To my children and all who are humble followers of Christ I wish to tell the events that occurred to bring about my conversion.
I had a friend who I hung around with from the time we were sophomores at Brighton High School in Sandy, Utah. I always felt he was different from others. He was always the type of person who gave and kept on giving and never considered himself better than anyone else. During some rough times, he provided shelter for me by letting me stay at his home where he and his mom, 2 brothers and a sister lived for which I was grateful. I hoped that someday I could return the favor.
In March of 1990, I completed my mission to Hartford Connecticut and was married in June of 1991. At that time, I owned a home in West Valley Utah with my wife, LeAnn and new baby daughter.
Later on my friend needed a place to stay because his family was being kicked out of their residence in Sandy. He lived in our basement for about a year and it was great having him there. During that time, he had all sorts of strange materials on doctrines that I did not understand. One of which is the Adam-God doctrine. I read a little bit about it but whatever I read made me concerned. It was new information to me and although my drive to research it was not consuming as it would later be, it still presented itself as a question that eventually needed to be answered.
One Sunday, since I was the Secretary in the LDS Young Men’s presidency, I thought that I had better get some clarification on this doctrine since I was presenting a lesson to the deacons which dwelt on the character of God. I went to my Bishop to get some clarification on this point to which he had his son read some information supposedly relevant to the topic. Afterwards, he asked me if I agreed to which I said. In the state of stupor I still felt unsatisfied and was tired of beating the subject to death so I muttered “I guess so” and thus the matter was dropped for a time.
Approximately 3 years passed and my friend began to investigate a strange new church to me called the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ Saints of the Last Days. He told me of their doctrines to which each time he told me a new truth my initial reaction was shock. I would sit for days and let the idea stew in my head at first disregarding it and then somehow as the truth worked on me I would receive comfort. I wanted more than anything to tell my wife these truths that I had heard just to bounce the ideas off of her since I had not formed my own opinions about them to which she responded basically “how could that be?” Since I had not found out the truthfulness of these things or the falseness either, I found that I had to play the neutral arbiter role in presenting these truths to my wife who was from this time on beginning to seemingly become more uneasy as my efforts to learn these truths grew.
One day the bomb hit. My friend called and told me that he and his wife were leaving the Mormon religion and joining the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ Saints of the Last Days and were to be baptized. I was upset at this announcement and it worked on my heart for days. Sadly, soon after I decided that our long friendship was over and that his beliefs were dangerous to the harmony of my family and my LDS faith. I called him and was polite to him but told him that I, “mourned your loss as if you had died” and with that we said goodbye for what I considered a permanent forever. Several weeks went by and life went on as normal. I had no intention of calling back my friend and had considered the matter closed due to the dangerous nature of his doctrines (how little I knew!)
I remember the day clearly when my wife said: “Why don’t you just call Harvey back? He has been a good friend to you and it just wouldn’t be right to abandon him just because of his beliefs.” I said: “Are you sure?” to which she said “yes”. From that moment on I changed.
I began to question the doctrines that he presented to me including the Adam God doctrine in earnest. I wasn’t so much concerned at the time of all the changes made by the LDS church over time as I was intrigued by all these wonderful doctrines being taught and just how much sense they made to my mind and heart. By this time, he had amassed a large volume of works from the past prophets revelations and I began to consume them as if I had been on a spiritual desert my whole life. I just could not get enough. I at this time was also explaining these doctrines to my wife and trying to convince her that there was something real here. She would hear my words that I said but seemed agitated at my inexhaustible zeal to teach her these things. I knew that this was beginning to make a tear in the fabric of our marriage and yet I had to learn more. At this point, I was literally consumed in my studies of the gospel principles. Because of this quiet contention I began to feel in our marriage, I began to not talk to my friend Harv until after my wife left the house to run errands and the gospel discussions would then commence often for hours. Sometimes we would go out to breakfast together so that we could just talk because I was learning so much that I had to talk to someone. I felt isolated in my efforts and if I couldn’t talk to someone about the church I would explode!
I learned of the prophesies of the apostasy of the Church in the last days and of the mighty and great one who would take the residue from the apostate church who were valiant and gather them again that they may again live the fullness of the gospel. I knew that the fullness included the New and Everlasting Covenant of marriage which was one of taking plural wives and how that all worked with putting the house of God in order and marveled at how this could work in the grand scheme of things. I also learned about multiple mortal probations which I had some concerns about up until the time that I went to the models lessons in Manti.
Each day my knowledge grew as I read more and more until the day I felt the overpowering influence of the Holy Ghost over my soul. I wept for joy and I knew that whoever the man was that was revealing these doctrines to me was sent directly from God. I knew then that James Harmston was a prophet and I could not deny the truths I had learned. I poured out my soul to God to give me further light and knowledge and I knew that I had to go to Manti to see the Models to fortify my soul that I may be prepared for the time when I would teach these beautiful doctrines to them in their fullness. Exactly at this time the opportunity I had been dreaming about was realized. I was accepted to the Loma Linda University Master of Physical Therapy Program in California in the fall of 1997.
I quit my job with IHC on a 3-day notice due to the short notice I received. Loma Linda had called on Friday and I needed to report for class on the coming Monday. LeAnn was excited and I suppose she was relieved at the fact that I would be separated from my studies of the True and Living Church for 2 years.
I reported to the program director at Loma Linda on Sunday night to which she was very gracious in giving me a bed to sleep on and bought me groceries. I worked hard in my classes and was successful in my efforts. I made many friends who were of differing religions and some asked what the Mormons believed in. I threw in Polygamy to see their response but insisted I was not a Polygamist. I knew better that this was unrighteously removed from our faith.
Eventually the call came. Harvey told me that James D Harmston, the prophet, was to hold the Models lecture on the 3rd and 4th of October 1997 and I was ecstatic. I promptly booked a round trip ticket to arrive at Salt Lake on the 2nd to return on Sunday night the 5th.
On my final day in class I ran out of class with a hasty goodbye to my fellow students promising them that I would be back on Monday and that I had to fly back to Salt Lake for some “family business.” LeAnn took me to the airport and was being very good about the whole thing. I knew one thing for sure that when I returned home our relationship would never be the same again for better or worse and this realization was agonizing. I was filled with compassion for what she was going through but I could not comfort her at this time.
I arrived in Salt Lake at around 8:45pm where Harv was waiting for me. It was good to see him again and we went to Dees Family restaurant and he bought me dinner, We enjoyed each other’s company as we talked about events and gospel discussions to which I was anxious to begin.
The next morning Harv went to work so one of Harv’s friends drove me to the church to begin the lectures at 10:00 am. The Models were then presented by the prophet who took an interest in me questioning, drilling and probing my spirit. I felt like he was as the refiner’s fire and as he challenged my belief system, I learned and I grew and I knew that though he spoke sternly and his words were divisive like a two-edged sword hewing down those who were high minded and easily offended while sharpening the minds of the true seekers to a razor-sharp awareness of our duty.
The prophet presented the plan with utter clarity to my mind and I was inspired with the beauty and magnificence of a once flat 2 dimensional plan of salvation to a robust 3-dimensional plan. Words cannot describe but it was GLORIOUS! My love for the My Heavenly Father Adam swelled within me and consumed every remaining doubt. I knew and do know that James is THE prophet of God who dispenses knowledge about the eternal plan without measure. When James concluded his teachings, he admonished all to come to Zion and to “plow a deep furrow.” I then felt the spirit press on the blades of my back and it took my breath away. First, I had worked very hard for the knowledge of these things in my study and after that the witness of the spirit sealed that testimony into my soul. I could not deny it. It was TRUE and I must come. At the close of the meeting I, filled with tears of joy, took James by the hand in the grasp of full fellowship and thanked him graciously.
The next day I went to my first official church meeting with the Saints and it simply strengthened my resolve. I knew then that I had forever changed. I employed the help of the Patriarch to give me a blessing because I knew that there was a good possibility that I would lose my wife and children. In the blessing, he blessed me that I would know what to say to the convincing of my wife of the plan of salvation as I now knew it to be. He also added that I was born with priesthood or the right to it. (D&C 86:9-10). I then turned and with tears streaming down thanked him deeply along with Kent Braddy. I was impressed by Kent because during the entire time thereafter the song (“Touch My People”) he sang in church of the final gathering played endlessly in my mind bringing peace to my soul.
Sunday night at 10:00pm after missing the first plane I boarded the Delta 757 passenger jet for Ontario, California knowing that the prayers of the saints were following after me. I looked out of the window to the midnight heavens and said a silent prayer importuning my Creator for all the strength I needed and marveled at the beauty of the heavens and stars as they were more clearly seen far above the earth’s surface. God’s work is truly magnificent and ordered. I wept thinking of the message I had to deliver to my wife but the song of the gathering continued to play on in my mind bringing peace to my soul.
LeAnn knew that I knew, that James is God’s prophet because I had told her so when I called her on Saturday after the last models lecture. What she did not know was the thoroughness of my conversion and the extent of the decisions I had made. I told her that I had made a promise to my Heavenly Father that I was going to follow him and give up all that we had worked for to follow him; my education, chances for wealth, a beautiful home, and if needs be my family. After a while I felt my senses coming to me and at this point I do not know exactly what I said to her but whatever it was, it silenced her fears and tears as she began the process of understanding. I know I was able to explain many things to her that night and it worked on her soul as she slept on and off for short periods of time.
It was not until the next day that I did realize that the spirit had rested mightily upon her soul and she then began with me an insatiable search for knowledge. My heart rejoiced for I could see the light begin to shine from her countenance as the scales of disbelief fell from her eyes. She then began to recall all of the lessons that I had taught her prior to this point and they all came flooding back to her so that this time, she understood how the plan of salvation really works.
On Wednesday October 8, 1997, LeAnn and I removed our LDS garments which we learned were altered in such a way that they were not acceptable to God as a testimony that we do not believe in a god that walks in crooked paths, neither does he vary and we will no longer trust in the arm of flesh. We were preparing to enter into the true order of covenants that God has commanded us to fulfill and wear the true garment of the priesthood in its authorized pattern, down to the wrists and ankles and proper markings given by proper authority.
All the years we have known our Prophet we have known him to be a good and a virtuous man of a greater power and comprehension of the gospel of salvation and exaltation than I had ever experienced. He loved his people, watched over them like a truly good shepherd. He didn’t seek for wealth or power over this people but he sought more than anything to lift them up in their understanding of the ways of God and how we might come to know Him. No one was more driven to meet the Lord than our Prophet James. He was far beyond any other mortal man. He exemplified pure and virtuous principles in every aspect of his walk with his God and to us it was as if God himself was in our midst and up on recollection now with his passing on June 27, 2013, I do believe that God truly walked and talked with us and that gives me great comfort.
I testify that all of these things I have said are true that you may search the scriptures yourself and come unto God and know Him as He truly is that it may prove your salvation and eventual exaltation in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.