How Elder Christofferson Got His Witness

In preparation for a Teachings of the Living Prophets class I'll be attending this evening, I've been asked to pick a member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve, read their Bio (to which links can be found here), and come prepared to share what I've learned. I chose which General Authority to read about randomly (literally, I rolled a die), and I happened to pick Elder D. Todd Christofferson,the speaker of the next General Conference talk I'll be blogging about. Some coincidence, huh?

The first of Elder Christofferson's stories that the biography shares is an account of the unusually ordinary way in which Elder Christofferson got his testimony. While he was a member of the cast of the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York, he had an opportunity to visit the Sacred Grove, where he had hoped to receive a sure witness that the church is true.

“One night after the performance, I went to the Sacred Grove alone,” he remembers. “It was a beautiful summer evening. I entered the grove, and began to pray. I prayed very diligently for an hour, maybe more—and nothing happened.”

He may or may not have been expecting an experience like that of Enos, or at least some small feeling of testimony. He certainly wasn't expecting silence.

Some time later, he was reading the Book of Mormon, just as we all do (or should do) regularly. It was a perfectly ordinary activity for any of us, yet this time was different for him.

“Without my asking for it, the witness came,” he recalls. “It came without words, actually stronger than words, and I received a very powerful spiritual confirmation—the kind that leaves no doubt—about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.

“Looking back on that experience, I realize that we can’t dictate to God when, where, or how He will speak to us. We just have to be open to receive what He disposes, when He disposes it. It comes according to His will, and it can come to us wherever we are.”

There have been many people in history who have demanded, or at least requested, a sign from God that He is real and that His gospel is true. As I understand it, few of such people get their answer right after asking for it. More often, God makes us wait and show our faith for a period of time, and then grants us the witness we had asked for, sometimes suddenly, but more often slowly, growing so gradually in our hearts that we don't even feel it. Elder Christofferson's experience with receiving a witness of the truthfulness of the church is fairly standard. He didn't see a vision or gain some revelatory insight. He was just reading the Book of Mormon, and then he knew.

It would be nice to get a clear answer from God immediately after asking for it, but it doesn't always work that way, not even for future Apostles. Most of the time, we need to keep waiting, keep working, keep praying, and keep practicing however much faith we have, until God gives us the sure witness we ask for. God's wisdom is greater than our wants. Very frequently, He withholds a blessing we ask for because He wants to give us something better instead. He gave Elder Christofferson the insight that we can't decide for God when He's going to do something for us, or even if He will. Instead, we need to be patient, have faith, and trust that God will answer our prayers in His own way and in His own time, according to His wisdom, even if that's not what we want.