Gospel Story Finder

In my junior high and high school years, many of my classmates chose to do things that I had been taught were not right, like drinking alcohol and smoking. I kept busy working on the farm, playing sports, acting in school plays, and participating in activities at my church. I felt blessed to have good friends who were also trying to choose the right.

John was called to be an apostle in 1921, when he was forty-nine. At that time he was president of the University of Utah and had been president of Utah State University at Logan. He often said that from his earliest youth, education was his objective. John A. Widtsoe will always be remembered as one of the great men of the Church. In one of his books, In a Sunlit Land, he wrote:
“There was a real relish for learning in my soul. … The love of reading has been with me from my boyhood. To leave the routine of the day for a visit with great minds has ever been a delight. … I look with half envy upon the youth to whom the doors of new knowledge are being opened.”
The shoemaker in Trondheim, Norway, who repaired John’s shoes truly did give to John’s mother and her family something of far more value than soles for a worn pair of shoes. He was also instrumental in giving to the Church a great writer, educator, leader, and friend!

Our dog, Ellie, got really sick and died unexpectedly. We missed the light and joy she brought to our family. Many ward members comforted us with notes, hugs, and even stuffed animals that looked like Ellie! The next day we went to a temple open house and felt peace while our family was mourning.
Jane, Lydia, and Maggie S., ages 6, 8, and 3, Washington, USA

A friend of mine said: “When I joined the Church at age 16, I began to learn about my identity. I received my patriarchal blessing and was told I was of the house of Israel. At the time, I did not know what that meant, but over the years I have come to learn that I have a great privilege to be directly descended from the prophets. I have a precious heritage and the best opportunities.”

The warm sun came through Aaron’s bedroom window. “Today is going to be a good day,” Aaron thought. “I’m going to see Grandma and Grandpa.”
Grandma and Grandpa lived just down the road, and he usually visited them after breakfast. It was the best way to start the day. Aaron jumped out of bed.
After breakfast and chores, Mom smiled and said that he could go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. As he went, the late morning sun felt good on his back. The sand squished under his shoes. It made him laugh. “This is going to be a good day,” he said out loud.
He saw a shiny black rock with a stripe down the middle. “I bet Grandpa would like to see this.” Aaron slipped the rock into his pocket.
He checked the pine tree just outside Grandma’s back door. The robin was sitting on her nest. “I think she has eggs.” Aaron climbed the fence. Standing on tiptoes and stretching his neck as far as he could, he thought he saw something blue in the nest. “I’m going to tell Grandpa!” He slid down and ran to the kitchen door.
Grandpa thought he was right about the eggs. “Pretty soon there will be little birds,” he said. Grandma had made applesauce cookies. They were really good! Grandma and Grandpa both liked his rock.
On the way home, Aaron noticed that the lilac bush was covered with purple flowers. This was such a great day!
That night as Aaron got ready for bed, he thought about everything that had happened. He said his prayers, thanking Heavenly Father. “Thank Thee for the beautiful flowers, the warm sun, the sand, and the robin’s eggs. Thank Thee for Grandma and Grandpa. Thank Thee for this whole great day! Oh, and Heavenly Father, I love Thee.”
As Aaron climbed into bed, he remembered something his Primary teacher had said. When we feel love for Heavenly Father, that feeling is called reverence. Aaron fell asleep feeling very reverent.

When I was a child, fast Sunday was something of a burden. My little tummy rumbled all day long, and I could hardly wait for dinnertime when I could break my fast. By the summer before my sixth-grade year, I had started to gain a greater understanding of the principle of fasting, and just as I did, it happened—I got sick.
This wasn’t your average cold and flu, either. My body was acting very strangely, and no one seemed to know why. After four months and visits to countless specialists, I finally got an answer. I was diagnosed with a rare disease that makes me thirsty all the time and very sensitive to dehydration. Because the disease is rare, the doctors couldn’t tell me much about what day-to-day life was going to be like. I was simply given medicine in the hope that it would help.
So when the next fast Sunday came, I tried to fast from food and water, just as I had always done. Big mistake. Because of my disease, fasting from water even for a few hours makes me very ill, as I quickly found out.
I was very upset by this. “If I drink when I’m fasting,” I thought to myself, “it won’t be a full fast! I won’t be doing enough!” This thought troubled me for months. I studied scriptures about fasting and prayed about this problem a great deal. I also talked to my parents and Young Women leaders about it, but still I felt uneasy.
The answer came to me one fast Sunday morning as I read the story of the widow’s mite in the New Testament (see Mark 12:41–44). The widow’s offering was small in the eyes of the world, but the Savior accepted it lovingly because He knew that it was all she had. I knew then that my fast was sufficient because it was the very best I could do. The Lord wasn’t measuring my sacrifice against what others were giving, but against what I was capable of giving.
Since that day I have developed a firm testimony of fasting. I have learned that I must also study and pray while I fast so the Spirit can be with me. But most important, I have learned to always give my best, and that is enough. The Lord doesn’t ask us to give more than we have strength for (see Mosiah 4:27).

The Secuya family live in a mountainous part of Cebu, with the parents working as farm caretakers to support their brood of five. On weekends, the entire household puts on formal clothes and shoes and start trekking . . . up to twelve kilometers to reach the Busay 2nd Ward meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It’s important we go to church every Sunday, because we learn a lot listening to the words of Jesus Christ,” shares Richelle Secuya. Together with her other siblings and parents, Richelle walks through upland paths and then takes off her footwear to ford through streams, after which she 2025 PHILIPPINES AREA PRIORITY FOCUS They Walk the Covenant Path... Through Mountains and Streams and her family wait for a public utility vehicle that brings them to church.
As they attend sacrament meeting, the Secuyas feel a different kind of fulfillment. “We know that Heavenly Father is happy when we are at church, which is His House,” Richelle’s brother Ryle smiles.
Still, the family knows the challenges of keeping the Lord’s command to renew their baptismal covenants as they keep the Sabbath day holy. “I remember our worst experience,” recalls Mitzi Secuya, the siblings’ mother, “we had to walk three to four hours, which we did for a month.”
At one point, the long trek became almost unbearable for her children. “There were times when they would say they were tired from walking and walking,” she admits, “but we still continued because our Sunday would not be complete if we went to church without them.”

Celeste hopped into the van and scrunched down so that no one outside it could see her. Tears flooded down her freckled cheeks and splashed on her jumper like a monsoon thunderstorm breaking loose.
“It isn’t fair,” she muttered. She pulled a crumpled tissue out of her pocket and wiped her hazel eyes. “Why doesn’t Eli pick on someone else, for a change?”
“Hey, look who’s talking to herself!” said Peter, her older brother. “Celeste is having a celestial chat!” He started to laugh, then noticed her tear-stained face. “Aw, Celeste, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything. What’s wrong?”
“What did you do?” Jimmy, her younger brother, asked Peter. Celeste turned away and stared silently out the window.
Mom gave the boys a meaningful look and said, “Please remember, Sunday is supposed to be a peaceful day of rest, a day free from the cares of the world and,” she added pointedly, “from the teasing of brothers.”
Celeste looked guiltily at Peter and Jimmy. Normally they deserved a lecture like this, but today wasn’t really their fault. It was Elijah Smith’s. The only time Eli had been decent to her was the week Sister Newman had given a lesson on “love your enemies.”
Later, in her room, while Mom sat quietly beside her, the day’s tragic events spilled out.
It had begun when Celeste enthusiastically answered two tough questions in her Valiant B class. Sister Newman had complimented her. “Good job, Celeste! I can always count on you.”
Celeste had flushed with happiness until Eli whispered loudly, “Miss Goody-goody Two Shoes knows all the answers.” The other children had snickered.
Later Eli bumped into her, then flopped on the floor, groaning, “Oh no! I’ve touched Miss Righteous. Help—I’m going to be translated!”
Even Celeste’s best friend, Mary, had laughed.
“Mom,” she asked now, “how could anyone name a boy like that after a great prophet?”
“Two prophets, if you count his last name,” replied Mom. “Don’t let him get to you, Celeste. Eli may not know about Elijah or Joseph Smith. He and his dad just started coming back to church this year. Besides,” Mom encouraged her with a big hug, “you know how to handle teasing. That’s one advantage of having two brothers, right?”
Celeste smiled, then broke into laughter when Mom winked at her, tiptoed to the bedroom door, opened it quickly, and Peter and James tumbled in.
“Eavesdropping, guys?” Mom asked sweetly. They grinned.
The next Sunday, things went from bad to rotten. In class, Eli brushed past her chair and snorted, “Teacher’s pet.” Celeste pasted on a smile and looked right through him.
The real bombshell hit when Sister Newman announced, “Class, we are going to have a prophet-mastery contest like the seminary youth do with scriptures! I’ll divide you into teams of two, and you can study together.
“Mary, you team up with Charles. Celeste, you’re partners with Eli.”
It was hard to tell whose jaw dropped first. Both Celeste and Eli looked like goldfish gasping on dry land.
“Please meet with your partner this week,” said Sister Newman, handing out a list of some prophets.
“Mom,” moaned Celeste during lunch, “how can I work with someone who doesn’t even like me?”
“I could ask Sister Virden to transfer him to my Blazer class,” Peter volunteered.
“No—to my class!” Jimmy clamored. “Sister Florio doesn’t let anyone get away with what she calls shenanigans.”
“See, honey,” Mom told her, “even though they tease you a lot, your brothers are telling you that they love you.”
Celeste sighed. “I guess that leaves me with ‘love my enemy.’”
At school, Eli and Celeste avoided each other all week. Finally, Saturday morning, Celeste called him. To her surprise, Eli agreed to come right over.
“We can’t show up tomorrow and look like dummies,” he explained. “That’s the only reason I’m here.”
They studied for two hours before Mom brought in some almond brownies.
“Food!” shouted Eli.
While he ate two in quick succession, Celeste said shyly, “You know, there is another prophet I think you’d really like. He’s in the Old Testament.”
“Oh, yeah?” Eli mumbled.
“His name was Elijah, like yours.” Eli stopped chewing as she continued. “He was one of the great prophets—in fact, another Old Testament prophet spoke of him, and Jesus told the people in the Book of Mormon about it. Elijah performed many miracles in the Lord’s name, like when he called fire down from heaven and burned up a sacrifice and an altar too.”
“Cool!”
Celeste rushed on, “He sealed up the heavens for three and a half years so it wouldn’t rain. During the famine the drought caused, he blessed a widow’s flour and oil so that she would always have food. And later he even raised her son from the dead. And he did all these things to help people turn to the Lord and to be good.”
“Wow! How do you know all this great stuff?”
Ducking her head modestly, she answered, “Oh, our family reads scriptures together. I do some on my own too.”
Before Eli left, she gave him a piece of paper with “1 Kings 17” [1 Kgs. 17] and “2 Kings 2” [2 Kgs. 2] written on it so that he could read more about Elijah.
The next day, when Eli came into Primary, he whispered, “Celeste, how come you didn’t tell me Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, pulled by flaming horses? He really was a great prophet of the Lord. I’m proud to have his name—and my last name’s the same as the Prophet Joseph’s!”
Mary and Charles won the prophet-mastery game, but Celeste and Eli were just one point behind. When Sister Newman asked the triple bonus question: “Name two prophets who appeared to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple,” Eli surprised everyone by waving his hand.
“Moses and Elijah,” he said proudly. “That’s from Doctrine and Covenants section 110 [D&C 110]. My dad showed me.”
“Wonderful!” said an amazed Sister Newman.
“Better watch it, Eli,” teased Celeste as they filed out of class, “if you get too good, a fiery chariot with your name on it might show up.”
Eli laughed and said, “Know what, Celeste? If it did, I’d let you come too.”

When the bishop came to my house, speaking in general conference was the furthest thing from my mind. When the bishop said that he was going to speak for twelve minutes, I remarked that that would be scary. Then he asked if six minutes sounded better; I said that it would be much better. Then the bishop told me that was how long I was going to speak. My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what to say. But I am grateful for the opportunity to speak tonight.

This story took place in the USA.
“Magnolia! Lily!” Dad called. “Time for scriptures and prayer!”
Magnolia flopped on the floor next to their dog, Raindrop. Lily snuggled in her favorite blanket.
Family scripture time was fun. Sometimes they acted out the scripture stories together. It helped Magnolia picture the stories. Plus, Raindrop always helped when there were animals in the stories!
Dad opened his scriptures and read a verse. Then he passed the big, heavy Bible to Magnolia. They each took turns reading.
“And be ye kind one to another,” Magnolia read.*
She frowned. People weren’t always kind to her at church.
“Mom, Dad, can I talk to you about something?” she asked.
“Of course,” said Mom. “What is it?”
“At Primary yesterday, some kids told me we aren’t a good family because Dad isn’t a member of our church.”
Magnolia’s dad belonged to a different church. He went to sacrament meeting with their family on Sundays. He gave talks about the Holy Ghost at Lily’s and Magnolia’s baptisms. Everyone said he did a great job. He was an amazing dad.
“What they said made me want to cry.” Magnolia sniffed. “Why do people have to be so mean?”
Mom and Dad looked at each other.
“I’m glad you told us what happened,” Dad said. “Mom and I love each other very much. And our family is very important to us.”
Mom nodded. “And our family is important to Heavenly Father too. He loves all His children.”
Raindrop snuggled up to Magnolia. She scratched his ears.
“Heavenly Father knows us, and He knows we love each other,” Dad said. “No family is perfect, but we can keep trying our best.”
“But it still hurts when people say mean things about our family,” Magnolia said. “Jesus taught us to be kind to everyone. Saying mean things doesn’t seem like following Jesus.”
“You’re right,” said Dad. “Maybe when you feel like saying something mean, you can remember how you felt when others were unkind to you. Then you can say something kind instead.”
Magnolia took a big breath. “OK.” She was glad she could talk to Mom and Dad.
“Time for a family sandwich!” Dad pulled Lily and Magnolia into a big hug and squeezed them tight. Mom wrapped her arms around all three of them. Raindrop ran circles around everyone.
“I can’t breathe!” joked Lily. Magnolia laughed.
“Now remind me—whose turn is it to read?” Dad asked. He let go of the girls and picked up his scriptures.
“My turn!” said Lily. “And it’s Dad’s turn for prayer.”
When they finished reading, everyone knelt to pray. Magnolia felt peaceful as she listened to Dad say the prayer. She knew Heavenly Father loved her family.
Illustrations by Constanza Basaluzzo

President Lee amplified this by telling of his response to a man who was disturbed at a new policy of the Church which was different from one established in the time of Joseph Smith. He said to this questioning brother:
“‘Have you ever thought that what was contrary to the order of heaven in 1840 might not be contrary to the order of heaven in 1960?’ He had not thought of that. He again was following a dead prophet, and he was forgetting that there is a living prophet today. Hence the importance of our stressing that word living” (Stand Ye in Holy Places, 153).

Sixteen-year-old Chelsea Frandsen watches helplessly as the choreographed battle between the English and the French deteriorates into a free-for-all, with soldiers thrusting their wooden swords at whoever is closest and dead men falling and lying still for only a second before jumping back up to join the fun again.
Of course, Chelsea knew this was one of the hazards of enlisting three-year-olds to play soldiers in her neighborhood production of Shakespeare’s King Lear.
“I was just laughing my head off,” recalls Chelsea, a Laurel in the Oak Hills Fourth Ward, Provo Utah Oak Hills Stake. She knows that on performance night, the real goal isn’t perfection—it’s having fun.

I had been taught the Joseph Smith story my entire life. I believed it was true because I trusted those who taught me. If anybody spoke negatively of the Prophet Joseph, I defended him, not because I had a testimony of him but on principle, knowing it was what I was supposed to do.
That all changed when my ward was assigned to provide a special number for a cultural event of the San Salvador El Salvador Ilopango Stake. My friends and I thought that a humorous skit would be best; our Young Men president disagreed. He suggested that we dramatize some of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s experiences.
We were not excited about this idea. My friends and I knew that everyone else would perform a funny dance or skit, and we were embarrassed to do anything different. We knew people would laugh at us when they saw us dressed up in old-fashioned clothing, performing a serious drama. I had seen that happen on other occasions, and I have to admit that I had even been one of those who had laughed. However, our Young Men president promised us that if we worked diligently to prepare the Joseph Smith story, nobody would laugh.
So for the next two months, we lived the Joseph Smith story. We saw the film of the First Vision countless times, and we memorized every word and every detail of it. We painted an enormous set that showed the Sacred Grove and the open sky. We made a stack of gold plates and found a huge Bible and a rocking chair to use as props. One of my friends who played the piano recorded the hymn “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” (Hymns, no. 26). We even recorded the sound of birds singing in the grove and of Joseph’s footsteps as he stepped on the leaves. When we drew for our parts, it fell to me to play Joseph Smith.
On the day of the performance, we found out that, as expected, we were the only ones performing something serious. So before our turn came, we joined together to pray that all would go well. Then something happened that changed my life.
It was time for me to go on stage. The set of the grove was before me. I walked toward it and heard the recorded hymn playing in the background. As I did, I felt something burning in my chest. Somehow I knew that the event I was reenacting had indeed happened, that a young boy just younger than I was had really had this experience. When I knelt down for the prayer scene, my lips were sealed—but not by an evil influence. Rather, I knew I couldn’t talk without crying. A powerful force testified to my heart that Joseph’s account was true! I felt great gratitude to the Lord for Joseph Smith, and there was born in me a great love for him.
When I opened my eyes, I realized some members of the audience also had tears in their eyes. I had no doubt that the Spirit was testifying to them of the sacred truthfulness of what we were portraying.
When I later served a mission, I still defended the Church and the Prophet Joseph Smith but not just on principle. I bore witness of him because, as the Prophet himself said, “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it” (Joseph Smith—History 1:25).

In the apartment I rented, I found a small Mormon book entitled, Articles of Faith, by James E. Talmage. I never knew if Sister Stone secretly placed it there, or if it had been left by the former tenant. At any rate, I began reading it after the children were in bed at night; not because I was interested, but because there was nothing else to do.
During those first few weeks, not a Saturday went by that Sister Stone didn’t stop and ask if we would like to go to church with her on Sunday. When I would politely refuse, she never pushed the issue; but still she regularly asked. At the same time, I became more and more engrossed in the book. I had never heard of such things as I found in that book, though I had studied the Bible faithfully most of my life. Much of what I read I either wondered about or outright disagreed with, so I started jotting down notes of such items as I came across it.
One Saturday when Sister Stone came by, I still refused to go to church with her, but I did tell her that I had some questions about it, and that if she would send her pastor to talk to me I’d discuss them with him. In just a few days I was visited by a man named Marvin Turner and his wife, who said they were stake missionaries and had come to answer my questions. Almost defiantly I brought out my written questions, seven pages in all, and told them that if they could answer them I would listen to whatever they wanted to teach me. Brother Turner’s response was that he did not have all the answers, but he knew that through the Church he could find me logical, reasonable answers. Through the patience and tenderness of the Turners, I finally reached the time when I was willing to pray about the truthfulness of those things that they taught me. I consented to go to church with them. Some time later, I was baptized. However, when I moved to southern California, I lost track of my new friends. I remarried and had other children.

In Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, Elder Gerrit W. Gong shared principles from the scriptures and from the teachings of President Nelson—including themes of ministering, staying on the covenant path, personal revelation, proper use of the name of the Church, and using the gospel to find answers and overcome challenges and obstacles.

One of these is Sebastiana Maria Catarina de Jesus; a talkative, cheerful lady who appears quite small in her wheelchair. She does not know her age, and has no relatives nor visitors. She has become a different woman since these loving and giving young people began visiting her. Catarina now feels that she has a family. She loves to spend time with these youth who are her new family.
They speak words of support and are always willing to help the elderly ladies, whose simple needs are easily met: a towel to Catarina, clothing to Flora or a cake to Virginia. These young people know that they are attending to the needs of a part of the Good Shepherd’s flock. They freely give of their love, affection, and kindness, which is just as freely returned.

Along with receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and passing the sacrament, Isaac also attended the temple to perform baptisms. His father baptized him first, but then came a surprise:
“I got to baptize my brother!” Matthew says.
“I never expected Matthew to baptize me,” Isaac says. “But he’s a priest now, so he could. It was really a cool experience. I could feel the Holy Ghost.”

After his first overnight hospital stay in 96 years of life, President Gordon B. Hinckley appeared to be recovering well in the weeks after a cancerous portion of his large intestine was removed, and as this issue of the Liahona was being prepared to print, he looked forward to resuming his busy schedule leading the more than 12 million members of the Church.
When called as the 15th President of the Church in 1995, President Hinckley told reporters he had spent only one night in the hospital—not for himself, but with a sick child. Throughout his 70 years of full-time Church service, the prophet has remained healthy and active.
However, when a cancerous growth was discovered in his large intestine during a routine medical screening earlier this year, he was scheduled for surgery at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. The growth was successfully removed on January 24, 2006, in a laparoscopic procedure, a less invasive process in which the surgeon makes smaller incisions and uses tiny cameras as guides. President Hinckley was discharged one week later.
As expected, his counselors, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, handled his workload in his absence.
The Church received a number of heartwarming get-well wishes for President Hinckley during his stay in the hospital. “President Hinckley is grateful for the outpouring of love and concern shown by members of the Church during his recovery,” one of his immediate staff members reported.
He even received wishes for a speedy recovery from Mike Wallace, a well-known news reporter from CBS and 60 Minutes. The two met 10 years ago when the veteran journalist did a profile on President Hinckley, a report Mr. Wallace later said was one of his most memorable experiences.
“I send a message of respect, of love, of friendship, and admiration,” Wallace said upon hearing of President Hinckley’s surgery. “And darn it, get back on your feet quick.”
The last Churchwide appearance he made before his surgery was on December 23, 2005, where he spoke from Vermont in a broadcast to Saints for a bicentennial birthday celebration honoring the Prophet Joseph Smith.

On October 9, 2011, a congregation of 35 Saints gathered to watch general conference—and to hear it in their native Georgian for the first time. Prior to October, the approximately 50 active members in the country had the option of listening to conference in either Russian, Armenian, or English. However, there were many who spoke only Georgian, so interpretation being offered in that language was a significant event.
“I was so happy to be able to hear President Thomas S. Monson’s address to us in Georgian,” said Lela Tsnobiladze. “It makes such a difference when you hear conference in your native tongue.”

A young man in Michigan several years ago fell in love with an LDS girl. He was told forthrightly and with great love that she wanted the power of the priesthood in her home and the blessings of an eternal family, and she would only marry someone who could give her those blessings. The teachings she had received had taken root, and the seeds of faith, knowledge, and choice had grown, and she knew that they were true. The young man felt her spirit and agreed to be taught the gospel.

And after he had learned that the gospel was true, his father would not approve his baptism. A great shepherd, a bishop of the young girl, went to the father and helped him to see the value of that young woman, her standards, the Church, and the really truly important things in life. The father was touched that day as he attended the baptism and saw about twenty young men and women of the Church. Following the service, he asked that the missionaries come teach him. A young woman had taken on the divine nature and was able to share the priceless truths with others.