...and how do you know it?

I went to a fireside tonight with Wes, Ethan and Jacob. There were two primary speakers, Katie Rogerson, who recently returned from a full-time mission to the New York Rochester Mission, and one of the current full-time missionaries in our area. Ironically, the Elder was originally from upstate New York. It's a small world within the Church.

In Sister Rogerson's remarks she asked the youth to think of some gospel principle that they "know" and then identify how they know it. She asked some of the youth to share these points. Of course, most identified that the way they know their "truth" is because the Holy Ghost bore witness to them about the point. I, of course, thought about the times when I have felt most strongly and undeniably the Spirit bearing witness of some point or principle. The experiences that came to mind were:

1. Moments of profound witness that God loves the person I am speaking with. These usually happened when I was a therapist and was working hard to support and help people.
2. On my mission, when I spent weeks memorizing Joseph Smith's account of his First Vision, I experienced visceral and unforgettable witnesses from the Holy Spirit that these events really happened.
3. In high school, my seminary teacher once promised us and challenged us that if we would pray out loud for 10 minutes daily we would receive a strong witness that prayer works and God is listening. He was right.

As I pondered these experiences (I'm afraid I wasn't paying very good attention to the presentation any more), I realized that these experiences shared key commonalities with the Book of Mormon challenge- if you make a commitment to demonstrate your faith, then the seed will grow and you will receive a witness of what you have done.

It struck me that this is a pattern for living that is not really all that new, just new to me- for now. In relation to missionary work, the principle should hold true as well, pray for an opportunity to help someone become converted to the gospel and He will help it happen and in the process you couldn't help but have powerful spiritual experiences in support of that endeavor.

I will have to find a way to incorporate this learning (and a challenge to dive into one of these tests) into my work with the 14 and 15 year old young men in the Church.