LOGAN, Utah — The word of the evening was “witness.”
Speaking to several thousand young adults seated inside Utah State University’s Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Sunday, Feb. 23, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained that witnesses can be observers or eyewitnesses who see, hear or know by personal experience.
“Witnesses establish the truth, helping others to strengthen their belief,” Elder Andersen said.
He taught and bore witness of the life and mission of Joseph Smith through the words and testimonies of many witnesses.
“I am grateful tonight to share my own witness and the many other witnesses the Lord has given us to strengthen our assurance that God called and inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith,” he said.
Elder Andersen was accompanied by his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, at the Cache Valley-wide young adult devotional hosted by the Logan Institute of Religion.
Book of Mormon
Elder Andersen said one of the strongest, most convincing physical witnesses of Joseph Smith’s divine calling is the Book of Mormon. He quoted several witnesses, including the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, the prophet Nephi and President Russell M. Nelson.
Said President Nelson at the 2021 Mission Leader Seminar: “The Book of Mormon is tangible and irrefutable evidence of Joseph Smith’s foreordained designation as the Prophet of his dispensation.”
Elder Andersen invited the audience to recite 1 Nephi 3:7 with him. “These words and a thousand others have gone into my heart like fire,” he said. “I know they are true.”
Elder Andersen also reflected on Joseph and Hyrum Smith reading from the Book of Mormon before their deaths at Carthage Jail, holding up the copy they read from that day. The brothers died proclaiming the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
“I witness to you by the power of the Holy Ghost that I do know the Book of Mormon is God’s word to us today, another testament of Jesus Christ, whose truth stands next to the truth of the Bible, in assuring us that Jesus is the Christ,” Elder Andersen said.
To know Joseph
Those who knew Joseph Smith personally are witnesses of his goodness. Elder Andersen quoted the likes of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Eliza R. Snow and Parley P. Pratt.
President Taylor, third president of the Church, said, “I testify before God, angels and men, that [Joseph] was a good, honorable [and] virtuous man … [and] that his private and public character was unimpeachable — and that he lived and died as a man of God."
Men and women who study the life of Joseph Smith can appreciate his goodness, Elder Andersen said. The Rev. Amos Brown, a prominent Christian and NAACP leader, spoke at the Washington D.C. Temple open house, where he applauded the Prophet’s efforts to run for president of the United States with a platform to abolish slavery.
“He is a great proponent of Joseph Smith,” Elder Andersen said.
The fruit of Joseph’s mission
While showing a slide depicting delicious fruit, Elder Andersen read the Savior’s words from the New Testament: “Ye shall know them by their fruits. … A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:16, 18).
“Inspired by heaven, planted by the Prophet Joseph Smith and cultivated by thousands of others, the tree of the restored gospel is now in beautiful array,” Elder Andersen said. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fruit of a divine Restoration. And the fruit is very good.”
Elder Andersen also quoted scholars and others not affiliated with the Church who have studied its fruits. One example is United Methodist Pastor Kenda Creasy Dean, who wrote that Latter-day Saint teenagers tend to be the “spiritual athletes” of their generation.
‘I have always believed’
Also sharing her testimony, Sister Andersen said that she can’t recall the specific moment she knew “Joseph Smith was the prophet of God. I don’t know if it was as a primary child when we sang ‘Oh how lovely was the morning,’ or when I was in seminary reading the Book of Mormon over and over again.”
“I have always believed that Joseph Smith was God’s prophet.”
Yet, in her mid 20s, while she and Elder Andersen were living in Florida as a young couple, she was called as a regional public communications director for the faith. She received in the mail a trove of newspaper articles about a new historical document widely considered legitimate at the time that was “very disparaging of the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
“I had never had any thought except the most beloved thoughts of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” she said, but remembers “exactly where I was sitting in our house” when she received these documents and began reading them as part of her calling.
While reading, she recalled, “I could tell something in my spirit” inconsistent with the earlier peace she had felt, “and so I decided in that moment, ‘I’m not going to read any more of this.’”
That historical document was later found to be fraudulent. But Sister Andersen went on to say that for her, “the important thing was that I knew what I believed and I was not going to let anything take it away from me.”
Speaking directly to attendees, she added, “You have the ability to not let anybody take your testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith away from you.”
Final witness
Although Elder Andersen’s testimony has been built in part by experiences at Church history sites, he said each person can know for themselves through the power of the Holy Ghost.
He then bore his own witness.
“Through the power of the Holy Ghost, the truthfulness of the voice of the Spirit, I do know that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith. … I know he was called to restore the gospel and prepare a people for the return of our Savior, Jesus Christ,” Elder Andersen said. “He is who we claim him to be. I witness as did the Prophet Joseph Smith that Jesus is the Christ.”
