A Personal Experience

As missionaries, we always have the
chance to share our testimonies. I, personally, don’t often share personal
experiences. I don’t usually say things like, “In my house…”,”In my
family…”,”Before my mission…” I usually just testify and say, “I know
by (the Spirit, prayer, personal experience) that these things are true.” A
sister in the ward this week told me that after sharing that my parents
sang Book of Mormon stories to me every night before going to sleep, her
brother decided to start to read the Animated Scripture Stories with his
kids every night. He wants them to be able to be able to say the same thing
when they grow up: that their parents taught them the stories of the Book
of Mormon when they were kids.

It was a good learning experience for me, even though I learned it very
late in the mission, that a testimony is better when it has personal
experiences in it. I always thought, “How is them knowing that my parents
sang/read to me going to help them?” or “The Lord blessed me for keeping
the commandment in this way. He probably won’t bless them in the same way
because their situation is different, so I won’t share that story” or
something similar. But now I’ve seen that sharing a personal experience
really can make a difference.

During my scripture study this week, I found a verse that I really liked.
It’s 3 Nephi 26:14. Here, Jesus Christ is teaching the Nephites. He has
already taught them a lot and done many miracles among them. At the
beginning of the chapter He taught them everything from the beginning to
the end of the world. And here in verse 14, Jesus looses the tongues of the
children and “they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things,
even greater than he had revealed unto the people.” I was thinking about
it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is a god himself in this instance,
taught the people great and marvelous things. And even though He knows all
things and could’ve taught more to the people, He allowed the kids to teach
their parents. He allowed the children to teach things even greater than He
did. He, being humble as always, allowed little kids to show Him up in His
teachings. He didn’t want any glory or praise for Himself. He put all the
attention and praise on the innocent children. And I’m sure the parents
were touched more by the words of their children than by the words of a man
they just recently met, even though that Man was the Son of God.

I hope everyone has a good week! I know I will. I don’t have many more
weeks here in Peru, so they need to be the best!

Keep sharing the gospel with those around you. It will make you even
happier than you already are!

-Elder Kehoe