Gospel Story Finder

The fourth element of the framework is to recognize what God has already revealed to you personally, while being open to further revelation from Him. If God has answered a question and the circumstances have not changed, why would we expect the answer to be different? Joseph Smith stumbled into this problematic scenario in 1828. The first portion of the Book of Mormon had been translated, when Martin Harris, a benefactor and early scribe, asked Joseph for permission to take the translated pages and show them to his wife. Unsure of what to do, Joseph prayed for guidance. The Lord told him not to let Martin take the pages.

Martin requested that Joseph ask God again. Joseph did so, and the answer was, not surprisingly, the same. But Martin begged Joseph to ask a third time, and Joseph did so. This time God did not say no. Instead, it was as though God said, “Joseph, you know how I feel about this, but you have your agency to choose.” Feeling himself relieved of the constraint, Joseph decided to allow Martin to take 116 manuscript pages and show them to a few family members. The translated pages were lost and never recovered. The Lord severely rebuked Joseph.

When I was baptized in 1977 at the age of 10, my mother, with 8 children, was separated from my father, and we had many needs, both temporal and spiritual. The sisters of that small branch in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, were faithful in visiting my mother to minister to her. These sisters lightened the burdens of my mother and the entire family in many ways; they were a great blessing in our lives.

I spoke with a young man recently who was a freshman at a large university, (actually it was BYU-Provo.) Having come from a very small high school of less than 200, he was overwhelmed by the number of students. Everywhere he looked there were people, faces with no names. He was one of them. One Saturday night, however, he got up the courage to go to a dance. He was separated from his roommate and the others he had gotten to know and for 45 minutes he walked around by himself. No one stopped, no one looked, no one noticed this young man. I think there were probably hundreds, maybe thousands there that night facing the same plight. Desperately alone, he closed his eyes and prayed to one he knew was there, his Father in Heaven. He prayed for help. . " Help me not be alone." And then he turned to walk back toward the celebration. But he felt prompted to take another sidewalk. The Lord was at work prompting others onto that same sidewalk and sure enough, the young man ran into a group of students and one called out his name, someone from his home ward who had moved several years before. Someone who knew his name, drew him in. That's what we must do for one another.

Illustrations by David Habben
At the end of my eighth grade year, I was so excited to try out for my junior high’s cheerleading squad. I remember watching the ninth-grade cheerleaders, hoping that I might be one of them the following year. I was excited when I realized a lot of my friends would be trying out too. After tryouts, I was thrilled to find out I had made the squad.
Throughout the summer, we learned chants, stunts, and a dance that we’d be performing throughout the year at games and assemblies. I asked my mother to download the song we were dancing to so I could practice at home. After she did, she was concerned that it was suggestive and inappropriate. I quickly explained that the music we were using at school had been edited and that the bad words were taken out. Then my mom explained that just removing the bad words from a song doesn’t remove the meaning. She helped me understand what kind of message I would be sending about myself if I were to dance to this kind of music.
The next day, I brought some wholesome music, hoping the coach would be open to changing the song because it was not appropriate for us. No one really liked my idea, and I chose to sit out while the rest of the squad continued to rehearse to the inappropriate song.
I was disappointed that I was the only one who seemed to be bothered by our squad’s choice of song, and I knew that by choosing to sit out, I would most likely be sitting out the entire year. This was very hard for me because I really wanted to feel like a part of the cheer squad. I knew this was the only dance we would be performing and that I would not get to be a part of the halftime performances.
I realized I would need to rely on the Lord to get me through this trial. I had not made the popular decision. I was very discouraged as young women I trusted as friends began gossiping about me, sharing unkind text messages with one another, and turning their backs on me. There were times I would show up and my teammates would ignore me and pretend I wasn’t there, but even this was better than the times we would sit in a circle while everyone openly talked about me. I struggled with the idea of having to suffer through this for the entire year. I am proud to say I never second-guessed my choice. I did, however, wonder why the right thing didn’t feel better. Why was I being punished for making the right choice?
In church when we talked about standing for truth and righteousness, I often pictured how glorious it would feel to make the right choice and have others happily follow. I thought of how wonderful it would feel to be a righteous leader. This experience helped me understand how difficult it truly is to stand up against your peers and those you respect—and how lonely it can be to stand alone.
As youth in the Church, we are going to have to make unpopular decisions. I know that by taking a stand for things that are virtuous and true, we will not only bless our own lives but the lives of those around us as well. In Joshua 1:9 we read, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” The Lord loves us and is there to help us make the decisions that will define whom we will become.
I am grateful I was given the opportunity to stand up for what I believe in. I was grateful that I had the courage to stand alone among my peers. I was grateful to experience that the Lord does help us find the strength to do what is right. I could feel in my heart that He was proud of me. Deep down I knew I was a righteous leader, even if no one else followed.

Our beloved prophet not only calls us to be better missionaries, to lengthen our stride, he shows us how. In 1975 my wife and I were with President and Sister Kimball in Bogota, Colombia. As we were in the airport for his departure, an airlines representative met with us. Upon being introduced to this fine young man, the prophet extended his hand with these words, “Young man, I hope the next time I shake your hand you’re a member of this church.” Without any hesitation, and with his eyes fixed firmly on those of the prophet, the man replied, “Sir, so do I!” The President turned to the mission president and obtained a commitment from him to teach the man the gospel. Words President Kimball had spoken to missionaries in Bogota had been exemplified in deed: “Give full energy and thought to the Lord’s work—your lives will be rich because of it.” That day I saw how the prophet’s full thought was centered on living the spirit of the calling, as well as carrying out the physical duties that are his.

Valentine’s Day: a day of love or a day of loneliness? Or something else entirely? The spectrum swings far and wide regarding how people feel about this particular holiday.
Sister Wendy Nelson once described to a large group of Church members how Valentine’s Day can be both wonderful and miserable, depending on the circumstances and the individual.
She was also quick to elevate the definition of love beyond that of romance. “Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to feel the love They have for each of us. And the Savior says to you and to me, ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’ [John 14:15],” Sister Nelson said. “What a wonderful Valentine gift we can give to our Heavenly Father and to our Savior—as we humble ourselves and open our hearts to receive Their love and as we keep the Lord’s commandments.”1
True love—Christlike love—has little to do with chocolates or wrapped presents. And it’s within reach for us all.
One particular example of true love left a permanent impression in my mind. I once came across a general conference talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917–2008) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles where he spoke on charity, or the “pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47).
Elder Wirthlin began by quoting Jesus’s teaching that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor (see Matthew 22:37–40). Of course, I’d heard this scriptural account many times before. And always, for me, that level of Christlike love had seemed somehow beyond reach. How could I, plain old me, ever love as purely or as effectively as the Savior? It felt like an impossible goal.
But then Elder Wirthlin described an elderly couple who’d been married for many years. The wife grew unable to care for herself fully, including being able to paint her fingernails.
So the husband decided to paint them for her, simply because it made her smile. “That is an example of the pure love of Christ,” Elder Wirthlin declared.2
And with that brief example, something clicked in my brain. Painting fingernails? Not raising Lazarus from the dead or healing the blind, but a quiet act of kindness? That’sconsidered the pure love of Christ? Well … gee, I could do that!
Elder Wirthlin continued, adding further clarity. “Sometimes the greatest love is not found in the dramatic scenes that poets and writers immortalize. Often, the greatest manifestations of love are the simple acts of kindness and caring we extend to those we meet along the path of life.”3
My mind latched on as this idea took hold. I could perform those acts of kindness. What’s more, I knew for certain I’d been the recipient of countless such acts my whole life. True love isn’t glamorous or glittery. It’s quiet yet powerful. And available to all.
Then, in a twist of fate almost so coincidental as to be serendipitous, I was about to witness a demonstration of this principle in the very talk Elder Wirthlin was giving.
About halfway through his conference address, Elder Wirthlin started to lose physical stability. His breath came in short gasps and his body began to tremble.
Right when it appeared that Elder Wirthlin might not be able to finish delivering his address, President Russell M. Nelson (then Elder Nelson) rose and stood quietly behind Elder Wirthlin.
For the next several minutes, President Nelson’s silent presence was remarkable. With a firm grip on Elder Wirthlin’s arm and another grip on his lower back, President Nelson quietly personified the topic in discussion of Christlike love.
Did President Nelson take Elder Wirthlin’s struggles away? Not really. Did he do anything complex or dramatic? Again, not really. But his love and concern for his friend and fellow quorum member was palpable, and the strength he offered Elder Wirthlin made all the difference.
True love occurs every time we try to make another’s burden lighter.
Ultimately, Valentine’s Day could be missing the point a bit with its focus on love during one specific day of the year when we all need to give and feel Christlike love every day. That’s true for each of us, whether or not we’re in a romantic relationship. As children of God, we each need love like we need food and air.
And as Elder Wirthlin taught and President Nelson demonstrated, those strengthening, life-shaping acts of love don’t have to be as mysterious or complex as I once assumed.
If I’m having a rough day, a kind word from a friend can make all the difference. That’s another example of Christlike love. So is a stranger smiling and saying hello.
If I know somebody is sick and I bring them a hot bowl of their favorite soup, that’s me trying to be a little more Christlike. It’s me trying to share Christlike love.
And that’s always in season.

Nicole Wood, a Laurel from St. George, Utah, didn’t think she would have time to read the Book of Mormon. She didn’t really think it was all that important to do it, either. “But I started reading a little bit every night anyway,” she says. “I can’t even describe how much it has changed my life. I was less stressed out in my classes. I felt happier, and, mostly, I felt closer to my Father in Heaven.”
Along with this change in her life, Nicole says she grew to love the Book of Mormon. She found it easy and exciting to apply its stories to what she was experiencing. And she felt close to the prophets who wrote so that we could learn from their experiences.

President Grant was also known for his willingness to work on areas of his life where he felt he needed improvement. His example teaches us that in addition to developing the natural talents that are ours we can even strive to make progress in those areas where we don’t seem to be over-laden with talent.

There is a familiar story from his life when he determined he would learn how to sing. He was apparently not gifted in singing but practiced and practiced until he could sing some hymns. He tells of one instance when he was traveling with two other apostles.

Upon my recent trip to Arizona, I asked Elders Rudger Clawson and J. Golden Kimball if they had any objections to my singing one hundred hymns that day. They took it as a joke, and assured me that they would be delighted. We were on the way from Holbrook to St. Johns, a distance of about sixty miles. After I had sung about forty times, they assured me that if I sang the remaining sixty they would be sure to have nervous prostration. I paid no attention whatever to their appeal, but held them to their bargain and sang the full one hundred. One hundred and fifteen songs in one day and four hundred in four days, is the largest amount of practicing I ever did.[9]

President Grant eventually was able to sing some hymns, but never got good enough that he would have been invited to sing in the tabernacle choir. We too can make progress in areas where we don’t have much natural ability.

One who received and welcomed the gift of peace was Joseph Millett, an early missionary to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, who learned, while there and in his later experiences in life, of the need to rely on heavenly help. An experience which he recalled in his journal is a beautiful illustration of simple yet profound faith:

“One of my children came in, said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks were out of bread. Had none that day. I put … our flour in [a] sack to send up to Brother Hall’s. Just then Brother Hall came in. Says I, ‘Brother Hall, how are you [fixed] for flour.’ ‘Brother Millett, we have none.’ ‘Well, Brother Hall, there is some in that sack. I have divided [it] and was going to send it to you. Your children told mine that you were out.’ Brother Hall began to cry. Said he had tried others. Could not get any. Went to the cedars and prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett. ‘Well, Brother Hall, you needn’t bring this back if the Lord sent you for it. You don’t owe me for it.’ You can’t tell how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew that there was such a person as Joseph Millett.”

Prayer brought the gift of peace to Newton Hall and to Joseph Millett.

Illustrations by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki
Wow! Fried chicken!
And mashed potatoes and gravy! And apple pie! When do we eat?
It’s not for us. We’re making dinner for Brother Albertson.
Why is the good stuff always for somebody else?
Yeah, aren’t you forgetting about us?
Of course not. But Sister Albertson passed away yesterday, and Brother Albertson feels terribly sad and lonely.
He may not even feel like eating, but we want him to know that we care. And maybe a hot meal will comfort him just a teeny little bit. What do you think?
I want to help cook!
Me too!
Wonderful! How about whipping up your famous Matt and Mandy salad?

In 1919, the University of Pennsylvania track team was invited to compete in the annual Intercollegiate Association track meet. Creed Haymond, a member of the Church, was the team’s captain.
The night before the track meet the team’s coach, Lawson Robertson, who coached several Olympic teams, instructed his team members to drink some sherry wine. In those days, coaches wrongly felt that wine was a tonic for muscles hardened through rigorous training. All the other team members took the sherry, but Brother Haymond refused because his parents had taught him the Word of Wisdom. Brother Haymond became very anxious because he did not like to be disobedient to his coach. He was to compete against the fastest men in the world. What if he made a poor showing the next day? How could he face his coach?
The next day at the track meet the rest of the team members were very ill and performed poorly or were even too sick to run. Brother Haymond, however, felt well and won the 100- and 220-yard dashes. His coach told him, “You just ran the 220 yards in the fastest time it has ever been run by any human being.” That night and for the rest of his life, Creed Haymond was grateful for his simple faith in keeping the Word of Wisdom.1

In Australia just this past Sunday we were told of a doctor, a member of the Church, who had taken seriously the counsel that every member should be a missionary. He didn’t know how, but he was willing to try. He pleaded with the Lord for help. He told his patients, as opportunity presented itself, of the Church. Then he received a call one day from a patient who said that he and his family wished to know more of Mormonism. The doctor sent the missionaries. After being taught, the family asked for baptism and requested that the doctor perform the baptisms. The doctor asked them how their interest had been aroused. They said that they had gone camping. The first day they just enjoyed themselves. The second day they felt a little bored. They walked around the campgrounds and found a copy of a Church magazine. They read it. Their interest had been aroused. Tears came into the eyes of the doctor. He said, “My family and I had been at the same campground a few days before. I had taken that magazine with me to read. I felt impressed to leave it on the table. That was the magazine which led you in the direction of the Church.”

Some years ago, Zulma—my wife, my better half, my best part—received some difficult news just two weeks before the wedding of one of our children. She had a tumor in her parotid gland, and it was growing rapidly. Her face began swelling, and she was to immediately undergo a delicate operation. Many thoughts ran through her mind and weighed on her heart. Was the tumor malignant? How would her body recover? Would her face become paralyzed? How intense would the pain be? Would her face be permanently scarred? Would the tumor return once removed? Would she be able to attend the wedding of our son? As she lay in the operating room, she felt broken.

In that very important moment, the Spirit whispered to her that she had to accept the will of the Father. She then decided to place her trust in God. She strongly felt that whatever the result, His will would be the best for her. Soon she drifted into surgical sleep.

Later, she wrote poetically in her diary: “On the surgeon’s table I bowed before Thee, and surrendering to Thy will, I fell asleep. I knew I could trust Thee, knowing that nothing bad can come from Thee.”

She found strength and comfort from surrendering her will to that of the Father. That day, God blessed her greatly.

Barbara moved from Uganda to Norway in 1998, when she was nine years old. Ten years later, while living in Oslo, two missionaries invited her to learn about the restored gospel, telling her that they could meet in the center for young adults. Barbara was skeptical, at best.
“I thought to myself, ‘Yet another youth center,’” she admits. “I had been to plenty of places like that before, and I honestly never felt comfortable being in any of them.”
But this center proved to be different. “My mind was blown away when I took the first step into the door,” Barbara remembers. “I stood still for a moment, trying to figure out the feeling I had. I felt warmth and love. I felt assured that I was in the right place, with the right people, for the right cause.”
Barbara Matovu remembers the first time the missionaries brought her to the center for an activity to meet other young single adults. She thought she knew what to expect.
“Throughout my life I’ve always had a group that I belonged to,” explains Barbara. “And the groups were always stamped with something—you were the sporty group or the international group or some other group. So when people started coming into the center, it was so strange because no one seemed to have the attitude of ‘I’m in the popular group, so I can’t talk to you.’
“At first, I thought, ‘Are they acting? Is this a show?’ But after a while I realized it actually doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from or which language we speak. The love of our Heavenly Father is for everyone. Usually it takes me a bit of time to find my group, but this time I felt like I didn’t need a group. I was just Barbara, and I could be Barbara for everybody.”
Elisabeth Olsen says she feels humbled to see her place in her heavenly family. “When you meet people from a different culture or society, it’s so easy to label them. I’ve learned to open up my eyes more and to see people through the eyes of Christ,” she says. “At the center we all have different cultural backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common: we want to be with Jesus Christ and God again.”
Some might be wary of the idea of unity because they think it must come at the cost of sacrificing individuality. “A lot of people are scared of religion because they think that it makes us all the same, because we live by the same commandments,” explains Elisabeth. “But that’s not how it is at all. God made us all individuals. We may have the same beliefs, but we have different qualities and gifts, and that’s what makes us individuals. God wants us all to be different because we all have different missions.”
Sam Basnet has also fielded concerns from friends who believe religious rules are restrictive. “One friend told me, ‘If you go to church, you have to follow the rules of others,’” he reports. But Sam follows the standards of the Church because he has prayerfully sought personal revelation to confirm his actions.
And it’s by individually speaking to His children that God is unifying them, explains Sam. “God says that all nations and all tongues will worship Him” (see Mosiah 27:31), he says. “By meeting different people, I learn to appreciate different cultures. But experiencing such diversity also makes me feel that, yes, God has a great plan to unite us in peace.”
As much as these young adults appreciate the power of gathering to a center for young adults, these future leaders of the Church understand that it’s just the beginning. As Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught, one of the most important gathering places is the temple.1
Sam has prepared to enter the house of the Lord by surrounding himself with good friends at the center. “By getting to know people from so many different places, it has helped me to feel positive about the world,” he says. “I want to be a good example for my friends, and this has made me more fit for God and more fit to enter His temple.”
One month after her baptism, Barbara first started thinking about attending the temple while she was at a family home evening lesson at the center. After the lesson, she started asking questions.
“Having friends who understood what the temple meant for them helped me understand what the temple might mean for me. As they explained to me about the temple, I felt the Holy Spirit,” Barbara recalls. “I realized that all the places I’d been thinking about getting married—a nice church or the beach—couldn’t even be compared to the temple. From that moment the temple was no longer just a building. It was something I wanted to look forward to and a place to one day enter with my future husband.”
Elisabeth has also included the temple as one of her most important goals. “Whenever I get to travel to a temple, I just smile like I won a million dollars,” she says. “I know that God wants everyone to go there and receive all the blessings and gifts He has in store for us. Going to the temple and being temple worthy are true success. I can enter the temple and be the closest to God—the closest to home—as I can get on this earth.”
The celestial kingdom is, of course, the ultimate gathering place, one where Barbara doesn’t want any empty seats. “Christ says that it is only through Him that we can come to Heavenly Father, but He also says that one of the biggest things we can do in life is to serve one another [see John 21:15–17]. And serving one another is helping somebody come home to Heavenly Father, because you don’t want to go alone.”

Now a final example. C.O. Woody was an executive at a large power company. The company's executives asked me and some colleagues to interview employees and managers, and design a leadership program to help them improve. Everywhere I went, people's response was "Oh, C.O. helped us do that"."C.O. was the person that directed that, he will be the one to figure it out in the future." My last appointment of the day was with C.O. Woody. As I sat down and I said something like, "C.O. you are a legend around here. How do you work with these people?" C.O. was very self effacing and gave some general answers about working hard and getting other people involved. I finally pushed him a little and he said, "Well look around the office and tell me what you see." The walls were filled with pictures of his family, groups he had worked with, workers at plants he had visited. He explained, "A couple of years ago, I had a heart attack but the good Lord gave me another chance. As I was lying in the hospital recovering I decided when I came back to work I was going to treat everyone like family." We talked a bit and I think I understood what he was saying. But I finally really understood later in the lunch room. Mildred, and that is the best I can remember her name, was doing her job of cleaning tables and straightening up the area. She was looking radiant. I had seen her before so I knew a bit of her history as a single mom just trying to make it through, and I said, "Mildred, must be a good day," She said "great day, I am finally graduating." So I said "congratulations on finishing High School". And she said. "No, college". College? And then she told me how years before she was moping around the cafeteria doing her job, when C.O. asked her what was up. She explained the challenges she was facing and she reported he said something like, "Tell you what, we will support you to start taking classes at the community college. You keep going and keep your grades up and we will help you get a degree that will qualify you for a better paying job." C.O. held people to high expectations, helped them and held them accountable. Mildred was graduating and moving on. Can you think of anything Mildred would not do for C.O. Woody? Of course the answer is, Mildred would devote her full energy and creativity to helping C.O. Woody. He treated everyone that way, and they responded with high energy and high performance. The Lord's way of leading really works.

At age 19, Bruce served a two-year mission in the Eastern States Mission. After returning home he attended school at the University of Utah, earning his B.A. degree, and later his juris doctor degree. It was while walking to and from school at the university that he developed a habit of study that was of great value to him. He would think of a subject in the gospel such as repentance and would then, in his mind, make up an outline for a sermon on the subject, adding the appropriate scriptures and supporting material. Doing this daily as he walked gave him practice in analysis of doctrinal subjects. This careful organization and logical progression was evident in his sermons.

Fourteen years came and went with my same activity in the Church and still no baptism. One particular night, I had a dream in which I could not hide from a young man in a white shirt, with a badge and his scriptures. The next morning in seminary, the classroom discussion revealed my dream’s meaning. The students were asked, “If Jesus Christ came today looking to receive all those who opened their hearts to Him and had decided to accept Him as their Savior, would you be able to go with Him?” I shared my dream with them, and they told me, “The Lord wants you to make the decision to be baptized.”

That afternoon, I called the elders to tell them my experience and that I was ready to be baptized. The branch president, mission president, and the elders were super excited about the guidance the Lord was giving me.

My baptism was performed in the Los Llanos Branch, by my son. I was super excited that his first baptism before leaving for his mission was mine.

Nearly four years ago, I received a call from a graduating BYU-Idaho student named Jonathan, whom I had mentored for over a decade since our time together in Boston. Jonathan had come from a broken home in inner-city Boston, out of a community where very few students attended college, let alone finished. In some ways, Jonathan was just happy to be graduating, but he could sense I was less taken with the milestone. My reply was loving but firm: "Jonathan, I am so pleased with what is happening. You have come so far, and I am so proud of you. But you also need to understand that this is actually just one step in a future path that the Lord has been preparing all along. Indeed, if you truly understood what the Lord expects, you would realize He needs you to keep working, even though you have made it this far."

In the three years since that graduation, Jonathan has moved on to meaningful professional work. Then, last year, he walked through another graduation from a master's program on the East Coast. He now manages millions of transactions at one of the nation's leading e-commerce companies. More importantly, Jonathan has grown in the work of his family and in his service to the Church.

In the first interview with each missionary, I liked to help them see their talents, build them up, and encourage them. Before new missionaries arrived, I read all the information on their applications to get to know them a little. I was a little concerned about one of the new elders. He was relatively new in the Church and came from difficult circumstances. I worried that he might lack the experience and background to be an effective missionary. As this young elder sat before me, I wanted to say something to encourage him, but I just couldn't think of anything I could tell him without giving him false hope. What could I say? Finally I said, "Elder, I have a feeling that you are going to be a great missionary. You are going to be such a blessing to our mission and a great blessing to the people here." He looked at me like, "What did you just say?" I thought to myself, "What did I say?" A few weeks later, I received a letter from him. He wrote, "President, I've been thinking a lot about what you said in my interview. I even wrote my mother about what you told me. We think you might be right."

Our mission was split soon after, and I never saw this elder again. Later, however, I met his new president at a training meeting. He asked me, "Do you remember Elder So-and-So?" I wanted to say, "Hey, I only had him for a while, so whatever he's done has nothing to do with me." He said, "Elder So-and-So is an amazing missionary; he has been such a blessing to our mission and to the people he has taught." As I thought about what I had told him in that first interview, I realized that the words I had spoken had not come from me. Those were the words of a loving Heavenly Father telling his son, "I love you. You can be great. You can do it."

For the past 17 years, I have had the privilege of spending the majority of my time living and traveling throughout China. I see numerous members participate in monthly temple excursions to Hong Kong to do temple ordinances for those who have departed this world. Many are involved in genealogical projects where long lost ancestral records are found and temple ordinances can be done for them. In 2008, a deadly earthquake occurred in Sichuan Province where tens of thousands of inhabitants perished. Hundreds of church members responded instantly. Many travelled to the areas of destruction to offer lifesaving services. I am proud to say, some of them are among you in the audience. Some recipients were touched by those charitable acts and subsequently accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another young sister was in college at the time of the earthquake. She did not hesitate to make the extreme personal sacrifice. She left school altogether to join the rescue effort to save lives that lasted several months. This remarkable sister from Sichuan, China will arrive here to further her education this coming September.