Prez Says: Testimony

The Prez Says… Because Carrie was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant this year, I had the opportunity to attend two evenings of the show, as well as to attend the closing sacrament meeting on the Hill Cumorah last Sunday. It was a very special experience to be in that sacred space, and it was amazing to be surrounded by 680 cast members who had been experiencing an intense spiritual high for 2 ½ weeks.

At the beginning of the Pageant experience, some seeds were planted in small pots. They had sprouted and grown over the 2 ½ weeks, but remained delicate and fragile. One of the sacrament meeting speakers said that now everyone was leaving the artificial environment of the Pageant, and returning to the real world, their real challenges and problems, and real life. He entreated them to take their sprouted seeds of testimony and to protect and keep them growing in their daily lives. He noted that “the Pageant is not truer than the everyday church in our real lives,” and that there is no such thing as a testimony of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, or of Relief Society, family home evening, or Primary. While these (and all of the programs of the church) are wonderful, they are simply vehicles to bring us closer to Jesus Christ. The only thing that we can truly have a testimony of is Jesus Christ. He lives, He heads this church, He selflessly atoned for all sin, He is the perfection of every attribute and teaches and invites us to be like Him.

Neal A. Maxwell said, “If one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, why not do so now?” All things testify of Him. Luke 19:40 says that even the stones testify of Him. Let us stay clear and focused on how we can grow closer to and testify of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Why not do so now?