Browse >
Home / Archive by category 'Conversion Stories'
Conversion Stories Articles
When Mormon missionaries begin to teach a person interested in hearing their message, the missionaries will encourage the person to pray. For many “investigators” of the LDS Church, prayer is a brand new venture, and at first, they may be very uncomfortable about making the attempt.
That was the case for me. I had never prayed. My father was a rocket scientist and did not believe in God. My mother claimed to be Christian, but I never saw her pray, never saw her pick up a Bible, never saw her go to any church. My first prayer was simply to find out if anyone was “up there.” Was there a God, as the missionaries claimed? And if He did, indeed, exist, was He personally interested enough in me to answer my awkward prayer? I knelt, and didn’t quite know how to begin. The missionaries had given me some coaching – begin by addressing deity in a respectful way, and use respectful language throughout. Give thanks. Then ask for... Read the rest of this article »
I was blessed by Heavenly Father to be born in Japan and adopted by an Irish-American family and have lived in California all my life. I was raised and brought up Roman Catholic and went to catechism. Even as a child, I wasn’t comfortable as a Catholic. Religion as it was taught to me made me fearful enough that I would even get sick in church. My cousin and Aunt were Mormons, but taught me nothing about their faith. Later in my life, I left Catholicism and went into spiritualism. But I was very worried in the beginning about leaving Catholicism, afraid to betray the faith of my father. I didn’t launch out on my religious quest, until he said it was all right. I had close friends who were Mormon, and they warned me of the dangers of spiritualism. Instead of investigating their religion more closely, I became a born-again Christian.
I got saved and accepted the Lord as my personal Lord and Savior. I felt the Lord’s... Read the rest of this article »
by Jessica
As a person born into a family that is a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am not familiar with the conversion process. A convert is a person is not born into the Church, but is taught and brought into the Church at a certain time in their life. My mother was converted when she was sixteen years old. My dad was born into the Church.
There are certain benefits to being a convert. It can be compared to being a foreigner, moving to a new place. For example, I was living in Utah for so long, I felt like I had nothing to left to learn about the state, even though there is much out there that I don’t know. On the other hand, for a person who is visiting Utah, it’s a vast new experience that they want to learn everything about. So, they travel, they learn, and they study everything about the state to learn more about it. The same goes for the Church. Being born into a family that is LDS, the youth can sometimes feel like... Read the rest of this article »
Alan Lew is a former engineer, of South African/Chinese origin and convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I was born January 14, 1960, in an area southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. Both my parents are South African by birth but from different ethnic backgrounds. My mother’s father was Portuguese from Mozambique and her mother was mixed South African. My father’s parents are both Chinese who arrived in South Africa in their youth. I am therefore Chinese, Portuguese, and mixed South African.
In my early years, my family moved to a suburb in Johannesburg about 3 miles from the city center. We spent several years in the Doornfontein area, just a block away from aunts and uncles on my father’s side of the family. We then moved to a neighboring suburb called Bertrams for a few years, after which my parents bought a home in Bezhuidenhout (Bez) Valley. All these areas were close to each other and with each move our... Read the rest of this article »
This is Wayne’s conversion story...
When I was about 22, living a life of alcohol, drugs, and contention with the girl I was living with, I wanted to find a way out of the misery. When I searched for solutions, all I seemed to find were ads promising love, fame or fortune.
One night, my girlfriend and I found ourselves on our knees. Something which we had never felt before had filled the room, a divine presence. The powerful feeling lasted for just a few minutes, but we both knew it was of God.
I began to feel and experience many miraculous things from that time on. A deep desire to read the Bible led me specifically to the New Testament. But, after about two months, these great and amazing feelings seemed to fade. Still, I desired to join a church and be associated with good people. My girlfriend chose not to act upon the spiritual experience we shared that night, and I moved out. The Spirit never lingered with her like it did with me. It seems... Read the rest of this article »
I was born in Washington, D.C. and had extended family all around. I can remember attending family events and special events at synagogue when I was a small child, but I was too young to understand what it meant to be Jewish. I knew that my family had its own, very colorful, culture and behavior, and that it was somehow different than that of our neighbors. Still, our family celebrated Christmas and Easter—at least the secular parts.
When I was eight years old, my parents moved to Southern California. My father was a rocket scientist and had left his teaching position at Johns Hopkins University to work at Jet Propulsion Labs. When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were suddenly no longer Jewish, and faith was never mentioned again in the household. My mother did say once in awhile, that she’d had a Catholic governess, who had baptized her, but my mother never once went to a Church that I recall.
At the beginning of each school year, all... Read the rest of this article »
Conversion story of Richard Jewel Willoughby Jr.
The story, to be told correctly, needs some family background. My father was born in Independence, Missouri and was baptized a member of the church at 8 years old but was not active as an adult…read more>
Conversion story by Crystal Champion.
I am certain now that I have found the truth that I have been seeking for, for the better part of my life. I was not brought up in a very religious home and as a matter of fact rarely went to church for most of my childhood or teenage years…read more >
A Testimony and My Witness of the Lord’s Work in Fiji
This testimony is to President Inosi Naga and the wonderful saints from Fiji who are now living in Northern California and who will be participating in the wonderful commemoration of the 50th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Fiji Islands…read more>
What God Sounds Like, by Allyson
I was raised in no... Read the rest of this article »
I Was Raised a Roman Catholic
by Susan Craig
I was raised a Roman Catholic. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my break with Catholicism actually began with the death of a baby brother I never got to know. He was born in the early 60′s and died from a birth defect. I had been raised to believe that if a baby wasn’t baptized, he or she would never go to heaven. And I never questioned this. Some years later, I began to fear that my baby brother had not been baptized. I didn’t know how I [could] be certain of this.
In September of 1972, my (divorced) mother had moved me, my sister, and my other brother to a new town so she could further her nursing education. I recall coming home from school one day and seeing the newspaper which had a picture on the front page of two young men in white shirts and ties. I didn’t read the accompanying caption and thought nothing of it. Unbeknownst to me, my younger sister... Read the rest of this article »
What God Sounds Like
by Allison
I was raised in no particular religion; although my parents went between Unitarianism and agnostic, my mother now says that she is an atheist. My conversion story starts in July of 1982, in El Cajon, outside of San Diego, CA, where I was staying with my parents after the birth of my second son. It was a horrible time for me, as their god was money, and they did their best to try and get me to divorce my husband, who had stayed up in Santa Cruz, CA, at college while I “visited” with my family in El Cajon. If we had known their agenda, we would never have agreed to my staying there, but I had had difficulties after my delivery, and as my mom was a nurse, it seemed the best option at the time. If I had been feeling better I might have been suspicious that they insisted on taking all the furniture that was mine or loaned to me by them with them to San Diego.
I ended up walking to the nearby 7-Eleven every day to call and... Read the rest of this article »
Conversion story of Richard Jewel Willoughby Jr. 5 January 2006
The story, to be told correctly, needs some family background. My father was born in Independence, Missouri, and was baptized a member of the Church at 8 years old but was not active as an adult. My father joined the US Air Force and was stationed at Burtonwood, England, during the Korean War. My mother was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, and had three sons by my father before they were divorced.
At age four I was raised in England with my mother and new stepfather. I knew nothing about my LDS heritage as I grew up and never came into contact with any members of the church.
My mother was Catholic and my stepfather never mentioned religion but was a hard worker and was a good influence. If I asked him to do something that he thought I could do for myself he would say, “Use your own initiative”. We never went to church as a family but when I was very young I recall my mother telling... Read the rest of this article »
