt!

Now we have a special treat. I would like to ask Brother David B. Haight to come to the pulpit. Here is a grand old warrior. He is 97 years of age. He has lived longer than any other Apostle in the history of this dispensation. He recently became ill and has had a little difficulty. But he wanted to come this morning and just wave to you with a feeling of gratitude and appreciation for you and the great love which he feels for you. And to him, dear friend, we say, God bless you and heal you. We love you, we sustain you, we pray for you. May heaven’s blessings rest upon you, dear Brother Haight. Thank you.
Elder Haight: Thank you.
President Hinckley: Do you want to wave to these people?
Elder Haight: Yes, I must. I am waving. Thank you, thank you. Nice to be with you.
President Hinckley: Thank you.
Elder Haight: Thank you.
President Hinckley: We will excuse him now. He will be watching on television. What a great soldier he has been in the army of the Lord. Thank you so much, Brother Haight.

World records are often made before the race is run.
“Somebody’s going to break the world record in the 200-meter backstroke,” predicted Jed Graef, an American swimmer at the 1964 Olympics. And who might that be? “Me!” said Graef. And he broke the record.

But the Lord doesn’t usually work that way. Sometimes He waits until we’re ready. Even the Prophet Joseph Smith often had to wait for answers to his prayers. In 1833 many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were living in Jackson County, Missouri, USA. However, in November of that year, mobs drove them out of the county. Joseph was troubled. He asked the Lord why it had happened. The Lord didn’t answer that question right away, but He comforted Joseph, saying, “Be still and know that I am God.”1 The rest of the answer came the following month (see Doctrine and Covenants 101).

“Does God really want to speak to you?” President Russell M. Nelson has asked. “Yes!”5 If we are patient and put in the necessary work, we will receive answers to our prayers. Until those answers come, we can trust in the Lord and keep moving forward. The Lord told Joseph Smith, “Be still and know that I am God” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:16). That counsel can comfort us as well.

There are other ways the Lord uses miracles to answer our prayers. Sometimes, for instance, he seems to manipulate our temporal world to our benefit, as one sister related in testimony meeting:
“We knew when we were preparing to send Roger on his mission that we would have to change our lifestyle to afford it. But when we sat down and figured out exactly what our new budget would be—to the penny—we discovered that we wouldn’t have enough even for must items. We worried and prayed about it; we were going to trust the Lord and send Roger anyway, but we didn’t know how we were going to do it.
“Then, the day before Roger left, my husband’s boss called him into his office and said they were giving him a raise effective immediately. He then wrote the amount of the raise on a slip of paper and handed it to my husband. It was the exact amount—to the penny—that it was going to cost to support Roger on his mission.”

We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were both baptized on the same day in November of 2015. We were among the very first few members of the Church here in Tamale. Some refer to us as “member pioneers”. We are proud to be pioneers here in Tamale and to now be “old in the church”.
The year 2014 was the year when the missionaries found us and taught us about the Church. We enjoyed learning even though we spoke no English. The Spirit testified to us both that the Church was true!

About 20 years ago, I was unexpectedly asked by the leaders of our Church if Kathy and I would be willing to leave our businesses and home in Florida and accept a position in the worldwide leadership of the Church. We accepted this life-changing responsibility with some apprehension and much humility. It has taken us to many parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. We have lived 10 years in Europe and South America.
I have been able to observe and hopefully encourage hundreds and thousands of people in many languages, cultures, and economic situations as they discovered or strengthened their faith in Jesus Christ.