Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 5:16)
Our Heavenly Father has blessed us with the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, with the testimonies of ancient and modern prophets, and with daily strength, protection, guidance, and love. Share your testimony and personal feelings about the Church and Jesus Christ by leaving your comments in a reply to this post (please don’t reply to the Archive posts). Positive comments from non-LDS are welcome!
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Testimonies and life experiences from past years are in the archive.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to all. My name is Samuel, 22yrs of age and living in Kenya. I am the only member of the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS in my family. My testimony has grown and since I joined the Church, I found peace in my heart. I have the desire to go and serve on mission something which my family oppose very much.
I really enjoyed President Eyring’s testimony of the Book of Mormon. I have found that by reading, studying and pondering the Book of Mormon each my life is more productive, enjoyable and peaceful. I have found the answer to many of life’s questions in the Book of Mormon. I recommend the Book of Mormon for all who are searching for a better life.
The first 13 yrs of my life was spent in a duplex type house, as many older homes where, in the 50s and 60s,
Now in this house, was a room, that we called the front room, that was set-aside for the receiving visitors. It was a sitting room. With the finest stuffed furnerature that we owned along with carpeting on the floors and paintings on the walls in what appeared to be very expensive hand carved frames.
This was a room set aside for very special occasions. Our first black and white TV was put in this room. But later changed to the center room or living room that was used the most along with the kitchen. I think to preserve the condition of the front room.
But at any rate this front room, along about the middle of November would be locked and the children where not allowed to enter the room. Because it was being prepared for Christmas.
As things where being prepared the children would often listen at the door while the parents where in the room and we would peek through the key hole trying our best to see anything that we could see that would give us a hint at what gifts awaited us.
We would do our best to hear every word in hopes of hint. And the rustle of paper would raise feelings of excitement and wonder in our young hearts and minds.
As time progressed towards Christmas day, our excitement would grow even greater and our anticipation almost to the point that we felt as though we would burst.
And on Christmas Morning when we had reached the point that we thought we could take no more, we would be up before the sun, and we would wait for it to begin to light up the daylight sky so we could then make enough noise to wake our parents and get into that room that had been locked to us for what seemed an eternity.
My Mother would get up first and go down stairs with us. And she would tell us we had to wait for our Father to come down before we could go into the room.
And then after what seemed like hours, but was only minutes im sure, Dad would appear in the kitchen and ask for breakfast to be made before we started in on what awated us on the other side of that door.;
‘Of course we wanted him to finish eating his breakfast as fast as each of us children had inhaled ours.
But he would often ask for seconds and then sit there digesting for a bit. All the while I know he was teasing us and building us to the point that we could no longer tolerate the waiting. And we would beg him to please, please let us go into the room.
Well he would then get up and say well I have to go in and light the fire to warm up the room. There was a small gas heater that heated the room, And a common grown would come from us all.
But eventually we where lead to the door by our mother and father with the key in my fathers hand and he would open the door and we would pile into the room.
You can only imagine the joy, the excitement and the wonder that filled us as we gazed at the tree and the decorations and all the presents under and around the tree. It appeard as if it was a mountain of presents. And the site magical to our eyes.
I tell you this for a reason. Try to keep this story in mind as I continue with my testimony.
Try to imagine how the excitement grew over that month up to that day and how that magnified our joy on that day.
As far back as I can remember I attended a local church with a neighbor lady and her son an daughter. A protestant church. And I am thankful for that experience. Because I learned in that church somewhat of Jesus and I gained a faith in God and in Jesus Christ even at a very young age.
Now along with myself and my neighbor ladys family, my aunt and two of her daughters also attended this church. And my Aunt was a very strict and devout member of this church and was unwavering in her faith and doctrines.
Well one day two missionaries of the LDS church came to our door. And my Mother invited them in.
Now my mother had been raised as a catholic and most of her family was catholic. And unbeknown to me was that my father was a very inactive LDS member.
I had attended church with my grandparents of my Father when I was young and stayed at their farm in the summer times. But they didn’t always attend. So I was really not familiar with the LDS Church or the book of Mormon at that time.
However while the missionaries spoke with my mother, she agreed to take the discussions. And she asked me and my brothers to sit in on these discussions with her.
I don’t recall my Father being there every time, because he worked shift work and was not always available.
Now I continued to attend this other church with my neighbor and after a one or two discussion I made in known to my Aunt that Mom and I had been talking to these two missionaries and that they gave me a book of mormon.
In a short period of time she asked to sit in on our discussions with the missionaries so as to save us from this work of the devil. And to get this evil book of mormon out of our house.
She would go from the discussions to her preacher and tell him what was being taught to us and seek his council as to how she should help us and what questions and what evidence to present to these missionaries to help her in her endeavor to keep us saved.
As time went by, I read the book of mormon as the missionaries instructed me to do, and I listened to what they had to say and I prayed over everything I read so I could understand it.
Then came the day the missionaries gave us the challenge found in Moroni to ask God if these things where true or not.
I went to my room that night. I read those verses from Moroni and the promise he gave.
(Moroni 10:4-5.)
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
And because I already had faith in Christ I knew I would receive an answer.
Now I admit I liked much of what I heard, but I was confused about much of what I heard both because it went against some of the things that I had been taught and because of the things my Aunt had brought to the discussion and the missionaries struggled to address.
But I knew if I asked God he would tell me. So I asked if this book of mormon was true, was what the missionaries telling us true? Was Joseph Smith a prophet of God? Did Jesus restore his church to the earth after it had been lost?
And what went through me was not unlike what I described to you concerning what joy, and excitement that went through me on those Christmas mornings when we entered that front room. But with more warmth and love attached to it. And my mind was opened.
At that moment I knew. God had answered me. Nothing could change that fact.
There was no doubt in the mind of this eleven year old boy that God lived that Jesus Christ lived that the book of mormon was true and was the word of God. That Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he did restore the gospel to the earth again. And that we has a living prophet on the face of the earth. That prophet, at that time being David O Mc Kay.
And from that moment on it was just a matter of learning the details. The details of what I was confused about as well as all the details I knew laid ahead of me.
My mother and brother had also told the missionaries that they too had, received confirmation. And we where ready to be baptized.
But because of my Aunt and her two daughters our baptism was put on hold.
So we waited while my aunt and her two daughters took the discussions and all six of us where baptized on the same day.
As my Aunt put it, If you cant beat them join them. And she went on to be one of the most faithful and hard working women, along with my mother in what later became the Keyser WVa branch.
Now as I said before my Father was an inactive member as was my aunt’s husband who was my father’s brother.
So they also started again to attend church with the rest of us and their testimonies grew and they became active again.
At that time we attended church in Cumberland Md. And we lived in Luke Md. And we had to travel about thirty miles to church every week. And thirty miles back. Now at that time we had meetings in the morning and then meetings in the afternoon or evening. So it was a matter of making the trip twice a day or hanging out in Cumberland between the meetings.
Eventually the church made us part of a group who attempted to establish a branch in Frostburg Md. But that did not work out and I think it was about a year before the effort stopped.
So the church allowed us to start a branch in Keyser Wva. Keyser was only seven miles away.
Our first meeting was held in the basement of my Uncles house that, by this time was the branch president and my father was his first councilor. They ran the meeting, blessed and passed the sacrament. Gave the talks, conducted the lessons etc.
At that meeting where a couple other members that the missionaries had rounded up that lived in the aria but had to travel all the way to Petersburg to go to church and I don’t think they attended very often. Because of the distance they had to travel.
The Next week we begain meeting in of all places the ODD fellows hall in keyser . And odd fellow we indeed where in the eyes of the churches in the area.
But over the next few, months and years our membership grew and deacons and teachers and priests and Elders where added to the rolls along with their families.
We eventually moved to the fire hall down the street and we met upstairs of the firestation.
Untill the chapel that now stands on the hill in Keyser was built.
Now between the time of the meetings at the fire hall and the church being built I went into the Navy. And in the Navy I begain to go the ways of the world. I begain to drink and smoke and do all sorts of things I should not.
And after the service I began again to attend the church but my guilt over my word of wisdom habits caused me to be less attentive and devoted to attending and doing as I should.
Over the years I grew further away from the church and more into the world.
All along my Mother would encourage me to start going to church again and from time to time I would. But the guilt I felt would not allow me to make a commitment.
My mother would tell me you don’t have to give up those things you are doing just to go to church and she of course was right.
All through this time however I never lost my testimony that I knew it was all true. But my flesh was weak. And although I would continue to read and pray and I would catch a conference on tv when it was available where I lived, I still gave into the flesh.
But my Father in heaven was not done with me yet.
I went into a partnership with friend and we got into the home improvement business. And my partner was from Las Vegas.
Now at that time Las Vegas was the fastest growing place in the country and new homes where going up in waves across the desert.
Well we made the decision to move to Las Vegas because there was a need for people to do home improvements since everyone else was building new homes.
Just so happened that we found a beautiful house to rent, on the east side of Las Vegas just below sunrise mountain near Nellus airforce base, and at a great price. And we began to live the las vegas lifestyle and business was good, and we where making money.
But there where some problems as well. Because there where gangs in the area and we lived on the boarder of two of those gangs. And we had a struggle with that and our son and the attempts of both of these gangs to have him join them
.
Now these gangs where not like the drug dealing, gun toating,etc gangs you might imagine. They where mostly young kids who just stood up for each other when trouble came to one of them they stuck together. But I could see the future and I knew it would not always be that way.
Well it just so happened, at the same time we live out there, the LDS Church was building a temple in Las Vegas just below sunrise mountain. About three blocks from our house.
One morning after a slight confrontation between my son and a few of these local gang member boys. I awoke and walked into my dinning room just as the sun was coming up over sunrise mountain.
Now I looked out of my picture windows and could see the lights of the casinos on the strip downtown and I turned and through my patio doors I could see the new copper roof of the new temple glistening in the morning sun. And at that moment a voice from inside me spoke and said.
Here you are between the Rock and a hard place. Make up your mind what you are going to do?
The Lord had lead me across the country and sat me down in one of the most tempting and wicked places on earth and had put me in just the right place to have the experience that I just described.
I told my family that day that we where going to return to Keyser and we where going to change our lives.
Many other things where going on at the time as well. With my Father and Mother trying to hang onto their property. My Fathers health was not the best. He had had a bad heart and some other health issues. Some of the things he and I have in common.
I wanted my son to have a better way of life than he was going to grow into and most of all I wanted to make the church a part of my life again.
So we moved.
Satan was not done with me either because the job I found caused me to have to work every other Sunday but. It also allowed me to attend church every other Sunday and I did.
And eventually although I was a priest in the aaronic priesthood I was allowed to baptize my son. And things where going pretty well.
And then my father chose to move from Keyser to Martinsburg to be close to the VA hospital. And Me and my wife at the time and my son moved to where Me and my lovely wife Barbara live today along with her son and my step son Kevin and two of our granddaughters and a grandson who is with us most of the time.
Before I met Barbera . I divorced my wife who was the mother of the son I baptized.
And I again stopped attending church.
Then one day I met Barbera. She was not a member of the church but she had a great faith and Love for the Father and for Jesus Christ and many of our talks while we dated was about our religious beliefs.
In the course of time I was feeling some things that confused me and she and I broke up, because I had some things I had to work out.
But again the Lord was not done with me.
Barbara called me up one day because her car was broke down and she asked me to come and see if I could fix it for her. Well I did and we began seeing each other again.
Well one day she told me that she had ordered a book of mormon from a tv add that she had seen.
And although she expected to receive it in the mail, that the missionaries had brought it by and she was going to have them come back. I told her I would sit in on the discussions with her.
Boy did she give those missionaries a run for their money. She had question after question and they managed to answer them and as things progressed Barbara was baptized and shortly after that we where married.
But before we got married we planned on being married near the end of Nov. 1996, The day before the planned day we moved her our of her apartment and into the place where we now live. I had been moveing furnerature up and down steps and in and out of our home. And I was a bit tired after that and I told her that while she fixed something for super I would go to my bedroom and lay down to rest before supper. Well when she called me to come and eat. I got up and walked to the living room and experienced the first heart attack of my life. I had no pain or trouble all day but there was no mistake at what was going on. \
So I spent the day that we planned on getting married, having bypass surgery.
Here again the Lord had provided for me. Anyone who has had that type of surgery knows that your not even allowed to open a door for yourself, for awhile. And you had to have someone to take care of you, when you came out of the hospital.
Did I mention that Barbara was a nurses adminitrator at the time?
The Lord had prepared my life so that when I had that heart attack I had someone there to take care of me and someone who was highly qualified to do so. This event in my life could not have been prepared for any better than if it had been planned. Every detail was in place and every need provided for.
So our wedding was put on hold for about a month and we where married just after Christmas.
Because of the Lord and two great women in my life I stand here today.
Without their influence and being a part of my life. The gospel may not have been a part of my life today. And I might have again gone into the ways of the world. The Lord brought Barbara and I together I have no doubt.
And I am so thankful for that.
But 60 yrs ago The Lord Gave me a mother who has been very special to me in my life and has been my spiritual magnet to draw me back and reminding me many, many times over the years of the things of the Lord.
Now im going to embarrass my mother a bit.
She is a true pioneer in this church. At the time we joined there where less that two million members in the church today it approaches some 14 million.
This woman, who is my mother, had a great part in my receiving the gospel and only the Lord knows how many more.
Because of her agreeing to take those discussions from the missionaries six people where baptized the day she was.
And because she took the discussions two brothers who, Where Inactive, again became active.
And served as bishop and councilers and they literally beat the bushes to grow the church in Keyser
With her doing what she did there is a branch in Keyser and all of the people who are members of that branch and have passed through that branch over the past 47 or so yrs and all the people those people have touched with the gospel is in no small part due to her faith.
And due to her agreeing to take the discussions from those two young elders who came to our door that day in 1961.
And only the Lord himself knows how many have heard the gospel and gained testimonies, because of her wanting to know.
And I thank God everyday for giving her to me. And me to her and my Father.
I want to warn the young people especially and everyone in general to keep an eye out for the influences of the world that will draw you away.
Stay true to the principles and precepts taught by the church.,
Remain active in the church.
Work through those things that would try to pull you away.
I lost a lot of years to the world that I could have been giving to the Lord and my family.
So this is why I believe.
I believe because the Lord never gave up on me. My dear mother never gave up on me. The Lord brought into my life a wonderful and beautiful woman who is now my wife.’
And he has made it known to me that the book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth in these last days. That the keys to the Kingdom have been restored through the holy ordinances of God and by the power and authority of the Priesthood.
I know that we have a living prophet today in, Thomas S. Munson. I know that Jesus Christ lives and he, by the will of the Father leads and guides this church through his living prophets and apostles.
I know all of these things to be true because The Lord made them known to me way back in 1961 and has confirmed it to me time and time again over the year by way of the Holy Spirit testifying to my spirit that these things are true. And I testify of them in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
I was a missionary in West Virginia in 1956 and 1957. I served in Shinnston, Clarksburg, and St. Albans. Beautiful country and very nice people there. One day my companion and I were tracting door to door. We knocked on one door, and the lady told us she wasn’t interested. We went to the next house and rang the bell but no one was home. Then we saw the lady who had just told us she wasn’t interested come from her house and invite us to have lunch with her. She said she listened to the Mormon Tab Choir on the radio each week, and giving us lunch was her way of thanking the Choir for their beautiful music.
I want to share with you my testimony of this gospel. For I know that sometimes it can seem so overwhelming and at rimes unbelievable because of all the miracles and commandments that our gospel has. But I know that it truly is the true church of god for when trials come into my life I know that I can get through them if I hold tight to the principle of the gospel and to prayer. For when there are times that I am not as valiant as I should be in being close to my heavenly father life seems to be difficult and unbearable. I know without a shadow of doubt in my mind that my life if better for my faith in Christ for I know that with my faith as peter had when he walked on the water to meet Christ that if I hold firm to the gospel that Christ will be right there for me to help me when I fall short. I leave my testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Hey I’m 20 years old and have the goal of going on a mission in the next two to three years, anyway. I guess my testimony really stands on the two greatest spiritual expieriences ive had so far in my life. The first was when I actually recieved my testimony. I had been praying about it for a while and found the shower was a place i liked to pray. So in the shower I prayed about it once again and the most wonderful feeling came over me. In that moment I was at peace, In that moment I knew the gospel was true and that God did love me. About a year later came about what i would call probably the worst six months of my life i had ever experienced. I was diagnosed with shizophrenia and with it came a slew of worry. I kept worrying that every little thing i did would condemn me, and though i knew that this was not the case my mind consistently dogged me to the point where hardly a moment ever went by when I wasn’t scared or worried about something. I had prayed many times for deliverance and deliverance came when I went to the temple. as soon as I walked in to the room where the baptismal pool was I felt the same feelings i had felt when i recieved my testimony and in that feeling was the message: You’re alright. Instantly my fear was dispelled and no longer did i worry. I felt free for the first time in months. So basically it comes down to this I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church upon all the earth. I know Joseph Smith truly saw The Father and his Only Begotten in that grove all those years ago. I know God will pull us out of our troubles if we rely upon him. I also know that patience is a necessary virtue to get through this life. God works on his time not ours. These things I do say In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
Hi, I’m Kaushik. I’m currently doing my 3rd year of BE ECE Course in SRR Engineering College. God has been with me since my birth and has continued to bless me to this very day. I wrote my 5th semester exams and i got 7.89 by god’s grace. Yet i was upset and i applied for revaluation and prayed to god if you increase my marks i’ll testify your name through the internet. And the revaluation results came and by god’s pure grace i got an increase of two grades in one of the applied subjects and my final mark for 5th sem was 8.11. My overall CGPA stands as 8.549.Thanks to the Grace of God that i have been doing well in College. Purely His grace and not my knowledge.
Praise the Lord
The Book of Mormon is true. I’ve read it many times, and each time I find a new truth in it. I’m from Utah, so the opportunity to discuss my faith with someone who doesn’t know about the Church is more rare than not. But the last few months I’ve been trying to share my testimony online, and it’s been an amazing experience. A lot of people don’t want to listen or post my comments. But even though that can be discouraging, it doesn’t change the way my testimony grows when I bear it, even on a computer. Having been born and raised in the Church, I had little experience with other faiths. As I grew older, I wondered what would happen to my testimony if someone challenged it. I was inexperienced, young, and impressionable. I loved the Church and the scriptures, but I wondered if I knew enough…or even believed it enough…to defend it. The question became a real sore spot for me, and I struggled with it, sometimes acutely, for years. Then this opportunity to bear my testimony online came. I was still a little afraid of rejection and argument when I started (still am), but as I’ve studied the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to better testify of it, my knowledge and conviction have grown, as has my ability to be a missionary of my faith. Sometimes I don’t know what to say to an attack on the Church. But if it needs to be answered, and if I pray, the answers come. This gospel is true, and Jesus Christ helps those who live it and testify of it, whether through voice, keyboard, or example. The gospel has brought me all the happiness, peace, and security I have, and it has brought me closer to my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Through the Spirit, prayers, and the scriptures, I can receive answers to any question or challenge I have. It has been so as long as I can remember, so I know from personal experience.