"Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me"[Alma 5:46]
Our personal testimonies of the truthfulness of the scriptures and the Spirit can be only gained through our own works, not by anyone else. We can't have anyone else work on gaining our testimonies, we should ourselves for our good. As Alma did, he fasted and prayed so he could know and realize whether what we heard and saw were true or not. He did this of himself and he succeeded finding out they are true. Sometimes in our lives, living in the gospel somehow we are still uncertain of answers of certain principles and doctrines that affect our daily living experiences. I gain a testimony that fasting and prayers will truly guide us to the revealing truth together with the help of the Holy Spirit.
As a student, there are unexpected times of stress and struggles which really leave me behind with questions and uncertain answers. Somehow, the more I become unaware of what to do, the more dangerous my decisions could become. I'm forever grateful that my Heavenly Father wants me to be happy and to live in a peaceful life, knowing that these trials and struggles help me to become a better and a stronger person. I often stop and ponder of His blessings which often leads me to say a silent prayer. For this I know that if we come to our Lord with humility and devotion in our hearts, He will show us our weaknesses and ask us to be humble. As I strive following His ways, I realize that His endless and sincere love for us is true.

"And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighted in the scriptures, and my heart pondered them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children.

16 Behold, my ^asoul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my ^bheart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard". [2 Nephi 4:15-16]
This scripture truly reminds me that our Heavenly Father will not leave His children alone by having His ancient prophets make sure they had these writings and teachings ready for the benefits of the future dispensation. This also gives an insight of how vital writing journals is as we grow up. For this I personally realize that our experience in these days and what we learn from times of hardships and difficulties can help our future generations learn and be taught of the truthfulness of the gospel. We can help accomplish this by writing and recalling our insights through journals and dairies as possible as we can.

Learn to teach by study and by faith

"For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot" [1 Nephi 11:1]. This is really an uplifting scriptural verse for I have a gained a testimony knowing that our knowledge of God's secret miracles and blessings for us His children starts with a sincere desire in our hearts. If we don't have this sincere devoted desire and longing to search and ponder, we can't obtain anything for we pretend or even work on our own knowledge without His help. It's even more interesting to realize that our Father in Heaven helps us know the truth by sending His Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and minds. As what happened to Nephi, I have a testimony that our kind Father in Heaven can do the same for all of us.

Repentance - A cleansing process

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10) These verse got my attention as I studies the assigned reading. It's really easy to understand if we truly love and trust ourselves. I mean, we might think we're deceiving others, including our Father in Heaven by acting out as hypocrites, pretending nothing is wrong, but we're actually deceiving ourselves at the same time. It reminds me of a saying, "we should learn to love ourselves first before we love any other" This means, it takes everything about yourself to pursue a goal and a righteous decision. No matter what others say, maybe pointing fingers and judging with their own self-righteous verdicts, we should remember we're doing the best for ourselves, by repenting and get reborn again. This also pours more blessings and it should be a main target while we start the process, knowing that our Father in Heaven is aware of everything, especially the sincere desires of our hearts, whether we're truly willing to repent or not.

Companionship of the Holy Ghost

"For behold, the spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God" - Moroni 7:16
What a blessing to receive such gift! Sometimes, we might say living in the gospel is hard and complicated but when I read this verse, I know that it would be the other way around. Instead, not living in the gospel will be harder and more complicated than we thought. I also think that according to this verse, it shouldn't be an excuse for us while we stand in front of our Heavenly Father on the judgment day, for doing wrong and committing sins, because we were given the privilege to receive the spirit of Christ, which should be the center of all choices. We are not expected to be perfect, and even if we're not, our desires of our hearts, whether we wanted to do good or evil, can be seen by God. I and you should be careful and we should be thankful we have such endless gift, to choose and do right from evil :)