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Since the Garden, faith has carried on through stories. It’s no coincidence that Jesus’s preferred method of teaching was the parable. Our mission is to tell the world’s greatest faith-promoting stories.
New episodes every Monday at 8 a.m. MDT.
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Hello! And welcome to the Faith Promoting Stories Podcast. I'm your host, Caden Beardall. Let's dive right in. Story 7 - The Laie Temple Miracle In 1916, the construction of the Laie Temple hit a critical roadblock. Due to the massive demand for lumber in WWI, ships carrying lumber to Hawaii were diverted, causing a scarcity of critical materials that threatened the construction of the temple. When lumber that was essential for scaffolding and concrete forms finally ran out, Ralph Wooley, the temple contractor, prayed earnestly that a miracle may be provided. Incredibly, just a few days after Brother Wooley's supplication, a freight ship carrying an enormous cargo of lumber ran aground on a nearby coral reef in a storm. The Ship's captain then offered the entirety of the load to the Saints, if they would only help to free the ship. Saints from around the island gathered to aid the captain, and then the promised transaction was completed. The lumber was secured. Construction not only resumed, but was carried out successfully to the temple's completion. This miracle demonstrates one of the most potent formulas for a miracle. The making of a miracle is more likely when three things are present: One: a good cause, in this case the construction of a temple of God. Two: a good prayer, given in faith and a willingness to accept the will of the Lord. And three, a good work: that is, the willingness to be the Lord's hands, and yield the miracle by the sweat of our brows. When intention, faith, and work intersect, their position is nearing the Divine. Give this formula a try today, and watch the miracles unfold. Story 8 - Where Is Your Miracle? When Jens and Elsie Nielsen were baptized in 1852, they were living "an idyllic life in the lush countryside" of Denmark, their live's virtually unblemished by suffering. Following their shared conversion, Jens wrote, "All of my possessions had no power over me. My only desire was then to sell out and come to Zion." Rather than undertake their desired emigration, this budding, faithful couple was called to serve a mission for two years in Denmark. When their service concluded, they finally made the pilgrimage to Iowa City. Though they had the means to travel comfortably to Utah, they instead gave all their fortune to those more destitute than them. They then embarked with a single, humble handcart, accompanied by others members of the now infamous Willie Handcart company. As this couple, who had given all freely, stumbled through October snow, Jens's feet entirely frozen, Elsie pulling her immobilized husband, and their two children lost to the voyage, it would seem that a miracle should be requisite, or least a reprieve. But no, their trek West was, in a word, harrowing. They survived. The couple spent their remaining years establishing settlements, Jens serving as a bishop. Is this fair? Was the fate of Jens and Elsie evidence that there is no God? Or that their labors were uninspired? Because Jens and Elsie were not compensated before their mortality was punctuated, what do we make of their story? I can think of one other pioneer who shared in their injustice. Despite living a perfect life, Jesus was rewarded with a garden, a betrayal, and a cross. Like Christ, the Neilson's reward, as was so typical of their life, was for others, their suffering sacrificial. Perhaps your suffering may also not amount in a miracle for you, but for others. It may be true that God, rather than reward us transactionally for all that we suffer, is less inclined to have us as His employees, and more as shared stewards of His work. In this sense, your suffering is made sacred, your sorrows a hallowed sacrifice. And for that sacrifice, we thank you for your faith. Story 9 - Why I Believe In Christ In 1910, minister Vincenzo di Francesca was en route to visit an afflicted friend in New York City when he came across something unusual. A book without a cover or title page was resting on a barrel of ashes, its pages rustling in the wind. Vincenzo inspected the book. He discovered it to be a religious text of some kind, but he didn't recognize the names in its pages. Vincenzo took the book home, delicately restored it to be a readable state, and drank deeply from its pages. With every passing verse, Vincenzo became convicted that he had happened upon a "fifth gospel of the Redeemer." The book's conclusive chapter stretched through the fourth wall with an invitation: pray and ask God if the book was true. Vincenzo knelt and beseeched God on the cause of the book. Immediately his "heart palpitated as if it could talk". He felt a "supreme joy that human language finds not words to describe." Now arrested by the truthfulness of this spontaneously appearing record, he preached from its pages for 20 years. One night, while studying the dictionary, Vincenzo discovered the word "Mormon", a word found in his book. Decades later, following the wars and rumors of wars, Vincenzo was baptized. Throughout my discipleship, I have entertained a number of faith crises of varying intensities. But for whatever doubts I have felt, or for whatever "anti-Mormon" rhetoric I have encountered, however sharp in its craft, I cannot dismiss the anomaly of the Book of Mormon. I do not believe in the Book of Mormon because its 600 pages were miraculously produced by an uneducated juvenile. I do not believe in the book for its breathtaking intricacies, weaving together hundreds of characters with historically reasonable motivations and behaviors. Nor do I believe for its uncanny collection of arts, customs, industries, economies, politics, militaristic strategies and religious rites becoming of the alleged setting. I am not convinced by its effortless employment of Hebrew and Egyptian nomenclatures, geographic consistency down to minutia, and novel theology that man has not produced for thousands of years. What has me enamored with this unassuming book, is the conduit it opens from me to the Divine. What has me tethered to this book, is its ability to convince my wandering, skeptical heart, that there is a God that loves me. If this book is the work of a devil or a charlatan, then he failed catastrophically in his quest for evil, for the legacy of this book is one kindness, healing, and Christ.