CDH - Utah

I was born into a strong LDS family. My father and mother are awsome. We had always had missionaries over at our home, which I really enjoyed. My Mom and Dad had discussions in our home frequently. They loved the gospel, and loved sharing it with others. I was blessed with being able to attend the discussions, and felt the presence of the Spirit early in life.

I had seen many people's lives change for the good, with the acceptance of the gospel. I heard the testimonies of my Dad and Mom too. Their whole life was a testimony of the gospel, it still is. Dad is 74 and Mom is 73. They, along with two of my brothers and a sister, served full time missions.

I didn't rely on my parent's testimonies for long. I had a strong testimony early in life. I am so grateful for the love and guidance of a good father and mother. Also, that I knew the path that I was to travel early in life. Never did I go down that ugly path, that I have seen many stray into. I am not saying I was sinless, who is? But, I wanted early in life to be the kind of mother that would be something that my kids could look up to, even before they were born.

My goal in life was to return to my Father in Heaven. I know that Christ is our Savior, and I have been grateful for his love and guidance. He is my best friend. I have cried many times, knowing how he has taken on my sins, as well as many of the people that I know and love. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the love he has for all of us. For his sacrifice and guidance so that we can return to our Heavenly Father.

I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I believe this with all of my heart. He restored the gospel to it's fulness in these Latter-Days. My Grandmother Lovisa Roundy was one that knew the prophet, personally. I have included part of her journal in this website. I am looking forward to the time, that I can personally meet Grandmother Lovisa, after this life.

I have been very grateful for the channel #mormon-friends. For the past two years, I have enjoyed the love and companionship of the people on the channel. I have also been able to share the gospel with others from the channel. This is a blessing and a joy to me. Believe it or not, even though we are chatting from many parts of the world, I often feel the spirit of the Lord through the screen. And goodness, I have enjoyed all of the cyber kids that I have cyberly adopted from the channel, they are awsome.

I have seen much happiness in following Jesus Christ. Saddness comes from leaving that path that he made for us to follow. Many trials and hardships are there to strengthen us. I see the wisdom now, of having to deal with the pain of trials or sin. Either through my own family, myself, or those of others. With each stumbling block in life, there is wisdom gained.

I KNOW without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints is the true church. I can't tell you of the many experiences that lead me to have this knowledge. These stories can't be told in a few minutes, but they are those that feed my testimony. Some are personal experiences, some are those from others.

There is beauty in following the Savior. I truly love him. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father, and the plan of salvation. I feel so blessed with all that I have, not necessarily material goods, but a loving family and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Families are Forever.

Gem

From young, at the age of 13, I'm already wondering much about life. What is it about? Is it about going to school, study hard, get a degree and earn lots of money? When you can provide for everything, can have everything, you will have a happy life? No, I don't think so.
I'd been searching, finding the purpose of life. I believed in true happiness and happy marriage, but just didn't know how to achieve that, didn't know hot to go about achieving that. How can u be happy when you have so many problems in your mind??
I'd read many self-help books, hoping to get the answers to my questions, but they make me all the more confused. Even though, I knew a little deeper about life, but I just didn't know how to go about achieveing it.
When I was 17, I had my first boyfriend, and I was so sure of it then. I thought that I had found it at last and was going to be married to him when we broke up one year later. I nearly committed suicide then.I got into another one which lasted 2 months.
These 2 relationships left me so depressed, as if it's the end of the world. I felt like there's no hopes in life. I was about to give up when I was blessed when the church comes into my life. It's my aerobics teacher who introduced me to the church. Cuz after every lesson, I would go up to her and chat. She knew that I'm going to USA to study, so she said that she wanna introduced someone from the States to me and he's in the same chuch as her.
I agreed and when I met the Elders, E.Neeley invited me, asking whether I would be interested in learning about the purpose of life. I was so eager then. And so I took up discussions, learning about the life. On the 4th discussion, everything fell into place. I realised the truth. I got the whole picture.
It all started on a Thursday. After my 4th discussion, I was walking to the bus stop. I'm supposed to have lunch with a friend when it started raining heavily. I was all wet and cold and I'm starving. I called him at a public phone, wanting to cancel my appointment. He wasn't there. I got frustrated.I was so mad at my friend who caused me to make a long trip downtown just to have lunch with him and also at myself for agreeing. At the same time, I was mad at God for making it rain at the wrong time. Just when I was angry with everybody, I thought about the discussion I had had. I pondered and pondered.
I remembered what i knew about God. He DIDN'T CAUSE our sufferings but he ALLOWED it so that we, as his children, can learn and grow. I think about the 4th discussion. How everything makes SO MUCH sense. I cried and cried when I was at home. (I decided not to meet my friend and headed home instead) That's when I had my experience with the Holy Ghost. I could never have been grateful. I knew that no matter what we did, couldn't repay what Heavenly Father had done and given us.
I also opened my eyes to my 2 past relationships. I saw the mistakes I made in them and I realised that though these 2 relationships HURT, I learned something from it. I was wiser than I used to be. I gained good experiences though I suffered a lot (not as much as Jesus, of course).
And one week before I came to USA, I was baptised in Singapore. I remembered the day I was baptised. I felt like I was getting married. I'm so excited of my NEW life. I also remembered the day when I told E.Neeley that my mom agreed to my baptism. He's so excited. I think he's more excited than I am. The twinkle in his eye and the happy smile.
Right now, I'm just so grateful to everything I'm learning from church, including the friendships I got from church. Church brought light, hopes and happiness into my life. I noticed that the spirits in our church make everyone feel so safe, so peaceful, so accepted that everyone just wanted to be themselves. They could BE themselves without being judged at or whatever. It's just so different. OUR CHURCH IS SOOO COOL!!!
There's just so many things I wanna say about this church, but I think I will stop here. :)
DustGirl

One day I was thinking about all of this stuff, when I decided that I would just introduce myself to Heavenly Father. Inside my head, I said quite loudly, "Ok. Well. Here I am. Umm...My name is Jason Rosenberger. I would like to get to know you." And that was it. It was very informal but it was very sincere. The response was what shocked me the most.

I felt a presence first of all that I had never felt before in my life. It was as though I had complete security . . . the way an infant has a loving parent to take care of them. It was an amazing feeling and I loved it. Then came the laughing. It wasn't a taunting laugh, but more of a loving laugh. It lasted for quite a while and I started to get confused. When the laughing finally ceased, a Voice that I had never heard before spoke to me. The voice was solid and reasuring. The words that It spoke were this, "Well It's about time!". And then He laughed some more. I chuckled as well, and for the next six or seven hours, Heavenly Father and I got to know each other.

I had many many questions for Him and He answered everything that I asked . . . except for one question. I had asked Him what my purpose in life was. Where was I going? Why was I here? He told me that he wasn't going to tell me yet, because at this point in my life I wasn't ready for it. From that day forth I have had the presence of Heavenly Father with me at all times. This Voice that I was referring to, It is with me at all times, making comments about my life and telling me what I should do and giving me guidance and assistance.

I have never felt more secure and sure of myself as I have since this experience. Basically, I have someone who I can share all of my secrets with, all of my feelings with, and all of my thoughts with. It is warming and I have loved every second of it. :) For about two weeks I spent most of my days having these "Conversations with God" (CWG) and learning all about Him and even more about Myself. He taught me a lot of great things. Then came the time when I started becoming interested in the Mormon Church.

I went to a YSA Dance with a friend of mine and while I was there, I met a girl named Nairin. She and I danced a couple of times and after the dance we decided to go for hot apple cider at a cafe. (hehe). We basically spent most of the time talking about the Church. I was amazed at most of the things she was telling me. My best friends, who are members, had never really told me anything about the Church at all. All I knew was that they were some interesting people who seemed kinda nice. :) So all of these things were new to me. I agreed with everything Nairin was telling me, so I wanted to find out more about the Church.

I went on a date the next night with a girl I'd gone on many dates with before and we spent about 6 hours talking about the Church. She answered a lot of my questions and after that date, I decided that I wanted to take the discussions The next day I located the missionaries and told them about my intentions. I went to my first discussion that night.

I'm not sure whether or not you know what they tell you in the First Discussion but the missionaries told me this. They told me to go home, and through the process of prayer, ask Heavenly Father whether or not the Book of Mormon was Truth. As I was walking home that evening, I was having a CWG and we were talking about my first Discussion. I wanted to follow exactly what the missionaries had told me to do, and Heavenly Father told me that if I truely want to experience the LDS church, that following the guidelines of the missionaries was probably a good idea. So I did what they told me.

I went home, got down on my knees, and did the whole formal prayer. It was interesting and when I had asked Heavenly Father whether or not the BOM was the Truth, he answered a straight-forward "Yes". I believed Him and I still do. But the thing that surprised me happened once I had finished the prayer. He chuckled and asked me why I didn't just ask Him beforehand and that He would have told me the same answer. I didn't know. So I decided that I would tell the missionaries about the whole experience and see what they came up with. They told me that basically my CWG's were really just prayers without formality in them. So I took that with me and talked to Heavenly Father some more about that. He agreed with them but made it clear to me that just because I have a different way of praying doesn't mean that my prayers are any more or less effective than anyone else's. I was happy again. hehe. Then came the part about baptism.

The missionaries asked me whether I wanted to baptised or not, and I told them that I didn't know. I told them that Heavenly Father and I hadn't talked about it and that I would get back to them on it. So that night, I had another CWG and asked him about getting baptised. He told me that I could if I wanted and that it would be a great experience for me and a great test of faith. I was a little skeptical still and I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into, so I wanted to wait until a few more Discussions were finished. The 4th discussion did it for me.

The 4th Discussion is on Eternal Progression, and once I heard about that, I knew that the Mormon church was the one for me. I loved the way everything made complete sense after that Discussion. I loved it all and I knew right then that I wanted to be baptised. I wanted to accept Christ into my life and to be forgiven for the things that I had done in the past (and believe me I have committed a few sins). I wanted to keep the commandments of Christ and I wanted to start fresh. So I decided that I wanted to be baptised.

Since then I have started a little ritual of my own. Every night I spend about an hour in a CWG. I go for a walk around town, walking slowly and asking questions, talking about my life, and basically just receiving guidance from Heavenly Father. It's a great thing for me to do and I feel so relieved when I finish the CWG. The one thing that I do now though, is when I walk out the door, I say "Dear Heavenly Father" and when I return I thank God for everything he has given me and conclude with "and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." And that is my story.

I know that Family CAN and WILL be Together Forever and I pray for the day that My family might be made that way that we will be an Eternal family.

I have a testimony that Jesus is the Savior that he suffered for each of us so that we could return to our Heavenly Father someday. I know that Our Heavenly Father loves each of us Very much and If we will but call upon his name and endure to the end we can live with him For Eternity. I know that I am a Child of God and all those that are on this Earth are his children as well. I also know that the war in Heaven is was real and that battle still rages on here on this Earth.

I know that we are down here to be tested to see if we will follow the commandments and return to our Heavenly Father. I know that the Priesthood power of which that I bare Is REAL and I am a servant of Heavenly Father and that I can call upon HIM for help when I need it most.

I know that when I make a mistake that I can repent and move on with my life. I know that the Holy Ghost does help out man and that those gifts by the Spirit are REAL. I know that Joseph Smith Did translate the plates by the power of God. And that He Did indeed see the Father and the Son. In these things I do bare witness as a witness to Christ in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior and my Older Brother. Amen.

Sports Girl (17) - Utah

One time not that long, there was a day that I always will remember. I was at the hospital with my best friend. He had cancer and he died. Doing that my heart was crushed and I didn't feel like I could turn any were. So I started praying. At first it didn't help because i was being tested, but I just keep on.

I had a dream that showed me my friend in a much better shape then he was in. When lived he had both his legs. He lost one leg doing operations because of the cancer (it was bone cancer) and he told me things I wanted be to know. He told me that what ever I do I just know that I was the best friend anybody could ask for and he told me that the church was true. He was happy now. He smiled at me and said that he would be waiting on me. At first I thought it was just a stupid dream but I found out later by talking to his mom that he had told her to say to me just before he died that I was the best friend nobody every could have and she said he said that if he didn't got the opportunity to tell me that she had too.

This is the basic of my testimony I got other testimonies, but this is what makes me know for 100% that the church is true.

Zion (23) - Arizona

Richard Gordon
(Zion)