Last evening I was told that my granddaughter, Maddie, has been asked by a Protestant pastor to preach in his service next Sunday.  This came about because she and her missionary companion had done a follow-up contact to a man who had previously requested a Book of Mormon.  The man turned out to be a pastor, and invited them to come back for dinner.

During dinner Maddie's companion mentioned that Maddie would be the speaker at the next Sunday's sacrament meeting, and invited the several people at the dinner to come listen to her.  They all came.  The girls then attended the pastor's church with their new friends, and Maddie is to now have the privilege of addressing this Protestant congregation.

What would you say?  What would I say?

I believe that I would talk about the character of God.

As a non-member young man the big question in my mind was, "Who is God?  Are the Father and the Son one person or two, or are they persons at all?"

As a little boy my mother told me about God and Jesus Christ.  I went out in the field west of my house and puzzled over what she'd told me.  Seventy years later I still vividly remember walking around that field desperately trying in my little boy mind to decide if God and Jesus Christ were one person or two.  My little boy mind didn't have much to work with.  After what I remember as a long thought process, I gave up.  I couldn't sort it out.

The question remained in my mind for the next dozen years.  Strangely I never asked anyone to explain things to me.  I somehow knew that no one else knew the answer, either.

A few months before my 20th birthday I was given a Book of Mormon.  It was fascinating.  It was riveting.  All I wanted to do was to read that book.  Uppermost in my mind was the thought that I would finally be able to answer my lifelong question about the character of God.

When I was halfway through the book Marjorie sent me a pamphlet entitled "Joseph Smith's Testimony."  I read there of a 14-year-old boy, a boy just like me, who went out into the woods to pray.  Two personages appeared to him in a pillar of light.  One pointed to the other and said, "Joseph, this is my Beloved Son.  Hear Him."

Lights flashed.  In my mind and in my heart I knew that Joseph Smith was telling the truth.  There was my answer!  The Father and the Son are two individuals.  They are men, like me.  They have bodies.  I am literally made in Their image, just like the Bible says.  I can be like Them.  They knew and loved Joseph.  They know and love me!  All the pieces suddenly fell into place.  Everything suddenly made sense.

That revelation hit me in late December 1966.  As I write this 57-1/2 years later I realize it was at that moment that the darkness that had been in my mind left.  Light and happiness took its place.  Now that I knew who God was, I knew who I was.  God was real.  God was my Father.  God loved me.  I  had worth.  I could be happy.  I had a future.

I am intrigued by an account left by N. Eldon Tanner of a young man who had an opportunity one summer to ask many ministers of different churches three questions.  He asked, "Do you believe in God, the Father--God, a person--God, a definite and tangible intelligence--not a congeries of laws floating like a fog through the universe--but God, a person in whose image you were made?  Don't argue; don't explain; but is your mind in a condition where you can answer yes or no?"

Not a minister answered "Yes."

The next question was:  "Yes or no, do you believe that Christ was the Son of the Living God, sent by Him to save the world, that Christ was God's very Son, with a divinely appointed and definite mission, dying on the cross and raised from the dead--yes or no?"  Not a minister answered "Yes."

Third question:  "Do you believe that when you die you will live again as a conscious intelligence, knowing who you are and who other people are?  Answer yes or no."  Not one answered "Yes."  (N. Eldon Tanner, The Ensign, November 1978, 48).

As astonishing as that seems, those ministers were just like me.  We were in darkness.  Joseph's First Vision turned on the lights.  Everyone needs to be pointed toward that light.  Everyone needs to be shown that light.

"Let us make man in our image," the first chapter of Genesis says.  (Genesis 1:26).

"I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus says.  (John 11:25).  Resurrection is a free gift to all mankind because of Jesus' Atonement.

"I am the light which shineth in darkness," Jesus says, "and the darkness comprehendeth it not."  (D&C 6:21 and many more).

The Light is there.  Knowledge, truth, happiness, and unlimited joy are available to every living soul.  They just have to be shown and they must be willing to open their eyes.

The light shone.  I was shown.  I have ever since lived after the manner of happiness.