DMC by staff
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on April 19, 2008 |
I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but like all people, whether “born in the church” or not, I had to find out the truth for myself. I don’t ever recall really questioning what I had been taught in church or by my parents, but I will always remember one Sunday in particular. I was 12 years old, and one of my Young Women’s teachers was discussing the importance of gaining a testimony for yourself. She talked about how we couldn’t always lean on the testimony for others and how we cannot have blind faith, but that we needed to know the truth for ourselves. She challenged and pleaded with us to go home and to pray to find out the truth for ourselves. At church I thought her message was nice, but I didn’t understand the importance of it… yet. After church her face kept coming into my mind, pleading for me to find out for myself. The more I though about it, the greater the need I felt to do just that. So I went to my bedroom and thought about what I wanted to know, and I knelt down and prayed. I will never forget the amazing power that filled my entire body, how full my heart was, and how close I felt to my Heavenly Father at that moment. I knew that God was there, listening to me- and ready and waiting to answer my prayer. Since then I have never doubted.I know that my Heavenly Father lives, and that He knows me and every person individually, and that He loves me. I know that my Savior lives. I know that He lived a perfect life and that He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and again on the cross for me, that He died and was resurrected that I may not only live again, but that I may become clean and pure through the power of the atonement. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he was an instrument in God’s hands in restoring the fullness of the gospel on the earth again. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. I know that President Hinckley is a prophet today, that he, under the direction of the Savior who stands at the head of this church, is His spokesman for the world. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that it is scripture, that it has the power to change lives, and as we follow the teachings of Christ and the prophets we find in all scripture, that they will work together to lead us to God. I know that there is a great plan of salvation and that plan truly is a plan of happiness, and as we follow that plan, as we follow Christ and keep the commandments, we will find peace and joy in this life and in the life to come.
