Questimony

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About half way into my mission I learned something really important about testimony that I wish I had known at the beginning.  My companion, Elder Pochekutov, and I were teaching an awesome girl named Anya.  She was reading the Book of Mormon and really searching for a testimony.  As we tried to help her recognize the Spirit, and prepare her to receive her own testimony, Elder Pochekutov and I went on a quest to better understand how testimonies are received.

We met with many of the members, and asked them to share with us how they received their answer that the Book of Mormon was true.  We were impressed that everyone’s experience was very unique and personal.  One member said that as she read the Book of Mormon she just knew it was true.  Another member said that she had been pretty stubborn about the Book of Mormon.  She told us that when the missionaries met with her she said, “We have a Bible and we don’t need another Bible.”  The missionaries then shared with her the passage in 2 Nephi when Nephi prophesies about that attitude.  When she read her argument word for word in prophecy she was humbled and the Spirit testified that it was true.  A new convert that I had taught in that city shared that when she read the Bible, she felt that it was like a mirror in which God showed her how she could improve.  As she read the Book of Mormon, she felt God teach her in the same way how she could strengthen her family.

During this quest I read in Moroni 7: 24 where Moroni records the words of his father Mormon saying, “And behold, there were diverse ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good.”  The lesson I learned from our quest was that God knows his children perfectly and individually.  He knows how to reveal the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon in a time and a way that they will understand.  Don’t ever be afraid to extend Moroni’s promise because you don’t know how or when the answer will come.  If they sincerely want it, the answer will come.