7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. (See Articles of Faith.)

The gift of tongues is for sharing the gospel.

Robert D. Hales, an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (whose members are sometimes referred to as Mormons), gave the following explanation and caution about the gift of tongues:

“And to another is given the interpretation of tongues” (D&C 46:24–25).

Many of you who have gone to foreign lands have been given the gift to speak with tongues and to translate, or have the interpretation of tongues.

“And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God” (D&C 46:26).

We are told by prophets in this dispensation that revelation for the direction of the Church will not be given through the gift of tongues. The reason for this is that it is very easy for Lucifer to falsely duplicate the gift of tongues and confuse the members of the Church.

Satan has the power to trick us as it pertains to some of the gifts of the Spirit. One in which he is the most deceptive is the gift of tongues. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (1801–77) explained the need to be cautious when considering the gift of tongues.

“You may speak in tongues for your own comfort, but I lay this down for a rule, that if anything is taught by the gift of tongues, it is not to be received for doctrine” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 229).

“Speak not in the gift of tongues without understanding it, or without interpretation. The devil can speak in tongues” (Teachings, 162).

“The gift of tongues is not … empowered to dictate … the Church. All gifts and endowments given of the Lord to members of his Church are not given to control the Church; but they are under the control and guidance of the Priesthood, and are judged of by it” (Discourses of Brigham Young, comp. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 343).

The gift of tongues is used by missionaries to teach the gospel to the nations of the world. (See Robert D. Hales, “Gifts of the Spirit,” Ensign, Feb 2002, 12

As you can see, the gift of tongues is seen by Mormons a bit differently than it is by some churches. You will not find, in Mormon meetings, someone speaking by the spirit in a language no one else understands. The gift of tongues is not a way to prove our spirituality or to deliver revelation. Instead, it is most often used to teach the gospel to someone with whom you don’t share a common language.

For instance, when I was younger, I was serving a stake mission. This meant I lived at home and did my usual things, but also agreed to donate a large portion of my day doing missionary work. I was loaned to a mission for the deaf because I was learning sign language, and worked with two other women in teaching religion to those who could not hear. One day, one of the people the full-time missionaries were teaching asked an important question, but specifically wanted me to answer it. I panicked, because my sign language was not up to the requirements of the answer. However, as I began to answer, it was as though my hands moved on their own. I gave a detailed answer, but did not know many of the signs I was using. The investigator (student) was satisfied with my answer, but I could not take credit for it. The Holy Ghost was providing the answer and gave me the gift of tongues for that single instance to assist me in doing God’s work. Had there been no one in the room who knew sign language, there would have been no need for me to have that gift at that time, and I can’t normally do it. My sign language has never been very good, but I can sign when I need to in the course of my religious responsibilities. Other times, I can’t sign at more than a beginner’s level.

The gift of tongues always works in conjunction with the gift of interpretation. If someone is speaking in tongues, others must be able to interpret. The gift of interpretation is closely related to the gift of tongues. David O. McKay, a former Mormon prophet, once wanted to speak to church members in New Zealand without the diluting impact of an interpreter. He spoke in English for forty minutes, and many were able to understand him, even though they didn’t speak English. They were given this ability just for this occasion in order to receive God’s word. It is unlikely any of them were able to comprehend English when the meeting ended. (See “Chapter 22: The Gifts of the Spirit,” Gospel Principles, (2009),125–32.)

Although in many churches, the gift of tongues is considered a very desirable gift, Joseph Smith said it was generally the least important gift, and not useful except for the types of circumstances mentioned above. Generally, when Mormons do have the types of experiences we’ve discussed here, they don’t really think of it as the gift of tongues, although, of course, it is. They think of it as the Holy Ghost helping them share or understand the gospel.

A well-planned site is much less work in the long run and will help improve your chances of being read. The planning takes time, but is well worth the effort.

Write down the URL of your website. The domain name included in it tells you what the site is about. For instance, the site I adopted from More Good Foundation is http://www.lds-genealogy.com. Obviously, the site is about genealogy, and specifically is about LDS genealogy. If someone saw a site named LDS Genealogy, they’d expect to find genealogy information there, not parenting articles or cooking tips. Make sure you give your site readers exactly what they came looking for. Stay on one topic, which will increase your search engine ranking and your popularity.

Now imagine you were going to write a book on the topic of your site or teaching a course. Books and courses follow a logical pattern, beginning with the introductory information and moving gradually along to the more advanced material. They sometimes move chronologically. You want to organize your website in the same way. For now though, open a file on your computer or set up a notebook and begin writing every possible article idea that comes to mind. You made a list when you were choosing topics to suggest, so start there. Try to think of everything a person would need to know if they knew nothing at all about the topic and chose a book to get them started. On my genealogy site, I decided to start with a step-by-step course on introductory genealogy before beginning to write on more advanced topics. This allows new readers to quickly get up to speed.

If you are working on your computer, begin moving the topics around until they are in a logical order. Start with the most basic information and move to the more complicated material. You might also choose to work chronologically, as I’m doing. There are certain things a new genealogist needs to do first, so I am writing the articles in the order in which each step needs to be accomplished. If you’re using a notebook, number in pencil so you can make changes, and then rewrite the final list.

This is your plan for your website. Keep the file handy and mark (don’t erase) each topic after you’ve written on it. Add new topics when they occur to you. Without this list, you run the risk of waking up one morning and having no ideas, or of duplicating previous work. If the list is handy, it’s usually very easy to write the next topic on the list, and you won’t face the problem of writer’s block.

In the next article, we’ll learn how to improve your search engine ranking.

If you’re an active church member, contact More Good Foundation about being granted adoption privileges. I did, and am now starting to build a website for church members about genealogy. The process is very simple. I chose a WordPress theme from the list of free ones. They set it up for me and all I had to do was to go in and start building the site.

A website is most successful when it is built around a single topic you’re very passionate about. You’ll be asked in the application what topics you are passionate about. Before listing them, try this test to see if it is a topic you can write about for quite some time to come. Make a list of fifty articles you could write about this topic in the future. If you can’t think of fifty, you may not know the topic well enough to write a website on it. Having trained many people to write for other websites, I’ve learned that columnists are most successful if they already know the topic well. Learning as you go doesn’t work, because you don’t know what articles are most important to readers. Choose something you’re already an expert on.

Once you’ve been assigned a topic, begin planning right away. By the time you receive a topic, you want to have your plan in place. The site will be more successful if there is a planned purpose and structure. In the next article, we’ll talk about how to build your plan.

In November 2008, I received an email from someone who found my email address on a mormon website group page. Alan seemed to have had an unfavorable view of Mormons. But remembering the scriptures, “A soft answer turneth away wrath…” (Proverbs 15:1) I tried to be respectful of his views while explaining my religious views and defending my faith. Thankfully, over a rather short period of time, we came to a better understanding of one another. I am grateful to have a new friend. The following is PART I of our conversation. – Valerie J.Fulmer

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Why do mormons believe that you can be like God and have dominion over your own world? How do you reconcile this when in the first Commandment God says you will love thy God with all your being and you will not have false Gods before me???????? –Alan

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Hi Alan, That is a great question.  First of all, you are absolutely right.  We should have no other Gods before us.  We believe that can refer to anything that puts God last, or at least not first.  Like, some people worship the lust for money, or they idolize celebrities, or they covet power, and the list goes on.  It is our goal to always put the Lord first, and to strive to follow His commandments.  In our hearts and in our minds, we believe we are worshipping the true and living God.

One day, far into the future, if we are found worthy, we can be made joint-heirs with the Lord.  He wants to bless us more than we can comprehend.  He loves us so very much.  This is a humbling thought, and many of us feel that if we die today, we would not be worthy of this.  We make mistakes, we don’t always follow the commandments like we know we should, but we try.  And we repent.

But the Lord will always be our Lord, the Father of us all.  Jesus Christ will always be our Savior.  We will worship them forever and ever. I would be happy to continue emailing you in the spirit of love and understanding.  Let us agree up front that we may agree to disagree.  Does that make sense?

Have a great day! Sincerely, Valerie Fulmer

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Hi Valerie, The redemptive action of God the Father in sending us the Word made flesh, His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was necessitated by Adam and Eve’s loss of God’s grace. When Eve ate of the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she was tempted by Satan. She knew it was wrong as God had forbidden them to eat of this fruit. They could have anything else in the Garden of Eden. She was seduced by the prince of lies…” Go ahead you can eat of this fruit, if you do you can become like God. Eve listened to Lucifer and death entered into all mankind and heaven was closed to all future generations. This was the genesis of original sin. We were in need of a Savior. Then through God’s love He sent His only son to die for our sins and reconcile us back to the Father thus opening up the bridge to Heaven.

There is only one God in three Devine persons, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit; One God but 3 Divine Persons. It is one of the mysteries that the finite human mind can not fully comprehend. Human logic is deficient when we attempt to comprehend God’s immutable, omnipotence. If we attempt to define the Trinity in a plurality of Gods we get into polytheistic theology. If we believe, as the mormons do, that we can become like God, then we are no better than Adam and Eve and we would be perpetuating the great lie. –Alan

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Hi Alan, We believe that one of Satan’s tactics is to intertwine truth and lies together; he is the most devious of all creatures.  He will tell 10 things, 9 truths interwoven with 1 lie.  Or he’ll tell 10 things, 9 lies and 1 truth, and so on.  This is one way how he manipulates God’s children.  Satan said to Eve, “If you partake, you will become as the Gods, knowing good and evil, thus your eyes will be open.”  This does not mean Eve wanted to be a God, this means she wanted to be LIKE the Gods, knowing Good and Evil.  There is a difference here.

So Adam and Eve partook of the fruit and they were then aware of their nakedness, they became aware of good and evil, just as Satan said. (there is that little bit of truth mixed in with lies)  But Satan also forgot to mention the other parts…that now they would die, and would be cast out of the garden.  And because of Adam’s transgression, death would enter into the world.  But this was all part of God’s Plan.  This was why a Savior was needed.

Our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate personages, but all with ONE heart, ONE mind and the same goals and purposes.  What we say about the One, we are referring to all 3.  How we feel about one, we feel about all 3.  The scriptures say that we, mankind, are to be as one.  Not literally, but as one, like God the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost are ONE.  The scriptures also say, referring to man and wife, they are to become one flesh.  This does not mean they will be the same person, but they, the man and wife, are to have ONE heart and ONE mind.  They are to be unified.  The scriptures say that we are to be unified, with one heart and one mind, in purpose and goals of righteousness.

Is it not a righteous desire to strive to be worthy of God’s blessings?  Our Father in Heaven wants his children to have glory added upon their heads.  He is a God of Love.  You are right to say we have finite minds and cannot grasp all the wonder and mysterious of the Lord.  If we strive to sincerely repent of our sins, making the Atonement of our Savior and part of our lives, and if we daily strive to make good choices, we may one day be worthy for all the Lord has in store for us, which is more wonderful than we can comprehend.  We are not seeking power for power’s sake; we are seeking to live with our Heavenly Father again!  We are striving to please our Lord; we are trying to follow His Commandments.  We are hoping, praying and humbly seeking to fulfill our goals and be worthy to go to the Celestial Kingdom.

Humbly, your sister in Christ, Sincerely, Valerie Fulmer

(This dialogue continues….Part II to come soon)

Their responsibility is to deliver a message to those who are interested. The message may vary, based on what they want to teach or what they feel inspired to discuss with you. For instance, they may have a message about how you can strengthen your families through a Mormon program called Family Home Evening. They may have a more doctrinal message for you. Whatever the message, it is brief and they will stay only as long as they’re welcome.

Generally, the first visit, particularly if they’ve arrived unannounced, is very brief and then they ask if they can return. Your answer is respected. When I was going door to door as a missionary, we kept records of where we went and were not allowed to return for one year unless invited. That way we didn’t become pests, but still gave people the opportunity to change their minds, and for newly arrived neighborhood members to meet us.

If you’re interested, but don’t have time for them just then, or perhaps want to wait until your spouse is home, ask if they can return. They’ll make an appointment to see you and even let you know how long they’ll stay if you’d like. Their purpose is to teach, not argue, so you should invite them back only if you’re sincerely interested in learning about the Mormons. You don’t have to plan to convert, but you should be a sincere seeker of truth, and not someone plotting a battle of wits. God’s servants are not supposed to argue.

The young people knocking on your door are volunteers. They have usually left their home, school, jobs, and families for eighteen months to two years because they feel strongly about the gospel message they’re sharing. They live under strict rules and have a great deal of structure, which helps them develop self-discipline and maturity. They come into contact with many people, which gives them an understanding of a diverse world different from their own hometown. They spend every waking moment with a companion of the same gender, and learning to live and work with another person helps to prepare them for marriage. They are regularly rotated, sent to a new area of the community and given a new companion, and as a result, learn to be adaptable. These are all skills that serve them well as adults during the rest of their lives.

You’ll find many of them are homesick and are happy to find themselves in a living room with a real family. You are under no obligation to feed them, although you can, but they will enjoy having your children in the room, participating in the lesson. The missionaries are prepared to share their message in a way even a child can understand.

If at some time, you change your mind about receiving the lessons they teach, you need only tell them. Most people, however, continue through the six lessons and visit the church to better understand a growing religion. They soon realize most of what they’ve heard about Mormons really isn’t true, and even if they choose not to be baptized, they come away with a better understanding of the religion they’ve long heard about.

Liz was born in the Southwest sixty-six years ago but has lived in the Pacific Northwest for the last thirty-four years. She has seven children (four biological, three adopted) and seventeen grandchildren. Liz has been married for forty-five years to a wonderful man.

She taught school for several years and was a stay-at-home mom for a decade and a half, during which time she and her children ran a specialty bakery. Now, Liz works with her husband in healthcare construction management, and will probably continue to do so for several more years.

Liz has been writing seriously for about twenty years and has published five books with another coming out this fall. She just finished a stint of four years teaching early morning seminary, but has just been called as choir director for her ward.

Candace: As a very well-known author in the LDS Fiction market, will you please share with us what drives you to write?

Liz: I don’t know that I can explain it. It’s just part of who I am. I dream in narratives. If I see a beautiful sunset, my way of appreciating it is to try to put it in words. To spare bystanders, I do this mentally. Writing is simply an extension of that facet of my personality or character or being–whatever you call it.

Candace: Elder M. Russell Ballard, a living apostle, charged Mormons with battling the onslaught of anti-Mormon sites on the internet. He asked us to blog and gently but firmly set the record straight. Will you please share with us your thoughts on this and what you’ve done to answer that call?

Liz:know, I’m not much of a crusader. I don’t do well with programs, because I can’t stay the course with a program. I peter out. I’m much better at being who I am. I am a writer. I write, and I write as genuinely as I can. I have five blogs that I contribute to regularly. One is connected with yourLDSneighborhood, www.sezlizadair.blogspot.com where I write about things under the heading of service.

Another blog I do is about family history, www.familywriters.blogspot.com. I love family history and use it in my fiction writing all the time, and this blog is an expression of that.

A third blog is a pure, factual, family history blog, www.ronnietootie.blogspot.com. My brother and I use it as a means of identifying old family photos and getting down family anecdotes, a project we’ve been going to get together and do for years, but never accomplished until we decided to do it via blog. It would be of interest only to our family and, perhaps, historians, but it’s there so anyone who wanders by can take a gander.

The fourth blog I participate in is one made up of LDS writers, www.anwafounder.blogspot.com. This is the forum where I would be most closely following Brother Ballard’s admonition. We speak very openly there, because we’re speaking to each other, about our faith in Christ and how it colors everything we do. We demonstrate by our postings and our comments the love we have for our Savior and our commitment to each other. It’s a very warm, comfortable place on the internet, and we’ve had people stumble onto the site and comment about how they can feel the positive spirit of the site.

The fifth blog, www.lizadairwrites.blogspot.com is a place where I can log the progress of my new book, Counting the Cost, as it comes out this fall. However, I’m doing it for a secondary reason, one perhaps more important than the first. Several months ago I made a promise to myself that I would make an effort to review books written by my fellow LDS authors and post them on the internet None of the other blogs lend themselves to that purpose, so this fifth blog will be my forum for book reviews.

Did I set out to follow Brother Ballard’s counsel? No, but in my own serendipitous way, I’ve managed to set a parallel course.

Candace: What is your favorite scripture and why?

Liz: My favorite scripture is almost a throwaway line, a fragment of 1 Nephi 16:29, “…And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.”

I’m a pretty ordinary person, but I’ve had some experiences where small, ordinary things done by small, ordinary people have brought about great things in other people’s lives. It seems that if we just keep putting one foot in front of another, doing the best we can, the Lord will magnify our efforts, and the good we do will reverberate around and extend far beyond what we could have done on our own.

Candace: Who is your favorite prophet and why?

Liz: I’m a very fickle lover of prophets. My favorite prophet is generally the one I’m studying right then. I love Joseph Smith because he translated the Book of Mormon and was so steadfast in defending it. I love Isaiah because he’s a poet and uses language so powerfully and gave us such beautiful windows on the coming of the Messiah. I love Thomas S. Monson because he’s our prophet today.

Candace: Will you please share with your conversion? All of us, whether we are born into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not, have a moment of conversion, please share?

Liz: My conversion story starts before I was born, when my Uncle Curtis met the missionaries and listened to them. This was a very unlikely beginning, because, as my Uncle Buck used to say of his brother Curtis, “He was wild as a snake.” Curtis had been a cowboy, but had married and was now working construction. He lived through the lot from my mother, and as he joined her every morning for coffee, he’d say, “Lucy, be a Mormon!” Curtis gave up coffee and set his baptismal date, but before he could be baptized, he was hit by a car on his motorcycle and was killed.

Seven years later, missionaries knocked on my mother’s door. She had been having troubling dreams of her brother, and when she realized that these young men were Mormons, she told them about Curtis and how he died before baptism. They told her about the temple ordinances, and as they helped her fill out the paperwork, they taught her the gospel, and she was baptized when I was seven. She was troubled by dreams no more.

My mother was a person of profound faith who had been actively teaching me about God long before her conversion. In the face of a disapproving family and an uninterested spouse, she clung to the Gospel and made sure we attended church, no matter how long the drive or how bad the roads.

I’ve always had a testimony of Joseph Smith, of the restoration of the Gospel, of the Book of Mormon, of the Plan of Salvation, but I remember with singular clarity the moment everything snapped into focus around the Savior. I was about thirty-six, doing the usual Mormon Mom thing with Primary and Young Women’s values and Duty to God and all the programs that fill our lives as we raise families. I was trying for yet another time to have a consistent personal scripture study time, and was reading the Book of Mormon at the dining room table. I had read it several times before, but had always been looking at the language or the geography or cultural clues, and, all of a sudden, I realized that there was hardly a page where Christ’s name wasn’t mentioned. Hello, Liz? Another Witness for Christ? It was so elementary, but my busy life had been focused on all the minutia of the programs of the Church, and I had forgotten the central figure. I say I forgot, because when I was about nine, I had a profound personal spiritual experience calling me to Christ.

That study session at the dining room table was a life-changing experience. Whereas before, I did things because I was a Mormon and had a testimony of the Church, I now do them because I have taken upon me the name of Christ. As a Mormon, I set my sights on the Celestial Kingdom; as a Christian, I become uncomfortable when people talk about rewards for righteous living. I only want to please my Savior. I only want to be what he would have me be.
I’m not saying that the programs of the Church get in the way. They’re a great teaching tool and lab experience to prepare us to understand about the Savior and his mission. It just takes some folks longer to graduate than others. But, I think that’s all right, too. We all mature at different times.

Candace: Will you please share your personal testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ?

Liz: I don’t know that I can say it in words that haven’t been used so much they may sound trite. He’s the way. He’s the truth. He’s the light. His words require faith to follow, but in exercising that faith, you find that there’s power in meekness; people do respond to a soft voice; it is better to give than to receive; we do need to reach out to the weary and support the hands that hang down.

I believe that he took upon himself the sins of the world, my sins, and paid the price in suffering required for those sins so that I should not have to. I believe he knows my name, knows the desires of my heart, and will be my advocate with our Father. I believe he will come again as he has promised. I look forward to that day, and hope to do my part, my small thing, to help bring it to pass.

Candace: Christians across the globe face an ever-increasing battle against those who would destroy and erase all that our Savior has done for us. What would you say to them, given the chance?

Liz: Keep the faith. Your little candle of light may be small in the grand scheme of things, but it’s capable of kindling others, or lighting the way to the next small candle. Keep it lit. Hold it high.

Candace: Please share your testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope it brings to every human soul.

Liz: I have a friend who had a personal relationship with the Savior long before she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is a student of the Bible and studied in college to go into the ministry. It was interesting to talk with her as she read through the New Testament in the first few years after her conversion. “Why didn’t I see that?” she would ask. “It’s right there!”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is like your genealogy, your family tree. You know where you fit. You know where you came from, why you’re here, where you’re going, and that’s comforting. Hope comes with a knowledge of the atonement. About the time you get to be my age, you realize you’re not going to achieve perfection; it just ain’t in you. But, you realize that’s all right, because our Savior will do for you what you can’t do for yourself, as long as you do the best you can and keep trying.

Candace: You stand, as it were, on a world stage. In that circumstance, what message do you have for this troubled world?

Liz: When I look at this old world with all its suffering and inequities, I remember the story of Alma in the Book of Mormon, when he led his people into the wilderness, heading for Zarahemla, and they fell into the hands of Amulon and his followers. Amulon had an ax to grind against Alma, and he made slaves of Alma’s people and made them, even the women, into beasts of burden. Forbidden to pray aloud, the people prayed in their hearts, and the Lord heard them. Though they weren’t delivered right away, the Lord made them strong so that they could bear the burdens they were forced to carry. And when the time came, they were given a way to escape.

That’s my hope and my prayer: Whatever our burdens, we can be made strong to bear them. I pray for this for the innocents of the world.

Liz, thank you so much for taking the time to express your thoughts and beliefs on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that your words will touch the heart of someone seeking just what you had to say.

SHORT STORY : One Cub Scout asks another to attend scouts at church with him. People are converted who later serve missions in Montreal, Peru, Italy, Brazil (3), Texas, and Indiana. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir gets a general manager. I get an eternal companion and four children.

LONG STORY : When I was in my early teens and living in La Habra California, my younger brother was a Cub Scout, attending the school’s pack. He had a best friend there. One day this friend told him that he would not be a part of that pack any more as his mom wanted him to attend the “church pack” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons) instead.

My brother came home and asked if he could attend the church pack with his friend. He started attending and then, shortly before he turned twelve, he came home and said “The other guys get the priesthood when they turn twelve, but I don’t ‘cuz I’m not a member, so I want to join the Church.” My parents wanted to investigate what he wanted to join, and had the missionaries come and teach the lessons to the whole family. My brother joined shortly thereafter and served a mission in Montreal in time.

I did not join then, but was convinced to sign up for early-morning seminary for my second year of high school. After attending seminary all year, I gained a testimony and told my parents that I wanted to join the Church also. So, once again, the whole family took the lessons and I was baptized.

The following year my sister went through the same process. The whole family took the lessons again and joined the Church. My parents never joined, but have been very supportive. My mother died fifteen years ago. My Dad attends Church almost every Sunday with us and is considered a part of the ward, although he is adamant about not joining. Who knows why.

But that is only part of the story.

When I was a senior in high school we moved to Santa Barbara, California. The following year I went to BYU. When I came home on my first break my brother was in the backyard studying with a very beautiful young girl. I asked my mother who she was. Apparently, my brother met her in his math class. The two struck up a friendship and he told her about the Church. She and her family were taking the missionary lessons at our house.

Karen joined the Church shortly thereafter (her parents were not interested.)

My brother dated Karen for a while, but the two decided that they were just friends. Karen started dating a non-member from high school, told him about the Church, he took the lessons and joined the Church. Scott is now the general manager of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and served a very successful mission to Italy. His two oldest children served missions in Brazil, and his youngest child is waiting for his call.

A few years later, while attending Santa Barbara City College, Karen, again in math class, was attracted to a young man who was attracted to her. Craig tried to talk to her after class, but she had to run off to Institute. He got curious, wanted to know what Institute was, started attending, gained a testimony, joined the Church, and served a mission in Peru. He came home and married Karen and had four beautiful children. Two of the children have served missions (Texas and Brazil) and one has been called to serve in Indiana.

Unfortunately, Karen fell away from the Church after about fifteen years and divorced Craig, leaving him with the four children. After a few years, he started dating again. After a few “false starts” he asked me out and we were sealed in the LA Temple on August 5, 1998. When I said “I do” I instantly became the mother of four wonderful children including the elder I took to Provo in February to Missionary Training Center to prepare for serving in the Indiana mission.

One Cub Scout invites another to Church resulting in missionaries sent to four countries and various states. Eternal families are formed AND the Choir gets a manager.

Thanks for letting me tell my story.

~ Maggie Steward

• Elder Matthew Steward – Indiana Indianapolis 2-08 thru 2-10
• Sister Kristine Steward – Texas Houston (Spanish speaking,) wife of Kevin Cook, and mother of Stellan Cook, prospective missionary in 2025
• Sister Stephanie Steward – Brazil Brasilia – marrying in the LA temple July 19, 2008

But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom He hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. (1 Nephi 1:20)

When my husband, son and I drove up to the MTC we were excited to see scores of soon-to-be-missionaries and their families pouring onto the grounds. We later learned that 256 missionaries were to enter that day. We followed the signs to the special parking area which was reserved for new missionary families. There was a palpable air of excitement.

My son said, “This seems so unreal!”

His big day had finally arrived. We had talked about it, prayed about, saved for it, and even sung about it his entire life and now it was finally happening.

We stopped at the cross-walk with a few other families and I couldn’t help but ask, “Elders! Where are you going?”

We quickly met one young man going to Washington DC, another going to Switzerland, and another going to Bulgaria. At the other side of the cross-walk we played cameraman for each other next to the famous Missionary Training Center sign. Every time another missionary walked by I’d shout out the same question and get an excited “Hong Kong! Brazil! New York!” It was so exciting to watch the ranks of God’s newest army file in.

It has been 23 years since I entered the MTC myself, headed for the Spain, Madrid mission. So many wonderful feelings came flooding back into my mind and I wished I could join these new missionaries and do it all over again. What a privilege it was to be a full-time missionary for the Lord.

The instant we stepped foot on MTC soil we were greeted by at least a dozen smiling volunteers, directing the way we should go. We first dropped off my son’s luggage in the designated spot and took more pictures next to each landmark we deemed important and/or entertaining, such as the famous “Missionaries on Bikes” statue.

We then walked to the front doors of the MTC where signs directed the parents to enter one door and the missionaries to enter a different one. I stopped dead in my tracks, saying, “Wait! We have to say goodbye already?”

Another volunteer kindly explained the separation was only for 30 seconds so the missionaries could register and get their name tags. I was relieved and grateful I didn’t have to use my year’s supply of tissue hidden in my purse yet.

Once inside, my son was given his first official name tag with a big red dot on it, indicating to all within a square mile that he was a “Greenie,” in other words, he was a brand new missionary! We were told that it was tradition for a loved one to put his name tag on. The thought of that significant deed was too emotional for me to handle so I let my husband do the honors while I caught the historical moment on video.

We wandered around the lobby taking pictures for a while and then finally went to the chapel just down the hall where some of those touching “Mormonad” commercials were playing…as if we weren’t teary-eyed enough already! Between commercials short slides were shown that shared interesting statistics about the MTC and missions around the world.

The chattering crowd quickly quieted down as the MTC 1st Counselor greeted us and began the meeting. I was doing great until he invited us to sing the traditional missionary hymn “Called To Serve.” That’s when the tissues first made their appearance. I remember singing that song in Spanish in the MTC so many years ago, surrounded by a sea of enthusiastic and humble missionaries who were preparing to go forth unto every nation. Everyone always sang in their mission language, resulting in an awesome “Day of Pentecost” sensation. My heart couldn’t handle the immense joy I felt to be able to bring my own son to this sacred place and have the same spiritual, life-changing experiences. What an honor it was to be there again in the midst of these fishers of men.

The MTC President, his wife, his counselor and his wife all spoke loving words of advice and comfort and then they showed us a sweet video of missionaries going all over the world to serve. The moment of separation finally arrived as the 1st Counselor suggested the wisdom of what he called “the Bandaid Technique” for saying goodbye: it’s less painful to do it quickly.

Many tears were shed and loving words spoken as we hugged our wonderful missionary good-bye. A true bitter-sweet moment. I’ve never been so proud of him as I was that moment. He was well-prepared and anxious to serve. Thoughts raced through my mind of when my son was first placed in my arms and I fell in love with his sweet little face. What a privilege it has been to be his mother and watch his life unfold to this very moment.

The MTC President shared a scripture with us that I will keep in my heart during the next two years. It is found in Doctrine and Covenants 6:20 which says

“Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love.”

He assured us parents that as our missionary was leaving our arms, he was entering the arms of the Savior. There is no better place to be.

My family did not attend any church services growing up. I remember going to a few different churches, always looking for something, but not really finding anything I liked or that touched me. I lived in an out-of-the- way area in Washington state and had few friends my age. When I was about 14 years old, two young men moved into my neighborhood and we became friends. Their family was LDS, but the boys were not really excited about church. I think they went because their family went.

Anyway, I was home and a couple of missionaries came to my door. It was 1980 and I was 16 years old. I was impressed by their message, but did not have time to visit with them. I played football, basketball and track and was very busy. I told them to come see me in the spring after football, before track started up. A girl I liked at the time had just joined the church a year before and was trying to get her family converted. I went to her house one day to find the missionaries there teaching a discussion. I listened and did not think much of it at the time. I was just trying to impress the girl.

My friends, the two young men who had moved into my neighborhood, invited me to a church activity a few weeks later. They told me they were going to Hawaii. I was shocked at first and then they explained that they were not really going to Hawaii, but they had a youth activity where they were going to pretend to go to Hawaii and then eat Hawaiian food and listen to music, etc. I thought that it sounded like fun so I went with them to the activity.

The members had set the overflow area of the chapel as an airplane. They had boarding passes, stewardesses, and airplane noises. I sat there trying to figure out what was going on when I heard engine failure noises and the lights flicked off and on. Soon the lights went out and everything was quiet. A person with a flashlight appeared and claimed he was Satan. He then proceeded to tell us what would happen if we did not follow the commandments. We then proceeded out of the overflow into a dark room that represented the Telestial kingdom.

We were then instructed as to what would happen to those in this kingdom and what it would be like. We went into another room which represented the Terrestial kingdom. Again, we were given instruction. This room was lighter than the previous room. Then we were escorted into the chapel where there was a Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father sitting in the front. The brother and sister representing Heavenly Father and Mother spoke to us about the Celestial Kingdom and what it would be like.

When they finished, the youth in the room began to stand and bear their testimonies. I remember thinking that this was so cool that the people of this church loved their youth so much that they did this for them to teach them to do what was right. I also remember thinking that if either of my friends stood up, I was going to stand up. I did not understand then, but I do know now, that the spirit was there bearing testimony to me of the truthfulness of this church.

My friends never stood up in the meeting so I never stood up, but I still remember how strong the spirit was in that meeting. After the meeting, my friends’ dad asked if I liked the activity. I said that I did. Then he asked the golden question. “Would you like to
learn more?” Of course I said yes and that week I had a knock on my door from the elders. I was baptized a few weeks later in April of 1981.

Since then, the Lord has blessed me and my family. I am so grateful for that experience and for the spirit testifying to me of the truthfulness of the gospel.”

If you haven’t visited this website for awhile, be sure to swing by soon and take another peek. It is extremely easy to navigate and has tons of great information to share with your non-member friends. Anyone can request a visit from missionaries anywhere in the world. Visitors on the site can also request a free Bible or Book of Mormon, as well as click on a link that allows them to read the scriptures online.

If your computer has a Flash player you can watch several video clips on various gospel subjects, as well as hear testimonies from members of the Church. What a great resource this web site is for us to use as members of the Church! When you share a Pass-Along Card with a non-member they will be directed to this web site. It’s so easy! I keep a bunch of those cards in my car and purse, so I’ll be able to share the gospel at any time in a split second. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Twelve Apostles encouraged all members to “carry a packet of these attractive pass-along cards and give them to persons, even casual acquaintances.” (”Sharing the Gospel,” Ensign, Nov. 2001, 9.)

I love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 24:12 which says “And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night.” With a simple click of a mouse the gospel can be shared!