Conversion Story: My Journey Towards The Truth

I did join one church and baptized into it but after the baptism, I was more hungry for the priesthood and the truth. I never went back to that church but my pursuit was still after the Lord's church which has the priesthood given to man by Jesus Christ. i knew there is one church which has prophets and apostles on the earth, for the spirit has often reminded me from time to time. The summer of 1969, My brother, Randy came home from college for the summer.

He asked my dad for permission to have the missionaries to come over and share with us their message. As usual, missionaries begin teaching the lesson about Joseph Smith. The moment the missionaries mention prophets and apostles, I was touched by the spirit that what they were saying was true. I had no room for doubt. Also, the elders asked my dad to say the prayer before we began the lessons, of course in respect for father to be the head of the family. I have never my dad say any prayers in my life, the moment he said " Our Father in heaven" again I was touched by the spirit, goose bumps was all over me. I looked up during the prayer to see my dad. He was struggling to say more, then i looked at the missionaries, they were smiling.

I looked at my brother and sister, they were stretching their necks to hear more from my dad. i closed my eyes, I don't remember the rest of the words my dad said in his prayer but it was enough for me that the spirit bore witness to me the truth which I needed to hear. Two months later, after the lessons were taught, my brother and my sister joined the church. The missionaries asked if I wanted to be baptized, I responded, not yet.

When I said that , I received another vision that my brother will baptize me a year later. I was attending the deaf school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am hard of hearing and was losing interest in the deaf school, it was not challenging enough. I could not attend the public schools due to big classes. After much looking around, there was a parochial private school run by the Methodist church, the school requires students to take religion for one semester which I didn't mind. During the first semester, the religion teacher was teaching the class, now mind you I was not member of LDS church yet. I couldn't help myself but I kept standing up and brought my perceptions of the scriptures she was teaching, not disagreeing but bringing up what I felt I had to say as prompted by the spirit. Some of the students were telling to sit down and hush up but I couldn't because of the spirit kept prompting to say the correct version of the scriptures.

But eventually, the teacher gave me an "F" for bringing up the correct version which she disagree. It really didn't bother me at all because I knew what she was teaching was based on man's philosophy and not the inspiration as set by the Lord. Later in the spring of 1970, April, i felt I wanted to visit my deaf friends at the Church of Christ. I went and upon arrival, I was the last one to enter. As I enter the church, I heard a voice calling me by my name. I stood there for a moment and looked both sides of me and looked up and tried to see if someone was playing game on me.

No one was was around but me. I attempted to enter the second time and again the voice called me little firmer. I looked around again, no one around but me. I tried to shake it off. But on the third attempt, the voice was much firmer, it shook me for moment. I said to myself no use arguing with that voice, and the voice told to turn around to look at another church across the street. I turned around and I recalled very vividly the finger, the hand and part of the arm pointing and the voice said " Some day you will be a member of that church.

I recognized it as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was very deep in awe, heavy in ponder of what i just experienced. I went in to visit my deaf friends and didn't care what the teacher was teaching, I was too deep to the point of not being able to say anything or to express myself. After the church meeting was over, I went home still in deep awe. I arrived home, the front door was closed. As I enter the house, the whole house lit up with light, I mean the spiritual light that made my mom jump up from the chair and ran to me and said " you found the church. I couldn't say anything because of the experience I just experienced. I was caught up with that experience, I couldn't say anything for few days. In May I graduated from high school, a month later I was involved in a motorcycle /vehicle accident. I was badly injured, I had no helmet, nor was I properly dressed for driving a motorcycle.

On third day, the voice said to me to call the elders, missionaries to come over and give me a blessing. i almost said no but changed my mind and told the spirit I will do it. In the following evening, my mom stopped by to check on my progress, and I asked if she could call for the missionaries to come over to give me a blessing. Lo behold, one of the missionaries who visited me was of the two missionaries who baptized my brother and sister in the summer of 1969. they came in and joked around for awhile before they gave me a blessing.

After the blessing, I felt at peace and comfort. Two months later, i was becoming esperate about joining the Lord's church. I asked my bishop if he would baptize me. He declined politely and said that I would go over the lessons again. the same with the missionaries who were proselyting in the area nearby my home. I was becoming more and more desperate to join the church..so one day I was in my bedroom, sitting on my bed. It felt a man in my presence, sitting next to me and asked me what's wrong. So I spoke with this person as if he was actually there. I explained to the person sitting next about my desire to be baptized into the church and also, it asked me who I wanted to confirm me as the member of church. I said my brother, for he has the priesthood given to man by God through the channels of priesthood authority. My brother was Portales, New Mexico. The spirit stayed with me during the conversation....

My brother was living in Portales, NM, two hundred miles away from home. I knew nothing of the advancements my brother was making in the priesthood. So i told the spirit, my brother can baptize me and confirm me into his church. I felt the spirit leaving me. Later I met my brother in Kirtland, New Mexico for his wedding reception.

After the reception was over, I asked my brother if he would baptize me and several others there. Five days after my brother married his sweetheart from college. He and his new wife were in Santa Fe for another wedding reception. Randy had asked Bishop if it is all right for him to baptize me into the church. The baptism was going to be held in Espanola, NM. Bishop consented to have the baptism in Espanola, Nm, thirty miles apart.. On 23 of 1970 in August, I was baptized and was confirmed as member of the Church of Jesus of Latter-Day .

Seven years later I went on a mission to LA, California as fulfillment of my dreams.. So it has been 46 ears since I joined the church. I am truly grateful to heavenly father for leading me to his church with prophets and apostles. When I received money for my accident, I still had quite a bit of money left of it, i bought myself a volkswagen bug for transportation. So i returned to Roswell to finish my education, and began attending the church. Lot of members thought I had returned home from my mission. , of course, I politely said No, I was recently baptized and confirmed as member of LDS church. 46 years seem a long time but I said to some of my friends, no, it is eternity this life is only drop of water. This baptism is to show how committed I was as new member of the church. I share with you my testimony that this church is the Lord's church with prophets and apostles, evangelists, seventies and elders as in the primitive church. I know that this is His works to bring a marvelous work and wonder into this wo
rld. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.