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Speaker: Glenn Rawson
Hi, this is Glenn Rawson. One of the most powerful ways to share history and heritage is by the telling of stories. We began sharing inspiring stories nearly 30 years ago. Each of those stories is true and was intended to inspire and strengthen faith. Over the years, those stories have reached millions around the world. This podcast is for you to listen, learn and enjoy.
First Story: The Weeping Woman
We know my friends that the greatest of all commandments is to love the Lord Thy God.
But have you ever wondered how do you increase that love if you don’t feel like you love God enough? I felt that if we all loved the Lord, more wouldn’t obedience and devotion be that much easier? Please consider this story from the sacred library.
Somewhere in the Galilee early in the Savior’s ministry ,he was invited into the home of Simon – the Pharisee. We don’t know why the invitation was given but it seems from the text motivated by an arrogant curiosity. The evidence for that was Simon’s disdainful and overt neglect of the usual social niceties afforded an honored guest. For example, he provided no water for the savior to wash his feet, no kiss of welcome and greeting and no perfumed oil to refresh himself.
Moreover, now as the meal progressed in that day and time, the home was open. It was socially acceptable for people to walk in and even hold conversation with the participants during a meal.
So, as Simon and his guests reclined on pillows to eat the meal, a woman entered from the street and stood at first at the feet of the Savior. Then, without a word she fell at the Master’s feet and kissed them. Her tears began to flow and fall in profusion onto the Savior’s feet.
She bathed his feet with her tears and then wiped them dry with the hairs of her head. All of this together would be considered highly culturally inappropriate – that kind of familiarity and intimacy with him.
She brought forth an alabaster box of precious and expensive ointment and began to anoint the Savior’s feet. Jesus watched and let her proceed.
Now, Simon (the host) knowing something of the woman’s sinful reputation scorned the woman and the savior in his thoughts. (He didn’t say it, he just thought it.) He said, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.”
Jesus knew Simon’s thoughts and he said, “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.”
And he saith, “Master say on…”
And then continuing (quoting the scripture),
“There was a certain creditor, Jesus said, which had two debtors – the one owed 500 pence in the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?”
Simon answered and said, “I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.”
And he said unto him, “Thou hast rightly judged.”
Then at that point, Jesus turned to the woman but addressed himself to Simon as if to set her the woman before all of them as a lesson.
He said, “Simon seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head; thou gavest me no kiss but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased
to kiss my feet; my head with oil thou didst not anoint but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much – but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little.”
Jesus said unto her, “Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in peace, thy faith has saved thee.”
Now, it is likely given the Lord’s law and order of things that somewhere, somehow obviously this woman had learned of the savior, been taught his gospel and probably converted and baptized hence the deep feelings of gratitude – and now a soul born again.
She is like so many of us who have had the impossible unbearable burden of sin, guilt and
anguish lifted from our shoulders by Him.
And now she came to say thank you in the most meaningful way she could. The Lord accepted her penitent gratitude and affirmed her faith and her forgiveness. It is important to understand, for us, that her profound love and gratitude for the Savior came because she was forgiven – not the other way around.
Simon, self-righteously loved the Lord, not at all, because unrepentant he was forgiven of nothing when in faith you and I likewise humble ourselves and receive forgiveness through the Lord’s atonement.
Our love for him will grow and know no bounds. Who is it in the world today who most
loves the Savior? Those who comprehend that they have been forgiven of a crushing debt they could not pay. Those who have been lifted up and sent on their way – rejoicing free and at peace at last.
My friends, if you would grow your love for the Lord and our Heavenly Father, REPENT everyday.
Second Story: I am Thankful That I am Here
I was very young when I recognized the painful and inconvenient sacrifices that my parents made for my comfort and well-being. I comprehend very early how hard they worked for me. That understanding only grew over the decades especially as I have studied the incredible sacrifices of our pioneers – fathers and mothers, I know in a measure the price they paid, like this story.
In February 1849, the ice was broken on the river and Sarah Keep was baptized. From there she and her family walked one and a half miles in the frigid cold to their home with the mob following them and taunting them all the way.
Sarah’s parents had previously been baptized. And because of that decision to be baptized, their considerable property was taken away from them – leaving them almost as if they were penniless.
Sarah said, “As I grew older, I traveled much with my father and his companion when they went out preaching in the open air. I was anxious to go and they said I could if I would sing for them – which I did. People gathered to listen to their teachings and many joined the church.
My father and his companions suffered many persecutions. I, with them, she said, “…but the Lord preserved us from our enemies.”
And then at the age of 13, she said, “I went to London with my father and his companion. I sang in the streets of London. We were often told by the police to move on and then she said, “I love my religion.”
Well, then from the age of 18 onward, Sarah wanted to be married but at the same time she wanted to marry a member of the church that was a little difficult in England in those days.
Finally, at the age of 25, Sarah married and sometime later gave birth to a baby girl and then to her sorrow, Sarah learned that the man she had married had joined the church for only one reason – just to get her. And now he wanted nothing to do with it nor did he want her to be involved. You see the picture?
Then in 1866, Sarah’s family answered the call to come to Zion, and was leaving for Salt Lake Valley. Sarah’s husband not only forbade Sarah to go – telling her that if she even went to see her parents off, she said, he would push me in the ocean.
Oh, but Sarah so wanted to go with them and now like so many, she faced a heart-rending choice. Would it be life with her husband and child and home and family in the comfort of England or would it be the gospel of Jesus Christ in the wilderness of Zion?
After many tears, Sarah made her decision. In May 1866, when the ship the American Congress left Liverpool, Sarah and baby were hidden away on board. Just prior to the sailing, Sarah’s husband, angry and furious, sent officers to bring her back. They searched the entire ship but did not find her or the baby.
They left Liverpool on a particularly arduous journey by ship and by rail and finally by wagon train. All that journey where Sarah and family faced – fire, fear, death, disease and abandonment she finally arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in October 1866 right at conference time.
Now, you can picture this- as a girl she had envisioned Salt Lake, (Zion)as a heaven on earth. Well, she soon learned that Zion was a heaven in the making, requiring more sacrifice and hard work even than she could have imagined.
In time, Sarah Keep would marry again and eventually become the mother of 14 children. Finally, with it all at the age of 82, Sarah Keep wrote this:
“I am thankful that I am here and have learned what I came here for. I can say the Lord has been with me and given me more than I deserve. He promised he that leaves, father, mother, husband, wife for the gospel shall receive a hundredfold.”
Sarah continued, “I can see where there was work for me to do here for the dead and the Lord has blessed me and preserved my life many times to do this work. I am thankful to Him for it.”
Now, why do I tell you that story? In the April 2021 General Conference, President Nelson said, “Everything good in life, every potential blessing of eternal significance begins with faith. He continued, “It is our faith that unlocks the power of God in our lives.”
Now, I know the process, when we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we obey him, we follow him and when we obey the Savior it always requires sacrifice and hard work.
The laws of obedience and sacrifice are inextricably linked together but when we put forth that sacrifice and hard work, it always pays off now and generationally. Just ask
Sarah Keep Buttars – my wife’s third great grandmother.
Third Story: The Power of the Doctrine
Now, as odd as it may sound for a storyteller to say I have always loved the Lord’s doctrine, his teachings. I learned very, very early on as a young seminary teacher that to know and love the Lord’s doctrine is to find the spirit of the Lord and his power. This next story illustrates the incredible power of the Lord’s doctrine on the hearts of men.
Louise was born in September 1822 in Geneva, Switzerland. When she was still a child, both of her parents passed away and she went to live with a dear old grand aunt. At the age of 16, Louise took a course in theology in the little offshoot church that her aunt belonged to in order to prepare her for the partaking of the sacrament and becoming a full-fledged member.
Well, at the end of that course the minister asked Louise if she desired to become a member of that church and partake of the sacrament. Louise’s response is surprising.
She said, “I refused not understanding why those churches should be separated from the others. It always appeared to me that there was something lacking in our religion that I could not express or understand. I continued for a few years like that thinking that those religious people were a little selfish when they congratulated themselves as being the chosen of the Lord and that all people, even little children who were not Christians like them would all be damned and lost for all eternity.”
“What! Thought I! My dear father and mother (because they did not belong to that little church) were to be damned forever. I could not believe it so I did not join any church.”
Well, when Louise was only 18, her closest friend got married (she was like a sister to her), and her aunt, (her caretaker) had passed away. Louise said, “I cannot tell you how lonely and lonesome it was after her death, for I felt like I was all alone in the world.”
But then in 1844, that loneliness came to an end. She married George Graehl – a confectioner. Not long after children began to come into their home.
Ten years later, their little girl, only 15 months old little Emma passed away. With the death of her little girl Emma, it bothered her and so she approached the local ministers and inquired after the eternal condition of her beloved baby. But they could tell her nothing. They said to her, “There is no provision made in the Bible for the salvation of little children.”
In response to that, Louise said, “This made me indignant at them for in my heart I was sure that my little angel girl was all right and that these ministers knew nothing about it.”
Sometime after that, an acquaintance came and told Louise that he had joined a new church. Louise paid little attention. The man had little credibility as far as she was concerned but he continued to come.
One day he brought a pamphlet that explained the first principles of the gospel to her.
Louise was astonished at what she read. She said, “For they threw a new light on the scriptures that I had read so much but had not understood before.”
The friend continued to come and then one day he brought a copy of the Book of Mormon. The book had a profound impact. Louise explained,” I began to read it and to my great satisfaction, I found in the book of Mosiah 3:6 the following:
“…and even if it was possible that little children could sin, they could not be saved but I say unto you, (this is King Benjamin) they are blessed for behold as in Adam or by nature they fall even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins.”
This glorious doctrine of the unconditional salvation of little children and the beautiful principles of the everlasting gospel as I learned, Louise said, little by little every day convinced me that the Mormon religion was true and I soon had a strong desire to be baptized.
So, in company with two other women, I was baptized on the seventh day of June 1852, I, being the first woman to receive the restored gospel in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. My husband was baptized one month later.
“I can say honestly that to become a latter-day saint was the greatest blessing of my life and though we had many great trials and privations to endure, I never regretted that I joined the church.”
My friends, I witness to you there is power in the doctrine of Jesus Christ. There is power in a testimony about the doctrines of Christ.
President Nelson in the last conference asked us to study and immerse ourselves in the Lord’s doctrine to increase our faith and thus our power.
Fourth Story: Louise and the Wolves
Now, I don’t usually do this, but there is a sequel to the story I just told you – a second story about the Graehl family. And as I said when we come to love the Lord’s doctrine, we will naturally bring our lives in compliance with his teachings and begin the journey back to him. But that journey is never easy.
After George and Louise joined the church, the desire and the call to gather to Zion and join the saints began to burn in their souls. They sold their confectioner’s business at a considerable loss. It was particularly hard for Louise to leave the city of her birth and the graves of her family.
I’ve been to Switzerland it is a beautiful land and I can see why it might be hard to leave what you’ve grown up with but it was even harder to leave behind the graves of her family and the family members still alive.
Louise said that as they journeyed away they sang the song “O, Babylon, we bid thee farewell. Onboard the ship, ferocity of a storm caused the ship to roll and pitch until all were sick.
Louise’s little daughter cried out “Stop the boat! Stop the boat!” But of course, the boat couldn’t stop so the voyage went on.
One morning Louise’s oldest daughter, her closest companion, Eliza came to her “crying as if her little heart would break. “Oh, mother, she said, I never will go to the valleys for I had a dream and I know that I never will reach there.” That was particularly disturbing news.
The family journeyed on and finally reached St. Louis. They were in St. Louis for 12 days and around 3:00 in the morning, Eliza contracted the dreaded disease cholera.
Notwithstanding all their efforts, within twelve hours, she was gone and the promise was fulfilled.
Grief-stricken, Louise wrote, “I can’t even try to explain my feelings of sorrow at the loss of this my first born and constant companion! Only mothers who have passed through the same trials can understand and sense it.” After all of that, they still went on.
They reached the trailhead in Missouri for their journey across the plains and discovered they did not have adequate supplies to make that journey. People talked to George and persuaded him to stay where they were until the supplies could be obtained, but Louise refused to stay saying, “My reason for my refusing to remain was on account of there being so many apostates in that vicinity that I felt that I had not left my native land and comfortable home to cross the ocean and remain outside of Utah away from the main body of the church.” Or to borrow a phrase, Louise said we didn’t come all this way just to come all this way.
That angered Louise’s husband. George didn’t agree and so he gathered his gun and his trunk, bid her goodbye and walked out.
Louise said, “That afternoon was a sad one for me because I did not know how I could travel alone with my children.”
But that night George came back with the promise of supplies and the journey went on. It was not an easy journey crossing the plains fraught with many perils.
Once, for instance, the Graehl were caught in a stampede. While Louise and the children were in the wagon, their oxen suddenly stampeded and ran crazily across the rough ground dragging the heavy laden wagon with little effort bouncing off of rocks and tossing the family all over the place. It was a terrifying ride.
When the team finally stopped, Louise and the children were glad to get out and walk back to camp. Louise describes that she walked with a little girl in one arm and a baby in another walking through tall prairie grass when suddenly she looked down and realized there were snakes in the grass which frightened me, she said ,very much.
They made it to camp safely though they were late for supper. The journey went on. Somewhere across those open and desolate spaces in Nebraska, George became so ill that he was unable to drive the team or even to walk. He was reduced to riding in the wagon with the small children on a bed. This left Louise to do it all – to cook, to clean, to drive the team, to yoke the oxen – it was all her.
“It was a pretty hard job, she said to help driving through a long summer day with a baby in my arms and another at my side crying to be carried too.”
They journeyed on. Late one evening, just at dusk, her wagon was at the very end of the train, when suddenly the makeshift yoke broke. (that’s the device that secures the oxen to the wagon).The oxen promptly ran off to camp which was about two miles away leaving Louise’s wagon stranded in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere.
As the darkness closed in, the wolves did too. Louise said, “I could not light a fire for I had no materials so I sat on the front seat holding my ax in my hands ready to defend myself and dear ones from the wolves who were howling around.”
She said, “I waited until midnight when some brothers came looking for us. They made a big fire to scare the wolves away and we slept by turn until morning.”
They repaired the yoke and went on. Louise cared for the family, did all the work and drove the team. Shortly after that they came to a river that had to be crossed. Louise said it was just beginning to get dark and our outfit (meaning her wagon) was again the last of the company. There was no one, she said, to help us as the captain was absent. The last team crossed.
“What are you going to do?”, asked my dear husband from his bed in the rear of the wagon and Louise responded, “I am going to drive right over and the Lord will help us.”
She did and he did – they crossed in safety.
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at glennrawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
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