My husband’s brother, Hans, is a Mormon and often tried to talk to us about the Book of Mormon, but I wasn’t interested.
11 years ago my husband, Jürgen, had a heart attack. He was with some young men from the LDS Church at the time who gave him a blessing. Jürgen said he knew his life had been saved and tried to discuss the experience with me but I was not interested. At the time I was an alternative healer and considered myself quite spiritual.
My mother-in-law died last year and I got a call from a member of the ward, Michelle Klintworth, offering condolences and inviting us to lunch. I had met Michelle before and was surprised by her kindness. At lunch I asked many questions about the LDS religion and spent time talking to Kyle, the Klintworth’s teenage son. I was so impressed by this young man’s respect for himself and for women, and by his unwavering love of God, that I wanted to investigate the LDS Church. After a month of asking my husband to go to Church with me, I finally insisted that we were going to go as a family, never thinking I would join the Mormon Church.
Michelle asked if the missionaries could visit with us and I said yes, but was still convinced my beliefs were right. The missionaries came but it was hard for them as Jürgen and I fought constantly.
Michelle invited us to dinner and also invited the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Dunn. During the meal I shared with them that I often felt overwhelmed as a mother and suicidal, and that I had spent most of my life looking for a good reason to commit suicide. I had tried before. Before we left that evening Michelle’s husband, Garth, and President Dunn gave me a blessing.
I thought it would be an uncomfortable experience and that I would probably feel nothing, but what followed was undeniable. I felt a huge weight upon me, then I started to cry and I knew instantly that this was the truth and I needed to get baptised immediately. In the blessing things were said that Garth could never have known, confirming for me that it was God speaking to me. I often wonder if I was raised LDS would I have had such a light bulb moment?
I left their home a changed person and I started taking the missionaries’ lessons more seriously. I was ready to really listen now. My heart had opened and I cried for a month after that blessing.
Since my baptism many people, including my parents, have seen a change in me. My husband and I no longer fight as we had done, I am a more loving, confident mother, and the change I see in my children and husband is nothing short of miraculous. We now look forward to the day when we can be sealed in the temple. I love this gospel and I love the people that I’ve met in this Church. Even though our trials haven’t gone away, I know that I can handle them with the help of the Holy Ghost. For the first time in my life I am not alone.
Never give up on your friends and family. If I could join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, anyone can.