Editor’s Note: For those of you with young adult children and grandchildren, it’s worth noting that the Church has a digital publication for young adults called YA Weekly. It is available online and in the Gospel Library. Below is an excerpt from a recent article from the publication. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

Thank you to LDS365 for bringing this to our attention.

I’ll never forget a lesson I had with a young woman on my mission.

She kept asking for physical or tangible evidence that the Book of Mormon was true. And I sat there, unsure of how to respond to her questions and accusations. I was a young, bright-eyed missionary, and all I knew was that the Book of Mormon was true. I felt discouraged because I didn’t know all the answers to her questions. But I realized, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had physical evidence to prove the Book of Mormon was true. Proof wouldn’t give her faith.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “Faith will not come from the study of ancient texts as a purely academic pursuit. It will not come from archaeological digs and discoveries. It will not come from scientific experiments. It will not even come from witnessing miracles. These things may serve to confirm faith, or at times to challenge it, but they do not create faith.”1

How easy would it be if we could show the gold plates to the whole world? Some people would definitely join the Church, but others may not, because physical evidence isn’t all that’s required to build faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. After all, as Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

So, What Is Faith?

Faith isn’t just belief—it’s a principle of action. “Faith in Christ leads to action. It leads to sincere and lasting change.”2 And while the world says that faith is following blindly, I’ve come to understand that faith is trusting that God will give me confirmations of truth when I act.

“Having faith in Jesus Christ means relying completely on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. It includes believing His teachings. It means believing that even though you do not understand all things, He does.”

To read the full article, CLICK HERE.