Gospel Story Finder

Looking out over a sea of graduates in a commencement address at Brigham Young University–Hawaii in December 2005, President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, recounted the first time he came to Hawaii’s shores.
He was but a few years younger than most of the 250 graduates he addressed and was stationed on the island of Kauai as a bomber pilot in the midst of World War II. A number of friends and classmates had already become casualties of war, and he said that his family didn’t know where he would be going or what would become of him.
Yet when news came that the war was over, his joy was only temporary. He thought he was going home, but instead, he was assigned to Osaka as an operations officer.
“I asked the Lord why—why would He do this to me?” President Packer said. He had earned the necessary points. He was eligible to be released. He had kept his standards. But he was denied the thing he wanted most. Looking back now, he knows why.
“If I hadn’t gone to Osaka then, I wouldn’t be standing here now in this capacity,” President Packer said.
In his new post, he met and was involved with baptizing the first Japanese members of the Church after the war.
From this experience, President Packer said he learned to love his fellow man, and he learned to recognize revelation when it came to him. He learned the importance of receiving revelation again in his capacity as a seminary teacher, as a General Authority—called at age 37—and as an Apostle of the Lord.

Our prophet is also a good example of someone who looked with his spiritual eyes, felt and understood with his heart, and then helped. President Gordon B. Hinckley was only twenty years old when his mother died. He had younger brothers and sisters at home, and everyone in the family was very sad. Ramona was sixteen and about to graduate from high school. She had no dress for that special occasion, and she thought nobody noticed. But her older brother Gordon saw her need, understood how she felt, and helped. Using some money he had saved for graduate school, he bought her a new dress. His kindness made her feel loved.

Joseph F. Smith presided over the Church at a time of great bitterness toward Latter-day Saints. He was the target of vile accusations, of an outpouring of criticism by editorial writers even in his own community. He was ridiculed and made the subject of editorial cartoons. Listen to his response to those who made fun of him: “Let them alone. Let them go. Give them the liberty of speech they want. Let them tell their own story, and write their own doom” (Gospel Doctrine, fifth edition, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939, page 339). And then, with an outreaching spirit of forgiving and forgetting, he went ahead with the great and positive work of leading the Church forward to new growth and remarkable accomplishments. At the time of his death, many of those who had ridiculed him wrote tributes of praise about him.

The Lord has always put an emphasis on the family. Deuteronomy 6:7 reads, “And thou shalt teach [the gospel] diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of [it] when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” This scripture shows how my mother and father taught us. As we sat in our house, we studied the scriptures and had family home evening. While we “[walked] by the way” (or gardened or fished), my dad always talked to me about the gospel. When we lay down at night, I remember my mother and father telling us bedtime stories from the Bible. And when we “[rose] up” in the mornings, we always started the day with family prayer.

Elder Quentin L. Cook met with members and missionaries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, and Thailand, noting that “the members are excited about the Church, focusing on temple and missionary work.” In New Jersey, USA, he spoke at the Seymour Institute Seminar on Religious Freedom. “We should continue our ongoing and critical efforts to increase morality and protect families,” he said. In California, USA, he encouraged law society members to maintain faith and balance in their lives and to defend religious freedom.

I’d like to share the story of one of these many family caregivers, my friend whom I will call Debbie.
When Debbie was 62, she and her husband invited her 86-year-old mother to live with them. Debbie’s mother had mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease and was unable to care for herself. Debbie lamented that her once sweet, temple-serving, ministering, Relief Society president mother was ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease. Now Debbie was required to care for her mother, the same person who had provided care for her and so many others throughout her life.
Debbie had to assist her mother with all the activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and eating. Her mother continually repeated questions about what was happening. She frequently became disoriented and often fought against the care she was receiving because she could not remember what was happening or why it was happening. She became agitated and often lost her temper.
Her mother suffered from sundowning, which meant she was confused about when to sleep and when to be awake. Debbie awoke in the middle of the night to find her mother wandering through the house extremely anxious and disoriented. Since her mother no longer recognized Debbie’s husband, Debbie was the only one who could calm her mother down.
Twice Debbie’s mother was able to leave the house and start walking down the street in the middle of the night. The first time it happened, Debbie fortunately heard the front door close and was able to retrieve her mother before she had wandered too far. However, the second time, her mother left the house undetected, and Debbie received a phone call at 3:30 a.m. from the local police letting her know that her mother had been found walking down the road in only her nightgown.
The continual stress and effort that Debbie gave to care for her mother became intense. She did not know where to turn for help. Her two siblings didn’t accept that their mother had Alzheimer’s disease, nor that the symptoms were as bad as Debbie described. Their denial was reflected in the lack of assistance they offered. Since both of them lived hundreds of miles away, they were unable to regularly visit or offer help anyway.
Debbie felt awkward turning to friends, ward members, and other neighbors because she wasn’t sure how to explain her mother’s condition, and her mother didn’t respond well to new people. Debbie rejected the idea of getting help from professional services because she felt responsible to serve and care for her mother. Moving her mother to an assisted-living community was out of the question as well since her mother had once said she didn’t want to go to any place like that.
Week after week and month after month, Debbie continued giving more and more care to her mother. She focused less and less attention on her own health. One afternoon about 20 months after Debbie’s mother moved into Debbie’s home, Debbie’s husband returned from the store to find his mother-in-law agitated and pacing around the kitchen. He found Debbie collapsed on the living room floor. She was breathing but unconscious. She was taken to the hospital and was admitted due to a mild heart attack brought on by exhaustion.
Once my friend Debbie was released from the hospital, her husband and children sought out the Alzheimer’s Association. The local chapter provided support to the family. Debbie found the assistance she needed and realized the importance and power of allowing others to assist in caring for her mother.

When you remember
We slept in the homemade treehouse
Way up
Just the two of us
And ached for days later
But didn’t care
Because we were boys
And boys did things like that

In 2015, a three-year-old Arwen Villapando from Quezon City went to their neighborhood store to buy something. While waiting to be served, she was standing on a muddy sidewalk and noticed what looked like a large coin covered in petrified mud. Thinking it was money, she brought it home.
Her father Ireneo was newly-baptized member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her mother Maribel was being taught by missionaries. They got curious about the muddy coin their youngest daughter brought home so they cleaned it up. It took days to get it clean, and they even had to use a steel brush. As they scraped off the mud, the words “Aaronic Priesthood” appeared and after a while images of the temple and three personages became visible. The familiar engravings prompted them to clean the medallion and keep it as a souvenir. They never told anyone about it until September 2017 during a Stake Family Discovery Day.
A booth Arwen’s mother visited had a small box wherein a familiar coin was displayed. She was astonished to see that it was similar to their coin! Upon asking, she learned that it was a medallion awarded to young men who successfully finished the Duty to God program.
The Villapando family finally shared the story of how they found the medallion. The members wanted to help them find the owner of the medallion but they had no leads. For the family, the medallion was a reminder from heavenly Father for them to stay true to the covenants they made as members of the Church.
Through the years, the medallion was a reminder to Brother Ireneo to magnify his priesthood and lead his family in living the gospel. To Sister Maribel, it was a lesson that material wealth or money is not the most important thing in the world: it’s having a happy and healthy family and staying united in serving the Lord. To Arwen, the medallion teaches her that she is a child of God, and that her potential for eternal growth is limitless.
To this day, the Villapando family keeps the medallion as a reminder that they made the right decision when they joined the Church, and they will do everything to stay on the covenant path.

As I write this article, my 93-year-old mother lies in hospital where the doctors tell us that there is nothing more they can do medically to save her life. She has led a remarkable and righteous life of devotion to the Lord and is an inspiration to all who know her. She assures me that she does not fear death and knows that now is her time.5 In fact, for many years she has shared her great joy in anticipation of being reunited with her beloved eternal companion who died over thirty years ago. The Lord teaches us to “fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.”6

“Let’s grab the gear. It’s fishing time!” Dad said.
Hayden grinned as he looked around. Everything was bright and buzzing. They had the whole lake to themselves!
Following Dad, Hayden walked behind the car and lifted the big fishing tackle box out of the trunk. It was heavy, but he didn’t mind. He’d carry one twice this heavy if it meant fishing with Dad.
Fishing poles rattled together as Dad pulled them out. “Looks like Dan fell asleep,” he said. “Will you wake him up?”
Hayden held back a sigh. “Uh, sure.”
He’d almost forgotten that his little brother, Dan, had come too. Dan was always running around and talking loudly. He’d scare all the fish away!
He looked in the open window. “Dan, time to wake up.”
But Dan was still fast asleep.
Hayden paused. With any luck, Dan might sleep right through the whole trip.
Hayden quietly hauled the tackle box to Dad’s fishing spot on the shore.
“Here’s the bait, worms and all!”
Dad took the tackle box from him. “Great, thanks.” Then Dad looked up. “Where’s your brother?”
Hayden glanced at the car. All of a sudden he wondered how he would feel if he woke up alone in a new place. Not good, Hayden decided. In fact, he’d probably feel pretty scared. And Dan was only five.
“Just a second, Dad. I’ll be right back.” But when he looked in the car, Dan was gone!
Hayden couldn’t hear the buzzing insects any more. Everything seemed to go quiet.
“Dan’s not here!” Hayden yelled.
Dad hurried over and quickly checked the car.
“He’s probably just looking for us,” Dad said. “It’s only been a minute. He won’t be far.”
Hayden tried to stay calm, but his stomach was turning somersaults. “Can I say a prayer?”
“I think that’s a very good idea.”
Hayden thanked Heavenly Father for his little brother and asked that they would find Dan right away so that he wouldn’t feel afraid.
When Hayden finished, his heart stopped feeling so tight.
Dad put a hand on Hayden’s shoulder. “What if you were Dan? Where would you go?”
Hayden noticed the door on the other side of the car was open. Dan probably hadn’t seen them on the shore. Hayden pointed to a trail nearby. “I’d probably start walking that way,” he said.
They hurried along the trail.
Every second felt slow and heavy. As he walked, Hayden kept saying prayers in his heart. After a few steps, they came around a bend in the trail and saw Dan up ahead.
“Dan!” Hayden shouted.
Dan spun around and smiled. “Hey, where did you guys go?”
Time sped up again. Hayden raced to Dan and hugged him tight.
“I’m so glad we found you,” Hayden said. He said a quick prayer of thanks in his heart.
Dan just grinned. “Where are the fish?”
“Come on, I’ll show you,” Hayden said. His feet were itching to run to the lake. “Let’s see who can catch the first fish. I’ll help you bait your hook.”

Nathalie agrees. “Example is very important here. Everybody watches us because of our religion. When we take the subway to church, people notice us walking in dresses and know that we’re not like other young people. There’s something different about us.

“Last year I asked my math teacher to write something in my yearbook. My teacher said, ‘A year ago I saw you in the corridor and didn’t know you, but wanted you in my class this year because I saw how nice you were with people.’ To me, that’s missionary work.”

I was at Manti, Utah, some years ago. As we came out of the Saturday night leadership meeting, there was a heavy snowstorm. As we drove to the home of the stake president, he stopped his car and turned back to the temple hill. There the lighted temple was standing majestically. We sat there in silence for a few moments, inspired by the sight of that beautiful, sacred place. He said, “You know, Brother Lee, that temple is never more beautiful than in times of a dense fog or in times of a heavy, severe storm.”

Just so, never is the gospel of Jesus Christ more beautiful than in times of intense need, or in times of a severe storm within us as individuals, or in times of confusion and turmoil.

One of the hardest decisions Zane ever had to face was whether or not to go on a mission. He had colleges all over the nation soliciting him, and although he had always planned on a mission, the final decision was really hard. “But I decided I had to go on a mission to try to pay the Lord back for some of the many blessings I have received,” he said.

I would like to relate the experience of an ancestor of my wife, Jeanene. Her name is Sarah DeArmon Pea Rich. Her commentary shows the impact that the temple can have in our lives. When she was 31 years old, she received a calling from Brigham Young to work in the Nauvoo Temple, where all the ordinances possible were performed before the Saints had to abandon that temple. This is what she wrote:
“Many were the blessings we had received in the house of the Lord, which has caused us joy and comfort in the midst of all our sorrows and enabled us to have faith in God, knowing He would guide us and sustain us in the unknown journey that lay before us. For if it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that temple by the influence and help of the Spirit of the Lord, our journey would have been like one taking a leap in the dark. To start out on such a journey in the winter as it were and in our state of poverty, it would seem like walking into the jaws of death. But we had faith in our Heavenly Father, and we put our trust in Him, feeling that we were His chosen people and had embraced His gospel, and instead of sorrow, we felt to rejoice that the day of our deliverance had come.”

“Our next thrilling adventure was one pleasant afternoon as we were slowly jogging along. All at once our whole train was flying in every direction with lightning speed over the plains. I don’t think the fastest horses could have kept up with our cows. Father sat in the front of the wagon talking to and whipping his staid, old oxen to keep them going right along. He was afraid the cows might get mixed up with other teams that were running, or might whirl around and tip the wagon over with us all in it. We went over hump and bump. Sometimes our heads would be thrown up to the top of the wagon bows, there we would alight anywhere it happened inside the wagon. Nobody can appreciate the situation without the experience. Again death was staring me in the face and again I covered my head. If I had to be killed I didn’t want to see the process. Mother soon snatched the covering off my head, and when we came to a stop she gave me a sound lecture to always be on the lookout and watch the best chance for escape.
“Well, after the cattle had run as long as they could they stopped. There were several accidents, and a woman was killed. She was knocked down and trampled to death. She left a family of children. How we all dreaded stampedes—there is something dreadful in a lot of panic-stricken cattle. Even human beings are not responsible when fright overcomes reason.”

In the April 2015 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson taught us that “the Sabbath is a delight.” He also explained how he personally had come to understand a basic principle about honoring the Sabbath day:
“How do we hallow the Sabbath day? In my much younger years, I studied the work of others who had compiled lists of things to do and things not to do on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until later that I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, ‘What sign do I want to give to God?’ That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear.”

A group of girls from the Cedar City Utah West Stake have formed a sextet. They play recorder music preceding and following the puppet shows. Their talent has carried over into other activities, and they are often asked to provide special musical numbers for their wards at Christmas and other special occasions.

My friends, there have been moments in my life when I too have felt unimportant, alone, discouraged, and unseen. I have felt as if I did not belong. I was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 19 years old. One year later, I accepted the call to serve as a full-time missionary, but there was much I had not yet learned about Church history.

Early in my missionary service, I learned that there was a period when those of Black African descent were not allowed to enjoy all of the blessings of worshipping in the house of the Lord. Learning this for the first time brought feelings of anger, confusion, doubt, and fear. These feelings were so intense that my ability to recognize the Holy Ghost was lost for a season.

Fortunately, I had a wonderful missionary companion, Kevin Vick, who ministered to me with love, patience, and kindness. Each night as he witnessed my feelings of doubt and uncertainty, he would simply say to the younger Elder Johnson, “I love you.” After about two weeks, I allowed myself to feel of Kevin’s love. I gained the courage to pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. As I prayed, I was drawn to section 6 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 21–23, which states:

“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. … I am the light which shineth in darkness. …

“… Cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

“Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?”

As I read, I remembered. I remembered the day that I had fasted and prayed to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration. I remembered covenants made in the house of the Lord that connect me to Jesus Christ in such a personal and intimate way. I felt of the Savior’s love, His mercy, and His assurance that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His kingdom upon the earth and is necessary to prepare us for His Second Coming. Because I remembered, I again was able to recognize the Holy Ghost and to understand more fully that Jesus is the Christ and I am His disciple.

Zoe was baptised more than two years earlier, after meeting missionaries on the street, taking the discussions, and learning for herself the truth of the gospel.

A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park. Every day, Tree-ear hides and watches Min, the master potter. When Min discovers the boy and offers him work, Tree-ear hopes that he will soon be able to create beautiful pottery. But when his chores are only chopping wood and digging for clay, he longs for a way to prove his worth to his master.