The necklace had been missing for two weeks. A seventeen-year-old from São Paulo had searched two visiting locker rooms and every corner of his own school, and the gold chain his mother gave him was gone. So he did what the book on his nightstand had just taught him to do. He knelt beside his bed and asked God two questions at once: if the Book of Mormon was true, and where his gold had gone.

The answer came as a vision, and it changed the direction of his life. On a recent episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sat down with Jonathan Tavernari, the Catholic altar boy who became one of the most decorated players in BYU basketball history and a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their conversation covers a lifetime of moments where, as Jonathan puts it, he has seen the hand of God without ever seeing His physical hand.

A One-Way Ticket and a Gold Cross  

Jonathan grew up in the São Paulo area, the only child of Roberto and Thelma Tavernari. His mother was his first basketball coach, and not just any coach. She coached Brazilian youth basketball for more than four decades and became so decorated that the national coach of the year trophy carries her name. Jonathan learned the game, as he says, at the foot of the master.

At 16, his parents mortgaged what they had to send him to America on a one-way ticket. He arrived barely speaking English, wearing the gold cross his mother had given him, carrying a dream of a college scholarship. He spent lonely holidays far from family, faced prejudice for his accent and his clothes, and worked until basketball made him welcome.

Looking back, Jonathan says he never truly felt alone in those years, even before he understood why. He now believes the Savior, the Holy Ghost, and loved ones on the other side of the veil were with him long before he knew their names for himself.

Moroni's Promise and a Vision in the Snow  

The doctrine that first reached him was eternal families. A boy who had watched his parents grow older through a computer screen learned that families can be together forever, and he wanted it. Friends invited him to church, then to a priesthood session of general conference, then to dinner with the men of the quorum. He calls that night the greatest show of brotherhood he had seen in his life.

He was given a set of scriptures and read the Book of Mormon through to Moroni's promise, the invitation to ask God with a sincere heart and real intent. When his mother's necklace disappeared, he brought both questions to the Lord in the same prayer. In a vision, he saw the necklace lying in a gutter outside the house, covered in snow. He ran outside, dug through the snow, and found it exactly where he had seen it.

He washed the necklace, knelt again, and asked if he should be baptized. The feeling that followed lifted him like nothing he had known. He was baptized in Brazil so his Catholic parents could witness it, in a half-filled font on a cold São Paulo day, and he counts it among the best decisions of his life.

Miracles in Italy  

Years later, after a record-setting BYU career, Jonathan played professionally in Italy with his wife, Kiri, at his side. One Sunday while he traveled with his team, she rode a train an hour and a half through pounding snow to reach church. During the meetings, the storm shut down the trains and buses across the region. She stood stranded at the station and realized no one on earth knew where she was.

Her prayer was plain. She had done what she was supposed to do, and she asked God to deliver her. A thought came to walk back to the chapel. As she approached, two missionaries were stepping out of the building. Over pizza days later, the elders wept as they explained that they had felt an unmistakable prompting at lunch to dress, return to the chapel, and wait, without knowing why.

Italy held another answer as well. When Jonathan broke his foot during the best season of his career, he prayed for angels to minister to him. The next morning, an email arrived from a senior missionary serving an hour away, a highly regarded orthopedic surgeon from Utah who had been fasting about whether to go home early. His mission president told him he believed the reason for his mission had just broken a foot nearby. The surgeon walked Jonathan through his entire rehabilitation.

The Blessing Before the Needle  

The story Jonathan calls the hardest of them all came ten days into fatherhood. His son had been delivered in an emergency and was fighting in the NICU when doctors ordered a spinal tap and described the procedure as life-threatening. Drained and empty, Jonathan asked his father-in-law to give the baby a priesthood blessing.

He describes the room filling with loved ones from the other side of the veil, grandparents and relatives whose temple work he and Kiri had done, present in a way he could feel. Moments before the procedure began, a doctor sprinted down the hall shouting for the team to stop. A specialist on vacation overseas had felt prompted to open her laptop at dinner, review the baby's tests two weeks early, and call. The episodes were muscle spasms, not seizures. The needle never touched his son.

Three Years Without an Answer  

Jonathan does not pretend that faith has made his life simple. He has been praying about some things for close to three years without receiving the outcome he needs. He admits to wrestling with God, even to one-sided shouting matches. What he refuses to do is stop believing.

He holds to the counsel to doubt your doubts before doubting your faith, and he trusts that when heaven seems quiet, there is a lesson he has not yet learned rather than a Father who has stopped listening. He compares it to a child clutching a small teddy bear while the Savior waits with a larger one behind His back, asking only for trust.

Asked who Jesus Christ is to him, Jonathan reaches for the Garden of Gethsemane. Having broken bones and felt real pain, he says he cannot begin to fathom what the Savior endured, or the love that kept Him there when He could have ended it at any moment. His answer lands in a single word. Jesus, for him, is hope.

Key Takeaways  

Jonathan's witness offers a pattern anyone can follow. We can learn to see the hand of God without ever seeing His physical hand. God sends ministering angels, and sometimes they arrive as missionaries, surgeons, and friends. God keeps Moroni's promise and answers those who ask with a sincere heart and real intent. Unanswered prayers are not rejection; sometimes God waits while we learn the lesson He is teaching. And faith is a choice, because Jesus Christ is the hope that steadies us when answers are slow.

If Jonathan's story stirred something in you, listen to the full conversation on Why We Believe, and put Moroni's promise to the test in your own life. Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Follow Jonathan Tavernari LinkedIn: @jt45 | X: @For3JT