The post My Testimony in Russian – The Church is True appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

The post Tom: My LDS Conversion – a Mormon Testimony (1 of 2) appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

The stories I had remembered the most were about pioneers, particularly about my own ancestors. I remember her telling me about a young girl that crossed the plains, escaped from religious persecution and arrived in the Salk Lake Valley with gunny sacks on her feet. My grandmother asked me: Would you have done that? And my comment was “No, what if someone had seen me?” And suddenly, my grandma said “She had faith and you don’t”.

Now, I actually took that as a challenge. And I suppose the challenge is still on. As a young girl I would read scriptures with the flashlight in bed when it was told that lights should go off. I would read such books as The history of Joseph Smith, by his mother Lucy Smith. I would read books like The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt – one of the great apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

And it was not long that I began to realize that I was reading to write. Through the process, I’ve written many, many books and several of them now on a man named Joseph Smith. Through that process I’ve learned some very interesting things. I’ve learned that from the time of his youthful utterance, there in the Palmira Woods in the spring of 1820, to his manly cry in the Jail at Carthage – that Joseph Smith was all that he said he was. That he was truly called by God to be a prophet, much like other prophets that have walked the Earth such as Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Now if you were to say: What do I think about his teaching? He teaches us about God the Father. That God the Father loves us and that we are his children. He teaches us about Jesus Christ. We learn about Christ through the Holy Bible. But, in addition, as a member of the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I learned about Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. I decided to make a most unusual study of that book – it was actually a simple process. But I went through the book and underlined every time the name of Christ appeared. I found that there were, on an average, on every 1.7 verses, the name of Christ appeared. If you were to compare that to the New Testament, on an average, every 2.1 verses has the name of Christ.

If you were to say just 5 word count of long – which Scripture was the best witness for Jesus Christ? Hands down, it’s the Book of Mormon. Now what’s been so interesting to me is that as life has gone on, I pursued a doctorate and was fortunate enough to be a professor. For 30 years now I’ve been a professor at Brigham Young University. During these years I’ve had an opportunity to teach many subjects. My most favourite has always been about the life of Joseph Smith. I had a chance to read primary sources. I had a chance to travel where Joseph travelled. To literally live at times, where he’s lived.

I’ve seen people who have said “I don’t think Joseph’s a prophet. I really like your church, I like the idea that families can be together forever. I like the idea of being morally clean and not smoking and not drinking. But it’s that Joseph Smith that I struggle with”. I then say to them – Without Joseph Smith, the prophet of restoration, all the things you say you like about our church, it just wouldn’t happen. Because Joseph was a prophet, because of Joseph Smith, I know that my husband has the authority to act in the name of God. That when I’m sick, he can give me a blessing. I also know that my husband, because he has the authority to act in the name of God, that he has the right to arraign our children to various priesthood offices. I joyed when my son became a deacon, when he became an Elder and I’m forever grateful for their lives. And more especially, for the life of my great husband.

I also know that because of Joseph Smith, I’ve been privileged to be sealed to my husband for all time and all eternity. You know, as time passes and you get older, we know that we have the privilege to be together forever. Now, the question is, wouldn’t you like that for yourself too? Wouldn’t you like to know that you have the right to call on the Heavenly Father that you can kneel in prayer? Wouldn’t you like the blessing of knowing that you have the priesthood in your home, that you had somebody in your home that loved you and that was worthy to act in the name of our Father in Heaven? Well, I feel most blessed. If you were to ask how I feel about the prophet Joseph Smith – I love his memory. I love what he taught. I’m always overwhelmed by his sacrifice. I am overwhelmed by his statement that he could not deny it and he would not, less it would come in accommodation with God.

I will be forever grateful for a man named Joseph Smith. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord’s church upon the earth. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I also know that the men have succeeded him as presidents of the church are also prophets of God. It is my hope that you will take the time to read the Book of Mormon, to find out the Mormon Church in your area, to pray and ask the Father in Heaven if the Book of Mormon is true. I testify that if you will do these things with sincerity and be humble, that you will find greater joy and happiness in this life than you had ever imagined.

The post BYU Professor Susan Easton: My Testimony of Joseph Smith appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

Laura: I’m Laura Wilfred and I love to cook all kinds of cuisines and I also do design. Allan is just adorable. He doesn’t look adorable, but he’s adorable. When you look at Allen with the choppers on the side and he’s this big, burly guy.

Allan:  Boy, Laura’s quite the gal. To describe her – she’s 100+ miles an hour. I’m pretty happy to go 55 or 60.

Laura: He’s giving himself credit – he’s like 30. He is such a sweet teddy bear. He cries more than I do.

Allan:  I worked at a grocery store for 15 years and I really didn’t like the white shirt and tie thing and finally quit and opened up a little body shop. It’s a great carrier – something I love to do.

Laura: I got married very young, right out of high school and it was a bad marriage right from the beginning. I knew, I just needed to change my life.

Alan: My first marriage, I was married for 15 years to a wonderful gal. And I started making a few bad choices. I started drinking, started drinking a little more and I messed our marriage up. You know, 100% my fault.  And of course, we got divorced and I hated myself, I hated myself for what I did to my family.

Laura: Lucky there’s life after divorce and good life after divorce. I met Allan.

Allan:  The day I met her was a Sunday morning, I had a hangover, as usual. And boy, I think I fell in love with her in a matter of seconds – head over heels. Absolutely crazy in love with her. And she must have been really blind because she fell in love with me too. The day I met her, that Sunday morning was… it’s been 20 years ago. It was the last I ever drank and that’s an amazing thing to me cause I tried to quit a lot of times. She got me back on the right track. There’s never a second that goes by in a day that I don’t think about that. I’ll be eternally thankful to God for giving me another chance.

Laura: He helped me understand what a real relationship is about and I’m so grateful for him, for saving my life.

Allan:  I’m Allan Wilfred.

Laura: My name is Laura Wilfred and I’m a mom.

Allan:  I’m a father, I’m a husband.

Laura: I’m a chef.

Allan:  I’m an off-road enthusiast.

Laura: I’m a goer.

Allan:  I’ve been sober for 20 years.

Laura: I just love life!

Allan:  I grow funny mustaches.

Laura: And I’m a Mormon.

Allan:  And I’m a Mormon.

The post Allan: I’m a husband, and father, a Jeep enthusiast, and a Harley rider, and I’m a Mormon. appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

Sadly though, one day all that changed for me. I suffered a heart attack. Actually I’ve had two heart attacks from ’07 to now, December of ’07 when I had a second one. I was removed from the field, which is to say no more firefighting or paramedic work which is very, very difficult for me. Gosh, I miss this! I miss being out there, working the paramedic work. I miss it a whole lot. It looks pretty crazy doing a job like that, but we love doing it.

We lost our home due to that difficulty and due to that loss of wages at that time. To see that go away was a tough deal. At this point, I changed my whole focus. I changed family life, I changed a lot of things. The job I have now is quite different. It involves working with the media and the public. Before, I was out there in the thick of things. And now, I’m behind the scenes. I’m heard but never seen.

I get to see everything that’s going on in the city, from stabbings to shootings to fires to car accidents, to deliveries of babies – I get to see them all! And that could be overwhelming sometimes, so it’s a different workload that you take home with you. So, on the drive home, I love listening to the Scriptures. That’s decompression for me and it puts me in the right frame of mind to think about spiritual things and that keeps my focus on the drive home so that, when I see my kids, I’m appreciative about not only what others have lost that day, be it that they lost their house to a fire – I can focus on those things and be happy that I have my family, my health and my happiness.

I’m a Los Angeles city firefighter paramedic.  My name is Devin Gales and I’m a Mormon.

The post Devin: I am a devoted husband, father of 3, Firefighter/Paramedic, musician, & YES! I’m a Mormon appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

I remember asking how can God and Jesus be the same person? And I was told that was a mystery. I asked who participated in the war of heaven. I reasoned there would have had to be someone there besides Jesus if there was a war in Heaven. And I was told that was a mystery. I had other questions that I posed and again, the answers were not given. While I was grateful for the fundamentals that I’ve learned, I knew that the full truth was not contained in the walls of the church to which I’ve been going.

So I kind of drifted for a while, not really knowing about God and not really knowing what my purpose was. And at that point, I stopped attending church and I searched in the only ways I could search to know more. But, eventually, as the years went on, I began to despair that I would never know the purpose of my life. And I had a hard time moving forward because, without that, I had no real way of measuring who I was, how I was doing, what I should do. I was tired even of the routine things like fumbling for your house keys in the cold and studying theories in classes without having a way to evaluate them. I just didn’t seem to have that sense of ultimate purpose.

And yet, I found that as I read and I looked for truth, that my search was sped and there was a divine source leading me one, although I didn’t know that God and truth had anything to do with each other. I remember taking notes even as I read things in a little notebook that I carried with me for about 10 years, thinking “I’m just assembling this massive jigsaw puzzle and one day I’ll figure it out – I have a few corner pieces and a fire center pieces, but one day this will all come back together”.

So I kept looking and I think the questions about the purpose of life would continue to spring up whenever we’re given the least chance. Almost like a flower in springtime. And I would revisit those questions again and try to find out more and eventually, tuck them away for a season. And that continued to be the case until, I think finally the will to live ran bare. I just didn’t have that desire anymore after a certain point. I just began to despair about life and that I would never find the answers to these questions in my heart.

So, I remember sitting on the edge of my studio bed, despondently one day, looking over my circumstances and thinking “Why go on?” Why go on without this key to the universe? And I was caught then by surprise, actually by a gentle but profound string of impressions that I now recognize came from my Heavenly Father, through the Spirit. And those impressions – it was in the form of a voice coming to my mind and the thoughts that came to me were “Well, you have to have the courage to live on. Every moment of love and discovery in your life has not been wasted. You’ll find the purpose of life.”

And while I could not understand fully how those impressions came and appeared on the screen in my soul, so to speak, I accepted them confidently and totally. And so, I spent a few months really contemplating my life and searching further, again in the only ways I knew how to search for the answers to those questions. I prepared myself for the knowledge that was promised me and then, I had a remarkable experience one evening.

I remember I was out in a beautiful summer night. I was jogging in the neighborhood, under the light of this exquisite full moon and this is difficult to explain – and I’m not sure I have exactly the words to portray what happened. But somehow, as I reflected over my life, it sort of summed itself up in a way that it never had before and I caught a swift panorama of my entire life in just a split second. And then, at that moment, I was infused with complete un-doubtable witness that God lived.

And I knew for myself for the first time in my life that he lived independent of any other person and it was a knowledge that I can’t deny. I remember that I sat down the curve and started to cry tears of joy – I was so excited. I felt I belonged, I felt I was loved and I felt a deeper sense of connection with everyone around me, immediately. But my questions then were, well – what about Christ, what about the things I’ve been taught, what does he expect of me, what’s my responsibility towards him? What exactly is this relationship supposed to be and what do I do now?

The post Karen: My Conversion to the LDS Church appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

And I know that they have my best interest at heart like my parents at home. And they have done so many things for me and my life to help me make good choices. And I’ve learned in Church how to make choices and listen to the spirit of the Heavenly Father so I know what he would have me do. And when I pray, when I read the scripture, when I listen to our living prophet Gordon B. Hinckley – I know that they are telling me things form God to help me make choices. And when I make choices based on answers to prayer, to revelations, to a modern prophet, I am able to be happy with those choices. I find myself in so much better situations than if I had not made those choices.

So many times I don’t understand why God would have me do certain things but after I do them and after I’ve passed the test of doing God’s will, I am able to find immense happiness in my choices and see, looking back, how has God blessed my life so immensely.

The post Amy: My Testimony about the Mormon Church appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.

The post The Book of Mormon Testifies of Jesus Christ appeared first on TestimonyChannel.com | LDS Testimonies & Testimonies of Christ.