Testifying of the Restoration

(From a devotional address given at BYU on July 14, 1981, Using the Scriptures, Robert J. Matthews)

I feel a little today like something Elder Matthew Cowley said one time. He said when he was a young man getting ready to leave on a mission, his father went to the railroad station with him and said, in effect: 

"My boy, when you go out on that mission, you will stand before groups to speak, and you will think you are wonderfully prepared, but when you stand up your mind will go completely blank."

Brother Cowley said to his father, "What do you do when your mind goes blank?"

And his father said, "You stand up there, and, with all the fervor of your soul, you bear witness that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God, and thoughts will flood into your mind, and words to your mouth, to round out those thoughts in a facility of expression that will carry conviction to the heart of everyone who listens."

Brother Cowley, being a man with a great sense of humor, said,

And so my mind, being mostly blank during my five years in the mission field, gave me the opportunity to bear testimony to the greatest event in the history of the world since the crucifixion of the Master.

Try it sometime. . . . If you don't have anything else to say, testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and the whole history of the Church will flood into your mind. 

[Adapted from Matthew Cowley Speaks (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954), pp. 298–99]