This chapter is for stories Steve told about things that happened to him: getting to Ricks, learning to pray, giving away his shoes in Honduras, and other moments where his own life is plainly inside the story. It is not a dump of every illustration he ever used in a talk. It stays with the stories that carry his own life inside them.
He usually told these stories for a reason. One would turn into a lesson about prayer, another into a lesson about who stepped up for him, another into a hard look at his own motives while trying to give. But the stories come first. That is why they lasted.
The excerpts below are lightly normalized for spelling and punctuation so they read cleanly. Click any scan to open the original handwriting. Fuller source-first versions live in Book Editions.
"I am a result of a prayer of a mother or friend to get me a chance for a better life."
Getting to Ricks Changed the Question
1975 - handwritten report and later talk
Before he told this as a talk story, he wrote it out as a younger man still trying to answer a harder question: who am I, and what am I going to become.
The later prayer talk tells the broad story well, but the earlier handwritten report is better at showing the kid inside it. He was insecure, interested, skeptical, grateful, and surprised that anyone would go that far out of the way for him.
How I got to Ricks, page 2.How I got to Ricks, page 3.How I got to Ricks, page 4.How I got to Ricks, page 5.
Excerpts
"Who am I? Am I a 'nut' or just a crazy guy doing my own thing? Most every experience relates to the question, 'Who am I?' That gives me a feeling of insecurity and doubt about what I'm really going to become. I've tried everything you could imagine, but the spiritual ones I never forget."
"While we were scrubbing the walls, he started talking about a place called 'Ricks College.' This time I felt he was talking on my level. I told him to pick me up in an hour. After I hung up, I thought of who I was and why he was doing all this for me. I decided to try my best to get in this place called 'Ricks.'"
"All the way up there I was thinking I'd never get in. The returned missionary put himself second. He could have said, 'Go up there yourself.' The teacher went out of his way to get me registered. So when that question comes up again, I can honestly say, 'I am a child of God.'"
Built from Steve's handwritten 1975 report about getting to Ricks College, with the later prayer talk used only as supporting context. Fuller source-first versions live in Book Editions.
How He Gained a Testimony of Prayer
Ricks to Rigby to Fillmore - retold later
This is one of the stories that became part of family vocabulary because it sounded exactly like the way his life often worked: broken truck, stubborn refusal, forced prayer, and then help arriving in a way he never forgot.
By the time he told this story in his later talk on prayer, he already knew the lesson he wanted from it. What gives the story weight is that he leaves all the stubbornness in. He did not present himself as naturally spiritual. He presented himself as a guy who had to be pushed into kneeling down.
Excerpts
"My 58 truck was sensitive and it took a lot of love and care from me to keep it going. End of school came and I promised Shorty and another girl I would take them home to California in my broken-down truck. I fixed it and so it ran. So with two girls and their stuff in the back of the truck, we left, and we got an hour out and my truck broke down."
"I paid ten cents to use the restroom. I got on my knees and said a prayer to help get my truck working because I had a responsibility to get these girls home. The girls hid my keys from me and said that I was a priesthood holder and they wanted me to say a prayer. So I said, 'Dear Lord help us find air to help us get through this.'"
"Not too far up the road there was this green gas station. Closed, but the air hose was out. So I filled up the tire with air. The girls looked at me like it was a miracle. Now I have driven through Fillmore fifty times and I have never seen that gas station. I had a testimony of prayer."
From Steve's later talk on prayer, where he ties the Rigby breakdown, the green gas station, and the bridge metaphor together. Fuller source-first versions live in Book Editions.
He Would Not Get Up Until He Knew
Guam - retold later in 2003-2004, 2015, and the prayer talk
This is the story of how he said he stopped borrowing belief and got his own answer.
He told this one more than once later in life, and the core of it stays the same. A minister pressed him, he admitted he did not know for himself, his companion told him to find out, and that night he went alone to pray by a cliff in Guam.
It belongs here because it is one of the clearest stories Steve ever told about himself. He did not clean it up. He says plainly that he had gone on a mission without really having his own testimony. Then he says he stayed there until he got one.
Excerpts
"Kind of sad that I didn't have a testimony even though I went on a mission. But I really didn't have my own, just thought I did."
"I was teaching this one minister about the gospel and he stopped us and said he wanted to hear from me."
"I said I don't know if it is true. My companion was in shock. What do you mean you don't know if it is true? You better find out."
"So that night I went down to the cliff and knelt down to pray. I was in Guam at the time."
"I said I would not get up until I had my answer. I was in a bind. I either had to know it was true, and if it was not I would be going home."
"It said you have always known it was true. And if you want to know if God lives, just look around you and you will know that he lives."
"Since that time I can never deny what I felt or heard."
Built from Steve's later retellings of how he received his testimony, especially the 2003-2004 journal account, the 2015 missionary blog entry, and the later prayer talk. Fuller source-first versions live in Book Editions.
Giving Away His Shoes
Puerto Cortes, Honduras - July 10, 2011
This one is small, direct, and unmistakably his. It starts with him saying no, catches him in the hypocrisy almost immediately, and ends with him correcting himself before the moment is gone.
He wrote this from Honduras after a rare free afternoon by the ocean. He was sweeping out the car, set his shoes on top of it, and a man came by asking for them. What makes the story worth keeping is not just that he gave them away. It is that he wrote down the ugly first reaction too, then judged himself harder than he judged the man.
Excerpts
"I put my shoes on top of the car and someone came by and asked me for my shoes."
"I would give the shirt off my back if someone really needed it. But not the shoes I was wearing. Kind of a hypocrite."
"So I stood up, grabbed the shoes, and turned to run down the street to locate the man who asked me for my shoes... The look on his face was happiness like I just gave him a million bucks."
"The Savior gave all that he had and did it with a kind heart. I gave, but I don't know if I had the right attitude about it. I am trying to have a better attitude about serving and giving."
Share something about Steve or something he used to tell
If you knew him, or if there is a story he told often enough that it still belongs with him, send it here. Submissions go into the review queue first. They do not become canon automatically.
