Gospel Story Finder

The youth of the Lindon Utah West Stake (this page) were called by their stake president to be missionaries for a day at an outdoor activity where they gave “Church history tours.” They took visitors to various booths where other youth acted out episodes from Church history and the life of Joseph Smith. KC McMillan, a priest from the Lindon Fifth Ward, played Joseph Smith in the Smith family home booth. He says his testimony of Joseph Smith has “increased quite a bit. The Spirit can be so strong when you’re talking about Joseph Smith.”
Following the tour, visitors eventually arrived in an area that represented Nauvoo, where they could play pioneer games and participate in other activities. Youth and other stake members also helped construct a large replica of the Nauvoo Temple.
Braden Sweeten, 18, from the Lindon 18th ward, helped youth and other stake members build the replica of the temple. He said while he was building, “It really sunk into my heart how much the Prophet and the Saints really sacrificed to build the temple.”

“… the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church …”
Dad, for five points, what does “Primitive Church” mean?
It’s the Church Jesus Christ set up while He was on earth.
Correct.
“… namely, apostles, prophets—”
Mom, why were prophets and apostles so important?
Jesus asked them to lead the Church under His direction.
Eventually, most of the apostles were killed. No one was left to guide the Church through revelation.
Until Jesus restored His Church through …?
The Prophet Joseph Smith!

In 1998 Elenoa and I flew to Tonga to enter into sacred eternal covenants in the Nuku‘alofa Tonga Temple and to perform temple ordinances for my parents and siblings. A few years later, our children were sealed to us in the new Suva Fiji Temple. I look at my family now—my eternal family—and thank the Lord for remembering me and bringing the gospel back into my life.

When a sister in our ward started coming to church again after six years, my mother told my brothers and sisters and me that we should be friends with the sister’s two children. Their dad had died just a year before, and they were still very sad. One of the children, a girl named Evelyn, was a little younger than I am.
When we arrived at church on Sunday, Mama called me to a secluded corner and whispered in my ear, “Monahra, will you be Evelyn’s friend? Heavenly Father has asked you to be a member missionary. Be loving and friendly, and be sure she is not left alone.”
I told Mama I would, and since that day I have tried to be a member missionary for Evelyn. Since I want to be a missionary when I grow up, I am trying my best to be a missionary now.
Evelyn is a great friend, and she smiles a lot now. We play, go to Primary, and sing hymns together. Sometimes, we have family home evening together at her house.
I know that Heavenly Father is happy because I have tried to be a member missionary and a friend. I am grateful to have Evelyn as a friend.

When you’re ready to face the upward trek, continue your walk by crossing the street, ascending the several flights of stone stairs leading west, and following the zig-zag path to the crest of the canyon and the state capitol grounds. At the top, about one-hundred yards west, is the sandstone reconstruction of the Council Hall (10). This was the first important public building constructed by the pioneers. When it was first built, it stood on First South east of State Street. It housed the offices for Utah’s first territorial government, city hall, police station, and health department. In 1961 it was carefully dismantled and rebuilt stone by stone at its present location. The rooms that have been refurnished are open to the public.

Joseph Fielding Smith, who would later become the prophet, was 16 on April 6, 1893, when the temple was finally dedicated. It had been under construction all his life and took 40 years and countless hours of work and sacrifice to complete. “In my boyhood anxiety,” he later wrote, “I wondered if I would live to see the temple completed.”

But he was among those who waved white handkerchiefs in unison and called out “Hosanna” three times when the dedicatory service had concluded. That “awe-inspiring, sacred Hosanna Shout” still occurs today, at the dedicatory ceremony of every temple.

“We knew quite early that Shawn would be good in basketball,” says Reiner. “I played ball with some men in the ward early mornings at the stake center. I asked Shawn if he would be interested in coming along. He went with me many mornings to the stake center and played with the adults when he was only eleven or twelve years old.”
Some time in his early teenage years, Shawn first beat his Dad in one-on-one basketball competition. “I don’t remember when it happened. When Dad would win, it would make me feel bad, so the next time, he’d let me beat him. I never really knew when I actually could beat him.”

An oft-repeated event from early Church history deals with the loss of the 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon. Two reasons we tell the story of this event so frequently are: (1) it’s directly related to two revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants (sections 3 and 10), so it comes up regularly in our scripture study; and (2) the lasting lessons Joseph Smith learned from these experiences can help us in many ways today.
After the 116 pages were lost, the Lord told Joseph Smith not to translate that portion of the gold plates again, because evil men were plotting to deceive people by showing differences between the two translations. But centuries before, the Lord had told Nephi to make the small plates and had told Mormon to include them in his record. So Joseph was able to restart the translation from there, and we have the Book of Mormon today. (See Doctrine and Covenants 10; 1 Nephi 9; Words of Mormon.)
The devil and those who served his purposes had laid a cunning plan, but the Lord’s wisdom thwarted it.

Even though John’s eyes were still closed, he knew by the feel of the sun’s sudden warmth on his face that someone had opened his bedroom curtains. Squinting, he saw his mother cranking open the window to let a pine-scented breeze fill his room. Looking to the bed across from his, John saw that Rob had been up for a long time. His bed was already made, and the clothes, laid out the night before, were gone.
John’s attention shifted back to his mother. Standing sideways and looking at the huge blue spruce near the window, Mama looked different. She was wearing a shirt that John had not seen her wear for a long time. But what was really different about her was that she was bigger.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said with a smile.
John did not jump up and ask about breakfast as he usually did. Instead, he lay there very still and serious. Although pretty certain that he knew the answer already, John asked, “Mama, are you going to have another baby?”
Mama smiled again and walked over to John’s bed. Sitting down beside him, she ran her fingers through his curly hair. “Yes, Johnny. You will get a new little baby brother or sister sometime in October. Won’t that be fun?”
John did not think that it would be fun. He looked at his brother’s bed. He thought of his sisters’ two beds down the hall. He was not going to give up his bed for a new baby. There was not enough room. “Where is he going to sleep?” he asked.
“Oh, he or she will sleep in Mama and Daddy’s room for a little while,” his mother answered. “And Daddy has been talking about making a new bedroom for you and Rob in the basement. Would you like that?”
John answered, “Maybe.” But the bed was not the real problem.
While John dressed, his mother fixed breakfast. When he arrived at the table, she had spread out six plates and was spooning fluffy yellow scrambled eggs onto them. Daddy’s and Mama’s plates held the most. Then Mama dished up the rest of the eggs equally. As John watched her, he said, “If we have a new baby, there won’t be enough breakfast for everybody.”
“Sure there will,” laughed his mother. “I’ll just add another egg. Of course, by that time, I’ll have to add extra eggs because you and Rob are getting so big.”
“I’m big today,” said John. So his mother put some jam on an extra piece of toast for him. John ate his toast and jam, but he knew that a big-enough breakfast was not the real problem.
After breakfast, John said, “I need you to read me a story.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t read to you now,” said Mama. “It’s time to give the baby her bath. Maybe I can read to you after lunch.”
While Mama was dressing Rebekah, John said, “I need you to get my blocks out of the top of my closet.”
“I’m still taking care of the baby,” said Mama. “Can you find something else to do?”
“There’s nothing to do,” mumbled John. “You spend all of your time with Rebekah. When we get a new baby, it will be even worse.”
Mama said, “It seems like that sometimes, doesn’t it, Johnny. But I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. As soon as I’ve washed the breakfast dishes, I’ll take you all to the park.”
An hour later, John, Mama, Rob, Jenny, and Rebekah were all at the park. John and Rob went exploring in the trees and rocks that were on one side of the park. Jenny played in the sand with Rebekah. Mama read her book for a little while.
Then Jenny and Rebekah wanted to swing. Mama strapped Rebekah inside a little baby’s swing and pushed her with little baby pushes. Mama pushed Jenny in a big swing with big pushes. From the branch of the tree he had climbed, John listened to their laughter, then climbed down and ran to the swings. Soon Rob followed him, and for a while Mama went down the row of swings, pushing Rob, then John, then Jenny, then Rebekah.
Finally Mama laughed and said, “I’m sorry, kids, but I’m just too tired to push anymore.” She took Rebekah out of the baby swing and put her back in the sandbox. Rob and Jenny went to play on the slippery slide.
After John’s swing had come to a stop, he trudged over to where his mother was sitting on their picnic quilt, reading her book. “If you have another baby, I guess you’ll be too tired to swing me anymore, won’t you?”
“Well,” said his mother, “I might get tired faster, but I will always swing you, if you want me to. Of course, you’re six now and know how to pump yourself as high as I can push you. But if you want me to, I will push you until I’m ninety-six and you’re seventy-two, and then I’ll just be too old and you’ll have to get one of your grandchildren to do it.”
Mama went back to reading her book, and John laughed as he thought about Mama being ninety-six and himself seventy-two and sitting in a swing. But even though he laughed, he knew that he still hadn’t solved the real problem.
After lunch, Mama passed out candy bars for them to eat as they walked home. John noticed that there were six candy bars in a box, and he figured that that was just right for a mama and a daddy and two boys and two girls. If a new baby came, he wondered, who would not get a candy bar? Maybe they would have to buy a whole new box for just one silly little baby. But John didn’t say anything because he knew that even candy bars were not the real problem.
After Mama put Rebekah down for her nap, she read Where the Wild Things Are to the bigger children. It was John’s favorite book, but today he hardly listened to the story. He was noticing that Jenny was sitting on Mama’s lap and that he and Rob were on either side of her. That way everyone could see the pictures. When Rebekah was old enough to go without naps and wanted to hear stories, where was she going to sit? There were already too many babies in John’s family. Why did his mother need another one? But again John did not ask the question—there was a bigger question that needed to be answered.
After story time, Jenny and Mama lay on Mama’s bed for a nap. Rob went to a friend’s house. John sat on the top step of the front porch and thought.
A little while later, John heard his mother moving around in the house. She usually got up and did some housework after Jenny fell asleep. But this afternoon Mama came outside and sat by him and put her arm around him. John didn’t look at her because he didn’t want her to see that there were drops of water on his face.
“John,” Mama asked quietly, “is something bothering you?”
“No,” he said. But he knew that Mama would notice that his voice sounded funny.
Mama scooped John up onto her lap. “Are you worried about the new baby, Johnny?”
“No,” he said again. “Not exactly. It’s just that everything is even now. We have three boys, counting Dad, and three girls, counting you, and it’s all even. Another baby will make more boys or more girls.” But John knew that he still had not told Mama the real problem.
“Well,” said Mama, “maybe we will have another baby in a couple of years to make things even. Or maybe you’ll decide when the new baby gets here that it doesn’t really matter if things are even.”
John thought for a minute, then decided to tell Mama the real problem. “You know,” he began, “I bet Rebekah will miss being the one you love the most.”
“Whatever do you mean by that, Johnny?” Mama asked. She looked as serious as John was.
“Well, when Rob was born, you loved him the best. Then I came along, and you loved me the best. When Jenny was born, you loved her best and me second best. And now that you have Rebekah, you love her the best, Jenny second best, me third best, and Rob fourth best. When you have another baby, you won’t love Rebekah the best anymore.” Then a lot of tears came into John’s eyes at once. “But, Mama, Jenny came to our family so fast that I don’t even remember when you loved me the best. I was too little to notice. And now I won’t ever get that chance again!”
John’s mother rocked him on her lap a little until he had settled down. Then she put her hand on his cheek, very gently, and wiped away some tears. She said, “Oh, my little Johnny, you haven’t really been worried about scrambled eggs and swing rides and candy bars at all, have you? You’ve been worried about love.”
John nodded, and Mama gave him a big hug. She said, “You know, honey, love isn’t like scrambled eggs that you dish out and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Love grows and gets bigger the more people there are inside it, like”—she thought a second—“like a special balloon that never pops but just gets bigger and bigger the more air you put into it.”
That night Mama told the children to get their pajamas on but not go to bed yet, because they were all going to do something later. Then, when it got very dark out, Mama and Daddy led them to the treehouse. It wasn’t in a tree anymore, but they still called it that.
When everyone was inside, Mama opened a box and gave everyone a big white candle. John could barely see the outline of Mama’s face as she handed him his candle.
Suddenly John could see Mama’s face very well. Daddy had struck a match and was lighting his candle. He said, “In the beginning, I got my light—my love—from my mama and daddy. Then I met your mama, who had her own light. And when we put them together, we had more light and more love than either of us ever had separately.” Daddy had touched his candle to Mama’s, and the treehouse looked much brighter.
“And then,” Daddy continued, “we shared our love with Rob and John and Jenny and Rebekah. And each time we shared our love, our world grew brighter and happier.” Each time Daddy said a name, he or Mama lit that child’s candle. “Do you see how bright this room is now?”
Then Mama said, “Johnny, look at my candle. Is my flame any smaller because I helped you and Jenny light yours?”
John understood and smiled all over his face—and inside too. “No, it sure isn’t.”
“Then,” said Mama, “what is a new baby going to do for our family?”
“Make it even brighter and happier,” laughed John.
“That’s right,” said Mama. “There will be times when we have to share more of our time and our room, and even more of our scrambled eggs and candy bars than we might want to. But when we share our love, it only gets better.”

Nikki and Breck Fullmer quarreled constantly. Most of their fights were about Nikki borrowing her brother’s T-shirts, and Breck playing music at home that his sister didn’t like. Nikki and Breck were both looking for a way out of their conflicts when they decided to participate in their stake’s “Time Alone” experiment.
Nikki knew her brother liked to drink soda pop, so she invited him to go get one with her. He thought it was a fine arrangement, since she was buying. After the soda they talked and drove around for an hour. After just one rendezvous, Nikki said, “He’s at a stage where he’ll do just about anything to be cool. And now he thinks it’s cool to be with me.”

Stephen O. Smyth was named this year’s Northern Ireland “Superyouth.” In competition with young men from schools and colleges all over Ireland, Stephen, the only Mormon competing, garnered top points overall in swimming, high jump, stride jump, basketball, sprinting, and several fitness events, to win the competition.
Stephen, a member of the Londonderry Branch, Belfast Ireland Stake, was also voted Sportsman of the Year at his college. His prize for becoming Superyouth Champion was a trip to London and a chance to meet with sports celebrities. Because of his sports prowess, Stephen has been invited to a summer camp near Chicago, Illinois, to teach soccer.
Stephen is a seminary graduate and has earned his Duty to God Award. In his branch he has served as branch clerk, executive secretary, senior home teaching companion, and a teacher in the Primary.

In late 2020, a group of women from the Como Ward Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organised a collection of various items to donate to the Lifehouse project. The Relief Society motto—charity never faileth—invites women to seek out and help those in need, so the members gathered suitable contributions over a period of two months.
Steve Klomp, the president of RTLWA expressed his appreciation to Relief Society member Geri Campbell for the donations which were delivered in “bootloads” via her car. He said he was “particularly impressed with how the Church has the ability to organise and mobilise its members when there is a community project or a need to be filled.”

“For a Personal Progress value experience, I tried for two weeks to change my relationship with a family member in a positive way. I chose my seven-year-old brother. I tried to be very patient, and I prayed for him and also for myself to have the strength to do this. Our relationship got so strong, and we are closer than ever before.”
Maria B., Georgia, USA

They went to the family room, and Mother pulled her book of remembrance from a shelf and turned to a picture of a man with white hair and a white beard. She told Eric, “Welcome Chapman was my grandmother’s grandfather. While still a young man, Welcome heard rumors of a Joseph Smith, who was living in western New York, and who claimed to have a golden book that was given to him by an angel, and to have had visions and revelations. He also claimed that he had seen Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. He said that They had instructed him to organize a new church.
“After thinking a lot about it, Welcome decided to find out for himself whether what he’d heard was true. Against the wishes of his parents, he saddled his horse and rode two hundred miles to New York.
“When he found the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Mother continued, “he discovered that they were about the same age. Welcome heard a complete account of all that had happened to Joseph, including how he obtained and translated the records on the golden plates, and was very much impressed with the Prophet and his wonderful experiences.
“He stayed two weeks at the home of the Prophet, learning all he could of the gospel. Convinced that this was the true religion, Welcome was baptized. Because of his activities in the Church and the esteem Joseph Smith had for him, he was made one of the Prophet’s bodyguards.”

For the next seven years, Daniel and Thérèse served faithfully as the Church grew in their country. Like others in DR Congo’s first generation of Latter-day Saints, they learned step-by-step. In 1996, Congolese Church leaders were challenged to take the next step in their development. Although Kinshasa was nearly 4,000 kilometres from the nearest temple, in Johannesburg, South Africa, a group of over 20 local leaders were invited to travel to the temple together to be endowed with power from heaven and sealed to their spouses for eternity. It was the first group temple trip in Congo’s history.
The years after the temple trip were vital ones for the Church in Congo. In the late 1990s, stake after stake was organized in the country. Most of the men first called as stake presidents, including Daniel Kola, had participated in that temple caravan.

For the first time in eight years,
my father sat by my side
in church last Sunday.
As he stroked my four-year-old sister’s hair
and gently squeezed my hand,
memories blurred my eyes
and trickled down my hot cheeks.
I didn’t wipe them away.

I was raised with the old adage ringing in my ears: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.“ There is no disgrace in failure, and in any case, we have never failed until we give up. The four-minute mile eluded athletes for many years, but after trying again and again, Dr. Roger Bannister finally achieved it. Since then, athletes from many lands have broken this seeming barrier.

I was invited to kneel at bedtime with a family when I was a guest in their home. The smallest child was asked to be voice. He prayed for every person in the family, by name. I opened my eyes for an instant to see the faces of the other children and the parents. I could tell that they were joining their faith and their hearts in that little boy’s prayer.

It is not so well-known that many teenagers know enough not to smoke—indeed, have never even tried it, and “couldn’t care less.” Isaac Clyde Ferguson of the Mattoon Ward, Illinois Stake, tested this knowledge of tobacco and its effect on the smoking habits and attitudes among 971 high school sophomores in a selected high school. Some 62 percent had never tried smoking!
What about the 38 percent who had smoked once or more? Over half of them—64 percent—said that they smoked because their friends smoked, even though most of the smokers knew about the effects of tobacco on the body from their health classes. The study pointed up the importance of one’s friends—what they do to you that you’re not even aware of.
But there is some evidence that some students smoke not out of ignorance of the effect of tobacco, but precisely because of their knowledge that smoking is harmful! One theory has it that teen smokers subconsciously wish to invoke pity, sympathy, or at least attention from those whose love or admiration they vainly crave. And because smoking is unlawful for minors, it becomes a ridiculous symbol of being “grown-up.” Since no one wants to be thought of as a child, the insecure teenager is tempted to smoke in a desperate effort to convince himself, if no one else, that he is grown up. The health risks that everyone knows about only add to the “devil-may-care” image the smoker sees of himself.

The last story took place later that fall while a family was taking a pleasant, 3 1/2-mile hike to a beautiful lake in the Cascades. As they returned down the trail later that day, their young daughter started falling behind. They weren’t really too concerned as it was a good trail, it was still light, and they had been on similar hikes before. The parents continued down the trail, arriving at the road just a few minutes ahead of their daughter, so they thought. After waiting for more than an hour for her, they became concerned and started back up the trail in search. This started a search that would last three days and cost thousands of dollars and many man-hours.
The third illustration even more effectively points out the value of always carrying a whistle and being trained in its use. The little girl had wandered off the trail while picking flowers and had gotten lost in the process. After wandering around for many hours, she lay down beside a large tree where she remained in shock and exhaustion for two days while searchers walked all around the area looking for her. When she was finally found on the third day, she was only 100 yards from the trail!