Ensign

As a divorcee raising young children, I became inactive. Despite my inactivity, I still welcomed visiting and home teachers. One of the home teachers asked if he could leave a copy of the Ensign with me. I politely said “sure” but never opened the magazine. He continued to bring them each visit, and one day he said there was an article in the latest issue that “I think you’ll enjoy.” Out of curiosity, I read the article and found that it was about a particular trial I was experiencing at the time. I had always been careful to never divulge information about my personal life to the home and visiting teachers, so I wondered how the home teacher knew to recommend that article. As the months went by, other articles were recommended and each time they applied to challenges I was having. I came to a realization that even though the home teacher knew nothing of my trials, Heavenly Father did and He was giving me guidance and direction through the inspired home teachers. I have long since become active, and the Ensign continues to be a great blessing in my life.

I received the Ensign every month while I was away from home at college. I found time during breaks from class and studying to read the articles about such things as faith, perseverance, tolerance, and love. Reading the Ensign was the most uplifting part of each week, and it kept me focused on correct principles in a climate where promiscuity, drinking, worldliness, and secularism were evident. I am grateful that I had the Ensign during a critical time in my life. Because of this wonderful magazine and other positive influences in my life, when I met my future husband during the last year of college, I was worthy to be married in the temple. Today, with five wonderful children, the Church magazines continue to be an uplifting influence in our lives.

After 13 years of marriage, my wife divorced me. I am broken hearted. I have no words to explain my loss. The Ensign has become daily reading for me along with the Standard Works. Before the divorce I never gave the Ensign much thought. I have repented. In my hour of need the Ensign is a part of truth and light in my life. There have been many occasions when the Holy Ghost has born witness to me of truths being taught.

I have been reading the Ensign since it was the Improvement Era, for 45 years. I e-mail my kids and tell them what article is a classic (in my opinion). I turn to it when I can’t go on. I weep with the ones who have losses and I laugh out loud with the fun parts. I love the conference issues. When I read and study from those issues, I feel the spirit of the conference like I am visiting there and visiting Him.

Liahona

I first discovered the Liahona when I joined the Church several years ago in Bolivia. As time went by it became one of the most wonderful things in my life and a key to my success. It strengthened my testimony of the restored gospel and helped me stay strong in the Church. Because of this strength, I was able to resist temptations and set a good example for a co-worker, who was eventually baptized and confirmed.

In December 2005 some relatives who were members of the Church visited my wife and me in Colombia. Before they returned home, my uncle gave me two wonderful gifts—a triple combination and some old issues of the Liahona. I began to read the November 2004 issue, which contained the talks from October conference. [This] led me to begin reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible. The result was the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to us. My wife and I made the best decision we have ever made—we were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Liahona played an important role in my conversion 21 years ago. The way families were presented to me in the articles impressed me tremendously: families praying together, families going to church together, families expressing their love. All of that touched my heart and helped me understand the gospel.

New Era

As a young man growing up in a small branch of the Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, my two brothers and I were the only members of the Church in a town of 60,000 people. We looked forward to the New Era to see other Latter-day Saints and read their stories of staying faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I particularly remember the articles of those young men and women making sacrifices to serve full-time missions for the Church.

Their stories inspired me to make the decision to serve a full-time mission when many others did not understand why I would "waste" two years of my young life. It was through the stories and experiences portrayed through the New Era that gave me the courage and the faith to keep the standards of the Church to qualify myself as a servant of the Lord. 

My brother and I were the first missionaries from our small branch to serve missions in over 15 years. He served in Germany and I in Scotland. It was the New Era that gave me a sense of belonging to the youth of the Church and gave the faith and desire to serve a full-time mission. The New Era is a truly indispensable magazine in every Latter-day Saint home.

As the only member of the Church in my family, things can get a little difficult. I have questions that my parents cannot answer, and so it is nice to have the New Era, which provides some of those answers. Also I like having something good that I can read that helps me in my daily life. The articles really help me to understand Church principles and also inspire me to do more things that I should be doing. I didn’t start receiving the New Era until someone mysteriously ordered a subscription for me, and it has been one of the best things for me. I look forward to it each month.

Ballet was life when I was 16. I thrived on ballet classes, religiously attending them every weekday (up to three classes a day). I constantly thought about previous classes, what my teachers had told me in class, watched the videos Mom recorded of me in class, counted down the hours to the next class, watched famous ballerinas, and devoured ballet biographies. Although I faithfully attended church, read the scriptures, and prayed, my heart was riveted on ballet. One evening after a hard workout, I picked up a copy of the New Era. I don't remember the actual stories I read, but I remember the Spirit. It flooded over me so powerfully that I wept out loud. I felt so good. I realized that I had been missing out on what should have been the most wonderful part of my life and filling it with something that could never be as fulfilling. There was nothing wrong with ballet itself, but the Spirit reminded me that I had allowed my love for it to take priority over my love for the Lord. I took that reminder to heart and felt the Spirit much more consistently the rest of that summer.

I remember the benefits of the New Era as a teen, living with a divorced, inactive mother. Sometimes the only contact with spiritual things outside of church was the New Era. I could read it, feel the Spirit, and know that I was a child of God, that somehow He was there and was aware of me too.

Friend

A few months ago I fell and cut myself. My mom and dad decided I needed to go to the doctor and get stitches. I was really scared and did not want to go because I knew the doctor was going to give me a shot.

Before we went to the doctor’s office, my dad gave me a blessing. The Holy Ghost comforted us and whispered to us that we should bring the Friend to read while we were waiting.

When we got to the doctor’s office, I was scared. I didn’t want to get stitches. I was crying a little bit. While the nurse was getting the doctor, I started to read from the Friend. It made me feel a lot better. I got six stitches, and it hurt a little. But I wasn’t scared anymore. I'm grateful that we listened to the Holy Ghost and took the Friend with us. I know that the Friend is my friend.

I love the Friend. I always read the whole thing, cover to cover on the first day that it comes! I always read it when I am feeling sad or lonely, and I get happy. Thank you for making the wonderful thing!

Sometimes when I get bored I sit on the couch and read the new Friend and while I’m reading all these kids stories, I think, wow, these kids are really faithful and pray a lot and I should be just like them and pray and be faithful. . . . Well, I want to thank you for coming up with the Friend and the kids that gave you their stories to become examples around the world and to thank you again for making the Friend for the person and the soul.

I use the Friend when something is wrong and I need help with it. . . . If there were no such thing as a friend or the magazine Friend I would have 1,000000s of problems that I need to solve and have no clue how to start.