Inspiring Stories of the Modern Prophets - Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith and his company had stopped to camp one afternoon when a band “of drunken men rode into the camp … , cursing and swearing and threatening to kill any ‘Mormons’ that came within their path. … Some of the brethren when they heard them coming had cautiously gone into the brush down the creek, out of sight. Joseph F. was … gathering wood for the fire. [He walked up to the campfire to deposit his wood. One drunken ruffian with a pistol in his hand said] that it was his duty to [kill] every ‘Mormon’ he should meet. … In a loud, angry voice [he demanded from Joseph], ‘Are you a … Mormon?’
“This [surprised] the man; and … he grasped [Elder Smith’s] hand and said,
“ ‘Well, you are the … pleasantest man I ever met! Shake, young fellow, I am glad to see a man that stands up for his convictions’ ” (Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith, p. 189).
The man seemed to be the leader of the group, for when he rode off the rest followed him. President Smith said he fully expected to be shot when he admitted being a Mormon, but he did it anyway.
Inspiring Stories of the Modern Prophets - Heber J. Grant
President Grant tells the following experience:
“ ‘I remember as a young man I had $50.00 in my pocket on one occasion which I intended to deposit in the bank.
When I went on Thursday morning to fast meeting—the fast meeting used to be held on Thursdays instead of Sundays—and the bishop made an appeal for a donation, I walked up and handed him the $50.00. He took five of it and put it in the drawer and gave the $45.00 back to me and said that was my full share.
“ ‘I said, “Bishop Woolley, by what right do you rob me of putting the Lord in my debt? Didn’t you preach here today that the Lord rewards fourfold? My mother is a widow, and she needs $200.00.”
“ ‘He said, “My boy, do you believe that if I take this other $45.00, you will get your $200.00 quicker?”
“ ‘I said: “Certainly.”
“ ‘Well, he took it.
“ ‘While walking from fast meeting to the place where I worked, an idea popped into my head. I sent a telegram to a man asking him how many bonds of a certain kind he would buy at a specified price within forty-eight hours. … He wired back that he wanted as many as I could get. My profit on that transaction was $218.50.
“ ‘The next day I walked down to the bishop and said: “Bishop, I made $218.50 after paying that $50.00 donation the other day and so I owe $21.85 in tithing. I will have to dig up the difference between $21.85 and $18.50. The Lord did not quite give me the tithing in addition to a four to one increase” ’ ” (Presidents of the Church [Religion 345 student manual], pp. 176–77).
Inspiring Stories of the Modern Prophets - Joseph Fielding Smith
When Joseph Fielding was eight years old and was baptized, his father gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. Money was scarce and it was a defective copy purchased at a reduced rate. Nevertheless, Joseph Fielding remembered:
“‘When I was a small boy, too young to hold the Aaronic Priesthood, my father placed a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hands with the request that I read it. I received this Nephite Record with thanksgiving and applied myself to the task which had been assigned to me. There are certain passages that have been stamped upon my mind and I have never forgotten them’” (Smith and Stewart, Life of Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 57).
Two years later, “by the time he was ten years old he had read the Book of Mormon through not just once but twice” (Smith and Stewart, Life of Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 57).
As a young man, Joseph Fielding enjoyed reading the scriptures so much that he would sometimes leave a ball game early or hurry to finish his chores in order to get back to his studies. He could often be found in his father’s study, the hayloft, the shade of a tree, or walking home from his clerking job at ZCMI department store reading and studying the scriptures.
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