Picture-Book Testimony

By Maly Souvanthong

A child’s book and a child’s question showed me the depth of my own belief in Christ.

As a young girl growing up in a Buddhist family in Laos, I had never even heard of Christ and Christianity. But with the upheaval in our country, our family had to leave our homeland, and we ended up in America. Here I met the LDS missionaries and was taught about Jesus Christ and his true church. I was baptized in June 1989.

On Sunday, 26 November 1990, I was on the bus, on my way home from our Asian branch in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. I sat by an eleven-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother. I had seen them at our branch, but I didn’t know their names. I did know they were not members of the Church yet.

In her hands, the girl was holding a children’s book of Bible stories. She was flipping through the pages, looking at the wonderful pictures. “Look!” she said with surprise, pointing to a picture of Jesus kneeling by a rock, praying, with a look of deep pain on his face.

Turning to me, she asked, “Why does Jesus look like that?”

“Because he is suffering for the sins of the people. He is full of pain.”

Again she asked, “Why?”

So I said, “Here, do you want me to read to you?”

I started from where Jesus was kneeling and praying. And as I read, I explained the stories to them. I knew the children were understanding the stories, because when they saw Jesus nailed to the cross, they were sorry for him. And when they saw he was resurrected, they were happy.

I explained the entire story to them from the book and in my own words. And when I asked them questions, they both kept raising their hands as fast as they could.

Finally, the little girl looked up at me and asked, “Is it true?”

I looked down at her and said, “Yes, yes, it’s true.”

As I nodded my head, I knew myself that it was solid truth. I realized right then and there that I did have a strong testimony of Christ. I bore my testimony of the things that I knew in my heart were true. I know the Spirit was with me. I felt it. I felt the sensation of it—the warmth, the peace, the love.

From then on, I wanted to tell the whole world about Jesus Christ. I wanted everyone to feel that happiness, too.

Photograph by Craig Dimond