Gospel Story Finder

Ray Dunham, who was not LDS when he arrived at the academy, found himself looking for Latter-day Saints. “I’m from Oklahoma City, and in high school I had some LDS friends. I figured if I could find other Mormons they’d be a good influence on me.”
He met Keyan Riley from Salem, Utah, verified that he was LDS, and “I thought to myself, I found one of you!” They became roommates, Ray eventually joined the Church, and both he and Keyan resigned, served missions, reapplied, and were permitted to return to the academy.
Ray, who had come to the academy with a twin brother, “had to reassure my parents that the academy wants returned missionaries because they’re good people. Once my parents realized I wasn’t giving up, just serving a mission with the hope of getting back in, they felt more at ease.”

I entered a TV cooking competition, and I won! Since then, I have taught cooking classes, hosted a fundraiser to help other children, and more. I know Heavenly Father gives us all talents and wants us to use them to help others. We can use our talents to share the gospel and set an example!
Kennedy T., age 11, Alaska, USA

The Appleton District of the Milwaukee Wisconsin Mission held a fun youth conference right in their own backyard. They planned to sail and swim in Lake Michigan.
The unpredictable weather served up two beautifully sunny days. Following the theme of the conference, “Chart Your Course,” the leaders cast the youth adrift, in theory only, in groups of six with a survival kit. Each group was to decide which items were necessary for survival. The exercise was used to foster a discussion of our journey through mortality and what things are necessary for a safe return to our Father in Heaven.
Workshops in aerobics and a Coast Guard presentation in boating safety were held prior to an afternoon swim in the lake. That evening, garbed in pirate costumes, the group had a banquet and dance.
The following morning, breakfast was prepared for the group by the Young Men. After additional workshops on spiritual survival and an emergency course in human relations, the young people were invited on board a sailboat built by a member of the district.
One of the special experiences of the conference was the participation by one young man who was battling a serious illness. Although he had difficulty participating in some of the activities, the others helped him enjoy the conference.
The group returned exuberant and pleasantly tired for an evening testimony meeting. They bore testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and the appreciation for meeting together with other young members of the Church.

In 1938 Hitler had his armies invade western Czechoslovakia, and he soon ruled it. All Americans were warned to leave the country. Before the mission president, Wallace Toronto, left, he set apart Josef Roubícek, a Czech and a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, as the acting mission president. For the next five and a half years, Church headquarters received no word from the Saints in Czechoslovakia.

During that time President Roubícek held regular meetings. For a few months the government outlawed public meetings. When that happened, President Roubícek kept in touch with members by mail. In his letters, he encouraged them to study the Book of Mormon with their families.

When the war ended in 1945, an American soldier took a letter from President Roubícek and mailed it to President Toronto. “I wish to inform you,” President Roubícek wrote in the letter, “that after six years of war all members of the Church have remained well and alive. It has been a terrible time. … The [Saints’] … testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel have not wavered even in the worst moments of this great conflict.”*

Hello! I’m Priyanka. I live in Visakhapatnam. I love Jesus Christ and His teachings. I used to attend different churches. One fine day I told my friend who is a Christian that I wanted to get baptised. Then she introduced me to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints. I really liked the fellowship of the members and the standards of the Church. I took the lessons from the Elders, and I asked my parents’ permission to get baptised. They told me that I could attend church but not get baptised. So I continued attending church and read Book of Mormon with my friend. After a few months, my mom started coming to church, but she didn’t gain her testimony yet. After two years I thought of being baptised without informing my parents.
One day as I was reading a message shared in the Liahona magazine, I strongly felt that I should ask my parents about my baptism again. I did, but my dad again said no. Then my mom spoke with him, and he finally agreed. I, along with my mom, got baptised on April 9, 2017—a most memorable day in my life. Because I followed the Holy Spirit’s promptings and asked my parents again, the Lord blessed me so much that my family members and friends attended my baptism. As the prophet Nephi described his feelings in the scriptures, “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do” (1 Nephi 4:6). Similar were my feelings when I think about my baptism.

Monday morning is usually taken up with washday chores. But on the Monday before Christmas my thoughts were on the lovely Christmas centerpiece display I wanted to make for the table. I felt compelled to drop everything and make the journey to purchase the materials.
Preparing to cross the road to the bus stop, I suddenly changed my mind and decided to walk. I had gone two-thirds of the way when I saw a woman in a self-propelled wheelchair. She was not a member of the Church, but I recognized her as the spokesman for the elderly citizens of the borough in thanking our ward for the yearly concert we presented for them.
I greeted her, and as we chatted I learned that she would be alone at Christmas. So that was why I had felt prompted to go out that morning! I invited her to join with our family. The decorations were unimportant now, though I did continue on and purchase them.
Then, having committed myself to an extra guest, I panicked. What would my nonmember husband say? We had already invited six relatives to come (two were elderly and two were children), in addition to our household of four. How would they all respond?
At first my husband was not comfortable with the idea at all. Christmas is a time for family, he reminded me, and this lady was a complete stranger. Yet I felt she had been sent to us by inspiration, so I fasted and prayed about it and asked my Relief Society visiting teachers to do the same. By the next day there was a sunny atmosphere in our home again, and the coming of our special guest was accepted by all.
We enjoyed sharing our Christmas with her. She brought a sweet spirit into the house with her testimony of the Savior. As she testified to our nonmember relatives of her belief in the second coming of Christ, I was able to concur with her faith and to explain much more of the gospel than had ever been possible before. Our new friend had paved the way.

Joseph Smith faces opposition while seeking a publisher for the Book of Mormon.

Kimberly and Erica are vastly outnumbered in the girl-to-boy ratio in their family, but it doesn’t seem to be a disadvantage. Erica, 20, the oldest, has some mental challenges. Her brothers watch out for her. Matt says, “She’s got a special heart. I have a picture on my wall she colored for me that says, ‘To Matt—Love Erica.’ There’s nothing around it. People who go into my room look at it and ask, ‘Why do you have that picture hanging up?’ I tell them that this was my sister who did this, and it really means something to me. It’s just like her special little spirit right there.”

A girl in my class wasn’t a member of the Church. Our Easter pageant was coming up, so I gave her an invitation. Her family went to the pageant. The next day when I went to school, she said her family had a good time. I felt a warm feeling in my heart for inviting them.

A few weeks after the temple dedication, Louisa Pratt and her daughters started west with a company of Saints. Ellen was now fourteen, Frances was twelve, Lois was nine, and Ann was five. They had two yoke of oxen, two cows, and a wagon loaded with new clothes and provisions.

Before crossing the river into Iowa, Louisa called at the post office and found a long letter from Addison dated January 6, 1846—five months earlier. Addison reported that he was now in Tahiti with some Tubuaian friends, the married couple Nabota and Telii, on their way to help his fellow missionary Benjamin Grouard with missionary work on the nearby Anaa atoll. He had sent Louisa sixty dollars and loving words for her and the children.

Addison expected to serve among the island Saints for many years to come, but not without his family. “If you can get any books,” he wrote, “and have any leisure time, I think you and the children had better attend to the studying of the Tahitian language, for in my opinion you may have use for it within a few years.”32

The letter pleased Louisa, and she found her journey west surprisingly joyful. The spring rains had ended, and she liked riding horseback beneath clear skies while a hired man drove her wagons. She rose early every morning, gathered up stray cattle, and helped to drive them during the day. Occasionally she worried about how far she was traveling from her parents and other relatives, but her belief in Zion comforted her. The revelations spoke of Zion as a place of refuge, a land of peace. That was what she wanted in her life.

“Sometimes I feel cheerful,” she wrote in her journal on June 10. “The Lord has called us, and appointed us a place where we can live in peace and be free from the dread of our cruel persecutors!”33

Five days later, Louisa and her company arrived at Mount Pisgah, one of two large way stations the Saints had established along the Iowa trail. The encampment hugged the base of some low, sloping hills crowned with a grove of oak trees. As Brigham had envisioned, the Saints there lived in tents or log cabins and cultivated crops to supply food for companies who would arrive later. Other areas of the camp provided pastureland for the livestock.

Louisa selected a site in the shade of some oak trees for her family. The place was beautiful, but overhead the sun beat down on the encamped Saints, many of whom were exhausted from the rain and mud they had battled that spring.

“May the Lord reward them for all their sacrifices,” Louisa thought.34

Sarah tried to not fidget as she stood on the footstool, waiting while her mother adjusted the hem of the long white dress. “How much longer?” she asked her mother.
Mother looked up from where she knelt on the floor and removed two pins from her mouth. “Another minute or so and I’ll have the hem done.”
“Why do we wear white clothes in the temple?” Sarah asked.
“The temple is a sacred place,” Mother said as she pushed the pins into the material. “And because it is, we wear white clothes when we are there.”
“I can’t wait until Saturday. Lori says she wishes she could go to the temple with her family too.” Sarah looked thoughtful. “Why doesn’t Lori’s family get sealed in the temple?”
Mother smiled. “Lori’s parents were sealed in the temple when they were married, so Lori is already sealed to her parents. There, I’m finished.” Mother struggled to rise to her feet.
Sarah jumped down from the chair to help her mother, who was seven months’ pregnant and had trouble bending and standing. “How come you and Daddy didn’t get sealed in the temple when you were married?”
“Come over here, Sarah,” her mother said, patting the seat beside her on the sofa. “Remember last year when we took the missionary lessons?”
Sarah nodded. Shortly after they finished the lessons, her parents were baptized. She remembered the special feeling she had when she saw first her father and then her mother emerge from the water. Next year, when Sarah turned eight, her father would baptize her.
“Before we learned about the gospel, your father and I had never heard about temples or being sealed to each other. After we were baptized, we promised ourselves and you that we would go to the Denver Colorado Temple and be sealed to each other there.”
“And that means our family can be together forever,” Sarah finished.
“That’s right.”
Sarah felt a gentle nudge as she cuddled closer to her mother. Her eyes widened. “The baby kicked me.”
Her mother laughed softly. “Babies tend to do that.”
Sarah’s lips curved into a smile as she thought about the baby. In two more months she’d have a new brother or sister. Her parents had already started painting the guest bedroom a sunny yellow to turn it into a nursery. Her smile faltered as she realized that the baby wouldn’t be able to go to the temple with the family on Saturday. “Mom, we have to wait!”
“Wait for what, honey?”
“The baby. We can’t go to the temple without him.”
To Sarah’s surprise, her mother didn’t appear worried. “After your dad and I are sealed in the temple, any children we have will be sealed to us also. It’s called being born in the covenant.”
Sarah’s forehead puckered as she tried to understand what her mother had said. “So our baby will be sealed to us on Saturday, even though he’s still inside you?”
“That’s right.”
Sarah hugged her mother. “I love you. And I love Dad and our baby.”
Her mother returned the hug. “I love you too.” Pushing herself to her feet, she added, “Come on. We have a dress to finish sewing.”
On Sunday morning, Sarah felt especially happy as she sat next to her parents in sacrament meeting. The congregation began singing the opening song. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she joined in. “I have a family here on earth. They are so good to me. I want to share my life with them through all eternity. …”*

Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Girl in Texas, USA, is miraculously healed.

“Now here in New Zealand, the last thing I do every morning as I dress for this great calling is to pin my tie with this beautiful silver and turquoise CTR emblem. I love it! It helps this old boilermaker make the right choices throughout the day. I know it also helps fulfill the prophetic promise made to my wife and me by President Gordon B. Hinckley as he set us apart.
“He said words to this effect: ‘You will have an instant bonding of love for every missionary in your mission.’ I can’t tell you how many times a missionary, during a visit, has said something like this: ‘President Gardner, I love your tie tack.’ And then he or she will show me their CTR ring.
“I believe that Navajo bishop was inspired to give me the tie tack and that I make the right decision every day when I choose to wear it. And the beautiful blue and silver CTR pin is helping bond me to a royal army of missionaries in the New Zealand Wellington Mission.
“I appreciate the opportunity of relating to you my special experience associated with this great Primary children’s motto, ‘Choose the Right.’”

As a boy, Russell’s parents taught him that family should always come first. In the evenings he would play games, read, or sing with his parents and siblings.

A new idea slipped into Susan’s mind. “Do you remember when Pal won the trophy last year?”
Meggen nodded. “It was the most exciting day of my life!”
“And when you remember, do you still feel the excitement?”
“Sometimes I lie on my bed, holding the trophy and reliving every moment,” Meggen admitted. “I brushed Pal’s hair carefully and braided it with blue and yellow ribbons. I was so nervous, my hands shook when the judges came by. And I screamed when they announced I had won.”
Susan winced. “I remember that part. You screamed into my ear.” They laughed together. “Remembering is wonderful, isn’t it?”
Meggen nodded again. “I’ll always remember that day, no matter how long I live. I’ll probably tell the story over and over to my grandchildren.”
“And you’ll always have special feelings each time you do,” Susan assured her.

“Why are you still inside?” Corey’s mother asked. “You always like to play in the puddles when it rains.” Corey sat on the window seat, watching the last of the rain drip-drip-drip off the roof. “I always play in the puddles with Lissa,” he said. “But we had a fight yesterday.”
“Oh?”
“She named her new kitten Mannington. I told her that was a dumb name for a cat.”
“Did you tell her you were sorry?”
Corey stuck his chin out stubbornly. “I’m not sorry,” he said. “It is a dumb name.”
Mother smiled and said, “Do you remember the name you gave the goldfish we had last year?”
Corey remembered that he had named the timid little goldfish Shark, just to be funny. “I guess it was kind of a dumb name, too,” he admitted. “I think I’ll go outside now.”
Corey spattered a few puddles with his rubber boots. He swish-swished through the water running down the gutter.
“Puddles aren’t any fun alone,” he mumbled. “There’s nobody to splash with or to help me throw big rocks in the puddles.”
He started slowly back home. He didn’t kick through the puddles. He didn’t even jump over them. He walked around them with regular, un-rainy-day steps.
In front of his house the rainwater ran along the curb like a little river. He watched the leaves scooting along like tiny boats toward Lissa’s house.
Lissa was outside playing by herself too. I know what I’ll do, Corey thought, racing into his house. In a few minutes he came back with a cardboard boat that he had made out of an old cereal box.
He launched his boat into the gutter, then hid behind a tree to watch. Bump … dip … spin. It was a rough ride, but his craft was seaworthy.
Lissa squealed happily when she saw the boat. She reached down and plucked it from the water. Then she looked up and saw Corey peeking out from behind the tree. She waved and called to him.
When he got close to her, he said, “I think Mannington is a fine name for your cat. I’m sorry I made fun of it.”
“Thanks, Corey, for telling me that.” She smiled at him and handed him the boat. “Come on—let’s see who can find the biggest puddle to splash in.”

Ean Shelley, 17, was surprised when Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles approached him after a performance in Nauvoo. Elder Oaks told Ean, “The pipers are the salt in the oatmeal.” When Ean asked him what he meant, Elder Oaks explained that you have to put a little bit of salt into the oatmeal to make it taste just right. The bagpipers add that flavor to the experience.

Long before he came to America, he believed in the Spirit of God and sought its guidance. His faith served him well just before he left his homeland, when he felt compelled to sell his beautiful home, his cars, and his other possessions. He gave the cash raised from these sales to his wife and children to live on. To critics of this apparently purposeless act, Kim Ho Jik replied only that the Spirit had instructed him to do so.
A few months after he arrived in America, the reason became clear. War broke out with the North Korean invasion of June 1950. Bombs destroyed his former home, and the South Korean government confiscated all automobiles for use by the military. But Kim Ho Jik’s family remained financially secure in his absence.

We just witnessed the power of a truly historic moment as we celebrated with tens of millions the 100th birthday of President Russell M. Nelson.

Reporting on President Nelson’s birthday, Newsweek wrote a headline that read, “World’s Oldest Religious Leader Turns 100.” They then listed the world’s 10 oldest faith leaders—with President Nelson first on a list that included Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama.

This statement from a New York Times article represents the spirit of much of the international coverage: “In a [United States] presidential election cycle that has prompted soul-searching about aging and leadership, Mr. Nelson’s milestone suggests that, at least in his church, a triple-digit birthday does not merit much hand-wringing. He remains a popular figure among church members, who view their president not just as an executive but as a ‘prophet, seer, and revelator.’”

How grateful we are that President Nelson’s landmark birthday gave us an opportunity to introduce a global audience to a prophet of God, a celebration never to be forgotten.

Last December 2017 while at home during our summer vacation, Naume and I were in Madziva village in Zimbabwe. We observed a neighbor plowing with a team of oxen. As I saw this team, I was somewhat amazed, for one was a huge ox and the other a very small bullock. That ox towered over the little bullock that was sharing the work with him.
I was amazed and perplexed to see a farmer trying to plow with two such unequal animals in the yoke and commented on the inequality to my mother-in-law, who was standing by. My mother-in-law pointed to the yoke and showed me the traces which were hooked to the yoke. I observed that the large ox was pulling all the weight; the little bullock was being broken into the yoke, but he was not actually pulling any weight.
My mind instinctively came to this passage of scripture where our Lord said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29). In the normal yoking, the load is equally distributed between the two that are yoked together, but when we are yoked with Jesus Christ, He bears the load and we who are yoked to Him share in the joy and the accomplishment of the labor but without the burden of the yoke.