Hi,
I discovered your site yesterday and I’ve read some of the articles. I’m at work, so I will keep this short. I just wanted to give you a quick summary of how I was saved. In July of 2012 I was feeling suicidal. Everything that I had ever done wrong as well as everything others had done wrong to me seemed to all come to a point at once. I felt worthless. I had a couple of customers talking about suicide as well, which didn’t help my cause. I decided then that I was going to end it. I bought some over the counter sleeping pills and combined them with my anti-depressants (about 30 or so) and took them all together. I couldn’t breath and I got scared and had my wife drive me to the hospital. I was there 3 days. I started praying asking God to help me.
About 2 weeks later, I met a Christian woman at work named _____. ______ began to witness to me. Later on, I found out that she felt drawn to me by God. ______ helped me get into a 12-step program for codependency and there I started learing about a Higher Power. Through ______ and through CoDA meetings, I determined that their view of a Higher Power and my Mormon view were in conflict with one another.
______ invited me to read my Bible and for the first time it started making sense. About six month later, I told her I was ready to leave the LDS church and asked her where a good church to attend was. She pointed me to ______ where ______ is the campus Pastor. I e-mailed _____ after attending service on ______ and he called me the next day.
_____ and I spoke for around an hour. ____ invited me to surrender to Christ and accept him into my life. He explained why Mormonism is at conflict with traditional Christianity. I prayed. I don’t remember everything I said in that prayer, but I remember surrendering to Christ. I remember saying that the Mormon Christ is not the Christ of the Bible.
The next day, I woke up and felt clean. I felt something like I’d never felt before. I felt an energy come over me. This didn’t go away for over a month. I asked Pastor _____ about it and he said that I should not trust my feelings, but prove everything with the Bible. I told him, I know what the Bible is saying is true. He said that he didn’t discount my feelings, and he said it was Heavenly Father talking to me. He simply said that I should not trust my feelings alone.
I told _____ about this and she said that it was genuine of _____ to do this because he didn’t use my feelings to manipulate me into following him. ______ and I were good friends and it caused problems with my wife. _____ suggested ______ and I part ways, so we did. We never talk now, which hurts, but it’s for the best.
on June 9, 2013, I was baptized as a Christian. I’ve only missed 3 days of church since and I’m involved in a weekly Bible study. The energy I felt comes and goes. My wife and six kids (who live at home, I have 8) are still LDS but slowing coming around.
I feel right now, if I were to lose everything else, including my family, that I would still have Christ. I am saved and I feel at peace right now as I write these words to you. I feel better now that I left the LDS church. I still get depressed and anxious, I have PTSD. But it’s easier to cope with now. I don’t beat myself up now when I make mistakes or for the mistakes I’ve made in the past.
I hope that this story will help others who are contemplating leaving Mormonism. I simply ask that you omit names of people and of my church or change them if you reprint this. I don’t want to embarrass ______ or _____ and if you use my name, people who know my story will know of whom I talk.
One last thing. I would like for my wife and ______ to be friends one day. _____ was a very good influence on me. I ask please that you pray that God can work this miracle if it’s His will. I ask please that you pray for my family to come to know the true Christ of the Bible.
Thank you,
Name and city withheld
Praise God! He is so Good!
Amen! There is hope for ALL – no matter if you’re a dyed in the wool member of the Church, an active convert in the heart of Utah or the average member who’s inactive but has his/her name on the roles. EVERYONE from the smallest to the most renowned can be seen and heard of by God! This gives us hope for our loved ones, does it not?
I really appreciate this man’s honesty and willingness to open up and share in a public forum such as this. I know his name (as does God of course) and know that he is so humbled by what the Lord has done for him. We’re going to pray his family is saved as well!
Michelle