Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Many of you may already know this, but if you didn't, I had the wonderful chance to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had the opportunity to serve in the south of Chile for 21 months, and I absolutely loved it so much!

On this mission I served, I had to study personally for an hour, and then with my companion for an hour, the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon which contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's quite Amazing to be able to study from this great book and to really know that it is true. It is My Testimony to tell you that I know it contains the true word of God. As a young boy I didn't quite enjoy it as much. We read from this Holy Scripture as a family early in the morning before I would we would get ready for and leave for school. At this time in my life I would have much rather been sleeping! Then when I was in 9th grade I joined the High School Swim team, and I was honestly kind of excited to wake up before school. Why? Well, I wouldn't of been falling asleep to hearing my Father's voice of reading before it would be my Mother's turn, and then hearing them both wake me up and say it was my turn day after day (or in other words to read this book). Instead I would get to follow the steps of my older brother by, waking up early with a bunch of my friends, and go jump into a cold pool to swim for 2 hours during the fall, and then play Water Polo in the Spring.

Now at this time of my life, I did not really understand The Book of Mormon, and the importantance there of. This is one reason, st the beginning of that same school year of 2009, my Mother had me sign up of Seminary at my Jr. High school. I wasn't to thrilled when she told me about it during 8th grade, thinking it was going to be just another class like sunday school or something along the lines. Although during my 8th grade year, all of my best friends from my neighborhood had told me about Brother Pond, and how awesome his class was, and just how awesome Seminary really was!

So during my first year of seminary, we studied The Book of Mormon. We had to read it on our own, and honestly it was the guest time on my own, that I had read it all on my own. Also when I really started to understand it. I mean, obviously they teach us in church as kids about the big heroes in the book, but that doesn't mean you are going to understand the book. 

This is also when my Brother Brandon was on his mission on the land of Thailand. Near the end of my 9th grade year in 2010 I received a hand written letter from my brother. It was Awesome, because I never received letters. I was super excited and ripped open the letter that day! One of the most important questions he has asked me in my entirw life was in that letter, and what was it? "Connor, do you know if The Book of Mormon is true?" Well, I sat there and thought about it, and what did I think of?? Well, my parents have told me my entire life it was true, my brother and sisters have all said it was true, even my closest friends had told me the same! Although when I thought to myself, "Do I really know that the Book of Mormon is true?" I could only think of one answer. "I don't know." So I kept on reading this letter that my brother had sent to me, and he then went on to say, "Well, I am going to give you a challenge, this is the same challenge that I give to all of my investigators here in Thailand. I want you to read the Book of Mormon today, and I want you to first off start with a prayer I want you to pray and first give thanks for the opportunity that you have to read the Book of Mormon, than to ask for the Spirit to be present while you are reading. Then I want you to read. It does not matter how much you want to read. It could be as large as 100 chapters, or it could be as small and simple as 1 verse. After you have finished reading I want you to finish with another prayer once again giving thanks for this opportunity that you had to read, since not everyone in the world has this opportunity, and then to finish off to ask your Heavenly Father if this Holy Book, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ is really True." Well, what did I do? I  thought about it, and I thought to myself "What could a little prayer hurt? Why not, I will try it." So that night I did my reading for my seminary class, because I was trying to finish it so I could get my fruities. I first started by kneeling next to my bed, and I offered a simple prayer, following the steps that my brother had asked me to do. I don't remember how much I read, but I can state that I read some, and then finishing off with another prayer. When I asked the last question, "Heavenly Father, now that I have done these steps, I truly want to know for myself if this book is True, is the Book of Mormon true Father? I then at that very moment, after asking those words, felt the most incredible feeling that I have ever felt in my entire life. It was amazing. So I wanted to keep feeling, it and so I asked again, and you know what? I felt it again, but even stronger! So I asked yet a third time, can you guess what happened? Yeah, I felt it EVEN stronger still. What is kind of crazy is even just thinking about this experience, I am feeling this same feeling, and I Love it! :)

Some of you may ask, what is this feeling? How do you know that what you only felt is an answer that the Book of Mormon is actually true, and that some crazy kid didn't just go off and write it, and make a church so he could make lots of money and what not?

Well, the answer is a simple one fore me to answer. That feeling is the Spirit of God. I know that, because of one famous scripture in the Book of Mormon, that all missionaries LOVE to use. I know that from my own personal experience as a missionary. The reference to this scripture can be found in The Book of Mormon in Moroni 10:3-5 which states;

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

So not only am I, one man, who lives in this world give testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Now you have a Prophet from the Book of Mormon, before ending the book says that everything which is in it, is true, and is for the beneficiary of mankind to know. We also aren't the only ones, there is a prophet of God who is on the Earth today, that holds the keys to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and all of the keys to God's Holy Priesthood. He also has 12 Apostles, who hold the keys to the Priesthood. They all bare testimony of the truthfulness to the Holy book which is The Book of Mormon. You can hear their testimonies in person, here in just 2 weeks. When they will be sharing messages with the whole world in an event called General Conference, which is held in Salt Lake City Utah, but it is broadcasted through television, internet, radio, and you can find it just about anywhere, if you just search it. 

In closing, I just want to share, that I too know, and bare a humble testimony that this Book has changed my life, and you will be able to see that in many ways. I want to share that I know that without it, I would not be where I am today, and that I would not be as happy as I am today. It brings the Spirit of God into my life, every time that I open the cover and flip through the pages and study it's words. I bare testimony that if you take ANY question you have to this Book. Wether it simply be asking if the book is true, or if you have some really crazy question. As long as you follow those steps from above or Praying, Reading, then Asking I promise that you will receive this answer through the Spirit of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, our dear savior Amen.

If you are more curious about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or commonly known as The Mormons you can go to Mormon.org where you can meet lots of Mormons by reading their profiles just like mine! https://www.mormon.org/me/BWT3