How these Latter-day Saints gained testimonies of the Book of Mormon

From California to Canada and from Brazil to the Philippines, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints everywhere in the world have experienced the life-changing power of the Book of Mormon.

Church News recently asked readers to share how they gained their testimonies of the Book of Mormon. Here are a few of their stories. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is a book of scripture for Latter-day Saints and is a companion to the Bible. The book comprises the writings of ancient prophets and was translated from ancient records, through the gift and power of God, by Joseph Smith, the founding Prophet of the Church.

Through ‘small and straightforward things’

Church leaders have repeatedly taught that non-public testimonies don’t require large, powerful spiritual experiences, but are sometimes the results of “small and straightforward things” (Alma 37:6).

For instance, during October 2008 general conference, Elder Carlos A. Godoy, now a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, said, “An affidavit … may come through a single and irrefutable event. But for others, it could come through a technique of experiences that, perhaps not as remarkable but when combined, testify in an indisputable way that what we now have learned and lived is true.”

Church members shared countless experiences of small, easy things strengthening their faith.

Barbara Prescott of the Santa Clara Utah Heights Stake said she was raised in one other Christian faith. At age 11, a friend asked for help memorizing the Articles of Faith, and he or she found that their truths resonated along with her.

Prescott began attending Primary along with her friend, where she learned in regards to the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

“At 11 years old, the one thing I could comprehend was the straightforward faith I needed to know and imagine that God did appear to Joseph Smith,” she wrote. Since then, that straightforward faith has “grown right into a solid, powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon to be the true word of God.”

Elder Spencer Jeffrey Ford, from the St. George Utah Washington Fields North Stake, is serving within the Ghana Accra Mission. At the time of his arrival, he’d never read the whole Book of Mormon on his own, though he’d at all times believed it was good.

But he’s come to know for himself that the Book of Mormon is true as he’s studied its pages, day after day.

“I never had an enormous [spiritual] experience and possibly never will,” Elder Ford wrote. “Honestly, I don’t need one. All the straightforward, small answers … have testified to me that Jesus is the Christ.”

Rebekah Little, from the Omaha Nebraska Stake, said she visited her father in Germany at age 17. While there, she found a Book of Mormon on his bookshelf and skim 1 Nephi 1:3, where Nephi writes about making a record in his own hand.

“I knew on this moment, by the facility of the Holy Spirit of God, that the Book of Mormon was true,” Little wrote. “I used to be a record keeper myself, a journal keeper, and the Spirit touched my heart and mind.”

Jackson Standley, from the Perth Australia Rockingham Stake, said he didn’t seriously study the Book of Mormon until his missionary service. During that point, he highlighted the entire names of and references to Jesus Christ.

“There was no big spiritual clap over my head,” Standley wrote. “I just felt the Spirit every time I read the Book of Mormon.”

Now, he can “confidently bear testimony” that the Book of Mormon is God’s word, he said.

Sister Linnea Marie Backstrom, from the Edmonton Alberta YSA Stake in Canada, is currently a missionary in British Columbia. She wrote about worrying as a youngster that the Book of Mormon wasn’t true, and her resolve to read it and learn for herself.

After weeks of sincere effort, “a thought got here to my mind, as clear as day: [Tahe Book of Mormon] is the word of God,” Sister Backstrom wrote. “It was an unexpected, strangely timed answer, but it surely was exactly what I needed and had been searching for for.”

Through diligent study

Another essential aspect of gaining a sworn statement is diligent study of the Book of Mormon. During April 2020 general conference, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared his experience of reading the Book of Mormon for the primary time as a young seminary student.

“Earnestly searching for to know more in regards to the truth of it, and in a spirit of prayer, I studied the Book of Mormon, little by little, as I accomplished the weekly assigned seminary lessons,” Elder Soares said. “I remember, prefer it was yesterday, that a warm feeling step by step began swelling in my soul and filling my heart. … That feeling eventually become knowledge that took root in my heart and have become the inspiration of my testimony of the numerous events and teachings present in this sacred book.”

Many members shared the ways in which persistent, sincere study opened the windows of heaven for them.

Patrick Oliver Walker, from the Billings Montana East Stake, said he was raised within the Church but fell into inactivity after highschool.

Years later, after his marriage, he began craving for the Spirit and commenced reading the Book of Mormon on his lunch break day by day. 

“The Spirit witnessed to me that the words that I used to be reading were true,” Walker wrote. That witness modified the course of his life. He and his everlasting companion were sealed 30 years ago.

Blancaneza Kaye Salalima, from the Balingasag Philippines District, said she gained a sworn statement of the Book of Mormon by prayerfully studying it and attempting to put herself within the writers’ shoes.

“By doing so, I used to be in a position to gain and strengthen my testimony in regards to the divinity of the Book of Mormon,” she wrote.

Christian F. Rodríguez Ampuero, from the Arequipa Perú Selva Alegre Stake, said he strives to read the Book of Mormon day by day and knows that “if we at all times study it, the Lord will give us light in our lives.

Kathleen McCormick, from the Chorley England Stake, said she belonged to a different Christian faith on the time she met the missionaries. When they invited her to read the Book of Mormon, she felt the necessity to know more.

“Have you ever been so thirsty that you would drink the well dry?” McCormick wrote. “Well, the moment I opened up the Book of Mormon, it felt like that.” After reading it multiple times, she was baptized.

Dustin D. Vick, from the Montgomery Alabama Stake, said he’d been inactive within the Church for a decade when his mother gave him the Book of Mormon on cassette tapes to take heed to during his long-haul truck drives. He was overcome with thoughts of his own children when he reached the primary chapters of 2 Nephi, where Lehi blesses his children.

“I knew at that moment that it was all true and that I … would never doubt it again,” Vick wrote.

Theda Maria Kathleen Cozby, from the Vernon British Columbia Stake in Canada, said after her parents and brothers joined the Church, she studied and prayed for a solution in regards to the gospel’s truthfulness “like my very life relied on it.”

After sustained, sincere effort, “a warmth got here inside me going from my head to my fingers to my toes,” Cozby wrote. “I felt joy, peace, excitement and a knowledge that the Book of Mormon was true.”

Through sharing testimony with others

A 3rd principle of gaining a sworn statement is sharing it. During April 2008 general conference, then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “We gain or strengthen a sworn statement by bearing it. … Some testimonies are higher gained on the feet bearing them than on the knees praying for them.”

Elder Matias Ponce, from the Montevideo Uruguay East Stake, has learned this while serving within the Brazil Maceió Mission. His strongest witness of the Book of Mormon got here early in his mission, after a protracted, hard day of attempting to teach the gospel without much success.

But while visiting a girl and her daughter, Elder Ponce shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

“As I used to be [sharing my testimony], a warm feeling of peace filled my chest, and tears filled my eyes,” he wrote. “In that exact moment, I got here to have an ideal knowledge that the Book of Mormon is indeed true.”

Blanca Amelia Keogan, from the Martinsburg West Virginia Stake, said she and her husband were living in Spain once they were introduced to the gospel by a co-worker.

Keogan said she accepted lessons and started reading the Book of Mormon but remained skeptical. Then, sooner or later, a unique co-worker became critical in regards to the sacred book.

“I got upset and told him he ought to be ashamed and that the book was a real book,” Keogan wrote. “That is how I spotted that I had gained a sworn statement without knowing it.”

Joseph Richard Perry, from the Greenville South Carolina Stake, said he helped hand out copies of the Book of Mormon on the road shortly after his baptism. While chatting with a girl in regards to the Church, he told her that the book is of God.

“When I said those words, the Holy Ghost testified to me [of] the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon,” Perry wrote.

And Julie A. Russell, from the San Marcos California Stake, said she initially struggled gaining a sworn statement despite weeks of missionary discussions, sincere prayer and reading the Book of Mormon.

But during one missionary lesson, she recalled a preacher telling her that if something teaches of Jesus Christ, it’s of Him. She shared this thought with the missionaries, who asked if she believed within the Book of Mormon’s truthfulness.

“I answered, ‘Yes,’ and in that moment, the Spirit consumed my entire body so strongly that had I been standing, I might have fallen over,” Russell wrote.