Matt

I did not land here by accident or inheritance. I have spent real time looking hard at Christianity, scripture, authority, history, and the claims people make about God. The more seriously I looked, the more convinced I became that Jesus Christ lives, that His gospel has been restored, and that truth is worth defending plainly. This account is for that. Real faith for real life. Clarity over fog. Conviction without performance. If you want Christ first, honest belief, and a voice that will not bend every time the world gets loud, you’re in the right place.

I still remember how fast everything shifted when it happened at my school. The threat was considered credible, and within minutes we weren’t just “dismissed” we were moved, rushed, pushed as far away from the building as possible. No real explanations, just urgency. Phones were blowing up. Some people crying, some trying to act like it was nothing, but you could feel it in the air. That kind of fear doesn’t hide well. We ended up scattered, waiting for parents to come find us. Parking lots, nearby streets, anywhere that felt even a little safer than where we had just been. It was chaotic and disorienting. Even now, I can still feel it in my chest when I think about it. That tight, heavy feeling. It stays with you. That’s why posts like this hit so hard. No parent or kid should have to carry that kind of fear, even for a moment.

@MattTestifies It just makes my heart feel so heavy. Even if there's no credibility to the threat, the fact that this is ever even a concern is so disheartening.

Just got a text that no parent wants to receive, that the teenager's school is on lockdown and there are swarms of police with rifles out sweeping the building, news helicopters circling overhead. Currently praying for everyone's safety, and for some divine peace because this mama is trying very hard to stay calm but it's really really hard.

@VernShy That’s powerful. For me, the Restoration makes Christ feel active, near, and still reaching for His children.

@MattTestifies The true power of the priesthood of Jesus Christ is what converted me.

Joseph Smith didn’t give me faith in Christ. He helped me understand how much Christ was still doing.

@riecker What a beautiful way to keep his light close. Praying your family continues to feel heaven near in all the small, tender ways it shows up. 💜

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for my family since we unexpectedly lost our son Joshua. I’ve had multiple people message me privately, email me, or comment on my content saying they believe Joshua has interceded for them. These have been a great consolation to me and my family and we cherish every one of them. If you have a story, great or small, about how Joshua interceded for you please comment it here. My family and I would love to read them. They are a great source of hope for us 🙏 God bless you!

@UchtdorfDF That image of scaffolding really works for me. Some seasons feel awkward and unfinished, but the Lord may still be reinforcing something sacred.

The scaffolding on the Salt Lake Temple helped restore the temple to its original beauty with more strength. It was there to help protect the House of the Lord—evidence of love and care for something sacred.   In our lives, the Lord offers scaffolding as well. Parents, good friends, teachers, leaders, commandments, covenants, and even seasons of correction and stretching—they are there to help us gain better access to the light and life that will bring us back to our heavenly home and safely reach our eternal destination.   We rejoice in Jesus Christ because He is the master builder. His grace is sufficient to refine, restore, repair, rebuild and bless your life now and forever.

@EyringHB @Ch_JesusChrist That temple peace is real. It doesn’t remove every storm, but it gives my heart somewhere steady to stand while the storm keeps moving.

When we obey what we are taught in the temple with all our hearts, it makes possible our receiving the gift of peace.    During the Lindon Utah Temple dedication today, I shared that in the temples of God, we are taught the simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ: The Plan of Salvation, our relationship to the loving God who created us, and our divine potential to be with the Savior again, to live in glory and peace forever.     Each time you return to the temple you will, by the Spirit, learn more of Him and of His Father. The peace He promises us can come, even as the storms of life beat upon us.   Those feelings of peace can go with us in our busy lives, if we are faithful to the covenants we make here. Trials, challenges, and heartaches will surely come to all of us. None of us are immune from “thorns of the flesh.” Yet, as we attend the temple and remember our covenants, we will feel peace from the Lord.

@StevensonGaryE I love that Christ is the center of every one of these. Faith, covenants, repentance, prayer, truth, ordinances, all of it points back to Him.

I invite you to take a screenshot of this word cloud and additional graphics summarizing our discussion during the worldwide devotional for young adults. These principles of the gospel, alongside practical applications of gospel living, demonstrate that Jesus Christ and His Atonement live at the center of our effort to deepen conversion. Please reserve some quiet time within the next week to prayerfully consider these precepts with others that will come to your mind, that will lead to deepening your conversion and lifelong discipleship to Jesus Christ.

@thebookofmormon The scriptures keep pulling me back to what is simple and saving. I can overthink almost anything, but the answer is still to look to Christ and live.

The account of Moses raising up the brass serpent appears three different times in the Book of Mormon, teaching us even when we hear it thousands of years later. How does turning to the scriptures give you perspective for modern life? #TheBookOfMormon #ComeFollowMe

@jmbrim3 @PeacemakingSt @BlackBlessedLDS @j_divis @EricCMeadows Thank you, Jordan! 💜

@PeacemakingSt @BlackBlessedLDS @j_divis is the best I know at uplifting others and helping saints to feel the Saviors love here. @MattTestifies is one of the boldest testifiers and approaches the gospel with both intelligence and empathy. @EricCMeadows is the definition of joy. Always seeking to spread it!

For those looking to learn about our faith and engage with the LDS community, who are the top Latter-day Saints to follow on X?

@DownardN That has been my experience too. The deeper I read it, the harder it is to see it as merely words on a page. It carries witness.

@MattTestifies The spirit confirms to me it speaks the truth

The Book of Mormon is the most important book in the history of our lives. Why? Because it teaches us who Jesus Christ really is and what He actually did for us. Because it answers the questions we carry but don’t always say out loud. Why we’re here. Why life hurts. Where we’re going. Because it restores truths that were lost over time and brings clarity back to God’s plan. Because it invites action, not just belief. It doesn’t sit on a shelf. It asks something of you. Because it was preserved and brought forth at a cost so we could have the word of God today Because it changes people. Not theoretically. Actually. And if it’s true, it changes everything.

Looking for peace in this life and confidence in what’s to come? Spend some time with the Book of Mormon.

@beetle67a I can’t talk with the uneducated, I hope you’ll understand. 👋🏻

@MattTestifies It's all I need.

They act like finding out Mormons worship Jesus Christ is offensive to how they worship.

Despite the shocking number of similarities the two groups have, Roman Catholics are actually Christians and Mormons are not.

@beetle67a Oh, come on. That’s really the best you have? 😂

@MattTestifies Oh, come on. CES Letter.

I don’t see it as the Father hurting an unwilling innocent Son. I see it as Christ willingly entering the full weight of mortality to rescue us from what we could never heal ourselves. Forgiveness is not God needing blood. It is God coming down into our suffering, sin, death, and separation, then breaking it open from the inside.

I’ll bite. Sure. Let’s grant that. Why is God incapable of doing something a human can do? Why does God need the blood of an innocent person to forgive His own children? When a child steals from a store, no parent that I know of would require the child to give the candy back, say they’re sorry, and then hurt the child’s innocent brother in order to forgive them. So, why, in all of Gods goodness, does He need to not only us to suffer in terms of consequences, guilt, and shame, but also makes His own Son suffer? No human parent would do such an evil deed. Why is God allowed to be so evil?

As the doorway to agency, growth, redemption, and Christ.

@ThomBradley8 I think that distinction is important. God preserved agency, allowed the Fall, and already had Christ at the center of the rescue. That makes the plan feel even more merciful to me.

@MattTestifies That is true he did plan for the fall however that doesn't mean that he willed it to happen. Adam and Eve had a choice to obey or to disobey. Unfortunately they chose to disobey in the world has been a fouled up mess since. They still had free choice. God still had a plan.

@Caliazor I agree. That’s probably the cleaner way to say it. God planned for agency, mortality, and redemption through Christ. The Fall became part of that plan without making God the author of sin.

@MattTestifies Planned for and wanted are two different things.