My Testimony

Dear President Johansson,

I first want to thank you for extending the invitation to the MLC to have us write our testimonies and send them to you! I was so excited for the opportunity to write my testimony! 

I want to bare my testimony of the reality of my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the light, the life, and the hope of my testimony! I am converted to Christ. He is the only name by which I can be saved! I am eternally grateful for Him. I have felt His atoning power in my life! I am so grateful for the chance to repent and I often ponder with awe at what He did for each of us! What He did for me personally! He suffered and died for me, so that I may have the opportunity to live both spiritually and physically again! I am grateful for Him and the power of the atonement and the power of the resurrection that is made possible only through Him! He is truly the rock of everything that this gospel stands on. Jesus Christ is my all! Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation. I dont think I can put into words adequately how I feel about my Savior, Jesus Christ. I just know that because of my deep abiding love for Him, I will serve Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength until the day I die. I know He loves me but I want to be trusted by Him! He gave me everything and so I want to give Him all I have in return!

I want to end my short testimony of the Savior with testifying that I have felt the Holy Ghost bare witness to me in a unique way multiple times through my heart and mind that Jesus is the Christ the living Son of God! 

I want to quickly bare my testimony of the reality of our loving Heavenly Father and how He knows what is best for us! He is the best Father anyone could ever hope or dream for! He knows how best to help us become like Him! 

I want to testify of the reality of the restoration!  

I know that the Jospeh Smith was a prophet called by God and that he truly did see God the Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ in the grove of trees in New York! I know that he translated the gold plates into what we now know as the Book of Mormon! Joseph Smith was the prophet through which God restored and is restoring the fullness of His gospel! I have received the witness of the Holy Ghost confirming to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have read the Book of Mormon many times and I have taken the promise found in Moroni 10:3-5 and asked God if the book was not true. And the answer I received was that the Book of Mormon is true!! The Book of Mormon has answered so many of my questions and is part of the bedrock of my testimony! The Book of Mormon is truly another witness of Jesus Christ and I have grown closer to my Savior as I have read it! I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! The restoration truly happened just over 200 years ago! The Book of Mormon is a very special book! 

I have a testimony of the plan of salvation. If it were not for the truths of the plan of salvation, I dont know if I would be where I am today both physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and so forth! The questions of where we came from, where we are going, and our purpose on earth provides such an eternal perspective I am eternally grateful for! The plan is perfect! It was created by God and it is a beautiful plan that I have grown to love so much! It is created out of love for each of us and Jesus Christ is the person that makes the plan possible! I will sing praises to Heavenly Father for His plan until the day I die! I look forward with excitement to greeting my Father and my Savior once again! I also know that I will be able to see my father again one day. And ohhh what a tender experience that will be! 

I know that President Nelson is a prophet of God and that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ church restored back on the earth! It has all the necessary priesthood keys, power, and authority to allow us to obtain exaltation. I know that temples are the house of God and that we can be sealed to our families forever and receive the necessary ordinances for exaltation. I have grown a love for the temple and I personally know it is a house of prayer and revelation for myself! 

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to salvation and exaltation! It is truly incredible! It is the gospel of becoming! It is truly the good news!! I have seen people change and become new creatures in Christ! 

I am so grateful for the hard but wonderful opportunity to exercise faith! I love being able to repent and I have felt the joy of repentance and know that I have been forgiven of my sins and will continue to be forgiven as I repent and come unto Jesus Christ! Only Jesus Christ allows the peace and joy to come through repentance! I am so grateful for the opportunity to repent, change, and become. I am grateful and testify of baptism and the Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost is so special and I am just now starting to learn how the Holy Ghost speaks to me! It is like learning a whole language! And I feel like I have just started but I know that I have a whole lifetime of learning and heeding the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

My testimony isn't super grand. It is simple and sincere. I don't have one big spiritual experience that “converted me”. I don't have a super big manifestation of the Spirit or anything of that nature.

Instead my testimony is built on small and simple experiences with the Holy Ghost over the years! The Holy Ghost has borne witness to me in both my mind and heart of all the gospel truths time and time again. The Holy Ghost is what has converted me and is what will allow me to remain firm in my testimony of the truth. Everything clicks in my head. I have spent hours upon hours pondering, reflecting, and thinking upon the things of eternity and the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ. And I have found that from a logical standpoint it all adds up. It is all true. However, more importantly I have sought experiences with the spirit and that is what has confirmed the truths I know and has convinced me of the truth! There is an absolute truth in the world and the Church of Jesus Christ holds the fulness of that absolute truth the world is so desperately searching for! 

I could go on and on about the experiences I have had but I hope this simple testimony conveys what I know to be true and how I have come to know…namely through study, prayer, thinking, pondering, and the witness of the Holy Ghost. I could say that if I was the last person in the world that believed these things, I would stand firm in my knowledge of the truth. I cannot deny the things I have learned and felt. 

Jesus Christ is at the head of His church leading and guiding it today! No other church has the priesthood keys and power and authority of Jesus Christ, no other church has a living prophet and apostles and an organization created and led by Jesus Christ, no other church has the information and truth of the Book of Mormon, no other church has the guidance, power, direction, and gift of the Holy Ghost, no other church is built solely upon the foundation of the true doctrines and teachings of Jesus Christ, no other church has temples where covenants and sealings are made that last into the eternities, no other church has the precious eternal truths of the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come, this is Jesus Christs restored church upon the earth today!

If there was no one on the earth left that believed in Him, if my closest friends and family disbelieved, I would remain fast in my testimony and knowledge of Christ. I have had a personal witness from the Holy Ghost that was not in the form of lightning, thunder, earthquake, or a dramatic appearance, but a still small voice that struck me to my core, my heart, and my mind. There is no denying it. The Holy Ghost has testified to me that these things are the reality of our existence and life, even though they may seem unbelievable to the natural mind or science. I know that I know and feel these things, and I know that God knows that I feel and know these things. And I cannot deny them.

I want to end my testimony by sharing something that is very special to me…it is what I call my morning mantra…it is something that I read every morning. I have created/formulated and put it together to help me remain faithful and have my focus on Jesus Christ and eternal life because eternity is the right thing to be right about! 

My morning mantra:

I am a Child of God. I am a Child of the covenant. I am a Disciple of Jesus Christ. I have divine potential invested in me! My ultimate goal is living with God eternally. They have offered me everything, even the richest blessings of eternity! To Live and become like Them and to have the potential to be Joint heirs with Christ. 

I humble myself before the Lord. I trust in Him. I trust Him with all my heart and lean not unto my own understanding. In all my ways I strive to acknowledge Him and I know He will direct my paths. He is my strength and song. He is my all. He is my aim and hope! He is the captain of my salvation. Everything is between Him and I. What He thinks of me and our relationship is all that matters. He is my way back to the Father. I know that I know and God knows I know and I cannot deny it. 

Heavenly Father demonstrated His ultimate love when He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for me—to be my Savior and my Redeemer! Through His Atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ overcame the world. Therefore, He is “mighty to … cleanse [me] from all unrighteousness.” He will deliver me from my most excruciating circumstances in His own way and time. As I come unto Him in faith, He will guide, preserve, and protect me. He will heal my broken heart and comfort me in my distress. The Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.

He will give me access to His power. And He will make the impossible in my life become possible. Jesus Christ is the only enduring source of hope, peace, and joy for me.

Their work and Their glory is to bring about the “immortality and eternal life of me.” They will do everything They can, short of violating my agency, to help me not miss out on the greatest blessings in all eternity. They have a special love for me and the covenant I made at baptism to always remember Him, to keep His commandments, and to take Christs name upon myself. And that divine love deepens as I made covenants in their Holy House and faithfully strive to obey the law of obedience, sacrifice, gospel of Jesus Christ, chastity, and consecration. Then at the end of my mortal life how precious will be the reunion of myself, a covenant child, with our Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I will run with open arms and wrap myself in their warm embrace and hear the words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord," and then I will weep tears of joy and know that I have finally made it home! :)

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I bare my humble and sincere witness that I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ the Savior and Redeemer of the world; He is the only name whereby we may be saved. His way is the path to lasting happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come! I so testify with the authority and witness that the Holy Ghost has given to me, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.