YOUTH MAGAZINE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS | APRIL 2020 NewTHE Era The First Vision: YOU The COMMEMORATING CAN DO RESURRECTION and the and LEARNING THIS BOOK OF MORMON p. 2, 8, 20, 44 p. 12 p. 36 CONTENTS 34 6 12 The First Presidency: © 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, Henry B. Eyring reserved. The New Era (ISSN 0164-5285) is published monthly by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: 50 E. North Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT 84150-0024, M. Russell Ballard, Jeffrey R. Holland, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, USA. Periodicals Postage Paid at Salt Lake City, Utah. David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Andersen, Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, To subscribe: YOUTH MAGAZINE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS | APRIL 2020 Dale G. Renlund, Gerrit W. 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THE MONTHLY YOUTH MAGAZINE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS April 2020 • Volume 50 • Number 4 8 2 24 16 30 FEATURES ALSO INSIDE . 2 Strengthen Your Faith through 16 The Interfaith Experience 23 FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH the First Vision Youth in California, USA, on an interfaith I would like to share five principles I have council share what they’ve learned. 39 POSTER learned from my spiritual understanding 40 CONNECT of the First Vision. 20 3 Things the First Vision Teaches Elder Neil L. Andersen Us about Repentance 42 FUN STOP Three lessons from the Sacred Grove. 6 A Taxi, a Schoolboy, and 44 Q&A an Answer to Prayer 24 We Want to Serve! Missionaries in Ghana got some unusual When one stake’s youth planned their 46 FIRM FOUNDATIONS help while trying to find someone who youth conference, they chose service. was referred to them. 48 LAST WORD 30 Gaining My Faith One Step 8 Pillar of Light at a Time Sheet music for a new song about Gaining a testimony takes time. Often it the First Vision. takes small experiences coming together. Elder Edward Dube 12 You Can Do This Involve the Lord in your goal setting, 34 The Plates within the Plates and He will help you learn what He Learn about the plates that made up the wants you to become. gold plates. President Dallin H. Oaks COVER STORY 36 The Book of Mormon: A Witness 15 #HearHim of the Resurrection The prophet invites you to ponder, improve, See how the Book of Mormon teaches and and share how you hear the Savior. testifies of the Savior’s victory over death. April 2020 1 By Elder Neil L. Andersen Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH THROUGH THE FIRST VISION WHEN I WAS 16 YEARS OLD, I traveled from my home in believed what I believed. As I told of the appearance of Idaho to a conference on the East Coast of the United the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove, suddenly States, attended by young men and young women from everyone fell silent. A piercing feeling of holiness entered all 50 states and nearly 40 nations. Before then, I had the room, and an enormous feeling of spiritual power rarely been in a situation where my beliefs and convic- rested upon me and my words. tions set me apart. Afterward, several students thanked me for my strong One evening in an informal group setting, a discussion convictions. Some even asked for more information arose about some of the beliefs and practices of The about the Church. As I returned to my room that night, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A large group I realized that the person this experience had the great- of students suddenly turned their attention to me and est impact on was me. I had felt for myself the power of started asking questions, some of which were critical of bearing testimony of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and our beliefs. the First Vision. That caught me off guard. But after I had reflected for Since that experience more than 50 years ago, I have a moment, I began sharing some basic gospel principles. testified hundreds of times of the Father, the Son, and I explained that we have a Heavenly Father, that we are the Prophet Joseph Smith. In these experiences, I have His sons and daughters, and that we are on earth to constantly felt the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost. develop faith in Jesus Christ and to prove ourselves by I would like to share five principles I have learned from choosing good over evil. my spiritual understanding of the First Vision. These prin- Sharing these principles led me to Joseph Smith’s tes- ciples have strengthened my faith in and my desire to timony. The other students had not asked about Joseph follow our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. I hope Smith, but I found myself going to the origins of why I they strengthen you too. MALAN DAVID BY ILLUSTRATION 2 New Era O A R S F E LI Y G 0 H 0 T 2 1820–2020 I pray that you will follow Joseph’s pattern of prayer, learn the truths he learned, and strengthen your faith in your Heavenly Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ. April 2020 3 FROM THE FIRST VISION, WE LEARN THAT THESE CELESTIAL BEINGS KNOW US PERSONALLY, JUST AS THEY KNEW JOSEPH. ILLUSTRATION BY KENDAL RAY JOHNSON RAY KENDAL BY ILLUSTRATION 1. The Father, the Son, and the resurrected beings, unique from each power who created the world and its Holy Ghost Are Distinct Beings other. Later, Joseph learned that “the inhabitants and then forgot about them. For centuries, religious scholars and Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and In reality, each of us is “a beloved daugh- philosophers had debated the nature bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were ter [or son] of heavenly parents.” 1 of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell The proclamation on the family Holy Ghost. Many believed They were in us” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). states: “All human beings—male and one being. Because of Joseph’s experi- female—are created in the image of ence in the Sacred Grove 200 years ago, 2. We Are Sons and Daughters God. Each is a beloved spirit son or we know the absolute truth about the of God daughter of heavenly parents, and, as nature of God. Through the First Vision and other such, each has a divine nature and des- First of all, He lives! Second, the Father experiences, the Prophet Joseph Smith tiny.” 2 Our Father has clearly declared and the Son are two separate, glorious, learned that God is not some distant that destiny: “This is my work and my 4 New Era glory—to bring to pass the immortality Heavenly Father in prayer to receive our always receive an immediate answer, but and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).