By Greg R., member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and student at Brigham Young University (BYU).

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which church is often mistakenly called the Mormon Church), I believe in the power of prayer. I received a twofold answer to a prayer while studying the scriptures and reading Doctrine and Covenants 12:5–6: “Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you. Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.”

I had been asking for guidance and strength to manage my course load in school at Brigham Young University as I transitioned from serving a two-year mission for my church. Before reading this section, I listed a number of blessings I had seen in my life lately. As I read verse 5, the Holy Spirit came upon me and urged me strongly to pray for this guidance again. I did so, and pled in my heart for a sure direction to take—anything to send me in the right direction. As I listened for the answer, my attention was directed almost immediately to the next verse of scripture. In a dramatic irony that only Heavenly Father can produce in such a moment as this, I read these words after my prayer, “Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments.”

The Holy Ghost witnessed to me strongly that these verses had deep personal implications for me; then and always. I know this answer came from God, directly to my soul through His written word. These are the same words that millions of others have read, yet with the Holy Spirit, they taught me deeply about myself. This was the first part of my answer.

The second part came immediately after the first. I realized that the Holy Spirit directed my focus to the next verse for the answer to my prayer. In doing so, He taught me to keep moving forward in all things. I may never have received that first answer had I kept my eyes closed, hoping and pleading for a dramatic expression of divine revelation. It was in front of my nose, and all I had to do was read. How simple—yet I forget this one lesson so often. I have applied this to my school work with wonderful results. If I am stuck, behind, overwhelmed, or stressed, simply moving forward steadily brings me back around. This revelation to me came after pondering the blessings I have received, reading the scriptures, and praying.

I learned a timely lesson about recognizing the Lord’s voice from Doctrine and Covenants 18:34–36. I had heard this scripture before, but I hadn’t read the verses very closely until I read the paragraph in the Doctrine and Covenants student manual by Elder S. Dilworth Young as he quoted Brigham Young:

In 1835 the Twelve were chosen, as you know, and on one occasion they were called together and given their instructions. Oliver Cowdery was the spokesman; and after having given them some very powerful and heartwarming instruction, so moved was he, himself, that he had to stop two or three times to weep. He finally read the revelation [now designated as section 18].

Brigham Young was so impressed by it that he copied it in his laborious handwriting into his diary. I am impressed by it likewise. These are the words:

 These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man; For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them; Wherefore, you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words (D&C 18:34–36).

The thing that impresses me about this is, and I have never thought of it before, when I read a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants I am hearing the voice of the Lord as well as reading his words, if I hear by the Spirit.

Now I have heard it said many times by men that they have often asked the Lord for a special testimony and oftentimes haven’t had it. They seem to want to hear the voice of the Lord. I confess I have often wanted to hear the voice of the Lord, without knowing that all these years I have been hearing it with deaf ears. This woke me up.” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1963, p. 74.)

I too have wanted manifestations of the Holy Spirit to hear the voice of the Lord. I have even had measureable doubt as to if He would speak to me as He spoke to His prophets. Like Brigham Young, I have heard His voice and read His words for years past. My whole life has been filled with the words of God spoken to me. The lesson I learned is that I have been hearing them to some extent with deaf ears. The meaning of “deaf ears” was communicated to my spirit by the Holy Ghost. I hadn’t had sufficient experience for these words to carry enough weight to change me. I have changed through the Spirit’s counsel to my soul to listen with new ears. God’s words are everywhere.

Another lesson in asking and receiving came from Joseph Smith as he and the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon sought for the vision of the brass plates promised in D&C 17:1. It was Joseph’s initiative that left an impression on me. I was surprised to read in the Doctrine and Covenants student manual that he and the three witnesses simply decided on a day to attempt to obtain the promised vision:

Not many days after the above commandment was given, we four, viz., Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and myself, agreed to retire into the woods, and try to obtain, by fervent and humble prayer, the fulfilment of the promises given in the above revelation—that they should have a view of the plates. We accordingly made choice of a piece of woods convenient to Mr. Whitmer’s house, to which we retired, and having knelt down, we began to pray in much faith to Almighty God to bestow upon us a realization of these promises.

I had assumed that the Lord had in some way or another told them when and where and how this vision would occur. It seemed of great enough importance to warrant His direction. Instead, He waited for Joseph and the others to ask Him. This fact should not have come as a surprise, because in every other instance, the Lord waits for His children to ask. The scriptures are full of versions of the phrase, “Ask and ye shall receive.” In fact, that is the phrase that encouraged me to ask and receive the answer to my prayer in the first place. Joseph didn’t receive any visions until he asked God which of all the many churches and sects was true. I cannot expect to receive blessings that I do not ask for. When I do ask, in faith, I receive. The part that stumps me most is knowing what to ask for. It is profound to me that Joseph was so in tune with the Holy Spirit that he knew that it was right and that it was time to ask the Father for the promised vision. I would just as soon not think to direct the Lord as to when I was ready for such an experience, but would wait for the Lord to show me when He thought the time was right. Joseph taught me to be bold in asking for that which I desire in righteousness, in faith, that I might receive; and I will do so.

Additional Resources:

God answers prayers. Learn more at the official site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church“)

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and companion to the Bible. Request your free copy today.

Attend a local meetinghouse.

I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet when I received a spiritual witness of it.

I visited Temple Square this past Christmas. I had never looked at any of the statues they have out, and this year I decided to stop and take a look. I came across Joseph Smith‘s statue, and it just totally took me off guard. I read the caption they had put below [the statue] and the second I read the part that said, “This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him!” I just got all warm and fuzzy inside.

I wanted to start crying. I wanted to just drop to my knees and pray to my Father in Heaven. I wanted my Book of Mormon right then. I knew in my heart this was true. I knew in my heart Joseph Smith restored the gospel. I knew in my heart he saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I became a true and pure witness of Joseph Smith that night. I love him and am ever-thankful and overjoyed for everything he did.

When I was young, not long after I had been baptized at age eight, I kept on having nightmares and couldn’t sleep very well. My mother had a very interesting solution. I would read a chapter from the book of mormon every night and she promised that I would not have a bad dreams.

So I tried it. Every night I read a chapter. I didn’t always understand what I read, but I did it until I was finished.  I was so excited. I ran to my mother and told her that I was finished. She smiled and asked If I had asked God if it was true.  I was stunned. I didn’t know that you had to ask anybody anything about the Book of Mormon. She then told me that it was a promise from God that all who asked would know if it was true.

So that night I asked God in my prayers if it was true. Stunningly, I recieved an answer. I can’t remember it very well; it’s more of a feeling that I remember than anything else — a feeling that it was true, and it stuck with me.

The next morning I remember proudly walking up to my mom and telling her that I knew that it was true. She smiled and told me that it indeed was.

Well, I remember having a conversation with my friend, a Baptist. We were talking about Jesus. Out of the blue, he states matter-of-factly,
“Mormon‘s aren’t Christian.”

I was stunned. My family, all of whom had grown up in the Church, had always talked about Jesus, prayed in His name, worshipped Him, and believed in the Bible and tried to be as Christian as we could be. I looked at him and said, “What makes a Christian?”
He paused. “You believe in Christ.”
I frowned and said firmly. “You know I believe in Christ.”
Certianly, he couldn’t have forgotten that we had talked endlessly about Christ and his teachings. I had always respected his beliefs and I was finding it hard to believe that he didn’t think I was Christian. It felt a bit disrespected.

He paused and then said, “Well…yeah, you do believe in Christ.”
He never brought up the subject again really, I knew that he was sure of one thing, even if he did think I was Christian per say, that I believed in Him.

There was so much involved in the conversion process for me – a girl friend inviting me to early morning seminary — even though I was a member I didn’t have a testimony of the Church or the book of Mormon – what I felt is that God would answer my prayers — and we didn’t even pray in the family — I was a junior in High school — in my heart I wanted more answers to questions — I had — why was I here on earth? Did I have a mission? Would God answer my prayers? Was there more to life than just working, dying and then what? You see I was not active in the Church — I didn’t even attend the church meetings, neither did my family, we didn’t pray at home, we didn’t read the scriptures, we didn’t do anything the active strong members do, except – we were finally letting the home teachers in – and God had sent a great member missionary to our home – Chris S. You see Chris  loved the gospel and he loved us, and more importantly – he loved sharing gospel with us. Chris would come, and I would hit him with a lot of questions, and he would answer them, some he couldn’t answer — no one could, except maybe God.  Chris knew how to pray; Chris – encouraged us to pray; he encouraged us to read the scriptures. I started to do both - I felt God could answer my prayers.

I felt the book of Mormon,  which I started to read, was true. But God had more in store for me than I knew…. Back to the girl friend – she was in my biology class. I kinda had a crush on her but never dated her (missed out there),  but she invited me to early morning seminary — guess what? They were reading the Book of Mormon that year (in seminary, they rotate through all the scriptures in four years, with two years devoted to the Bible).  I couldn’t be left behind in what they were learning.  If I was going to ask questions and learn more, I had to really read it too, so I did.  But that is just part of the story — my dad had to get me to seminary.  He did, but he smoked, and I didn’t want to smell like cigarettes, so I would roll down the window, and he would ask me to put it up, and I said I would if he would not smoke.  So he stopped smoking while I was in the truck, but after, he would smoke again.

I soon started to attend church,  and soon I found out about a Patriarchal blessing – could God really give me some answers this way? I had to find out so I went to the bishop.  I got an interview for my worthiness, and then got an appointment set up with the Patriarch. You see, he could give me a blessing and get some of these questions answered.  So I fasted that day and went to his house – and WOW – this was going to be a great life changing experience.  These questions about my life’s mission and other things to be aware of and avoid and other things to do — these were well-explained to me through revelation from God.  What a blessing!  Six months later I was ordained a priest, and six months later an elder, and six months later I was on a mission to Korea.  Learning and obeying is a life-long experience in the Church. 

It didn’t end there — I was later married in the Provo temple to a great gal from Springville, Utah.   My family could not attend — they were not active and they didn’t have temple recommends.  [You can only attend the temple if you are worthy.]  My parents could only stand outside the temple and greet us when we came out.

Now I have children and grand children.  My oldest was married in the Billings Montana Temple to a strong faithful returned missionary.  She is expecting a second child.  They are strong and faithful members.  One of the most important things you can do is always read the scriptures, attend meetings, and partake of the sacrament, attend to your duties, say your prayers, and really learn how to pray and let the holy spirit guide you.  For young people — get your Patriarchal Blessing.  Go fasting as you do.  Prepare yourself for a temple marriage and most importantly, find a faithful companion who keeps her covenants.

God loves you, and wants the best for you, but you need to continue faithful, obey the commandments, obey the spirit, and be faithful to your covenants and promises you have made, from baptism to the sacrament to the temple.  Daily – hourly – moment by moment – feed your spirit – love the Lord.  Live the gospel to its fullest, and you will be blessed for all eternity.  Catch the vision of who you really are and how you can bless the lives of your family and friends forever! What a glorious full gospel we have.  May you catch the vision and spirit of this great eternal work,  and may god continue to bless you! Roger

On my mission, serving in Tennessee and Kentucky, I learned to respect and not to criticize other faiths. As you know, that’s the location of the highest concentration of Protestant Christians in the United States, so I was completely exposed to it. In the early part of my mission, I didn’t always speak too highly of other faiths, as we ran into hardcore Bible-thumpers on a daily basis that loved to try and argue and bash with us. As the months went on though, I developed a love for the people, despite the fact we were often seen as a threat to various Christian congregations. One of the reasons I developed this love is because I truly came to understand how MUCH all the people loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and how much they trusted in Him and His Atonement, probably a lot more than many members of the LDS church. When we hear the phrase “I’m saved,” we usually think of Baptist preachers, or ministers from some sort of Protestant religion, and it almost has a negative connotation to us, who know that there is more to being saved than just saying “I’m saved.” The fact of the matter is, Jesus DOES save. He IS the Savior. His blood IS what cleanses us from our sins, and HE is the only way back to the Father. The people I met, day after day, believed this. Some may have been more sincere than others, but they still trusted in Him to get them back to heaven. That is the simplest and purest kind of faith, I believe. My view of the doctrine of grace greatly matured on my mission, as a result of meeting tons of wonderful people of different faiths. While we differed on what is is that WE need to do to get back to Heavenly Father, the one thing we could agree on was certainly the most crucial and most important: Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of ALL mankind. He loved us enough to descend below all things, suffer, beyond human comprehension, for our sins and every infirmity we’ve ever experienced, and then to die on the cross. He WAS resurrected, and He lives today. As Joseph Smith said, this is the fundamental principle of our religion, and everything else in the Church is simply appendages to it.

The best thing that happened on my mission was…

not real sure. I don’t know that there is just one “best thing” that can happen on a mission. I suppose one of my absolute favorite experiences happened in my 4th area, Bowling Green, Kentucky. We were teaching a Spanish family named the Gonzalez’s. The father, Carlos, was an active member in his Baptist church, and was actually on the staff of the church. I believe he was in charge of the money or tithes or something. However, he and his family were extremely humble, and had expressed a desire to one of their Mormon friends to hear the lessons. We taught a first lesson to them. It went all right. I didn’t think much of it. It was hard to be extremely excited after a first lesson, because it was pretty rare to get past that. We came back a few days later to find that they had all done their reading as a family. We taught another lesson and they ate it up. Carlos told us that he believed everything we taught him, and it all seemed to square, for the most part, with his own beliefs. We decided to extend the baptismal invitation a couple days later. At that point, it was a few days before Christmas, and we wanted to set the date for around January 6th. So, not a whole lot of time, but we were bold, and knew that with faith, Carlos and his family could make the date. So we went over there and invited them to be baptized. Carlos was pretty hesitant. We knew he didn’t know absolutely everything, but that if he had felt the Spirit, that was all he needed. We told him that the date was soon, but we knew he and his family could be ready if they had faith to do what was right. We didn’t really get a clear answer from him during the lesson, and we were doubtful as to what he was going to do. After the closing prayer, Carlos got up and went into his bedroom and shut the door. We were confused, but continued making small talk with his wife and playing with the kids. Several minutes later, Carlos emerged from his bedroom, dressed in church clothes, grabbed his keys, and walked out the door, in somewhat of a hurry. We were pretty weirded out, so we asked his son Dublas what was going on.

“He’s going to his church to turn in his keys!” he told us.

Can you even imagine the joy and the relief that filled us when he said that? I was completely astonished. I don’t think I had ever met someone with so much faith! This man, despite not knowing everything, and certainly having not even received all of the missionary lessons, nevertheless acted on the simple yet powerful whisperings of the Spirit, and went and turned in his keys at his old church. The date was set, though the next couple weeks weren’t without some obstacles. The pastor at his old church tried to get him to come back, and fed him some anti-Mormon stuff as well, but we helped him through it and answered his questions as best we could. A few days later, amidst all the challenges he and his family were facing, we decided to give him a priesthood blessing. Somehow, it helped ease his stress, and also eased some pain in his back, caused by all the stress. Carlos, his wife, and his son and grandkids were baptized on January 6th, and throughout the next three months, more of THEIR friends and family members were baptized, and Carlos and his family were able to be sealed as a family in the Nashville Tennessee Temple in April 2009. I am still astounded to this day by the faith that Carlos had. This is one of several grand experiences from my mission that I will be forever grateful for. The church is true, and missionary work is the most genius idea that’s ever come out of it.

A Simple Conversion by Gary

I was raised Pentecostal and Baptist and spent many years in and out of church as a youth. There was a time we even lived on the Navajo reservation as a missionary family with us five kids attending the local school.
I was very familiar with the Bible as I read it a lot. I would spend hours searching and praying, looking for understanding and knowledge. As we moved around, which we did very often when looking for work, it didn’t take long for the family to become ‘inactive’.  But my heart was still drawn to church.

When I was a late teen I was attending a Church of Christ congregation, the only one in my family attending any church services. While I was there I had the feeling I was to be a preacher. I felt this was my life’s calling. But I had so many questions yet unanswered.

Soon after graduation from High School I joined the military and got married to my high school sweetheart. After about a year she kept after me to get drunk. She felt since I was so funny sober imagine how I would be drunk. After many months of her constantly asking, and at times begging me, I relented and started drinking.

I was transferred to go to school for the military and stopped in to visit our families in Oklahoma. My parents had just been baptized into the Mormon church and my mother handed my first copy of the Book of Mormon.

While at school I didn’t give any time to read that book my mother had given me. I was under a heavy load with a pregnant wife, so I felt I had little time even for myself. Then I was stationed in St. Louis, Missouri, right after school.

One day I was sitting in in our apartment in St Louis knowing my life was not what I wanted out of it. So I decided to call my mother back in Oklahoma City. As soon as my hand touched the phone it began to ring.

I answered and said, “Hello?”

The voice on the other side said, “I have the answers you’re looking for.”
I said, “Excuse me?”

Again he replied, “I have the answers you’re looking for. ”

In my state of confusment I asked him who he was, to which he replied, “I am Elder (and I have no idea what name he said) So and So and I am from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

I asked him how he had gotten my number and if my mother had given it to him which he replied, “Sir, I have no idea what number I dialed. All I can tell you is, I have the answers you’re looking for.”

To think that out of close to a million people in the St Louis area this elder had ‘just decided’ to call me, right then when I was going to ask about the church in the first place. I knew God worked miracles but could this be? He did have my attention, for certain.

I asked him when he could come over. I then learned that he couldn’t because of the distance involved but he would send someone to me. He said if I would wait by the phone he would call another elder in my area.

After a wait of almost five minutes the ‘new’ elder called me. We set up an appointment at his earliest convenience. When the missionaries came to my door I was impressed to see that they traveled in pairs.

Back then they had a set of 12 discussions on a flip chart. Within one hour we had already finished half. I was asking the questions and was finally getting my answers that had eluded me for so long. I was hungry for what they offered and knew in my heart it was true.

It soon came time for them to leave for another appointment and as we got up and walked towards the door I asked, “I have been baptized in 2 different churches and I am guessing I need to do the same in yours. And if so why isn’t it good enough for what I have already done?”

The Elder looked at me, then to his companion before answering. He said, “Yes, you need to be baptized again. The reason is “Authority”. You have been baptized, true. Now you need the authority from God to make it correct”.

I stayed on the elders about being baptized, but they wanted me to wait for my wife to join also. I kept telling them that I shouldn’t have to wait just because of her choices and that I knew she would not be ready to join for some time. After about a month of waiting I called the elders and asked, “Elder, if I died today and was not baptized whose head would this fall on?” I was baptized a few days later by my father.

I became mormon right before my 20th birthday. I was dating my high school sweetheart, who was Mormon and he and his mother wanted me to take [missionary] lessons. I always felt I had a very close relationship with God. I was torn about becoming a member of the Church and getting baptized, so I talked to the [sister missionaries] about it after one of my lessons, and they said tonight get down on your knees and pray from your heart and ask God if this is right. I did, and that night I awoke to an angel who appeared in my doorway; he looked like Jesus, and he was so tall and had light all around him. He said to me it’s right! I closed my eyes and opened them and he was gone. I told everyone about it and got a lot of rude and unbelieving comments. For along time I quit telling people about it, but it is up to me to be responsible for what I saw and to lead people to the truth so from this point forward I will do that.

My childhood was not pretty. I was raised in several “homes” and foster homes. Both my parents were alcoholics…in fact, they met at an AA meeting! Both of them had several failed marriages and relationships which resulted in various children. I have siblings, step-siblings and half-siblings, some of whom I’ve never met, even to this day. Others I was raised with on and off at different times and various circumstances. To say the least…it was a confusing, chaotic, and unstable childhood. Through all the chaos and confusion, there was one consistent thing in my life- that was the AV 1611 King James version of the Holy Bible.

My father, (believe it or not) was a southern Baptist preacher! He would preach about the love of Christ and the peace which passeth all understanding, but my father never knew peace, nor did he have a clue about the meaning of the word “love.” (I struggle with the meaning of it myself) As my siblings all turned to drugs, alcohol, sex or insanity as an escape from the torment of our lives, I turned to the Bible. I started memorizing it at an early age. By the time I was 16 years old, I was carrying my Bible with me to school every day and quoting whole chapters. When I was 26 years old, I quoted the first 14 chapters of Matthew on a TV show called,”The Parade Of Miracles”. It was broadcast from a church called The People’s Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I didn’t know Christ or His love, but I wanted to know him. I longed to know him. As I poured over my scriptures, I found reference to Christ in every chapter I could from both the Old and the New Testaments. I wrote poems, read books (many books),about Christ, New Testament times and Old Testament times. As I matured into adulthood, I started “church hopping”, checking out many different churches and religions, each one claiming to have the only truth. Each one claimed that they were the the true church, and with each new church, I came away feeling empty. Finally, after my marriage failed and I started raising my two children alone, I decided to give up on church altogether. Although I could quote scripture better than most preachers I knew, I still lacked an understanding of who Christ was. I knew about him, but I didn’t know him. My problem was 18 inches long. There are 18 inches between your head and your heart. I had Christ’s words in my head, but they had not reached my heart. If I missed Heaven…it was going to be by 18 inches!

Then, one night I happened to see a commercial for a free Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ. Wow! It had never occurred to me that the Book of Mormon was a “Testament of Jesus Christ.” I had the Old Testament and the New Testament, what was this? A third Testament? I had never heard of such a thing! Maybe that was the missing piece! I grabbed my phone and dialed the number! When the person on the other end asked if I would like someone to visit me, as well as receive my free copy of the Book of Mormon, I said,” yes!” I had my first visit in February 2004. God bless those missionaries! I sure gave them a run for their money! I knew we were in the “last days”, and the the Bible says,”Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). I did not trust them; I knew many false prophets would arise in the last days, but I gave them my word that I would not make any decisions until I had read the Book of Mormon.

A funny thing happened as I started reading the Book of Mormon-I recognized my beloved Bible on every page! It didn’t start in First Nephi,either…it started with the introduction to the Book of Mormon and then the testimonies of the witnesses. I recognized God’s numbers, His “set” way of organization; I started pulling out God’s numbers-3,8,12-from the very first pages and I knew that this book was lining up with my Bible. As I read on, I decided that the Book of Mormon was either written by God or by Satan, but it could not have been written by any man! The wisdom was too deep. It lined up too well with the Bible, on so many levels. I knew that it was just not possible for man to have written this book. As I realized this, at first, I feared in my heart that the Book of Mormon was a counterfeit. Was this the strong delusion sent by Satan in the last days that my Bible had warned me about? Were these missionaries the false prophets that I knew would arise in the last days? I was sure in my heart that the Book of Mormon was a supernatural book, but to which end? I also knew that “ol’ smutty face” was a master of imitation and forgery. If anybody could make a “copy” of the Bible, yet twist it, he could! But the missionaries kept telling me to pray about it, and ask God if it was the truth. Satan wouldn’t advise me to ask God about anything! The Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 that God’s word will not return void and it didn’t. I had not memorized all that scripture for naught.

There was only one conclusion I could make about the Book of Mormon. My Bible came back to me and testified to me as I read each page of the Book of Mormon. The Holy Spirit was there too, and so were the missionaries…patiently putting up with my endless questions. I swam through a sea of confusion, but God knew my heart and he guided me back to him. Praise God!!! I’ve finally found the true church of Jesus Christ, and I can testify from my very soul that the Book of Mormon is the truth. It changed my life and it is the final piece to the puzzle of my life. The pieces have come together and I finally have the whole truth. I finally know Christ…REALLY know him, and I have felt his love for REAL this time. I’m home…at last!!!

I was inspired to write this poem during our Stake Conference in November of 2004. I had been reading LDS poetry from a book that I had borrowed from the church library and I had this feeling of frustration that all the LDS poetry that I had read so far kept painting this “rosy” picture of happy childhoods and “goodly” parents and how the heroin’s had to find their own testimonies. I thought to myself, why doesn’t anybody write about not being born into this church, yet finding their testimony? I was thinking these thoughts while listening to Conference when the Lord whispered into my heart…”Why don’t YOU write that poem?” I wrote it that night after Conference.

The Mortal Test

A spirit I was, a mortal to be…
The father came and spoke to me.
You’ve kept, my child, your first estate
and now it’s time to delegate…
A mother to give you mortal birth
a body and a place on Earth.
I know you’d like your mother, “kind”
but I have something else in mind.

You see, my child, it’s easy to be
in a holy family that pleases me.
What’s not so easy and takes more grit
is to be placed with parents that are unfit.
A childhood filled with fear and unrest,
you must endure and pass the test.
As you struggle through confusion and pain
Your efforts to find me again will not be in vain.

I love you and I’ll guide you back
if you will withstand Satan’s attack.
Your progression greatly will be multiplied
and I’ll be there waiting on the other side…
with rewards beyond you wildest dream
because you took the path extreme.
The Earth will be your proving ground
but Heaven is where you will be crowned.
You will receive rewards so sweet,
just toss them all at Jesus’ feet.

You will then be allowed to look upon my face
and once again receive your heavenly mother’s embrace.
I know you can do this, I have no doubt
because you’re a spirit Divine and devout.
I’ve planned this life and task to do
because I have great confidence in you.

(1 Corinthians 10:13)
I know God won’t give me anything that I can’t handle…
I just wish He didn’t trust me so much!!!!!