Sherri: I know this Church is True

I always felt like I had a testimony of the Gospel. But later I knew that there are different things that can happen that are challenging and that sometimes you start to question things. But I related it back to when I took an algebra class. And I hadn’t taken algebra in about 25 years and I went back to college and I was taking an algebra class and I was doing really well in the class, I enjoy math and I thought I was prepared for the final and I went in to take the final. And it was a 50 problem, multiple choice test. So I thought: I’m prepared for this, I’m okay.

And I sat down and I looked at problem number one. And I had absolutely no idea how to do problem number one. Sometimes you have stress when you go to take a test. Just be calm, skip a problem, so I looked at problem number two. No clue – had no idea how to do problem number two. Okay, I’m still okay, skip that, go to problem number three. The first 7 questions I just didn’t know how to do, at all. Finally, I got to question number 8 and I thought “Okay, I can do this one”. And I started doing question number 8 and I worked through the rest of the problems of the test and they were hard, but I was able to figure them out.

And I thought, now I’ll go back to the beginning and I’ll redo those. I’ll probably remember now how to do the original ones. And from those original 7, I went back, and about 4 of them I knew from doing the rest of the test. And so, that leaves 3 more. So I started working backwards because I had answers and I just kind of had to work backwards and see which one was the correct one for this problem. And I ended with about 2 more done and it left me with 1 more problem. And I still had no clue how to do this problem.

But I sat down and thought: Okay, I don’t know how to do this problem – but what do I know? And so, I thought about the principles in algebra and math and I did know all the different theorems and stuff that I can remember cause it’s been about 5 years. But by doing that, by doing the things I know, writing down the things I did know and working up from that, I was able to get the answers. And not to brag or anything, but I 100% on my final. And I related that to, later I had an experience that was very difficult in dealing with something that happened in the church. And I had a little bit of resentment, I wondered about some things, I wondered what was right.

I didn’t understand what was happening to me, fit in the Gospel and the church and how could it be true, I don’t understand. And I thought about that algebra test and I said “Okay, I don’t know this, but what do I know?” And I was able to think back to an experience I had reading the Book of Mormon, just a regular night of reading the Book of Mormon where I came upon something I questioned a bit about and prayed about. And I had a really, wonderful experience. And from that, I know that God lives and he is really there.

I know that he knows me and he cares about me. And I know for sure that the book of Mormon is true because my prayer was answered in such a way that it was not in my mind, it was not in anything directly to do with what was in the Book of Mormon. But it was answered so completely that I knew that the Book of Mormon was true. And that meant that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we are led by prophets today. And so, as I was struggling with this thing in my life, I could go back to my algebra test and go back to this experience I had reading the Book of Mormon. I knew those things were true. If those things were true, there was an answer. There was a way this would all fit together. And the comfort that came from that helped me work through the difficulties that I had. And so, even though this was a really difficult circumstance, some things about it I still don’t understand, why they worked the way they did. But it really strengthens my testimony because I know that it will all fit together and that these things will strengthen my testimony of the things I did know. And I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity of having those experiences of questioning, so that I could gain a stronger testimony of that.