JOMRea2

He (the tall stranger) ended up moving in our house with us, downstairs, 5 months later. I was head over heels in love with him, still loving my husband. The guilt and angruish ate at me. We all moved, my mother (who had since divorced my father), my brother, and my children, all to Arizona. Then after the divorce was final, Frank and I got married. The older two children were teenagers and buisy into their own things, getting close to high school graduation and pre- paring for college. If they were greatly hurt, they never said too much about it. My youngest daugher was only 9, so she missed her dad a lot. I tried to make things smooth, but it never worked. When she turned 12 she wanted to go home to live with her dad. Her dad couldn't keep track of her and she ended up getting pregnant at 13. I was stunned!!! She married the father before the baby was born, at 14 (it's legal in Utah), with consent. Well, I hoped against hope that it would work out, but it didn't. My daugher ran off, with her friends.

I knew one thing, I had to get my act together. I had offered to raise the baby and a "drinking grandmother" was out of the question for me. I had been drinking with my new husband almost every night. All hell broke loose at our house over the trials with our youngest daughter. I knew I had to do something. I called AA and said I needed help. AA was the beginning of my JOURNEY OUT OF MORMONISM. I went and heard people sharing about how God had helped them. I was shocked. You mean these alchie drunks "that drank worse than me" God helped? I went to meetings 3 times a day, I heard stories that were almost impossibly hopeless...but this God helped them turn their lives around. He wasn't just a God for the Mormons who lived right. He was for the drunks and perverts too! One lady always shared about her faith in her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and did it unashamedly. I couldn't believe it. "Fall down drunk, real wild, sinning people," He helped? The desire for beer left almost immediately. I asked this lady to become my sponsor. Later we prayed together and I admitted all my sins to God and her. I even did that on the Mesa Temple grounds because I still thought mormonism was the only real true church. I would have to go eventually before a bishops court and get excommunicated and start all over again.

Apparently the Lord had other plans for me. One day I was cleaning an apartment, we managed apartments then. I was so brokenhearted and so sorry for all my sins and screwing up so badly. I cried out to God, "I'm sorry Lord!" I thought I heard a voice by my ears say, "Your sins are forgiven daughter", then it was repeated 2 more times. I ran next door to where Frank was and told him. I started to listen to Christian radio. I heard a local pastor everyday. He was such an honest sounding man. He admitted his faults and taught out of the bible. I was so interested. I listened to other bible preachers on the radio an I just couldn't get enough. One day I decided I would just take Christy (my little baby granddaughter) and just visit the local pastors church. Well, it was held in the luchroom of a high school!! I introduced us and sat down. The praise and worship started. People began singing and worshipping, some of them with lifted hands. Man that was new to me. I started weeping. I weeped in almost every service for 3 months. I came forward and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I did it more than once cause I didn't know it only took once. The pastor asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and receive forgiveness for their sins...Of course I did.

I heard another local pastor that had a teaching every week at the Phx First Assembly church on Mormonism. Well, me and my little one went. After learning and even "sometimes defending my old faith", I came to find out that all that was presented was facts, yes, this is what I was taught all my life. I had sinned, but hearing all this still shocked me, to find out everything about God, about Jesus, about Satan, was a lie. Joseph Smith was a false prophet. My pre-existence was a lie. The oaths I had made in the temple to secrecy, I would probably have to let go of. In time the Lord started having me go to bible studies. I also watched Christian TV. Then I met a neighbor lady who sold Avon. She helped me also, she was a Christian. I was beginning to grow, and i was so thankful. I learned about how we are all sinners, born into a human family with a sinful nature. I learned that Jesus was God the Son. He came down and paid for my complete deliverance and salvation at the cross. I didn't need to be worthy in a bishops eyes, a churches eyes, and only Jesus was worthy to pay for me in full. He loved me enough to call me when I was down and out, soaked in my sind and despair. He gave me a whole new life with a new nature. He put his Holy Spirit within me and made me a "new creation". His name and His word, the Bible lift me up! My new family of other believers, and yes, all believers in the biblical Jesus that receive Him as Saviour, are brothers and sisters, no matter what particular denomination we attend. We are here to love and encourage one another till we see Him face to face!! God saved me from my sins and mormonism. Praise His name. My husband gives me complete freedom in my Christianity, and said he would start attending church with me also. My sweet, oldest daughter is a Christian!!! My own Mother who also left Mormonism just after I did & is a zealous Christian!!! Praise the Lord, she even passes out Christian tracts in Salt Lake on car windows and she's in her 80's now. My son is an honest man and successful in his business and a good father and husband. I am trusting the Lord to answer my prayers in his and his familys behalf. My youngest daughter, I thought was saved, still has many problems. She is being wooed by the Mormons now in Utah, but I am just trusting God in this also. My little granddaughter is also being "love bombed" by the Mormons. I trust God to lead her path also.

God was so merciful to me and I know he will be merciful to them also. I have to Trust Him!!!