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“I was raised in a home with the gospel but my personal testimony has come through small experiences throughout my life. I never thought that the things my parents had taught me weren’t true, but I wanted to know for myself. The Holy Ghost, or spirit, teaches us truth but I didn’t understand what the spirit felt like, let alone how to know what it was telling me. I remember that when I was baptized I felt so happy and knew that God was proud of me. That’s the first time I can recall that I felt the spirit. I believed the Book of Mormon was true but really struggled with scripture study. I had no idea what was happening in the book or who anyone was. At church people would say, “we all know the story of…” and everyone seemed to know, except for me. I felt so dumb and frustrated.

When I was getting closer to when I would serve my mission I decided that if I was going to be teaching others that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that I needed to read it all the way through and pray about it. When I finished the Book of Mormon I knelt down to ask God if it was true. I sat there and… nothing. I had always been told that if I read the book and ask if it’s true that I would receive an answer. Then, the words Joseph Smith said after he had the first vision came to my mind. “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it”. I realized that I had always known that the Book of Mormon is true. I expected something grand and spectacular to happen. I didn’t have a vision, or see an angel, or hear a voice, yet God had answered my prayer. I learned that God speaks to me in more quiet ways, through my thoughts and feelings.Now, I am halfway through my mission. I have read the Book of Mormon many times and love it! Learning how I hear the spirit is something I will work on my whole life, but I can say that I feel the spirit everyday, and that the spirit teaches me and prompts me.”