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The Power of Testimony
Recently, as our small group of missionaries was traveling from the Ghana Accra Missionary Training Centre to our mission assignment in Lubumbashi, we met two women at the Kenya airport departure lounge. As newly trained missionaries having a great desire to teach, we approached and made acquaintance with them. After introducing ourselves, I had the opportunity to present the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is what we strive to share with everyone.
It was difficult for those women to give us much time to listen, or to accept an appointment, or even to take the pamphlets we offered them. But an idea came to my mind that we should not insist but rather that we should just bear simple testimony of the gospel.
Right before boarding the plane bound for Lubumbashi, one of those women approached and told me that she had been thinking about what I had said and was now aware that this message was important for her and her whole family. Her interest came about simply because of the testimony I had borne and the confidence that I had to say that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the only true Church here on the earth.
She also said to me that she had been asking herself two questions: “Why was this young missionary able to bear such a sure testimony?” “How can I also gain a testimony of these things myself?”
Apparently, my testimony had preoccupied her, and I immediately realized that just bearing our testimony influences many people to ponder and be converted.
It is like Brigham Young, the second prophet, seer, and revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when he was converted just through the testimony of a man named Eleazer Miller, who—without eloquence and talents for public speaking—had simply borne his testimony by saying, “I know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true” (see Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 315).
This airport experience taught me that our testimony does not depend on eloquence—or the power of our voice—but it does depend on the conviction of our heart. That is why when we become converted, our testimony has power and affects those who listen to it.
Recently in a zone conference, Elder Joni L. Koch, Second Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency, taught us how we can receive this testimony in order to be truly converted unto the Lord. He said, “The Lord speaks to us in our mind and in our heart, and this is revelation or an answer from God. By the same channel we also receive a testimony—and once we have this testimony from the Holy Ghost, we become converted unto the Lord.”
We all know that a testimony is the truthful spiritual confirmation or assurance given by the Holy Ghost—and is unlike anything we tell as stories or share as experiences every fast and testimony meeting in our wards.
The greatest blessing that Brigham Young received from the testimony of the man without eloquence was—and I quote his own words: “The Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminate[d] my understanding, and light, glory, and immortality [were] before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true” (see Teachings: Brigham Young, 3).
Being born in the Church, I relied on the testimony of my parents, Christopher Lukonga and Christine Tshilobo, who had joined the Church well before I was born. During my childhood, I heard many people say that the Church was true, but I did not know it for myself. But after a long time—thanks to the reading of the Book of Mormon, prayer, and a lot of personal study—I gained my own testimony.
Today I know that God is our Heavenly Father. Jesus is the living Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, our Saviour and Redeemer. I know that He, Christ, did performed the infinite Atonement for us. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, the prophet of the Restoration of the gospel in the last dispensation. And I know that today we are led by a living prophet named Russell M. Nelson.
And I testify to you that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is the Saviour’s true Church on earth.