Fans of the storytelling podcast This Is the Gospel rejoice: Season 4 is here! Tune in every Monday for new episodes with new stories from real people practicing and living their faith.

Consider the following story:

The first time I saw the LDS missionaries was through the scope of my sniper rifle—their white shirts strikingly visible against the intense green of the jungle. Who would dare be so visible in the middle of a war?

Ryan Blubaugh’s conversion story is filled with seeds being planted throughout his life, including by a friend in high school—a friend he would reach out to on Facebook after 29 years.

“Not everything in life is . . . black and white, but it seems that the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and its keystone role in our belief is exactly that. Either Joseph Smith was the prophet he said he was, who, after seeing the Father and the Son, later beheld the angel Moroni, repeatedly heard counsel from his lips, eventually receiving at his hands a set of ancient gold plates which he then translated according to the gift and power of God or else he did not. And if he did not… he is not entitled to retain even the reputation of New England folk hero or well-meaning young man or writer of remarkable fiction. No, and he is not entitled to be considered a fine teacher or a quintessential American prophet or the center of great wisdom literature. If he lied about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, he is certainly none of these” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Standard unto My People," delivered at the CES Book of Mormon Symposium, 9 August 1994, BYU Marriott Center).

Alma 23-29

“I’ve always struggled with my testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Tami wrote on her blog in August of 2016. “My testimony was always on high or off. There was no in between. I’m sure people wonder . . . if I had a very strong testimony at times in my life how in the world could I just let it waste away? I don’t have the answers to that question. I’m stubborn? Satan is a jerk? I’m forgetful? I left my room without thinking to pray? Yeah, probably all of those combined into a big mess.”

I have in my files a Gary Larson cartoon showing a man lying in bed having a dream. In the dream he sees knights clothed in iron armor and wielding iron swords and engaged in fierce combat. But this man—the man who is dreaming—is also in the battle, holding a wooden sword, a garbage can lid rather than a shield, and dressed in his birthday suit. The caption for the cartoon is: COMMON MEDIEVAL NIGHTMARE.

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