“You Are the Church,” Liahona, Apr. 2025.
Latter-day Saint Voices
You Are the Church
During 70 days in a lookout tower, my husband and I had everything we needed to remain faithful to the Savior and His gospel.
Illustration by Bradley Clark
In June 1963, my husband, Gary, and I left the Cardston Alberta Temple and began our journey together as newlyweds in the gospel of Jesus Christ. All our possessions were stuffed in a few bags laid on the backseat of our little car as we drove to Clarkia, Idaho, USA.
Gary was to begin work watching for wildfires at the Anthony Peak lookout tower in the St. Joe National Forest. Five miles (8 km) by road and an additional three miles (5 km) by mountain trail, our first home together was a single room in a lookout tower 30 feet (9 m) above ground.
Before arriving in Clarkia, we visited President Larson, the president of a small branch in that area. We explained that for the next 70 days, we would be living in a lookout tower and would not be able to take a day off for Sunday worship services in his branch at St. Maries, Idaho.
Given our unique circumstances, President Larson shared inspired and helpful counsel: “Brother and Sister Coleman, you will be the Church in your little home on Anthony Peak. You have the priesthood, your covenants, your testimony, your scriptures, and your faith to do everything necessary to be faithful in the gospel. I authorize you to hold sacrament meeting each Sunday, where you may partake of the sacrament and give talks about the gospel. You will hold your priesthood meeting, your Relief Society meeting, Sunday School class, and family home evening. You are the Church!”
As we said goodbye to President Larson, we felt blessed to begin our family journey in our authorized two-person group of the Church on Anthony Peak. We held daily prayer, individually and as a couple. We each had a copy of the scriptures, and we had a Sunday School manual. Gary would teach priesthood meeting, and I would participate. I would teach Relief Society meeting, and he would participate. On the appropriate Sunday, we would hold fast and testimony meeting.
A Special Love for Nephi
In this environment, we began our lifelong study of, and love for, the sacred Book of Mormon, which had played a significant role in Gary’s conversion in 1962. As we studied, we grew a special love for Nephi.
When Nephi was young, he and his family left their home in Jerusalem, as directed by revelation to Lehi (see 1 Nephi 2:2). In the wilderness and later in the promised land of the Americas, they were isolated from others who believed in the Savior’s coming. But Lehi’s family had everything they needed. They had faith, they had the scriptures in the form of the brass plates, and they had prophetic guidance.
In this setting, Nephi sought and gained a personal testimony of the Savior and spiritual experiences with Him (see 1 Nephi 2:16). He did not have access to the synagogues or learned teachers of Jerusalem. Yet Nephi grew in spiritual stature and developed a personal relationship with deity, as evidenced by his use of dozens of different titles for the Savior Jesus Christ.
In the wilderness, Nephi says, “It came to pass that the Lord spake unto me” (1 Nephi 2:19). In like manner, Heavenly Father spoke to Gary and me on a hilltop in our forest wilderness.
Regarding the essentials of the gospel of Jesus Christ, President Russell M. Nelson said, “One Muslim man said it this way, ‘When your Christianity is simple enough that I can take it with me on the back of a camel, I will be interested.’ Faith, repentance, baptism, the endowment, and the sealing ordinance are essential.”
We had all we needed.
I am grateful for guidance from a branch president in Idaho and for the counsel of ancient and modern prophets. Truly, as the Lord declared in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
May our faith in the Savior, joy in His gospel, and gratitude for the Book of Mormon grow as we gather with other Latter-day Saints—whatever our numbers and wherever we are.