[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWKGEF5vTo&feature=related]

Do you have a video you have made or have seen that you would like us to share? Email us the link at ‘mormonwoman’ AT ‘gmail’ DOT ‘com’

For more ideas about how you can share your voice online, see the recent Ensign article by Elder Ballard.

The post Charity Angel’s video testimony appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Our individual experiences may not always be unique, but they are always authentic. God will even take into account our perceptions of, as well as our responses to, our trials. For those of us who do not, for instance, find claustrophobia a challenge, it is difficult to measure the terror that comes to those for whom it is such a challenge. Thus, a friend may seem to struggle unnecessarily long before finally prevailing with regard to a particular principle of the gospel. But for that individual, the struggle was real enough! We need, particularly, to understand with kindness those who are asked to go out to do battle again on a familiar field–on the very battleground where they have already suffered defeat several times. Yet some of our most difficult victories will occur on new terrain–like Joseph’s in Egypt–when we do not have the equivalent of a “home court” advantage.

We must remember that, while the Lord reminded the Prophet Joseph Smith that he had not yet suffered as Job, only the Lord can compare crosses!”

-Neal A. Maxwell, “Taking up the Cross,” Fireside, 4 January 1976 (emphasis in original) (http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6139&x=71&y=9)

I love this reminder to be more gentle–not just with others, but also with myself. It’s so easy to be hard on other people when they just don’t seem to “get it” with regard to a certain gospel principle or practice, so it is important to remember that we can never know the full scope of the personal challenges they face. I am really grateful that it is not my job to make those comparisons and judgments–I will gladly leave that to the Lord!

As hard as we are on other people, I think often we are the most critical of ourselves. Honest self-evaluation, with the Lord’s help, is a key piece of repentance and growth, but that self-appraisal should not come at the expense of our own sense of worth and identity as beloved daughters of God–loved beyond measure even in our imperfect state.

Elder Maxwell’s imagery of the battlefield reminds me of another passage I love, from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity:

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

I know I don’t always recognize the progress I’m making, so I really like this perspective on how the little things I do can add up to big gospel victories. And in the frustratingly common times I fall short, I’m grateful for repentance, and how the Atonement helps me hold the ground I might otherwise have lost.

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Do you have quotes or talks that have had an influence in your life? Please email us at ‘mormonwoman’ AT ‘gmail’ DOT ‘com’ or simply use the comment box below. Read more quotes from others by clicking here.

The post Words that Inspire Us — from Melanie appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

From mormonconverts.com:

My Entire Being Was Filled With Light
The summer of 1970, I read the account of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in the Encyclopedia Britannica. As I read my entire being was filled with LIGHT, and I knew that Joseph Smith had seen Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.…read entire story >>
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I Know My Heavenly Father Loves Me
I had just turned 19 and had been married for only a few months. Our first child was born prematurely. He was beautiful, but not fully developed and only weighed 1 lb 6 oz. So tiny. When he passed away 2 hours after his birth we were devastated…..read entire story >>
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I Had Never Heard Something So Amazing!
I grew up in a crazy life style that most non-members would consider ordinary. High school was a great time that I will never forget and it gives me a different perspective on life being on both sides of the fence.…read entire story >>
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I Found My Direction Home
I studied philosophy and theology in a Roman Catholic college-seminary and spent three years in the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order, preparing for priesthood. And that is where the first turn in the road appeared.…read entire story >>
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The Hole In Me Was Filled
There are times in your life, no matter how old you may be, that you feel you are looking for something. Maybe it is keys, that missing sock or for me, it was a search to fill an empty hole inside me. A hole that seemed to be there from the beginning…read entire story >>
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It’s True, So Stop Asking Me!
My mom brought me up Protestant. We went to several different churches, Nazarene, and Baptist. She was against the Mormon Church, and I was told a lot of false beliefs about the Church that she had learned over the years…read entire story >>
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Putting Together The Puzzle
As a child, I was raised in the Catholic Church. I was taught to pray scripted prayers and sent to Catholic School. One of my earliest memories at about age six was wondering why no one prayed “correctly”…read entire story >>
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It Was As Though Scales Fell From My Eyes
When my best friend joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I was upset and angry. I thought she had been brainwashed into a cult and I became obsessed with hatred.…read entire story >>
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They Brought “Something” With Them
We were introduced to the church through our son, (aged 7). We had been friends for years of a Mormon family and our sons played together all the time...read entire story >>
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A Quiet Whisper…”This Is True”
He wanted to know more about Mormons so he invited the Missionaries into our home, which was as I look back now the most powerful life changing experience a 12 year old…read entire story >>
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Sometimes Suffering Will Bring People To God
I spent a lot of years looking for a religion. I was raised without one, my mother is an Atheist, and I always felt incomplete when it came to religion. I believed in God, but that..…read entire story >>
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You Met Him When You Were Supposed To
Have you ever had just one bad day? I have, and it changed my life forever. In November of 2006, I let a lot of people get to me and a lot of bad stuff get to me. But the bottom line, I let myself make a decision that cost me everything.…read entire story >>
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He Guides Us Through The Voices of Others
Being truly converted was the topic in Relief Society on this particular Sunday. I recall I was still angry. I was angry at the ward, angry at the powerlessness of the priesthood, angry at my decision to make that all knowing change from Catholicism to Mormonism, and angry most of all at myself.…read entire story >>
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I’m Going To Tell You Anyway
I joined the church about six months after I married a Mormon girl. The only thing that I knew about Mormons was when our history teacher asked if there were any Mormons in our high school class and a few kids raised their hand.…read entire story >>
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There Has Always Been Something Missing
As a young boy of 5 years old I started down my religious path of Methodist. Going to church 2 and sometimes 3 times a week was very normal for me. My family was part of the church functions and was always available for…read entire story >>
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There Was A Hole In My Heart That I Could Never Fill
When I was 15 years old I got married. But that’s not the story I wish to tell right now. I want to tell you how I was converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ..…read entire story >>
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It Seems To Me You Are Already Mormon
I had always had a feeling that there was more to church, more to what I was learning in the churches I attended, but I always thought it was just because I didn’t go to church enough to learn it all.…read entire story >>
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It Was Worth The Sacrifice
There are people who come in our lives and forever change us, that is what happened to me. It was January 2005. I was a student at the University of Nebraska pursuing and double major in Communication Studies and Art History…read entire story >>
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I Finally Set My House In Order
My first experiences with religion were given to me by my grandmother when I was 4. She was a non-denominational Christian, and the only thing I still remember was singing “Jesus Loves Me,” and thinking that was all I was every going to need.…read entire story >>
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God Does Amazing Work
I didn’t know what I was looking for until I found it looking for my great-grandmothers grave in New Mexico. (and we really found it) She was part of a 100 wagon train that walked across the country in 1877 and unfortunately contacted small pox and..…read entire story >>
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Generations Of Accepting Christ
How can one begin to describe a life? A life time of activities? A life time of memories? Of love, of feelings, of experiences? A life time of different emotions; joy, happiness, pain, sorry, excitement, pride, and hope?.…read entire story >>
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Church Isn’t Good For You
I was born and raised in California. My sister and I were sent to the nearest church by our parents. It was a Presbyterian Church. I was about 10 and I remember coming home one day crying because the topic had been about Hell and Hell Fire, etc.…read entire story >>
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My Journey to the Church
I remember laying down in my bed, exhausted, but excited about the opportunity to read another chapter in the Book of Mormon. Little by little, I learned about the gospel of Jesus..…read entire story >>
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I Knew That I Was Home
It was my Junior year in High School and I was really confused in my Math class. The reason was because I slept a lot and didn’t pay attention..…read entire story >>
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He Knows Our Hearts Desire
I’ve been searching for truth since I was young. I loved to listen to the words of God..…read entire story >>
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God Was Telling Me Something
They began to test me from all the things I was taught. They then told me I met all the requirements of the Church to be baptized. I felt that I was unsure and not ready to be baptized yet. I was Catholic at that time. I always told myself “I would never leave the Catholic Belief.” ..…read entire story >>
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I Found The Truth
They asked me to be baptized. I gave them a qualified, tentative “yes”…with the caveat that I needed to hear more first before I committed to that drastic step.…read entire story >>

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Felt A Connection
I then saw the commercial for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and immediately felt a connection. I knew that they were the “Mormons” , The only thing I knew about Mormonism, was that the Donny Osmond and his family were Mormons..…read entire story >>

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The Lord Moves In Mysterious Ways
I was living in South Shields in the North East of England then, a very lost character! No real faith, no real any thing! A looser! And guess what my hobby was, brewing beer!..…read entire story >>

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Thirty Four Years To Conversion
It was difficult for me to accept the Joseph Smith story and to believe in the divine origins of the Book of Mormon. Yet, for most of my life I found myself trying to fill the “spiritual hole in my soul”.…read entire story >>

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This Stuff Is Too Brilliant
I grew up Jewish. My family was not observant religiously, in fact, my parents didn’t even believe in God. But I did; until the day after my father suddenly died.…read entire story >>

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I No Longer Depended on Borrowed Light
I have been a member of the Mormon Church all my life. I have found that it is harder for those who have been born in the Church to gain a real testimony of it. However, for what it is worth, here is my story……read entire story >>

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They’ve Come To Bring You Truth And Light
At the sound of knocking on her door, Jeanette McLeod laid her Bible aside and arose from her chair, wondering who could be visiting her at this hour of the evening. She opened the door and found two nicely dressed young men standing there…..…read entire story >>

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Believing in Heavenly Fathers’ Promises
We never know what God’s plans are, or how someone can be touched by the Gospel.…read entire story >>

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Mormons Are Truly Christians
I was rebuilding my life as a recovering alcoholic, in the program of Alcoholic’s Anonymous. I had left everything and everyone I knew behind to build a better life. I was changing, from the inside out. I was seeing miracles of change and healing in my life. But something was still missing…read entire story >>

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He Guided Me To The Right Place
I knew I couldn’t go on any longer I knew I needed to strengthen my relationship with Heavenly Father in order to make it through my trials. So with all the confusion before and I just didn’t know where I belonged I began praying that He would help me find a church home, and guide me to the right place so I could grow closer to Him.…read entire story >>

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My Story In The “Migrants” Bible
was converted in 1963 in the London area; Australia has been my home, on and off, for over forty years.…read entire story >>

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The Symbols Fell Into Place
In order for non-members and active members to fully understand my story, I had to write this out. Every time I read this there are new things that I add and my testimony grows stronger and stronger.…read entire story >>

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My Changed View
I joined the Church 26 years ago, at age 16. I was a Catholic and then interested in the born again Pentecostal movement.…read entire story >>

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My Life Changing Experience
The book related to a lost nation that had once populated central and south America. I was fascinated, its title was The book of Mormon..…read entire story >>

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I Now Know The Truth
He introduced me that he met two missionaries on the street and they preached on the streets and they called themselves, “Mormons”. When I heard “Mormon”, I felt strange and wanted to know more about the name, “Mormon”……read entire story >>

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The Journey Has Been Wonderful
They had no clue that this guy who was on the computer the whole time was actually listening to them. The next week when they came over, I gave them my undivided attention…read entire story >>
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The Lord Strengthened Me
grew up in Northern Ireland, the political and religious history of my country is no secret, there has always been disputes over religion and politics.…read entire story >>

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A Witness of the Spirit

I was so thankful to Father for the physical witness that He knew was the unspoken desire of my heart…read entire story>>>
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It Was No Coincidence
I could barely believe my ears! How could this day possibly have been a coincidence!…read entire story>>>
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Heavenly Father Had Guided Me Home
In Northern Ireland we were ever mindful of the great religious divide that imposed itself on our Country. I have always been drawn to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...read entire story >>
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A Longing For The Spirit
Eventually, in Elementary School, I started to want something to believe in. Isn’t it amazing that a 9 year old girl would suddenly want spiritual guidance by her own desire?…read entire story >>
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There Is No Wound He Cannot Heal
I was rebuilding my life as a recovering alcoholic. I had left everything and everyone I knew behind to build a better life. I was changing, from the inside out. I was seeing miracles of change and healing in my life. But something was still missing…read entire story _________________________________________________________

The Lord Had Lead Me To The Truth
Because of these and other theological flaws with the Catholic Church, I started my personal search for a church that reflected what I have found to be true through study of the Bible…read entire story >>
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All I Am Or Ever Hope To Be
The answer which came to me was both surprising, satisfying, and immediate. Continued personal prayer and reading the Book of Mormon then further opened the way for me to read the Bible with new understanding and appreciation…read entire story >>
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Faithfully Waiting to be Baptized
Almost eight months after my first lesson, I am still not baptized. I have to wait until my 18th birthday…read entire story>>>

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It Has Made All The Difference
In the end I am LDS because I chose to be, not because it is a family tradition or because I was forced to or because I was hoodwinked by agents of the church…read entire story>>>

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Life Is Full Of Challenges
Life is full of challenges but it is a lot better if we know where are we going…read entire story >>
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The Glue Which Keeps Me To My Faith
The glue that keeps me to my faith was a visit from a deceased non-LDS friend who used my nickname and said “Tangles, The Mormon Church is true…read entire story >>

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Listen To These Messengers
As I walked one day, two missionaries stop me and it felt as if a hand pressed firmly on my chest and a still small voice whispered, “Michael stop and listen…read entire story >>

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Our Trials And Difficulties Have Guided and Blessed Our Life
As a family we have had difficult experiences, but these experiences have strengthened our testimonies. The Lord has blessed us greatly, and He has used our trials and difficulties to guide and bless our lives. Of this there is no question…read entire story >>

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Donny Osmond fans share their conversion stories (links provided below as well)

The post First Person: Conversion Stories appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

(Don’t miss behind-the-scenes videos about the making of this exhibit, available here (simple sign-in is required)).

The post Sharing Our Voices: “Reflections of Christ” (Multimedia Presentation) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.