Testimony

"The moment of testimony realization—when you know that you know—is sweet and sublime. That testimony, if nurtured, will rest upon you as a mantle. When we see light, we are engulfed by it. Lights of understanding turn on within. . . . If you want to know that you know that you know, a price must be paid. And you alone must pay that price. There are proxies for ordinances, but none for the acquisition of a testimony. Alma spoke of his conversion in these beautiful words: 'I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me (Alma 5:46).' When a testimony has been realized, there is a burning urge on the part of the possessor to bear that testimony to others. When Brigham Young left the waters of baptism, he said: 'The spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I felt as though my bones would consume within me unless I spoke to the people.' . . . As a fire will not burn, except the flame be revealed, a testimony cannot abide except it be expressed."

- Douglas L. Callister, "Knowing That We Know," Ensign, Nov 2007, 100–101