Being a Witness for God

Did you know that when Elder Henry B. Eyring was growing up, his branch held Church meetings in a hotel? Later the meetings were held in his house. He and his brothers were the only members of the Church in their schools. During this time, he learned about standing as a witness for God. He teaches us about being a witness.

Every member has made the covenant in the waters of baptism to be a witness for God. Every member has made a covenant to do works of kindness as the Savior would do.

The power of that covenant to love and to witness should transform [change for the better] what members do across the world.

Thousands of times every day members of the Church are watched by people curious to know something about our lives. Because we are under covenant to be a witness, we will try to tell them how the gospel has brought us happiness. What they think of what we say may depend largely on how much they sense we care for them.

I can make two promises to those who offer the gospel to others. The first is that even those who reject it will someday thank us. More than once I have asked missionaries to visit friends far from where I lived, learned that the missionaries had been rejected, and then received a letter from my friend with words like this: “I was honored that you would offer to me something that I knew meant so much to you.” My second promise is that as you offer the gospel to others it will go down more deeply into your own heart. It becomes the well of water springing up into eternal life for us as we offer it to others.

Each of us who has made covenants with God faces challenges unique to us. But each of us shares some common assurances [promises]. Our Heavenly Father knows us and our circumstances and even what faces us in the future. His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, has suffered and paid for our sins and those of all the people we will ever meet.