Gospel Story Finder

When Eli Herring was little, he would sometimes try to be sneaky and watch Sunday professional football on television. He didn’t know much about the game, but he knew he liked it. He liked it so much that each week when his class at school would go to the library, he would check out books about football players. He knew they were big and strong, he knew he wanted to be one, and he knew that they played most of their games on Sunday. And he wanted to watch some football.
One Sunday when he had the television on, he suddenly noticed his father looming in the doorway. Eli promptly forgot about the game. His father wasn’t angry, but he sure looked disappointed. Brother Herring simply said, “Turn it off,” and Eli did. He never watched football on Sunday again.
It didn’t take Eli and his brothers and sisters long to find out how their parents felt about the gospel. The family often gathered and read their scriptures and talked about the things of the Lord. Like many Latter-day Saints, the Herrings taught their children about eternal life and eternal families. They taught their children how to fast and pray and how to seek guidance from the Lord.
Other than watching games on Sunday, Eli found no conflict between football and the gospel. He played little league with his friends, and he often thought about playing college and professional football. He was always big for his age, and his father was a big man, so he assumed he would be able to play if he wanted to.
Then one Sunday when he was 16, he and his family were talking about football. Springville (Utah) High School had just won the state championship, and between his sophomore and junior years Eli had really begun to grow, gaining 80 pounds. Playing in college—and maybe after—was beginning to look like a real possibility.
As the family was talking about this exciting possibility, his mother commented, “You know, Eli, if you play professional football, you will have to play on the Sabbath.” Suddenly Eli knew that one day he might have to decide between keeping the Sabbath as his father had taught him and playing football.
Several universities recruited him to play for them when he finished his senior season. At this point, playing football first began to clash with doing what he knew he should. When he told recruiters he intended to go on a mission, two of the schools, Washington and Stanford, lost interest. But that didn’t deter him. More than once as he was growing up, his father had taken out his mission slides, and the family had watched as he told about his mission. Eli had always known that he, too, wanted to go on a mission, and he never questioned that decision.
Eli finally chose to attend BYU, and he played there his freshman year before leaving on a mission to Argentina. He came back two years later, stronger, faster, more coordinated, and even more ready to play football. He played his sophomore and junior seasons. He got married and took classes at the university. But always at the back of his mind, he knew that someday he might have to choose between playing football and keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Then, the summer before his senior season, the time suddenly came for Eli to make a decision. That summer USA Today published an article that ranked the top professional prospects among college football players. To his surprise, Eli found his name on the list. It dawned on him how much money he could be making playing football the next year, and he knew he had to make a decision.
It was not an easy one. Eli knew that something he had often dreamed of since elementary school was within reach. He considered all the things that he could do with the money he would make as a professional football player: he could put his children through school and pay for their missions; he could have a retirement fund; he could go on as many missions with his wife as he wanted; he could teach and coach and not have any financial worries. He would be set.
On the other hand, experiences he had had in his life told him things weren’t that simple. When he had arrived on his mission, one U.S. dollar was worth 15 Argentine australs. By the time he left, a dollar was worth about 10,000 australs. In less than two years, people who had been rich in Argentina were not rich anymore. From this Eli knew that he could not trust in money nor make his decision based solely on that.
On one hand there were good people who were active in the Church and who did a lot of good for the Church who played professional sports on Sunday. On the other hand, Eli had seen some very powerful examples of people who had refused to break the Sabbath.
One was Erroll Bennett, one of the top soccer players in Tahiti, whom Eli read about one day on his mission. When Brother Bennett joined the Church, he decided to withdraw from his team because he chose not to play on the Sabbath. When Eli read the story and saw how dedicated Brother Bennett was to the gospel, he was impressed. He says, “I knew I wanted to be a man like that, with that kind of commitment and dedication to what I knew was right.”
Eli discussed his choices with the people most important to him. His mother always reminded him of the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. His father, who had worked hard trying to support his family, told him to consider the decision carefully, reminding Eli how the money would help him support his wife and children. His wife, Jennifer, had received a paper in school full of quotations from leaders of the Church about the Sabbath day. Together they studied those and talked about the decision, but Jennifer and Eli’s parents all said that the decision was his and they would support him however he decided.
Eli talked to many other people. Some told him to play; some said maybe he shouldn’t. But Eli knew that talking to others wouldn’t make the decision for him. “When you’re considering giving up hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars,” he says, “it’s probably not something you’re going to do just because you’ve talked to someone.”
He knew that he would have to make the decision himself after praying to his Heavenly Father. Eli recalls: “It occurred to me to pray and fast about it because of what my parents taught me. … During the rest of the summer and through the next football season, all my scripture study and all my prayers and everything were focused on what the best decision would be. This lasted about six months. I didn’t make the final decision until the season was over at the end of December.”
That was an intense six months. Eli says: “I don’t think in my life other than sometimes on my mission I ever had the scriptures come to life for me as they did during that period of time. … I saw things I had never seen or understood before.”
One day, for example, he was reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma counseling his son Helaman. Alma urges his son: “O remember, remember, my son Helaman, how strict are the commandments of God. And he said: If ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land—but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence. … Therefore I command you, my son Helaman, that ye be diligent … in keeping the commandments of God as they are written” (Alma 37:13, 20).
The phrase “as they are written” particularly struck Eli. He knew the key to being in the Lord’s presence and to prospering was to keep the commandments “as they are written”—with exactness. Eli understood that to have financial security and other blessings for his family, “it was a more sure thing to keep the commandments and trust in the Lord than to have a million dollars.”
As the months progressed toward the end of the season, Eli became more sure of what he had to do. “I read my scriptures, and time after time I would see more and more and more reasons that I felt in my heart that I needed to observe the Sabbath more than I needed to play football,” Eli says.
When he finally made the decision, it was easy. He laughs now about all the attention he received: “I had been on the offensive line my whole career, and it’s not like a lineman gets a lot of recognition. I got so much more recognition for making that decision than I ever got for playing football. People wrote me, telling me what they thought about the decision I had made, good or bad. I never got so much mail in my life.”
Some people asked whether he had considered all the factors, and some asked if he had thought of all the money he could make. Eli laughs, “One of the most interesting things to me was that people would say, Haven’t you thought of this and this, when I had been thinking about it for ten years and had considered those things maybe a million and a half times.” The letters were entertaining, but they didn’t change his mind or cause him to reconsider. He had been very careful in making his decision, and once he made it he was firm.
Now Eli is doing what he has wanted to do for a long time—he is teaching and coaching in a local high school. Teachers aren’t famous for their high salaries, and sometimes the money is a little short. But Eli smiles about it: “The paychecks now, in spite of being low, are more than we were making when we were students. We’re happy to have more than we had before. Occasionally I think we could have a brand-new car or a nice house, but I have never had any serious doubts about the decision.”
He gathers his family around the room as he talks about the decision that has made such a difference in their lives. His daughter Hannah plays on the floor while his wife, Jennifer, holds the baby, Sarah. They don’t have the new house, car, and retirement fund, but they’re happy. Eli has come a long way from the boy who sometimes sneaked in to watch football on Sundays. Now he is a father who, like his own father and like Alma long ago, is determined to teach his children the commandments “as they are written” and to help them be covenant people of the Lord.

One year my mum, my sister, and I went to my uncle’s house to spend the holidays. A day before we traveled, I deleted all my social media apps because they were really affecting my spirituality. I knew staying off social media was for the best, but I felt a bit lonely and left out. For several days after I left home, no one reached out to me, and I felt like no one really cared.
On New Year’s Day, I still felt lonely and sad. But then I received an unexpected text message from a friend, wishing me a happy New Year. We weren’t that close to each other, but his message meant so much to me—it meant that someone cared.
Then I got a prompting—why not send text messages to all my friends? I immediately went to work wishing each person a happy New Year and telling them how I was grateful for them. Maybe some of them needed someone to reach out to them too. Suddenly, it was easier for me to notice the music that was playing and the happiness on my cousins’ faces. I felt the Spirit, and my happy feeling lasted all day long.
I am so grateful to my friend for sending that text, and I’m glad I obeyed the prompting to send my own. In this case, it helped me reach out to others when I felt that I needed to be reached out to. I know these words of President M. Russell Ballard (1928–2023) are true: “We will find peace, joy, and happiness in our life when serving the Lord and our neighbors.”

A recently returned missionary who had just joined the Ricks College 42nd Ward approached me, the bishop at the time, and said that he had just read Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk, "Bishop Help," where Elder Oaks invites members to help the bishop. "Bishop," he said, "what can I do to help you?" Without hesitation I returned, "Date every sister in the ward." He chuckled and then quit smiling when he saw that I was serious. He hesitated, and then said, "I'll do my best."
Each Sunday, I knew which sister had gone out with him on Saturday because she wore a huge smile and constantly watched the door for his arrival. He was handsome, spiritual, kind, intellectual, and talented. In fact, each week, most of the sisters turned when he walked into the Kirkham Auditorium, where we held Sacrament Meeting.
I had a sister in that ward who was often discouraged. We visited most Sundays and together we would review her week and her frustrations. I was not sure how to help her. She was discouraged that she had been at Ricks College for three years without a single date. I would strive to buoy her up each week, but I couldn't find long-term solutions until one Sunday morning when she walked in with a huge smile on her face. She cornered me after Sacrament Meeting and described how one of the brothers in the ward had asked her on a date for the previous Saturday. They had gone horseback riding down on the Henry's Fork property, leaving early in the morning and not returning until evening. The young man had prepared a wonderful picnic and had treated her like a queen. "Bishop," she said, "I know that he is not pursuing me romantically. In fact, I know that you assigned him to date every sister in the ward, but he treated me like a daughter of God."
At the end of the semester, the young man found me one Sunday after meetings and asked if he could give an accounting of his assignment. We sat down in the bishop's office and he began. "I'm here to ask for forgiveness. I haven't even dated half of the sisters in the ward." I assured him that he had been inspired in his choices. He interrupted and said,
"Bishop, I don't think that I blessed the lives of these sisters; they blessed mine. I was dating the wrong kind of girl. I was looking mostly at their physical bodies and not at who they are spiritually. I now know what kind of woman I want to marry, and physical appearance is hardly a consideration. I learned so much from the sisters in our ward."
His faithful action helped others and taught him much.

For many years, Faustina Antwi was living with the effects of a stroke, for which there was no cure. Her husband had taken her to many hospitals, but nothing was done to get her back on her feet. Many friends and acquaintances would often prescribe or suggest medicine to help her. Her husband and family felt as if they should buy everything that was suggested, whether they had the money for it or not. If they didn’t have the money, they would work to get it.
One day, she realized there is a peaceful and healing place called the temple. She wanted to go there. She discussed it with her husband, and even though her husband doesn’t go to Church, he believes in God. He told her to give it a try if that is where her faith was. She prepared herself and left for the temple.
It takes three and half to five and a half hours to travel from Twifo Praso to Accra. She arrived at the temple too late to go inside that day, so she slept nearby. Early the next morning, she entered the temple. She put her faith to work and prayed to her Heavenly Father to heal her from her stroke. She spent three days at the temple and on the last day of her visit, she could feel there was a change in her body.
She is now able to move the arm that had been affected by the stroke. Her mouth has improved, and she is able to speak to her friends at the temple and at home.
She knows Heavenly Father has healed her. She wishes the temple were closer so that she could go there every week. She wants to share her testimony of the temple so that it can strengthen others. She loves the Church and the Book of Mormon and knows they are true. She is thankful for a living prophet.
This testimony was shared by Faustina Antwi of the Twifo Praso District in the Cape Coast Coordinating Council during fast and testimony meeting and later told to Prince Baah for the Liahona Local Pages.

Yesterday I found out that Jenny and her family are moving to Washington in two weeks. Her father is leaving Saturday to go find a house there. I wish she didn’t have to go, but her dad got transferred and she can’t even finish her first year of junior high here. She seems to be pretty happy about it because she said there might be some cute boys in their new town. She’s just boy crazy. I’m glad I’m not. I would always be sad because every boy I liked would never like me back. Who would like a girl that looked like an ant wearing railroad tracks on her teeth? Will I ever be pretty? If I were Cinderella, my fairy godmother would have to do a lot more for me than just give me a pretty dress to wear. By the time she got through with me, the ball would be over and the prince would have run off with some boy-crazy girl like Jenny. I’ll miss Jenny though.
Jenny moved, and now I’m becoming better friends with a girl named Robin Warner who just moved into our ward. She’s my age, has braces, and feels like I do about boys! We’re going to be great pals!

Giving a Priesthood Blessing
“In 1878 my great-grandfather George F. Richards was 17 years of age. As was sometimes the case in those days, he had already been ordained an elder. One Sunday his mother was groaning in intense pain. As his father was not available, the bishop and several others were invited to give her a blessing, but no relief came. Accordingly, she turned to her son George and asked him to lay hands on her head. He wrote in his diary, ‘In the midst of my tears for my mother’s suffering and the task of performing an administration such as I had never yet done, I retired to another room where I wept and prayed.’
“When he became composed, he laid his hands on her and gave her a very simple blessing. He later noted, ‘My mother ceased her groaning and received relief from her suffering while my hands were yet on her head.’ He then recorded in his diary [that he] felt that the reason his mother did not get relief from the bishop’s blessing was not because the Lord failed to honor the bishop’s blessing but because the Lord had reserved this blessing for a boy, to teach him a lesson that the priesthood in the boy is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man when exercised in righteousness.”
Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy

Jenny Archer, Author When Jenny writes the story of her life for a school assignment, she tells about her birth on the banks of the Amazon. She exposes her great-grandfather as a bloodthirsty pirate. She reveals the dark secrets of Great-Great-Grandmother Buffalo Belle Archer, the notorious stagecoach robber and opera star. And she unmasks Horrible Hortense, her evil twin sister. It is clearly an A+ effort. So why does her teacher send a note home to her parents?

Probably the most significant thing I learned while on my mission, other than the gospel, is the importance and power of prayer in missionary work—prayer plus appropriate and timely fasting.
While serving in Edinburgh, Scotland, my companion and I had decided not to proselyte in a certain area of the city because we thought other areas would be more productive. There were only two missionaries in all of Edinburgh, a city of about a half a million people. We went about our work in other areas of the city, but we had a feeling that there may be someone we needed to teach who lived in the area in which we had chosen not to proselyte. We decided to set aside a certain day to fast and pray for that area and to proselyte there. We prayed that we would find someone who was prepared for the gospel.
On that day we knocked on the door of Alex and Lilly Clark, a young couple who invited us in right away. We taught them the first discussion and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. We asked them to read it and pray about it. We asked if we could return to share more of our message.
They told us that Alex was leaving the next day for a six-month military assignment. Feeling it inappropriate to meet with Lilly in Alex’s absence, we gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and repeated our challenge to read and pray about it. We also gave them the address of our chapel.
My companion and I were impressed by them and hopeful for them, but we were not optimistic, knowing what often happens when investigators go for such a long time without contact with the missionaries.
In the meantime I was transferred from Edinburgh to Nottingham, England. About six months after our visit with the Clarks, the mission president asked me to travel back to Edinburgh to handle some mission business. While there, my companion and I attended Sunday services at the Edinburgh branch. You can imagine my surprise and thrill when I saw Alex and Lilly Clark walk into the chapel.
Alex had just returned from his military assignment, and the two of them were soon on their way to baptism. The Clarks became active members of the Church in Edinburgh. When the Edinburgh Scotland Stake was created, Alex Clark was called to be its first stake president.
Forty-one years later, Lilly told my wife and me and two of our grown children that when my companion and I knocked on their door that day, she and Alex were busy getting him ready for his assignment. They didn’t think they had time for one more thing. But when she opened the door, she was overcome with the thought: “You’ve come! It’s you, and you’ve come.”
Alex and Lilly were not looking for religion that day, but when we knocked on their door, Lilly knew she had to let us in. Because she followed this prompting, her family’s lives were changed forever. And so was mine!
As the Lord states in D&C 31:7: “Yea, I will open the hearts of the people, and they will receive you. And I will establish a church by your hand.”
Truly the Clarks’ hearts were opened that day by the power of prayer in missionary work.

When I was taking a bath one morning I could see what I thought was a bar of soap on a shelf high above me. I reached up to grab it. Suddenly I had a strong feeling that I should not pick it up. I said to myself, “Who knows what could be up there?”
When I stood up to see what was on the shelf, I discovered that the blue and red object I had seen was not my soap but a razor. If I had grabbed it, I could have cut my hand on the sharp edge. The Holy Ghost warned me, and because I listened I wasn’t hurt.Christina G., age 8, Missouri

Dzuliah B., 13, Philippines
I love dancing and singing. When I was in fifth grade, I joined an interschool dance competition. Our choreographer decided to have practices on Sundays. Without thinking twice, I went to him and told him that I wouldn’t be available on Sundays because I honor the Sabbath day. He was disappointed, but I remembered my two favorite hymns, “Choose the Right” and “Do What Is Right.” After this incident, I felt the assurance that I did the right thing.

During the past months across our area, the Church History Department has conducted oral interviews with returned sister missionaries and mission leaders who served from 2011 to 2015. The worldwide collection project coincides with the tenth anniversary of youth missionary service age reduction as announced by President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) and the later introduction of the sister training leaders to help the mission leadership cope with the surge in the number of serving missionaries.
Conducting these interviews with this Church history focus group has blessed lives. For the sisters, sharing their stories bring to remembrance the tender mercies of the Lord as they reflect on their conversions, desire to serve, preparations, own endowments, time in the missionary training center, mission experiences and life after mission. The Church history specialists have felt the joy of service participating in this project. In many cases, it was highly emotional documenting the lives and services of these faithful sisters. It was wonderful receiving journal donations as well as seeing some pictures, mufflers and tags as they shared their stories.
We are so grateful for the lives, services and testimonies of all our faithful sisters who served missions for the Church. This project invoked beautiful sentiments among the sisters.
Here is one of such shared with us by Sister Aghojare Chika who served in Nigeria Benin City Mission about this project and its impact on her personal and family lives: “Dear Elder and Sister Ihesiene, I am very grateful for the great opportunity the prophet gave me to share my mission experience as regards to President Monson’s declaration of the new age of serving missions and including sisters in the leadership council in the mission field.
“I am grateful to you for remembering and reaching out to me to be part of those to be interviewed. I feel so privileged and honored. I am delighted to inform you that this interview has blessed my life and family miraculously.
“Honestly, before the invitation and the interview, we have been going through so many challenges and difficult times. I became so worried about my situation that I was almost going into depression. My companion (husband) tried speaking to me severally and reassuring me of things getting better but to no avail.
“During the interview, listening to the questions and recounting my challenges and difficulties while preparing for mission in 2013, most especially being beaten and slaps received about two days before my departure for MTC which left me with a bloody eye, brought me strength and hope. Remembering while I was on the field and how the Lord used me to reach out to countless numbers of His beloved children and bringing them into His fold, and to inspire my fellow missionaries especially sister missionaries as a sister training leader and strengthening many families brought me so much joy. Seeing how much the Lord has blessed me, as I was recounting my blessings during the interview, such as serving my last three months with a great member missionary who acted as our third companion as he was ready to proselyte and teach lessons with us, and who later became my eternal companion and the father of our lovely kids.
“How the Lord made me become a registered midwife with the help of the Perpetual Education Fund and my husband and above all having my family join the Church immediately after I returned from my mission were miracles beyond my comprehension and am sincerely grateful.
“Dear Elder and Sister Ihesiene, all these amazing memories remembered during the interview; and whilst on my way home brought me down on my knees in tears to converse with Heavenly Father which has been a routine for the past few weeks. But this time, instead of kneeling in tears of confusion and questions, I kneel in tears of repentance and gratitude. Since that day I have got peace beyond human understanding and a hope of better days for me and all around me even as I continue to remain faithful in my service to God and man. I will always overcome, and His blessings and promises are sure to be mine in the name of Jesus Christ”.
Indeed, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! (See Isaiah 52:7.) How profound the testimonies and lives of these wonderful sisters and mission leaders who understood that there can be no greater service rendered than to labor for the salvation of the human souls! We know that the Lord remembers these sisters for their worthy examples and immense contributions to the work of salvation. Sweet is their remembrance and eternal their rewards!

“Are you girls excited to see the temple?” Mom asked as she, Natalie, and Stephanie drove to the Detroit Michigan Temple site.
“Yes!” the sisters said.
“Is it true they’re putting the marble on the walls right now?” Natalie asked.
“I think so,” Mom said.
“I can’t wait until it’s done,” Stephanie said. “It’s going to be so pretty.”
The girls were going to a special activity day. They were visiting the new temple while it was still under construction.
When they got to the temple site they met their group of girls and their leader, Sister Jones.
Walking around the construction site, Sister Jones told stories of the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples and the early Latter-day Saints.
“They built temples and then were run out of their towns. They had to leave behind the beautiful buildings they had spent so long making,” Sister Jones said. “We are blessed to have the temples that we do today, and to now have a temple so close to us.”
Natalie looked at the temple and imagined what it would be like to have to leave it after working so hard to build it. It made her sad.
“Do any of you know what blessings the temple gives us?” Sister Jones asked.
Kelsy raised her hand. “My family was sealed in the temple.”
“That’s right! People are married and sealed together in the temple so their families can be together forever. What other blessings are there?”
“Baptisms for the dead,” Natalie said. “That’s when people are baptized for people who aren’t alive anymore so they can choose to be members of the Church if they want.”
“Very good,” Sister Jones said. “Those are just some of the blessings we can receive in the temple.”
Natalie was excited to do baptisms for the dead when she turned 12. On her own baptism day she had felt clean and peaceful, and she wanted to share that feeling with others. Natalie felt important knowing she could do something to help people who had passed away.
“I have a gift for each of you,” Sister Jones said. She opened a bag and pulled out a piece of white stone.
“This is a piece of the same marble they are using to make the temple. I got special permission to give each of you one piece.” Sister Jones handed out the pieces of marble. “I want you to keep your marble in a special place to remind you of the temple and the blessings that the temple gives us. Can you do that?”
“Yes!” the girls said.
“I also want to challenge you to make goals to be worthy to enter the temple to do baptisms when you are 12, and to be married in the temple when you are older. The temple is a special place, and I want each of you to be a part of it,” Sister Jones said.
Natalie held her piece of marble tightly. It was white and beautiful and reminded her of being clean. She knew she wanted to be worthy to go inside the temple someday.
“I promise to remember the temple. I will go inside someday,” she said to herself. As she held the marble close to her heart, it felt like she was holding a piece of the temple there as well.

Summer Saturdays are special times for my brothers and me. After eating an early lunch, we usually take a large jug of water and drive with our dad to the Gila Indian Reservation a few miles south of our home in Tempe, Arizona, to look for dust devils. There, on dry fields that don’t have any crops growing on them, giant swirling columns of dust regularly form and march across the landscape. We like to run into them and release colored balloons or smoke bombs, while our dad takes pictures of them. These pictures help him understand how whirlwinds are created and how they grow and finally disappear.

A member of the Church once befriended me even though I drank and swore. As a result of her friendship I attended church, seminary, MIA, and other activities. I received the missionary discussions and became a member. I didn’t associate with my old friends as I didn’t want to go back to my old ways. Actually I was afraid I wouldn’t be strong enough to stay away from those things. After some serious reevaluating I decided I wouldn’t be a good, true member if I couldn’t uphold my standards under any conditions. I’m glad I changed my attitude. I’m attending a college where I’m a religious minority of one. My true friends respect my standards and would be disappointed if I fell away from them.
Deby BartonChanute, Kansas

Caylen made a special fast, too. His grandmother had written a letter to us, telling how she had prayed following a Relief Society lesson and asked Heavenly Father to help her find a new way to serve. She soon met a woman who had struggled seriously with infections made worse by foods with yeast in them, like most bread. Grandma Craven makes delicious bread with hardly any yeast. She knew that this was the way Heavenly Father had answered her prayer, and she now makes bread for this sister regularly.
I had shared this with my children, showing them how Grandma Craven had received an answer to her prayer. Prior to the next Fast Sunday, Caylen said, “I want to fast for the lady Grandma bakes bread for.” So without even knowing her personally, he fasted for this sister.

Daniel’s training and spiritual strength enabled him to be of service to the king in time of need. One of the most interesting stories in scripture, I think, occurred when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream. The dream startled him so much he awakened, and it troubled him greatly. He called in his counselors and said, “I’ve had a dream, but I can’t remember what it was. You tell me the dream and give me the interpretation thereof.”

How would you like to get an assignment like that? When they could not, the king was so angered that he commanded that his wise men would not only lose their positions, they would also lose their heads. Hearing these things, Daniel rushed to the king and asked permission to have time to provide an interpretation. The king agreed. Daniel knew that the only way he could learn about the dream and its interpretation was to turn to the Lord. He asked those who believed as he did to entreat the Lord, and they prayed together. The Lord answered their prayers by telling Daniel the dream and its meaning. Everyone was astonished when Daniel told the king not only what the dream was but also what it meant. Daniel’s ability on this occasion not only served the king, but it saved all those great wise men in that country for continued service in that government. You see, Daniel was able to make application of the training he had received in service to his government and in service to his fellowmen.

A few years back I had a very bright former student who was struggling with her testimony. She somehow felt that she had never received an overwhelming answer to her prayers about the Church. As I talked with her, trying to help her, she said something that has struck me over and over since then with its simplicity and truth. She said something like, “Yes, there are many logical reasons to think that the Church is good, but eventually everyone who believes it is true does it on faith; he or she has to choose to believe.”

What she said is true; sooner or later everyone has to choose to believe or not. We have to choose to recognize the sweetness of the Spirit that comes when we think about the Church being true. We have to acknowledge, when we pray and ask the Lord if the Church and the Book of Mormon are true, that the thought that we already know that they are comes from the Being who knows our thoughts. We have to admit that, indeed, we do know they are true.

But the decision to believe does not have to be done without plenty of evidence either. After my former student said what she did, I examined my life to see why I believed. I found numberless occasions of real joy and happiness associated with following the teachings of the Church. I realized that, even if I had not had a great confirmation of peace from the Spirit about the truthfulness of the Church, I would still choose to believe and follow simply because it makes me happy. I also recognized that I had never met anyone who had derived real happiness and peace out of wrong choices. I had known several who had tried, many of whom had claimed to be happy. Several of them had later confessed in tears—as they dealt with the consequences of their choices—that they had lied in their claims, that they had been fooled by the father of lies himself. I know that the decision to believe in the Church and the gospel is a small thing out of which great things proceed and that the choice or choices not to believe bring sorrow.

A young medical student in Italy, a friend of mine who is now a cardiovascular surgeon, expressed his feelings about the temple this way:
“Doing temple work, especially for your loved ones, is an edifying and spiritual thing. You feel the gospel in action; you feel the love of God and the sense of the wonderful plan He made just for us, His children.
“Two days ago, I was at the hospital working when an eighteen-year-old boy came to me, asking for news of his father, who was undergoing coronary bypass surgery. At 5:00 p.m. came the news: his father’s heart ceased to beat. I’ll remember for the rest of my life how miserable and void of hope is a life without the comfort of the certainty of resurrection, of being eternally sealed as a family, of having the opportunity again to be with Heavenly Father.”

After a lifetime of practice and patience together, what will your last earthly threshold look like? Will it look and feel something like John and Therissa Clarks’? In 1921 John Haslem Clark of Manti, Utah, wrote what became his last journal entry:
“The folks have been here today, but have gone to their homes. The clatter of racing feet, the laughter and babble of tongues have ceased. We are alone, We two. We two whom destiny has made one. Long ago, it has been sixty years since we met under the June trees. I kissed you first. How shy and afraid was your girlhood. Not any woman on earth or in heaven could be to me what you are. I would rather you were here, woman, with your gray hair, than any fresh blossom of youth. Where you are is home. Where you are not is homesickness. As I look at you I realize that there is something greater than love, although love is the greatest thing in earth. It is loyalty. For were I driven away in shame you would follow. If I were burning in fever your cool hand would soothe me. With your hand in mine may I pass and take my place among the saved of Heaven. Being eight years the eldest—and as the years went by and I felt that the time of parting might be near—it was often the drift of our thought and speech: how could either of us be left alone. Alone, after living together for 56 years. I scarcely dared think of it and though a bit selfish comforted myself thinking [that] according to our age I would not be the one left alone.”
Another handwriting then appears later on the same page. It is Therissa’s voice, gently closing John’s journal:
“Almost two years and a half since the last writing, and its following events are so sad, so heartbreaking for this, his life’s companion that this pen has been laid down many times ere this record is made. Loss and loneliness [are] ever present and will be with me to the end. … Will time soften this sadness, will I be able to leave the Old Home and not feel that he is waiting for me, calling me? I am only content at home where I feel that he is watching over me, his presence always with me.
“On March 11, 1923, John Haslem Clark passed away after an illness of only one week. He seemed so like himself, talking and active. We had no thought that the end was near until he passed into unconsciousness a few hours before his death. Oh, may we all be as clean and pure, ready to go before our Maker.”10
We do not know the details of John and Therissa’s life as they crossed over the thresholds of their days. But we do know how 56 years of daily conversations finally shaped the kind of people they became, the kind of love they knew.

The principle is illustrated in an experience that some members of our family had when we were in a very large city. Because of differences in work and school schedules, we had to book separate flights from two different airlines. Some of the family left from one airport, but my son and I were scheduled to leave from an airport south of town, nearly two hours away. There were challenges ahead: motoring on the opposite side of the road from that to which we were accustomed, congested highways, road repairs, as well as a limited time to catch the plane. We felt a dependence on the Lord as we began our journey. With road map in hand, I tried to navigate (which is not my forte), and my son tried his hand at the wheel of a rented car. I earnestly hoped that the people who had made the maps had designed them to match the road signs. We were not in a position to make a mistake or backtrack, or our destination would not be realized.
How like life, I thought: If we rely on the Lord, follow the map, and watch the road signs, without making a lot of unnecessary detours, we can navigate through mortality and reach our destination safely, in the Lord’s due time. Decisions determine destiny.