I have been contemplating this question a lot lately: Where is truth?
Honestly, it always comes back to a few simple things:
- Scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon)
- Prayer (sincere, honest prayer)
- Prophets (both ancient and modern)
- Personal revelation (the witness of the Holy Ghost)
I think back to the day when I had no testimony and received a witness—the day I heard the voice of an angel. That day changed the trajectory of my life, but it was not my strongest witness. It was a combination of witnesses, one after another, that caused my testimony to evolve into what it is today.
As I drove home that day, I knew I had to do a few things:
- Cut off my hair (it was long)
- Never go back to those places again
- Abandon all the friends I knew
- Abandon my bad habits (I was not living righteously)
- Read the scriptures (to come to know God’s word)
- Pray (to come to know God Himself)
It is reading the scriptures and praying that I want to focus on here. Honestly, I was a mess. I barely graduated from high school, didn’t know how to type, and had never read a book from start to finish in my life. I had mostly focused on myself and my personal appetites for many years.
I still remember going to my parents’ home that day, cutting off my hair in uneven clumps, and more or less locking myself in my room. I picked up an old set of scriptures and began reading from the Book of Mormon. I can still remember the witness of the Holy Spirit I felt. As I read, I was filled with a feeling I had never experienced before. Although it was a sensation that coursed through my body, it had a thick, overwhelming, almost tangible presence to it. I remember asking myself, “How is it I could have never felt this before in my life? Had I known this feeling, I might have made different choices.”
I became determined to feel that way as much as possible. I tried to experience it daily. I read the standard works, but I always felt the Holy Ghost the strongest when reading the Book of Mormon. Over the next three to four months, I forced myself to read, and I learned to pronounce many unfamiliar words. I could hardly read coherantly, but over time I got better at it. I remember forcing myself to learn to type at the same time. It wasn’t too hard. I feel God blessed me with a love for both reading and typing—but not enough to master the English language (spelling and grammar). Anyhow, during that time, I read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the New Testament probably three times. I believe I only made it through the Old Testament once during that period.
I never felt the Spirit while reading the other books the way I did with the Book of Mormon. I loved it so much that I took it everywhere with me. I never left home without it. At that time, I started taking classes at UVU (or UVSC/UVCC), and I would ride my mountain bike to school. I would ride fast, always feeling protected with the Book of Mormon in my backpack. So, it journeyed with me everywhere.
During this period of my life, I received so many witnesses of the Book of Mormon. It may sound like I received more than the average person—or more than my share—I don’t know why. What I do know is that it caused me to never doubt the validity or origin of the Book of Mormon. It made me certain that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Perhaps the witnesses came because of my sacrifice, or because I approached God as Moroni 10:4 says: “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ.”
I’ve seen so many people doubt the church or the Book of Mormon lately. It seems they start consuming information from the peripheral edges of the gospel—sources that aren’t the scriptures, prophets, or God Himself. Their judgment becomes clouded, and the plain and precious principles of the gospel become stumbling blocks. They become blind to truth, just as blind as my teenage self was when I didn’t believe and didn’t know that truth existed.
Joseph Smith said in the Introduction to the Book of Mormon: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
From my own experience, this is true.