Murder and suicide left me an orphan at the young age of six. The years immediately following found me following a willful path of self-destruction. But, by the hand of God and her great love for me, my grandmother had me baptized into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when I was eight years old. That is where she gave me my “church family” who would ultimately come to mean so much to me. However, because of many poor life choices, the years following were none too good to me and my family.
After twenty-nine years of absence from the Church, and living a life often outside the law, the police were once again at my door. At 2:30 pm in the afternoon of August 30, 1995, I was surrounded by the authorities with my life totally in the hands of the courts. But it was also at this very moment that Jesus Christ touched my soul and tore the demon of defiance from my chest. My life was changed in an instant.
“Now will you go to church with me? And where will we go?” were the questions my wife asked me. Without a doubt I knew where we were supposed to be going – to the same Church my grandmother had me baptized into so many years before. It would be there I knew I still had a family as well as a work to do. At last, and finally humbled, we returned to Church. In the following year my faith flourished and I was called to serve in the priesthood.
In the following years, and as the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was being directed into order, a number of articles that spoke against it were given to me to read and study. But after reading them, and seeing the incorrectness of what they contained, the Good Spirit bore affirmative witness to me that I was once again in the right Church. Today I still feel that if you study all things out, you will find yourself asking the question, “How can you see the Restored Gospel any other way?” The Spirit and my own mind bear witness of the true succession of the Church. Which other organization has a prophet of the lineage of the young Joseph? Which other organization has in place the same leadership structure that was put in place so many years ago? Which other faith-based organization is actively working to establish a community of believers based upon the principles of stewardship and consecration?
While so many seem to be seeking changes and gaining a new identity, the only identity we need to assume is that which was patterned for us within our Savior and His Church – and that must not change just to meet the whims of our world.
I, having seen and known evil, and realizing my own weaknesses and the pull of this world, testify to you that no other Christian religion on the face of this earth could have held me to the task that lies before us. There truly is a power and authority within this, the Lord’s true Church, which is not found in any other organized religious body anywhere. I simply invite each and everyone to come and see.
