Gospel Story Finder

When Jessica attended an Especially for Youth program at Ricks College, no one except her close friends knew who her grandfather was. In one class, the teacher asked if any of those attending had met any of the General Authorities or President Hinckley. Jessica did not raise her hand. It wasn’t because she was embarrassed. She just wanted to hear what other people had to say. “I was interested that people loved seeing him at temple dedications or conferences.”

Following the martyrdom, the Knights passed still another severe test of loyalty. Unlike a number of others, they did not forsake the faith and follow false successors. They chose to follow the Quorum of the Twelve. All the relatives in Nauvoo (except perhaps Nahum, for whom we lack records) left the city to go westward. When ready to depart, Newel Knight “once more had the satisfaction of walking through the streets of the City of Joseph, and beholding the great works, he had so nobly reared before his martyrdom.” Once across the Mississippi River, Newel looked back a last time at the city: “My heart swelled, for I beheld at a glance, from the hills where I stood, the noble works of Joseph the Prophet and Seer, and Hyrum his patriarch, with whom I had been acquainted, even from their boyhood, I knew their worth, and mourned their loss.”

We know at least one artist had the Prophet himself pose for paintings and drawings. That artist, Sutcliffe Maudsley, produced art that was not particularly realistic in style, but his profile drawings fit very well with the measurements from the Prophet’s death mask. Maudsley’s drawings of the Prophet have since been copied and used as inspiration for other artists.

Three years later, my mother called my Provo apartment with the news. “Your father got his new contact lenses today. Aunt Jeuney and I picked him up at the train station and asked him how he was doing. He really was excited! ‘When I got back to the office, I didn’t have to pick up a single thing on my desk to see what it was,’ he said.”
Tears filled my eyes as I thought of the man who had groped for so many years and had now found a fuller measure of vision. I prayed that in future relationships I would realize that people, especially parents, act according to their past experiences. It is impossible to understand all the reasons why people do the things they do. I hope I can remember that lesson all my life.

Archibald Campbell was known for his dedication and stalwartness for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He served in numerous ways to build up the kingdom of God in Australia, including as a counsellor to previous mission presidents. After his wife died, he served a mission in his 70s and travelled over the entire Australia Mission. Little did President Archibald Campbell know in 1942 that he was laying a foundation of faith, dedication and service that would be followed several generations later.

At this same time, ward youth leaders challenged our teenagers to read the entire Book of Mormon before school started that August. Our children brought the challenge home, and our family committed to join them in their efforts.
No sooner had we finished the Book of Mormon when our August 2005 Ensign arrived, with the challenge of President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Hyrum and his brother Joseph were thrilled—to think that we had already obeyed the prophet! Then their older siblings, Seth and Bethany, reminded them that President Hinckley had asked us to read it again, regardless of how many times we had already done so.
“But why?” the boys asked. “We have read every word, and what else is there to learn besides what we have already read?”
After a few moments of silence, somebody mentioned the blueberries. “Remember when we thought we had picked every blueberry? But when we went back, there were always more blueberries—always! No matter how many times we went, no matter how recently, there were always blueberries by the bunches.”
We quickly recognized the connection. Like the nearby farm and its abundant supply of delicious blueberries, the Book of Mormon is a constant source of spiritual nourishment with new truths to be discovered. So we began once again to read the Book of Mormon.
As I accepted the prophet’s challenge, I read things in the Book of Mormon that I had read many times before, but I saw them in a different way or understood them as they applied to new circumstances or challenges. I know that each time we sincerely read the Book of Mormon, we can receive new insights and come closer to the Savior.

We arrange time to be together: having family home evening, playing games, going to the beach, having lunch together. All of this helps to keep the flame of a good relationship alive. When we disagree, we avoid criticizing. I know that sometimes I ask not to do housework, but this contributes to disharmony in the home. Since I began this experiment—complaining less, lowering my voice, helping more with housework, and talking more with my mother—a sweet spirit has developed in our home and we cooperate more.
Glenda C., age 18, Bahia, Brazil

May I share with you this afternoon an experience that happened to a young couple who were members of the Church in Japan. They wished to be married, and as is the custom in Japan, they sought permission from their nonmember parents for the marriage to be performed. The boy’s parents refused to give permission. With concern and disappointment, the young couple prayerfully sought ways to fill their lives with meaningful Church activities and trusted that permission would be forthcoming later.
At this time Church members were planning a trip to the Hawaii Temple, and much emphasis was made and was being placed on the importance of genealogical research. So the couple joined with others in seeking out their ancestors and in planning to have the temple work done for them. The girl searched diligently through shrines, cemeteries, and government record offices, and was able to gather seventy-seven names. The boy’s uncle, who was a respected and influential member of the family, heard of this and was deeply impressed with and interested in her work. He noted the intense devotion of the girl to honoring her ancestors and suggested that such a young lady would be a good wife for his nephew. Permission was granted for the young people to be married, and the marriage was performed. Later they were sealed in the Hawaii Temple.
It is a Japanese tradition that families gather together for special holidays in January and August. As this young couple joined their family members on these special occasions, they displayed their book of remembrance, and much interest was generated in their work and in the reasons for it. They discussed with those relatives assembled their ancestral lines and the importance of completing the genealogical research. It was difficult for their nonmember families to understand the reasons for a Christian church teaching principles such as “ancestral worship,” for this was a Buddhist teaching and tradition.

Clara and her family had just been baptized. Clara liked going to church together on Sunday.
One Sunday the Primary president said there would be a Primary program soon.
“Can you read a scripture and bear your testimony in the Primary program?” she asked.
Clara nodded. She was excited! But she was nervous too. What if she made a mistake?
Clara practiced her part every night. She didn’t know all the words in the scripture yet.
“You’ll do great,” Mama said.
Clara wasn’t so sure. This was her first Primary program. All the other kids had done this before.
“Remember, if you do your best, Heavenly Father will do the rest,” Papa told her.
The night before the program, Clara prayed for help. She stayed on her knees and thought about her part. She felt good about it.
On Sunday morning Clara prayed that she wouldn’t be scared.
When it was her turn, Clara walked to the front. She messed up one of the words in the scripture. But then she remembered how good she felt after her prayer. She smiled and bore her testimony. She talked about how much she loved Jesus.
Clara smiled as she sat back down. She knew Heavenly Father didn’t care that she didn’t say her part perfectly. He cared what was in her heart.

It was a fine fall day with the sun bright and the air crisp. Bear Cub was happy as he walked through the golden woods.
“Ho, Bear Cub!” cried a small voice.
Bear Cub looked down. He saw Chipmunk carrying a large pile of seeds and nuts. “Do you need help, Chipmunk?”
“Yes, thank you.” Chipmunk divided the pile in two. “I’m taking food to my home to store for the winter. It will be coming soon.”
“Winter is coming?” asked Bear Cub. “I’ve never lived through a winter. What will it be like, Chipmunk?”
“Winter? Why winter will be …” Chipmunk stopped walking and tapped his foot as he thought. “Winter will be … Hmmmm …” Chipmunk started walking again. “Come to think of it, I spend winter underground, so I don’t know too much about it.”
They stopped beside a stone wall where there was a small hole in the ground at its base. Chipmunk ran into the hole with his load of seeds and nuts, then popped out again. “Thanks for helping, Bear Cub. About winter—I hear that it gets mighty cold and that food is hard to find.” Chipmunk took the pile of food from Bear Cub and popped into the hole again.
Bear Cub saw a bird pulling up a worm. “Hello, Robin. Do you know what winter will be like?”
Robin swallowed the worm. “I don’t stay here for the winter, Bear Cub. I fly south where the weather is warm and where food is plentiful.” Robin grabbed another worm and ate it. “I can’t stay to chat, Bear Cub. I must eat lots of worms before I fly south.”
Bear Cub heard a digging sound. He followed the noise to a small hole in the ground. “Hello!” Bear Cub yelled down the hole.
A brown head with a long nose popped up. “Yo, Bear Cub! Did you come to watch me dig?”
“Is this a new tunnel, Mole?”
“Yes, Bear Cub. It’s a deeper tunnel. With winter coming, I must go deeper to keep warm.” Then Mole popped back into his tunnel.
“What will winter be like, Mole?” Bear Cub called down the tunnel.
Mole popped his head out again. “Winter will be cold.”
“And will food be hard to find?” asked Bear Cub.
“No, there’s plenty of food. I get all the worms and insects I need in my tunnel. I have to get back to digging now. Why don’t you talk to Beaver? He can tell you more about winter.”
Bear Cub found Beaver cutting up a tree limb with his sharp teeth. “What will winter be like, Beaver? I’ve heard that it’s cold and that food is hard to find.”
“Not for me,” said Beaver. “I stay warm in my lodge during the winter, and I eat the sticks that I’ve gathered and stored there.” Beaver cut another limb to size. “I don’t see that much of winter, Bear Cub. You should ask Deer. She stays above ground all winter long.”
When Bear Cub asked Deer about winter, her soft brown eyes became sad.
“Winter is short, gray days when snow covers the grass and leaves. Winter is long, dark nights huddled against the wind. Winter is always looking for food and shelter.”
Now Bear Cub was worried. What would he eat in winter? He didn’t have a tunnel in which to store his food. How would he stay warm in winter? He didn’t have a beaver lodge to keep out the cold. He couldn’t fly away like Robin. Would he be like Deer, without food or shelter? He had to find his mother. She would know what to do.
When Bear Cub asked Mama Bear about winter, she wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t worry about winter,” she said. “We will eat so much food that we will not get hungry. We will spend winter in a cave. We will be warm because our fur will be thick. We will sleep through most of the long, dark nights and the short, gray days. And when we wake up, it will be spring!”
Bear Cub was no longer afraid. He looked forward to spending the winter snuggled against Mama Bear. “Now I know what winter will be like, Mama,” said Bear Cub. “Winter will be wonderful!”

But many of the biggest miracles in this powerful program are the most personal. During her sophomore year, Mary Mulvey found herself being pulled further and further away from church and family. “My life was going in a very bad direction,” she recalls. Then she was called into the Laurel presidency in her ward. Her adviser asked her to help get other girls involved with Personal Progress, so Mary started working on it herself. “I started with some of the easier experiences,” Mary explains. “For two weeks, I tried being nicer to my older sister, and that really changed our relationship.” Next she set goals to clean up her language and improve the way she dressed. “Everything I did helped change my overall attitude. I was changing all the little things that had pulled me away in the first place.”

Soon Mary felt worthy to receive her patriarchal blessing, another huge help in her life—especially when she lost her old group of friends and had to start over socially at school. “Personal Progress was life changing,” Mary reflects. “It redefined who I am and helped me see where I need to go in my life.” As her last value project, Mary set a goal to go to the temple regularly to do baptisms for the dead. Today people in her ward often tell Mary that she now has a visibly brighter countenance. It all started when she started her Personal Progress.

One summer I spent three days in a wilderness camp with 150 young people. We did a lot of hiking and had some hard physical challenges like rappeling down an 80-foot cliff.
On the last day we were given instructions to go into the woods alone. Before leaving the group, each of the young people was given a letter from home which had been written by his or her mother or father for this occasion.
When I went out alone, I took my scriptures with me. I read about my Father in Heaven’s love for all of us and for me. It was then that I realized that these scriptures are like letters from home.
After the time alone, we gathered together to share our experiences. Many spoke of their letter from home. It was obvious everyone had been anxious to open and read their letter. One young woman stood before us, holding the letter from home close—a precious treasure.
In her words, “I bawled my face off when I sat there alone and realized how much my mom and dad love me.”
It can be that same way for us when we read the scriptures. We discover how much our Father in Heaven loves us. Can you imagine being away from home and receiving a letter from your parents and not bothering to open and read it?

I will never forget walking the grounds at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, USA, where pioneers had lived years before. The ground felt sacred, almost as if I were visiting an outdoor temple.
My eyes filled with tears, blurring my vision. I saw a statue but could not make out the figures. When I wiped away my tears, I saw a man and a woman whose faces were full of grief. As I looked closer, I saw the figure of an infant lying in a grave at their feet.
This sight filled me with so many emotions: sadness, anger, gratitude, and joy. I wanted to take away the pain those Saints felt, but I was grateful at the same time for what they had sacrificed for the gospel.
My experience at Winter Quarters helped me realize that Heavenly Father gives the gospel to His children and allows them the agency to do with it as they will. The parents of that baby could have chosen to take an easier course. Following the prophet and living the gospel required these pioneers to press forward even when it meant burying their child. But they chose to take the gospel into their lives and accepted their challenges. I learned that the Saints’ dedication to the gospel and their determination to press forward were driven by faith and hope—hope for a bright future and faith that the Lord knew them and could ease their pain.

Mark Barnett, 16, of Erdington, England, helped raise money for charity by taking part in a 25-mile walk around Birmingham. “The most exciting thing was seeing places I’ve never noticed before,” says Mark. “Walking gives you time to look properly.”
Mark recently won a medal in a church-sponsored regional swimming gala, and he enjoys seminary.

The Warmth in His Heart This story is about how the Holy Ghost helped a boy throughout his life—with warnings when danger was near, with making right choices, with understanding when things seemed to be all wrong, with comfort when a loved one died. What happened to him could happen to you, whether you are a boy or a girl. Author and artist are both Church members.Deborah J. Merrill7–9 years

It wasn’t learning about the priesthood ban that shook Tomicka’s faith; it was the speculation behind that restriction put forward by some Latter-day Saints. Tomicka faced a choice: walk away from the Church or hold to the rod. Thanks to the Book of Mormon, she held tight.

I grew up in the Church. I attended Primary and went through the Young Women program. I loved it. My best friends were Latter-day Saints. When I went away to college, however, my activity in the Church wasn’t as great as it should have been.

I never had a doubt that the gospel was true, but after college I was reading about the priesthood ban on African-Americans. It really began to bother me—not so much the ban, but what people said were the reasons for the ban.

Some people said things like, “You weren’t as valiant in the war in heaven” or, “You’re not as intelligent or as faithful.” Those things didn’t mesh with what I knew to be true from my mom, from other black members of the Church who are really good examples of faith, and even from faithful black people outside the Church.

I had a moment, a crisis of faith, when I thought that I could just walk away from it all. But at that moment, I thought, “Is the Book of Mormon true? Do you believe it to be true?”

I could answer, “Yes, without a shadow of a doubt, I believe it to be true.” Then the Spirit told me, “Well, if the Book of Mormon is true, then everything else is.”

I got the impression that the gospel is perfect, but people aren’t. And so, I have to remind myself over and over that people sometimes do things and say things that don’t match with what the gospel tells us.

Some people in the Church are going to say things that are wrong. The gospel is perfect, but people aren’t perfect. The Church is for imperfect people. We’re trying to get there, but we’re still a long way from it.

A friend asked me point blank, “How did you stay, knowing all of this?” I said, “It’s my testimony of the Book of Mormon.” I believe it to be true. No, I know it to be true.

That was the reason I could stay.

Second only to the importance of being eternal companions is being an earthly parent. Fathers and mothers need to consider their roles in this great responsibility. My children taught me a great lesson many years ago. Our family had moved from California to New York, where I had accepted a position with a new company. We began the process of finding a new home by looking in communities closest to the city. Gradually, however, we moved farther away from the city to find a home in a neighborhood that suited our needs. We found a beautiful home some distance from New York City. It was a one-story house nestled in the lovely deep woods of Connecticut. The final test before purchasing the home was for me to ride the commuter train into New York and check the time and see how long the commute would take. I made the trip and returned quite discouraged. The trip was one and one-half hours each way. I walked into our motel room where our family was waiting for me and presented to my children a choice.

“You can have either this house or a father,” I said. Much to my surprise they responded, “We will take the house. You are never around much anyway.” I was devastated. What my children were telling me was true. I needed to repent fast. My children needed a father who was home more. Eventually we reached a compromise and bought a home closer to the city, with a much shorter commute. I changed my work habits to allow me to have more time with my family.

On Thursday, a group from the Mormon Battalion who had been released in New Mexico entered the valley and joined the Saints, increasing their number to about 400. These men from the battalion went to work immediately on the construction of a bowery on the southeast corner of the place designated as the Temple Block to serve as a place of assembly—a predecessor to this tabernacle. Poles were cut and brought from the mountains and planted in the ground to support a roof of leafy boughs. This first structure to be built in the valley was finished on Saturday, one week from the day of arrival. On the following day, Sunday, they were able to hold religious services under the shade of this bowery.

apprehensively hushed
everyone sits.
ours is the eager silence
of expectancy
and i imbibe freely
of the Spirit
that is passed around.
then
the moment comes
and in enters the man.
a man with understanding in his eyes
power in his voice
compassion in his face
and our quiet changes
to the grateful stillness
of fulfillment.

“It’s a tradition in our family to keep a personal journal,” wrote Laura Call of the Columbus Ohio Stake. “During some of our family home evenings my dad reads us accounts from my great-grandpa’s journal, and that really inspires me to keep one. If my descendants get half the enjoyment I’ve received from reading my grandparents’ journals, it will be well worth my time to keep it up.”