Read this heart-wrenching true story of a girl who endured persecution from fellow young women in her ward. Learn the importance of not building walls between each other and the importance of fellowshipping among the saints.

There once was a girl who, at the very end of testimony meeting, arose and made her way to the front of the room where she stood for long moments in silence, her lips trembling and her eyes overflowing with tears. At last, when she had her emotions under control, she related to the congregation the following experience:

Some three years previously, while her father was stationed with the military in Germany, he had made a thorough study of the principles of the gospel and joined the Church. Within a year he was transferred back to the States, and his family settled in Maryland, where they immediately began attending one of the local wards.

This young woman, in her teens, found that there were four other girls in the ward her age. With great expectations, she looked forward to a close association with them as they all grew in the gospel.

Yet she was to discover, quickly and painfully, that the girls in her new ward had a totally different idea about things. They were a close group, their families were long-time residents, their fathers held important ward and stake positions, and they could see no need to disrupt their unity and established pattern of living by becoming friends with an “army brat,” as they called her.

At first the girls were subtle in their persecutions, snickering when she was brave enough to make a comment in class, ignoring her when she spoke to them, and turning as a group and walking away laughing whenever she approached.

For a time she tried to ignore their rudeness, assuming that it was because she was new in the ward. She felt that with a little time they would all become good friends. It seemed, though, that she was wrong. Time seemed merely to aggravate and intensify the problems.

She was a strong girl, therefore she was initially able to handle the situation emotionally, but after a period of weeks and months she began to wonder what was wrong with her and even to feel that she was the one who was at fault.

To eliminate the snickering and giggling when she participated in class, she stopped taking part. To keep the girls from pointedly ignoring her when she spoke to them, she quit speaking, at first to them and then almost altogether.

At school, it became the practice of the four girls to call out and mock her whenever she appeared. It wasn’t long before she was slumping down and hiding her face simply so the girls wouldn’t notice her. At home her mother worried about her poor posture, but the pattern was established and was not easily changed.

For a year this ridicule and persecution continued, and it was so intense and so constant that it had a severe impact on the image that she had of herself. If they thought of her as nothing, how could she be anything else?

Her parents, of course, did all in their power to correct the situation. They went to the parents of each of the girls and talked it over with them, and those parents agreed to help. Yet when they confronted their daughters the girls denied their guilt. And the situation remained unchanged.

At length, realizing that their daughter was being destroyed emotionally, the girl’s parents decided that they would send her away to live with her grandmother. She agreed and soon word got around that she was leaving.

On her last Sunday in the ward, she went to sacrament meeting as usual. During the meeting she noticed that a counselor in the Relief Society presidency was having trouble with her baby, so she took the child and tended it out in the foyer, thus freeing the woman to listen to the service.

As the meeting ended and people began filling up the foyer, the four girls ran breathlessly up to her. They were all smiles and cheer and bubbly enthusiasm, and as she searched their radiant faces and listened to their expressions of sorrow that she was leaving she found it difficult to contain her emotions.

Was it possible? Could it be that after a whole year they were finally changing? She held the fussing baby and wondered aloud that they were suddenly interested in her.

The girls giggled and assured her that of course they were concerned. They felt bad about Sunday School and had all gone in together to purchase her a going-away present. If there was anything that could prove their concern for her and tell her how they really felt about her, it would be this gift.

She was so astounded that she stood mute while they handed her the gift, beautifully wrapped, and then scurried away. She was still standing silently, gazing in awe at the present, when the counselor came after her baby.

She too noticed the brightly wrapped gift and so stood excitedly near as the girl carefully untied the bows and unwrapped the paper. As she unwrapped it, she struggled to hold back her tears. It was so incredibly wonderful that the girls had finally changed. She had waited so long and had tried so hard and had been rebuffed so many times—but it had finally worked out.

At last, she had the gift open. As she gazed down into the box she could hold her tears back no longer. They fell freely as she stood quietly and sobbed.

The Relief Society counselor, silently wondering at the girl’s burst of emotion, leaned over so that she too might see what had been carefully placed inside that beautifully wrapped package. The package given to the girl from her friends, her Latter-day Saint friends. When she saw the gift, she too felt the tears start to roll down her cheeks,  for inside the box that the girl was holding was a can of dog food. 

*This is a true story taken & adapted from “Others” written by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason. 

It is heart-wrenching to hear when someone is tormented, belittled, and/or persecuted by others. It is even more appalling when we hear it happening within the church. When we treat each other in such a way, we put up a spiritual wall between us. 

Treating each other unkindly, was something that happened in the time of the Apostle Paul as well. Paul worked very hard trying to create an environment of unity and love among Jewish and Gentile Saints. He taught that there should be no walls or barriers between members of God’s church for all barriers were removed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All who have accepted the gospel are now “the household of God,” part of God’s covenant people. It is Christ who “is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”

As President Hinckley once said:

“We must be friends…We speak of the fellowship of the Saints. This is and must be a very real thing. We must never permit this spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood to weaken. We must constantly cultivate it. It is an important aspect of the gospel.” (Fear Not to Do Good, Ensign, May 1983)

May we ever be mindful of those around us. Welcoming all visitors and new members with open arms, no matter who they are. May we also not be so set-in-our-ways that we do not recognize when we have unintentionally prevented others from feeling included and loved. Let there be no walls between us.  

Want to learn how to recognize and prevent bullying in church? Check out this article by LDSLiving by clicking HERE

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Yours Truly,

P.S. This blog post was used in Episode 25: No More Strangers podcast. Listen to it on Itunes or on my blog by clicking HERE. 

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