August 22, 2024

The Latter-Day Saints (My Introduction)

One warm afternoon there was a knock at the door. Standing there were to young gentleman with black shoes, trousers, white long sleeve button downs, and name tag plaques with a name preceded by “Elder”. They asked very formerly if I was interested in hearing what they had to say about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ followed by asking if I was interested in going to church on Sunday. I stated that I was indeed interested in hearing what they had to say.

I was curious in hearing what they had to say and it was one of the few Christian “denominations” that I had yet to be formerly introduced to. The only thing that had been spoken to me prior was about Joseph smith and the seer stone. That was as far as previous conversation had gone with a non-member about the Latter Day Saints. I had for a time lived near one of the very popular LDS sites but the locales had not much to say about it other than slinging negativities and frustrations at a people they knew next to nothing about. I had always found it strange the prejudice that the members were under from people who would never take the time to even speak with the missionaries.

My History With Churches

I have been attending one church or another since I was a small child. I have participated in mass, Sunday school, and summer bible studies between several different denominations. I had been baptized several times by different churches who asked me if I wanted to be baptized at their church before I had even reached the young age of 12. I had attended a friend’s church whose family had given the go ahead for my baptism when I had replied with a yes when I was asked if I wanted to be saved in Christ. I knew that I wanted to be saved and in God’s good graces however I had not felt that I was not in Father’s good graces at such a young age. I had several churches teach me that I had needed to confess my sins to them so that they with their authority could ask God to forgive me and to be forgiven for my sins. I had also been taught that they could talk to God for me.

At the age of 7 years old this angered me and I did not agree at all that I had to come to them so that I could be forgiven or so I could talk to God through them. I remember very clearly sitting in the pews while listening to this being spoken and thinking to myself “Who do they think they are that they can come between me and God? My relationship with God is directly between him and myself and no one else.” The other thing I had not understood throughout my early lifetime with the Churches was this; when asked how to pray Jesus replied “Pray to our Father above”. I constantly had everyone around me telling me that I had to pray to Jesus when I would pray however I wanted to pray to my Eternal Father directly.

I had also believed that The Father and Jesus and The Holy Spirit were all different and separate entities. This belief had many Christians throughout my life tell me that I was not a “True Christian” for holding this belief. I saw many hypocrisies through the Churches, the congregations, and through the Christians I met in everyday life. I would find a church that had a good Pastor or a friendly congregation but I found myself unable to connect fully or hardly at all to any church that I had visited. I eventually turned away from the churches as it flashed through my mind in perfect clarity that most of the churches I visited felt like the Pharisees and Sadducees of the bible. Always judging, interrupting scripture to best suit their own lives.

At times of doubt and fear throughout my life when I owned a bible I would clutch the bible against my chest and ask for God to forgive me for any transgressions I may have ever committed and to please help me get though the fear, sickness, or doubt I was facing. When I was fearful I would ask God to protect me and everyone I loved and cared about from harm and or anything that wanted to hurt us. My belief in God was never anything I questioned, and my doubts were only ever about whether or not I was doing what God wanted me to do. I never once feared God or thought that I was to be punished by him. I would thank him for my life and my blessings even if I did not understand them. I found many Christians expressed distaste for my views and told me to repent of this so that I would not be dammed to Hell because the way they believed was the “Truth” and that I did not “understand”. I would go on to sporadically go back to church on and off throughout my life.

My Spiritual Journey

I found that in my mid to early twenties I was being drawn more towards religion and I began to study many different religions as well as many different forms of Abrahamic religion. I had begun to seek Truth knowing full well that I was not getting the answers from people at the churches I had visited as no one wanted to talk about the harder questions I had regarding the Bible and Jesus’ teachings. I wanted to know about spiritual gifts, angels, demons, power and principalities, deities, and religions from the Bible and beyond. I began to search out and find many of these topics were being talked about by many non-Christians. I began my research into the secrets the universe had to offer.

When I was around twenty five years old, I unbeknownst to me crossed paths with a spiritual organization that based its creed in secret teachings and brotherhood. Before I knew who they were, I walked into work one day and overheard some coworkers speaking about performing exorcisms with a Church and they were talking about demons and ghosts. This drew my attention since I had recently begun to experience things that I could not explain. I had felt that I was walking a fine line between the world to which my feet sunk into the dirt and something else that laid just beyond the veil. This feeling was ethereal, yet I could nearly feel Truth laying just beyond the grasp of my outreached hand as my fingertips clasped at a silken tapestry that was not there. This feeling that I had been experiencing led me to openly question the gentleman who was speaking of spiritual happenings, and I had thought that with as “crazy” as what I was hearing him converse about sounded that surely I could ask them about the far “less crazy” thing I had been experiencing.

Needless to say, this sent me into an ever-propelling search for Truth and I found that I had a need to also begin to understand as much as possible about occultism and the metaphysical. I had quickly found myself facing down many new things and many of the things I had interest in that no one would talk to me about it waking life. For the next six years I found myself neck deep and often over my head in the midst of spiritual warfare. I was aware of many happenings going on around me and many secrets that had been right under my nose. In these years I began to build a far more active, direct, and personal relationship with Father.

Coming to the LDS

One day recently I had found myself visiting The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. I had found that the teachings they had been giving me nearly exactly matched my understanding of the Truth through my time building my relationship with my father the Father Eternal. Every lesson I had been given matched my understanding of Truth that Father had developed within myself through his teachings from years of conversation him and I have had. I would ask many questions, then he would explain, and show me many great things. I had asked him which Church I should pursue working with and he stated to me and we both had agreed that I should pursue working with the LDS. He stated that they knew truth and that I would be pleased with what they knew and what they taught as it would reflect what he had taught me.

I am now several months in to attending the Church and I am pleased that what I had been taught has indeed been reflected in their teachings and beliefs. I found myself surrounded by people who were warm, friendly, loving, caring, and hungry for the Truth. Every time I would attend there was great interest in speaking with me and they were always happy to converse with me about the questions I would pose to them. I had finally found a Church that I was not only happy to attend but also thrilled to participate in.

In respecting privacy and of goodwill I will end this article here. However I am pleased to say that I find that I am a part of a much larger family here in this life than I was previously. I am happy to be a part of the Church.

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