When I was eight years old I was baptized, but
shortly after that I fell away from the Church.
I ran into Word of Wisdom issues
I ran into
all sorts of issues. I ended up just
wondering if there is a God, just wondering if there is something there.
I was talking with my uncle, one evening, and he started talking to me about the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
He told me to go pray about these things
that we talked about and
as I went down into my room
and knelt at the side of my bed, I Started to say this prayer.
I remember a feeling that started off in my heart and
it felt like it just filled my whole body, it felt
like this power was just overwhelming, but for a
split moment that fear
was instantly replaced with this feeling of clarity.
I knew exactly what I had to do
with with my life. The Holy Ghost
helped increase my testimony because he testified to me that
all the things I've been learning are true or
when other people are giving their testimonies I
also feel the Spirit which testifies to me that what they are saying is true.
My life just completely changed you know it's like when I say here's
you know I would be on this path without the Spirit, on this path with the Spirit.
I obviously would not have gone on my mission.
My mission was I mean it was everything to me it was exactly what I needed right then.
The main lesson that I took away was finding a way to have
the Spirit with me. It took me about nine full months
and I remember getting down on my knees and
saying to Heavenly Father "we're not having very much success
you know I'm here to work, you know help me to understand this."
I woke up the next day and I just remember it was really interesting to see what had happened
from a convert stand point.
I just put aside everything and started focusing on the work and it was amazing
how everything came about after that.
Of course there are times when the Spirit has been very strong I think when
when I was 14 and prayed about the Book of Mormon
before I could even get the words out I just felt the Spirit in
my heart just really strong and I just felt so filled with light
not everything is like that, but as I read the scriptures or as I hear truths at
church then I
know it's confirmed to me in my heart that these things are true so
your testimony just grows little by little.
I had a huge experience overnight that I would say step-by-step
led me to where I need to be.
I ended up going on a mission
I ended up marrying in the temple. And so like I'm
reading through the Book of Mormon and like you get like that ah ha
the thought that these things are true comes to your mind.
Peace, joy, overwhelming happiness you know it just kinda like impressed on
your soul
and the cool thing is it's not something that happens once it's something
that happens
over, over and over again. Well my first experience that I had goes back to
when I was eight years old and I was ready to get
baptized. So that morning my mom was finishing the dress that I was going to wear after my baptism.
it was a beautiful blue
organza. So she is
trying to finish my dress so I can have this beautiful dress
and I just walked in the sewing room
and I asked her "why do I need to get baptized?"
and she said "I'm a little busy why don't you go ask Heavenly Father why you need to
get baptized." So I went into my room
and kneeled down and there
was this overwhelming
experience in which I
was not able to finish my prayer
so I ran into the sewing room and told my mom "mommy, mommy why I'm I
crying so much?"
and she told that was the Spirit telling me,
making a confirmation that what I was going to do was the right thing to do.
This experience has changed my life around
from where I used to be it was amazing to
feel the Spirit you could say that I was in a mist of
darkness, that I didn't necessarily even know where I was
it was all a blur
the opportunity arose and I saw a light in a sense and ran towards it
as fast as I could.