That was a prompt we had to respond to in my religious studies class (I'm 16). This was my answer:
My name is ......., and I am a Christian, specifically a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (for short, I am LDS, more commonly known as Mormon). I believe that the holy priesthood power that Jesus Christ and his disciples held left the Earth when they died, because they did not pass it on by the laying on of hands; they foresaw the unbelief of the rising generation. This was the Great Apostasy. In 1820, a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith prayed alone in a grove of trees to know which church was true. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, as separate spirits and bodies, both appeared to him and told him that the gospel truths had been corrupted (over the centuries) by other Christian churches, and none were true. This was the First Vision. Over time, as the priesthood was bestowed upon him and the location and translation of scripture written in ancient America were revealed to him, he became the first prophet of the restored church. The Great Apostasy ended, and prophets continue to lead the church today through divine revelation.
My whole family (i.e. my parents and I) is part of this church. I have believed my whole life, but I set the date of my ‘conversion,’ when I started taking the gospel seriously, to October 7, 2007. The current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and several other church leaders, had just finished speaking in a church-wide broadcast, General Conference. That Sunday evening was the strongest I ever felt the Holy Ghost tell me that everything the church teaches is true. I testify that the warm, irrefutable feeling the Holy Ghost gives when what you are doing and believing is right is what makes the difference between an idea and truth. It is what makes religion true. Man, and the logic and emotions he feels, are imperfect. God is perfect. My goal, our goal, I believe, is to be worthy, by being good people and doing what He asks, to return to live with Him in Heaven, and receive all that He has as the glorified being that created this universe, by whatever means. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
