How did you gain your testimony of the gospel?

[GeorgiaRED]

Hey all!

I was wondering if y'all could share your testimonies regarding how y'all found out that this church is true and that The Book of Mormon is indeed the word of god. I've heard many Saints shared their testimony and I never grow tire of listening to someone share their testimony of the gospel.

I took a look at the,"Prayer and Testimony" forum but couldn't find much on this subject.

I want to gain my very own testimony and I think listening to others' testimonies can help me.

[applepansy]

I grew up in the church but we all have to gain our own testimonies. We each have to be converted eventually even those of us who have been in the church since birth.

When I was about 12 or 13 years old I noticed how my Dad would be quietly sitting in the living room reading the scriptures while the rest of the house was in chaos every Sunday morning before Sunday School. (This was back in the days when Sunday School was in the morning, Sacrament meeting in the afternoon and other meetings were during the week.) Yelling, teasing, playing around, Mom getting angry because nobody was minding. I was the oldest of five and was expected to help get the younger kids ready. I remember thinking it would all be so much easier if Dad would help. The boys always settled right down when Dad stepped in. Then my next thought with a little anger was "what the heck is so important that he's ignoring all this and not helping?" So I really read the BoM myself, not with my YW class and not a chapter here and there. Then I prayed about it and got my answer. I have been building on it ever since.

Several years ago I wrote a letter to my Dad thanking him for sitting in the living room while the rest of the house was in chaos.

[Still_Small_Voice]

My conversion to the Lord started when I was around eight years old. I would read a child's version of the Book of Mormon and feel the Holy Ghost tell me what I was reading was good and true.

I attended a good ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and had many good examples of men and women who loved Heavenly Father. My parents also taught me the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't recall when the desire to serve a full time mission began in my life, but by the time I turned nineteen years old, I really had a desire to go. Before I left to serve a mission, I read the entire Book of Mormon again and had a few very powerful spiritual witnesses that I was doing what was pleasing to the Lord.

It was serving a full time mission that I really began to start understanding the teachings of Jesus Christ. You really learn by doing. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17) After having the blessed opportunity of serving a mission, I came home to California. (I now no longer live there.)

When I was around twenty-four years in age, I went to a sacrament meeting I will never forget. During that sacrament meeting I received a very powerful witness from the Lord of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had sought a period of years for this witness. The witness the Lord gave me has helped me thru the doubts Satan pushes at me.

The Book of Mormon cost the best blood of the 19th century. It was a record that was in preparation for about 1,000 years and it is true. The Bible is also a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. I love the Gospel records of Christ's ministry.

I can testify if you ask for a witness of the truth of the Lord, He will give it to you. As it reads in the scriptures:

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

The Lord will answer in His own due time if you are sincere in heart.

[Backroads]

I turned my mind toward the possibility of it all being true. Now, I am one of those Mormons that doesn't believe every little thing out of the mouth of a GA is gospel truth, but I've pondered the pure, simple truths of the gospel and guess what? The Holy Ghost bore witness.

[Misshalfway]

Hmm... I got my testimony from:

pre-earth life...cause it was with me when I got here

asking questions

not being satisfied with pat answers

scripture study

making lots of mistakes

being obedient

trusting God

going head to head with satan

experiencing pain

dreams

promptings

from friends who were my teachers

from enemies who were my teachers

arguing with God

submitting to God

exercising faith

repenting

submitting to God's processes

allowing the lessons of love

[Anddenex]

I think, feel, I have always had a testimony regarding Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. That always made sense to me.

I wasn't sure though if Joseph Smith was a prophet though until I was 17. I went to a Private Christian school in the 7th and 8th grade, and earned some friendships, which friendships lead me to other friends who would condemn me to hell because I was a Mormon.

I thought hard and pondered a lot. I remember, when I was walking 17 years old, as I was walking through the halls the spirit witnessed to my heart, "Andrew, why are you not praying like your mom taught you to pray." I, to this day, am shocked how easily I listened and begin praying every night before I went to bed. This action obviously helped me to have the Spirit with me, but yet I still lacked a testimony of Joseph Smith.

I was given a Home Teaching companion who was a convert. He noticed one day while we were out that I was pondering something deeply. He then asked me, "Would you like to share with me your thoughts?" I then shared with him my dilemma about Joseph Smith, and I thought he would respond like everybody else, telling me to believe and that he knew. But he didn't. He didn't even address the question, he simply asked, 'And what have you come to realize?" I thought for a moment and then answered, "I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet." He then bore testimony and said, "I feel the same way."

However, the solidity of my testimony blossomed on my mission in a strange way, at least strange to me. In the MTC I read D&C 8:9. My world, my testimony, was almost broken when I read the words for the first time (or I should say when I understood these words for the first time) that I had never experienced a "burning in your bosom." I realized, then and there, I had never felt a burning in the bosom, and to hear one of the members of the Branch Presidency speak about his burning in the bosom verified my thoughts, my fear, that I did not really have a testimony, I only felt I had a testimony.

I begin fasting and praying once every week, and on fast Sunday I would have fasted 2 times that week. So within 2 months on my mission, I had fasted 10 times in hopes the Lord would reveal the truth to me by the burning in the bosom. I had prayed every night, with no success, and was really thinking about returning home because I did not have a "proper" testimony, or at least I thought I did not.

One Wednesday night after fasting, which was probably the last night, before I would have decided to return home while kneeling, I didn't receive a burning in the bosom, but the Lord spoke to me by His still small voice saying these words, "Andrew, stop asking me something you already know. Live what you know and build upon it."

Since then, that is what I have been doing. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, what a glorious day and age we live in.

Edited June 12, 2012 by Anddenex

[Hala401]

Hey all!

I was wondering if y'all could share your testimonies regarding how y'all found out that this church is true and that The Book of Mormon is indeed the word of god. I've heard many Saints shared their testimony and I never grow tire of listening to someone share their testimony of the gospel.

I took a look at the,"Prayer and Testimony" forum but couldn't find much on this subject.

I want to gain my very own testimony and I think listening to others' testimonies can help me.

I hope that this does not sound to crazy. It is true.

My home life when I was young was pure Hell. I was the youngest of Mom's 3 and she married a man that had 3, and then they had my younger brother between them. This was not a happy family and we all seemed to hate each other. For some reason, my Amish stepfather singled me out to beat. My two brothers would fight back but I was so little that I couldn't. If we went to church on Sunday, it only provided a short interlude of peace and then it was right back to the swearing, alcohol, beatings, and molestation.

Around 12 years old, an old man gave me a book and said I should read it. It could have been the Bible, and not knowing any better, I just read it like a book, not knowing that it was supposed to be true. Later I realised that some people took it very seriously. I knew my family didn't but my step father would yell at me some Bible thing when he got mad at me. He was really fond of telling me that children that did not obey should be stoned. Then one day he said that and I said, well the Bible also says that you should not drive your children to distraction. I don't remember if he kept quoting the bible.

He often threatened to kill me and a few times I thought he did. One day, he was coming after me again and I saw the hatchet on his bench, so I picked it up and meant to bury it in his head. He never tried to beat me again, nor did he touch me any more.

Around 12, I was really curious about God, but it seemed that God just ignored me and life was awful until I left home at 17. I had never dated anyone and married the first person that showed an interest in me. We had two children and adopted one.

Both of us had a lot of baggage, and life was stormy at first but we kept trying and I know that our children had a better life than we'd had. He had been horrifically abused as a child also.

So after we'd been married about 8 years, we had an experience with God, and Jesus Christ and attended church faithfully for about 32 years. I had a problem and in just a week or so, I was thrown out, lost my church, job and everything else. In about 6 months I was almost homeless.

Then I became Muslim because I wanted to worship God but I'd had enough of the Jesus . Islam was hard, but it did make me more modest, and devout. The loss of everything made me seek God with all I had. I spent almost 7 years as a Muslim, but it began to fall apart for me because of a number of factors; the biggest one was Jesus Christ. Muslims believe in Jesus Christ but there are some important doctrinal differences.

So, one day I was out driving near Kirtland, Ohio and happened upon the Kirtland Temple. I felt compelled to learn more about it and finally stopped at the Kirtland Visitor's center. The next three months were a series of occurances that could be explained only by seeing them as the operation of the Holy Spirit. Sisters would want to study scriptures that I had read that day without us having previously communicated. I experienced miraculous healing of my bitterness and anger about my childhood. I was constantly bathed in the love of people I barely knew. The list just goes on and on until I had to accept that Heavenly Father loved me and wanted good things for me.

I realise that I have finally found a church who really does try to do the will of God.

I was baptised January 30th, 2012.