Gospel Story Finder

From my youth, I have often thought how reassuring it would be to have a particular scriptural text I could turn to over and over without exhausting its possibilities for solace and instruction. But there were always too many strong possibilities in the standard works for me to narrow my selection. Over the past few years, however, one scripture has come to me again and again during moments of reflection. Jesus said simply, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

For me, that single passage reaches out and draws in entire clusters of related phrases and passages: “God who gave them life” (Alma 40:11); “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6); “This is my work and my glory—to bring … eternal life” (Moses 1:39); and many others. The very word life seems synonymous with the Savior’s mission. Everyone whose heart he touched received from that contact a more abundant life.

Sister Quee and Brother Kargbo both have large families. This is because they include and extend helping hands to other children.
The Welfare & Self-Reliance manager visited with them on their farms as part of the Church’s member-livelihood agricultural project, and they expressed gratitude on how the livelihood project has elevated them to an advanced level of food security.
Because of the extremely large family size, meals were limited to one person per day while other available funds were used for school fees, rent, tithing, medical, and other expenses for daily upkeep.
They shared with the Welfare and Self-Reliance manager that the project support will help them feed their family so they have also planned to assist others who may be in need.

My second-to-last year of high school, I got in a serious car crash. Before that I just wasn’t doing the things I should. But after the wreck, my viewpoint really shifted. My life could’ve been taken right then and there, and I did not want it to end like that. My bishop helped get me on the right path: reading the Book of Mormon daily and preparing to serve a mission.

When I met Taumatagi Taamino, I was a young missionary laboring in my own country. An aging widow, Sister Taamino was slightly bent over from age and hard work, but she always extended her arms to greet my companion and me and kiss us on both cheeks, as is the custom in French Polynesia.
Sister Taamino was frail, and her walk was slow and deliberate, but she took care of everyone. She even made sure that my companion and I always had clean, ironed clothing. Children loved to be around her because she welcomed them and listened to what they had to say. She lived a simple life in a two-room home surrounded by sand, palm trees, family, and friends. Out of respect, everyone called her “Mama Taamino.”
The Tahiti Papeete Mission president had assigned my companion, Elder Tchan Fat, and me to help prepare a group of 80 Latter-day Saints to receive their endowments and be sealed as families in the nearest temple—the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, five hours away by plane. Mama Taamino had traveled to the temple every year for six years, and this year she would go again. I wondered how she could afford such expensive trips when her living conditions were so meager. Six years later I learned the answer.

One friend asked me sincerely, “Isn’t it true that you guys don’t eat oranges?” to which I jokingly responded, “Oh yeah, oranges are straight from the devil.” As we were both laughing, I realized that his initial apprehension eased, and we felt a stronger connection as friends.

Rachel was playing with her friends in the nursery when she heard the children next door in Primary singing. She dropped her toy and ran to the wall to hear better.
Rachel clapped her hands. “I know that song,” she said. She started singing “I Am a Child of God.” Then another song started. She listened carefully to learn the words.
When Rachel got home, she started singing the new song. “I know He lives! I will follow faithfully. My heart I give to Him. I know that my Savior loves me!”
“How did you learn that song?” Mommy asked.
“I listened to the Primary,” Rachel said.
“Remember how you are going to the Sunbeam class in Primary soon?” Mommy asked.
Rachel nodded.
“You are going to be so ready!” Mommy said.
Rachel smiled. She was excited to go to Sunbeams.

I love my family and try hard to help them when I can. I feel sad when I see families or parents who are struggling. I want to help them learn how to be a better and happier family. My dad is a lawyer and sometimes he has cases about families who are not choosing the right and that makes them very unhappy.
My idea was to help make a program to teach mothers and fathers and children to love each other better. I even wrote a letter to the president of the United States to ask what is being done to help families. Then yesterday I was reading “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” I felt so happy that President Hinckley and the Apostles also want families to have love and do things that are right. I think if families will live the gospel every day they will be a lot happier.

The Sub It started as a harmless prank, trading places when the substitute teacher came, but soon it was Trouble with a capital T!P. J. Petersen8–10 years

One of your sons, who had received a tape from home, wrote, “I was holding my one-man sacrament meeting as usual—out under a tree—listening to Church tapes. Bruce R. McConkie’s voice was never this interesting back home. I’ve played him 50 times.”

When I was away from home attending the university, I received a letter on Mother’s Day from my own mother recounting this tender experience:
“This Mother’s Day is extra special because I am thinking now that I have been ‘Mother’ to you for 21 years, and what a privilege it has been. We felt you were special to us. We named you Mary. We wanted you to remain pure and kind, as the name implies.
“Your aunt with the same name loved you very, very much and made you a beautiful, tiny dress to be blessed in, [sewn] mostly by hand, so that you could have a name in the very first sacrament meeting after you were brought home—still so very tiny.”
As I read this letter, I realized my mother’s greatest hope was that I remain pure and virtuous. Virtue “is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards” (Preach My Gospel [2004], 118). My mother knew that life would be difficult and that to remain virtuous would be a lifelong challenge. She wanted me to have the blessings of the gospel to guide me and help me meet that challenge.

I know a man who decided that during moments of stress, when his natural tendency was to blame his wife for whatever was wrong, he would reaffirm in his own mind that he, and he alone, is responsible for his thoughts and actions—and that inner emotion, such as anger, is a result of his own thought processes and is not caused by his wife’s behavior. By maintaining such an objective outlook, he finds that solutions come more readily, not being hindered by the selfish reaction to blame the other person.

These good friends made a big difference, but not having the gospel taught in my home with a supportive family still put my ongoing conversion process at risk. My gospel interactions in the Church became even more crucial to my growing conversion. Then two additional angels were sent by the Lord to help.
Another angel sent to help me was the Young Men president, Marco Antônio Fusco. He was also assigned to be my senior home teaching companion. Despite my lack of experience and different appearance, he gave me assignments to teach in our priests quorum meetings and home teaching visits. He gave me the chance to act and to learn and not just be an observer of the gospel. He trusted me, more than I trusted myself.

Jovencio Ilagan smiles as he tells that he had intended to just play along with the missionaries who knocked on his door. “I wasn’t a very religious person,” he says. But then he began to read the Book of Mormon. As he was reading in Alma, he says, “I felt the warm feeling that comes when the Holy Ghost is there bearing testimony.” Jovencio, Zenaida, and their six children who were old enough set a baptismal date.

But three days before the baptism, “I had a business appointment with some of my old drinking buddies,” he says. “They persuaded me to drink beer with them.”

Jovencio admitted to the sister missionaries what he had done. “I’m sure they were devastated. I told them to go ahead and have my wife and children baptized, and I would follow later. But the very wise district leader said no. That was a tremendous pressure, you know! Here’s my family—they couldn’t be baptized! Oh, I struggled!” A week later, they were all baptized.

Soon Jovencio became Young Men president and Zenaida became Relief Society president. They’ve since had many callings, including his as regional representative and mission president.

The Ilagans saw their lives change in many ways. “We have a data entry service bureau,” he says, “and many times we had to work on Sundays to meet our deadlines. But after we joined the Church, we decided we wouldn’t work on Sundays. So we lost some clients. But the income we earned during the six days in the week was far more than what we used to make working overtime seven days a week.”

Then they had an opportunity to open a restaurant while still operating their service bureau. “But we never opened on Sundays. We never served any beer or coffee. We never sold any cigarettes—or anything that we felt was against the Word of Wisdom. Some customers would say, ‘What kind of restaurant is this?’ and walk off! But we had a good family atmosphere and reached a different market.”

A few years later, they sold the restaurant for a profit. Jovencio was hired as manager of the Church’s distribution center in Manila. He later worked with membership and statistical records and in data processing. Now he is area manager of materials management.

“The gospel brought a complete turnaround in my husband,” says Sister Ilagan. “It brought a peace I had never known before. And it came into our lives just in time for our children.” Several of them have served missions and have been married in the temple.

Marisa Canova, a Primary teacher in the stake, says that in response to a prompting she felt in teacher council, she now encourages her Valiant 8 class members to pray for each other. That was effective, but it might not work the same way for an adult class. “Praying for every member in a large Gospel Doctrine class might be overwhelming,” she says. “Fortunately, those teachers say, ‘How do you think we can adapt that for our class?’ And we find solutions together.

When I was 14 or 15 years old, I worked for my father in the family dry cleaning business during what free time I had. That summer, business was slow. So I said, “OK, I want to read the entire Book of Mormon—from the first page to the last.” And I did. The reading excited me.
In the edition of the Book of Mormon I had, Moroni’s promise was printed on one of the opening pages. That promise struck me. If someone read the book and then asked God, He would answer (see Moro. 10:3–5). I had heard the promise before, but in that moment the Holy Ghost impressed it upon my heart.
After finishing the last page of the book, I knelt in a small private room at work and prayed to Heavenly Father. And through the Holy Ghost I received the testimony I sought. From the tip of my toes to the last hair on my head, I felt that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

Thank you for everything you do to make this magazine so great. I’ve heard people say this ample times in the Feedback section, but it’s true.
Sometimes I ask myself, “How could a magazine influence my life?” So I let the New Era sit on my desk for a while before I read it. But as soon as I open it I realize that it is one of the most uplifting and wonderful magazines ever published.
Cheryl StoutAnkara, Turkey

My life hasn’t always been easy. I started experiencing symptoms of social anxiety and depression as a teen and was diagnosed with ADHD in high school. When I was about 15 months into serving my full-time mission, I started experiencing suicidal thoughts. Soon after, I was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder.
I found myself facing a difficult decision. My mission president and I talked about me going home where I could get the help I needed. But I couldn’t help but feel frustrated with the Lord. I felt like my desire to stay and continue serving the people I had come to love was a righteous desire.
Eventually, I learned that there were people the Lord needed me to meet at home and that there were opportunities for my broken heart to be healed. And I’ve come to know that my missionary service was accepted by Him.

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once attended an ox pulling contest, where he drew out an analogy. He said of the experience: “A wooden sledge was weighted with cement blocks: ten thousand pounds [4,535 kg]—five tons. … The object was for the oxen to move the sledge three feet [91 cm]. … I noticed a well-matched pair of very large, brindled, blue-gray animals … [the] big blue oxen of seasons past.”
In speaking about the result of the contest, he said: “Teams were eliminated one by one. … The big blue oxen didn’t even place! A small, nondescript pair of animals, not very well matched for size, moved the sledge all three times.”
He was then given an explanation to the surprising outcome: “The big blues were larger and stronger and better matched for size than the other team. But the little oxen had better teamwork and coordination. They hit the yoke together. Both animals jerked forward at exactly the same time and the force moved the load” (“Equally Yoked Together,” address delivered at regional representatives’ seminar, Apr. 3, 1975; in Teaching Seminary: Preservice Readings [2004], 30).

Late in December 1862 two Hawaiians left their homes and went to Samoa to teach the gospel. They baptized a number of natives and found them so lovable that they decided to stay and live among them. For twelve years these two men continued to share the gospel with their Samoan friends. Then in 1874 one of the men died. The other man continued the work until an accident caused him to become an invalid. For the next six years no missionary work was done there.

By using stories, examples, and analogies—and resisting the urge to preach a sermon at the end—we can help children learn to think through situations and make wise choices. For example, President Benson said, “Guard and protect your virtue as you would your very life” (Ensign, November 1986, page 83). To help youth understand the seriousness of this statement, I have used the following analogy. If you were walking down a dark street alone at night and, sensing someone was following, you turned around and discovered that a stranger stood behind you with a knife raised, what would you do? Always they answer, “Run with all my might.” Then I ask, “You mean you wouldn’t hang around, thinking, ‘Oh, a few little stabs won’t hurt’?” They laugh at the absurd idea. Then I repeat the words of the prophet: “Guard and protect your virtue as you would your very life.”