everyone loves a convert

david spoke in church a couple weeks ago, on the given topic of "the restoration and the atonement". our popularity has skyrocketed. before david spoke in church not very many people knew us (we've attended this ward and lived in this apartment for over a year), and those who did know us looked at us as "the renters", one of the few young, impermanent couples in the ward. we don't have any children, so i don't really hang out with the other women my age (we are one of two young couples without a baby), or go to "mommy group" activities. maybe it was all my own mind--you know, thinking that's what people thought of us...but boy, after david spoke, we have received 3 dinner invitations, 2 people asked for a copy of his talk, he received compliment after compliment and handshake after handshake, and we are now greeted by name in the halls at church. what can i say, everyone loves a convert. i am posting david's talk because he basically told his conversion story, and it's an incredible story. it makes you want to rip out your scriptures, pray in gratitude, and be a missionary all over again. it makes you realize what the purpose of life is and that truth really does exist. enjoy!!


I grew up in Billings Montana. I am an only child. Both of my parents worked growing up trying to make ends meet. So I was a latchkey kid. I did not grow up active in a religion. My upbringing was almost completely absent of religion. I can never remember having had a conversation that even referred to religion growing up. My parents love the outdoors and we would go camping, canoeing, fishing, and horseback riding on the weekends in the Montana rocky-mountains. But by the time I was fourteen I started thinking about religion and philosophy. I wanted to know what was true. I had heard people talk about religion and even went to church a few times when I had stayed the night with friends who had parents that made us go. But what I heard people tell me about religion never seemed right to me. The primary issue for me was the Nature of God. Most of the people I talked to told me God was a perfect being incomprehensible and so remote from what I knew and understood that I could not understand God. The more I heard the more frustrated I became. One night I had become so frustrated trying to figure religion out that I decided to find out for myself by going to the source. I had seen copy of the bible downstairs in a box with some books and decided to find out what it said. I waited until my parents were asleep then went and found the bible. The copy that I found said on the cover “Christ’s Words in Red”. It seemed to me that the publisher would put the most important things in red so I found the first section that had red type in it and began reading Matthew. I only read a few chapters when I came to the following passage:
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water
: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:15-17)
I was reading the bible in faith that I would find out the truth about Christianity. What I learned was that God and Jesus were two separate beings. Jesus was down in the water being baptized and clearly a voice from heaven, God, declared his son in who He was well pleased. Without knowing the words to describe it, or what it was, I had received a revelation prompted by the Spirit. But unknown to me the knowledge of the true nature of God was already on the Earth and known by millions.
In 1820 there was a farm boy the same age I was, named Joseph Smith, faced with similar challenges that I had. He grew up in a home where the entire family worked hard farming. His family was active in religion. His father loved God and the scriptures and his mom attended a Presbyterian faith. Joseph grew up in a time when religion and philosophy were sweeping through America. It was the duty of every individual to align themselves with some school of belief. Joseph would attend meetings and talk to individuals but could never settle for himself the question of which church was the true one. Just like I discovered in Billings, Joseph discovered in upstate New York that every church was declaring itself to be the true church but every church had disputing points of doctrine. Because they disagreed in so many ways they all couldn’t be true. Joseph also turned to the scriptures and read a verse in James that states:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 3:5)
This scripture had a profound affect on Joseph. He read the bible with the faith that he would direction to his search. What he received was the instruction to pray and he had the full confidence that he would receive an answer. In the spring in 1820 he went to a grove just outside of his home and he began to pray verbally for the first time in his life and asked which church he should join. As he was praying a pillar of light appeared over his head and gradually descended until it fell upon him. Once upon him he saw two people descending that stood above him. One of them spoke and called him by name and said pointing to the other, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” In an instant the restoration had begun. With the appearance of God and his Son Jesus Christ Joseph knew the true nature of God. They were separate beings perfectly united in purpose.
Joseph was now armed with truth the true nature of God and had received personal instruction. Much like Joseph Smith in my search for the truth I was now armed with a single point of doctrine, God and Jesus were separate beings. I shortly discovered another problem with Christianity that would further aid me in my search. This question I wouldn’t get an answer to for several more years. The question went like this. God is perfectly merciful and just. The mission of the Savior is the salvation of mankind. The vast majority of people that have lived on the earth throughout the millennia have not been Christians. What does a merciful and just God do for them? For me this is a primary point of any religion because it really is dealing with most of mankind.
I asked this question to many people and the responses break down into three groups.
1)I don’t know. From this answer I drew that if they didn’t know they obviously weren’t the true church. It is kind of a big problem after all and there should be at least something said on it.
2) They are automatically saved through grace. There are two problems with this one. I knew enough about Christianity to know that there was a heaven and hell. And the reality is that there are people that are Hindu that are good and there are people that are Hindu that are bad and both shouldn’t automatically be given salvation. While that is truly merciful, it is in no way just.
3) They are automatically damned. The problem I had with this answer is why they are damned. They are damned because they didn’t know. Why didn’t they know? In most cases it was because they weren’t told. Who didn’t tell them? The Christians didn’t tell them. Thus both the nonbelievers are damned and the believers are damned because they didn’t tell the nonbelievers.
I would ask my two questions over and over and would never get a satisfactory response. I became frustrated with Christianity and religion in general. The kids who I knew that were active in faith did it like other kids did sports. It seemed like if you weren’t cool enough to be on a team or club there was another club that would take anyone called youth groups and church. I didn’t want to join a club I wanted the truth. Joseph described the time after having had the first visitation and I would add that it is a fairly accurate description of myself as well. He said that he:

frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed
The weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature;
Which I am sorry to say led me into divers temptations, offensive
In the sight of God. (Joseph Smith History 1:28)
It was several years before he would receive any more information. And when he did he was repeatedly warned of temptation. He was also told of the Book of Mormon and that it contained the “fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.” The period between the first vision and Joseph Smith receiving the Book of Mormon was a refining time. It allowed him to grow up and repent.
In Billings Mt I had a similar time. I don’t remember exactly when or how it happened but a time came that I resolved to do better. I started doing the things that I knew were right and I stopped doing the things that I knew were wrong. For a year I lived the best that I knew how. Then both of my parents had problems. My Mom almost died from cancer, my Dad had complete thyroid failure, and they both lost their jobs. My parents decided that a change was due and my Dad took a job in Alturas, CA. I think it is interesting to note that right before we left Billings it was announced that a temple was going to be built. I could not understand why everyone was really really mad that the Muslims were building a temple in Billings. I’m sure they were saying Mormons but I was hearing Muslims. The term Mormons was not even a part of my vocabulary. I had never heard of Mormons or temples or the Book of Mormon. I had never heard of Provo Utah or Brigham Young University. The only thing I knew about Salt Lake City is that there was a really big salt lake there cleverly named ‘The Great Salt Lake’. We moved to Alturas halfway through my junior year of high school.
The school that I attended in Billings had about 2500 students. The town that I moved to in California had about 3,000 people total population. The nearest Wal-Mart was 3hrs away and the nearest stoplight was an hour and a half away. There was only a small branch of the church there but it didn’t matter. I was prepared for the gospel. After a couple of months in Alturas I became friends with a few kids that were members of the church. They realized that religion was important to me and invited me to seminary. Imagine a 17 year old being asked to get up at 6am and go and study scriptures for an hour and then go to high school. I loved it.
After a couple of weeks of attending seminary I was invited to go to church on Sunday. I enjoyed the meeting and one of the young men came up after the first hour and said ‘I hear you have some questions about religion’. I said that I did in fact have a couple of questions. He invited me to a room just outside of the main room where church was held. We entered the small room and sat down. As soon as I had formed my two questions to ask him the spirit came into the room and I knew the answers he would be giving were right.
I asked him first about the nature of God. He explained what is called the Godhead, the perfect union between three people Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Each has a mission within the godhead and plays a role but they are not physically the same being. Next I asked him my question about those that never hear about the Jesus Christ. He explained a doctrine that is truly unique to Latter-Day Saints. The idea is that there are saving ordinances that are required for salvation with baptism being the primary one. When someone lives and dies without being baptized with the proper authority someone still alive can do vicarious work for them in one of the temples even though they have already passed away. Also, there is temporary place prepared for spirits who pass away where the gospel is being actively taught and everyone who has ever lived is given a merciful and just opportunity to accept or reject it.
I knew that I had felt the spirit when my friend told me his answers to my questions. I began meeting with the full-time missionaries and every word they said was a new idea that opened up the spiritual world for me. The missionaries then asked me to be baptized and join the church but I told them I would think about it. I was lying in bed and questioned the idea of baptism. I knew that I had felt the spirit and had found the true church. I then had to decide what to do with that truth. Embracing a foreign faith is not something to be taken lightly or that is easy. But I knew it was true and chose to live the gospel with all of my heart.
I had committed to be baptized but that baptism would not have been possible had it not been for Joseph Smith. In 1829 Joseph Smith was working on translating the Book of Mormon with his assistant Oliver Cowdery when he came across a passage that told of the necessity of being baptized. Joseph wanted to be baptized in the true church. But this wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible because no one on earth had the authority to baptize. He prayed for instruction on being baptized and was visited by John the Baptist, the same person that I had read about that had baptized Jesus Christ. John laid his hands on Joseph and Oliver and gave them the Aaronic priesthood which:
Holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and
Of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion
For the remission of sins. (Joseph Smith History 1:69)
Now having the authority, Joseph baptized Oliver Cowdery his assistant and Oliver then baptized Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith understood the nature of God. He had been given care over sacred scripture that contained the fullness of the gospel. He had been given the priesthood and the authority to baptize. The restoration was well under way. I also understood the nature of good and had a copy of the Book of Mormon and had been baptized and received the priesthood. But it is a mistake to think of the restoration or conversion as an event with a beginning and end. What a tragedy it would have been had Joseph stopped after being baptized or had the church stopped with his death in Carthage. Had I stopped after being baptized I would never have received my endowments, served a mission, and been sealed in the temple to my beautiful wife.
The restoration of the true church began with a fourteen-year old boy’s faithful prayer. But it has not ended. New revelation is being given and there is a living prophet today. My conversion began when I read the bible in faith looking for answers. But it has not ended, I learn more about the gospel and my testimony grows constantly. The message of the restoration is that it is once again possible for man to be reconciled with God. The authority to act in the name of God, the priesthood, is on the earth again. With priesthood ordinances we receive the blessings of the atonement that our Savior performed on our behalf. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.