My first contact with the Restoration Church came when I was in the
eighth grade.
We had attended a Christian church when I was younger and I had been
baptized there when I was about ten years old.
Then, when I was in junior high school, we started attending the
Methodist denomination, since they had a minister we really liked and a great
youth program.
About that time, the Kansas City Public School system was having all
kinds of difficulty, so my parents pulled me out. They had somehow heard of a private school in
Independence that was accepting students.
The school was made up of mostly RLDS families, but they were willing to
take nonmembers. They did not pressure
anyone to join the church and allowed nonmembers to use the King James Version
of the Bible.
I made a lot of friends there, and most were RLDS families. We regularly attended chapel and religion
classes. I even read the Book of Mormon
and didn’t find anything disagreeable with it.
I graduated from this school and really loved the people I had met. I felt drawn to the Church, but for some
reason never followed up on it. But a
seed had been planted…
I kept in contact with several of my friends, but was really unaware of
the rift growing within the church, except for some news items. The Methodist congregation I had been
attending was changing. The ministers
had changed and the youth program died out.
It was pretty much an older group with my parents being some of the
“young people”.
One evening, I was talking to one of my school friends about
church. She was going through some
family issues and had started attending a Restoration Branch. She invited me to visit the Branch and I
did. I really enjoyed going to church
there and started attending regularly. I
remember wondering and being happy at the sounds of babies and young children
in the services, something I didn’t realize had been missing from my worship
experiences.
I began to see a picture in my mind of a great feast going on, and I was
outside looking in the window. Oh, how I
wanted to be inside joining in the joy and feasting!
I bought some church books and started out to read the Book of Mormon
again with an eye to find something wrong with it.
I decided if anything stood out to
me as particularly good, I would highlight it.
By the time I was halfway through, I was highlighting everything.
Finally, I got up the nerve to ask for baptism. That seed was finally showing some growth.
The pastor and I talked and he agreed to baptize me. My family was supportive, as they had many
friends in the Restoration, and were glad for my happiness. On the day of my baptism, I was nervous but
happy. I remember going under the water,
and as I came up out of the water, breaking the surface, for a few seconds I
heard singing.
Later, after the service, I was
talking to my friend and I mentioned that the hymn the congregation was singing
as I was baptized was beautiful. She
looked at me with a puzzled look and we realized that the congregation hadn’t
been singing a hymn during the actual baptism.
I am convinced that I heard the angels singing and rejoicing that I had
made my covenant with my Lord.
My friend and I grew closer as we attended church and we were finally
united in marriage in that same Restoration branch. Today we have a wonderful son and daughter
and two grandsons. Even though we attend
a different Restoration branch now, we still love the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us more
than we can imagine or deserve.
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