A. Thank you for your kind words, Ivan. I’m glad you are reading from the Inspired Version. I agree that it’s a tremendous resource for Bible study and worship and I pray you will continue to study it.

For the rest of our readers, let me explain a few things about your question before I get to the answer:

RLDS is an acronym for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ, an off-shoot religion based on the one Joseph Smith founded in 1830. When the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. was martyred in 1844, there was some confusion among the latter-day saints who should rise to lead them as the next prophet and president of the Church. A majority recognized the prophetic mantle had fallen upon Brigham Young and followed him west to the Utah desert. Some believed that eleven-year-old Joseph Smith III was supposed to succeed his father; this group remained in Illinois and eventually coalesced into the RLDS Church in 1860.

The Inspired Version of the Bible is also known as the Joseph Smith Translation (JST). It is an English-language translation of the Holy Bible based upon the King James Version (KJV). More details to follow.

A Three-in-One is a printing of the RLDS scriptures, including the Inspired Version of the Bible (JST), the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. It is similar to an LDS Quad, except we have four books (including the Pearl of Great Price), our Doctrine & Covenants is a bit different, and our Bible is KJV instead of JST. This is what prompted Ivan’s question (why don’t Mormons use JST?)

The Joseph Smith Translation

When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he learned that the Bible was incomplete. An angel taught the Book of Mormon prophet-king Nephi that, “when [the Bible] proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, [but corrupt groups] have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away” (1 Nephi 13:24,26). In other words, the Bible lost some of its original teachings over the centuries and it needed to be corrected.

Fortunately, God’s work cannot be thwarted. Jesus taught, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). After Joseph had completed his translation of the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, the Lord instructed him to do a similar work on the Holy Bible, but instead of being a translation from one language to another, it would be a translation from corruption to purity by the gift and power of God. In many instances, the original writings of the ancients were restored. Some of the changes Joseph implemented were meant to give verses a “plainer” meaning (clarifying archaic phrases or harmonizing doctrines), and a majority were simply grammatical improvements.

One of the most significant changes was made to Genesis. Instead of starting with “In the beginning…”, the JST opens with an encounter Moses had with God on Mount Sinai. Moses asks the Lord about the earth and why it was created. The Lord shows Moses a vision of the seven days of creation, and of Adam and Eve, etc. At this point, it jumps into the familiar KJV story, and it also includes more details on various other things, including the mysterious character named Enoch, who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). This section of the JST is included in the Pearl of Great Price and is known as the Book of Moses. You can (and should!) read the Book of Moses. It gives wonderful insights into the fall of Adam and Eve, knowledge of the plan of redemption in ancient times, the purpose of life and much more.

There are many other JST changes throughout the length of the Bible. Most of the doctrinally-relevant ones can be found in the LDS edition of the Bible (in the footnotes, or in an appendix for lengthier passages). The full text is also available online at this link.

How Do Mormons Use the JST?

The Joseph Smith translation is not the official Bible of the LDS Church; the King James Version is. Among the reasons for this are the following:

• It was never formally published by Joseph Smith. Although he clearly worked his way through the entire Bible by 1833, he was still making minor edits at the time he was killed in 1844, and it is unclear in some cases whether the notes he left in his margins and on his manuscripts were private thoughts or revealed truths.
• At Joseph’s death, the manuscripts for the JST were in the possession of his widow, Emma. As Brigham Young was preparing to move the latter-day saints west, he requested that she provide them to him but he was denied (Emma had some animosity toward Brigham that led her to stay in Illinois; she became part of the RLDS Church when it was formed).
• When the RLDS Church began publishing the Inspired Version, LDS Church leaders in Utah were suspicious that the RLDS publishers may have made some illegitimate changes. Decades later, they finally allowed the Utah Mormons to examine the original manuscripts and their fears were allayed.
• For many years the RLDS Church maintained the copyright.

Even though the KJV is the LDS official Bible, the Book of Moses and the JST of Matthew 24 are officially canonized in the Pearl of Great Price. And, like I mentioned above, we have footnotes (I highlighted all of mine with green colored pencil) and an appendix full of JST notes as valuable resources to study. So, Ivan, we do believe in and study the Inspired Version.

The JST is a tremendous blessing for anyone seeking a better understanding of Bible teachings; I encourage you to use it often in your Bible study.

Simply put, Mormons seek to know, understand and believe anything that is true. We are encouraged to seek truth from all good sources. By-and-large, the origin of disease is not something specifically addressed by doctrine revealed through the priesthood. That leaves it up to individual members to decide what they believe personally, with the injunction to “seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118)

Mormons tend to accept well-established scientific truths, including truths about pathogens, genetics, nutrient deficiencies and other well-established causes of disease. Throughout recorded history, a common belief has been that disease is a punishment for sin. This idea isn’t entirely refuted by revealed doctrine, but it isn’t completely accepted either. Because many of the natural consequences of sin lead to poor health or disease, it can be said that disease is a punishment for certain sins. For example, illegitimate sex is against the the teachings of Jesus Christ and His servants. Such behavior can lead to sexually transmitted diseases that one would avoid by righteous living. In this sense you can say somebody is “punished” for illicit sexual behavior when they contract genital herpes. However, most Mormons would simply say that the disease was a natural consequence of sin, and not that the sin “caused” the disease.

You’ll often hear phrases like, “I know that God lives,” and “I know Jesus died for my sins,” and “I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.”  Sometimes visitors come away from these meetings non-plussed by our uber-confident ‘knowledge’ of things.  It got me thinking.

Whenever someone says they know something, they are saying they have high confidence that their belief coincides with objective truth.  We do this all the time.  You say, “I just know the dentist is going to lecture me on flossing” because 1) he’s done it before and 2) you still haven’t been flossing.  Your previous experience and the evidence of your behavior lead you to this prediction.  There are many ways we gather knowledge; I’ll list a few here for illustration:

• Personal experience (five physical senses,  sense of balance, pain, hunger, etc.)
• Emotion and intuition (love, fear, instinct, etc.)
• Experiences of others (advice, anecdotes, biographies, etc.)
• Logical and mathematical proofs (a priori)
• Found evidence (archeology, historical documents, paleontology, forensics, etc.)
• Robust scientific experimentation that controls for all variables (physics, chemistry, etc.)
• Scientific experimentation/observation that controls for variables where possible (sociology, political science, economics, etc.)

We all tend to have some level of confidence in these methods, some more than others, depending on many factors, but each of these can lead a person to say “I know…” if the learning method is compelling enough.  Even so, many would argue that none of the methods I listed above are capable of producing reliable knowledge of things as transcendent as God.  Archeological digs might lend credence to a religious belief, but surely not firm knowledge.  These critics have a point, so I would add one more item to the list:

• Revelation from God

God speaks to His children in various ways.  He gave Joseph prophetic dreams that came true; He spoke to Moses from a burning bush (and also face-to-face).  He sent an angel to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus.  Joseph Smith saw and listened to the Father and the Son in a grove of trees.

To Joseph of Egypt, Moses, Mary, Smith and many others, those experiences were indisputable.  They had every right to declare, “I know” instead of “I believe,” and they did.

For most of us, though, the glorious visions and visitations of heavenly beings haven’t yet happened.  For us, God has promised another form of revelation: a personal witness of spiritual truths through the power of the Holy Spirit.  He is available to bear witness of the Father and the Son.  ”By the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5).  This witness may be less dramatic or conspicuous than an angelic visitor, but its convincing power may be even more sure than a vision (see Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 2:151; 1 Nephi 17:45-46).  Because of His subtlety, it may take many prompts for you to hear the Holy Ghost and again many more before you trust them enough to say “I know.”  But it can happen.  This is how I know God lives and that Jesus is the Christ.

You can know, too.  Like other modes of learning, it won’t necessarily come in an afternoon of mild curiosity, but it will with dedicated seeking, knocking, and asking over the course of weeks and months and years.  Begin now and you will taste the deliciousness that is the knowledge of God.

Today, I want to share with you a talk given by Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the 12 apostles. His testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is powerful. I invite all to listen to this address, “Safety for the Soul”, and ponder what is taught and then study the Book of Mormon for yourself (you can get a free copy by following this link).   If you do so with a sincere heart and pray to know, with intent to act, if the book is from God, God will tell you in your heart and mind by the Holy Ghost that it is from Him.   The validity of Joseph Smith as one of God’s prophet goes hand in hand with knowing that the Book of Mormon is from God–if the book is from God, the man by whom God brought forth the book must also be of God.  Enjoy.

(I have embedded the talk from YouTube and included a link as well if you want the video to load faster.)

Safety for the Soul, Part 1

Safety for the Soul, Part 2

I can understand why.  We aren’t like most break-off sects, based on our peculiar interpretation of scripture.  People are more or less comfortable with these groups.  After all, if Martin Luther said something you don’t agree with, you can rest assured that his foundation is firmly rooted in the Bible.  He might be mistaken on some things, but by and large he agrees with mainline protestantism.  He never claimed to be a prophet.

But Mormons are new and different.  It’s all or nothing.  It can’t be swallowed half-way.

Either Joseph Smith was honest about his first encounter with God or he lied about it.  He was visited frequently by angels or he wasn’t visited at all.  He was a prophet or a hoaxer.  If one is not Mormon and will not be baptized, “Joseph Smith was a fraud” is the stance one is required to take.  The middle ground is removed.

This polarization has energized detractors to produce mountains of criticism to discredit Mormonism, which if seen by itself makes our religion look plain silly, or worse.  The criticisms range from sophomoric name-calling and laughably-inconsistent retelling of our beliefs to historical documentation and intellectual DNA analysis.  Most of this is aimed not at Mormons (these kinds of attacks rarely have the gravitas to significantly shake LDS faith), but primarily at potential investigators of Mormonism.  They are designed to damage the Church’s reputation enough that you’ll dismiss anything we might offer.

The criticism, in turn, has prompted Latter-day Saints for years to rebut the arguments and point out evidences in our favor.  This rebuttal in defense of faith is called apologetics from the Greek apologia, meaning “defense.”

The leading body defending Mormon doctrine from critical arguments is the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR).  It is an independent, non-profit group of Latter-day Saints dedicated to “providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS (Mormon) doctrine, belief and practice.”  They have a website and a wiki full of every piece of anti-Mormon material you could ask for and a confident, clear response to each.

A few weeks ago I attended their annual conference in Sandy, UT.  They had speakers from a variety of professional backgrounds.  A lawyer-economist spoke on the failed Kirtland Safety Society, a banking endeavor that Joseph Smith initiated (and according to critics, caused to fail in order to steal parishioners’ money).  A physicist (a former member of the federal government’s — and no, this isn’t a joke – Dark Energy Task Force) gave a lecture on Joseph’s cosmology compared with a modern physics account of the creation of the universe.  There were talks with titles like, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Plural Marriage (but were afraid to ask),” “Haplogroup X in Light of Recent Book of Mormon Claims,” and “Joseph the Seer, or Why Joseph Translated with a Rock in His Hat.” I came away impressed with their professionalism and their ability to make the topics accessible, interesting, and relevant.

My favorite FAIR contributor is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic named Daniel C. Peterson.  I became a fan through watching his FAIR presentations on YouTube.  (Click here to see Dr. Peterson’s review of Christopher Hitchens’ infamous book god is Not Great).

Members of FAIR look into the criticisms in their spare time and on their own dime; the Church doesn’t fund their research.  There are important reasons for that.  One of the key reasons is that Father has a different method for teaching us, which the Church favors.  It doesn’t require advanced degrees or superior reasoning capacity, and the objective isn’t merely knowledge.  The objective is goodness, even Godliness.  He created this whole world as a sort of school.  A proving ground.  What is required is a humble heart and a will to follow Jesus Christ.  Learning how to pray is much more vital to this kind of education than writing a thesis.

So, if you are investigating the Church, and you’ve been bombarded with defamatory information in anti-Mormon pamphlets or movies, first go to God.  You can learn a lot through prayerful revelation.  This should be your first step.  Always.  If it still bothers you, poke around FAIR’s website.  They’ve heard it all.  You may find peace in knowing that when you don’t have all the answers, some smart, faith-filled people have blazed the trail ahead of you.  It certainly helps me.

Heavenly Father has prepared another chance for them to hear the gospel and choose to accept or reject it.

The official Church website explains:  “Jesus Christ taught that baptism is essential to the salvation of all who have lived on earth (see John 3:5)  Many people, however, have died without being baptized.  Others were baptized without proper authority.  Because God is merciful, He has prepared a way for all people to receive the blessings of baptism.  By performing proxy baptisms in behalf of those who have died, Church members offer these blessings to deceased ancestors.  Individuals can then choose to accept or reject what has been done in their behalf.”

Baptism is the first ordinance of the gospel.  It is so important that even Jesus Christ asked to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness.  Because Heavenly Father desires for us all to return to Him, He has made it possible for the dead to have the same opportunities as the living through the temple ordinances.

Some have the misconception that this temple work forces the deceased persons into covenants against their will.  This is entirely false.  All spirits maintain their free will after death and can opt to accept or refuse the ordinance of baptism.  When a living person is baptized and receives the Gift of the Holy Ghost in behalf of a deceased person, it is only to give the deceased person the opportunity – the option of redemption.

LDS.org also reveals:  “Many in the spirit world embrace the gospel. However, they cannot receive priesthood ordinances for themselves because they do not have physical bodies. In holy temples, we have the privilege of receiving ordinances in their behalf. These ordinances include baptism, confirmation, Melchizedek Priesthood ordination (for men), the endowment, the marriage sealing, and the sealing of children to parents. The Lord revealed this work to the Prophet Joseph Smith, restoring a practice that had been revealed to Christians shortly after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15:29).

Part of the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to Redeem the Dead.  Because of this, we participate in genealogy/family history work to find our ancestors who were not able to hear and accept the gospel while on earth.  Many in my family are involved in this work because of our desire to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to their fathers as mentioned at the very end of the old testament.

I love going to the temple.  There is such a special feeling that accompanies me when I’m in the House of the Lord.  Doing the physical ordinances for my ancestors who have passed on is an amazing experience because I know that many of them have been waiting for hundreds of years to finally have their baptism performed.  Being a part of their spiritual progression is remarkable.  I know that God is merciful and mindful of each of us because He gives everyone a fair chance at accepting or rejecting the message of the gospel.

Now think of the best gift you could ever receive–one from a loving heavenly parent with unlimited resources, perfect love, and such an intimate knowledge of who you are and what you need that it often surprises you.  What gift would God give to you on a special day?

I’ll tell you and I want you to know up front that it is honestly the most important gift I have and will ever receive in this life.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The gift of the Holy Ghost comes to you as part of your baptism.  (For more information on baptism, look here.)  It is God’s gift to you for your willingness to make a covenant to follow Him and it is the very thing that will help you receive the greatest gift He has to give: Eternal Life. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is a promise that the Holy Spirit will be  your constant companion, as you live worthily.  Let me belabor this a little bit: a member of the Godhead (and there are only three) is your constant companion, giving inspiration, guidance, protection, comfort, knowledge, reproofs (when needed), and spiritual gifts throughout the rest of your life.

Some of the ways that I have personally benefited from this gift are:

• Protection – Even though this one happens less frequently than the others listed below, it is still important.  If a place is not safe or a person should be avoided, He will communicate that to you.  For me, it is a generally uneasy feeling, sort of nauseous.  At other times, people hear a voice, as in “stop and turn around” or “don’t talk to that person”.  The way the Holy Ghost communicates with each person is tailored to them.  Remember, God knows how to reach each of us perfectly.
• Avoiding Spiritual Dangers – Along the same lines as physical dangers, there are very real spiritual dangers surrounding us that the Holy Ghost points out to us before we get hurt.  You could call it a Sin-Warning-Alert System.   The Spirit lets you know when you are going to do something that will drive Him away, and when you feel His absence, you know that you have done something to drive him away, and need to repent.  And the guilt doesn’t go away–you can’t just push through it and get through on the other side unscathed.  The only way is to turn around, change the behavior or thoughts, and ask for forgiveness.  Then the Spirit will return and so will the peace.   The Holy Ghost is the instrument that helps us gauge if we are in good standing with the rest of the Godhead, or if we need to repent.
• Comfort – This happens often.  At times of tragedy, the feeling is strong and warm, like walking around being hugged all of the time.  (This is why LDS funerals are usually somewhat uplifting and peaceful.)  On my mission, I had a few opportunities, when I felt all alone in the world, to pray and find companionship and comfort.  Even with daily weaknesses and shortcomings, the Holy Ghost provides comfort and reassurance to help you get back on your feet.
• Guidance – I cannot understate how important this is to me.  What should I major in?  What should I do for a career?  Where should I live?  Who should I marry?  When should I have children?  God gives us our freedom to make choices, but it is so nice to be able to consult with Him and receive answers and direction through the Holy Ghost.  As a member of the Godhead, they all work together and are one in purpose and direction, so though you pray to God (in the name of Christ), the Holy Ghost is the one bringing you the answers to your prayers.
• Knowledge – As a student, this was key.  I had to show that my schooling was important to me through studying, attending class, and taking it seriously, but the Holy Ghost sure made it easier for me to retain things, write my essays and take my tests.  I know that it was the Holy Ghost because the times that I wasn’t doing everything that I should have (living all the commandments) and He couldn’t be with me, I was barely able to keep my head above water.  This isn’t just worldly knowledge though–spiritual knowledge is related to us almost exclusively through the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  If you have just been baptized and you feel like you don’t know anything about what you have just covenanted to do, don’t worry.  Just keep studying and asking and the Holy Ghost will teach you.  And it doesn’t take long to understand the gospel as long as you are sincere and dedicated.
• Reproofs – For awhile in my young adult life, I felt like this was the only way that the Holy Ghost was speaking to me, but I am sure glad that He did.  The Holy Ghost is like a warning alarm, letting us know when we are veering off of the path back to Heavenly Father.  He either tells us to straighten up or else He has to leave us until we repent and are worthy again.  Both ways are effective at getting us to seek God again.  If, as a recipient of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, you find yourself feeling unhappy, listless, frustrated and dissatisfied when you used to be happy and satisfied, it may be that He had to leave you.  So repent, get back on the path and you can enjoy His presence again.  Remember how nice that felt?
• Spiritual Gifts – Spiritual gifts follow the true church of Christ.  There are the public gifts like the gift of tongues or of interpretation of tongues, prophecy or healing (which all exist in this Church.  They are just special and sacred so we don’t broadcast them for everyone to see).  But there are also personal, private gifts of the spirit: Faith, visions, discernment, beholding of angels, teaching and learning wisdom, etc.  These gifts aren’t intended to convince anyone that God is there, they are rewards for believing that He is, and for blessing the lives of others (1 Corinthians 12).  And they are wonderful.

So can you see why I say that the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift I have ever or will ever receive?  Even my marriage and beautiful children aren’t going to benefit me if I can’t make it to heaven to live with them forever.  The Holy Ghost is going to help me get there.  God wants everyone to have this gift because He loves us all and wants us to return to live with Him again.  You don’t have to believe me, you can ask Him directly and the sweet answer that will come to your heart is the Holy Ghost.

Related Articles and Links:

mormon.org – Holy Ghost
Our Life on Earth
What Do Mormons Believe about the Atonement of Jesus Christ
What Do Mormons Believe? – Repentance
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Let me introduce to you Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Noah looking formidable with billowing clouds in the background signaling the impending torrents of rain.

We Mormons believe in Figure 1. While certainly the artist took some creative license in recreating this scene (who ever said Noah had a giant staff?), the basic idea that it conveys is real. There was a man named Noah who gathered up a bunch of animals, put them on an ark, and then weathered one crazy storm with the miraculous help of God.

We also believe in science. For years I was a TA for physics classes at my university where I would teach everything from F=ma to quantum mechanics. I am currently working on a project for NASA that requires using more science than any grown man should ever have to use. With this background I know that there are equations and models that we’ve derived from our objective view of the universe that work. That is, we have discovered laws and theories that, as far as we know, accurately predict how our universe functions.

Sometimes science seems to butt heads with religion. Noah and the Flood is one of times. Many geologists discount the Biblical narrative of Noah as being improbable and not scientifically sound. This is fine by me. I do not need science to prove my belief in the Bible. There are many things I believe in that science can’t prove. How can people be resurrected after they have died? How can heavenly messengers such as angels defy Newton and his apple? How do miracles occur? I have chosen to place my ultimate confidence in God, not in the models and equations of science, which, in just the last couple hundred years alone, have been shown to change time and again as new experiments are performed.

The argument that geologists give that the Flood never really occurred is based on a few underlying assumptions that are important to understand. First, the concept of uniformitarianism which assumes that the natural processes that we observe occurring in our world today are the same as those operating in the past. That is, the geologic processes scientists have tracked over the last few hundred years are sufficient to predict what has happened to the earth over the past millions of years.

Another bold assumption is that God doesn’t exist. This assumption conveniently gets rid of Moses parting the Red Sea and the earth ever being modified in any unnatural way. I refute this assumption, believing Christ’s words, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20).

I love the Bible. I know it to be the word of God. Its teachings (especially those of Christ) lead us to God and to a happier, fuller life. Science can’t always promise that.

Further reading: “The Flood and the Tower of Babel”, “The Gospel and the Scientific View: How Earth Came to Be”

Even though I like writing doctrinal posts I want to take a recess from answering questions for this post and share with you why I believe what I believe. In some ways I suppose that my journey of discipleship in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints could be compared to the construction of a house. First, there was the question of whether I really believed in God, then taking upon myself the name of Jesus Christ and wanting to be numbered among his fold, then came Joseph Smith and whether or not the Book of Mormon is from God. As I have moved from the “foundation” to the “trusses” my “house” has taken shape in the past 10 years and I see now, more than ever, how it all fits together.

I will never forget the day that the Holy Ghost witnessed to me that Joseph Smith truly did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that through him the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. It had been a rough few days. At the time I was spending 8-10 hours a day learning a language that was so foreign to me (Russian) and I was suffering from immense feelings of inadequacy. I was faced with the realization that I had left everything that was familiar to me for two entire years; I felt isolated and completely alone. I realized for the first time that I wasn’t as tough or as smart as I thought I was, I felt that I was a little child again. In addition to learning Russian, I was also learning how to teach. Part of this learning process included teaching various principles of the Gospel. Of course, I didn’t know what I was teaching verbatim, so I was reading and teaching it to my colleagues. I came to Joseph Smith’s account of what he saw on that spring day of 1820 in a grove of trees near Palmyra, New York:

“I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me . . . When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said pointing to the other–This is my Beloved Son. Hear him.” (Joseph Smith History 1:16-17).

As I spoke these words, it was like there was a fire in my body, even to the point that I wondered if it could consume me. My heart was burning so strongly and I was so overcome with a feeling of peace that tears flowed freely from my young eyes. I knew that it was the Holy Ghost bearing witness to me that what I was teaching was true. It was so powerful that there was no room for doubt in my mind any longer and I knew that it was from God. The language still wasn’t easy and it was still hard learning to adapt to my new situation, but I pressed forward with a sure conviction that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Jesus Christ’s church. (As an aside, I hope that you can now understand why Mormons believe so strongly in their religion. One cannot deny that an experience such as the one that I had is from God.)

That experience laid a solid foundation for me. I have been taught much by the Holy Ghost since that day. I have been taught about love, kindness, the reality of the Atonement and Resurrection, forgiveness, covenants, and the ins and outs of many doctrines. On a more tangible level, I have been taught about life, how to live it, what brings happiness and what doesn’t. I have been taught how to refine myself. I have been taught how to interact with others. I have learned how to lead and how to follow. The list could go on and on. These are all invaluable lessons learned. In my chosen profession I will spend the rest of my life acquiring knowledge about the human body and all of its intricacies, but that knowledge does not hold a candle to the knowledge of the mysteries of God that I have been blessed to receive through the Holy Ghost.

Why else am I a Mormon? Here are a few reasons: I have the utmost assurance that I will be with my beautiful wife and children for all of eternity–if my wife and I are true and faithful to the covenants that we have made with God and each other. I know every night when I give my son and daughter a kiss on the forehead before they drift off to sleep that if they or I shouldn’t wake in the morning that we will be together again, this time never to part. That in itself is an incomprehensible blessing. I am privileged to have the authority to act in God’s name and with this authority comes the blessing of being able to administer to and serve all those around me. As I have served others in this capacity I have been witness to how God has worked through me to bless the lives of His children. Those are sweet, sacred experiences. In addition, I have the assurance that Jesus Christ is directing the church of which I am a member. Thus I can act in faith, knowing that what I am taught and learn is in essence from Him–I have no doubt that the course that I am on will lead to nothing but joy and happiness in this part of my life and in the next. It is all so beautiful; I thank God everyday for the innumerable mercies and blessings that have come my way.

This is the second half of the same film.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).

Heavenly Father will answer your prayers, too.  Ask Him whether Joseph Smith was a prophet.