For over two decades, Sister Kristen M. Oaks and her dear friend JoAnn F. Phillips have creatively shared the gift of faith in Jesus Christ with more than 100,000 children, families and individuals.
The two recently sat together, reflecting on the joy of their service-oriented friendship and the many lives they’ve seen change as they’ve sought to teach gospel truths and the doctrine of testimony to others — especially children.
Heavenly Father “cares about the children,” said Sister Oaks, wife of President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We should teach our children the truths they have to know to enter the celestial kingdom,” she said, noting that a testimony centered on Jesus Christ and His gospel is a “powerful” part of the process.
Sister Oaks and Phillips first became friends while serving in the Philippines with their husbands around 2004.
At that time, President Oaks was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and was serving as Philippines Area president. Phillips was a senior missionary serving with her husband in the Philippines.
Sister Oaks and Phillips desired to find a simple way to help teach children and others they were serving how to prepare and bear their own testimonies.
The two turned to “Preach My Gospel” and from there felt inspired to design a creative visual tool outlining five truths one could bear testimony of. That tool was a simple white glove decorated with cut-out images, which they came to call a “testimony glove.”
Bearing and obtaining testimony is “essential” and “fundamental to our religion,” Phillips told the Church News as she sat beside Sister Oaks.
Phillips and Sister Oaks began teaching with and sharing their creation with children in the Philippines, watching as these children grasped and then desired to testify of the simple truths taught using the gloves.
Each truth was based on the baptismal interview questions found within “Preach My Gospel,” Sister Oaks said. They have “great depth and great spirit.”
Now, roughly 22 years later, Sister Oaks and Phillips continue seeing the blessings of their service. They also continue sharing their inspired creation to help others worldwide discover and declare what they believe.
“Every time you bear your testimony, the Holy Ghost is there, and He will witness to you and to those who are listening that what you’re saying is true,” Phillips said, sharing what her service has taught her of testimony.
The Spirit “bears witness to you, and the more you bear your testimony, the more your testimony will grow.”
Phillips recounted story after story of people she’s seen impacted by the doctrine of testimony. She told of one young woman who said the simple truths outlined in the testimony glove were “the beginning of [her] conversion.”
Phillips also spoke of a close friend’s husband who returned to activity in the Church and bore powerful testimony of Heavenly Father and how He spared the life of the friend’s son in an accident.
Listening to him testify was “worth every testimony glove I’ve ever made,” Phillips said.
Sister Oaks and Phillips took turns listing and bearing witness of the following truths, which are outlined in the testimony glove:
- I know Heavenly Father lives and loves me.
- I know Jesus Christ is Heavenly Father’s Son and my Savior and Redeemer.
- I know Joseph Smith is the Prophet who was called to restore the true Church of Jesus Christ and translate the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God.
- I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Savior’s true Church on earth today and that its teachings will lead me to the temple, where we make sacred covenants.
- I know that we have a living prophet who receives revelation from God.
The two paused and grew teary-eyed before Sister Oaks bore her own witness of the final truth.
“I know that we are led by a living prophet,” she testified, clasping her dear friend’s hand.
Sister Oaks, who worked many years as an educator and an educational consultant, said all parents and leaders have the divine responsibility of teaching their children faith and the foundational truths of the gospel.
“[We must] intentionally and deliberately teach simple things because it’s our responsibility,” Sister Oaks said. “We have to teach our children.”
Sister Oaks also called herself a convert to the Church, having asked to be baptized at 10 years old, and said that decades of treasuring, teaching and testifying of gospel truths have strengthened and refined her testimony.
“The Spirit just keeps hitting your heart, hitting your heart, hitting your heart, so you can say, ‘I know, and I want you to know,’” she said.
Sister Oaks thanked and praised Phillips for replicating their creation hundreds of times over and for sharing the gift of testimony with others.
Phillips is a “powerhouse,” a “maker” and a “worker bee,” Sister Oaks said. She has “devoted her whole life to the Church, and I think both of us feel very strongly about teaching children. That’s one thing that drives us.”
Phillips has recruited the help of many over the years to assemble testimony gloves, which have blessed and taught hundreds of children and individuals worldwide, Sister Oaks said. Many have reached children who had never learned of or seen an image of the Savior.
“This is my mission,” Phillips declared.
Replied Sister Oaks: “It still is our mission.”
