My freshman year at Ricks College was awesome. I had so much fun and grew so much. Living away from home in an environment like that was such a great experience for someone on their own for the first time. All my roommates and friends in the ward were either people who had just returned from missions or were getting ready to go.
Ricks College had a simple scholarship formula back then based on an ACT/GPA grid, and I was just barely below the line for a partial scholarship. Just one point higher on my ACT would have reduced how much I had to pay from my paperboy and Hadley Yardcare savings to cover school.
After the first semester, the ACT didn’t matter anymore—it was all about college GPA. My goal was to get straight A’s so I could earn some scholarship funds for the next semester.
Well, despite working hard, I had some tough classes and didn’t get the grades I was hoping for that first semester. So going into my second semester, I decided my main focus was going to be preparing for my mission. I wanted to show God that I was putting Him first by studying the Book of Mormon every day.
I usually studied in the library, in one of those nice cubicle desks, and it was there that I finished the Book of Mormon. I already believed it was true, but I decided to put Moroni’s promise to the test.
Right there in that cubicle, I prayed with real intent, asking God to let me know if it was true.
And He did.
I was overwhelmed with the Spirit—pure joy, love, peace, and happiness. It was a personal witness to me that the Book of Mormon is true.
And if the Book was true in 1998, is it not true today?