How I Came to Know The Book of Mormon is the Word of God

I grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had good parents who, although subject to weakness as we all are, strived to teach us the truth. As an adolescent I had a thousand unanswered questions about life, our purpose on this earth, and about the faith of my parents. I was painfully aware that I did not know the truth for myself. When I was 17 I left home in Las Vegas, Nevada, and enrolled for the summer semester at Brigham Young University (BYU). It was 1969. I lived in the college dorms (Deseret Towers) that are no longer there. That summer I took a Book of Mormon class as part of my curriculum. I had never read The Book of Mormon for myself, I am ashamed to admit. I had started it many times, but never followed through. But that summer at BYU away from home, I decided that I needed to know for myself if the things I had been taught by my parents and church leaders was true. I needed to know what I was going to do with my life. There is a remarkable promise in the last book in The Book of Mormon. It says:

"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. (Moroni 10:4)

For the first time in my life, I decided to put that promise to the test. I settled down in my dorm room and began to read The Book of Mormon and pray. Unlike in the past, I found myself captivated by The Book of Mormon, it was delicious to me. I read and I read. I did not stop for meals or for classes. I read the book from beginning to end. When I finished, I knelt in my dorm room in Deseret Towers and asked God, Our Heavenly Father, if the book is true. In response I was overcome by the most moving and powerful influence I had ever felt. I felt filled with light, love, peace, and joy. My heart burned within me. The feeling of love I felt was something I had never before experienced, and I cannot fairly describe it in words alone. This powerful feeling lingered with me for some time and when it subsided, its influence continued with me still. The remarkable thing to me is that when this feeling subsided, I knew in a way I cannot explain and with a certainty beyond anything mortal or intellectual that The Book of Mormon is in fact the Word of God, that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration who translated the book as he said by the gift and power of God, that Jesus Christ of whom the book testifies is in fact the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God´s true and living church on the earth, By the same means, my thousand doubts and questions had been swept away in a brilliant burst of light. In some way I knew with the same certainty the answers to my questions, or they seemed foolish indeed. I had found out for myself that The Book of Mormon is true, and it changed me and my life forever.