Money in a Fish

(News flash: We found out that there has been some progress on our new Morrisville ward building! There is a meeting scheduled for January 21 between the builder and the Church officials, rumor has it that the Church might get possession of the building at that time. But that's only a rumor so don't hold your breath.)



When I was at BYU around 1978, one of my religion instructors gave us an assignment to go to the Special Collections of the BYU library and read one of the original manuscripts they had there. I read the diary of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner (you might remember her as one of the two young sisters who rescued the Book of Commandments by running into a cornfield when the mob was destroying the printing press.)

I really enjoyed reading her diary, and I hand-copied some of the stories she told. The following story occurred during the persecutions of the Mormons, but I didn't copy down what state they were in or what year it was. Obviously the families were trying to flee the persecution when this event occurred.

"While waiting to be ferried over, they found there was not money enough among the men to take all over. A few families would have to be left behind and the fear was that they would be killed. Some of the brethren...thought they would try to catch some fish. Perhaps the ferryman would take them...when they took in their line they found...one catfish that weighed fourteen pounds. On opening it what was their astonishment to find three bright silver half dollars, just the amount needed to pay for taking their teams over the river."
p. 11, Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, call #M270.07 L62 BYU Special Collections.

When I taught the New Testament last year in seminary, I used her story during the lesson when I taught about Matthew 17:27. In Matthew, Jesus tells the apostles to catch fish, and they find money inside the fish and use it to pay the tribute money.

It is a testimony to me that God uses similar miracles at different times, in one case to pay Jesus's tribute money, and in this case to save the lives of poor saints who didn't have enough money to cross the river.