SEVENTY FOUR

“My conversion story seemed small and simple as it happened, that I even had told some fellow young missionaries during our time at the Missionary Training Center that I wished I had not had the Gospel in my life growing up so my conversation experience could be more dramatic. 

My testimony of the Gospel and my connection to God grew as I did the small and simple things. Though we read and prayed together as a family each night, I first read The Book of Mormon on my own when I was 8. 

It wasn’t until I was a young teen though that those feelings became stronger. One night I watched a devotional about how all things testify of Christ and afterward knelt on my bed and had a sincere prayer. In answer, I felt the powerful love of my Heavenly Parents for me individually, not just collectively. That assurance helped me through the challenges of high school. 

On my mission, I had an experience that made the scriptures I had continued to read since my baptism become more real and practical. An older man invited us in and voiced that he loved Jesus but struggled keeping His commandments. My companion opened to 1 Nephi 3:7 without giving any context and asked him to read it. After he found his answer there, he begged us for a copy of The Book of Mormon and wanted to know more. At that moment, all the words I had read became answers to my questions as well as for those I met. I felt God’s love through the scriptures even more. 

Not every question is as easily answered as that man’s, but I know in Whom I can trust. That is why I am converted.”