A House Burned Down and the Spread of the Gospel

In his most recent general conference talk, Elder Gong began with a surprising story about a family with ten children of whom one was getting sealed in the temple. He told of how in one place the family had lived, the community had been unwelcoming because they were members of the church. He described, “The family did everything to make friends at school, contribute, and be accepted, but to no avail. The family prayed and prayed hearts would soften. One night, the family felt their prayers were answered, though in a very unexpected way. Their house caught fire and burned to the ground. But something else happened. The fire softened their neighbors’ hearts.” The community rallied around this large family and provided necessities for them. Elder Gong continued, “Kindness opened understanding. It was not the way the family hoped or expected their prayers to be answered. However, they express gratitude for what they learned through hard experiences and unexpected answers to heartfelt prayers.” That is certainly an unexpected way for a prayer to be answered, and it must have taken great faith on the part of the family to accept and embrace their situation with its challenges and blessings. The counsel Elder Gong gave to us from this story was this: “Truly, for those with faithful hearts and eyes to see, the Lord’s tender mercies are manifest amidst life’s challenges. Faithfully met challenges and sacrifice do bring the blessings of heaven. In this mortality, we may lose or wait for some things for a time, but in the end we will find what matters most. That is His promise.” One of the messages for me from this story is that perhaps I need to have a more faithful heart and seeing eye to behold how the Lord is guiding my life and the life of my family even in the midst of challenges. We must, as Moroni suggested, “[behold] with an eye of faith” (Ether 12:19). If we see only the challenges we face we may miss the miracles God is really providing for us.  

                The rest of Elder Gong’s address focused on the universality of the gospel and how the blessings of the Restoration are seen across the world among all “nations, kindreds, and tongues.” He told of statistics that witness to the spread of the work of the Lord across the world, such as the facts that 23 nations across the earth have more than 100,000 members each or that 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been published or that there are 3446 stakes across ninety nations. He quoted individual accounts of faith from Africa to Central America to Southeast Asia, showing how the gospel has changed lives for the better in many different nations. He declared, “Heavenly Father invites us everywhere to feel His love, to learn and grow through education, honorable work, self-reliant service, and patterns of goodness and happiness we find in His restored Church.” As the Book of Mormon powerfully declares, “He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).  

The question I asked myself this morning as I read his talk was this: what does his first story—that a prayer for community acceptance was answered by a house being burned down—have to do with the rest of his message on the universality of God’s love for all? Perhaps the connection is that in the first story it took sacrifice to bring people together in love. It seems to suggest that the harmony and unity brought about by the loss of property was of more value to the Lord than the loss of physical property that could be replaced. Taking the gospel to all the world, one person at a time, is of far more importance than wealth or physical possessions. Surely that event in which the family’s house was sacrificed—no doubt to be replaced eventually—brought others closer to Christ if not even to the covenants of His gospel. The work of the Lord to bless and gather His children from all corners of the earth unto the Savior is what matters most, and, as Elder Gong suggested, “As we discover God, sometimes unexpected answers to prayers take us from the street, bring us to community, chase darkness from our souls, and guide us to find spiritual refuge and belonging in the goodness of His covenants and abiding love.” The things of this world will come and go, but we must seek for ourselves and loved ones and communities “what matters most” in “the supernal gift of the Holy Ghost, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and His revealed doctrine, ordinances, and covenants found in His restored Church, called in His name.”