Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello my friends. Welcome to FollowHIM Favorites. If you’ve been following FollowHIM, for the last two years, you know that we do these little side tidbits called FollowHIM Favorites. It’s where we take just a small portion of each week’s lesson and talk about it, so we can post this on Instagram or Facebook, or wherever you get your little tidbits of social media.

  00:27 John, this week’s lesson is called, I Am Responsible For My Own Learning, or We Are Responsible For Our Own Learning. The question is, how do I gain and keep my own testimony? What would you say to someone who’s maybe coming home off a mission and saying, “I’ve gained a testimony. How do I keep it?”

John Bytheway: 00:45 Wow. I wish we had more time. Lots of thoughts come to mind. One of them is the parable of the sower. But I think the parable of the sower, that’s the kind of soil you have. That’s if your heart’s open. But then you get to Alma and he plants the word and everybody knows after you plant a seed, are you done? No.

Hank Smith: 01:03 Right. Yeah.

John Bytheway: 01:04 Faith, diligence, and patience. I call it FDP fertilizer; faith, diligence, and patience. Alma says, “You got to take care of it.” And he says, “If it doesn’t grow, that’s not because the seed wasn’t good. It’s because your ground is barren.”

  01:14 The analogy of riding a bicycle is a good one because once you know, just know how to ride a bike. You never have to think about it again and the testimony is not like that. It’s like a tree. It’s, use Jesus’ example, and Alma’s example. It’s like something that you grow and to keep it, it has to keep being nurtured and watered, and getting the nutrients out of the ground. It’s an active thing that you keep growing.

  01:39 I love to use those metaphors that the scriptures use about keeping it growing. Faith, diligence, patience. What else would you say, Hank, is part of keeping it growing?

Hank Smith: 01:49 I like what you’re saying here because sometimes we say, “Oh, I lost my testimony,” as if I had it and I lost it. But you can’t lose a tree. No one goes outside to a tree they planted a long time ago and goes out there and says, “Wow, where’d the tree go? I lost my tree. Someone took it,” as if we’re not the one to blame.

  02:06 No, if we lose a testimony, really what we mean is I let it die. I didn’t nurture it. I didn’t water it. I didn’t prune it. I didn’t work on it at all. And the tree slowly, all by itself, of course if it’s left alone, is going to die.

  02:19 I remember James Faust talking about taking a white hot coal out of a fire. If you were to take a hot coal out of a fire, it doesn’t take long for that coal to cool off and become just a piece of charcoal. But he said, “If you take it and you put it right back in that fire, it actually doesn’t take long for it to heat right back up again.” So part of what we’re saying here, I think is to stay involved and to be where you’re supposed to be. Stay reading and praying and going to your meetings. These are simple answers, but they really are the truth to gaining and keeping a testimony, is staying active in that testimony.

John Bytheway: 02:57 That’s the FDP that Alma talks about. Because of your faith, your diligence, and your patience, it’ll grow and it’ll become a tree of life. It’ll be a tree in you and even says tree of life, which I think is the fourth part of the metaphor, is Lehi’s dream. You’ll be able to constantly enjoy the fruit of it, but you have to take care of it. And it’s a wonderful process because Hank, as you and I have learned, and I’m so thankful for this, we get to taste things we have never tasted every time we get together and interview somebody and go, “Wow. I never thought of that.” My testimony just whoop a little line upon line thing. It just grew a little bit.

  03:34 And so you’re where you’re supposed to be but I think if you wanted to put all that under one heading, be where the Holy Ghost is. Be in places where the Holy Ghost is and you’ll be taught. That’s that fire of the coals.

Hank Smith: 03:46 If I was going to talk to anybody who said, “How do I get a testimony and keep it?” I’d say, you follow the example of Joseph Smith, in that you work hard for it. You go to your meetings. He read scripture. He prayed. He pondered. He did all these things and it wasn’t just a short while. He did them for a long time. Then, when he had his experiences, he didn’t deny ever having those experiences and he didn’t let anybody ever take them away from him saying, “Well, that didn’t really happen to you.” He said, “No, it did happen. I knew it. I knew that God knew it and I couldn’t deny it.” And then he stayed active in the church in the gospel. He was constantly daily, working for the Lord, doing the Lord’s work and his testimony remained strong until the day he died. There’s something about his example that if you want to know how to get and keep a testimony, you follow the example of the prophet.

John Bytheway: 04:34 I think when I was a bishop, I’d have people, “Oh, I’m struggling with my faith or with this,” and we would just start to write down. We’d go and write it on a chalkboard. What are some things that you feel like you do know?

  04:45 Well, I know I feel better when I do better. Ooh, write that down. What else do you…? Tell me an example of that? What else do you know? Well, I know the scriptures are different than other books. Really? You got a favorite verse? Let’s write that down. And what else do you know?

  04:59 Well, I know that God answers prayers. How do you know that? And we’d write that to tell each other experiences and amazing how the spirit would change and it’s kind of like that hymn, Count Your Blessings, it will surprise you what the Lord has done. You start talking about all the things that you do know, it’ll surprise you. But you write them down like you just said and it kind of reminds you. And you’re saying, “Wait a minute, I do know this.” I think that’s why we keep a journal.

  05:25 President Eyring says, “Document the hand of God in your life and then you’ve got it forever.” And if you ever feel like you’re not strong, go back and read that and remind yourself, “Wait a minute. I really have felt this.” And that’s I think what you just said Joseph said. I knew it. I knew that God knew it.

Hank Smith: 05:44 And something else just to add is in the world of, it’s someone else’s fault. Just realize I love the heading of this week is, I am responsible for my own testimony. I work out my own salvation with God. It’s not up to my parents. It’s not up to the church. It’s not up to my leaders. I shouldn’t have the expectation that someone else is going to give me my testimony. I should have the expectation that I have to get it myself, that this is between me and the Lord, and he wants to talk to me personally.

John Bytheway: 06:14 Yeah. Last general conference. Take charge of your own testimony. Elder Ballard or President Ballard, repeated President Nelson saying, “Take charge of your own testimony.” So it’s a good way to do it. You can’t ask somebody else to give that to you. You got to take charge.

Hank Smith: 06:29 Well, we hope you’ll join us for our full podcast. It’s called FollowHIM. We’re interviewing Dr. Steven Harper this week and you’re going to love everything he has to share and then come back next week and join us for another FollowHIM Favorites.