11 January 2026
Every son or daughter of God can gain a deeper, firmer, and surer knowledge for themselves.
Sacrament Meeting Program
Presiding: Bishop Todd Christensen
Conducting: Brother Chris Balmforth
Opening Hymn: #284 - If You Could Hie to Kolob
Invocation: By Invitation
Ward Business
Sacrament Hymn: #182 - We'll Sing All Hail to Jesus' Name
Administration of the Sacrament
Speaker: Sister Janae Jakins
Speaker: Brother Chris Balmforth
Intermediate Hymn: #1046 - Can You Count the Stars in Heaven?
Speaker: Brother Grady Stoner
Closing Hymn: #301 - I Am a Child of God
Benediction: By Invitation
Messages From General Conference
The Eternal Gift of Testimony
By Elder Kevin G. Brown
Of the Seventy
I grew up in beautiful Jamaica; it was fun and wonderful. However, when I started high school, some classmates and friends could not understand my decision to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. “How could you join that church?” they would ask. “How could you believe that story?”—referring to the First Vision. “How could you read that book?”—referring to the Book of Mormon. “Do you really believe all that?” And “Why are you wasting your life away?”
It was painful, especially when it came from people I cared about.
But what they didn’t know was this: I had an experience with the Holy Ghost. As that testimony filled my heart, it dulled the pain of days, and “for one brief moment, heaven’s view [appeared] before my gaze.”
Perhaps you have been asked some of these questions. Perhaps even now you are being bombarded as I was.
The gift and witness of the Holy Ghost are available to everyone.
Jamaica is to me like Palmyra was to Joseph Smith. It is my Sacred Grove. I do not know the exact spot where Joseph knelt to pray in the Sacred Grove, but I know exactly where I was when my Sacred Grove became a reality. It happened at Four Grove Road, Mandeville, Jamaica, in my bathroom, at 6:00 a.m. on a Wednesday three years after my baptism. This sacred experience happened because two weeks earlier an inspired sister missionary invited me to read the Book of Mormon. Sister Audrey Krauss is attending this conference today with her family, and I forever love her.
That experience changed me.
Brothers and sisters, a testimony is not given for temporary use. This gift from our loving Heavenly Father is meant to be eternal because the giver is eternal. A testimony should not have an expiration date. It should not weaken or diminish because something in my life has changed or something in the world has changed. It should get stronger because, like the servant’s talents in the parable of the talents, my personal testimony is a gift to be multiplied—not buried.
Looking back on those difficult days of testing and persecution that I went through as a child has helped me get to the place where I now know for myself. I not only believe, hope, or trust, even though these are significant particles of faith on the pathway to a sure witness. I commend you for making your own way by asking questions, studying, praying, fasting, and pondering. Please don’t stop. It is worth every effort to pursue this path to testimony. Who or what will you allow to take that away? “What greater witness can you have than from God?”
Every son or daughter of God can gain a deeper, firmer, and surer knowledge for themselves. Like Joseph Smith, who affirmed his testimony despite opposition, we can boldly say, “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it.”
My dear brothers and sisters, let the small seedling of testimony work in you until it springs up to an everlastingly glorious sure knowledge.
If you are a baptized and confirmed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but still struggle with “I am not sure if I know,” please remember this promise in the sacrament prayer: “That they may always have his Spirit to be with them.” Because of this promise, each of us can pursue the path to testimony and a sure knowledge.
Elder Kevin G. Brown
