So growing up in the Mormon Church was an amazing experience. I was influenced
by wonderful parents, awesome brothers, and lots of people asked me growing up
what was it like being a kid in the Mormon Church?
So it all starts when I was 9 yrs old. I had been baptized just for about a year, and in Baptism you
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and that means that you have the
accompaniment of a figure of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost, with you to lead and
guide you on your path. There was a specific experience that I remember. It
was the first time that I truly felt the Holy Ghost and it really charged me to
want to learn more about how we can come closer to Jesus Christ, and in turn know
if the restoration of the gospel actually happened. So when I was 9 my
parents went to Germany to pick up my older brother who was on his mission and
they were gone for two weeks. I was staying at this families house it's like
wintertime, February and I had just moved from California and so I was still
wearing shorts, and Sister Anderson was like "Ian you got to go upstairs and put
on pants its too cold outside" and I'm like okay all right my friend he had soccer
practice and I was going to go and just like watch him for his soccer practice
because I followed him everywhere he was like my only friend and so I went
upstairs changed some clothes so I could be warmer and on my way down the stairs
I had this deep impression that I had never felt before I was 9 year old so
it's kind of confused this deep impression to not go and I told her I
said look I don't think I'm gonna go and she's like really that's weird
ok long story short this deep impression by the Holy Ghost was something that I
needed to follow because on the way to the soccer practice they got t-boned and
the side of the car that I was sitting on was completely smashed in and I would
have been terribly injured and could have been fatal not really sure what
would have happened but it was in that moment that I discovered that I needed
to gain a personal relationship with God because as a nine-year-old I had that
little bit little bit of knowledge that there could be tough times and I'm gonna
need some guidance from the Lord and if I don't follow the promptings of the
Holy Ghost I could be on the left side of a car getting
t-boned. It's interesting because in life you don't really know what's going to
happen and so it's really important that we follow the will of Jesus Christ the
will of God and follow the Holy Ghost so that we can follow the will of God and
so when I was 9 this little seed of faith just kind of bloomed like whoa and
so I called my mom who was in Germany I said mom I think I felt the Holy Ghost
she was like why and I'm like because I didn't die and then she freaked out
that's probably not a good way of explaining it but then I told her what
happened and she was like what good job for listening and so growing up in the
church lots of people think hi you're a Mormon because your parents are a Mormon
which to an extent is true like I was born into the church they raised me they
brought me to church but there's one important factor that lots of people are
missing when they say oh you're Mormon because your parents are Mormon and
they're missing the fact that the gospel is a gospel of choices. I never was
forced to do anything my parents never said if you don't go to church
you're losing this type of privilege or if you don't go to church you're going
to get grounded like that was never the way that my parents taught me how to
live my life it was always these are the blessings these are the principles and
if you apply them we promise you that you will be happy and so that was
enticing to me but of course as a teenager and you know as a kid I wanted
to be rebellious I didn't want to follow everything that my parents said
organized religion to an extent was kind of boring like I don't want to sit
through three hours of church all the time it was probably when I was around
14 years old or 13 I decided to read The Book of Mormon
all the way through we had read it out of the family like every night and I had
read my five verses as we tried to finish up a chapter and then we would
move on to the next night and finish up a chapter but when I was 14 or 13 I
decided I'm going to do this for myself and that was a great experience because
it was in those moments that I opened up the book for myself without any
preconceived notions not even thinking oh this book is true but I'm going to
read it anyway so I remember distinctly thinking I'm just going to read this as
a new book I have read parts of it before but I'm going to open it up and
I'm going to search for myself because I know that I'm a child of God and God
wants me to have a personal relationship with him and I thought back to when I
was 9 and I was like God is aware of me. He wants me to know certain things
whether it's to stay alive like in that situation or to learn of truth
so that I can live a successful life. So reading the Book of Mormon that way
really helped me because there were no preconceived notions but I had the idea
that God was going to guide me on this path and so I read it and I finished it
and my mom and dad they were never like are you gonna pray about it now I let
them know that I read it and they said hey did you pay attention to the end and
I'm like yeah it says in Moroni 10: 3-5 that I'm supposed to pray
about it and they're like yeah you can do that whenever you want and you don't
have to let us know because sometimes answers from God take awhile
sometimes they're like a light switch and sometimes they're like a sunrise
where they take a little bit of time in order for you to feel all the light of
truth. It was great because I never felt pressured from my parents and I know it's
not the case for everyone but luckily I grew up with parents that were confident
in the invitation that the Book of Mormon gave me and has has given
millions of people which is to have faith in Christ thinking of all the
blessings that you've had looking at the Book of Mormon is something that could
watch your life applying those principles and then pray with the real
intent humble enough to know that whatever answer God gives you you will
follow humble enough to know that when you pray he can give you an answer... that
was the type of mindset that I had reading The Book of Mormon and then
praying about it and I remember my mom was practicing the organ and I was
cuddled up on the couch and I decided to throw the blanket over my head and just
kind of like I just really wanted to be alone and I prayed about it and I was
kind of anxious praying about it because I was scared that it wasn't going to be
true because I was humble enough to say to God like look I've grown up with this
I want to know if the truth but I wanted to hear it from you it was in that
moment that he gave me so much light and happiness and no one can tell me that
it's not true anymore because I had a personal spiritual experience with my
Heavenly Father that I can't even describe the feelings other than
lightness and happiness. The Book of Mormon became the keystone of my
testimony it was the pinnacle of my conversion. If the Book of Mormon was
true then I was able to, you know, further dive into the gospel of Jesus Christ and
compare it to the Bible and compare it to old prophets and living prophets and
compared it to the Book of Mormon. So then I started to apply the principles of the
Book of Mormon and for me application of something that you're
learning is the perfect example of humility
and as a teenager it's really hard to be humble it's hard to say I probably
shouldn't be a part of that crowd or yeah I probably should live a chaste
life. That's, that's the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it gives
you an enlarged perspective of what's to come. Around 16, my dad, he was a branch
president which is like a pastor or a bishop he was on his way to do a
late-night interview with someone in his word that was having issues and so we
were watching the World Series it's 2009, I remember my dad saying like "Ah, I got
to go" it was a 30-minute drive to get to the church and I went to bed that night
and I woke up with the police. They woke me up with a flashlight and said your
mom has filed for a missing-persons report
can you please come down and talk to her and things like that I just saw my mom
as she was in hysteria she was worried about my dad she went out in the middle
of the night looking for him and I went to school and I got called on to the
office and I found out you know long story short that my dad had passed away
in a motorcycle accident and if I could describe feelings of sadness and
feelings of heartache and tragedy I would use this example because in this
moment it felt like my happy life had just turned on its axis and turned into
something that was very dark I felt a dark presence my dad was gone I didn't
fully believe that because it was instant and I went home and found my mom
and she was crying and I just said everything's going to be okay but I
didn't really know what was going on and I was just trying to cope with the
situation there are several people at my house there to give us condolences and
also to comfort us and this is a moment where I had to figure out if I was going
to live with my family after death. There's something in the Mormon Church
where we talk about the Plan of Salvation where we're able to understand
that we have a defined nature which means we come from God and can be with
God so we can understand where we came from why we are here and where we will
go after this life and this involves resurrection and living with our
families for all eternity, but my main issue right now was, am I going to be
able to see my dad again. And this was really heavy like I didn't know what to
do other than to kneel down and pray and so I just locked myself in a bathroom
for about three hours and kind of like how it says in the scriptures I wrestled
with God. I was mad. I was so mad. God had taken my dear
father away from me I just blamed everything on him I was so mad and angry
and just kind of wanted to lash it all out and so for a couple hours I did that.
But there was a moment in my prayer where that Holy Ghost came back and said
calm down I was like my dad just passed away when he mean calm down like that
doesn't sound like the right thing to do right now I my instant reaction was to
be aggressive to be mad to hold it in that voice of saying calm down and ask
the question. And I was like yeah I really do want to know if I can see my dad
again. So all of this anger when I asked Heavenly Father with real intent to
really know humbly if I would see my dad again I remember instantly these
feelings changed to happiness and I immediately stopped crying and there was
this change about my disposition it wasn't just a spiritual change because
I'd decided to be humble and ask God and not be mad at him, but there was a
physical change about me. I felt like Heavenly Father picking me
up and like lifting me up and physically helping me and comforting me, it
reminds me of the Book of Mormon when Alma the Younger is explaining to his
son how he was in you know the wrath and depths of hell because of all of the
sins that he had committed and my situation was different I was just mad
but he really needed repentance and when he prayed to God calling out to Jesus
saying please you know save my soul he remembers the same feeling of all of
the sorrow and anger that you could have felt made a full 180 and turned into joy
and happiness. When I decided to ask Heavenly Father if you know these things
were true if I truly wanted to repent and that was the exact same thing that
happened to me and I had remembered that scripture when it happened and felt the
presence of God I felt like there was a plan and there was a trajectory for me
to move on. When God gives you these opportunities to grow you have two ways
that you can take you can take the way of pride and anger and you can wallow in
your sadness and in your sin or you can take the much harder route which is to
realize that in the long run everything is going to be okay and you decide I'm
going to apply the Scriptures which to many these days sounds very illogical
but you say I'm going to test and I'm going to try my hardest to be
happy and I found out that every moment in my life in the conversion that I've
lived there have been two distinct roads you can take the easy route like well
I'm not going to be a member of the church anymore because my dad just
passed away what like what now but then I could take the other route which was
'be still' which in the scriptures we see all the time you know when we're ever
anxious or sad it was be still and whenever I would be praying about the
Book of Mormon or praying to know if I would see my dad again or praying to
know if modern-day revelation was true there was this feeling of 'be still' this
idea of 'be still' wasn't saying like 'please stop talking' this idea of 'be still' was 'calm
down and ask your questions' and I have grown to love questions that has been a
part of my conversion process up until this day I don't even know everything
about the eternities or about the life of Joseph Smith I strive every day to
learn more about the gospel but this idea that Heavenly Father is a father
that wants you to ask him questions brings me so much happiness and hope and
it has worked every time for me. My conversion hasn't been like a moment in
time where I prayed about the Book of Mormon and oh I know everything now or I
prayed to know if I could see my dad again and that my family would live
together oh I'm fine I have no more questions there have been
questions all the time doubts all the time almost everyday I'm like well what
about this or what about this so my testimony about the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter day Saints is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't
come from me growing up in the church and my mom and dad telling me it doesn't
come from a single prayer it doesn't come from a single action where I help
someone on my mission and they applied the gospel of Jesus Christ I saw how it
helped their whole family it wasn't like that
it was a personal decision to want to know more and that's what I love about
the gospel is that it's an invitation in the Book of Mormon it says pray to know
if these things are true and they shall be revealed unto you by the power of the
Holy Ghost and if you ask your questions with real intent wanting to know the
truth and not giving up there have been times where I've asked questions and I
haven't really received the answer and that's really sad it's really hard to
know that God isn't willing to just extend his hand and give me
answer or to take me out of tribulation but it's nice to know that I have the
Holy Ghost with me to keep me strong through those times so that I can always
be lifted up through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Yeah so growing up in the
church didn't mean that I was indoctrinated. it didn't mean that I was
forced to be a disciple or a latter-day saint. being a member of the church ever
since I was a little kid I feel very blessed because I've had a great
community great family but it also the gospel has helped me understand that I
can ask questions and it's okay to have doubts but it's always important to want
to resolve them and resolve them with your heavenly father resolve them with
living prophets and scriptures so that you can have the full effects that the
Spirit can testify to you the truth of these things I know that Joseph Smith I
know for myself that he truly was the prophet of the restoration I know that
the gospel of Jesus Christ reaches to all people living and dead that the
gospel isn't something that we're going to regret I do not regret being a
latter-day Saint, though some people may look at me and think it's weird I think how
blessed am I to know that Heavenly Father is aware of me and that he wants
me to be happy and he wants me to live with my family for all time. I know that
it's it's hard to gain a testimony it's been hard for me and truly a testimony
isn't knowledge. I think those are different a testimony is acting in faith,
knowing that you might fail but every failure just means that you're much
closer to a successful spiritual growth. And so knowing that Jesus Christ is a
resurrected being is knowledge but applying the fact that his atonement can
make me a better person is a testimony so I invite you if you are a member or
aren't a member to try and build a testimony and act in faith, because it is so
worth it in the long haul it will all work out and brings everyone true happiness so make
sure to follow our page follow us on Facebook Twitter Instagram at
@3mormons and we're excited to see what you have to say in the comments and the
DM make sure to comment away and share with us your conversion story because
sharing a conversion story is what really makes a testimony because when
you bear one really gain one but see you guys later on our next episode okay and
Forsyth out. That might be a new thing hmm Kirk out like Star Trek... Forsyth out