Living by the scriptures
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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 1:17
I joined the Church when I was 16, based on a spiritual confirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. Through that witness and the direct association that Joseph Smith had in producing the Book of Mormon, I logically accepted that he had to have been a prophet.
I served a mission a few years later, graduated from BYU and was living in Texas and serving as a stake missionary. I was assigned to participate in a fireside for non-members on a Sunday evening and was to present the testimony of Joseph Smith regarding the First Vision, as if I were Joseph Smith. Although I firmly believed he was a prophet, I did not know it, and felt hypocritical to be speaking these words without that knowledge.
That afternoon before the fireside, I knelt in earnest prayer and asked the Lord to help me know that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet, so that I might actually speak his words with conviction and help those to hear them understand the divinity of that message.
I was overwhelmed with the Spirit as waves of confirmation rolled through my soul and I received a direct understanding that every word of his narrative was exactly what happened. I could scarcely speak as the tears poured down my face and I tried to bear witness to my wife of what I now knew. — Christopher Tice, Middletown, Delaware
