Telling My Conversion Story to a Fellow Former Lutheran. 20 August 2016

As Family History Missionaries we are not called to proselyte (for which I am grateful!), but when a guest asks "How did you ever become a Mormon?" I think it is OK to share my story--so I did!  I warned the sweet woman that it would take a while, and she said that was fine, but I guess it only takes about 10-15 minutes to tell--it just covers a long time-span, 20 years, from the time I was 6, and asked my mom if we were in the right church (not a question a minister's wife would ever want to hear from her child!) until I was 26, when the Lord reeled me in from a 10-year walk away from Him. I am grateful for the opposition I encountered in the church of my youth, for it helped me to appreciate the truths of the Restored Gospel when I was humble enough to listen. My guest was surprised to learn that one of my favorite doctrines, baptism for the dead, is mentioned in the Bible [1 Corinthians 15:29], and she insisted on taking the note paper on which I had written that reference and had drawn a little sketch of the wonderful plan of salvation, especially highlighting that it is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion and the resurrection, that make this wonderful plan possible.  I hope the guest will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and then she can know for herself that it is true.

For that particular guest I spent a lot of time actually working through some of her problems in Family Tree. I was first asked to help her as I was getting ready to go to lunch, by Elder W. who was also leaving for lunch with his wife. At that time I could not see the problem he described, and I helped her with more entries and, as she seemed to be doing OK, I asked if I could leave her for a bit to get a bit of lunch, and she was OK.  When I came back, Elder W. was helping her again, and I had another assignment.  About 90 minutes later, though, I noticed that she was looking perplexed so I asked if she needed help, and she did.  Eventually I did find the bigger problem--her grandfather apparently was married twice, but the children were all attached to the second wife, who was born not long before the older children.  Actually, the guest was taken aback when she realized that her great grandfather was more than 20 years older than her great grandmother--I assured her it was not unusual, since my husband was also more than 20 years older than me!

Another complication was that her great grandfather had his siblings attached to him as his children, in another set of records.  Several people had contributed to this tree, and some of them were just not very careful or accurate.  It took quite a bit of merging and removing relationships, but I think we got it pretty well cleared up.

I had hoped to get some German indexing done, and with the help of one of the native Germans I was able to get a batch finished and submitted after she identified to my understanding the surname "Vogt" in a record.

Once my shift was done I went shopping.  I needed to get some items for feeding a couple of Young Elders tomorrow, and one of the missionaries without a car needed a few items as well.  When I got home I cooked some corn for tomorrow's dinner, washed the kitchen floor, and talked with my Sweetheart [nine months from today will be our wedding!!!].  Now I am writing this blog post and soon I will be off to sleep.  I hope you all have a blessed Sabbath.