Gospel Story Finder

Julia has often served as a liaison between her community and the South African government in safeguarding her neighbors’ rights. Recently, she became concerned about pensioners who failed to receive their pension checks, sometimes for many months. Taking the subject on the air during a radio talk show she was invited to, Julia rallied community support and brought the issue to the attention of the new government.

Last night I went to MIA. We had a different experience than we normally have. A master sergeant named Frank Brown called on Major Funk last week and asked about the Church. He said that his family in Florida was hearing the discussions and attending church, and he wanted to know more about what we believe. He said he has never seen his family so interested in church before. So Major Funk invited him to MIA.

Most of the members stayed in the regular room and read the Book of Mormon. Major Hollis, the district clerk, and I gave Frank the first discussion. It went quite well. I had practiced my half of the discussion this past week, after having been asked to give it.

Before going to MIA, I said a little prayer. I knew before I got there that things were going to be all right. The Holy Ghost really gives you help when you need it. Sergeant Brown is an honest man and expressed his feelings freely. We are planning to present the second discussion to him next Tuesday at MIA.

I had such a great experience last night. We met with Frank Brown again and presented to him the Book of Mormon lesson. Yesterday Frank received a Book of Mormon from his wife. It arrived with perfect timing. It was marked with specific scriptures to read.

Frank was very receptive to the discussion. He committed well and told us he believed the Church has been restored with the priesthood. He said he would continue to pray. I was really thrilled as he expressed his feelings.

It’s 9:00 P.M. and I’ve just come back from another discussion with Frank Brown. I don’t want to go back to the barracks and lose the wonderful spirit we felt. Here’s what happened tonight:

We held our meeting in the usual place, Major Hollis’ office. We have privacy there. I taught the complete lesson tonight, with Brother Hollis adding his testimony as he felt moved to do so. It was a beautiful discussion.

Frank answered our questions right down the line. He knows why we need to know the truth and how we obtain it. He bore his humble testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ has the truth because of the apostles and the priesthood. He told us how he could enjoy the blessings of the Church and the restoration by being baptized, but he said he still has some old ways that he must get settled. He really is a golden contact.

As the lesson progressed I asked, “What are some things men commonly take into their bodies that are harmful?” His answer included the things mentioned in the Word of Wisdom. He said he had just finished reading it tonight. His wife had sent it to him, and it arrived just the other day. I then asked him, “Why has God commanded us not to use these things?” He said, “Because of his great love for us. The use of these things harms us spiritually, too.” I asked Frank, “Do you use any of these things?” He said, “Not anymore!”

What an answer! Frank explained that a couple of weeks ago his cigar began to taste bitter anyway, so he decided he would quit smoking. He doesn’t like coffee, but he does enjoy tea. I said that if he could quit his tobacco, tea would be no problem. He used to drink occasionally but hasn’t since learning that his wife is interested in the Church.

Both Brother Hollis and I had tears in our eyes as we heard Frank bear his testimony about the Word of Wisdom. Neither of us had ever met a contact who had decided to live the Word of Wisdom before being told about it in the discussion.

As we finished the lesson, I asked him if his prayers had been answered about the restoration and the Joseph Smith story. He said he has been praying and he feels he has had his prayers answered.

It’s strange, but during the past couple of days, thoughts have been coming into my mind that I should forget about Frank because he wasn’t interested. I even thought that he wasn’t going to be there tonight. But I know now who put the thoughts in my head. Unfortunately, “Scratch” is having a wild time here in Vietnam. I’m sure Satan works against anyone being taught the truth.

Late yesterday afternoon Frank came to the office to ask some questions in regard to his wife’s latest letter. She told him briefly about sealing and temple work. Probably she just touched lightly on these deep subjects. He didn’t understand what we believed and wanted to know why his wife was so enthusiastic about the temple. Major Funk explained these subjects briefly but very simply and with much understanding. Frank seemed to have a better understanding of the gospel when he left.

Last night I had the privilege of teaching Frank and Terry the fifth discussion. I really enjoyed giving it. It was the lesson on the plan of salvation. Since Terry has already received the Holy Ghost, he really had a good understanding of the lesson. He answered the questions just as if he were reading from the book.

Frank said he called his family in Florida and asked them to make the arrangements for their baptism. His little girl, age nine, wrote and asked Frank if she and the rest of the family could be baptized. He decided to let them be baptized there in Florida, and he would be baptized here on the same day.

Frank is trying to coordinate with his family to be baptized on May 17. His wife couldn’t believe he was making the decision on his own, so I wrote her a letter explaining his conversion.

Frank was interviewed tonight, and it was announced to the congregation that he would be baptized. He asked me to baptize him. I was speechless. What an honor it will be to baptize Frank!

Frank Brown just came by and told me he received a letter this morning explaining that his family will be baptized in Florida at the same time on Saturday as he will be here. He was really happy. I’m certainly looking forward to Saturday morning.

I’m going to ask Dad to send me my line of authority. I’d like to let Frank know by what authority he was baptized.

What a great morning this has been. Frank was baptized!

He picked me up at 5:45 and we rode to the beach together. It was a beautiful morning. The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, and the clouds were just above the edge of the water. The stars were still twinkling. As we arrived at the beach, the golden haze of dawn made the sky a brilliant yellowish-orange, and this color was reflected in the calm sea. The fishing boats, several miles from shore, were returning from their night’s work. After a few minutes, more brethren arrived. Altogether, ten members from the Church attended the service.

The opening song was “Come, Come Ye Saints,” and considering the early hour, it sounded pretty good. After the opening prayer, the first counselor gave a talk about baptism. It was a good talk. Then Frank and I waded into the cool, clean water. It was very serene, peaceful, and smooth. We turned and faced the group on the beach.

As Frank came out of the water, he had a special radiance about him. He was purified as he had never been before. I’m very happy I had the chance to share the gospel with him.

We walked back to the group, and after changing into dry clothes, Frank was confirmed a member of the Church by Brother Hollis and given a wonderful blessing. President Coates and I stood in the circle to confirm him. After everyone had welcomed him into the fold, Frank took me back to my barracks, but we didn’t have much to say as we rode. We were just thinking.

Frank attended all three meetings yesterday. He spoke in last night’s sacrament meeting. He bore his testimony and then told about his family. He said, “I know this is the true church of God. I have been in other churches before this one, but the other ones don’t have the priesthood.” His family sent him word that they were baptized last Saturday in Florida. Frank was ordained to the office of deacon yesterday in priesthood meeting. He passed the sacrament in Sunday School and at sacrament meeting.

At church Frank told me about his family. They are active in their ward. He said his sixteen-year-old boy is already talking about a mission. The daughters will be helping their mother teach a Junior Sunday School class. Frank will fit right in when he returns home in September.

I knew we are all supposed to share the gospel, but I had never had any success. Then, during a Spanish course I was taking, I met a young man named Tiago. We became friends and often walked home from school together. One day we passed an LDS chapel that had recently been built.
“I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for several years,” I said. I shared with him some of the things that we believe, and I told him how much my family and I have been blessed because of the gospel. I invited him to attend meetings that coming Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
Sunday arrived and I anxiously waited, but he did not come. During the week, I invited him again. This continued every week for two or three months. He always gave me a reason why he hadn’t shown up: “I slept late,” “I was tired,” “There were problems.” But I kept asking him anyway, and he didn’t seem to mind.
One Sunday morning I sat down on one of the benches toward the back of the chapel. There were still a few minutes to go before the meeting began when someone quietly called my name. I looked toward the door, and there was Tiago!
“Didn’t I promise you I would come one day?” he said. He attended sacrament meeting and, to my surprise, stayed for the rest of the meetings and seemed pleased when I introduced him to the missionaries. He began meeting with them regularly. Tiago and I continued to talk as we walked home from school, but our conversations were about the truths he was learning. I was able to answer questions and bear my testimony. Finally, he gained a testimony of his own and joined the Church.
Today I am a full-time missionary in the Brazil Santa Maria Mission. Before I left for the mission field, Tiago also submitted his application to be a full-time missionary, and he is now serving in the Brazil Manaus Mission.
I recently received a letter from him. “Thank you for inviting me again and again to come to church,” he wrote. “I will be eternally grateful.” I am happy not only to share the gospel each day but also to know that Tiago is doing the same.

“Meeting President Kimball—that made all the hard work more than worth it,” said 19-year-old Marianne Schmidt of the Ogden 65th Ward, South Ogden Utah Stake.
Marianne, who’s been blind since birth, met President Kimball after presenting the Young Women Presidency with the Personal Progress book that she translated into Braille. The project took Marianne over two years to complete, but she had help from a dedicated Young Women adviser, friends in her Young Women class, and friends from school.
“I thought it would be great for the young women who are blind to have a Personal Progress book where they could read their goals over and over,” said Marianne. “If the goals are written on paper, it’s easy to forget them when you’re blind.”
The initial translation took Marianne one year, and proofreading and making corrections took another year.
“It was discouraging at times because it was hard to juggle schedules to get people to read to me so I could translate. My hands would get tired from Brailling, and it’s funny, my eyes would too. I knew that it would be a difficult project, though. For this particular book, one page of print is about four pages of Braille.
“But I have always been determined to accomplish my goals. I’m majoring in elementary education at college, and some people think that I won’t be able to teach kindergarten. But I’ll prove to them that I can. Nobody knows what I can do except me, and I don’t think of myself as handicapped. The only thing that limits me is when people are afraid of me. When they’re not, I can do anything,” said Marianne.

A valiant mother courageously fighting a debilitating illness spent untold hours laboriously completing a large, challenging needlepoint work of art. It was a gift to a couple experiencing trials. For the couple it is a priceless treasure, a constant reminder of the precious fruits of resolute effort in the face of adversity, an enduring message of hope bound in the bonds of pure love and willing sacrifice.

When I was about eleven, something wonderful happened to my family. My parents decided to start going to church. A few years later, my family traveled to Salt Lake City to be sealed in the temple. It was a very cold day in January, snowy and foggy. The temple was strikingly beautiful. For some reason, I remember its engraved doorknobs. I also remember walking into the beautiful sealing room and seeing my family, aunts, uncles, and family friends. It was so wonderful to have everyone there!

A few years ago I was drafted to serve in Taiwan’s naval forces. I served as a chief petty officer and squad leader on a harbor support craft, assisting all incoming and outgoing ships.
One morning in early spring my colleagues and I received the routine instruction to assist a ship approaching the harbor. Initially, the weather was clear. But after leaving the harbor, we ran into heavy fog. Visibility was less than three meters. Because we had never seen such a heavy spring fog, we were tense and disoriented. We were quickly lost. We did not know where we were or where we should go.
Because I was the most experienced hand on board and the most familiar with the area, the skipper ordered me to use the boat’s compass to find our bearing, lead everyone back to the mouth of the harbor, and suspend mission operations. Otherwise, we might at any moment enter an area of submerged reefs or sail too close to mainland China.
I had never experienced fog that required a compass, and I had neglected the work of periodic compass inspection, maintenance, and repair. So when we desperately needed the compass to find our direction, it did not work at all. With rebuke in his voice, the captain said, “You’ve put us in danger. We could run into a reef at any moment!”
I realized he was right. I sadly bowed my head and silently prayed, asking Heavenly Father to forgive my negligence and help me find a way to escape the fog and return to the pier. After my prayer, a sudden thought came into my mind. I recommended to the skipper that we turn in a certain direction, travel very slowly, and find the coast. He agreed, and not long after taking this action, we arrived at the granite cliffs south of the harbor mouth and slowly followed the cliff wall into the harbor. Soon we were safely home.
Because of this experience, I know that Heavenly Father listens to my prayers. I am grateful that in spite of my neglecting proper preventative measures, the compass of spiritual guidance started to work, and it led us home.

I would like to share my story with other deaf members in the UK and Ireland.
I live in Northern Ireland, and since the coronavirus outbreak early in 2020, my life has changed. I realised for the first time that I can make things happen.
At the beginning of October 2020, I was texting a hearing Church member, Elaine Crawley, about some videos made by professors at Brigham Young University that support the Come, Follow Me curriculum. I asked Elaine about how she occupied her time. She told me of three regular virtual firesires that I didn’t know about, provided by Solihull Ward, Sunderland Stake, and Lichfield Stake.
My initial thought was, “Fantastic!” This could be the start of a connection between Church members, me and my family in lockdown. I began to worry if there would be no access to interpreters, or subtitles for deaf members like myself.
To my surprise, Bishop Hesekaia Fakatou from the Solihull Ward made it possible for me to have an interpreter on 11 October 2020 for the virtual fireside, with guest speaker Brother Tyler Griffin, with less than three hours’ notice, which is very unusual. In a work environment I would normally have to book an interpreter at least two to four weeks in advance. That was my first miracle.
My second miracle was to watch an interpreter, Sandra Pratt, on the same screen as the guest speaker on YouTube. That had never happened before for me. I was amazed and asked how it happened. I found out that Bishop Fakatou used StreamYard (a live streaming facility used in web browsers). I immediately told my youngest deaf sister, Heather, who is married to our stake president—I wanted to make it happen in Belfast Stake, Northern Ireland.
My third miracle was listening to Brother Griffin talking about the tree of life, The lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son.
The lost coin parable stood out for me because I realised for the first time that the lost coin was lost because of neglect. I began to think about people in general and wondered how often we neglect others in our lives to the point that they don’t feel part of society. Then I remembered a verse that my deaf mission president, Derrick Siswick, quoted to his missionaries at a zone conference: “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (Isaiah 29:18).
From that moment on, I felt that deaf members and investigators can ‘hear’ the gospel in their language. How grateful I am that Bishop Fakatou agreed to have two interpreters for the Solihull Ward’s weekly virtual fireside each Sunday evening.
This is one way of uniting both deaf and hearing members during this lockdown. I plead with everyone to share what they know with deaf members. Tell them of virtual firesides or videos that can uplift. Remember, I relied on hearing members for information, which led me to my story, which I wanted to share with you all. I need you, and you need me. Together we can move forward and build Zion.
My fourth and last miracle was to make it possible for an interpreter and a guest speaker to be present in my weekly ward Zoom meetings for Sunday School, Relief Society and sacrament. That was ‘live’ for the first time on Sunday, 24 January 2021, with David & Jess Templeton’s support.
We can make things happen with the Lord’s help. In Luke 1:37, it says, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” I know this is true, and I am very grateful for my uplifting experiences during my lockdown. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of what we are going through. This is a beautiful opportunity to use modern technology to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone.
President Nelson has spoken to us of his great desire to help hasten the Lord’s work in the latter-days. Hasten means to cause something to happen more quickly. Using modern technology will hasten the Lord’s work and help us to work together to make things happen for everyone. However, it is vital to understand that hastening is not just about acceleration and speed. It is also about strengthening.

During this time I met Kelly, who would become my wife. When I met her, my depression lifted and I was able to see myself as a child of God. Kelly was not a member of the Church when we started dating. We were eventually married, and after some time I baptized her. It was a special and sacred moment for me.
After our first child, Rafael, was born, we brought him to church to receive a blessing. My parents attended the blessing. It was the first time they ever went to church. From then on they started to hear the missionary lessons in their home. I eventually had the privilege to baptize my brothers and my parents.
It is funny because my father was very systematic about it. He said, “My son, when are you going to baptize me?” When he was baptized, I raised him out of the water and he hugged me. It was such an extraordinary moment in my life!

1 Whoa! I’ll get sent down to the minors if you keep pounding my famous fast ball.
2 Dad, Sister Simon told us that Jesus blessed people who couldn’t walk, and they stood up and walked. You gave me a blessing after my accident. How come I wasn’t healed?
I don’t know why, Sweetheart. Heavenly Father could raise up everyone out of every wheelchair, but he has chosen not to. What I do know is that he loves you and will do what’s best for you.
3 But being healed, would be best for me. What could be wrong with running and jumping and being free of this chair?
I don’t know. But tell me—haven’t you gained anything from being in that chair?
4 Well, I guess my arms are stronger.
And so is your spirit. You’ve become a very brave young lady, and I’ve watched you develop great love and kindness for other people with problems. Would you really want to give up everything you’ve learned?
5 I guess not, but I really want to walk again.
You will, Cathlyn. Because of the resurrection, you’ll have a perfect body again someday, and you’ll also get to keep everything you’ve learned from being in this chair. I know it’s a long time to wait, but Heavenly Father will help you.
6 And in the meantime, I can already hit your famous fast ball.
True, but I’ve been working on a mystery curve.
I like solving mysteries.

Many North Americans cannot imagine Thanksgiving without a large turkey, roasted, ready for carving, and proudly displayed in the center of the dining table.In our family the turkey must not only taste deliciously like American turkey, but must look the part as well. This has at times become a concerning issue, as we have celebrated Thanksgiving in different parts of the world.

In the meat markets in France, after plucking all the feathers from all types of poultry, the butchers display the birds by hanging them upside down from the ceiling. You can pick out the bird you prefer. In our first year in France where we were serving a mission, my wife, Kathy approached the French butcher, and said in her best French, "J'ai besoin d'une dinde," ("I need a turkey"). He pointed to a bird hanging from the ceiling, "voila, une dinde," ("there's a turkey"). She looked puzzled. It did not look like an American turkey. Its neck was much too long; it's body much too small. It took a few visits, but after much effort from my industrious wife and the butcher, she found a bird that looked quite like an American turkey. Our local French grocer found one for us each year we lived there.

I also think of my mother and father and how they faced the troubles of their day. They both entered BYU in the 1930s during the Great Depression. They met at BYU, married in 1936, and had their first child early in 1938 while they were still in school. They struggled to pay tuition and to earn enough money for food and rent. My father majored in agronomy, and as he approached graduation in 1938, the unemployment rate was 15 percent, about twice what it is today. He wondered if he would be able to find a job and support his wife and child. One of his professors encouraged him to take the civil service exam, and he did well enough on the exam that he was offered a job with the Soil Conservation Service within the Department of Agriculture. He was assigned to do soil surveys in New England, North Dakota—a small town in the southwestern part of the state. It was not where he or his wife would have chosen to go, but it was a job, and they went.

When they arrived, they discovered that there were no other members of the Church in the town. Dad and Mother held Sunday School in our home, and occasionally the full-time missionaries, who served in Dickinson, 30 miles to the north, would visit us. Money was tight, and some vital commodities were rationed during World War II, including gasoline, meat, sugar, and butter. These items were in short supply, and rationing was the only way to make sure everyone got their fair share. Even if you had money to buy more, you were only allowed to buy small amounts of the rationed items.

When I was six we moved to Dickinson, North Dakota, and after 14 years of marriage, my parents were able to buy a home. The economic situation improved somewhat after World War II; we had basic necessities, but with six children it was a challenge for my parents to meet their expenses. My mother taught us Primary at home, and we held church in our living room with our family, the two full-time missionaries, and Frank Whitney, the only other Church member in the town at the time. Gradually the Church grew—several families moved in, and a few were baptized. We rented a hall in the community center to hold church services. My Dad worked with the local Lions Club and Methodist Church to start a Scout program.

When I was 13 my dad was transferred to Bismarck, North Dakota, a beautiful little town on the Missouri River. My parents bought a three-bedroom rambler with an unfinished basement and no garage, and our family had one car, which we all shared. Mother took a job as a medical stenographer. I was happy that there was a small branch of the Church in Bismarck with several other teenagers. Our branch met in the basement of a local hotel, and as we set up for church on Sunday mornings, we usually had to clear away a few beer cans that had been left from the night before. As the branch grew, we were able to rent a small church from the Seventh-day Adventists.

At that time, Church policy was that local units had to earn a certain percentage of the cost before they could build a chapel. I remember many branch bake sales being held so we could earn money and one day have our own chapel. In addition, members were encouraged to contribute what they could to the building fund, but the branch was small and most members could not afford to give much. Accumulation of funds was slow, and I wondered if we would ever be able to build our own chapel. Finally, when I reached age 18—after years of dreaming, planning, and working—we had earned enough to pay our share of the cost to build a small chapel.

After I left North Dakota, the Church continued to grow. The Bismarck Stake was organized in the 1980s, and then in 1998 a small temple was constructed. For those of us who grew up in North Dakota and lived through the early struggles, the construction of a temple in Bismarck was a miracle that we had never dreamed could happen. Prior to that time the closest temple was in Idaho Falls, Idaho, 750 miles away.

My parents married and graduated during a challenging time—the Great Depression. They were sent to a cold and unknown place far from their families and their beloved Utah. Mother and Dad experienced North Dakota blizzards, rationing during the war, and the birth of a handicapped son. They went forward with faith and did the best they could during difficult times. As I look back on my life, I cherish the experiences I had in North Dakota. It is not where my parents would have chosen to raise us, but I thank God for sending them there. We associated with many good people of different faiths who enriched our lives, and we learned much from facing economic and spiritual challenges. I thank my parents for their faith and courage through much adversity. They taught us well and were true to their ideals.

“One of the spiritual experiences that I remember best from my youth happened when I was about five years old. My next older brother, Jay, had just been baptized. He was walking down a road between Provo and Orem. A man who had been drinking came swerving down the road in his car, and the door handle of the car caught my brother at the back of his neck. Jay had a serious fracture and concussion. We all prayed that he would get better, but after twenty long days in the hospital, he died. I vividly remember my mother and father sitting with us and saying, ‘Jay has gone back home to the God who gave us all life. The Lord could have saved him, but for some reason He didn’t. There will be a work for Jay to do where he is now, and we should not question the Lord. We should not have any bitterness or lasting sorrow.’ We all resolved that we were going to trust the Lord, and we all knew that someday we would again be with Jay.

My Scout troop once went on a 50-mile hike in the Grand Canyon. At the time I was the deacons quorum president and Scout patrol leader. We planned and prepared for a year, making sure that we wouldn’t have any problems. On the second day, we started hiking and got to our stopping point early. At that time, I got a very strong feeling that we needed to keep moving instead of making camp, and the group followed my lead. We were supposed to do only 14 miles that day, but we ended up doing 23 and finding a good campground. When we finally stopped, everyone was upset, but I knew it was right.
The next day we did 13 instead of 11 miles, again going farther than planned and finding a good spot to camp. Hopeful to finish early because we were ahead, we got up the next day. It was lightly drizzling, but we kept going. It started raining harder and harder, but we just kept going. Then my leader said there were going to be flash floods and we needed to find shelter ASAP. But suddenly lightning flashed—and it was right overhead.
We started to run, praying that we would be able to find shelter. My friend and I saw a small hut in the distance and headed toward it. As we were running, a lightning bolt struck right by us, so we ran faster. Reaching it safely, I turned around to help those in the back, and we all made it to the shelter. Eventually the storm passed, and we finished the hike. I am so grateful for the Spirit prompting me to continue on the hike longer than we’d planned, because by being closer to the end we were able to find shelter.

A number of years ago I was moved by an account of the French mountain village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. The inhabitants there were ordinary people, but during the Nazi occupation they saved the lives of many Jews—keeping a number of them in their own homes, smuggling others across the Swiss border, sheltering young Jewish boys in their boarding school. Day after day and night after night they risked extreme danger to help people who were complete strangers to them. What is most amazing is that they never seemed to realize the extraordinary nature of their acts. A whole community apparently believed that it was commonplace to perform acts of love. Above the entrance to their church were the same words of John: “Let us love one another.” They could have followed this inscription with John’s later passage: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.”

Godson Adjetey couldn’t have known the impact a change of location would have on his life when he moved to the small community of Penyi in the far southeast corner of Ghana. His interest was in finishing his education at a good school. But it was because of that move that Godson became acquainted with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and on October 30, 2025, Godson will become the first missionary to serve from the Penyi Branch.
Godson was born in Accra, Ghana, in September 2004. Along with his family, he moved to the Volta Region and spent the next 18 years there. He attended Wisdom Junior High School at Aqbozme, where he was a good student. After completing his schooling there, he wanted to finish senior high school and study business at a good school, so he came to Penyi to stay with his uncle and go to school there. Godson recognizes now that the Lord’s hand was clearly guiding this move.
His uncle, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owns the building where he was staying, and it was also the building where the full-time missionaries, Elder Wood and Elder Layton, were living. It was only natural for his uncle to introduce Godson to the missionaries, and they began to teach him about the scriptures and the Restoration of the gospel. Godson, who had always been religious after growing up attending a Pentecostal church with his parents, felt his spirit was ready for the fullness of the gospel. He gladly accepted their invitation to come to church and began attending the small and recently organized Penyi Branch.
Godson related that as he listened to the missionaries, the message resonated deeply with him. “I felt the Holy Ghost’s love as I learned we are God’s children. I realized Jesus loves us and gave His life for us,” he said. He felt at home in the branch of about 160 members—many of them youth or young adults who are the only Church members in their families. Godson fit right in and enjoyed coming to church.
His proximity to the full-time missionaries was instrumental in his conversion. As he felt the Spirit testify of the truths of the gospel, he was motivated to associate more with them. That association began with simply helping them find food and navigate the streets of their community, but soon he was not only showing the missionaries where members and friends were located but also staying with them and assisting as they taught others the gospel—all before he himself was baptized.
He attended Church meetings for about one month before being baptized at age 17 on August 23, 2021. He was excited to become a member of Jesus Christ’s Church. The members of the branch showed great love toward him, and he found a special sense of belonging. He particularly liked partaking of the sacrament each week because he understood it was essential for renewing his baptismal covenants. He understood that the path to salvation is a covenant path, and he had a true desire to make sacred covenants.
As he faithfully attended his meetings, served in callings, and participated in various Church activities, his desire to serve the Lord continued to grow. The experience he had had assisting the full-time missionaries before he became a member provided invaluable training and ignited his own desire to serve. “Living by and assisting the full-time missionaries who have served in my village inspired me to be a missionary too,” Godson said.
But the application process to serve a mission seemed a bit intimidating to Godson. As though an answer to a prayer, in July 2024, Elder and Sister Campbell, senior member and leader support missionaries who had recently arrived in the Dzodze Ghana District, met Godson at the Penyi Branch. When these good missionaries learned of Godson’s desire to serve, they enthusiastically began helping him prepare his application and worked diligently to help him complete all the required steps to serve.
They learned a lot together as they helped him obtain his birth certificate, passport, police report, medical documents, and vaccinations. “Preparing to serve a full-time mission was more complicated than I expected,” Godson acknowledged. “But the effort was worth completing the months-long process.”
A pivotal spiritual step in his preparation was the opportunity to receive his own endowment at the Accra Ghana Temple on September 2, 2025. He felt a powerful spirit confirming that the temple was the house of the Lord, a special place for sacred ordinances. “That experience solidified my faith in Jesus Christ, and I felt Christ’s love there,” he said, noting that the temple workers showed great love to him from the moment he arrived.
Godson received a call to serve in the Nigeria Benin City Mission starting on October 30, 2025. Godson wanted to serve a mission so that he could share the restored gospel with others. He looked forward to experiencing life in Nigeria, learning about the people’s beliefs, and sharing his powerful testimony with the people of that land.
Just as importantly, Godson Adjetey is setting a faithful example for the other young people in the Penyi Branch. As its first missionary, he is a pioneer, proving that any barrier can be overcome with faith and support. He is lighting a path that many youth in this vibrant, young branch will now be inspired to follow.

My husband and I raised our children in the gospel. We had family scripture study every morning, family prayer, and weekly family home evening. We attended church, ate dinner together, and went on family vacations. Our children regularly attended the temple to perform baptisms for the dead, they graduated from seminary, and two of them served missions.
And then as adults, they started exploring paths and ideas that were different from the things we had taught them. One by one, our children stopped participating in the Church until only one of our five children still chose to attend. We shed many tears over our children and wondered if we had failed as parents or if there was something we could have done differently.
For a long time, we pled with the Lord to change their hearts, and finally the Lord answered our prayers. But not in the way we expected.
Instead of simply changing our children’s hearts, He showed us that we needed to start by changing our own hearts. While parents play an important role in teaching their children, He reminded us that Jesus Christ is their Savior and Judge.
In my determination to save my children, I had spent many hours praying, reading my scriptures, and going to the temple, thinking that if I did all of the right things, I would qualify for God’s intervention—as if somehow my actions would lead God to override their agency and force them to believe as I do.
My husband and I wanted so badly to save them, but our version of saving looked more like lecturing, nagging, or showing disapproval of their choices, which ultimately led to contention. We realized that in our desperation to bring our children back, we were actually driving them away. The more they felt our judgment and disappointment, the more they avoided us.
My prayers changed to a plea for my own heart to be changed. I realized that my reasons for wanting my children to change came from the wrong place. I prayed for more love. I also prayed to overcome my feelings of shame and embarrassment that my family didn’t look anything like the perfect families my friends displayed on social media with photos from their children’s temple marriages or grandchildren’s baptisms.
As I turned to the Savior for healing, my heart began to soften toward my children. I realized that to love them as He loves them meant making some changes. To Him, love wasn’t a method—it was the motivation that drove everything He did. He said He didn’t do “anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world” (2 Nephi 26:24).
Trusting in the Savior’s ability to do His work (see 2 Nephi 27:20) allowed me to focus on loving my children and turning the saving over to the Lord. It didn’t mean giving up on trying to help them, but when loving them became the driving force behind my interactions with them, it changed how I interacted.
I started to see them in a different light. I began focusing on their strengths and their talents and began to see what loving, generous, intelligent, and good people they were.
My husband and I listened more and talked less. We asked questions about their lives and their interests. Instead of judgment, we showed curiosity. We replaced criticism and disappointment with expressions of love, and our children could feel that it was genuine.
Our home became a place where they could feel love and acceptance. They stopped hiding things from us and started being honest and open about what was going on in their lives. We grew closer.
Our family is still a work in progress, but our children enjoy coming to our home and spending time with us now. They feel safe in our presence, and through our love I hope they can feel God’s love for them. I don’t know if in this lifetime they will return to the things they were taught as children, but I know that they are in the Savior’s hands.

I’d like to share with you two important lessons that I learned in my youth. When I was young, my friends and I often played ball in an alley behind our home. A woman named Mrs. Shinas rented a tiny house nearby, and she used to watch us play from her window. She rarely came out of her house, and when she did, she never smiled. We all thought that she was mean. She had a big dog, an English setter, and whenever one of our baseballs rolled in its direction—which happened often—Mrs. Shinas would send the dog to fetch it. We wouldn’t see the ball again. Soon we ran out of baseballs.

In those days, we didn’t have lawn sprinklers, and so each day I watered our lawn by hand with a hose. One day as I stood there watering our little stretch of grass, I noticed that Mrs. Shinas’s lawn looked a little shabby. It took only a few more minutes to water it, too, and soon I was watering her lawn each day.

When autumn came that year, one of my tasks was to clear our yard of leaves. I sprayed the ground with a hose, pushing the leaves into a pile with the force of the water. I decided to gather up the leaves on Mrs. Shinas’s yard as well, and as I was doing this one day, she came to her door and beckoned for me to come inside. I turned off the hose and went into her house.

She invited me to sit in her living room, and she gave me a cookie and a glass of milk. As I sat there eating my cookie, she showed me her collection of little china dogs. I could tell that they were her most prized possession. Then she thanked me for taking care of her lawn. It was the first conversation I had ever had with her.

Mrs. Shinas then went into her kitchen and returned with a box. In it were all the baseballs that her dog had taken. She handed me the box, said thank you—and smiled! It was the first time I’d ever seen her smile.

For me, my greatest mentor happens to be my mom. She will be turning 80 years old this year. She is a woman of few words and one that knew how to train up children to work and be self-reliant. She raised all twelve of us children to live the Chamorro value of “fan afao maolek yan fan aayuda” translated it means to get along and help each other. She is the very reason why I learned to get along with people and why I am who I am. This Chamorro philosophy coupled with gospel teachings has benefited my life’s journey thus far.

Growing up in Guam, I was your typical teenager. Let me elaborate. My father retired early from his government job as a gantry operator at Guam’s Commercial Port. He took on farming to help grow his large family of twelve children. To help subsidize the food at home, he would go fishing. One day, my father came home with a huge catch of reef fish which he caught using his one-man fishing net. At our home in Guam, we have an outside kitchen with a galley-size sink. The sink was a couple feet deep and proved to be very difficult to work from being that I am only five feet in height. I happened to be having a bad teenage attitude that day and the tall but deep sink plus the big catch didn’t help any. I was grumbling about all the fish I had to scale and clean up. At first I was just angry why I had to be the one to clean the fish. Where were the boys? Couldn’t they clean it? All my bellyaching didn’t render me aid. By this time, I had cleaned three fish and had another twenty to go. My mom and dad were just quiet and went about other things. Then it came into my mind, “I should be grateful.” My father caught enough fish to last a couple of meals. I knew then to set aside my selfishness and think of the blessing of the big catch and the mouths it will end up feeding. The instant I applied what the Apostle Paul said that by love serve one another; my burden was lifted and my work in scaling and cleaning the fish became light.

In other words, to always abound in good works requires a heart filled with love for others.

He gave much of this service while he and Susan were raising three young sons and he was making a remarkable contribution in his work at the University of Arkansas. Doyle Z. Williams, dean of the College of Business at the University of Arkansas, describes Elder Bednar’s contributions not in terms of offices held or honors received—of which there were many—but in terms of personal influence: “David Bednar was part of our leadership team. He sharpened our vision. He always exuded enthusiasm for students and a passion to help his fellowman. To all our discussions he brought reason and compassion. He inspired his colleagues and students by his example and was held in the highest esteem.”

Dean Williams, who is not a member of the Church, saw a power to influence others that was also observed by Jerry Abram, President Bednar’s counselor in a far-flung Arkansas stake. Brother Abram describes his impressions this way: “We traveled an average of 2,000 miles [3,200 km] per month together, so I got to know him very well. He called my wife to be the stake Relief Society president, and he set my daughter apart when she departed for England to serve her mission. He spoke at her twin sister’s funeral with such power and compassion. Our daughter was 17 years old when she and two of her girlfriends died in a tragic automobile accident. The funeral was tender, but Elder Bednar helped make it bearable. He stood behind our family during our darkest hour. After the funeral I wrote in my journal that he was the most spiritual and compassionate man I had ever met.”