I grew up Catholic, but I stopped practicing Catholicism after I graduated from grade school. I was actually ignorant of Catholic teachings during my eight years of grade school, as I always thought that they knew that God was three separate and distinct beings.
But when I was in the eighth grade, I heard a Catholic priest talk about God being only one who chose whether or not to manifest himself as the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost. The priest claimed that God was not three separate and distinct beings who all exist simultaneously and separately. I told him that his position directly contradicts what took place when the Savior was baptized and the Father spoke from Heaven while the Holy Ghost descended in the form of a dove, and he got angry. It was then that I knew that Catholicism was not the truth.
In 1980 I confessed my sins to God and, knowing that my sins had been forgiven, considered myself a “Born Again Christian.”
I started trying to find a church to join in October 1997. It would be nine months before I would meet with success. I did, however, discover for myself that an apostasy had taken place and that the churches had “fallen away” from the true gospel.
I first had quite a negative experience with a certain church in November and December of 1997. After attending several of their meetings and hearing them talk about Jesus Christ, I found out that they did not believe in repentance. Even when I told a group of them that forgiveness of sins comes by confessing to God that you are a sinner, they still did not have a clue as to what I was talking about.
In January 1998, I saw ad on television for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that said they would send a free copy of the King James Bible. Since I took my Bible with me when I went on the bus, I thought it would be a good idea to have a second one in case I lost it. I called the 800 number and ordered it, but I moved in February and never received it.
I continued to search for the right church, always praying to our Father in the name of Jesus Christ that He would give me guidance. With each church that I tried, the Spirit would tell me to keep looking.
By the second week of June 1998, I was getting somewhat desperate. I began fasting and praying to find the right church. I would go without eating every Tuesday and Saturday from midnight to midnight.
Around the second week of July 1998, the Spirit told me to call that 800 number. I didn’t have the 800 number and I got rid of my television when I moved. I looked in the phone book, called the Church’s Washington Temple, and asked for the 800 number. After I called it, they said it might take about 4 weeks to get to me. Well I didn’t want to wait, and I thought I would just go to the Temple and pick one up. (I didn’t know at the time that you couldn’t do that.)
I checked the bus schedules and found out which bus I needed to take to get there. I went about my business of trying to expose corruption in the government and found that I needed to take the very bus that would take me to the Temple. I was actually going to drop off some information with someone when I got on the bus.
As the bus traveled down the street, I could see the huge trees far off up ahead looking nice and sculpted. I could see something barely sticking up over one of the trees. (It was the very top of the angel Moroni!) It grabbed my attention and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I had to know what was there. Of course, as the bus got closer, it wasn’t getting any easier for me to see.
The bus continued down Stoneybrook Drive and as it went around the turn I tried to look to see what was there but I couldn’t see anything through the heavy foliage. Then the bus passed the signs for the Temple and the Visitors Center and I thought to myself, “That’s where it is! I just have to get off at that bus stop.”
I continued on to where I was going that day, and the next day I went and got on that same bus and got off at the Temple. As I walked across the parking lot, I prayed, “Father, in the name of Jesus I pray that I will know if this is the truth.”
I went into the Temple Visitors Center and told Elder Rich, who was serving a senior mission, about not wanting to wait for a Bible. He said, “No problem. I’ll have the missionaries over there next week.”
He said to me, “Now, you are going to have to ask God if this is true. I immediately started thinking I was in the right place because I had just done that.
I watched a movie about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ visiting Joseph Smith, and I took home a pamphlet entitled “Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
Elder Kevin Mills handed me the Book of Mormon on Tuesday, July 21, 1998. I didn’t know anything about the missionary “discussions” at that time and after we chatted for a bit, I said, “Well, I have to get started reading.”
Elder Mills said, “Oh! You have some reading to do?”
I said, “Yeah. The Book of Mormon. I started reading it right away.
I had read the New Testament twice in my 9-month search for the right church, and I thus knew the criterion for true prophets and false prophets. It is in 1 John, 4:1-3; “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
The Book of Mormon is all about Jesus Christ coming to Earth and dying for the sins of man and about finding salvation by confessing to God that you are a sinner. In fact, it goes into detail on it by page 19, and it keeps getting better after that. I had found the treasure hid in a field, as described by the Savior in Matthew 13:44.
On Thursday, July 23rd, two days after receiving the Book of Mormon, I called Elder Mills and said, “I know this to be the Word of God.”
I could feel the spirit at the other end of the phone line. He mentioned something to me about lessons, and I thought, “I’ve got the Word of God in my hands! I don’t need lessons. I told him I would get back to him on that.
I prayed about it as I continued reading the Book of Mormon and the Spirit told me to get the lessons, so I called Elder Mills on Friday and said I was going to get the lessons. He asked me if I wanted to go to church on Sunday and I jumped at the chance, as I knew I should go to church on Sunday and I hadn’t been checking out any other churches.
On Sunday, July 26th, 1998, I attended my first Sacrament Meeting and I was very far into the Book of Mormon at this point. There happened to be a baptism that day, and Elder Mills and I went to it. We were both filled with the spirit and the excitement about my already having a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Elder Mills said, “We’re going to get all those lessons in this week and I’m going to baptize you next week!”
As I took the lessons, the spirit was prompting me on things to read in the Bible while I was at home. I read John 5:19 and Revelation 3:21, and when I saw the Elders again, I pointed out that in Revelation 3:21, the Savior said, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
Then I pointed out that in John 5:19, the Savior said, “The Son can do nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”
I said that if the Son can’t do anything unless the Father has done it, and the Son overcame and was set down in his throne, then our Heavenly Father overcame and was set down in his throne. The Bible says so, and Jesus Christ said so.
“Does this church teach that?” I asked.
And the Elders nodded yes with wide-eyed astonishment.
The subject of the church not having any paid priests came up. Now, they had told me about the apostasy early on, and I had been prompted by the spirit to read Micah 3:10-11 in which the Lord specifically criticizes “priests” that “teach for hire.” Not having priests who “teach for hire” was just more proof that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored.
I also read in Acts 8:14-17 about the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, and when the Elders brought that up, it added to the proof that the Savior’s church had been restored.
After attending my second sacrament meeting on August 2, 1998, I was baptized that same day.