How I Turned Into A Mormon

My Conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

By Linda Smith

It all started when I was only 5 years old. Then I didn’t know what was possessing me, but I can still remember asking my Mom to take me to Church. Now I know it was the Holy Spirit at work, because He knew I was seeking for the truth.

The first Church she chose was the Bethel Methodist Church just a few blocks from our home in Phoenix. We attended together for about two years, when I became dissatisfied. I asked her if she would try another church. This time it was the Phoenix Christian Church which met at Emerson Elementary School. I attended there for 3 years. I remember going by myself on the bus each Sunday. Can you imagine sending your 7 year old on a bus these days? I had my little black Bible which received shiny star in it for each week that I attended. I still remember being allowed into the grown-ups’s service one day where they were taking communion. I was in awe.

My 10th summer things changed. My parents arranged for me to go to Greer, AZ to stay with the Crosby family. Their daughter, Sylvia, was one of my friends at school, and my Dad knew her Dad from somewhere, so they worked out this arrangement where I would go spend 5 weeks with their family in this little mountain town in Eastern Arizona.

I arrived late on a Saturday night, so my first experience was Church on Sunday morning. It was a very small community, so the services and Sunday School classes were literally held in one room….for all ages.

For the Sunday School portion, the adults met in one corner, the teens in another, those from 7-11 in a third and those 6 and under in the last corner. Being 10 yrs of age, I was with the 7-11 group. There were about 15 of us seated in a circle.

The teacher was NOT a very good teacher, because (as I remember) she had trouble controlling the group. She finally became angry and ‘threatened’ that the next person who spoke out of turn would have to read the lesson. Well….being the ham that I am, this was a big invitation to me. Now mind you, I knew no one in this group other than my friend, but that didn’t matter. I took off my shoe and threw it across the circle, hitting someone square in the chest. The teacher didn’t even know my name but she yelled and me and then handed me the lesson manual and said, “Read.”

The lesson that day was on Joseph Smith and his ‘First Vision.’ I began reading. (The following is directly from Joseph Smith’s History.)

I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.

During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was bright and who was wrong.

My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?

While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: 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.

Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” It seems as though thecadversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?

After reading these few verses to the class, I can still remember my feelings….I was overwhelmed with what I now know was the Holy Ghost. Immediately following the Sunday School class, all the groups broke, and reassembled as one body for the Sacrament Service. (That is what we call or main worship service, the main purpose being to partake of the Sacrament and renew our Covenants.)

This was the first Sunday of the month, which in our Church is designated Fast and Testimony Meeting. On the first Sunday we fast for 24 hours, donating the money saved on food to our Fast Offerings, which go to feed those in need. Having never been to a testimony meeting before, I did not really know what was going on, but as members stood to bear their testimonies of the truthfulness of the restored gospel, and their knowledge that Joseph Smith was a latter-day prophet, I was again overwhelmed with the feeling that I was ‘home,’ and I knew I had found the right Church.

When I returned to my family before school started, I told my parents I wanted to go to this Church, and my Dad (who by the way, had attended the LDS Church regularly all 4 years of college**), made the arrangements, and I began attending the local ward. After two years, just before my 12th birthday, I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

** My Dad joined the Church when I was 22. My mother joined when I was 20 and my brother joined when he was 17.

It wasn’t until many years later that I fully understood what had drawn me to the Church. It was the simple fact that the Church believes in modern day prophets, and that God still speaks to his people in our very own day. Our current prophet, Thomas Monson, is literally the mouthpiece of God to us, his children. The Quorum of 12 Apostles are all ordained and sustained as Prophets, Seers and Revelators. In other words, we are never without the word of God as we need it to guide our lives in these times.

NOW…as to the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon in NO way takes the place of the Bible. It is simply ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ. It is the history of the people who fled Jerusalem when they were warned by God that Jerusalem would be destroyed. They lingered for years in the wilderness before arriving on the waters where they were instructed to build a ship that would eventually carry them across the sea to land somewhere on the shores of these continents. It is their history. They were firm believers in Jesus Christ, whom they knew would come to be their Savior. This history begins about 600 BC and continues through 421 AD.

We use the Bible as the word of God. It is the history of the people on the other side of the world. There are many Biblical references that show us that there WERE others that Christ ministered to, after his death.

Below is a link that will discuss modern day revelation. It may clear up issues about the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

This link will give you several options. It will allow you to choose to read the talk, to listen to it, or to watch it live. I would recommend the latter. It is only about 15 minutes long, and I think the live delivery is better. Here is the link:

http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-851,00.html

Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Sunday Afternoon Session and to the first talk, “ Words…Never Cease,” by Jeffrey Holland. Then you can choose, to the right, if you wish to read, listen or watch. For all the references, just click on read, and then scroll to the bottom of the talk.

Jeffrey Holland is a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, one of our General Authorities.