January 7, 2011

"Why on Earth did you decide to become a Mormon?"

When I was first joining the Church, one of the missionaries (and by this time, a very good friend) asked me, “Okay, so Michael. I’ve got to know. Why on Earth did you decide to become a Mormon?”

I don’t remember my exact response, but the question confused me. When I asked him why he asked, he said, “We just don’t have a lot of people like you who are interested in joining.” And that’s completely understandable, especially after Prop 8 (a discussion for a later time).

But, as described in detail in a previous post, the simple explanation as to why I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is because I had a strong testimony of the truthfulness of it. As soon as I had that knowledge that the Church was true, I knew that I needed to be a part of it. I realize that this answer might not be adequate for some, but it really is the best I can give.

Having said that, would I really be me if I didn’t elaborate on that answer? No stinking way!

A testimony is spiritual witness given by the Holy Ghost, so says the scriptures. But why should I change my life just because I suddenly had a bit of knowledge given to me? I mean, I smoked for years because I thought it was cool even though I knew for a fact that smoking was bad for my health. What made this any different?

I believe that for me the difference was the messenger. I trust the companies that tell me smoking causes cancer and a number of other problems. I have seen the damage that smoking can do on the body. But that still didn’t stop me from doing it. To go a little further, according to a 2010 study, about 1.35 billion people smoke world-wide. That’s a whole lot of people doing something that they know isn't good for them. So, my point is, we can know that something is good or bad and still choose to ignore it. Which brings me back to my question, why didn’t I ignore the Spirit?

To help me answer that question, I’d like to relate a story given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

“After the turmoil of the Second World War, my family ended up in Russian-occupied East Germany. When I attended fourth grade I had to learn Russian as my first foreign language in school. I found this quite difficult because of the Cyrillic alphabet, but as time went on I seemed to do all right.

“When I turned 11 we had to leave East Germany overnight because of the political orientation of my father. Now I was going to school in West Germany, which was American-occupied at that time. There in school all children were required to learn English and not Russian. To learn Russian had been difficult, but English was impossible for me. I thought my mouth was not made for speaking English. My teachers struggled. My parents suffered. And I knew English was definitely not my language.

“But then something changed in my young life. Almost daily I rode my bicycle to the airport and watched airplanes take off and land. I read, studied, and learned everything I could find about aviation. It was my greatest desire to become a pilot. I could already picture myself in the cockpit of an airliner or in a military fighter plane. I felt deep in my heart this was my thing!

“Then I learned that to become a pilot I needed to speak English. Overnight, to the total surprise of everybody, it appeared as if my mouth had changed. I was able to learn English. It still took a lot of work, persistence, and patience, but I was able to learn English!

“Why? Because of a righteous and strong motive!

“Our motives and thoughts ultimately influence our actions. The testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful motivating force in our lives. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the power of good thoughts and proper motives: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.””

When I heard this, I thought to myself, “But I didn’t have any motivation to become Mormon.” I thought about that for a while and was pretty surprised with what I discovered. When I was younger, I had a crush on this guy named Jason Hitchcock. (I believe I mentioned him in “Genesis, Part One.”) Enthralled with Jason as I was, he said something to me once that stuck in my mind. He said something to the effect of, “Mormons are going to Hell.”

Pretty simple, right? And I’ve got to be honest, that is a phrase I’ve heard a lot since then. But it was probably the first time in my life it had ever been told to me. And, seeing as it was Jason who said it, it meant a little more. So, I asked the brilliantly crafted question, “Why?”

To which he declared, “Mormons created their own Bible!”

“Well that was a pretty silly thing to do,” I told him.

“Yeah, and now they’re all going to Hell!”

Having never read it, I didn’t know too much about the Bible at that time in my life, otherwise I think I would have understood why he was so upset. But then again, I would have pretended to have been deeply offended by the Mormons if only to keep him talking to me a little longer. But, in truth, I just didn't care that much. But something happened that, I’m sure, Jason would have regretted if he could see me now. What was it? The word "Mormon" was perminately branded in my mind.

About six years ago, I had the feeling that I needed to go to church. By this time, I had already been introduced to Samuel Black, but seeing as I wasn’t exactly ready for that kind of commitment, given my night life, I wasn’t honestly considering anything to do with Mormons. Even so, I went to my aunt’s house for a couple of days and we got on the subject of Christianity. I told her that I wanted to go back to church. She said great! I asked her if there were any churches she would prefer. She said any church that taught about Jesus Christ was good enough.

I’m not sure if this next question was sincere or if I was just curious of her response, but I asked her, “What about the Mormon Church?”

She said, “No, not them. They aren’t Christian. They’re a cult.”

I frowned but I didn’t say anything. From experience (granted it was only one trip to Church and a brief lesson by a guy I was half-flirting with), I knew that the Mormons might be weird, but they definitely didn’t seem like a cult to me. I thought it was interesting to see, though, how quickly “any church that teaches about Jesus Christ” became “any church except that one.”

While I was still pretty new to the Bay Area, I began dating this guy. We originally starting talking because we shared the same nickname on a social network but we soon become boyfriends. Although our relationship didn’t last, I got the chance to catch up with him about two years later down the road. By that time, I was a member of the Church, which actually came to no surprise to this guy at all.

“Huh?” I said. I would have thought he’d be as stunned as I was when I agreed to be baptized.

But he said, “You always had a strange interest in Mormons.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. Don’t you remember how I tried telling you all that stuff about Joseph Smith and you didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, but you tried to tell me you were Mormon anyways.”

I laughed. He was referring to a ridiculous cartoon episode where Joseph Smith was made fun of. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the Church save the brief excursion with it I had in Texas. “Even so,” he said. “You still tried convincing me you were a Mormon at heart.”

I laughed again. “Well I guess I got my wish.”

“Looks that way.”

But it was strange thinking that all of my life, I was unconsciously searching for something. Just as Dieter F. Uchtdorf had said in his story. I had a strong motivation to know of the truthfulness of something, and even though I definitely got distracted a lot on the way and wasn’t fully aware that I was even doing it, I was taking step after step towards the Church.

Now, this wasn’t where I gained my testimony of the Church. I received that in the missionary discussions with Elder Monte and Elder Fielding. But this definitely served to strengthen the testimony that I already had. And, when you know in your heart and in your head that something is true, how can you ever turn away from it?

So, to answer the question those missionaries asked me so long ago, why on Earth did I decide to become a Mormon? Well, I suppose it was because I gained a sure knowledge and assurance from the Holy Ghost of the truthfulness of the Church and, armed with that conviction, there was no way that I could not join.

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