Gospel Story Finder

The second truth reemphasized in my missionary life is that the Lord communicates in a miraculous way his purposes to achieve. A new elder in Italy by the name of Gary D. Shaw, in following the promptings of the Spirit, discovered this reality. Elder Shaw had been in the mission field only two weeks when his senior companion became ill. The elders, as a consequence, had to remain in their apartment all day. Elder Shaw was moved by the Spirit and had a great desire to talk to someone about the gospel, so he picked up the phone book in which more than three million names were listed. He chose three. There was no response to the first call. To the second, a woman answered and informed Elder Shaw that she wasn’t at all interested, and to make matters worse, declared that she couldn’t understand his poor Italian and atrocious mode of speech. On the third try, a man answered. Elder Shaw introduced himself and received a warm response. The man said his name was Mabiglia and that he would gladly receive the elders. This he did. The appointment, made so miraculously, turned into a spiritually uplifting and inspiring occasion. After the first lesson, Mr. Mabiglia said, “How wonderful! I’ve worked for two years in a bank located on the street where the missionaries have done street-board tracting. Again and again I have practically brushed them as I passed them on the street, but I was too shy to respond to them. Now, in this miraculous way, I have met you.” At this point we should change the “Mister” to “Brother,” for after receiving the lessons, the man contacted by telephone was baptized, and Brother Mabiglia is now serving in the presidency of the Naples Branch.

I’m Not Sleepy by Denys Cazet Alex isn’t sleepy, so his father tells him his “‘no-matter-how-wide-awake-you-are-I-can-make-you-sleepy sleepy story.’” And it works—sort of.

Just the other day, after President Hinckley called my wife and me, I was reading in the book of Deuteronomy and found a verse in the 12th chapter that came to mean a lot to me. It’s put in the form of a commandment. The Lord says, “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto” (Deut. 12:18). We are grateful for this privilege to rejoice in the Lord at this new opportunity.

Discipline is another tough area for parents. As kids get older, discipline gets more difficult. A friend of mine, a father of two teenagers, explained it. “When those two were little, I’d tell them, ‘No, don’t do that,’ and they’d obey. Now if I tell them no, they answer with ‘Why?’ or complain ‘You don’t trust me.’”

When Juan Hernández of Salt Lake City, Utah, looks back on his first visit to church, one word sums up his attitude: apprehension.
“My mom was the first to be baptized in the family. At the time, I didn’t know why. One day she asked me if I wanted to go to church with her to see what it was like. I decided to go with her just so she wouldn’t feel bad.” But thanks to the ward’s Aaronic Priesthood, Juan learned that there was something special about the Church.
One of the young men invited Juan to come to a Scout activity flying planes. Though he had no interest in attending religious meetings, flying planes with the Scouts sounded like too much fun to resist. On the day of the activity, Juan was surprised by how friendly and enthusiastic the young men were. “When we went up in the planes, I forgot that I barely knew these young men. Somehow I knew that they would be good friends to me,” Juan says.
Though Juan didn’t expect to be invited again, the young men surprised him by immediately treating him as a member of their troop. And the more he participated, the more he noticed how happy members of the Church were. Over time, he realized that it wasn’t Scouting that made them so happy—it was the gospel. Juan knew he wanted to be happy like they were, too.
Soon Juan, his father, and his sister took the missionary discussions and decided to be baptized. “All of the Aaronic Priesthood kids were there when my family and I were confirmed. Then my dad and I were ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood,” Juan says. “And when I passed the sacrament for the first time, they were all excited for us.” Because members of the Aaronic Priesthood saw an opportunity to reach out to Juan during his first visit to Church, they were able to better introduce Juan to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Scouting provided the activity that helped Juan to feel comfortable around members of the Church.
“I can see all that the Aaronic Priesthood has done for me,” Juan says. “It has helped me to love God and see the love He has for each one of us. I have learned to listen to the Holy Ghost. And I have learned about one of the biggest blessings of all—that if we live worthily we can be with our families for all eternity.
“Thanks to the leaders, my mom, and the Scouts, I could open the door to our Heavenly Father. That’s how my family and I found that piece that was missing in our life.”

When Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve was growing up, more than anything he wanted to be a basketball star. When he was young, he was the best basketball player among his friends. In fact, he taught one of his friends how to play. But as time went on, his friend grew very tall and he did not. One of the hardest experiences of his life was being cut from the school basketball team while his friend made it.

Let his life be an example to you. Not all of your prayers will be answered the way you’d like. But if you trust Heavenly Father, he will not betray that trust.

I’m so hungry!
Me too. Let’s stop here.
Hmm. I’ll just have a snack at home.
Want one? Here.
Oh, I didn’t see you pay for it.
Oh … uh … I didn’t. I just took it. Some of the other kids take stuff all the time.
I can’t take this. I wouldn’t feel good about it.
I don’t really feel that good about it either.
I think I know what will make us both feel better.
You were right. I feel a lot better after taking it back.
Me too. It always feels good to do the right thing.

The answer to this question depends on understanding a little about the Book of Mormon translation and publication process.
1. As Joseph Smith translated the golden plates by the power of God, he dictated the words to a scribe. The scribes occasionally made spelling and grammatical mistakes as they wrote down his words. For example, in 1 Nephi 7:20 the words “were sorrowful” were transcribed as “ware sarraful.” The scribes weren’t uneducated, but spelling hadn’t been standardized at the time.
2. The original handwritten manuscript of the translation was then copied to make a new handwritten manuscript for the printer. At this stage, some spelling and grammatical errors were corrected, and punctuation was added. But some new errors also crept in as words were miscopied.
3. The printer did his best to accurately set the type. However, he occasionally introduced still other errors. For example, in Alma 57:25 he misread the word “joy” and instead typeset “foes.”
4. The Prophet Joseph Smith looked carefully at the first three editions of the Book of Mormon, and he continued to help make refinements and adjustments. But some errors weren’t found until later editions. In 1981 a printer’s error in Alma 16:5 was finally corrected, changing “whether” to “whither”—making it conform to the original manuscript as the Prophet had translated it from the golden plates.
5. Other changes included new chapter and verse breaks and footnotes with cross-references.

Alexis A., 17, says the trek was a lot harder than she expected. “I walked for my Grandpa Brodowski. He actually passed away last December. He was a pioneer in his family because he converted and was the only member in his family. In the end, everything turned out OK, and he actually started a great generation of LDS members.”

On April 30, 1843, Noah Rogers and Benjamin F. Grouard stepped down from a sailing ship onto the island of Tahiti. The two young men were part of the first group of Latter-day Saint missionaries who were sent to foreign lands to preach the gospel.
These missionaries knew nothing of the native Tahitian language and had no friends on the island, but they trusted in our Father in heaven and knew He would help them. Many of the native people accepted the Book of Mormon and the Church grew quickly with the arrival of more missionaries.

We were visiting some friends this past summer. A very young son with a new tricycle was disturbed because his parents were giving us their attention and all of us were ignoring him. He rode his trike as fast as his little legs could pedal, calling, “Look at me!” The inevitable happened as he looked at us instead of where he was going. He rode directly into a lawn chair. To try to stem the tears and take his mind off the hurt, his mother said, “That naughty chair hurt you. Let’s spank the chair.”
I suppose her response momentarily distracted the boy, but the mother was letting her son blame something else for the accident rather than himself.

When his son Albert Jesse died, Joseph F. wrote to his sister Martha Ann that he had pled with the Lord to save him and asked, “Why is it so? O. God why had it to be?”9
Despite his prayers at that time, Joseph F. received no answer on this matter.10 He told Martha Ann that “the heavens [seemed like] brass over our heads” on the subject of death and the spirit world. Nevertheless, his faith in the Lord’s eternal promises were firm and steadfast.

“We’ll be having a special guest tonight at family home evening,” Dad announced at breakfast.
Daniel looked up in surprise. “Who’s coming over?” he asked.
“Someone you know a lot about,” Mom said. “A person you’ll be excited to meet!”
All day Daniel wondered who was coming to family home evening. Christmas was only a few days away. Maybe the special guest had something to do with Christmas.
Finally, the family gathered in the evening. Dad said, “Tonight Joseph Smith is going to be our special guest. His birthday is on December 23. As a family we’re going to role-play the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.”
Everyone collected props and costumes for their assigned roles. Daniel rehearsed his part with Dad while the others practiced with Mom. Soon they were ready.
Little Matthew was excited to play the role of Joseph Smith. Daniel and Elizabeth played Joseph’s family. Mom and Dad pretended to be preachers from different churches.
“Join our church and be saved!”
“No, come with us! We’re right!”
“The Bible says this!”
“But that’s not what it means!”
“Now, how do you think Joseph Smith felt?” Dad asked. “Do you think he might have wondered why the preachers all said different things and who was right?”
Daniel, Matthew, and Elizabeth all agreed that Joseph must have wondered about that.
Then Dad lit a candle. Daniel felt as if he were right there with Joseph Smith as Dad read from James 1:5 by candlelight, “‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.’” Then Dad started reading the story of the First Vision.
Matthew knelt down as if he were praying. Suddenly the light of a flashlight shone brightly on him, and Daniel reverently recited the lines Dad had helped him to memorize: “‘This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!’” (Joseph Smith—History 1:17).
Dad explained how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and told him that he should not join any of the churches then on the earth.
“The Lord chose Joseph Smith to be His prophet to restore the true Church of Jesus Christ to the earth,” Dad said. “Joseph faithfully carried out that mission.”
A few days later Daniel’s neighbor Andy came over to play. Daniel was still thinking about family home evening with Joseph Smith.
He turned to Andy and said, “I know a prophet who lived a long time ago—Joseph Smith. Do you know who he is?”

As a student at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University), Ezra mustered the courage to ask Flora Amussen for a date. The youngest of the six children raised by her widowed mother, Flora was “the most popular girl in town,” a tennis star, actress, student-body vice-president, and a leader in many activities. Nevertheless, the “farm boy” continued what he described as an “inspirational and soul-satisfying courtship.”
But the romance was postponed by Elder Benson’s mission call to England. He labored in Newcastle, where he became a mission leader. He often dressed in the plain clothes of a workman while preaching to the unemployed on the streets. After two and a half years, he returned home and proposed to Flora. But she decided to serve a mission herself. When she returned from Hawaii, he had graduated from Brigham Young University. They were finally married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 10, 1926.

Primary children in the Virden Ward, Duncan Arizona Stake, New Mexico, USA, fill jars of pennies to buy copies of the Book of Mormon for the missionaries. Every Sunday, children who bring their scriptures get to put a penny into a jar. When it is filled, they put a child’s testimony in each Book of Mormon to share.

We have mourned in recent days the passing of our beloved friend and leader, Howard William Hunter, the fourteenth President of the Church and prophet to the people. His tenure in office was brief, but the impression for good that he left was tremendous. Mild of manner, quiet in his ways, he was nonetheless the man whose strong convictions of the truth of this work made him powerfully persuasive in his advocacy of the Christlike life.
He suffered much in his body before he was finally taken from us on the morning of March 3, 1995. More than twenty-five thousand men, women, and children passed by his bier as his body lay in state in the beautiful rotunda of the Church Administration Building. With measured step they came one by one, reverently and with love for the man they had sustained only a few months before.
On Wednesday, March 8, 1995, his funeral services were held in this historic tabernacle and broadcast far and wide. Those services were a fitting memorial to a man of goodness and greatness who now belongs to the ages. Our hearts reach out with love and sympathy to his bereaved widow and to his sons and their families, now spanning three generations. May they be comforted, sustained, and blessed by Him who declared, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you” (Isa. 51:12).

In October 2018 President Russell M Nelson, in a general conference address, told us about the Church’s resolve to remove the use of ‘Mormon’ in reference to the Lord’s Church and its members.
I am very grateful for this directive and strive to do all I can to make sure everyone knows I am not a ‘Mormon’ and nor is it the name of the Church I attend. I worship and follow Jesus Christ.
About a year later, I was awkwardly trying to find a topic to study for my dissertation. My degree is in journalism, and I knew that the matter of faith isn’t a popular choice in journalism. As I struggled with my project, I decided to include in my preliminary thesis some things that certain UK media enterprises did in covering stories about the Church and its members. Eventually my whole dissertation ended up being a small analysis of the use of ‘Mormon’ by the Guardian and the Daily Mail in online media.
My research and results were fascinating. I learned that these organisations were just throwing the word ‘Mormon’ around hoping the audiences would be able to make sense of what they meant and hoping it would provide a popular effect. However, I thought the audience was likely to be more confused by its use than the journalists.
There are at least three prominent and very different churches in America that are recognised as ‘Mormon’. One of them openly practices polygamy and uses the word ‘Mormons’ for their members. The confused journalists I was interviewing at the time, said that all these people, including me, were ‘Mormons’ according to their understanding, and the understanding of their audiences; this was in late 2019 and early 2020.
It didn’t take too long to realise how important it is for UK members of the Church to do their best to ensure the correct use of the name of the Church. I’ve not yet perfected my dissertation enough for me to feel comfortable in publishing it. However, the impact the project had on me was profound, and I did get a good grade. I’m proud of it. I will share it eventually with those who are interested.
There is a special spirit that comes into our hearts when we firmly ensure correct use of the name of the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in our hearts, minds, and conversations. My understanding and faith that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church and guides the policies, teachings, and operations of the Church, has grown. I have felt so much closer to the Saviour because of it.

Then in 1902 we broke ground for a new stake and ward building in Thatcher, and I gave two dollars from my nickels and dimes for the building. I remember they dug a great excavation and then there was a long delay before enough more funds could be gathered to construct the building. This was on the way to the post office and the stores where I was often sent to get coal oil for the lamps and for mail and to take the eggs and other things that my abilities made possible. I would always run down into the bottom of this great excavation hole and then up the other side; but when the weeds began to grow big in this enclosed area and I once saw some skunks there, I bypassed the excavation, for I had no interest in skunks as pets or as companions.
When the new stake building—which still stands and is being used for stake and ward purposes—was completed, it had just two large, rectangular areas, one for the meetinghouse on the top floor and one for recreation, the latter being the basement. I remember we had wires strung across the building and cloth curtains between the classes. We could hear something of nearly every class that was going on and even sometimes see, if the lights were just right. I remember some years later when we of the basketball team of the Gila Academy did our practicing here and played our games, and I always took more than my share of the credit for the fact that in this smaller building with some obstructions, we defeated some high school and college teams while we were but a high school team.

Danny thought for a minute. He remembered the time when his dog, Ginger, had been run over by a car. When he had told Brother Green about it, Brother Green hadn’t said much. He’d just listened while Danny talked and talked about the fun that he and Ginger had had. And Danny had felt much better when he went home.

Earlier this year Elder Douglas L. Callister and I were in Kiev, capital city of Ukraine. We were there to create the first stake in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We were pleased to note that the Kiev Ukraine District was well prepared to become a stake—fully organized and ready to take its place among the stakes of Zion. There we also met with the missionaries, among whom were several stalwart senior couples. We listened attentively to their expressions.
We remember the account of Elder Rudi and Sister Eva Hegewald, who grew up in what was then known as East Germany. Speaking with a slight and sweet German accent, they recounted the difficult days of World War II and the subsequent Soviet occupation. They spoke of their many deprivations. Finding the Lord’s true Church and later immigrating to America were counted as treasured blessings. The ensuing years brought them five healthy children, along with spiritual and financial increase. They felt that serving a mission would be a good way for them to show gratitude to the Lord. They expressed a deep desire to serve in Eastern Europe. Their call came to serve in the Ukraine Kiev Mission. Elder and Sister Hegewald write: “Now, close to the end of our mission in the land of our former enemy, we are thankful for the opportunity to teach and love the Ukrainian people. As we have served the Lord, our souls have been healed and our family has become more united. We have had a truly remarkable and satisfying experience and have seen many small miracles.”