Gospel Story Finder

He returned with an assignment from his mission president to give a report to the First Presidency on the condition of the mission. He was scheduled to spend just a few minutes with President Heber J. Grant and his counselors, but the meeting lasted much longer. As it turned out in the months ahead, that report to the First Presidency was a job interview as well.
A new committee of the Twelve was organized to bring to missionary work the power of the latest means of communication. Gordon was to serve as producer and secretary for the Church Radio, Publicity, and Mission Literature Committee. This was, in fact, the beginning of the public communications office in the Church. His plans to go to the university would be put aside. His career as a seminary teacher, for he taught part-time when he returned from his mission, would be replaced. The committee included six members of the Twelve, with Elder Stephen L. Richards as chairman.
There was an empty office available, but no furniture at the moment. Being resourceful, he went to a former missionary companion whose father sold office furniture and came away with a shaky reject table. One leg was short; that could be fixed with a block of wood. The top was warped and split a little; that could be ignored. He brought his typewriter from home and began a career that would take him to the ordination of an Apostle and to the First Presidency of the Church.

In January 1844, Joseph Smith announced his candidacy for President of the United States, but on June 27, Joseph and his brother Hyrum were killed in Carthage Jail. The next morning their bodies were placed in two wagons, covered with branches to shade them, then driven to Nauvoo. They arrived in Nauvoo about three o’clock in the afternoon and were met by huge crowds of silent people. It was the saddest day Nauvoo or the Church had ever known.
John Taylor, who was with Joseph at Carthage, wrote, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it” (D&C 135:3).
Many of the anti-Mormons thought that Joseph’s death would bring an end to the Church, but it did not. The Saints knew that the Church was God’s Church, not Joseph’s, and so they carried on God’s work. Instead of dying out, the Church continued to grow. What the mobs did not understand was that the faith of the Saints was much stronger than their fear.

May I share with you, with permission, the story of one of my students. This young man experienced the tragic death of his father in an accident when he was six years old. He left his childhood home when the actions of an emotionally and physically abusive stepfather became overwhelming. He worked to earn money for his mission. He had been blessed with a burning testimony all of his life and literally counted the days until he could serve a mission. He was determined to use every moment of his time wisely as he served in Japan, putting in long hours of finding and teaching investigators. He gave his heart, mind, might, and strength to the work. Again and again he had investigators get one step away from baptism and then fall through. Every time someone would walk away from their testimony, this elder felt as though his heart would break.

One day he sat in a zone leader’s conference. It had been a rough month. He hadn’t heard anything from home for many months and had had no baptisms. He sat and listened as elders rose and spoke of the great blessings they were enjoying in the work. One elder testified of how much his family had been blessed by his missionary service. This elder heard the same things said over and over again. He began to weep and could not hold back the tears. He said at that moment he was comforted and renewed by the Holy Spirit.

I knew that the Lord was pleased with my efforts. I felt his Spirit quite literally to the consuming of my flesh. About a month later, the mission president came to do interviews. He sat me down and asked me how I was doing. I told him about our investigators and their progress.
He stopped me and asked again how I was doing, so I told him how the missionary efforts were going. He stopped me again and asked me how I was doing. I couldn’t answer. Sometimes the strain of life just becomes so heavy and filled with heartbreak that if you stopped to rest you are afraid that you’ll be crushed under the weight of it all. That is how I was beginning to feel. My mission president opened up his scriptures . . . and [read], putting my name in place of Nephi’s, ‘Blessed art thou, Elder Taylor, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou . . . hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever” (Helaman 10:4–5). The words spoke right out to me.

At that moment I felt justified before God. I knew of his acceptance of my offering.

The experiences of this young missionary fulfill the scriptural injunction of the apostle Paul to not “be wearied and faint” in our minds (Hebrews 12:3) but to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). This elder waited upon the Lord.

While I was a little boy during the Second World War, my country had been invaded; danger was all around us. My mother taught me a great lesson of trust and unity that I have never forgotten. She alerted me to the perils of war and simply said: “Trust my word and follow me; listen to my voice. If you do so, I will protect you the best I know how.” I simply listened to my mother because I loved her and trusted her.
A little later, school started, and this, for me, was a new bridge to cross. As a preparation for this new experience in my life, leaving the home, my mother told me to listen to my teacher and to be obedient. Again, I trusted my mother’s advice. I decided to be obedient to my teacher and a new code of rules. School therefore became a bridge of knowledge instead of a wall of ignorance.
That lesson of trust and unity was vital to become one with my parents, family members, and teachers. It allowed me later to become one with my Savior by being baptized into His Church. It reminded me as a husband, father, and grandfather to continue to build trust and unity among our family members by keeping the temple covenants. As President Hinckley has stated: “The temple is concerned with things of immortality. It is a bridge between this life and the next” (Stand a Little Taller [2001], 6).
In our day, it is so easy to isolate ourselves by erecting temporal, spiritual, and even family or religious walls. Let us instead build more bridges of faith, of reconciliation, and live by the peace that is given “not as the world giveth” (John 14:27), but by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the bridge of faith unto eternity.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ; I put my trust in Him and in His gospel of salvation to be reunited someday. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

At the gates to the zoo, Patricia and Luis’s mother was getting a stroller for their little brother, Marcos.
“No,” said Patricia as Luis tried to lead her through the gate. “I don’t want to go into the zoo.”
“Why not?” Luis asked.
“Because I’m scared. It’s full of all those big animals—and lots of big people too.”
“I’ll help you,” Luis said. “I’ll tell you a secret that Mother told me.”
“What secret?” Patricia asked.
“All the animals began as baby animals, just like we were once baby people,” Luis whispered.
“Really?”
“Yes.” Luis smiled at his sister. “Then the baby people grew into kids like us and kept on growing until they became big people. And the baby animals grew into kid-age animals and then grown-up, big animals—see?”
“I’m still scared,” Patricia said.
“Look,” Luis said, “cover your eyes and imagine a baby giraffe.”
She covered her eyes and saw a baby giraffe wearing a bonnet. Patricia laughed and said, “This is fun. Now it’s your turn. Cover your eyes and see a baby policeman.”
Luis imagined a baby policeman standing in a crib. He grinned. “OK, cover your eyes and see a baby bear.”
Patricia put her hands over her eyes and saw a baby bear sitting in a high chair. She giggled. “Cover your eyes and imagine a baby clown.”
Up went Luis’s hands, and he saw a baby clown holding a bouquet of balloons. Luis clapped his hands. “Cover your eyes and see a baby lion.”
Patricia saw a baby lion in a playpen. “Hands off,” she said. “See a baby whale.”
Luis hooted when he saw a baby whale swimming in a bathtub. “Cover your eyes and see a baby ticket-taker,” he told Patricia.
Patricia saw a baby ticket-taker taking tickets. “Hey,” she said, “cover your eyes and see a baby elephant.”
Luis saw a baby elephant brushing its tusks. “One more,” he said. “Cover your eyes and see a baby zookeeper.”
Patricia laughed when she saw a baby zookeeper feeding the giraffe. “Know what?” Patricia asked. “Big animals and big people aren’t so scary after all!”
“That’s right.” Luis smiled. “Let’s both cover our eyes and see what we will look like when we are grown-ups.”
They covered their eyes. Luis imagined that he was an astronaut, and Patricia imagined that she was a baseball player.
“Wow!” Luis yelled.
Patricia looked very happy. “I’m not afraid any more. Thanks Luis. Here comes Mommy. Let’s race her and Marcos to the gate and go see the animals.”

I would like to thank you for the article “Profanity” (May 1992). I was teaching an investigator who asked me why the Church feels it’s wrong to swear when everyone does it. All that came to mind was this article and these lines: “It’s the same mouth you use to pray, bear testimony, and bless the sacrament.” That’s all I had to say, because tears fell from my investigator’s eyes.
Elder Dwayne VictorFlorida Tampa Mission

Then in January 1999, the Lindon 17th Ward, Lindon Utah Stake, was created. The new ward members didn’t talk much to Fernando. He was just beginning to speak again, and his words were not clear and came very slowly.

The leaders of the new ward, however, felt very strongly that President Gordon B. Hinckley’s directive that new members of the Church need “a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with ‘the good word of God’ (Moro. 6:4)”* applied to all the members of their newly formed ward—including Fernando. He was called to be the Primary greeter. That calling has been a great blessing in his life and in the lives of the children in his ward.

Fernando welcomes each child and adult to Primary. “The first time he was there,” said Sister Terris, a counselor in the Primary, “the Spirit was so strong that I had tears in my eyes. He was so excited about his calling!”

That first Sunday Fernando struggled to speak and shake hands with everyone. But each week, his arms and hands grew a little stronger and his speech became a little clearer.
“Even though the little kids don’t always understand him,” Tasha Hansen (11) said, “they feel his spirit and pay attention. You really feel it.”
“He’s nice,” Britton Green (6) added. “He always gets so excited when he sees us.”
“And he knows my name,” Cade Terris (7) said.
“The calling as a greeter let me get to know the little children,” Fernando pointed out. “They are the greatest! Then I got to know their parents. They are all my friends now.”
The children are very comfortable around Fernando because they know that he loves them. Once, the Primary chorister asked him to hold up a poster for a song. Fernando tried, but he did not have the strength to do it. One by one, the children came up and encircled him so that he could rest the chart in his lap and they could still see it.
As they came to know him better, the children wanted to help him recover. They wanted to help him fulfill his desire to serve the Lord with all his heart. They wanted him to be able to serve a mission, which he still hopes to do one day.
“The children are always there to help me. I’m learning to speak better because they are always speaking to me,” he said.
“At first, sometimes I would know what he was going to say and answer him before he finished,” Tasha Hansen said. “But I don’t do that now because I know that he needs to practice talking.”
“Once I walked into Primary and he gave me a special handshake,” Jake Green (9) said. “Now he does it with all the boys.” The children created other new handshakes to help Fernando strengthen all the different muscles in his hands.
One Sunday, when Fernando entered the Primary room dressed as Abinadi, the children suddenly quieted down. Knowing how hard it is for him to speak, they know that each word is important.
Now Fernando has also been called to help teach two classes of eleven- and twelve-year-olds. “He’s getting really good at talking,” said Tori Hansen (11).
But Fernando isn’t the only one with new responsibilities in his ward. Families and individuals, including Primary children, have been asked to help with his therapy. They listen to him read, play with him to exercise his muscles, and talk with him. Or they may take him walking.
Jake Green enjoys playing Chinese checkers with him, “but Fernando always wins. He’s too good!”
“It’s quite a sight when we take Fernando walking,” the Terris family laughs. “We squeeze everyone and everything into the car—his wheelchair, his walker, Fernando, and, of course, all of our family. Then we drive to the place where we walk.”
Once the Green family was walking with Fernando by the Provo River. He stood by a fence and threw a stone into the water. It gave him such pleasure to at last be able to stand balanced against the fence and throw a rock, that Britton and Jake picked up several more stones for him to throw.
“We feel good when we help him,” Jake explained.
“The first time I saw him walk with his walker was really special,” Sammy Whirley (7) said. “We have also tried flying kites. We still need to work on that.”
Shayly Terris (11) was asked to read with him and help him practice pronouncing words. “He asked me questions, and I got to know him better. After we finished reading, my mom and I went to help him get back into bed, and he fell and hit his head. He just said, ‘Shhhh, don’t tell Mom.’ He never complains!”
“He helps me look at other people in wheelchairs differently,” Eddie Terris (14) said. “They really can do a lot of things!”
Meagan Hansen (15) remembered the first time her family took him walking at the track. “There is a chain that prevents people from driving cars onto the track. My Dad asked Fernando, ‘How do you get over that?’ ‘I jump,’ he answered. Dad gave him a look, and Fernando said, ‘Seriously.’ So we wheeled him up to the chain and waited to see what he would do. He just lifted the chain up and rolled under it.”
Conner Hansen (8) said, “Sometimes I think my problems are really bad, but when I look at Fernando’s problems, I don’t complain.”
The Hansens add, “No matter what comes up, we don’t miss walking with Fernando. He’s amazing! He helps us keep an eternal perspective. It’s the best thing we do each month.”
Fernando works hard every single day to improve. “I always believed I would get better. I just take it one day at a time.”
“In time he will get better,” Talmage Hansen (11) declared. “He believes it, and so do I.”
Having so many friends in the ward who love and help him, and knowing that he is an invaluable influence in their lives, has helped Fernando continue trying. His strong spirit and testimony have spiritually strengthened those who have helped him strengthen his physical body.
Fernando may have to wait to serve a full-time mission, but he is touching the lives of the Primary children in his ward right now by his example of faith, patience, and trust in the Lord. And they are touching his with their patience, love, and service. “I hope that the children know that they really can help others,” he said.

Carlos was a 10-year-old who liked to run, jump, and play. He also liked to ask lots of questions. His Primary teacher loved him. She would often say to him, “It is very important for you to learn the things we are teaching in Primary. Someday you will grow up to be a priesthood holder, a father, and a leader in the Church, and you will need to know these things.” Carlos thought that his teacher was telling him that just so he would be reverent. However, he began to listen and learn. When Carlos grew up, he did receive the priesthood, he became a father, and he was called to be a leader in the Church. He remembered what his Primary teacher had said to him, and he was glad that he had listened and learned.

Mom wasn’t surprised at all, and she told me a story: “When you were a tiny baby and round all over, your daddy brought you this blanket. He held you and the blanket in one arm and said, ‘Blanket, blanket,’ lots of times. You said, ‘Ginky.’ Dad smiled and said, ‘Blanket.’ Both of you were talking about the same thing.”
I had to laugh at that.
“Pretty soon,” Mom went on, “we all got used to calling your blanket Ginky, the way you did. ‘Here’s Ginky,’ your daddy or I would say, or ‘Won’t you let us wash Ginky just once, real quick?’ But you never wanted Ginky to be washed.”
“I didn’t want Ginky swooshing around in all that soap,” I told her.
Now Ginky smells kind of stuffy and dusty from being in the drawer so long. Ginky used to be soft. I remember stroking my cheek with Ginky and wrapping it around my arm (the one with the good-tasting thumb) before I went to sleep.
At first Ginky had a satin edging that I could curl around my fingers. I could make a scratchy noise on it, too, with my fingernail. But the satin is almost all worn off now.
Lots of babies have blankets. But there isn’t another Ginky.
You know, I took Ginky to bed with me last night—just for remembering. I didn’t really need to. I tried wrapping Ginky around my arm. I tried scratching the worn-out satin. I even tried sucking my thumb.
But my thumb just doesn’t taste good anymore. After a while, I got all tangled up in Ginky. I wanted to go to sleep, so I folded Ginky carefully beside me. “Good night,” I said.
This morning Ginky was still there, looking kind of raggedy on my pillow. I packed Ginky away in my special box. Mom says that when I’m a big person, we’ll open my box and look at all the things I saved as I was growing up.
My picture album and my doll without any hair and a drawing I made of a fire engine were in my box already. I think Ginky belongs there with those other things.

Two years ago, Brother Bradley Jones* from South Africa decided to quit his full-time job, take the plunge, and start his own consulting business. The months that followed were, in his own words, “intense.”
With little capital saved up, he was under pressure to turn a profit almost immediately. In addition to that, he had a family to take care of: grocery bills, school fees, a car instalment, and a mortgage on his house to pay. Before long, the family found themselves struggling to make ends meet. “When it was rough, it was incredibly rough. It made me question myself: ‘Did I get an answer from the Lord about starting my business?’” says Bradley. “‘Am I lying to myself?’”
But through that “spiritually affirming” experience, Bradley learned a wealth of lessons. Today, he shares some of the ways in which he and his family have learned to manage their money in the true spirit of self-reliance.
Involve the Lord in the details. “I was very, very prayerful in all of my financial decisions,” says Bradley. “That allowed me to feel safe about the choices I was making, even though I was taking substantial risk. I felt like I had the Lord’s sanction. Without that, I don’t think I could have been as confident.”
Ask the Lord to help you recognise the difference between needs and wants. “We tried really hard to follow the Spirit in terms of what to let go of and what not to,” says Bradley. “That’s difficult, because there are no hard and fast rules as to what’s a reasonable standard of living. Allow the Lord to tell you what your needs versus your wants are.” After much prayer, the family decided to sell their house in order to help pay off debt.
Counsel together as a couple. “This experience was an affirmation of the importance of being on the same page as a couple,” Bradley says. “These decisions can’t be made in isolation. It’s easy as a business owner to say, ‘Hey, I’m making business decisions,’ but they spill over into your personal life and your family bears the brunt of them.” Because Bradley and his wife made financial decisions together, “my wife was always fully supportive of the risks I took.”
Drastically downscale your lifestyle, if that’s what it takes. “Make sure that you live within your means, whatever your means are, and change your lifestyle as drastically as you have to in order to do so,” says Bradley. “Never sustain a lifestyle on credit. If you can’t pay for something now, then wait until next month. Don’t count on money before it’s in the bank.”
Don’t think you’ll be the exception to the rule. “If it takes the average business three to five years to be profitable, it is arrogant to think that you can do it in one,” says Bradley. “Accept that there are things you don’t know. If it takes everyone else five years, it will take you five years too.”
The family now follows a strict monthly and daily budgeting practice. They take their monthly earnings and deduct all their fixed monthly payments: tithing, rent, school fees, insurance, car payments, and so forth. “Then we are left with an amount with which we must fill the variables—including the groceries and petrol,” Bradley explains. “We divide that amount by 31 to come up with a daily cash allotment. We see that as the amount we earn each day. We follow the principle of “you can’t spend money you haven’t earned.”
The family uses an app, but you could use envelopes with cash inside them: anything that helps you break down your income into daily amounts. They stick to this principle rigidly: “if you want to buy pizza tonight, but you know you need to buy petrol tomorrow, then you forego the pizza,” he says.
As we are “faithful over a few things,” the Lord will make us “ruler over many things” (Matthew 25:21).
Following this level of financial discipline has helped Bradley see the hand of the Lord in his life. “When I do my very best to do everything in my power: to be disciplined and take ownership of my situation, then the Lord performs miracles,” he says.
*name has been changed

When Marco was called as bishop, one of his first appointments was with Brother and Sister Peña (names have been changed). They both suffered from trauma related to abuse. Their resulting mental health challenges were acute. Both had previously experienced failed marriages and were doing their best to raise a blended family. Ongoing employment challenges made self-reliance a struggle. They wanted to go to the temple but didn’t qualify for recommends. One or the other always seemed to be in crisis.
Marco loved them, but it quickly became apparent that they needed more help than he was capable of providing alone.
Unfortunately, the Peñas were reluctant to allow the bishop to involve others. At the time, an expectation existed among many Church members that it was the bishop who was responsible for helping members through challenges like these. In addition, Marco was afraid that the Peñas would feel like they weren’t important to him if he asked someone else to help.
So Marco did the best he could. He visited. He counseled. He tried to connect them to needed mental health professionals. Marco and his wife went to self-reliance classes with them and helped them work through some financial challenges. While others in the ward also helped, the bishop spent countless hours with the Peñas. At the end of five years, they had been sealed, but they still struggled with most of the same long-term issues they had when they first visited with him.
Looking back, Marco says that both he and the Peñas misunderstood the role of the bishop. In addition, the three of them failed to trust the Relief Society and elders quorum presidents to fulfill their divinely appointed responsibilities to help members with these kinds of challenges. The result was that they limited the Lord’s blessings in the Peñas’ lives.

President Uchtdorf has special feelings of fondness for the late Elder Theodore M. Burton (1907–89), who served as president of the West German Mission. At a time when many good German Latter-day Saints were leaving their homeland, the Uchtdorf family heeded Elder Burton’s counsel to stay in Germany and build up the Church there. It was Elder Burton who ordained Dieter F. Uchtdorf to the office of elder and gave memorable instruction that Dieter heeded precisely. Sister Harriet Uchtdorf understood the importance of Elder Burton’s counsel for the Uchtdorf family to remain in Europe to strengthen the Church there. It became an imperative for them. Their children have adhered to that same counsel. Now, in jest, the children chide their parents for leaving for the United States, while they have remained in Europe.

One day I received a party invitation from one of my best friends, Joshua. The only problem was that his party was going to be on Sunday. I told him that I really wanted to be with him on his birthday but that Sunday was the Sabbath Day and not a day for me to go to parties. I asked him if he could change it to Saturday so that I could go. I learned that since he is Jewish, his Sabbath Day is on Saturday. Joshua understood why I couldn’t come to his party. Instead, I took a present to his house on Tuesday after school and shared leftover cake from his party. Tuesday even turned out to be his real birthday, and it was fun to share it together. He had even saved a party bag and treats for me!
That same week, I received another party invitation. It was to a bowling party of another kindergarten friend. His party was also on Sunday. Again, I decided to tell my friend Chase that I really wanted to be at his party but that Sunday was the Sabbath Day and I didn’t go to parties on Sundays. Instead, my mom picked us boys up from school and surprised us with lunch and two games of bowling! It makes me feel happy inside to know that I can do both—keep the Sabbath Day holy and share in celebrating birthdays with my friends.
It also helps me feel like a missionary to teach my friends about the importance of honoring the Sabbath Day. Since his party, Chase’s mom has been asking my mom lots of questions about the Church, and they have been interested in coming to ward activities with us. I hope they come, and I hope that they will join the Church. Then Chase and his family can come to church with me on Sundays!

I thought back to my own childhood, when my mum’s big set of scriptures always sat open somewhere in the living room. Those same scriptures would be passed around as we studied them together, even when I was so small that I could barely read. I wanted my daughter to experience that—to always have a set of scriptures open and close by, ready to leaf through. Now, there is nothing more precious to me than those little moments where I spy my little girl toddle over to the scriptures and flip through. I can only hope that as she becomes familiar with those pages, that she will also grow to cherish the message inside.

Such was the case when my wife’s parents joined the Church in 1968. A young missionary who wanted to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands helped bring their family into the Church.
My in-laws met with the missionaries once, but after that, my father-in-law didn’t want to continue. Then a new missionary, Elder Fetzer, was transferred to the area, and this young missionary and his companion felt prompted to visit and minister to the family. Elder Fetzer was able to touch the hearts of the family members in a way that other missionaries had not.
For the next six months the missionaries ministered to the family’s needs. In time, my wife’s parents were touched by the Spirit and joined the Church. They received the blessings that come as we make and keep covenants. Through them, more families have joined the Church and received the blessings of the gospel.
This happened, in part, because a young man from Utah was willing to “let God prevail” in his life. He had the courage to leave the comfort of home, learn a new language, and serve the Lord in Brazil.

Some months ago, I had the opportunity to participate with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in another setting. Elder Holland, Elder Walter Gonzalez of the Seventy, and I were in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to participate in a series of meetings associated with a Priesthood Leadership Conference. In those settings, multiple stake presidencies and bishops from surrounding stakes come together to collectively receive training and instructions. On the Friday evening before the Saturday sessions, we had the blessing of holding a devotional with LDS cadets, both male and female, at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The chapel setting is quite spectacular with the chapel positioned at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains.

There are about two hundred LDS cadets at the academy and about a hundred and twenty were in attendance. They were dressed in their finest dress blues for the most part, with a few attired in fatigues because of work or other assignments. After the opening hymn and prayer, the meeting was given to Elder Holland to conduct. He determined that in place of formal talks or presentations the time would be given to the cadets to ask questions and those of us that were there with him would respond. A cadet would stand, tell his or her name, where they were from, and then ask a question.

Elder Holland fielded the first few questions and then a very fine looking young man stood, and after sharing his name and where he was from asked, very sincerely, the following question: "Elder Holland, does the Lord give us challenges in life that are intended to impede our progress?" I thought to myself, what a great question from this young man. Then after a moment of thought, Elder Holland responded, "Well that sounds like a Bishop Davies question!"

For a moment I was frozen. Why me? But in those few seconds before giving a response, and with a prayer in my heart, I thought about the conditions of those in attendance. The bright and capable cadets are there for a minimum of four years. They cannot marry, they have limited outside access or contact, they are involved in learning how to defend their country, and at the same time they love God, they are committed to keep their covenants, and they want to progress. The response came easily and without hesitation. No, the Lord does not give us challenges or any conditions that are intended to impede our eternal progress. An alternate expression of this young man's question might be "How can I become more Christlike and perfected by the challenges that I will experience in life?" or "What can I learn from the experiences life will offer to me?"

• Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 20: A very weary choir, running on the Spirit, love, and memory, performs two concerts, matinee and evening, in the glittering former Communist showcase, the restored Schauspielhaus. Tonight, more than 1,500 attenders foot-stamp uproarious ovations. The evening becomes doubly memorable for attenders when Herold Gregory, administrative assistant of the choir and former [1953 to 1957] mission president over East Germany, steps up to the microphone to wish all a good night and to announce that Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has just voted a few minutes ago to transfer its offices, the nation’s chancellor, and his cabinet from Bonn to Berlin. The response is ear-splitting!

After reaching the Salt Lake Valley, Totshauna settled in what is today known as Holladay. Not long after her arrival, she became the plural wife of Samual Hoopes. (I wonder if Samual was as enchanted as I am by her plain and lovely crown of plaits.) She had nine children by Samual; only seven lived past infancy. Her husband, at one time, was two and a half years absent from his family, which included three wives and numerous children, while serving a mission for the Church in the British Isles. Totshauna later sent three sons on missions after Samual’s death, with each son proving an added hardship, for her boys were among the eldest of her children and were depended upon to aid in the support of the entire family. Her own sketchy journal (now kept treasured in soft cloth in my grandmother’s bureau), which she kept for a brief period following Samual’s death, reads: “Hyrum left with elders Whitney and Williams in a wagon and went to take the rail to Canada. I packed him two beef tarts and two loaves bread with chokeberry jam, and Samual’s Book of Mormon, and an extra shirt and pair socks. He is seventeen.”

I love my family and try hard to help them when I can. I feel sad when I see families or parents who are struggling. I want to help them learn how to be a better and happier family. My dad is a lawyer and sometimes he has cases about families who are not choosing the right and that makes them very unhappy.
My idea was to help make a program to teach mothers and fathers and children to love each other better. I even wrote a letter to the president of the United States to ask what is being done to help families. Then yesterday I was reading “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” I felt so happy that President Hinckley and the Apostles also want families to have love and do things that are right. I think if families will live the gospel every day they will be a lot happier.

A friend related this experience her husband had while attending medical school. "Getting into medical school is pretty competitive, and the desire to do well and be successful puts a great deal of pressure on the new incoming freshmen. My husband had worked hard on his studies and went to attend his first examination. The honor system was expected behavior at the medical school. The professor passed out the examination and left the room. Within a short time, students started to pull little cheat papers out from under their papers or from their pockets. My husband recalled his heart beginning to pound as he realized it is pretty hard to compete against cheaters. About that time a tall, lanky student stood up in the back of the room and stated, 'I left my hometown and put my wife and three little babies in an upstairs apartment and worked very hard to get into medical school. And I'll turn in the first one of you who cheats, and you better believe it!' They believed it. There were many sheepish expressions, and those cheat papers started to disappear as fast as they had appeared. He set a standard for the class which eventually graduated the largest group in the school's history."[8]

The young, lanky medical student who challenged the cheaters was J. Ballard Washburn, who became a respected physician and in later years received special recognition from the Utah Medical Association for his outstanding service as a medical doctor. He also served as a General Authority and as the president of the Las Vegas Nevada Temple.