I want to share the experience of when I first read the Book
of Mormon all the way through, on my own. I was around 14 and it was an
uncertain, rocky time for me. I had so many worries, insecurities, and fears as
a young teen. School was always a source of great anxiety as I struggled to
make/keep friends and learn how to fit in. At home, due to a variety of different
factors, I also experienced anxiety on regular basis. All in all, my
self-esteem was very fragile and I doubted my worth. I doubted that I was loved
or even worthy of love. In many ways, it was a hard time in my life.
Well then I started to read the Book of Mormon.
I’d go to my room,
close the door, and in the peaceful quiet, I’d open its pages. Day after day,
verse after verse, I read. And something pretty miraculous happened. Every time
I escaped to my room and dived into reading, I felt SO LOVED. I
could actually feel God’s love wrap around me and tell me that I was important,
that He did value me, and that I was His daughter. Peace poured into my heart. This was a love that was consistent and
it was always available. All the confusion, inconsistency, and hurt from the
outside world melted completely away and I literally felt heaven surround me. It
began to give me a confidence, a peace, and a happiness that I couldn’t get in
any other way. No matter what was happening at school or at home, or in any
circumstance, I now knew that God loved me. I was important to Him. That truth was the greatest source of
strength to me.
But that’s not the only miraculous thing that happened. I
also began to want to truly improve myself. I wanted to be kinder, I wanted to
help others more, I wanted to stop watching and listening to certain things
that I felt would offend God. I wanted to please Him more than anything. I
wanted to always be worthy of that special feeling I got when I read from the
Book of Mormon. So I did. I began to improve myself, and that was probably the true
beginning of my testimony.
Still, that was not the only miraculous thing that happened!
I also began to pray more and ask God for help with my worries, concerns, and
questions. I’d then search through the Book of Mormon to find the answers. And they
were there! The answers came time and time again and time and time again, it
was repeated to me that God loved me – He even answered my prayers.
At the end of the Book of Mormon, there is a challenge given
by an ancient prophet named Moroni. He challenges anyone and everyone who has finished
reading it, to sincerely ask God in prayer if the Book is true.
He then promises that they will receive and answer. Here are his actual words:
Moroni 10:4: 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.
Well, after I had finished the book, I decided to take up
the challenge, and ask God if it was true -to find out for MYSELF. So I knelt
down and I asked. Even before I spoke the words, my mind went back to the
countless peaceful moments spent in my room where the spirit had spoken to my
heart – told me that Jesus Christ really did die for my sins, that I really was
God’s child, that He really did have a plan for me, that the answer to my
question was that I needed to do X,Y,Z… I finished up my prayer with the answer
I was looking for. I already knew the Book of Mormon was true and the Holy
Spirit had reminded me of that.
I want to end with my testimony that I absolutely believe
the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that it brings the reader closer to God. I would like to extend the challenge to
anyone who is searching for truth, searching for God, searching for peace, or
searching to know Christ better, to read the Book of Mormon! And after reading
it, take the challenge to sincerely ask God, in prayer, if the book is true. He has promised to answer.
To order a free copy, you can go here: https://www.mormon.org/
To learn more about the Book of Mormon, you can go here: https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon
Here are just a few of my favorite passages from the Book of
Mormon:
Helaman 5:12: 12 And
now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who
is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the
devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea,
when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no
power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because
of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation
whereon if men build they cannot fall.
2 Nephi 25:26: And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ,
we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our
prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a
remission of their sins.
Alma 34:32-33: For behold, this
life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this
life is the day for men to perform their labors. And
now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I
beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until
the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity,
behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night
of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
Alma 40:11: Now, concerning the state of the soul between
death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel,
that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home
to that God who gave them life.
Mosiah 4:9: Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
Ether 12:4: Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.
Ether 12:27:And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Moroni 9-11,
15: For do we not read that God is
the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness
neither shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto
yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then
have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of
miracles. But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God
who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are… And
now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no
miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have
spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not
ceased to be a God of miracles.
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