If Thou Shalt Ask, Thou Shalt Receive

Two Sundays ago I met Elder Patrick Kearon from the Quorum of the Seventy and it was such an amazing and blessed experience. It was fast and testimony meeting and already that is usually incredibly amazing just on our own. But the spirit that Elder Kearon brought into the room was so phenomenal I was in tears for almost all of Sacrament meeting. Often, I would wonder what it would be like to meet a General Authority. In the time that I've been a member of this Church, I've heard many stories from friends, counsel members and even missionaries of when they first met a General Authority. All of which were great stories and I loved hearing every single one of them, but unfortunately something had kept me from really having a great and spiritual understanding of how much it really meant to them and how important that really had been.

Up until recently, I had developed such a strong testimony in everything that I have been taught up until this point except one thing. During the time I was taking the lessons from my Missionaries it seemed like they had done a good job of making sure that I knew great amount of the Church's doctrine and beliefs. Which I felt was purely amazing and I had already known that this was where I needed to be and my life from then on depended on Christ the Savior and my Heavenly Father. One thing that I feel like we did not get to discuss before my baptismal date is the fact that there are living Prophets and Apostles on this earth today that have been chosen by God Himself. That was not really all that well explained to me which is completely understandable because I had no time to learn text books worth of information on each topic. Especially since I knew that I knew enough and I knew that every ounce of my being, my heart, soul, mind and every fiber of my body knew that this Church and Gospel was true. So I eased my mind with just telling myself and trying feel reassured with the fact that as time went on I'd learn more and have more time to build and make testimonies that I had already mostly developed. Which I did, my testimony grew more and more every day and with every time I read the scriptures, went to church, spent time with the friends I had made in the church, spoke to Heavenly Father and met with my missionaries. Everything was growing and going so smoothly that in a short time I had completely forgotten my goal in forming a testimony in the Prophets and Apostles of today. 

When after going for so long without worrying about the goal that I had set up for myself, one day a while back it hit me. It was during another fast and testimony meeting at church and somebody had gone up and shared their testimony on the Prophets and Apostles of this day. It was so simple, yet so pure and beautiful and that was seriously all it had taken for that seed to be planted within me. That's when I knew that I needed to do my best to continue watering that seed, then as it grew into a small plant I knew that I needed to keep nurturing it and making sure that I was taking as good care of that seed. Which happened slowly and surely and it definitely became something so special to me and I'll never forget the experiences that it took to gain that testimony.

So never be afraid of sharing yours, even if you feel like it's not good enough, long enough or even strong enough. That's not true, what makes your testimony special is that it's yours, and you never know what seed will be planted in who. That's what happened to me, the quick and simple yet so pure and beautiful testimonies of my fellow brothers and sisters, telling me that they knew that the Prophets and Apostles of today are the true Prophets and Apostles called of God. That's all it took and since that moment I've never given up on it and neither should you.