By James E. Kerns

“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.

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

(Moroni 10:4-5)

 

Several testimonies of the Book of Mormon have recently impressed themselves upon my thinking which need to be gathered together.

George Cannon, 1840

The first came from a quotation given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in general conference, October 2009.  He said, “…I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, ‘No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.’”

The background to that statement was that John Taylor took the gospel message to his wife’s brother, George Cannon, in England in 1840.  George Cannon’s wife and 13-year-old son, George Q. Cannon, immediately embraced the gospel.  The elder George “determined to study the Book of Mormon thoroughly before making his judgment.  As he began reading, his interest grew with every page, until the spirit of the book had soon taken such complete possession of him that he could scarcely lay it down.  He read it far into the night, at mealtimes, and even had it propped open on his joiner’s bench where he could glimpse a few sentences as he worked (as a cabinetmaker).

“When he finished the book, which he had read cover-to-cover twice within three weeks, he pronounced this verdict:  ‘No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.’”  (George Q. Cannon, His Missionary Years, by Lawrence R. Flake, pg. 12).

Willard Richards, 1836

George Cannon’s statement is almost an exact parallel to one made by Willard Richards when he first got the book.  Elder Tad R. Callister began his talk in the October 2011 general conference with these words:  “Years ago my great-great-grandfather picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon for the first time.  He opened it to the center and read a few pages.  He then declared, ‘That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it.’  He read it through twice in the next 10 days and then declared, ‘The devil could not have written it—it must be from God.’”

Parley P. Pratt, 1830.

The third story that impresses me is Parley P. Pratt’s discovery of the book.  He felt driven by the Spirit to sell his farm in New York, and to go into the country with his wife to preach the gospel.  They proceeded down the Erie Canal until at a particular point he felt compelled to leave his wife to pursue the journey alone while he went into the countryside to preach.

An old Baptist deacon told him of a book, a STRANGE BOOK, a VERY STRANGE BOOK, and promised Parley that he could see it if he would call at his house the next day.

Parley says:  “I opened it with eagerness, and read its title page.  I then read the testimony of several witnesses in relation to the manner of its being found and translated.  After this I commenced its contents by course.  I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep.

“As I read, the spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I knew and comprehended that the book was true, as plainly and manifestly as a man comprehends and knows that he exists.  My joy was now full, as it were, and I rejoiced sufficiently to more than pay me for all the sorrows, sacrifices and toils of my life.  I soon determined to see the young man who had been the instrument of its discovery and translation.”  (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 17).

Greene, Young, Kimball, 1830.

Samuel H. Smith was the first missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He walked 25 miles on the first day of his mission, and tried to sell copies of the Book of Mormon. He was rejected five times.  He spent the night under an apple tree.  He was given breakfast by a poor widow who had no money with which to buy a copy of the book.  He gave her a free copy in return for her kindness.  That was the first Book of Mormon to be distributed by the first LDS missionary.

The second copy was also given away, eight miles further on, to a Methodist preacher by the name of John P. Greene.  John P. Greene’s wife read the book, and believed it.  She encouraged her husband to read it also, and he, too, received a testimony of its truthfulness.  The Greenes then gave the book to Mrs. Greene’s brother, Phineas Young, who also became converted.  Their brother, Brigham, was the next to get the book.  Another brother and sister were converted by the book, which was then given to the sister’s daughter, Vilate Kimball, wife of Heber C. Kimball.  They all embraced the gospel.  That one book was the means of bringing into Church membership the Greene, Young, and Kimball families.  (From Samuel Smith:  First Missionary, contributed by parleyppratt.org site of the More Good Foundation).

Samuel H. Smith baptized no one on his short mission, but one Book of Mormon that he gave away resulted in uncountable converts who became a basis for the early leadership of the Restored Church.

My Conversion, 1966-67

A Book of Mormon was given to me during the blackest and most discouraging period of my life.  Somehow I knew the book contained the answers to all of my problems.  I knew that I was going to have an experience when I opened it.  I felt that it was going to change my life.  I reverentially stood it in the middle of the desk in my room, and stared at it for two weeks, savoring the moment.

Finally, I opened the book and began reading.  From then on, that’s all I wanted to do.  It was December, 1966.  There were cows to be fed, and my father to be helped.  I did my work, and then hurried home where I shut myself in my cold bedroom and read.  On January 9, 1967 I knelt in the center of my room and told my Father in heaven that I knew the book was true, and that I wanted to be baptized.  I finished the book in less than a month, and also read the Doctrine and Covenants.  After finishing the Book of Mormon I found where the missionaries lived, went there one evening, knocked on their door, and told them that I wanted to hear their discussions.  “I won’t give you any trouble,” I told them.  “I’ve read the Book of Mormon.  I know that it’s true, and I want to be baptized.”

 

Many years later I remembered this experience, and realized that I’d reversed the normal pattern that accompanies the work that missionaries do.  Elders Pace and Sullivan had probably spent that day fruitlessly knocking on doors looking for someone to whom they could teach the gospel.  Late that evening a knock came on their own door.  I’m sure they’d been praying, and perhaps even fasting, for someone to teach.  What was their reaction behind the door after I’d said good-night and left?

Lloyd Nelson, 1976

At the age of 19, Lloyd Nelson set off on a solo canoe trip down the Columbia River in an effort to find adventure, and probably to find himself.  Circumstances made him think more and more about God and religion, and he began a search to know the truth.  Finding no help in a rack full of Christian books in a store, he began to fast and pray.  He said, “I really wanted to know!  What did God want me to do?  How was I to live my life in a way that I could show the Lord that I loved Him?  What was His plan for me?  How could I find the truth?”

Lloyd pulled his canoe out of the water into a park along the river at the little town of Pateros, Washington.  As he sat pondering, he began a prayer for guidance, and for something tangible to hold onto.  He says that “about ten seconds after opening my eyes (from prayer), two young men with the same first name of Elder came up to me and asked if I had seen a young woman who they said they were to teach.  I said that I hadn’t seen her, and they said thanks and then turned and walked away.  I am sure that I did not look like someone who was interested in the Gospel.  After all, I was dressed in rags.  My pants had rotted off me, and I had sewed leather patches to leather patches until my pants were almost all leather.  My shirt had lost its sleeves and had no buttons.  I had a beard and a mustache and hair down to the middle of my back.  After walking away 50 feet they returned and asked me, ‘What do you know about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?’

“I answered, ‘Not much.’

“Elder Butler then asked me, ‘Would you like to know more?’

“I started to answer, ‘No, I’m not interested’….As I opened my mouth to say ‘No,’ I heard a voice in my mind say, ‘How do you expect to get an answer to your prayers if you won’t listen to my servants?’  I stopped.  Were these young men an answer to my prayer?...I replied, ‘I guess I will take the lesson that girl missed.’”

The missionaries gave Lloyd a lesson, and sold him a copy of the Book of Mormon for $1.00.   He began reading it in a restaurant.  He paddled his canoe 1-1/2 miles downstream, and climbed one of the tallest hills that lined the Columbia River where he could read the book in peace and quiet.  He was on the hill for two days and two nights with neither shelter nor food.  He was engrossed in the book, and was determined to stay there until he knew whether or not the book was from God.

Lloyd relates, “I would read a passage and then contemplate what it said.  I would then read the footnotes and cross-references until I was confident that I knew what the scripture meant.  Then I would pray and ask God if the way I understood it was right.  I started to feel a peace and warmth that told me that the Book of Mormon was true.  The more I prayed, the better I became at recognizing the warm feeling, and the faster the answer would come.  There were times, though, that I would read something that I did not believe, or that was different from what I had previously been taught.  I would reread it and study the cross references, and then I would ask if what I had been taught and believed were true.  If what I had believed was different from the Book of Mormon, I would not get a warm feeling.  Then I would turn it around and ask if the doctrine in the Book of Mormon was right, and I would get that warm feeling that validated the Book of Mormon and the doctrine found therein.  After doing this all day I knew that the Book of Mormon was true!...

“The next day was spent reading and praying for further understanding...By afternoon, I read a passage of scripture relating to baptism…I wondered if the Lord wanted me to be baptized.  As I considered my lack of this ordinance, I decided to pray about it to find the Lord’s will.  After explaining my situation to the Lord and explaining that I thought that I should be baptized as the scriptures stated, I asked the Lord if He wanted me to be baptized.  Immediately he answered my prayer!  I had a burning sensation in my heart so strong that it took my breath away.  I jumped up and walked around as I could not sit still.  Of all the answers from the lord that I had ever received, this was by far the strongest.  I had no doubt that I was supposed to be baptized.”

Lloyd came down from his mountain top, went in search of the missionaries, and was baptized October 16, 1976 in Omak, Washington.  He never quit reading the Book of Mormon.  To date (February 2012) he has read it 45 times.

Eli Strommer, 2000.

Eli Strommer was born into the Church, had a testimony of its veracity, and was called to be a full-time missionary.  “I had no doubt of this gospel,” he says.  “I had graduated from seminary, attended my church meetings, and felt that my faith was already strong enough that I did not need to do anything more to be prepared.  Yet I had never read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover.  I had never taken…Moroni’s challenge to heart and studied and prayed over the Book of Mormon to know, with certainty, that it was indeed a work of God.  The only reason I had not done this was that I already believed in the whole of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I felt …that was enough....(However), my own patriarchal blessing pointed out that I must have a testimony of the Book of Mormon in order to serve a mission.  That…spurred my purpose to read, in full, the Book of Mormon (while in the Missionary Training Center).

“In two months, in between all my other missionary duties and classes, I read in full—from cover to cover—the whole of the Book of Mormon.  It was a winter morning in December… (I knelt in a small room, and) explained my predicament to the Lord, explaining that I felt that I needed a testimony of the Book of Mormon to be a good missionary, and how I had read the whole of the writings of the prophets and now sought that confirmation described by Moroni in his last chapter of the book.  What came next was clear.  A voice, the voice of my Savior, was heard in my mind and heart.  My being vibrated with His power and love as He said to me, ‘Eli, you know it is true.  Now go and do good.’  My heart was on fire, as was my soul.  I was overcome with…a pure feeling of joy.”

Danielle Parsons, 1995

As newlyweds, Danielle and Cory Parsons were outfitters, packing guests on horses and mules into the Tetons or Yellowstone.  “We would come out on Friday or Saturday morning, get cleaned up, do laundry, take a much needed nap, go to church, and head out again on Monday,” Danielle says.  “It was a special time in our lives…We enjoyed and savored every minute…

“Evening comes early in the mountains making the nights quiet and long, so I brought along my Book of Mormon.  After guests and horses were tucked in for the night I would get it out and read…Before this time in my life I had had other spiritual experiences with prayer, and I hadn’t ever doubted the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  I’m pretty sure I had read it through reading bits and pieces here and there, but I hadn’t ever done it consistently…Now, for whatever reason, I had a desire to read the book through (from) cover to cover.  As I read…I became quite impressed that these records were so valued and dear to the authors that they took great care to protect them, and hand them down to the next generation.  I can’t keep a resolution to keep a journal for more than a week, and this book was the sacred journal from several people over the span of hundreds of years!  The realization began to hit me of just how valuable and sacred the book was, that it would be preserved and protected so that I might have the chance to read it.  In different sections prophets were permitted to see future generations and I always wondered if they ever saw me, and if they were pleased with what they saw.  Was I among the valiant doing what I could to stand for truth and righteousness and holding to the iron rod in Lehi’s dream, or was I among those in the great and spacious building mocking the righteous?

“As I completed the book I offered a prayer of gratitude, grateful for the preservation of the Book of Mormon, grateful for the authors who were diligent and recorded their experiences, grateful for their faith, and grateful that the Lord had guided me so that I could have it in my life.  As I offered this prayer I was filled with such peace and joy that I can still recall today how that moment felt.  I knew that my prayer had been received.  I knew that the Lord was pleased with my personal discovery of the purpose of the book, and more importantly, that He was aware of me, and who I was—a plain ordinary girl in the middle of the mountains somewhere in Wyoming.  (Suddenly I understood) that to Him I’m not so plain or ordinary, and at that moment He had heard my prayer, knew where I was, knew my thoughts, saw my actions, and understood my feelings even if my words were inadequate at explaining them.  I felt so loved.  I had total peace and contentment…Over 15 years later I can recall that time with clarity, and can not deny that it happened.  I had greater understanding of the purpose of the Book of Mormon, and therefore, had greater understanding of my purpose in the Lord’s Plan of Happiness.

“One of the first thoughts that had come to me after this experience was that I needed to tell my dad.  Telling my dad was not to share the beauty of my spiritual moment, but to tell him that I had a spiritual experience in the mountains wearing jeans.  When I was a teenager my father and I would have the occasional debate over why I had to go to church, why it had to be so long, and most importantly, why I had to wear a dress while doing it.  I couldn’t wait to tell him that I had had a spiritual experience, and I wasn’t in church or wearing a dress!  Maybe I was still being guided by the Spirit at that time, or maybe with such (an) experience the Spirit lingers with you more; but I was suddenly struck with the understanding that if I hadn’t attended those long church meetings wearing a dress that maybe I wouldn’t have been inspired to take the Book of Mormon along with me on that pack trip, or that maybe I wouldn’t have gained the understanding of it that I now had.  Needless to say, my dad never received that phone call, and up until recently I have never shared this experience with anyone, not even my husband.  That may have been wrong, but the time in the mountains was so special to me I didn’t want to share it and run the risk of not being able to explain it so someone else could fully understand how real and defining a moment it was.  I guess I also feared being scoffed at or told that it was all in my head.  I must be a bit of a slow learner, but I share it now because much time has passed since then, and I can still recall it with detail…The experience was mine.  It was meant for me and I will live my entire life remembering it and being grateful for it….

“This is the first time I have ever put my testimony in writing.  I’m grateful to have been asked to do it because it has allowed me to relive it every time I struggled to put a word on this page.  I have wrestled with what words to put down so that they could convey the entirety of the experience.  It was all really quite simple.  I read.  I prayed.  I received an answer, but it was so much more.

“I realize now that I’m much like a wealthy, overweight…man sitting with piles and piles of money.  It’s not good for much unless you share it and use it for doing good.  It is my prayer that someone, somewhere will read this, and even if you feel just a touch of the Spirit that I felt that day, or as I have (felt as I have) written this, if you allow it to, it will change your life as it has changed mine.”