My Conversion Story

I guess  a part of this blog, it might be helpful for me to share how I reached this point in my life, or at least how it all started.  I don't know if I have ever really shared the details of my conversion, but thought this might be a good opportunity.

I guess it all started when I met what would turn out to be my future wife Geri, when I was a senior in high school in Houston, Texas.  She was my first introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons).  She didn’t say much about the Church other than she would never marry anyone who was not Mormon.  I thought that was very narrow-minded, but then, we were only dating.  After about 3 months, we started “GOING STEADY” which meant we were exclusive and would not date anyone else.

 After I graduated from high school, the family moved back to El Paso and I started college at Texas Western College (now UTEP).  Geri came out to visit me during that summer for a week and stayed at a cousin’s house.  After she went back to Houston, I started dating her cousin and it was through that cousin that I went to church with her and took the missionary lessons for the first time.

Growing up, I was raised in the Lutheran church and from age 12-14 attended “Catechism” on Saturdays, which was somewhat similar to Seminary.  At 14 I went through Confirmation and became an “adult” member of the Lutheran church.  Until you completed Catechism and were confirmed, you could not take the Sacrament, which was served once a month.  This was the equivalent to the Catholic “First Communion”.  I tell you this to help you understand that I was raised in a home of faith and my parents were fairly active at church.  For the most part, I went to church every Sunday and as a teen was involved with the church youth group.  That being said, I remember that as I was being educated in the church I always had questions about issues like “What happens to people who die, who never heard the Gospel message and were never baptized?” and what happens to babies who dies right after birth and were not baptized?”  Baptism as a Lutheran, was a critical ordinance to salvation and if you were not baptized, you could not go to heaven.  That didn’t make much sense and when I asked my pastor about this, I was told that I should not worry about it, that God would take care of all of that.  Not a very satisfying answer for a young boy. 

Like most people, I was familiar with the “stories” in the Bible, but have never read the Bible cover to cover.

Back to my time at UTEP and the missionary lessons.  As I said, I went through the lessons and attended my girlfriend’s ward (local congregation) and decided to be baptized.  I had moved out of my parent’s home and was living in an apartment with a room-mate, was attending college full-time and was also working a full-time job.  I was 19 years old at this time. 

After committing to baptism, I went and saw my father at his office to inform him of my decision.  At this point, I was an emancipated minor, meaning that even though I was still a minor, I was not longer under the control of my parents.  Out of respect for my father and the things I had been taught growing up, I felt that telling him of my decision was the proper thing to do.  Of course he felt that I was being influenced by my girlfriend and that I had no idea about what I was doing.  He felt that this was just an impulse.  

During WWII my dad was stationed at Kerns Army Air Corp Base in Salt Lake City, and my older brother Delvin was born there.  He was somewhat familiar with the Church, but had never taken the missionary lessons or really looked into the Church.   He asked me to wait a year to make sure this was really what I wanted to do and to also talk to a Lutheran minister before being baptized.

I agreed to do that.

During my second year at UTEP, for reasons that are a totally another story, my room-mate and I decided to both transfer to the University of Houston.  I called up Geri’s mom and asked her that if we came to Houston, could we crash at their place for a few days, until we got settled.  She was happy to do that.  She always liked me and told Geri many times that she fell in love with me long before Geri did.

We moved to Houston in December 1966 and after a couple of weeks my room-mate left and went back to El Paso.  I found a job and enrolled at the University of Houston, and ended up staying with Geri’s family, sleeping on the couch and working the graveyard shift, while going to college during the daytime until April 1967. 

Obviously Geri and I were dating at this time.  The Utah relatives thought this was scandalous, but they obviously did not know or understand your Geri and the situation.  I started attending Church with her on a regular basis and after waiting the year that I had promised my father, and re-taking the missionary lessons again, I committed to baptism.  Prior to my baptism date, gain, out of respect to the promise I made my father, I went and saw a Lutheran minister.  He tried to talk me out of joining the Church, but I had already made up my mind at this point.

As I said, I had been attending Church on a regular basis for about 7 months and even gave a talk once.  When they announced my baptism, a lot of the Ward members were surprised because they thought that I had been a member all along.

That was in July of 1967, and in September I asked your Geri to marry me.  I was 20 and she was 19.  We were married that December (46 years ago) by the Bishop in our Ward (the same person who gave you my son his Patriarchal Blessing) and that next August went to Salt Lake City and were sealed in the Temple.  We couldn’t marry in the Temple initially because I had not been a member of the Church for a year (it was a requirement then).  We actually had to get permission from President David O. McKay to be sealed in the temple because we had not been civilly married for 1 year when we wanted to go to the Temple.  Our first Temple recommends were actually signed by President McKay.

That is the long and the short of it regarding my conversion to the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My parents were upset with my decision and my father would never discuss the Church with me or even let me explain my decision.  I did have a long conversation about it with my mother and I think she passed that information on to my dad.  I explained to her that I did not feel that when I joined the Church that I gave up or turned my back on any of the important things that I had been taught in my youth about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.  I told her that I still believed that God was my Heavenly Father and that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that all could be saved.  What I did find through the Church was that there was a lot more about God and Jesus to be learned and that through the Church I was able to develop a closer and more personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ and better understand where I came from, why I am here and where I am going.  That through the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith the fullness of the Gospel has been restored.

Over the years my testimony has grown and continues to grow.