"We experienced a special day in our family on January 4, 1997.  My brother organized a party honoring the 200th birthday of Gustavus Adolphus Perry.  He was an important member of our family tree.  He was baptized in 1832 and became the first of our family to embrace the gospel.  The Perry family history records this remarkable event:

'On a beautiful farm in the state of New York, Gustavus Adolphus Perry and his good wife, Eunice Wing, with their three sons, Orrin Alonzo, Lorenzo, and Henry Elisha, and their four daughters, Rosalie Alvira, Alvina, Amanda, and Lucy, were living very peacefully and happily.  Close to the year of 1830 (we do not know the exact date) one evening after a light snow had fallen, the family was all in for the night.  It was dark and the latchstring was drawn in so no one could enter the house.  Then suddenly without warning, a stranger walked into the home and greeted them with these words:  'God bless you.'  He spent the night with them explaining the principles of the gospel and told them of a new book called the Book of Mormon and quoted passages from the same.  He then told them on what pages they were to find the quotations and that elders would soon visit them.  The messenger disappeared in the morning just as suddenly as he had appeared the night before, leaving no tracks in the freshly fallen snow.  They inquired of their neighbors to see if anyone had seen him.  They had not, and no trace of him could be found.'

This good family was ready for the gospel when it came to them, and they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1832….

As part of the birthday celebration, my brother spent a year searching for the descendants of Gustavus Adolphus Perry.  We were amazed at the record he had on the table before us as we celebrated.  He had found more than 10,000 descendants of this good man.  The number overwhelmed me.  Suddenly I realized the value of a good name.  In seven to eight generations, his family had sufficient numbers to organize three stakes of Zion."

—As told by Elder L. Tom Perry, The New Era, February 2009, pgs. 2-4.