Gospel Story Finder

How privileged a position it is to be in to know and understand this core truth. I am grateful for it. I do not take it for granted. As a young boy, due to experiences in life at the time, I had questions about the nature of God, who was He? What did He look like? I visited local churches and I would ask ministers these questions. I would ask questions related to the purpose of life, and why we were here if we were to suffer pain and sorrow. I could not receive a satisfactory answer that felt right.

A couple of years ago I was at my cousin’s birthday party. She had invited two of her other friends to the party, and we were having lots of fun when one of her friends said, “Let’s watch a movie.” We all agreed. Then they said they wanted to watch a PG-13 movie.
I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I wasn’t allowed to watch PG-13 movies, and I knew what I had to do. I’d been baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. I had to stand up for myself. That was really hard because I’m kind of shy.
Finally I said, “I can’t watch PG-13 movies.”
I felt a little better then, but they started making suggestions like, “Just plug your ears.” I wouldn’t do it. Finally my cousin said, “OK, we won’t watch the movie.” I’m glad I listened to the Holy Ghost and obeyed the rules my mom and dad made for me.

One day at school I was in my classroom and some girls were trying to show me bad pictures. I kept pushing them away. So finally I got up and told my teacher. I know it was the Holy Ghost that told me not to look at the pictures. I know if we follow the Holy Ghost, He will lead us to live with Heavenly Father again.

The August issue of the New Era was fantastic. I sat down to read just one or two articles, and I found myself reading the whole magazine! I really enjoy reading the New Era. I was almost brokenhearted when I came to the last page because I wanted to read more. As I am serving a mission it takes a while to receive the magazines, but they do come regularly. They are an inspiration and help quite a lot in missionary work.
Elder Michael E. HeathEngland Southwest Mission

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told about a single mother who got chicken pox—and then her children got sick too. The normally spotless house became cluttered and messy. Dishes and laundry piled up.

In a moment when she felt completely overwhelmed, Relief Society sisters knocked on her door. They didn’t say, “Let us know if we can help.” When they saw the situation, they sprang into action.

“They cleared up the chaos, brought light and clarity into the home, and called a friend to bring over some much-needed groceries. When they at last finished their work and said their good-byes, they left that young mother in tears—tears of gratitude and love.”7

Both the givers and the receiver felt the warmth of joy.

I can’t tell you how much I have learned through the special Young Women issue of the New Era. My family and I have had a lot of problems the past few months. Mom and Dad separated. Then my brother went into the navy. I really miss him. For a long time I didn’t think much of life. I thought it was ruined. Then I thought, why don’t I read my Young Women New Era. It really has helped me a lot. Each time I get down on myself, I start reading, and I feel so much better. I start thinking of how special I really am, even though things at home are not so good.

In 1608 an English traveler and writer named Thomas Coryate visited Italy. When he returned to England, he wrote a book in which he mentioned Italian forks. Thomas was an acquaintance of Henry, the Prince of Wales. A conversation something like this may have taken place at a royal dinner:
“You have traveled long in the south, my friend,” said the Prince. “What strange things did you see there?”
“This, my lord,” said Thomas. He pulled from his pocket a small tool with a handle and two points. He used it to spear a piece of meat and put it in his mouth.
Prince Henry stared. “What is this device from the devil?” he asked.
“It is called a fork,” said Thomas. “It keeps the fingers clean when eating.”
People poked fun at Thomas, but he took his fork everyplace he went to eat in London. People called him “furcifer,” which means “fork bearer.”

It’s also important to set times to be tech free. President Russell M. Nelson taught the power of taking periodic social media fasts to keep balance in our lives.3 Children need to learn that it is not a punishment to take a break from using a device. In our family, we’ve decided that devices shouldn’t sleep in the same room with us. We created a central spot where devices can charge overnight without interrupting our sleep.

Heidi Tuttle, now Heidi Kim, says her perspective has changed tremendously in 15 years.

“When I was 17, I didn’t see the whole picture,” she says as her toddler son, Kennan, dashes by in red overalls. She scoops him up and kisses the top of his head as he squirms away.

“After my mission to Korea and getting married, I realized the gospel and my family are what’s most important,” Heidi says, as she looks proudly at her husband who is singing Kennan a special song in Korean.

After I received my bachelor’s degree I worked for eight months as a statistician for a government agency. They knew I was going to graduate school, so it was a temporary job. While there, I learned a lot about myself. I found working with numbers and doing detail work very tedious and uninteresting for me. I determined to avoid that kind of job in the future.

About three weeks ago I received four New Eras. My companion and I were at our weekly meeting, and I was practically bombarded with requests to read them. Just looking through those magazines gave all of us the desire to read every word of every one of them. Since that time I have read all four and so have my district leader and his companion. And now my companion is reading them. I especially enjoyed the June 1987 issue regarding the Aaronic Priesthood. I hope that we all remember why we are here and that we can all live worthy enough to “inherit all that the father has.” We work hard every day to bring the gospel to a loving people. Thanks for helping us re-realize our purpose here.
Elder Ken BasingerParaguay Asuncion Mission

I recall a personal experience. A few years ago when my wife and I were involved with a young family, we were struggling to meet our financial needs, and we were in debt, and we were not honest in our payment of tithes and offerings. We were attending church and I thought that we loved the Lord, but one day my wife said to me, “Do you love God?” and I answered, “Yes.”

She said, “Do you love God as much as you love the grocer?”

I replied, “I hope that I love him more than the grocer.”

She said, “But you paid the grocer. Do you love God as much as the landlord? You paid him, didn’t you?” She then said, “The first and great commandment is to love God, and you know we have not paid our tithing.”

We repented and paid our tithes and offerings, and the Lord opened the windows of heaven and poured out blessings upon us. We consider it a great privilege to pay tithes and offerings to the Lord.

I would like to mention that when we were not honest with the Lord, we were disturbed and had difficulties and problems.

As we prepared for our mission to the Caribbean Area, there were many forms to fill out, purchases to make, medical checks, and visa challenges to overcome. As we went through all these important steps, I opened a drawer I used to keep memories and found a zip-lock bag with quite a collection of badges I used on my first senior mission. Some were mission-specific, and others were assignment-specific. Memories flowed back over the years of service these badges represented and the many life-changing incidents that mission service had provided me from my first mission in the late ’60s and as a senior missionary. This event had a powerful impact and showed me that the symbolic power of the badge is not limited to when it is worn but also as a remembrance of past service rendered.

During the long winter months, when the snow is piled deep around their house, Kaitlyn and Neil like to play board games with the family, play computer games with each other, draw, and read. Kaitlyn’s favorite books are the Little House series, and Neil likes 101 Dalmatians. The family reads the Book of Mormon together, and this has not only helped them love the gospel more, it has also helped Neil become a good reader.

My grandparents went on a six-month mission to Nauvoo. I missed them a lot, but my family and I wrote letters every week. I was so happy when they came home. They had many wonderful experiences. I am looking forward to going on a mission, too.Christian Shaffer, age 8Syracuse, Utah

I have always felt a little bit cheated in my life that no one has ever tried to talk me out of my faith. I have heard many people say that they got into the wrong crowd or listened to the wrong professor or were influenced by the wrong philosophy. But everywhere I have gone, people have encouraged me to live my religion. Once I thought that maybe I believed as I did just because I didn’t know any better, so I got the complete works of Robert G. Ingersoll. In my opinion Robert G. Ingersoll was the greatest atheist, if you could use that term, that ever lived in the world. I don’t know how convincing other people’s atheism is, but Robert G. Ingersoll was a great salesman. He was a great orator. He was a great architect of speech. He knew how to put ideas together. If anybody could persuade me about something, I think maybe it would have been Robert G. Ingersoll. His complete works are made up of 19,900 pages. There are 214 pages in my New Testament, so I read 90 new testaments of atheism. I didn’t read his works to try to out-argue him or to find fault with them. I read them actually to try to help him persuade me that there was something better than those things that I believed. I read him very carefully. I don’t skip read. I don’t jump over things or just read things that I think will be interesting. If something is important enough for him to write down, it is important enough for me to study and to try to find out the right answer to the subject discussed. And in all of my experiences in reading his work, he hasn’t shaken my faith in the smallest degree. Since that time I have read 987 of the great books, and I have had some tremendous experiences in a lot of different directions with what I have read. These great new philosophies have enabled me to have an “intellectual rebirth.”

Becky Howie, 13, of the Calgary 18th Ward, Calgary Alberta North Stake, is the Canadian National Junior Women’s Power Tumbling Champion. She took first place for Alberta and went on to win at the nationals. She came home with two gold medals. Becky is training for the world competition. She enjoys participating in Mutual activities and is looking forward to taking seminary.

When he was eight years old, President Thomas S. Monson decided to have a campfire with his friend Danny. There was just one problem—the field they wanted to use was dry, prickly, and full of weeds. It was then that young President Monson had an idea: “I said to Danny, ‘All we need is to set these weeds on fire. We’ll just burn a circle in the weeds!’ He readily agreed, and I ran to our cabin to get a few matches. …

“… I recall thinking that the fire would burn only as far as we wanted and then would somehow magically extinguish itself.

“I struck a match on a rock and set the parched June grass ablaze.” Soon realizing the fire would not go out on its own, the boys ran for help, and the blaze was put out after several hours of work.

“Danny and I learned several difficult but important lessons that day,” said President Monson, “not the least of which was the importance of obedience.”3

During World War II there were terrible examples of man’s inhumanity to man. After the war was over and the concentration camps were opened, there was much hatred among the weak and emaciated survivors. In one camp, observers noticed a native of Poland who seemed so robust and peaceful they thought he must have only recently been imprisoned. They were surprised to learn that he had been there over six years! Then, they reasoned, he must not have suffered the terrible atrocities to his family members that most of the prisoners had. But in questioning him, they learned how soldiers had come to his city, lined up against a wall his wife, two daughters, and three small sons, then opened fire with a machine gun. Though he begged to die with them, he had been kept alive because of his knowledge and ability in language translation.
This Polish father said: “I had to decide right then … whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen … what hate could do to people’s minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life—whether it was a few days or many years—loving every person I came in contact with.” (George G. Ritchie with Elizabeth Sherrill, Return from Tomorrow, Waco, Texas: Chosen Books, 1978, p. 116.)

My family has a problem with small things like not turning off the lights and leaving on the water when we brush our teeth. When I read the July FYI I knew I could help save the earth. I made a copy of the article, then cut out each section and put them around the house. Thanks!
Anne ParkerSalt Lake City, Utah