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Willie Richardson
I was baptised in 1979 by missionaries who knocked at my door. I was a great fan and admirer of the Osmonds for many years. I learned of their religion and sent for a brochure from the church. I asked for missionaries to visit and soon thereafter they came. I always knew I had a specfic reason for being here, and the plan of salvation told me I was right. I did recieve some negative reaction from friends and family, but some positive results also.
One month after my baptism, my good friends Susan and Charles asked that I baptise them. In a few months my Mom, Sister and a dozen or so more became members of the church. I served a mission in San Jose, Ca. during 82,83. I was so excited about the news I had found. The day I was baptised I was driving toward the church, and the thoughts came to wait. Guess who was sending them? I could have sworn that the clouds were painted for me as I continued on. I am grateful for the example of the Osmonds who interested me in the Mormon faith.
Willie Richardson
Mt Airy, NC 27030
Pamela Ridl
I was born in 1961 and raised in a very strict Pentecostal home. My Grandfather and uncle are Pentecostal preachers. All my life I was taught that the Mormons were a demon possessed, devil worshipping occult. I never allowed myself to associate with them. When I was a teenager one of the teen girls in our church got mixed up in Mormonism and we had a special service just to cast the demons out of her. It was very frightening for all us kids especially for her. I was dead set against the Mormons. While raising my children I too taught them about what the Mormons believed in, creating future anti- mormons. In 1992 I became a single parent and a group of entertainers came close to where I lived and being I had listened to their music while growing up, I took my 4 children to see them. I was amazed by their music number dedicated to Christ. My Father, after seeing their show, was convinced that they “could not” be Mormons, they must have been converted and “saved”. I am a people watcher and would watch this family when the lights were not on them. I could not understand how someone who believed the way they did could love each other and the Lord like they did.
In 1993, I was working at MCI and had experienced quite a few unpleasant supervisors. A Friend of mine suggested we pray for a Christian boss. A few weeks later we got one. He read his scriptures every day, used wisdom in dealing with our problems and had an appearance of high standards and morals. I was overjoyed. Being I loved to study the scriptures, (I always use to question passages in the Bible, I called them “holes”, scriptures that were not quite complete) we hit it off and studied together on break and at lunch. I got to know him and his wife very well. Numerous people from all different religious backgrounds would comment how lucky I was to be blessed with such a fine christian boss who had the “glow of the Lord” around him.
After about 6 weeks he talking with one of the other employees and they ask him what LDS on his tie tack meant. When he explained it meant “Latter-day Saints”, that he was Mormon you could have heard a pin drop. All emotions broke loose. The ones who had said he had the “glow of the Lord” was now saying they could feel the devil in him. The pentecostal evangelist who sat next to me went as far as to try to have him fired for religious harassment. I was very mad he hadn’t told me he was Mormon and he said it was because I never asked. For 3 weeks it was not a pleasant place to work, especially for him. I wouldn’t speak to him unless job related. However, I was becoming more agitated at those around us who were being two-faced about. MY eyes had been opened by the family of entertainers and now at this point my heart was starting to question.
During that 3 weeks of silence, a new person came to work and was seated next to me. He also liked to study the scriptures so we became good friends. One day he had ask our boss a question concerning the scriptures and I quickly informed him of all the religious beliefs of our boss. He listened and then ask where I had gotten my information. He was Mormon too. That was it, over the next few months I decided I would find out for my self exactly what the Mormons believed. I allowed my boss to answer my questions but only with scriptures out of the Bible and no explantations. I spent many hours in the Library and investigating the church. I wouldn’t read the Book of Mormon as I didn’t want to be influenced by any thing except prayer. That is when my life changed drastically.
In the process of investigating the church, (which involved my 4 children as well), we were kicked out of the church we were going to, we lost our friends and my life was threatened by my brother. My own father, (we “were” a very close family), said that I was too far to help and if it meant my death to keep his grandchildren from going to Hell, then so be it. My family wouldn’t talk to me except to scream and accuse me of being demon possessed and going to hell. They showed us videos and made us listen to tapes. We were not allowed to bring any Mormon books into the house, (we were living with my parents at the time). We would get in our van and go sit in a parking lot somewhere to have family home evening or study what I was learning. Once as we were leaving my Father came out to the van and said right in front of the kids, that he would rather they watched pornos and read playboy then that filth I was teaching them. Since we are a private family I didn’t have any one to talk to or go for help. I was afraid of the Missionaries, so we were on our own.
One day in July of 1994, I had been doing a lot of praying about what was right and knew I needed to get baptised so that evening my children and I left to talk about it and they had come to the same conclusion. I told my friend the next day we wanted to be baptised and 5 days later we were. It has been almost 5 years now and within the last year my parents are talking to me. It is still not easy, we still have to overcome obstacles every day in the church as well as out. The devil will try every mean possible to damper your faith and zap your strength. There are many I didn’t write about and many I haven’t went thru yet but the Gospel is worth it and nothing will ever change my heart. I found what I had been looking for and the answers to all my questions.
Pamela Ridl
Ray Smullin
I have a testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. My grandfather taught his family to have nothing to do with the Mormons. We were members of the Disciples of Christ Church who earnestly sought to serve the Lord. Although the LDS church was a half mile away, we would travel 30 miles to attend church. As a youth who grew up in a Mormon community, I thought (and told those who would listen) that the Mormon Church was not true. Yet I, like the descendants of many who fought against Mormonism, am a member of the very organization which their ancestors hated.
How did it happen? Our neighbors, the Taylors, were called to be Stake Missionaries. They asked my mother, who felt sorry for them, if they could “practice the discussion” on our family. When they began to teach, my father left the room. I listened to all the discussions, but told them that I did not believe. They asked me to read and pray. That night I read through the Joseph Smith pamphlet and some of the Book of Mormon, underlining all of the objectionable (to me) parts. I prayed, “Lord, thanks for showing me that the Mormons are wrong. Please show them. Oh, and if I’m wrong, you can show me, too. My response was a voice which declared, Ray, you’re wrong. This is the way for you to go.”
One of the areas of my life which dramatically changed because of my conversion was in my relationship to my Savior. I was able to be baptized by a holder of his priesthood and to make covenants with my Father in Heaven. Soon I was ordained to the priesthood myself and was privileged to pass the bread and water, which are emblems of the sacrifice he made, to others so that we might renew the covenants which were made in the waters of baptism.
Because I held the priesthood, marvelous blessings were showered upon me. I was called upon to anoint the sick and to see the Lord bless them with a return to good health (including having a cancer patient enter remission). I was able to serve my Father in Heaven on a full time mission, as well as several stake missions. As I bore witness to the truths of the gospel, the Holy Ghost guided my thoughts so that I was able to answer questions concerning ideas that I had never heard before. As the Holy Ghost bore witness of the truth of my words, listeners felt the spirit and chose to follow the Savior by entering into the waters of baptism themselves.
In due time my bride and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple by Ezra Taft Benson. What a blessing it is to have prophets in the Church who communicate with the Lord. Revelation has occurred within the Church within my lifetime and it has been my privilege to not only feel the witness of the Holy Spirit, testifying that the Lord is revealing his will through the prophet, but to indicate my willingness to obey the Lord by raising my hand.
How do I know that the gospel is true? I know it intellectually. I have read over 450 books on early Christian church history. Such documents show that there was an apostasy from the teachings of Jesus Christ and that other teachings were substituted in their place. We have the writings of these innovators and we also have records of the groups of Christians, who protested, arguing that such doctrines were not the teachings of Christ, but were new. We also have the revelations which Joseph Smith received from the Lord. It cannot be an accident that he rejected the very doctrines which (according to history) were taken from the pagan sects. Yes, I have an intellectual testimony.
But I also have a stronger testimony. The Holy Ghost has borne witness to me that the Gospel is true. I have seen the gospel in action, tasting firsthand of its fruits. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of our Savior because of everything that I have seen, and heard, and felt, and touched. I bear witness that it is true in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ray Smullin