Gospel Story Finder

I believe that Spencer W. Kimball was foreordained to be the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; to be the prophet, seer, and revelator to the Lord’s people; and to be the mouthpiece of God on earth for the time and season that lies ahead.
I know he was called and chosen and ordained to this ministry by the spirit of prophecy and revelation and was present when the Spirit of the Lord testified to each member of the Council of the Twelve that it was the mind and will of him whose witnesses we are, and on whose errand we serve, that President Kimball should now step forward and lead his people.
It was as though the Lord by his own voice said: “My servant President Harold B. Lee was true and faithful in all things that I appointed him to do; his ministry among you is completed; and I have called him to other and greater labors in my eternal vineyard. And I, the Lord, now call my servant President Spencer W. Kimball to lead my people and to continue the work of preparing them for that great day when I shall come to reign personally upon the earth. And I now say of him as I said of my servant Joseph Smith: ‘… thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;
“‘For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.
“‘For thus saith the Lord God: Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good, and his diligence I know, and his prayers I have heard.’” (D&C 21:4–5, 7.)

I had a spelling test, and my teacher said I got 100%. My friend looked at my test and told me that one of the words wasn’t right. I told the teacher, so she corrected the score. I felt happy because I was honest.
Eva W., age 8, Minnesota, USA

During his service as Church Patriarch, Elder Smith traveled to many areas of the world and gave many patriarchal blessings in areas where there was no patriarch. In 1966 he traveled with then-Elder Monson to Australia and Samoa to give patriarchal blessings to members there. It was the first time a presiding patriarch had ever visited Samoa. Today most stakes have a patriarch residing within the stake.

This tendency to wrongfully identify ourselves was again brought to my attention the other day during an interview with a troubled wife. Her marriage is in great difficulty. She has tried earnestly to correct the communication blocks with her husband but with little success. She is grateful for the time her bishop has spent in counseling. Her stake president has also been most patient and understanding in his willingness to try and help.
All of her problems are not resolved, but she is making progress. Her many contacts with properly channeled priesthood direction have left her not only grateful, but somewhat amazed. Her concluding observation the other day was, “I just don’t understand all of you people giving so much time and showing so much concern. After all, I’m really ‘nobody.’”

Through their efforts and the efforts of other missionary couples, LDS Charities provided training and equipment to vision clinics and organizations serving those with physical disabilities. Among those that the Hammonds and other welfare missionaries supported was a center that teaches women with physical disabilities how to design and make specialty clothing and craft items. These skills gave students the opportunity to better provide for themselves and their families.
Photograph courtesy of LDS Charities

I love the Instant Messages. They’re incredibly relevant to my life. When I read the Instant Message “Dating Dilemma” in the October New Era, I felt I knew exactly what the author was talking about. I have been casually dating a really great guy from school for over a year, and lately I have felt that our relationship was getting a little too serious. I prayed about it and felt that we should just be friends. I finally told him this morning and was a little down the whole day because of it. Then I came home and saw this Instant Message reminding me that I am happiest when I follow the Lord’s will. Thank you, Tiffany Day, for writing about your experience.Leila Watts, Andover Ward, Anoka Minnesota Stake

In April 1985, Elder Bruce R. McConkie spoke in general conference—just 13 days before he died. He concluded with this testimony:
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
“But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.”
Those of us who heard Elder McConkie speak that day have never forgotten how we felt. As he began his talk, he revealed why his witness was so powerful. He said:
“In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture. …
“True it is they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true, and it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.”

I was recently called as Relief Society president in my district. I am truly grateful for the privilege of having this new assignment because I consider callings to be a sign of the trust the Lord places in us to help further His work. But at the same time, it is a challenge to live up to that privilege, and we often feel uneasy about whether we will be able to fully fulfill what the Lord expects of us.
My first assignment in this new responsibility was to choose my counselors. I prayed and meditated deeply for several days after the call was extended to me. Our district is made up of five branches. I had an extensive list of sisters from whom I could choose, but I didn’t know most of them personally.
Still, I strove to draw closer to the Lord, seek inspiration, and ask for His guidance in prayer. One night, I had a special dream in which I was visiting the home of a sister I didn’t know. My husband was with me in the dream. While in her home, we learned about many of the challenges she was facing in her family. As we left her home, I said to my husband, “I know that she (mentioning her name specifically) will be one of my counselors.” When the Relief Society presidents from each branch shared with me the list of names of the sisters who didn’t have a calling in their units, to my astonishment, the name I had mentioned in my dream appeared on one of them. When I looked at it, I knew this was the sister the Lord wanted me to choose as one of my counselors.
I wanted some reassurance about that impression. Before I made a decision, I decided to visit each branch, participate in their classes, and meet as many of the sisters as I could. I wanted to know for myself if she was the right choice. I felt a deep commitment to making a decision that the Lord would be pleased with. Due to circumstances, I wasn’t able to visit all the units, which concerned me.
This was my state of mind as I began watching general conference. I already had two names in mind, but I hadn’t suggested them to my district president yet. With a prayer in my heart, I listened to the conference, hoping to receive inspiration. I received my answer as Elder Steven D. Shumway of the Seventy taught, “While the easier path may be to give faithful members a second calling, the more excellent way is to invite the unlikely to serve and let them learn and grow.” I realized the sisters didn’t need my approval, nor did they need experience to serve in this calling. The Lord knew them and their potential. He directs His Church, and He chooses His leaders.
After I turned in the names and the sisters received their new callings, I talked with the good sister I had dreamed about and learned more about her. She told me she wasn’t very active in the Church, but even though she didn’t know what she should do, she had a great desire to learn. She knew this new assignment would allow her to draw closer to Heavenly Father and enjoy His love more fully. This filled my heart with great joy.
This experience helped me reaffirm my conviction that Jesus Christ directs His Church, that leaders are called by Him, and that we don’t need perfect knowledge but rather a genuine willingness to learn and do the things the Lord expects of us. President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) taught: “It is the Lord’s work, and when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”

Then my husband graduated and found a job that took us to another state. I had lived in many parts of the United States, but this move left me feeling terribly out of place. Our new ward was in a fairly wealthy area. My husband and I had a lot of school debt and very few possessions. We drove an old car, our clothes were outdated, and our furniture was secondhand and mismatched. The disparity was painfully obvious to me.
It wasn’t that I coveted what others had. I simply couldn’t imagine that they could see me as a worthwhile person when I had so little.
As the months passed, I had great difficulty making friends in the ward. I had been fairly comfortable in our wards in college, but now I felt intimidated and isolated from the friends and family who valued me.
A very long year and a half passed. I felt more insecure and unaccepted than I had felt since being a teenager in junior high school. I gave up even trying to fit in.
Then a ward member named Julie, a sister whom I greatly admired, began reaching out to me. She was 10 years older than I, a woman of great faith, and respected by everyone. I couldn’t believe she really wanted to get to know me, but I was lonely enough to accept her invitation to go jogging with her and some of her friends each morning at a nearby track.
Every day, Julie arrived having just finished morning prayer and scripture study. She was always filled with enthusiasm about the gospel, the scriptures, and the insights that came to her as she read. Running with her was like going to a devotional or a seminary class. And she seemed genuinely interested in me; she listened without judgment to my frustrations and fears.
I found Julie’s enthusiasm irresistible. Following her example, I became dedicated to a program of regular, serious scripture study for the first time in seven years.
I began to feel the Spirit in my life on a daily basis, and I found that I was able to follow the Spirit in fulfilling my calling as a Beehive adviser. I also realized that even though I’d been physically present in the programs and meetings, I had been spiritually inactive for many years.

The events of that Christmas Eve took on added meaning for me the next year in the winter beauty of Utah Valley. Daddy had died during the preceding year, and no one really felt like holding to the family caroling tradition; emotions were still too close to the surface. So mother gathered us children together, and again we made a trip to the cemetery. We took with us a German wreath. Our family was alone this time; no one was there to hear our songs of Christ’s birth as we placed the wreath on daddy’s grave. Around us was a thick blanket of fog, shrouding us in its quiet mystery, and we could not see much beyond the edges of the cemetery—as if the world ended there.
But oh, what joy filled our hearts as we remembered we were celebrating Christmas, that because of the Savior the world is more than it was, that life does not end with the burial of the body, and that our loved one is not alone! There, in the cemetery, remembering daddy, we celebrated the birth of our Savior, our Hope, our Redeemer; and the peace of his message was a great salve for our loneliness.

I have always enjoyed nature and the outdoors. I grew up in Boise, Idaho, and one of my favorite things to do when I was out of school in the summer was to go to my aunt’s ranch. There I herded cows, rode horses, swam in the canal, and often slept in the haystack under the stars.
Oh, how I admired the boys and girls who lived on ranches and farms! They had opportunities that those of us who were raised in the city never had.
However, within a half mile of where I lived in Boise was a river that ran through the city. There was a wooded area there that I loved to go to after school or on Saturdays. My dog was my pal, and we went there together and sailed boats or made whistles out of willows. We watched the beavers make dams and the fish swim in the water. We watched the birds build nests and hatch their young.
As I grew older, I joined the local Boy Scout troop and enjoyed hiking and camping in the summertime with my friends. Many of these boys were in Primary with me. My mother was Primary president, and my younger sister, Dorothy, and I were regular attenders.
My father, however, was not a member of the Church, and when I had my eighth birthday, I was not baptized.
I did have a testimony, though. I knew that God lived. My mother had taught me to pray and to thank Heavenly Father for all the things that I enjoyed. I often thanked him for the beauty of the earth and for the wonderful times that I had at the ranch and by the river and with the Scouts. I also learned to ask him for the things that I wanted or needed.
I went to all the Church meetings and activities, but it wasn’t until I was twelve that I really missed not being baptized. By that time, all my friends had been ordained deacons. Because I wasn’t an official member of the Church, I wasn’t able to do many of the things that they did. Passing the sacrament and building a fire to warm up the meetinghouse were only two of the responsibilities that I watched my friends do without me.
So my sister and I began coaxing our father to allow us to be baptized. We also prayed that he might say yes. We were overjoyed when he finally gave his consent, and I was baptized when I was thirteen years old. A whole new world opened up to me as I learned the responsibilities of being a member of the Church and holding the priesthood.
I’m grateful for the influence of the Church in those early years and for my mother’s teachings. Even though I wasn’t baptized until later than many children, I knew that God loved me and listened to me.

There was a lot to learn. At times, leaders were not feeling the success and seeing the number of YSA for which they had hoped and prayed. They prayed continually. They felt certain that sacrifice was the key to success. When there were not enough computers for the web design class, students shared computers. When internet was not available, instructors spent time during the week creating tutorial videos that students could watch when internet was available.

I was 17 years old at the time and was curious about my brother’s conversion and his enthusiasm about his newfound beliefs. He introduced a couple of missionaries to me and my sister. One of their lessons, about eternal families, grabbed my attention. This doctrine convinced me that this was the church for me—and the two young missionaries were so handsome, who could deny them? In due course, I and my sister were baptised, even though our father did not approve. As a Baptist, called to teach Japanese members in Japanese about the Holy Bible, my father had strong but narrow views about the teachings of Christ. But our mother attended our baptisms.

I wasn’t very good at studying the scriptures as a young woman. I wish I would have! Not until I was living in Seattle, Washington, did a friend and I realize we were hungering to know what spiritual women in our ward knew. We wanted righteous children, “taught by their mothers” to be believing (Alma 56:47). And like a good dinner, the gospel becomes more exciting sharing it with a friend. I had Louise Nelson. We feasted together.
I remember sitting on an old worn couch reading scripture stories to my sons. As we studied, a power began to permeate our lives. I learned that Ruth left her family to join the believers, that Sariah reared children in the wilderness, that Esther risked her life to save others, and that, most important, Mary bore a son in a straw-filled stable and laid him in a manger. I learned that God worked miracles in the lives of others, and he could work wonders in mine too.
I discovered the scriptures later than some. But I discovered them.

But the Verano children enjoyed Primary, which then was held one afternoon a week. Sig or Ana would drive them to the chapel for the meeting. One afternoon, the car wouldn’t start. “Well, it isn’t my fault,” Sig told them. “I guess you won’t be able to go.”
Back in the house, six-year-old Edison wouldn’t give up. “Let’s pray,” he pleaded. So they knelt in prayer, then went back out to the car. To Sig Verano’s surprise, it started immediately.

I will not recount the difficult challenges of my life. I want to share an experience that shows that He cares for us in every way.
When my husband had his business in the early 2000s, he called me one day, asking me to prepare a very important administrative document that was necessary for him, and I had to find it quickly. I knew I had seen this paper in one of the trays. I looked all over the office, but it wasn’t there. I searched several times, but nothing worked. I prayed. But not a simple prayer. I prayed with all the energy of my heart, the strength of my soul. When I do this kind of prayer, I am almost exhausted as I put my faith into action. Expressing to the Lord that I know He can help me and guide me to find what I seek, affirming that I believe in His power. I continued to search, then, as I leaned against the door frame at the entrance of the office, I observed the room. I looked at the tray, which was near the window, and then I understood what had happened. It was as if the story of this sheet was being shown to me. The document had flown out the window. I ran downstairs, I must say my faith was tested; a paper that flies from a second-floor window can go anywhere.
I circled the building, tree leaves strewn across the ground. No documents in sight. I continued to seek, nevertheless fearing that it was lost.
I saw a small piece of dirty paper under the leaves, and I almost missed it as it could barely be seen. I picked it up, and oh, what joy I felt when I saw that it was indeed it, this precious document for which I had spent so much energy, searching, imploring, and importuning my Heavenly Father. I took the time to sincerely thank Him.
I was so grateful that He helped me, and especially that He even kept this document outside for us because I noticed, with the dirt on it, that it had been outside for several hours or even a day or two. God had paved the way before I even knew it.

“When you see a man on top of a mountain, just remember he didn’t fall there,” said Elder Paul H. Dunn before a crowd of youth attending the Alabama-Florida Mission conference at Troy State University. His motivating talks made this event “a time to remember” according to Nancy Cattell of Georgia. At least four baptisms resulted immediately and Cathie Henderson of Alabama told how happy she was that her non-Mormon boyfriend had come to conference because now he was going to be baptized. Jimmy Smith was master of ceremonies for a formal banquet and confessed, “Youth conference sets me up for the whole year of school.” “I’ve always wanted to be a mission president, not because of the glory or the challenge of the problems, but because of how great they are with people. I’d like to be like that,” said Nathan Mayhan of Georgia, complimenting President Spencer H. Osborn. Danny Dyer brought laughs when he said, “Youth conference is the only thing that goes faster than a two-year mission.” Linda Tucker of Tallahassee, Florida, commented on the miracle of forgiveness and how great it was to have two brothers along to learn from great leaders. Robert Neal of Birmingham, Alabama, was chief photographer for the event when he wasn’t starring as a tomato bug in the roadshow.

Rebecca Swain Williams heard several Book of Mormon witnesses in Ohio beginning in 1830. She bore her testimony to her father and brothers: “I have heard the same story from several of the [Smith] family and from the three witnesses themselves. I heard them declare in public meeting that they saw a Holy Angel come down from heaven and brought the plates and laid them before their eyes.”

When her family members rejected her testimony, Rebecca did not cower. She continued to love them, pray for them, and value her father’s good counsel. She also continued to testify to him that the Book of Mormon witnesses told the truth: “They are men of good character and their word is believed. … They have seen an angel of God and conversed with him.”2

In the late 1830s, a period of widespread dissent in the Church, Rebecca remained faithful, choosing to abide by the precepts of the Book of Mormon.3

Alison thought about that. She remembered when her best friend, Erica, had said that Mormons weren’t Christians. She didn’t understand what Erica meant, so she had asked her parents about it.
“A lot of people focus on the name ‘Mormon’ or ‘Latter-day Saints,’” Mom had explained. “They forget that our Church is named for Jesus Christ.”
The next day at school, Alison had told Erica the first article of faith: “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”
But Erica had just shrugged. “Then why don’t people call you Christians instead of Mormons?” she asked.

At the university where I used to study, there was a young man who persecuted me because I am a member of the Church. He always wanted to contend, so I just tried to avoid him. Then one day I bore my testimony to him, and he quit persecuting me. We should always stay firm and remember how our testimonies were gained. We should react with self-control so the Holy Spirit may always be with us and strengthen us, no matter what others may say or think. We should pray for those people so that someday they may receive Jesus Christ.
Brezka E., age 21, Valparaíso, Chile