One of the interesting results of Rusty’s recent bloggernacle survey is that 63% of respondents said that they either always had a testimony or that they gained a testimony before the age of 18.
12% always had a testimony
16.7% before the age of 12
34.3% between the ages of 13-18.
I think that some people have a tendency to doubt that true, deep conversion happens at such young ages and so I am interested in hearing the conversion experiences of those of you who gained testimonies while young.
Here is my own experience:
In many ways I feel that I have always known that the church is true. My family had always tried, though often inconsistently, to have family scripture study and home evening. My parents often discussed the gospel with us in casual conversation and the priesthood was visibly exercised in our home in the form of comparatively frequent priesthood blessings. Some of my earliest memories are of praying over lost pets (of which I had plenty) and being prompted to look for them in certain places–and finding them there.
However, I have a specific experience which I identify as my conversion:
When I was 11 years old, my father approached me one evening and said, “Jon, when you turn twelve you will have an opportunity to receive the priesthood. It would probably be a good thing if you had read the whole Book of Mormon for yourself.” My reading comprehension was good for my age–I had read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion that same year–a fact that may have played a role in my fathers suggestion.
That was all he said, and he never, to my recollection, brought it up again–even to ask me if I had done it before or even after I was ordained. But my father’s comment left a deep impression on me and I faithfully read the Book of Mormon during the next couple of months, from start to finish.
I remember well the night I finally completed it. I had just read the last chapter and Moroni’s exhortation. It was late at night, and dark except for the desk-lamp I had duct-taped to my bed post so that I could read while my younger brother in the lower bunk slept. I knelt down in my bunk, my book in hand, and said a very simple, but sincere prayer asking the Lord if the Book of Mormon was true. He responded with a glorious manifestation of the Holy Spirit that confirmed to me that it was.
I lay down again as joy pulsed through my veins: God had answered me. I knew the Book of Mormon was true.
Though I have made many mistakes between that time and the present, I still know it is true.