Hello, my name is Marianna, and I was intrigued by your review
of
Beyond Mormonism. First of all,
I am a born again believer, daughter of a pastor, and in dental
school where I have come into contact with many Mormons, some of
whom I count as dear friends. I deeply desire for them to know
Christ for who He really is. But I need advice from someone who
is familiar with their perspective. What things triggered or
spoke to you to cause you to leave the Mormon church? Are there
books that you would recommend that they would actually read?
Any witnessing approaches?
Or simply refer me to other sources, I would appreciate
anything, and especially your prayers! Thank you!
His, Marianna
Hi Marianna,
Thank you for your very nice message.
Praise God! You are a born again believer. Thank you for your
interest in wanting to minister to your Mormon friends. Many
Mormons
do not think that they are misguided or wrong, on the contrary
they believe that everyone but them are disillusioned. I think
that when they see someone like you, who loves Jesus and lives a
life in Him it catches their attention, because they are
supposed to be the "only true church" according to LDS
teachings.
A good book that I would recommend for a started to help you,
would be one called Mormonism 101 by Bill McKeever and Eric
Johnson. It is very informative and straight forward.
Mormonism, Mamma, and Me is a well written book from a soft
angle that was authored by "Granny" Geere, I think her first
name was Thelma, she bet a 1830 edition of the BoM to anyone
that could prove her wrong, for 16 years no one has claimed the
prize. A good site for information is
www.utlm.org and it is full of literature and website links
that can help you find info that you may want to read.
Yours is a good question concerning my conversion...I believe
that it is very unique for each person. I will say that it was
a number of circumstances that led to my eyes being opened to
Jesus. One of the things that had the greatest influence on me
was an individual that I worked with who loved the Lord big time,
and was an example of the character of Jesus with out really
saying a word about it. I brought it up to him, and we began a
slow dialogue over a period of a couple of years. He eventually
felt comfortable enough to share the "truth" with me about
Mormonism and Christianity and I was highly offended by what he
said at the time. It took me about a year to really understand
what he was trying to tell me. Since I was born into Mormonism,
I knew very little about any other way. I was pretty bullheaded
and blinded until...
About 3 years ago there was a series of deaths in my family, and
in my circle of friends, and even a couple of my customers died
during a 6 month period. I became very emotional and separated
from others. I was unable to share my feelings with anyone for
a long period of time and just kept it all in. One day I went
to see the movie called the Titanic and near the end a girl that
was sitting behind me at the theatre was quietly sobbing and her
little noises were in tune with my heart and for some reason it
broke. I started crying (I was with the guys my wife's brothers
and dad), and I could not quit.
I hid it pretty well for the 1/2 hour drive home, but when I got
there, I went up into my office and literally broke. I cried
for hours...If you had know me before I shed few tears. I did not know what to do with myself, cause I could not
quit crying. Eventually, some of what my friend had said to me
and some things that I was able to get from the radio during my
long daily commutes, started filling my mind, and I fell to my
knees and said, "Lord, I don't know you...I want to know you.
Forgive me. I want to serve you. Show me what it is that is
keeping me from you...."
When I woke up in the morning, I did OK for about 20 minutes,
and then I burst into tears again, and my wife came and asked me
if everything was alright, and I could not explain what was
happening to me. I went to town and during the commute, I
turned my radio on to a Christian radio station and a song was
playing that turned me to a complete sap, so much that I had to
pull over off the road because my glassed fogged up and I could
not drive. This was really strange for me, because I was always
made of steel in every situation, and was able to handle
literally everything that came my way before, without much
emotion, so I was not sure how to handle this new super
sensitive emotional character that was surfacing. I finally got
back on the road and into town, and was driving down Fairveiw
past the cemetery when the Lord began a process in me. I
noticed a woman with three children in the cemetery, she was
crying at a stone and two of her children were standing looking
down at her and the third was off in the distance throwing rocks
at the swans in the pond. (I had three children and so did my
friend who was just recently killed by a train). Anyway, when I
looked back at the road, it was as if the world temporarily went
from black and white to full color and I was able to see the
thoughts of those whom I saw for the remainder of that drive.
They were concerned with what they looked like in their cars,
credit card debt, house payments, work, family, everything else
but the concerns of the kingdom. I had no understanding of the
kingdom at that moment, nor did I have any grasp except surface
reading, in the Bible. As I turned into the subdivision where my
company was working, I noticed two homes that had their garage
doors open and they were crammed full of stuff. The Lord
whispered in my ear, "You come here with nothing and you leave
here with nothing." I was blown away by those words. When I got
to the jobsite where my employees were working, I went in
and visited them for a moment to make sure they had plenty to do,
and then got in my truck and drove home.
When I turned into my drive, and hit the remote garage door
opener to my shop, as the door lifted, I began to realize that
that God was answering my prayer of the evening before...I asked
Him to show me what was keeping me from Him. My garage was full
of stuff, I was the one who was so concerned about what I looked
like in my truck, credit card debt, the house payment, family,
and work, everything but the things of the kingdom!
I went to my office and sat down, put my arms behind my head and
began to ponder the day. I found myself facing the wall where I
had 2 weeks previous, taped two pieces of paper together
containing my goals and plans, a list that anyone would have
been proud of. As I read this list, the Lord again spoke to me,
and said, " That ain't it, Eric!" I was almost offended, so I
carefully re-read the list of goal. The first was God. I knew
that many attempt to put him first, and the Bible tells us to,
but I really did not know what that meant. Next on the list was
go to church more, tithe more, read the scriptures more, etc.
Then my family graced its pages, my wife, and all the things
that I thought would have been perfect. I listed my children
and work, and monetary goals, etc...I finally said out loud
after re-reading the list, "If a guy could do all those things,
he'd be perfect!"
God said, "That ain't it, Eric!"
I wasn't sure what to do. There was a pair of scissors on the
desk and I impulsively peeled the note from the wall, and cut
the paper, right near the top, I then re-taped it to the wall,
and threw the rest in the garbage. The only thing left on the
paper was the word, "God".
He said, "That's it! You put me first and everything else will
fall into place"
At that moment I was set on fire for the Lord. I decided to
seek his face, at all cost. And what a cost it has been, but I
would not change a thing. I am more on fire for Jesus today
than I was yesterday, and yesterday I was more on fire than the
day before, and so on.
He opened understanding of the Holy Bible, big time. I took 3
months to get in the Word, and read every waking moment for a
period of time. It sure was a lonely road at first. I am now
surrounded by true family no matter where I go. There is much
more to the process, you see at this point of the story, I had
not yet discovered that the Mormon religion was false.
Eric
Eric,
What
did you do with your LDS scriptures when you left the Mormon
Church?
When the Bible first started
getting my attention, I began to break through the blurr of
non-comprehension once in a while, but the little foreign LDS
descriptive snippets before each chapter kept re-blurring my
vision...in my LDS Bible. I had another Bible that was
worn and did not have Jesus' words in Red print and had many
references and descriptions, making it difficult to read, too.
Regardless, as I read I marked these books up quite a bit.
One day the dizzy frustration was too great and I threw the
LDS Bible a good distance towards the garbage can and missed. I left
it on the floor, grabbed my keys and headed for my first visit
to the local "Christian" bookstore, where I met the word 'Cult'
for the first time. It was a label for a section of books and
square below the sign was a book with a picture of the Nauvoo
temple on it. This got my nerves up and I quickened my visit. I
asked the gal at the store for a Bible with just the Bible
words, no references or description, one that would last, that
had Jesus' words in red print... She
hooked my up and as I passed the Cult isle, my knee jerk
reaction was to snatch up the Nauvoo temple book (The Way that Seemeth Right, L Aubrey Gard), and sneek it under my new Bible
as I carried it to the sales counter.
My inbred, and learned guilt were highly sensed, so I felt like
everyone was watching me...I felt like a teen in 7-11 trying to
buy beer.
With sweat pouring off my brow I exited the building and and
returned to the chair where earlier I had practiced hoop with my
LDS Bible and missed.
The first thing my 2 year old did when he saw my new Bible was
begin to rip the pages out starting with the first pages he came
to. As I came into the room he was just getting ready to remove
Gen. 1:1. I stopped him. Actually he did me a favor by getting
rid of all the non-essentials, although later I often missed the
table of contents.
This new Bible became my best friend, for months. I kept it
close, I marked it up, and learned of Him.
I shelved the LDS Bible, and today 8 years later it sits on a
shelf with over 75 bibles, waiting for the next missionary
visitor.
This Bible went with me as I transitioned, and converted from
LDS to Christ.
One thing kept bothering me though. My triple combination with
my name in gold print on the front, with pages carefully
crinkled so that I could easily find the verses in seminary
class during our timed scripure contests. It had carefully
marked pages and LDS positive verses outlined in red pencil, and
meticulous notes on the sides...to make sure I would not forget
them in the future. This little book tugged at my conscience.
I kept praying to God what to do with it...nothing. But it kept
bothering me. It was an emotional string. One day I got the
answer...It was "regarding that book, throw it away!" As soon as
I got home it hit the bottom of the can.
I still have in my now extensive library, Every 'changed' Book
of Mormon, the Book of Commandments, the D&C ect. for ministry
purposes, but that personal book needed to go (for me).
I was pleasurable to toss it. Kind of like the relief that I
felt when the Bishop informed me at my doorstep, that my LDS
baptism was now "Null and void!" or like the feeling I got when
I received the resignation letter for the 6 people in my family
from the LDS records department. There is nothing quite like it.
God is good!
That is what happened to my LDS scriptures.