How I Came to Know!

IT WORKED! I was answered! I am grateful I listened! I now know what I have to do!
Today I want to share how I gained my testimony of Jesus Christ's and his Atonement and how I came to know The Book of Mormon is true.
When I was younger I started to try to understand what was right and what was wrong. I went to church every week and attended all the meetings that I was supposed to. I was enrolled in seminary and was learning the doctrines THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS professes to know. I prayed many times to know if it was true. I prayed mostly because everyone told me I should. When I would pray I would feel something, but it was hard to feel what it was. So I would not pay attention to it, just like in  1 Ne 19:7. This would happen from time to time. When I was at seminary I felt strong that the church was true, that Jesus Christ really died for my sins, and that I could do what God our Heavenly Father wanted me to. But when I would leave, the feeling would sometimes go away. I could no longer recognize what I was to do. I would feel that same feeling as I went to church and attended my meetings but often when I left the feeling would as well. I felt it often when my mother and father would read out of the scriptures, and also when I would read out of them.

 I was in the middle of my sophomore and junior year and I was starting to not be as happy to do what my parents wanted of me. I turned 16 that May and was going to a missionary training camp. I knew I wanted to serve a mission but was beginning to second guess my childhood dream. My father strongly encouraged me to heed the call of my stake president and go to this camp. I wanted to refuse his urgings but I remembered the alternate choice he gave one of my older brothers. That week while he was home from camp, would be used to move the whole hay stack off of the pallets that they were stacked on and then re-stack the whole pile. This would be quite a task for one person to do all by themselves, so I went to this camp. I rode up to the camp with my brother who was called to be a service person at camp that year. That year they were putting on a metal roof on one of the shower/bathroom's. We had to pull the trailer with the metal roofing on it and because of it we were later than all the rest of the people.
 I remember as we drove up I was happy that I was missing the first part of the camp. I didn't want to be there at this point. I remember telling my brother how excited I was to be late and miss out on a few things, I also remember the words he told me, with disappointment in his voice he said " Colb, you will change you mind at the end of this week." pridefully I said: "No I wont!" I soon learned that comment was the wrong one to make. I went to the meetings and would sit in boredom. My leader there was that brother's best friend and I had a great respect for him. He will never know the impact he had one my life when he came and got me to work on the Big H medallion. the Big H medallion was a metal that you received for memorizing certain things. I did not work on it at all the first day there. I wasn't a person to memorize things. He told me that I couldn't let my other brothers who had passed off the requirements out do me. so I decided that I would memorize the material just so I could out do my other brothers. I started on them and one of the things that I studied that first night was The Book of Mormon.

 The next thing I read was the Joseph Smith story: "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.  I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

 When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other: 'This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!'"

  As I read this I was off in the woods by myself studying trying to memorize it and I remember thinking if it worked for his it should work for me, so I knelt and asked God if it was true. This time my plea was different from the other times, I truly wanted to know. I wanted to know right then if this was the plan God had for me. the question in my heart was is this true and if it is should I go on a mission. I remember getting up from my knee's not feeling anything. Being a little discouraged, I went back to the friend of my brother and tried to recite the story back to him. He was excited that I was really trying to pass off the requirements. He helped me and he sent me on to the leaders who I had to pass it off to. As I started to teach I started to feel a stirring that I didn't realize at the time, but as I continued I got to the story of Joseph Smith and his prayer and answer. I started reciting it and as I got farther and farther through the story I felt the spirit more and more.

 When I said the words, "calling me by name and said, pointing to the other: 'This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!'", I started to cry and I felt that I had known it was true all a long and that I needed to start acting on what I know. At that moment I knew that I should serve a mission and testify of the truth I have found. I read a lot of the Book of Mormon and I asked if it was true and the same feeling of peace and happiness came to me and I knew it was. IT WORKED! He answered my prayer! I am grateful I listened! I now know what I have to do!
I have been so blessed serving my mission, to testify as a representative of Jesus Christ himself that The Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture and it testifies of Christ.  It tells us how to be happy, how to find answers to questions and much more. Reading both the Bible and the Book of Mormon together have blessed my life more than any other book. I have grown so much closer to God in the last 2 years than I have ever been. There have been many people who have helped me along my journey of life, but the most influential person has been Jesus Christ. He has gone forth and suffered the pain and the emptiness I felt and that all others have felt (Read Alma 7:11-13). He is the Light and life of this world! He is our Savior and Redeemer!