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| So close and yet so clueless: visiting Nauvoo, Illinois as a family 3 years before being taught by the missionaries who baptized us |
This is the foundation of the Nauvoo Temple (the entire building had been somewhat completed in 1846) which had been destroyed by arson in 1848 and by tornado-like winds in 1850.
Here I was again at Nauvoo, Illinois a year later---
I remember from my earliest days of childhood having a faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. My mother read Bible stories to me at bedtime, and my parents sent my older sister and me to church to attend Sunday School most Sundays. I wondered why my parents did not go with us. Above all, I had a desire to please them and to please God. I truly wanted to do what was right.
In Junior High, many of my friends attended some kind of church – not all the same one. There was somewhat of a religious fervor in my 7th grade year. I attended Sunday School at my church on Sunday and Youth Night at another church in the middle of the week. I remember being persuaded by friends to try out their churches. I sometimes did service projects with them. It became my wish to be baptized, so I attended weekly confirmation classes at my church and was baptized at the conclusion of those preparatory lessons. A group of about fifteen of us was baptized together. I was very disappointed because I had hoped to feel a sort of communion with God at my baptism: I had felt nothing despite being very eager and innocent. For one thing, I had wanted to be immersed in water and had only been sprinkled. When the group was presented to the congregation as new members, I looked across at another girl and saw on her face a spiritual countenance that I so longed to have. I wondered why I felt so unfulfilled and unaffected.
My parents were looking for something to satisfy their own spiritual longings, but they were not looking for a church. My mother had been interested previously in astrology; my father was little more than amused with that field of study. After my older sister requested help with a school assignment to fill in a family tree, my mother began to immerse herself in genealogical research and in the discovery of who she was and from where she came. She was joined by my father’s sister. Although my dad was more keen on this field of study, it remained a passive interest. Since they sought mutual fulfillment and did not find it in a spiritual realm, they chose to embark together on a totally new and different career path. At the beginning of my 9th grade year, my father gave up his economic career of the past decade and, with two remaining children at home, my parents moved back to their grass roots of native soil where other extended family members resided. Mother and father started a business and opened a retail store together to support their family of four.
Once settled, my parents discovered the practice of transcendental meditation (a practice that was rather short-lived but sincere, nonetheless.) I, on the other hand, visited multiple church services looking for a church to attend regularly. It seemed to me that each preacher read scriptures from the Bible and presented them in the context of a moral story without a definitive exposition of doctrine. Sermons seemed to suggest that interpretation of holy writ was a matter of every person’s own choice. However, I didn’t trust in my own ability to decipher God’s meaning, and I believed that truth was absolute rather than subjective. So, although I wasn't convinced about having found the right church, I settled the question by regularly attending meetings where I felt the most comfortable socially.
Feeling comfortable socially in the secondary school setting was less settling. I experimented with a number of new relations, new pastimes, new substances - all of which could have altered the course of my future success - my Freshman year. I will have to save the details of my relocation transition for another time and for another story, because I have now set the stage for my conversion story. My parents and I were looking for truth and fulfillment but knew not where to find it: Enter a new family on the block. Interestingly, our associations with this new family came about through my younger sister who wasn’t looking for anything special. Of course, she was only seven years of age. She befriended two sisters from this family who invited her to attend the Primary children’s class in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was asked to babysit from time to time the family’s five children, and friendships were formed with the adults of our two families. We were invited to a Family Home Evening in their house and met the full-time missionaries. On this occasion, we watched the filmstrip, “Man’s Search for Happiness.” Most importantly, we felt the Spirit of the Lord in that hallowed home and witnessed the love of a forever family.
When invited to meet with the missionaries to learn more about the Church, my father replied that he would be willing to learn the truth regarding what made our new friends such a happy, loving family. However, he made it clear that he was not interested in joining a church. Well, you know the rest of the story. We met regularly with the missionaries in our home. We read everything they asked us to read, particularly the unfamiliar Book of Mormon. We accepted their challenges to pray to know if the things we read were true. We asked them many questions. When they didn’t know the answers, they invited us to ask God and to search the scriptures, including the Holy Bible in which they believed. They bore testimony of that which they did know. They became our friends. They ate all of my dad’s home-cooked food. They loved us and prayed for and with us. They had patience with our progress and with our doubts. They knew that what they had was what we needed and wanted. In time, we knew that as well.
What motivated me most of all, perhaps, was that for the first time in my life my parents were showing an interest in a church that promised to bring us closer together as a family. I’m sure that what motivated my parents at first was the loving example of a close-knit family. What sustained their interest was the hope that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ would do the same for our family. It is my testimony that our hope has been realized many times over! That hope burns brightly in at least four generations of the Jack McDonald family, since every one of his descendants who have reached the age of accountability including my older sister and her children have been baptized into the Church. Thanks to the work done in temples and to genealogical research and names submission, I imagine that it extends now into former generations as well. And, with the third missionary from my father's bloodline serving at this present time, I believe that this same hope that has been born before is being born and will yet be born to countless other families through all generations of time and throughout all eternity. Power in the Priesthood…Hurrah for Israel!
If you too would like to know how to receive the sealing powers that make it possible for families to be together for ever and how to understand the restored truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that bring joy, purpose, and strength to all of life’s hopes, endeavors and challenges, please go to mormon.org and discover these things for yourself. Then, pray and ask for the Lord to lead you along His path toward eternal life.
P.S. I believe that complete conversion to gospel truths is a lifelong process where we learn, apply, live, share, and develop - spiritually as well as temporally. We can receive a spiritual witness and be forever changed in an instant, but the process of conversion is indeed ongoing, since we cannot know in this life all that God has to reveal. My parents and I were baptized just prior to the start of my sophomore year of high school which proved to be a continuation of the previous year in my attempt to find my place among my peers and with regard to my values. I was tried and tested by the temptations of youth. My testimony burned within but so did my desire for acceptance. Fortunately, I continued to pray, to search the scriptures, and to actively attend church meetings. Gratefully, I had the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide me even when I made mistakes.
I am so thankful for repentance and Christ's forgiveness! I am also a firm believer in the value of the the church's youth seminary program. It was through my participation in personal scripture study and my association with caring teachers and like-minded peers that I truly gained a testimony of the doctrine of Christ. I attended a youth conference road trip the summer after my sophomore year to church history sights that changed my life and gave me the courage to give up my craving for worldly pleasure and popularity. I chose to disassociate myself from a group of school friends that were following a different path. Although I tried my hardest to keep my best friend close to the gospel path, she herself made her choice and went her separate way. Change is never easy, but I will be forever grateful that my heart was open to the truth, that I had family love and support, and that I found the courage to choose the right. It has made all the difference in my health and happiness.
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| Returned to Zion the very next summer with my cousin - still clueless of why we enjoyed it here so much the first time! |
I remember from my earliest days of childhood having a faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. My mother read Bible stories to me at bedtime, and my parents sent my older sister and me to church to attend Sunday School most Sundays. I wondered why my parents did not go with us. Above all, I had a desire to please them and to please God. I truly wanted to do what was right.
In Junior High, many of my friends attended some kind of church – not all the same one. There was somewhat of a religious fervor in my 7th grade year. I attended Sunday School at my church on Sunday and Youth Night at another church in the middle of the week. I remember being persuaded by friends to try out their churches. I sometimes did service projects with them. It became my wish to be baptized, so I attended weekly confirmation classes at my church and was baptized at the conclusion of those preparatory lessons. A group of about fifteen of us was baptized together. I was very disappointed because I had hoped to feel a sort of communion with God at my baptism: I had felt nothing despite being very eager and innocent. For one thing, I had wanted to be immersed in water and had only been sprinkled. When the group was presented to the congregation as new members, I looked across at another girl and saw on her face a spiritual countenance that I so longed to have. I wondered why I felt so unfulfilled and unaffected.
My parents were looking for something to satisfy their own spiritual longings, but they were not looking for a church. My mother had been interested previously in astrology; my father was little more than amused with that field of study. After my older sister requested help with a school assignment to fill in a family tree, my mother began to immerse herself in genealogical research and in the discovery of who she was and from where she came. She was joined by my father’s sister. Although my dad was more keen on this field of study, it remained a passive interest. Since they sought mutual fulfillment and did not find it in a spiritual realm, they chose to embark together on a totally new and different career path. At the beginning of my 9th grade year, my father gave up his economic career of the past decade and, with two remaining children at home, my parents moved back to their grass roots of native soil where other extended family members resided. Mother and father started a business and opened a retail store together to support their family of four.
Once settled, my parents discovered the practice of transcendental meditation (a practice that was rather short-lived but sincere, nonetheless.) I, on the other hand, visited multiple church services looking for a church to attend regularly. It seemed to me that each preacher read scriptures from the Bible and presented them in the context of a moral story without a definitive exposition of doctrine. Sermons seemed to suggest that interpretation of holy writ was a matter of every person’s own choice. However, I didn’t trust in my own ability to decipher God’s meaning, and I believed that truth was absolute rather than subjective. So, although I wasn't convinced about having found the right church, I settled the question by regularly attending meetings where I felt the most comfortable socially.
Feeling comfortable socially in the secondary school setting was less settling. I experimented with a number of new relations, new pastimes, new substances - all of which could have altered the course of my future success - my Freshman year. I will have to save the details of my relocation transition for another time and for another story, because I have now set the stage for my conversion story. My parents and I were looking for truth and fulfillment but knew not where to find it: Enter a new family on the block. Interestingly, our associations with this new family came about through my younger sister who wasn’t looking for anything special. Of course, she was only seven years of age. She befriended two sisters from this family who invited her to attend the Primary children’s class in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was asked to babysit from time to time the family’s five children, and friendships were formed with the adults of our two families. We were invited to a Family Home Evening in their house and met the full-time missionaries. On this occasion, we watched the filmstrip, “Man’s Search for Happiness.” Most importantly, we felt the Spirit of the Lord in that hallowed home and witnessed the love of a forever family.
When invited to meet with the missionaries to learn more about the Church, my father replied that he would be willing to learn the truth regarding what made our new friends such a happy, loving family. However, he made it clear that he was not interested in joining a church. Well, you know the rest of the story. We met regularly with the missionaries in our home. We read everything they asked us to read, particularly the unfamiliar Book of Mormon. We accepted their challenges to pray to know if the things we read were true. We asked them many questions. When they didn’t know the answers, they invited us to ask God and to search the scriptures, including the Holy Bible in which they believed. They bore testimony of that which they did know. They became our friends. They ate all of my dad’s home-cooked food. They loved us and prayed for and with us. They had patience with our progress and with our doubts. They knew that what they had was what we needed and wanted. In time, we knew that as well.
What motivated me most of all, perhaps, was that for the first time in my life my parents were showing an interest in a church that promised to bring us closer together as a family. I’m sure that what motivated my parents at first was the loving example of a close-knit family. What sustained their interest was the hope that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ would do the same for our family. It is my testimony that our hope has been realized many times over! That hope burns brightly in at least four generations of the Jack McDonald family, since every one of his descendants who have reached the age of accountability including my older sister and her children have been baptized into the Church. Thanks to the work done in temples and to genealogical research and names submission, I imagine that it extends now into former generations as well. And, with the third missionary from my father's bloodline serving at this present time, I believe that this same hope that has been born before is being born and will yet be born to countless other families through all generations of time and throughout all eternity. Power in the Priesthood…Hurrah for Israel!
If you too would like to know how to receive the sealing powers that make it possible for families to be together for ever and how to understand the restored truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that bring joy, purpose, and strength to all of life’s hopes, endeavors and challenges, please go to mormon.org and discover these things for yourself. Then, pray and ask for the Lord to lead you along His path toward eternal life.
P.S. I believe that complete conversion to gospel truths is a lifelong process where we learn, apply, live, share, and develop - spiritually as well as temporally. We can receive a spiritual witness and be forever changed in an instant, but the process of conversion is indeed ongoing, since we cannot know in this life all that God has to reveal. My parents and I were baptized just prior to the start of my sophomore year of high school which proved to be a continuation of the previous year in my attempt to find my place among my peers and with regard to my values. I was tried and tested by the temptations of youth. My testimony burned within but so did my desire for acceptance. Fortunately, I continued to pray, to search the scriptures, and to actively attend church meetings. Gratefully, I had the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide me even when I made mistakes.
I am so thankful for repentance and Christ's forgiveness! I am also a firm believer in the value of the the church's youth seminary program. It was through my participation in personal scripture study and my association with caring teachers and like-minded peers that I truly gained a testimony of the doctrine of Christ. I attended a youth conference road trip the summer after my sophomore year to church history sights that changed my life and gave me the courage to give up my craving for worldly pleasure and popularity. I chose to disassociate myself from a group of school friends that were following a different path. Although I tried my hardest to keep my best friend close to the gospel path, she herself made her choice and went her separate way. Change is never easy, but I will be forever grateful that my heart was open to the truth, that I had family love and support, and that I found the courage to choose the right. It has made all the difference in my health and happiness.
Five years after my family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka by others as LDS Church or Mormon Church), these pictures were taken at a dude ranch in Colorado. This was definitely one of the most fun vacations I have ever had with my family:
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| Mom, sister and me |
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| The family that rides together, stays together |
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| Yes, I do believe we discovered the secret to a joyful, happy family life! |
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| No skills, just fun |
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| Me, my dad, and my younger sister |
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| Gotta love the cowboy boots. This is just how my mother was dressed the morning we walked up to the Provo Temple to be sealed as a forever family. No kidding! But that's a story for another time! |
Finally, what a joy it was to revisit the Nauvoo Temple (rebuilt in 2002) and attend the Open House as a member family:
If you don't know the story of what happened here from 1839-1846, read about this interesting part of American history (keep tissues close by).
