Faith stronger than sight

A couple of weeks ago some English missionaries found someone deaf for us and set us an appointment for last Thursday. We've visited this man twice now, and though he is very willing to receive us, receiving our message is something else entirely. He is a firm Jehovah's Witness and was involved in proselyting himself when he was much younger, so he knows his stuff and how to teach it well. Especially since he has controlled the conversation most of the time. It's hard for us to invite the Spirit and teach true doctrine when your investigator brushes aside spiritual references and won't accept either our prayers or a Book of Mormon. His focus is on proving things through the Bible, and since most of our message can't be done in that way, he won't listen.

I've been pondering a lot about the seemingly conflicting concepts of faith and sight. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma teaches concerning "faith -- that it is not a perfect knowledge" (Alma 32:26). Throughout the ages, people have relied on faith because so much of either God or the world was unexplainable. In these days, it is more difficult because science and theology have supposed explanations for just about everything, so when one states that he knows something is true without physical evidence or explanation, he is often rejected and mocked by society at large. I know my testimony has been rejected several times because I attributed it to a feeling from the Holy Ghost and not from clear evidences found in the scriptures.

Sometimes even to me I wonder if everything I have grown up in is correct, even when other faiths and other people seem to have the perfectly-crafted answers that oppose it. However, I have come to realize that my faith in Christ and in His church comes from something that nothing on earth could give me. I have felt the power of God in my life and ministry, and things have occurred in my life that some may call a beneficial coincidence, but when I can recall literally hundreds of these said "coincidences" that all focus back to the same general theme, and that thousands and even millions of others can do the same, that makes this "coincidence" nigh unto impossible to occur. And yet it has occurred -- God has His hand in all things, and He has not turned away from mankind! I know those miracles in my life to have come from Him, and I know the info I know to be true through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I cannot deny that it is all inspired of God, and know that my faith is stronger than whatever proof the world supposedly has.

Love you all,

Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language