God must really have something in store for me with how much he is trying to humble me! (Ether 12:27)

(Added by Alayna.  Ether 12:27 reads: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”)

Oh boy, time flies by fast! It's kind of weird. The days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days. I feel like I just got dropped off a few days ago. This past week wasn't quite as good as the first week, but it has still been awesome! I have noticed a really strong theme these past weeks which is: be humble and get to work. 

Thursday: Thursday was our first P day at it was really nice. Because all the new missionaries get dropped off on Wednesdays, and my branch has P days on Thursdays, apparently the MTC doesn't want to give you a P day your first full day at the MTC so they made us wait a whole week plus till the next Thursday (today). We started off the day by going to the temple which was nice. It is so awesome that we get the opportunity to walk just across the street basically and the temple is right there. They have a whole locker room for missionaries because there are so many of us that go to that temple. After our temple session, my companion and I went to go and do laundry. I was a little bit nervous because I haven't ever done my own laundry before, but all of my clothes survived, so I guess it's all good. During exercise time we played volleyball again. It was cool because my district played a bunch of Samoan Elders that are serving in Samoa.  They were really cool. They kept on doing that “yahoo” thing that Polynesian people do. The main reason I put that in there though is that we smoked them.

Most of the day I spent emailing I felt like. Last week’s email took me forever to type up, but I guess that's ok because there was a lot to talk about. Elder Bennett and I had a lesson that night with our investigator named Candy. We were surprised when we showed up to class right before we were going to teach her, and she is in the classroom with a teacher name tag on. I guess you have two teachers at the MTC, and one of them plays as an investigator for you for the first week you are at the MTC. It kind of felt like in a movie when the superhero walks into a room and the bad guy is in the room, so they just kind of sit there looking at each other. If you've seen the newest spider man you know what I mean. Her real name is Sister Giles. She just got back from the Philippines 4 months ago, so she knows what’s up. The only problem with her being one of our teachers is that some of the elders in my district find her attractive, so they might not pay as much attention in class. haha

P days are great! They kind of have a first day of summer feel to them.

Friday: Today we went to the new MTC buildings to do personal studying. What I gained from it was "soften your heart and look for examples" and "don't forget the blessings and miracles I have already seen". They were very helpful for what I was studying during that time.

During work out time, I got to run 2.5 miles with Elder Palmer who is one of the Elders in my district. It honestly was kind of a crappy run, but I felt good after. Running just seems to make the days go better for me. During class time today, I found out that Elder Bennett and I have to teach lessons the next 3 days in a row. At first, I was a little bit bugged about that, but then I realized I am on a mission and that is basically what I will be doing every day, so I shut down myself getting bugged pretty quick. We started planning a lesson on the Atonement for one of our other investigators that we will be teaching. As I started planning and writing it down I got really excited and felt like I was on fire as I was writing the lesson. Even though the lesson is for another fake investigator, I could still feel the spirit as I was studying and planning which was really cool.

During our second lesson block, I honestly didn't even know what we were talking about half the time because I just started having a mini panic attack about learning the language. I don't really know why I was stressing, but I had to take a minute and sit back and tell myself that I wasn't going to get a language down in one week.

Saturday: For some reason, my district’s schedule is all mixed up on Saturdays. We have classroom instruction bright and early in the morning. During class time we did a Book of Mormon study and my question was: How can I be more confident in learning a language?  It is amazing how no matter what question you have, the Book of Mormon will always have an answer for it. We read through Ether 12. Some of the nuggets I got were; "If you don't have faith, the Lord can't perform miracles." and "If you have faith the veil opens to you and you can almost see heaven."  Really if I just have more faith that it's all going to work out, I will get the language down.

We watched another talk by Elder Bednar in one of our classes today. He talks about the promptings of the spirit. "Often times you will not know in the moment the spirit is talking to you."  He then goes on to share how as a missionary, he gave Elder Packer and his wife some money for food for no real reason, but Elder Packer ended up using the money to bribe the communist party of Berlin from keeping his wife for not having proper documentation. Elder Bednar said he had no idea about that happening until 30 years later in a conversation with the then President Packer. The only bummer is that I found out that talks that are given at the MTC are only available for missionaries at the MTC to watch, so all the videos I talked about last week and this one, none of you at home can see. I was really bummed about that because some of these videos are really awesome!

The craziest thing ever happened at dinner. So the MTC tour is going on right now, and part of the tour goes through the cafeteria. As a district we were talking about how we see people walking through the tour hoping it will be someone we know, and then every once in a while we think it is someone we know so we look up again to see if it really is. During the process of me acting out how I look down, up, down, and then up again when you think you see someone, I actually saw a group of 9-10 friends I knew from school that were taking the tour. I got so excited that I jumped up and left my food to go and say hi to them. I don't know if that was a miracle, an answer to prayers, or just a crazy coincidence, but I was so excited that I was shaking for like half an hour afterward. 

(Added by Alayna: We got a few different pictures from that group after they saw him.  It was so great!  They all said he was “so excited” and “so happy” to see them!  This story makes sense why he was so happy! J)

Sunday:  Sundays aren't really all that great for the most part at the MTC, at least I don't think so. It is like you are sitting through 6 hours of Elders Quorum or something like that. It is kind of boring. I also was kind of struggling with my companion today which made it even harder. We get along fine, and it's not like we have conflicting personalities, but we have different personalities so sometimes he has gotten on my nerves just a little bit. I need to just work on being more loving and patient. I also was thinking about the little things I miss at home like runs, bike rides, watching movies, and little things like that. I wasn't homesick or anything, but all those things combined together made it kind of rough today.

During our priesthood meeting, my district and another one were in a room with President Muhr who is president over multiple branches in the MTC. The way I would describe him is passionate. Kind of like Elder Holland where he gets you almost scared when he is teaching to you. Anyways, I had a question on my mind after I went to the temple. Why would God give Adam and Eve two contradicting commandments and make them have to make a decision?  Oh boy did I get my answer! Here is a summary or what he said:  God needed them to transgress for the whole plan to work. They didn't sin, they transgressed a commandment that didn't apply to them if they wanted to follow all of God's commandments. It broke their heart because at the time they thought they were never going to see God again, but then he told them later on that as long as they would follow their covenants and the commandments, God would provide a Savior for them. This experience in life is essential for spiritual progression. God could have just put the thought into Adam and Eve's head, but then he would cease to be God so he let Satan put the thought into their heads. We need the pain and suffering of this life to know eternal happiness in the life to come. Then the question was raised that why didn't God just not give them that option to have to make a choice. That doesn't really sound like God's plan though, does it?  That whole discussion was really an answer to a simple little prayer I had to more understand the fall of Adam and Eve.

For Sunday devotional we got to hear from Kenneth Cope. It was really cool because I have heard a lot of his songs; but he is a really awkward guy. The first thing he said when he walked out was "you are soooo beautiful". We all look at each other and laughed. His message was really good though. He sang like 7 of his songs and then told stories about them. For our Sunday night movie Elder Bennett and I watched a talk by Elder Holland called “Open Your Mouth”. That talk reassured to me why I love Elder Holland. He usually is kind of spitting fire at you while he is talking, but this time he grabbed a big ball of fire and threw it at me. He was honestly kind of yelling for a lot of the video, but then he would crack jokes right in the middle and it just made it awesome! He said that if there is only one convert on your mission that is ok, but that should be yourself.  "NEVER GO BACK TO WHAT YOU USED TO BE!" "YOU WERE SENT AS A YOUNG PERSON AND NOW WHEN YOU COME BACK YOU ARE AN ADULT". We then went back to the room and just talked about how awesome it would be to be an apostle. To have that love and knowledge that they have would be amazing!

Monday: "Afflictions and suffering HUMBLE people. The more HUMBLE you are the more receptive you are to the spirit." (Ether 12:27)  God must really have something in store for me because he is really trying to humble me.

We had our first TRC today and it sucked.

(Added by Alayna:  I looked it up and TRC stands for Training Resource Center.  The missionaries go in there and practice missionary situations, but also observe each other.  The “investigators” are volunteers from the community.)

We were trying to teach this lady about the Atonement, but she had this really fat baby with her and she was just taking care of it the whole time. She did not tell us one thing other than to say she didn’t have any questions for us.

In exercise time my volleyball team got it handed to us in every game we played which also sucked. I also was struggling to find common ground with my companion again today. And I was getting discouraged about the language. It's all good though because I know something will come of all my struggles because God has a purpose for me.

During class time we had a sub teacher named Brother Higgins. He is just as passionate as President Muhr or Elder Holland. We were talking about the spirit during the class. The simple answer to how to feel the spirit better is just that as you get older you will understand it more. The complicated answer is "The physical feelings of the spirit like crying and the butterflies aren't necessarily of the spirit. That doesn't mean they can’t be, but they aren't always either.”

I honestly left that discussion with more questions than when I started, but it gave me something really good to think about. The spirit is a really complicated thing. 

Tuesday: Today for study time I was reading in the “Preach my Gospel” more about the way the spirit works with you. The really simple answer is "If you are living right, you will know in your heart it is the spirit talking to you" -Gordon B. Hinkley.

If you are ever questioning a prompting of the spirit all you have to do is ask though. One other lesson I learned is that people should keep their spiritual experiences sacred to them. It is ok to share them at the right time with the right people, but sharing big, knock-your-socks-off stories about the spirit can desensitize people from noticing the small little spiritual experiences you have every day.

Today we taught our first lesson to our new investigator named Noel. It's really just Brother Hill acting like someone who he taught on his mission but even given that, we could really feel the spirit with us as we taught him. My only problem is I know I have a good message, I just don't know how to get it across in Tagalog yet and it gets kind of discouraging. For our Tuesday night devotional, we had a talk by Brother Wetherford Clayton of the 70. He is a really good speaker. You could really feel the spirit as he talked. One really good quote from him was: "You need to be the missionary you need to be, not the missionary you want to be". "Our job as missionaries is to restore the gospel to people because they have already heard it at some point in their life". He put an interesting perspective on those two points. That night some elders and I were talking about our mission experiences so far and how we love them so much and wouldn't want to give them up for anything. Going home at the end of these 2 years might be harder than I thought. 

Wednesday: Today we had service again. I basically had to wear hazmat gloves and goggles and went and cleaned the restrooms. To lighten the mood, I was just cracking jokes about how I was going to die and whatnot the whole time.

Today we played volleyball again and I got put on the team that was said to "not have as good of chemistry" which basically means I'm not very good and the good team didn't want me on their team. haha oh well.

I also was forced to take off my Ironman wristband to play sports today, so that was kind of a bummer.

Today in class we learned how to use question words in Tagalog which is very useful to start using the language more. After class, Elder Bennett requested that we have a companionship inventory to address companionship problems. Companionship inventories are super awkward and I feel kind of uncomfortable in them, especially because Elder Bennett kind of acts like a weird doctor that asks you about your feelings on a T.V. show. They are useful though so I guess I'll just suffer through the weirdness. The main reason Elder Bennett and I haven't been clicking quite so well is we are the same person more than I would care to admit. Both of us are introverted and independent. We both have little quirks about each other. One other thing is Elder Bennett doesn't quite get my humor.

After that we had another class where we reviewed over everything we have learned so far. It was really good because it made me realize how far I have come. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm on the right track. We did another Book of Mormon study where we read the story of the Stripling Warriors. My question was about how I can be a better missionary. Needless to say, I got a lot from that study time. "I know that God is with me, so let me go". That quote had a very profound impact on me and I think it is very powerful. 

Elder Bennett and I get along fine.  We probably won't be best friends after our missions, but at least we don't hate each other! Everything is going really well. I love it here. People need to talk more about how fun and awesome a mission is!  I'm starting to feel more confident in the language and my overall "spiritualness" ;)

I'd love to hear from people even if I don't get the chance to reply back to you all the time. Hope everyone is doing good. 

Forever and a day,

Love Elder Williamson

(Added by Alayna:  Every time Frasier’s Grandpa Skip would sign a card, he would sign it “Forever and a Day”.  When Fras signs his letters or emails like that, it is in honor of his late Grandpa Skip!)

First Letter

Where do I even begin? This week has been crazy! It kind of stunk because all the Philippines missionaries get P day on Thursday, but they don't want to give you a P day your first full day at the MTC so we had to wait over a week. It is kind of a joke at the MTC to say to all the people “Happy P day” if you notice they are on their P day, but it also holds some truth. It's kind of like a birthday or something. It is relaxing to not have classes or anything you have to stress about which is nice, and you also get to go to the temple and do laundry which are both amazing in their own respects. Today was my first day doing my own laundry so we will see how that turns out. Hopefully I won't need all new clothes sent to me in my next package. 

Wednesday: As I was walking away from my family after getting dropped off Bodie starts waving his shirt around saying "It's my room now! Suck you!". That was a funny choice of words, but it made it easier because I was laughing instead of crying or anything like that. The Elder that was showing me around said, "Well at least he loves you". It's crazy once you get to the MTC because once you get dropped off they don't wait a second to throw you right into the mix of things. The first thing I did was go and get a packet that had my name tags and a few other things in it. It was a crazy feeling putting on the name tag. I had the realization that this is real now. It also felt like I was putting on armor or something; kind of like in that picture of the missionaries getting ready, but in the mirror it is showing the Army of Helaman soldiers.

Then after that, I went to my classroom where the teacher (Brother Hill) doesn't even skip a beat. He starts just going off in Tagalog hoping that we will catch on to it, and since then I have only heard him speak a handful of sentences in English. He is a really cool guy though. I like him a lot. At dinner I was really excited because I was seeing a bunch of elders I knew from school, they had good food, and they have a drink called POG in the cafeteria. It's a passion fruit, orange, guava juice mix which is amazing and I get to drink it whenever I want. 

Elder Williamson and Elder Aubrey (Frasier's friend since they were born!)

After dinner, all the missionaries sat through a couple mock interviews with some investigators and it was really cool to feel the spirit even in those mock interviews. After that, we went and met our branch leaders. It was reassuring because they all were getting along really well with each other and seemed to be having a ton of fun. They told us about this one elder named Elder Muller who is this 250 pound Polynesian guy who will without a doubt give you a hug. Then when I was in my room getting ready for the night this giant Polynesian elder walks in my room, and when I go to give him a hand shake, he says something to the effect of "what the heck is that, I give hugs!" and then proceeded to give me a big bear hug. All in all, I had a really fun time today, and didn't really get a chance to breathe, let alone think about missing my family.

Thursday: Thursday was a really weird day. By the time dinner came around, it felt like the shortest day ever, but then by the time it was time for lights out it felt like we had gotten to the MTC 3-4 days ago. We had to go and pick up a package from the office building that all new elders get. The elders going to the Philippines got a package that was seriously 20 pounds chuck full of dictionaries, language guides, a Tagalog Aklat ni Mormon, more dictionaries, a filter bottle, a Tagalog preach my gospel, and then a few more dictionaries. The Elders in my district took the liberty of calling it the Christmas package. I will send a picture of it.

Then the stress started kicking in realizing that we will have to learn what is in all of those packages.  And we had another language instruction where he only spoke in Tagalog (more like Taglish, but still rough). During the class, I told myself to take a step back and realize it will come with time. Near the end of the lesson, Brother Hill asked us how much we were understanding him and we all said that we were getting the gist of what he was telling us. He pointed out that that wasn't us just learning the language, but rather the gift of tongues already taking effect on us. It was really cool to come to that realization, and it made the stress go away even that much more. Before we went to bed we had a meeting where we met our branch presidency. They only talked for a minute, but they seem like really awesome people. Still having a ton of fun!

Quote of the day: "Keep praying because heaven is as close as your knees are to the ground."  Some elder just said that in one of our meetings and I really liked it. 

Scripture of the day: 1 Cor. 13:11. We were talking about becoming missionaries and what we should be like and we read this scripture. It's pretty powerful!

(Added by Alayna, the scripture reads: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”)

Friday: Before I left someone told me about the law of opposites and that it applies to the mission as well. 

(Added by Alayna:  The context of the discussion was that you can’t understand good without evil, joy without pain, etc.  Even on a mission, you have to have hard days, hard companions, temptations, etc. in order to appreciate the good.)  

The elders in my district are coming together very well. We have all already become good friends. Their names are Elder Peterson, Julander, Dixon, Gordon, Tangulig, Jones, Wichers, Palmer, Bennett. Elder Bennett is my companion.

During lunch, we were all sitting next to each other laughing and having a good old time. I told them about (a friend’s) tapeworm story and they were almost crying because they were laughing so hard!  Then comes the bad part of the day. We had to teach our first lesson today, and we were supposed to use as much Tagalog as we could. The lady we are teaching is named Candy and she only speaks Tagalog. That made it really hard and stressful, especially because Elder Bennett and I completely forgot everything we were going to talk about with her in the process of walking to the classroom she was in. After the lesson, we were all supposed to be studying Tagalog and planning for our next lesson, but I was having a little mini panic attack. Then a teacher from another district walked in and started talking to us. He was honestly an answer to prayers. He changed the whole attitude of the room and put a new perspective on the gift of tongues. He said that the gift of tongues is more about speaking to people’s hearts than to people’s ears. The most fluent Tagalog speakers won't be able to get the message across as much as people will that have the spirit with them. Everything Brother West said when he came in was very helpful to me. He also said that as we learn Tagalog words and phrases, we should throw away the English version so I might start throwing Tagalog words and phrases into my emails every once and a while.

We got our first exercise time today which was nice. Elder Bennett and I just ran around the MTC to see what there was to do. Apparently, 4 square is a real deal here in the MTC. I also got my first package and letters from the mail today. It was really nice to know that people are back at home thinking of me. Send me emails or dear elders or anything you want and hopefully I can try and reply to them. FYI the MTC checks our mail apparently, and they will throw away anything that goes bad if it can't go in the fridge in 24 hours. So thanks for the thought Whitney and Courtney, but next time you might have to wrap in some Mary and Jesus wrapping paper so that they won't open it. Thank you so much though! They gave me everything else. 

I also learned how to pray in Tagalog today. It is very short and simple but is really cool to be able to do that. 

Saturday: Today was probably the best day so far. We had our second lesson with Candy (the mock investigator). We learned from last time and just wrote down and tried to memorize simple words and phrases to try and get the point across to her. It went so much better than last time. I felt really good about it. We probably told her to do something completely unrelated to the gospel, but hey, at least we thought we were saying the right things. It was funny, Elder Bennett gave her his new Tagalog Aklat ni Mormon so that she could "keep it and read it"; the only problem is she actually kept it. So we will have to trade with her next time we have a lesson. 

Some Elders and I were talking about the language classes and saying how even though it is hard, we actually get excited about going to class because it is fun to try and learn the new language. That is also an answer to prayers that we are getting excited for language classes instead of dreading them. Someday we will be able to talk and hold a conversation in Tagalog and bear our testimony back at home and none of you will know what were are saying. I can't wait for that day to actually come. Someone mentioned in class today that Tagalog would be a very hard language to speak if you had a studdering problem. There are so many words where there is an A or an L every other letter that if feels like tongue twisters sometimes.

The second half of class we had a Book of Mormon study where we were all supposed to write down a question we had and then we were going to read a chapter out loud together and talk about it. We read Alma 32 and it was such an amazing experience the spirit we had with us. I had some really strong answers to my question through what I got out of it and what other elders mentioned they learned. Some of the things I got from it were "afflictions and suffering humble people; the more humble you are, the more receptive you are to the spirit”.  And, “even if you have a small amount of faith, if you work on it, it will grow”.   Everyone should go and read that chapter.

During exercise time all the elders in my district went and played volleyball together and that was really fun. Then we had like 3.5 hours to study before we went to bed that night. We studied for about an hour, and then some of the elders in my district started talking and we all just got into a conversation about anything from girls/girlfriends to movies we like to watch. It was really fun and a good district bonding time, but some of us also felt like we missed out on some valuable study time. We need to have fun though, right? Wait till what happens tomorrow.

Sunday: Everyone kept telling me: “just make it to Sunday and it gets easier from there”. We'll I made it to Sunday and I haven't been having a bad time so far, so I guess I hope it can get even better. The first half of the day today was cool because we had sacrament at the MTC, but it was honestly kind of like going to church for 6 hours. They also don't have the cafeteria staff work on Sunday mornings so it was only cereal at breakfast and I only had a small bowl of cereal so I was hungry also. 

After lunch, we went to a lesson by one of our branch presidency. He was really cool. He kind of just throws the lesson at you like Elder Holland does, so I really like him. Here's the ironic part. They were talking completely about following the rules and being diligent and on task. The conclusion I came to was that the branch presidency has eyes on us because we were off task last night and then we immediately got a lesson about it. It was really helpful though. One quote he said was "rules are basically guidelines for blessings". 

After that, we went on a temple walk. We got to leave the MTC and go and walk around the Provo temple grounds which was pretty cool. We are lucky to have that so close by. 

Later that day my whole district went to choir practice. The choir doesn't usually sing on Sundays, but there was a special speaker that night, so we were. That got us all excited because we were assuming it was going to be a General Authority, and it was! Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us. It was so cool. When he and his wife entered the room you could just feel the spirit fill the whole gym. They broadcast his talk to all the MTCs throughout the world which made it even more special. You know what he talked about among other things, he talked about being on task as a missionary, and specifically not worrying about girls at home or trying to flirt with girls at the MTC. It was really funny having an older gentleman- specifically an apostle – talk about flirting and relationships like that. He said, "Lock your heart and leave the key at home. Keep the Lord in your heart at all times on your mission. A mission isn't about baptisms as much as it is about your ability to be 100% missionary". It was such a good talk, and I'm pretty sure he knew we were talking about girls last night as well. 

After his talk, we got to choose a movie to watch Sunday night. It is recommended that new missionaries watch "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. I honestly can't explain the feelings I had during that video, but it was absolutely amazing! I hope everyone will watch that video. I don't know if I have ever been that touched by a church talk before. He mentions "are you converted?" in his talk, and I always thought it was just a cool thing my dad had on his classroom wall, but I found a new meaning to it and it was amazing! Can you send me a picture of that in your class dad? Elder Bednar also said that he has somewhere around 400 copies of the Book of Mormon. Every time he has a question, he reads through the whole thing with just that question in mind and marks the scriptures throughout. He challenged others to do the same. That would be pretty interesting to try. 

Monday: Monday was honestly just kind of a normal day. My district got to guide the MTC tour that is going on. That was really cool because I got to talk to lots of people. It was really fun and a good missionary experience just talking to people. We also had our third lesson with Candy. It didn't go as good as last time. We planned too much and ended up teaching her for 45 minutes instead of the 20 we were supposed to. I was flustered about the language after that and the only advice I got was to speak the language as much as possible and keep working. 

Tuesday: For language study time my district played isa (Uno) together. We had to use correct Tagalog words or else we had to take more cards. That was fun and we got props for our creative way to use language study time.

 Tuesday night there is a devotional and the choir sings at it. So we went to practice and at choir

practice they told us another special visitor was coming. We all got excited again. They were making a big deal out of it at practice so we knew it was going to be someone awesome. It turns out it was Elder Neil L. Anderson who was speaking. WHAT THE WHAT!?!? Two apostles in one week! It was awesome! He basically just talked about missionary work and how it is our responsibility to find the ones we teach. They will hardly ever come to us. He showed a bunch of videos which doesn't normally happen with an apostle, but he used them very well. One really cool quote was "ask for miracles, pray for miracles, they are going to happen". It was cool because after he was done talking, he and 8 of his grandchildren walked around for about 10 minutes shaking missionaries’ hands. Sadly, I didn't get to, but it was cool to see him walk around the whole gym shaking as many hands as he could. I set a goal today to gain a testimony about the Book of Mormon.

Wednesday: My district had service today. We had to clean windows, so nothing too special there, other than we started to spray each other with window cleaner at one point. During exercise time I got to run 4 miles just around the volleyball courts, but it was the first time I really ran after I got here so it felt really good. During class time we learned how to conjugate verbs.  Its a lot easier than it is in English and makes a lot more sense because all the verbs follow patterns, the only problem is I have to memorize the patterns so I'll let you know how that goes.

I also talked to Brother Hill about having a testimony about the Book of Mormon. He took me out of class and we talked about it for about half an hour. To summarize what we talked about: He asked me if I had ever had spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon and what those felt like. Then he said "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, just like a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. The Book of Mormon is either all true, or all false. So if you have had some spiritual experience with the Book of Mormon, then that must mean it's true." He also said "It is ok to say "I believe in the Book of Mormon" until you can say "I know the Book of Mormon is true". He then went on to talk about Elder Bednar's talk "The Spirit of Revelation" which I have yet to print off and read, but he said a lot of times people want a testimony to hit them in the face, when usually it rises slowly like the sunrise. I think that is my type of personality where I want things to happen quickly, like when I would do track workouts, but it usually happens more slowly for me. That whole discussion was a testimony builder for me, but I need to keep on working. 

Love, Elder Williamson!