I shared a shortened version of this at Church today, but wanted to put it here too. To quote Paul "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ"! =D
As I was getting ready for Church this morning, a thought came into my mind: You need to bear your testimony today. My thought in response: Nope! Not gonna happen!" and I resumed putting on my make up. (What a brat, right?) As I was sitting in sacrament meeting, another thought came into my mind: Why don't you just write your testimony down then?" (SNEAKY guy that Holy Ghost is!) Well, I LOVE to write, so of course I went about doing it. When I finished, my heart was beating wildly out of my chest at a hundred miles an hour and I was shaking. Drat. I was going to have to go share what I'd written. Here is what I wrote:
"As I was doing some research on Scottish folklore and history to add to my latest story, I googled the "Galeic words for "seer" and "stone", thinking it would be pretty harmless. Welp, true to my lack of luck, I stumbled upon a webpage slandering the Prophet Joseph Smith. (Sidenote: For anyone who doesn't know who he is, or what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints REALLY believe, I plead with you to actually go to a credible source - it's not any different than finding a credible source for a research paper, or going to a plumber, not a dentist, to get your sink fixed. Mormon.org is a great start). I only skimmed a few sentences before going to close the web page, but just before I did, the author and a picture of her caught my eye: Joy CHRISTIANsen. Huh. Ironic. She looked like a sweet old lady, so the few nasty things I read that she wrote were quite a shock. I quickly closed the window.
My initial reaction was to want to fly through the screen and metaphorically go gangsta on her n get in her face like, "Why you gotta diss on my Broseph yo?', but then I realized I would be a hypocrite, because that wouldn't be Christian, and instead I started to feel sad bad for her. Here was one of Heavenly Father's daughters, who I'm sure is intelligent and educated, putting time into what she believes to be true. I felt for her, even if I knew she'd been mistaken and deceived, because I didn't know her story or how she'd come to believe false things. What was a worse feeling that she would probably say the exact same thing about me.
As I pondered on it more, I wasn't ashamed for wanting to defend what I know to be true. The main difference between what I felt and what this woman had done was that she wrote in a negative slandering way, while I simply wanted to know why and tell her what I know to be true. Another main difference is how you feel when you read Anti Mormon things (dark, uneasy, etc) as opposed to how you feel when someone testifies of something true. If you haven't experienced the latter before, I hope you will ask a member friend you know to bear their testimony to you, or read/listen to some talks by our apostles/prophets via lds.org and our General Conference. I believe it natural and good to want to fight for something that is good and true, bears good fruits, and has only brought joy to others. To want to defend a man who died a martyr for our Savior is something I wouldn't hesitate to do time and time again.
And so this is my testimony today. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of the Lord, just as Moses and Abraham and Noah and all our fathers before him, and all those after him. I know he did in fact see the Father and the Son Jesus Christ and that they are separate glorified beings, people just like you and me, not simply just ideas or ghost like spirits that can be everywhere all at once or are all one being. and that it was the hand of God that guided his translation of the Book of Mormon and his teachings, despite all the other claims out there. He died a martyr out of love for the Savior and His Gospel, which I know to be true. I hope one day Joy Christiansen and anyone else who has a hatred for Joseph Smith or "the Mormon Church" will one day have a change of heart, read the Book of Mormon and ask if it and the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and have their lives changed and blessed beyond imagination by the words and testimony of Jesus Christ written upon its pages by prophets of old.
I know that the Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Son of the one and true living God, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true Church upon the face of the earth, the very same organization that the Savior himself set up during his time here on this Earth. I know our Savior loves us and wants us to come to him so that He may heal and help us; nothing we can do can make Him not want us to always come back. I love my Father in heaven, my Savior, the gospel, and my family more than anything, and yes, it is wonderful that he cared for me enough to die for me so that I can live with Him and my eternal family after this life. I end these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."
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