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| Sister and President Barreto and me (Tom Hartley) At a chapel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
"President
Barreto-
1)
The
most spiritual experience I had while on the mission was in my first area as a
new missionary. I remember marking the
three parts in the Book of Mormon -- Introduction, Testimony of the Witnesses/Joseph
Smith, 3rd Nephi Chapter 11 -- for
people to read to know if what we taught was true and asking myself, “Can a
person really know The Book of Mormon is true by reading only these three
parts?”
I decided to do the same thing and re-do the
Book of Mormon promise [praying to God in faith and sincerity asking if the
Book of Mormon is true]. I also wanted a
greater certainty that I was preaching the truth to people so I could preach
from the heart and not because I was trained to bear testimony.
So,
one day when I woke up, I decided to do the Book of Mormon promise. I kneeled
in my bed and started to pray. I
remained there praying, asking and waiting for some answer -- but nothing came.
I prayed more, but nothing happened. I continued praying, but I couldn’t feel
anything special. After getting tired of
being on my knees for so long, I gave up.
I soon discovered I had prayed for one hour. Even though I did not
receive an answer to my prayer, I did not get discouraged. I thought God would
respond another day or by some other means.
The
next day, my companion Elder Robison and I decided to study together in the
morning regarding a woman [Camila] that had attended church for a long time but
would not get baptized. She was fulfilling all of the commitments the
missionaries asked of her, except she simply would not commit to be baptized. The
morning study time would be dedicated solely to her. My companion said we
should write down her questions and doubts on paper and also ideas we had to
help her. We would do all of this in the spirit of prayer, and also write the inspirations
we felt from the spirit of God on the paper as well. Ultimately, we were
seeking revelation from God on what to do for Camila.
We
did that, and I started to ponder about Camila. I happened to open to a
scripture in Moroni 7, and a particular verse caught my attention strongly. The
scripture reads “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall
have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” I began to ponder about
this, and I then happened to turn to 1 Nephi 11:1. This scripture stated Nephi
wanted to know the dream of his father and that he was caught away in the spirit.
At
that exact moment, the same thing happened to me. The spirit of God grew more
and more in my being, as if it were light expanding, as if I was “caught away
in the spirit” like Nephi. The spirit of God grew more and more until pure and
perfect knowledge was placed inside my heart and mind, testifying of Jesus
Christ. It was testified to me that Jesus is the Savior, our great King, that
he lives and that he is great. The spirit became so strong I began to cry.
During this time, I also felt that my body was in some form washed or changed.
I felt a physical change in my body. I felt new, clean, forgiven, etc.
It
was also testified to me by the spirit of God that all of the prophets are true,
that they really received revelations about Jesus Christ and His gospel (prophets
from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and modern-day prophets of the church). I received a revelation so powerful that I
felt overwhelmed and astonished, just like Joseph Smith described when he said
he could not sleep after being visited by the angel Moroni for the first time.
The
funny thing was my companion looked at me perplexed. He didn’t know why I was
crying, and asked me if everything was all right. Crying, I responded in the
affirmative and I testified to him what the Lord revealed to me. I found out
this was not a revelation to help with Camila, but rather it was for me
personally. I believe this was the answer to my prayer on the previous day.
That
day, when we went to proselytize, I could not focus on the work. My mind
reflected repeatedly on the information I received. I kept thinking about this
the entire day. I simply could not think about anything else except the
testimony I received.
Because
of this experience, I am absolutely certain that Christ lives, that His gospel
is true, that there is a resurrection, that the prophets are true, and that The
Book of Mormon really is another testament of Christ.
Since
that experience, everything changed for me. I know I received a testimony from
the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ. I can say like Peter from the Bible,
“Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.”
I
imagine if I deny what God revealed to me, I cannot receive forgiveness for
this at the last day. I never had a spiritual experience in my life, like this,
until now [the mission].
2)
Many
times in the mission field, while I was learning the Portuguese language, my
mind was illuminated by the spirit of God and my understanding increased. There
were times I could understand everything the people were saying or I could say
everything I wanted to say, but the next day this ability would disappear.
These
“roller coasters,” we’ll say, of learning the language, happened many times. However,
I know with certainty the Lord helped me learn a new language many times above
my natural ability. After seven months in the mission field, I learned to be
fluent in the language. When I say
fluent, I mean I could express myself how I wanted, and the people could
understand me as well. Besides this, I could understand everything the people
spoke to me so long as I was familiar with the words.
Even
today [as the letter was being written in 2005], I do not speak perfectly and I
still have an accent. In spite of this, the gift of tongues was a reality to
me. The spirit of God helped me learn Portuguese more quickly.
[Elder Thomas Spencer Hartley]"