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Alma 30

Alma 30:41 “But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true; and will ye deny them? Believest thou that these things are true?”

Every time your prayers are answered or the Spirit speaks to you, your testimony is being built. Every time you get an answer that The Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true, your testimony is being built. Each person has different experiences which have built their testimony and that doesn’t mean that a testimony is less valued than someone else’s. Once you have a testimony it is hard to deny it and pretend that it does not exist.

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It will all be okay

so my grandfather (on my mom’s side) has had some major health problems. he’s had surgeries, and now he’s in the hospital where he will have to get medicine that, if it doesn’t work, could kill him. he raised my mom in the Church, but after my grandma died, he left.

after his first major surgery this year, he woke up and asked my mom to get the missionaries to him. they never followed through, though it wasn’t really anyone’s fault, but it just didn’t happen. today though, as he’s going to start the medication, my mom reached out to our young women’s leader in upstate NY and got the missionaries in their area in Georgia to give him a blessing.

Heavenly Father called everyone He did to serve. i have a strong testimony that everyone He called is here to help, and if you reach out, there will always be someone here to guide you. that’s why we’re here. though i don’t know what’s going to happen, i do know it will all be okay in the end.

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never forget..

2nd Nephi 4:20-21 

“My God hath been my support; he hath led my through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.” 

He loves you, has always loved you, and will always love you. You are never beyond the point of return to His love. nothing you could do could ever make Him love you less. 

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My Story

Up until about a year ago, I have usually been pretty come and go in the church. I was inactive when I was 8 years old, so I got baptized at 9, came for a few weeks, and then went inactive again. After I left primary, my mom was called as a Young Women’s Advisor, and so I would go to Young Women’s when she had to teach, but never really took the gospel seriously. I didn’t have a strong testimony, I didn’t read my scriptures, I did pray..but only when I wanted something from God, and around 8th or 9th grade, I wasn’t even sure I believed in God. I was really sad all the time, and truthfully I felt alone, but I never could really pinpoint what I was lacking. Surely it wasn’t my lack of faith, it was probably just the angsty teenage phase that everyone goes through. I never really knew how badly I needed my Savior until Girl’s Camp last summer.

 The night before Girl’s Camp, I wasn’t planning on going. My sister was so excited, but I couldn’t have cared less. I was planning on working my summer job and hanging out with my friends, not spending a week at church camp. I had this predetermined view that it was this strict, boring place where all we did was basic Sunday School lessons and sit in a chapel all day. But on my way home from my summer job, my mom, Robbyn and I were all getting ready to buy her the last things she needed for camp, and I felt this impression that I should go. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I know now that it was the Spirit prompting me to go. I had thought that Heavenly Father had forgotten about me. I didn’t feel close to Him at all. So why was I getting this prompting? I knew that I needed to listen to it and give camp a try. So, I told my mom, who was shocked at first, but she texted my Young Women’s leader immediately, and that night I packed my bags for camp.

 I’m not going to lie to you, I was still having doubts that I was making the right choice on the way there. I didn’t really know any of the girls from our ward, and like I said, I’m pretty shy. I was fairly quiet on the way there, until Makena pulled out her kazoo. Though I was still nervous, I felt comforted knowing that I was going to be spending the next week with her as a 3rd year. Except, when I got there, I found out I was a 4th year. Instead of spending the next week mainly with someone I knew from this ward, I was put into a cabin with 4 other girls I didn’t know, all from the same ward. I was put into a panic all over again. I was certain that my only friends for the week were going to be the cabin moms and my sister.

 I was offered to be switched to a 3rd year, but I didn’t want to have to put anyone through the trouble, so I gave the 4th year cabin a try. The very first second I walked in the cabin, I knew that I was going to be just fine. My humor matched the other girls, we all shared similar interests, and we all just seemed to click. For the first time in a long time, I said a silent prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father.

 The second night of camp, I opened my Book of Mormon independently and by my own will for the first time ever. I started at 1st Nephi, and just read. I got to the part where Nephi is visited by the Spirit and the Iron Rod and the Tree of Life is explained.

To this day, this story is still one of my favorites. Nephi asked the Spirit what the Iron Rod stands for, and he said that it represented the word of God.

  1st Nephi Chapter 15 Verse 24 says “It was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish, neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.” I felt the Spirit so strongly then, knowing that I had a way to be happier. I had spent so long in darkness, not holding strong to the Iron Rod. I had been fooled by Satan to believe that I was not a child of God. I instantly knew that if I wanted to continually feel the Spirit as strongly as I had at camp, I had to hold strong to the Iron Rod, even if it meant making sacrifices. Chapter 15 Verse 25 says “Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things.” I knew the importance now of the Gospel, and why I needed it in my life.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I see it affect my life every day when I read it. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us, and in a way, I am thankful for the trials I went through while I was inactive because it helped me realize just how much I needed my Savior.  I love Him, and I hope that through these posts you can see and feel that love, too. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.