61. Testimony

Excerpts from an account I wrote of a talk given by fifteen-year-old Michael on Sunday, September 11, 1988, in the sacrament meeting of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward, Bountiful Utah South Stake. This account is taken from the October 1988 issue of the Family Journal. Michael at the time was a sophomore at Bountiful High School.

“There are at least three elements to a testimony,” explained newly turned 15 Michael as he spoke in sacrament meeting on September 11. “First, that God lives and Jesus Christ is His Son. Second, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and restored the Church. And third, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth.”

Michael defined testimony as a revealed knowledge from God that something is true. It comes in response to prayer. He quoted from the Book of Mormon:

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:4–5).

He concluded his talk by sharing a story of a missionary in Germany in 1928:

“As I spoke with a woman at the doorway to a nearby apartment, I heard someone coming up behind me. I turned and saw a policeman in uniform. I continued to talk, believing he had business with someone upstairs.

“To my astonishment, he dropped a heavy hand on my shoulder and turned me around to face him.

“‘You will have to come with me,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re under arrest.’

“ . . . ‘Why am I being arrested?’ I asked the policeman. He told me that I was accused of burglarizing an apartment and carrying off a valuable heirloom watch.

“The officer explained that my accuser had found the watch missing the morning before. He contended that I had been the only person other than himself and his family to enter the building.

“ . . . At the police station, I was ushered into the chief’s office. A police court, consisting of several plainclothes and uniformed policemen, was waiting for me. In the corner sat seven people who said they had witnessed my entering the building.

“During the hour-long interrogation, I answered every question honestly and directly, with a prayer in my heart that the Lord would help me.

“Then the seven witnesses testified against me. All stated that, except for family, I had been the only person to go to the third-floor apartment the day before. It began to look as though I might spend several years in a German prison.

“The police chief asked me if I had anything to say in my defense. I prayed fervently for assistance, then began speaking, hesitantly at first, in my broken German. I told those in the room why I was in Germany and explained my mission. Suddenly I began to preach the gospel. A strange feeling came over me. I gradually lost control of my tongue, my arms, and my facial muscles.

“The Holy Spirit had come to my rescue. I began to speak the language fluently, with confidence and power. When I concluded my testimony forty-five minutes later, I nearly slumped to the floor in exhaustion. There was complete silence in the room for at least a full minute.

“Then the police chief said simply, ‘This man didn’t take the watch.’

“He asked me many questions about myself and the Church. The hostility in the room had vanished. Then he turned to a detective and said, ‘Go with this young man to his room and search his belongings. If you don’t find the watch—and I’m sure you won’t—let him go. End this foolishness’” (Walter M. Horne, “You’re Under Arrest!” in Ensign, Aug. 1988, 67–68).