Gospel Story Finder

1833. Jackson County, Missouri, USA. Mobs forced the Saints living there to leave their homes.
Joseph Smith wondered what to do. Soon a revelation came. Joseph was told to recruit men to travel to Missouri and help the Saints regain their homes.
Joseph left for Missouri with a group of volunteers. The group later became known as Zion’s Camp.
The journey was hard at times, but many enjoyed it.
After a month of marching, the camp stopped near a river.
They heard that men on the other side were waiting to attack them.
What will we do?
Stand still …
… and see the salvation of God.
Soon a storm came.
God is in this storm!
The rain caused the river to rise so much that the camp’s enemies couldn’t cross it.
After a few days, Joseph received a revelation that it was time to return home, even though they hadn’t helped the Missouri Saints return to their homes.
The Lord has accepted our efforts.
We have been brought this far for a trial of our faith. (See Doctrine and Covenants 105:19.)
Some thought the journey was a failure.
We came all this way for nothing!
Why are we going home before helping the Saints here?
Most saw it as a privilege to be with the Prophet and to learn from him.
Zion’s Camp helped prepare future leaders of the Church. Eight men who marched with Zion’s Camp were called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

I helped with a food drive in our city. I dropped off donation bags and later collected the bags when they were filled with food. Helping people makes me happy!
Vienna M., age 6, Alberta, Canada

I learned about the gospel together with my family in Barahona. One day, the missionaries came to our home. I was 11 years old. Somehow, I was delighted by what they taught us. Right now I do not remember all my feelings clearly, but what I can tell you is that I liked what they taught. We felt very good; they brought a very special spirit into our home. Thus, when the missionaries invited us to be baptized, I did not doubt; I accepted and entered the waters of baptism together with my mother. That was how I entered into the way and made my baptismal covenants with the Lord.

Illustrations by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki
I’m right, and you know it, and I know you know it!
You mean you’re wrong, and I know it, and you know I know it!
Yeah? Well, what you say you know is what we both know you don’t know!
You mean that what you say we both know I don’t know is what we both know I do know I know!
What are you arguing about?
I can’t remember.
Me neither.
Want to do some Funstuf activities?
You know it!

To encourage the teachers in our ward to use better object lessons, I called those who would be attending a teacher development meeting and asked them to recall the most memorable object lesson they had seen. The responses were wonderful and sparked a deeper-than-usual interest in our upcoming meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, my wife, Rosie, and I used the responses to list nearly 30 object lessons on the chalkboard. We spent the rest of the meeting encouraging the teachers to share the object lessons that had the most impact on them.

As a young man, I looked forward to the day when I would serve a full-time mission. When I finally entered the mission field, I discovered that missionary service was not what I had expected—it was better. It was harder than I thought, but the satisfaction that came from doing what the Lord asked of me was indescribable.
Never before had I experienced the joy of helping someone attend church. Never before had I felt the thrill of hearing someone say, “Sure, come on in” so that they could hear the restored gospel. Never before had I sensed the reality of the power that came as we declared repentance. Never before had I prayed with such real intent. Never before had an hour of scripture study gone by so fast. Never before had I been brought to tears by the realization of my imperfections. Never before had I experienced the devastation that comes with the words, “Elders, please don’t come by my house anymore.” Never before had I gotten a blister on my foot the size of my thumb. Never before had I felt so protected. Never before had I felt so much responsibility for my actions because I wore the name “Jesus Christ” on my chest.
Never before had I been so close to my Heavenly Father as I came to be during my full-time mission.
Nahuel Cabranes, Peru

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., 18, Bahia, Brazil

I went outside to fly my kite
One breezy day in spring.
I wondered just how high it would go,
So let out all the string.
With the end held firmly in my grasp,
My thoughts began to flow:
Oh, how much higher could it fly
If I’d just let it go?
With that, my hand released the string,
And much to my surprise,
It fell straight down
Instead of soaring through the skies.
What went wrong, I asked myself,
This made no sense at all.
I tried and tried again, but each time
All it did was fall.
So, one last time I ran
To let the breeze lift up the kite.
I let the string out to the end
But this time held on tight.
I smiled as I gazed upon
Those colors way up high.
I realized that, like my kite,
We too need string to fly.
Our string is called the gospel,
And its purpose now is sure.
Temptation’s wind may tug and pull,
But our string can help us soar.
I’ll hold on tight to what I know,
And like my kite I’ll be.
The gospel doesn’t hold us back,
Instead it makes us free!

A number of years ago, a one-inch article in my local newspaper caught my attention, and I have remembered it ever since: “Four people were killed and seven workers were rescued after clinging for more than an hour to the underside of a 125-foot-high [38-m] bridge in St. Catharines, Ontario, [Canada,] after the scaffolding they were working on collapsed” (“News Capsules,” Deseret News, June 9, 1993, A2).
I was, and I continue to be, fascinated by this brief story. Shortly after reading this account, I called a family friend who lived in St. Catharines. She explained that the workers had been painting the Garden City Skyway bridge for about a year and were two weeks short of completing the project when the accident happened. After the accident, officials were asked why these men did not have any safety equipment. The answer was simple: they had the equipment; they just chose not to wear it. After the scaffolding gave way, the survivors held on to a one-inch (2.5-cm) lip of steel girder and stood on an eight-inch (20-cm) ledge of steel for over an hour until rescue teams could reach them. One survivor related that as he clung to the bridge, he thought a lot about his family. He said, “I just thank the Lord for me being here today. … It was pretty scary, I tell you” (in Rick Bogacz, “Skyway Horror,” Standard, June 9, 1993).
My life is not perfect. I deal with many of the same challenges. We all do. I know that the temptations of the adversary and the difficulties of mortality are ever present and beset each of us. I concur with the rescued worker’s expression of his dangerous experience of holding on to that steel girder: “It [is] pretty scary, I tell you.”

As a young woman, she was impressed with the importance of finding a worthy young man to marry and made it a matter of daily prayer and weekly fasting. After high school she attended Brigham Young University on a dance scholarship and met Mark Durham, who was attending the University of Utah. “I immediately recognized his goodness,” she said.
The couple married in June 1974 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have seven children.

A friend from my apartment building ended up being in my class at school. I sat next to him and helped him. It made me feel good inside. I felt the Holy Ghost.
Christalynn F., age 8, Utah, USA

Even as the service projects were continuing, chariot construction was in the polishing stages. In the First Ward, the bishop filled in at the service project in place of Dave Holcomb, who had been working on the chariot since 6:00 A.M. At 1:00 P.M., when the vehicle was finally done, the team rolled it down the street to the high school.
“We put a stereo in it, and Brother Charles McClellan, the priests quorum adviser, helped with the wiring and balanced the weight,” Ron Fowler, a priest in the ward, explained. With the stereo playing the racing theme from the movie Ben Hur, the black chariot with gold trim attracted a lot of attention on its way to the stadium. Some people, when they heard there would be a chariot race, followed along out of curiosity.

I have a dear friend. We grew up together. Although he was intelligent and capable, he was not a good student in school. Family needs and concerns limited his educational opportunities; he did not complete his basic schooling. He was able to buy an old, used truck and he began hauling sand and gravel for a few building contractors. They got work only when the weather was good. The old truck often broke down and needed repairs.
He married a good woman, and although things were hard for them financially, they somehow managed to build their own house.
I was his bishop at that time and called him to be the Aaronic Priesthood adviser. He took his calling seriously. He wore out the handbook, studying it. He had a notebook filled with dates when all the young men in the ward would reach the age to be advanced in the Aaronic Priesthood. He kept good track of the young men and kept the bishopric informed of their activities.
Some years after I was released as bishop, he became a member of the bishopric. He responded to the call faithfully. He later became our bishop and served wonderfully and well.
In the meantime, he and an associate had learned how to lay bricks and had formed a brick-contracting partnership. They both did fine, quality work. Their services were in demand. He prospered and became very respected in the community.
After many successful years as a bishop, he was called to the stake high council and served well and faithfully. Although his formal education was limited, he is now a respected and honored business man. With the advantage of a college education he no doubt would have achieved even more.
What caused him to succeed? Industry? Thrift? Self-reliance? Yes, but there was more. Faithfully and diligently, he sought to know and do the mind and the will of the Lord. He had a simple, untroubled faith.

“I used to stay in the mountain, so my bishop told me I should come and stay with the missionary sisters in the missionary apartment. They used to give me transport to pay bike to come to chapel to take my MTC class,” explained Sister Combay of the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission.
Missionaries already serving in the field were a great help. Sister Combay said, “I did not know how to use computer, but they (sister missionaries) taught me, and I started using the computer. When we had class, I was the one putting on the computer. . . . So, before our instructor came to start class, I already knew how to put computer on and to go onto the system.”
Sister Combay stated that after she went into the field full-time, “I was missing the MTC because our instructors were so lovely. They were nice to us, and they also teach us the things we should know. Even sometimes they call us for interview, one by one. We talk to them, share our problem with them.”

“Family, school, work, and life commitments sometimes make it hard to have any, let alone meaningful, scripture study. Having both grown up working and living on dairies, we’ve found our best chance for success is 5:30 on school mornings—sometimes our measure of success is if everyone makes it out of bed! Above all, we’ve found that consistency is key, but that doesn’t give us more time. Finding ways to amend our learning is also important. Things we can do while driving or waiting, such as listening to good books, podcasts, and talks all enhance our understanding of gospel principles and strengthen our relationships with our loving Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, allowing us to keep our thoughts continually toward Them.”
Spencer and Sarah Parkinson, Iowa, USA

At the end of a row of headstones, we found a whole family: all five of their children had died in the same year. When we got home, we did some research and found out there was a cholera epidemic in that same year in England. We could feel the grief of that mother who buried all her children.

This past spring two different bird families built nests in my yard. A small sparrow chose a rose tree on my patio for her nest. Time after time she flew back and forth, carrying blades of grass and small twigs in her beak. Carefully she manipulated her way through the rose thorns, depositing her building materials in the chosen spot. She worked without resting until the tiny nest was finished. I was amazed at how carefully the grasses were woven to make a strong and stable structure. I was almost moved to tears when I saw in the bottom of the nest four small pieces of cotton, placed in just the right spot to make a soft bed for her little ones.
The second bird, a robin, chose to build her nest in front of my house near the rain gutter, up high where ground predators could not reach it. Since she was larger, so was her nest, and in addition to being bigger, the outside of her nest was glued with mud, which kept the grasses and twigs together and held it in the crook of the rain gutter. Inside, single blades of grass were woven into a soft, cuplike shape that perfectly cradled the bird.
When the nests were completed, both birds laid their eggs and began the daily vigil of protecting and nurturing. Hour after hour, day after day these birds sat on their eggs. After the eggs hatched, the mothers worked full time to feed their hungry babies.
One particularly hot day I noticed the robin sitting on her nest, panting with her beak open. Obviously she was uncomfortable in the glare of the sun. I wondered why she stayed. Then I realized she was not sitting deep in the nest as she had when she was keeping her babies warm. Instead she was carefully stretched over the top of the nest, forming a protective shelter to keep her featherless babies from being sunburned.
I began to read about birds and the great pains they take to build homes for their families. Did you know that barn swallows make more than 1,200 mud-carrying trips in order to construct their nests? One single nest of a hooded oriole was found to contain 3,387 separate pieces of material. It seems to me that birds invest everything—their time, their energy, their means, their own comfort—to make a home and rear their young. It is not a priority that is given second place or avoided. It takes first place.
Since watching the birds in my yard, I have wondered who taught these birds what to do. How did they know how to build a nest and to shade their fledglings from the sun? Birds follow instincts to provide, protect, and nurture. These are God-given instincts, and pondering on them caused me, along with the Psalmist, to exclaim, “O Lord, how great are thy works!” (Ps. 92:5).

A big thank you to the New Era for the article “Your Life Can Never Be the Same Again” (July 1998). I’m a new member of the Church, and I feel happy any time I read the magazine. When I read this article, tears began to roll out of my eyes because I know that Jesus is our Savior and this is His church. Thank you again for that article.
Llwem Efiok NyongLlyo, Nigeria

The church organ was broken! Christmas was only a few days away and everyone wondered what could take the place of the organ so there would be music for the Christmas Eve service.
The little Austrian village of Oberndorf lay deep in snow. The winter stars shone brightly through the cold clear night as Father Joseph Mohr plowed through the forest to visit a woodchopper’s wife who had given birth to a child. It was late when he reached the home. In the light of the fire he saw the new mother bending over her tiny infant. They reminded the young priest of Mary and her Baby who was born in a stable in Bethlehem.
Walking back to the village through the quiet white wintry beauty of the forest, words began to sing together in Father Mohr’s head: “Silent night, holy night …” Even after he arrived home, the words continued to flow through his mind. It was almost daybreak before he had put them all together and written them down and gone to bed.
Early the next morning he decided that the words should be put to music. His best friend was Franz Gruber, who taught school and played the church organ, and so he hurried to the Gruber home with his poem. Franz wrote a melody to his friend’s words to be sung by two voices accompanied by a guitar.
At the church service in snowy Oberndorf that Christmas Eve of 1818, Franz played the guitar, and he and Father Mohr sang for the first time “Silent Night,” the Christmas carol that is loved by children everywhere.

In the October 2018 general conference, our belove prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, announced an adjustment to achieve “a new balance and connection between gospel instruction in the home and in the Church.”3
He said that “the long-standing objective of the Church is to assist all members to increase their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Atonement, to assist them in making and keeping their covenants with God, and to strengthen and seal their families. In this complex world today, this is not easy. The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans. Accordingly, we now want to put in place organizational adjustments that will further fortify our members and their families.
“For many years, Church leaders have been working on an integrated curriculum to strengthen families and individuals through a home-centered and Church-supported plan to learn doctrine, strengthen faith, and foster greater personal worship. Our efforts over these recent years to hallow the Sabbath—to make it a delight and a personal sign to God of our love for Him—will be augmented by the adjustments we will now introduce.
“This morning we will announce a new balance and connection between gospel instruction in the home and in the Church. We are each responsible for our individual spiritual growth. Scriptures make it clear that parents have the primary responsibility to teach the doctrine to their children. It is the responsibility of the Church to assist each member in the divinely defined goal of increasing his or her gospel knowledge.”4
The Sunday meeting schedule was adjusted to two hours to allow more time for a home evening and to study the gospel at home on Sunday or at other times as individuals and families may choose.
Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve added:
“There is so much more to this adjustment than just shortening the Sunday meetinghouse schedule. … The purposes and blessings associated with this adjustment and other recent changes include the following:
“Deepening conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthening faith in Them.
“Strengthening individuals and families through home-centered, Church-supported curriculum that contributes to joyful gospel living.
“Honoring the Sabbath day, with a focus on the ordinance of the sacrament.
“Helping all Heavenly Father’s children on both sides of the veil through missionary work and receiving ordinances and covenants and blessings of the temple.”5