My brothers and sisters, aloha.
Now, before I did YouTube videos, I was a criminal defense attorney. For 11 years, my job was to counsel and defend people accused of crimes. I loved my job.
I got to represent close to 2,000 people over the course of my career, and some of those people I will never forget.
I remember this one young man who was accused of robbing a car salesman and stealing a car. He was adamant that he was innocent. So, after very little investigation, I figured out exactly when the robbery had occurred, and at that time, my client had been in another state playing in a flag football tournament.
So, I interviewed the coach. I interviewed the players. I interviewed his teammates. I interviewed the spectators.
I compiled a list of 15 of the most reliable witnesses. I got their names, their contact information, and I took down their testimonies. Every one of them said the same thing that at the time of the offense, my client was in another state making sick plays, scoring touchdowns.
So, I took this information to the detective. I told them what they'd said. I told him my client was innocent. I gave him the contact information for all these witnesses and encouraged him to interview them himself. I gave him a week to do that.
After that week, I said, "All right, I'd like you to drop the charges." The detective says, "No, why would I drop the charges? You don't have any evidence."
A little surprising, but as much as that detective wanted to deny it, we did have evidence. We had a lot of evidence; we had many witnesses and a week later all those charges were gone.
Now, occasionally, I run into people who will say that there is no evidence that God lives. I have run into believers and non-believers who think that religion is purely a matter of faith.
And every time I hear this, I think of that detective, and I think of that case.
Brothers and sisters, the list of witnesses who can testify that God lives is a lot longer than the list of witnesses who saw my client scoring touchdowns.
We have the firsthand account of Saul the persecutor, who died a martyr for Jesus Christ after he saw the resurrected Lord appear on the road to Damascus. [1]
We have the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the Beloved who walked with Christ, saw many miracles, including the resurrection.
We have the letters of Peter, the Apostle, James the brother of Jesus and Jude.
We have the first-hand account of Joseph Smith, who saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ on top of many other miracles. [2]
We have the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, David Whitmer, who saw an angel holding the gold plates and heard the voice of the Lord. [3]
We have the testimony of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon: Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith. Eight men who inspected and held the gold plates that Joseph Smith had received from the angel Moroni. [4]
And since Joseph Smith's time, we've had 17 [Latter-day] prophets who have all borne their testimony and recorded it for us to read.
We currently have 85 men who are living right now who have been called as special witnesses of Christ. The First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the Quorum of the Seventy.
And all of that is on top of the countless Christians who have seen miracles, had their prayers answered, and are willing to testify that God lives.
When I was baptized, I made a promise that I would “stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places.” [5] So today, I would like to publicly add my name to the list of people who can testify that God lives.
I believe in God. I believe Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and I believe the scriptures are true.
But unfortunately, I was a criminal defense attorney for a little too long. I've cross-examined too many witnesses and witnesses are not supposed to testify to what they think or what they believe. Witnesses are supposed to testify to what they saw, what they heard, and what they did.
So, I would like to share with you just a few of the things that I personally witnessed that lead me to believe that God lives. Now, the stories I'm going to tell you are true, but I have ommitted or changed the names of some of the people involved to protect their privacy.
Like some of the people here today, I served a mission as you heard. I served in Fukuoka Japan and I spent many months in working with a congregation in the city of Kumamoto.
In that congregation, one of the jobs I had was to help organize and fix the membership directory. That ward's membership directory was a bit of a hot mess. Back then, we didn't have websites and apps. We had literal pieces of paper with 10 years of handwritten notes scribbled over the top of it.
That ward’s list was such a mess. Of the 540-something names on that list, many of the phone numbers were missing, the addresses were incorrect, or members were just plain missing.
So, my companion and I decided that we were going to go through all 540-something names, one by one, contact them, update their information so that the local leadership could better minister to their congregation.
We worked really hard on this.
After three months, we had managed to fix and contact all but 15 of the people on that list. I was proud of that. I was ready to move on to do other missionary tasks.
But then something miraculous happened. I was getting up ready to start the day and I heard a voice. I heard a voice as clear and as tangible as my voice is right now.
It said: "Go to the city of Ozu, go to the city hall building, and ask for Yamada Taro."
And I immediately recognized that name Yamada Taro as one of the 15 names we had tried and failed to find.
So, I grabbed my companion. I said, "Change of plans, we're going to Ozu today!" We bought two train tickets. We went to Ozu. We walked to the city hall building—big government building, multi-story building. Go inside and we're like, "Now what?”
I don't know who to ask or where I'm supposed to go. I'm wandering around the hall and I feel this vague, vague impression that maybe I should try this one door on the second floor.
So, I open up the door and it's a large room with several cubicles and a long counter. There's a woman standing behind the counter.
She looks at me and goes, "Can I help you?"
I said, "Well, I'm looking for a friend of mine."
She goes, "Well, that's not really what we do here, but maybe I can help. What's your friend's address?"
I'm like, "I don't know."
She goes, "What's your friend's phone number?"
I said, "I don't know."
She goes, "What's your friend's name?"
I said, "Yamada Taro."
She goes, "Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood."
And she turns around to the cubicle behind her and says: "Yamada-san, your friends are here."
And a man stands up in the cubicle, and he looks at us and sees our name badges and his eyes get big.
We sit down with Brother Yamada and he tells us his story. He had been baptized as a teenager and then lost contact with the Church when he'd gone off to college, and he said he hadn't seen another member of the Church in 20 years. He gave us his new phone number and his address. He agreed to have the bishop meet with him and to receive home teachers: and after 20 years, Brother Yamada was not lost anymore.
That is a miracle.
Shortly thereafter, the Lord performed several more miracles to help us find two more members from that list.
These two members lived in the furthest reaches of that ward's geographic boundaries. We had tried to contact them without luck. We didn't have a phone number and their address simply said, “the City of Takamori.”
Now, to give you some context, the congregational boundaries we were serving in were about the size of the Island of Oahu and the city of Takamori is about the same size as Laie, where we are today.
And so, my companion and I decided that we were going to get on our bikes, and we were going to ride the 27 miles over the mountains to the city of Takamori, and we were going to go find those two people. We didn't know what we were going to do when we got there or how we were going to find them, but we tried everything else.
So, we get on our bikes, and several hours into the journey, we are skirting the foot of the volcano, Mt. Aso, when my companion's bicycle chain snaps in two.
We’re stranded in the middle of a farmer's field. So, we come up with a plan. We're going to push our bikes to the next town over where some members live, knock on their door, and ask for help. And we do this. We get all the way there. The wife answers the door. She looks at us [and says], “I can't help you right now” and shuts the door on us. Well, that didn't work.
We're pretty discouraged and I go about a block or two away and I get down on my knees on the side of the road, and I say a prayer.
I say, "God, I know you want us to find these people and I know you can do all things, but we can't do this without a bicycle. Where can I go to find a bicycle?"
And the Spirit came to me and said, "Go to the city hall building and ask for a bicycle." I opened my eyes and a block away was a city hall building. I went in the front door and there was a woman at the front desk and she's trying to figure out why this big, tall, white guy is asking her for a bicycle.
This old farmer walks through the lobby and says, "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I heard you say you needed a bicycle. I got a bike you can have. Follow me."
And so, I follow him across the road, and he opens up his garage and there's a brand-new bicycle with nothing wrong with it. He goes, "I was going to throw it away, but I missed trash day. You can have it." He goes, "Oh, and I'll take your old bike and throw it away for you." It fits my companion like a glove.
So, we thank him profusely, and we praise the Lord, and we get on our bikes, and we keep going to Takamori.
Shortly thereafter, we arrive at the outskirts of Takamori and we're like, "Now what?" So, I get down on my knees right there on the side of the highway and I say another prayer. I say, "God, I know you want us to find these people. We've done everything, we know how to do, and it's not enough. We cannot find them without your help. Where do we go? What do we do to find these people?"
And the Spirit came to me and said, "Go to the police station and ask for help." I opened my eyes and across the highway was a police station. So, I go inside and I don't know who to talk to, where I'm supposed to go. So, I wander around a bit and end up in a random line of people waiting to talk to a cop.
I wait my turn and I get up to the counter. I go to the officer, "Hey, I'm looking for a friend. Can you help me?" He goes, "That's not my job. Get lost." He kind of kicks me to the side of the line and I'm shocked.
I was really expecting like a member to be behind the counter or something after the last experience. Instead, I'm standing there awkwardly with my companion and kind of embarrassed because he made a bit of a scene about it and we're like, “What do we do next?”
And I feel a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around and the man who had been behind me in line says, "Hey, I heard what the officer said. Maybe I can help you."
And I said, "Well, I'm looking for a friend from Church, and I don't know her phone number, and I don't know her address." I tell him her name, and she goes, he goes, "I know her!" He pulls out his cell phone, calls her up on the phone and says, "Hey, there's these missionaries looking for you." So, he hands me the phone. She gives me her phone number, her address, and agrees to drive to the police station and come meet us. I hung up that phone.
I look at the guy and I go, "Let's go two for two." Go, "Do you know this other guy?" And he goes, "I think I do." He calls the guy who knows the guy. And a few minutes later, he got him on the phone, and he hands it to me, and I get his address and his phone number.
Both of them agreed to reconnect with the Church. Both of them had not seen members in many years.
Brothers and sisters, there are many things about the gospel I do not understand and sometimes I have doubts and concerns like anybody else. But I heard a miraculous voice, and that voice led me to find three people who needed to reconnect with the Church. I cannot deny that and I cannot explain it away.
No amount of hallucinations can teach me things I do not know; no delusions or wishful thinking can help me find a man that's been missing for 20 years—and do it three times in a row. I may not understand everything about the gospel, but I understand that God lives and God is a God of miracles.
Now, I'd also like to testify to you that I believe Jesus is my personal Savior and I believe that He loves each of us and that no matter how far we fall, we can never fall beyond the reach of Christ's love and Atonement.
I would like to tell you about the first time, I met a murderer.
I was a young attorney, working late one night, and I get a call from a family of a man who's been arrested for murder and multiple car jackings. There was no denial. There was no doubt as to his guilt; he had shot a man while robbing him of his drugs and then carjacked multiple innocent bystanders in an attempt to escape.
I agreed to meet him that night and I left my office and walked to the county jail—big, dark, austere building. I get buzzed into the elevator, and down into the basement, and the guards buzzed me through multiple solid steel doors, and down a long hallway to a small concrete room the size of utility closet. The whole way, I'm wrestling with the fact that I'm about to meet a man who has murdered another human being.
When that door opens, I see a man in a jumpsuit, with chains around his wrists and his waist. I am struck by the immediate and powerful assurance, that Jesus loves this man.
I felt it stronger than I had ever felt it before or since. While this man had committed horrible sins, I knew God loved him. More than that, I knew God cared about what happened to him and about his life, even though he was going to spend many years locked in a concrete box.
Over the course of my career, I felt the hand of the Lord strengthening and guiding me as I helped His children deal with the consequences of their sins. While this experience was powerful, it was not unique.
I remember feeling God's love for a convicted child abuser as he sobbed uncontrollably in my office. I remember feeling God's love for a homeless woman who tried to kill herself after robbing and vandalizing a home. I remember feeling God's love for a young man who robbed stores and sold his body to strangers to pay for his drugs.
None of these people were worthless. None of them were beyond the Atonement of Christ. If you think your sins are too vile or your mistakes too great for God to love or forgive you, then you do not understand God.
God has seen every rape, He has seen every murder, He has witnessed every atrocity performed against His children. He still sent his son, Jesus Christ to save the wicked.
God is not naive. God is not ignorant. God understood the full breadth and depth of human wickedness when He promised, "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." [6]
And we can read His promise in Isaiah 1:18, where He says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." [7]
I believe Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and I believe that He loves each of us because I have felt that love.
I would also like to testify to you that I believe the scriptures are true.
My testimony did not begin with the experiences I have shared with you today. I was born to a good family with good parents who taught me the gospel.
But there comes a time in every young man's life when he questions his parents when he realizes they are not infallible.
And though they had loved me and borne their testimony to me many times, I didn't know whether I should believe that testimony. And I needed to know for myself whether the things they taught me were true.
But thankfully, I'd been taught about Moroni’s promise in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. A promise from God that says that any of us can know for ourselves that the Book of Mormon is true if we pray with a sincere heart and real intent.
It says, quote, "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father in the name of Christ if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." [8]
So, I tested this promise for myself. I got down on my knees each night and I prayed to God and I asked, "Are you there? Are the things my parents teaching me real?"
And I prayed and I prayed; night after night.
And at first, my motivations were an idle curiosity. But eventually, that curiosity evolved into a burning desire. And I knew that I would commit my life to whatever answer I received.
And then, and only then, once my motivations were sincere, my intentions real, God answered my prayers.
He answered them exactly as the Book of Mormon promised He would answer them. He answered my prayers exactly as my parents promised me, He would answer them. When I got up off my knees, I knew God lived and I knew the scriptures were true.
And now, I read the scriptures to my sons, and I teach them to pray for themselves to know whether these things are true and now, I tell you to do the same.
Anyone who wants to know if God lives, and whether the scriptures are true, can pray for themselves with sincere hearts, and know for themselves that those things are true. And then, you too, will be a witness to the truth.
Brothers and sisters, the evidence exists. God lives, Jesus is our Savior and the scriptures are true. The witnesses are many and each of us can know for ourselves that those witnesses are true.
This is my witness and my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Acts 9:3-6
[2] Joseph Smith—History 1:16-17
[3] “The Testimony of Three Witnesses,” Book of Mormon
[4] “The Testimony of Eight Witnesses,” Book of Mormon
[5] Mosiah 18:9
[6] Doctrine and Covenants 58:42
[7] Isaiah 1:18
[8] Moroni 10:4-5