Mirthright

While out tracting one day we were invited in by an elderly couple who began to relate that their Latter-day Saint neighbors had gotten “locked in the temple” that previous summer. A long moment passed before our blank faces registered laughter when we realized that they had been “sealed” together as a family in the Salt Lake temple!

Sister Denny
Sister Later
Oklahoma-Tulsa Mission

My niece, who was helping raise seven children, tried a new psychology on her four-year-old son who had done something wrong. She patiently sat down with him and said, “Spencer, you know that what you did was wrong, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You know you need to be punished, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think we should do about it?”

Quick as a flash, the intimidated little one said, “I think we ought to forget all about it and see if I never do it again.”

Mrs. Verona Lee
Richland, Washington

One day when I was especially irritated with my two-and-a-half-year-old son’s mischievous ways, I wailed, “You’re nothing but a nuisance.”

He looked at me with large, somber eyes, shook his head slowly, and reminded, “No, Mom, I’m a child of God.”

Mrs. Wendy Doman
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In order to promote class participation in the Gospel Doctrine class, I made assignments on index cards and passed them out to class members. (I also use these same index cards for preparing my weekly grocery list.) One Sunday morning a sister read her assignment and gave a good, short summary of the subject. Then she turned her card over and said, “The topic on this side is ‘Beans.’ I don’t know exactly what I am supposed to do about this, but I can give you my recipe for cooking them.” And she proceeded to do so—in detail!

Estelle W. Thomas
Pinedale, Arizona

Nighttime shifts at the hospital are filled with many long, quiet hours when the patients are peacefully resting. Feeling that there were many worthwhile things she could do during this time, a nurse friend of mine began carrying her scriptures to work with her. After the patients were settled, she would begin diligently studying the scriptures, cross referencing many scriptures dealing with gospel principles and underlining those passages that seemed personally significant. After observing from a distance for several days, her curious co-worker inquired, “Are you crossing out the parts you don’t like?”

Anabel Jackson
Bloomfield, Connecticut

Recently in a ward quorum meeting the brethren were discussing a particular doctrinal question that was answered after some time to the satisfaction of all those present but one. This brother proposed an entirely different answer to the question at hand; whereupon another quorum member quipped, “Someday somebody in the Church ought to write a book called, Questions to Gospel Answers.”

Curt A. Bench
Salt Lake City, Utah

When my twelve-year-old granddaughter wrote me saying it was difficult being the only Latter-day Saint in her junior high school, I was a bit concerned. But her next letter reflected her enthusiasm in sharing the gospel. She wrote, “One night I invited one of my friends to MIA. She told her mom all about it. When her mom asked what the letters MIA stand for, she said, ‘I think it stands for Mormons in Action.’”

Verban Mooney
East Weymouth, Massachusetts

“Warning: The Surgeon General of the celestial kingdom has determined that inhaling, otherwise ingesting, or exhaling gossip is harmful to your spiritual health.” From the Paradise Second Ward monthly newspaper.

Earl Stowell
Paradise, California