How I joined the Mormon Church – Is there a God? How could you know?

I was raised by amazing parents.  They taught me to work hard and be kind and so many other important and wonderful things.

There was an aspect which they didn’t delve into and that was Faith.

I was always curious about religion and faith and would go to different churches with cousins and friends and ask lots of questions.    I would sometimes get frustrated when my they couldn’t answer my questions.  Some even seem to not really care about what they believed.

I had a Bible and would read it occasionally, that generated more questions. I remember wondering, How can you know if there is a God?  How can I know if Jesus really existed?

The summer before my Sophomore year of High School my aunt graduated from college.  On our drive home we “swung by” Nauvoo.  My mom is a history nut and can’t pass up a brown sign.

We started in the Visitors Center and the missionaries shared the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

I still remember looking at this huge painting on the wall

 and thinking, “If this REALLY happened, then God and Jesus really do exist!”   I also remember thinking how cool it was that he was my age when it happened.

That is my main memory from the trip to Nauvoo.

We returned home and moved to a new house.  When school started that year I met a girl on my bus, Kimberly, who was Mormon.

I asked her a lot about her faith and she knew what she believed and could answer my questions!  That was so impressive to me.

When I had even more questions, she invited me to early morning seminary when it started a week later.