This past month I had the opportunity to go to Utah and learn about the LDS faith while witnessing to Mormons. I really loved this trip because it gave me the opportunity to see our class content actually play out in real life. During the trip, God taught me that His Word is true, and that I have good reasons to trust it and therefore trust Him!
During our prep-week on campus and in Utah, I noticed the theme of “faith by feelings” come up often. This idea of a feelings-centered faith was somewhat new to me, and it made me think a lot during my time in Utah.
We had talked in class about how whenever a Mormon would get stuck in a conversation, they would automatically use the fact that they “prayed and had a feeling that it was true” or “felt a burning in their bosom when they asked God if the Book of Mormon was true.” This was very odd to me, and at first, I honestly did not believe that anyone would do that. However, on the second day in Utah when we visited Temple Square, we met someone who said that very thing!
I was in a conversation with two other Fellows and three female missionaries when an old couple came up to us. They were married in the temple almost fifty years ago, and it was their anniversary that day, so they were visiting again. We began asking them about their faith and how they came to believe that it was true, and both of them immediately shared their testimonies of how God showed them that the Book of Mormon was “true.” Within five minutes tears were streaming down their faces as they told us how they were positive it was true because of the way they felt about it.
We tried to show them how it is not wise to just believe something to be true unless you have good evidence for it, but it was really hard because of how much older they were compared to us. We did not know how to respectfully tell them that they were wrong.
This experience was really hard for me because I feel a lot of tender compassion for older people, and it was really sad to see such a sweet couple being lost in a religious lie. I had holy envy for how passionate they were about their faith, but I was also sad that they had no evidence to back it up.
Overall, I learned several things while in Utah.
Firstly, I realized that it is very important to have evidence for what you believe, and not to just rely on the way you feel about things.
Secondly, the Lord opened my eyes to the number of people in the world who are lost in false religions, and it grieved me. And finally, I learned to rejoice in the fact that Christianity is verifiably true, and that the good news of the Gospel is true!
Annaliese Neal, Class of 2027
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