I am Melvin J Rogers and I have been a member of the TLC since it started. I am a High Priest. I am 81 years old, but I am still able to raise a garden and help my wife in the house.
I feel humble to relate what I am about to say. But since we have been asked to submit some of our spiritual experiences, I feel it is my duty to respond and my joy.
After my wife, Edith Nell, had been gone for a year, I was beginning to respond to life about me once more. The Lord had been good and had brought a great deal of comfort to me, but I knew the time had come for me to go on with my life. Thus, I began to socialize and to meet another good woman who would make a good wife and us be happy together by living the gospel. It must be understood, that after my first wife left me and taking our children with her, it so disrupted my life that I soon turned inactive in the Mormon Church and gave way to many evil temptations. Pain and sorrow can do this sometimes if a person is not careful or that grounded in the gospel. So for a number of years I was careless, seeking only pleasure, such as hunting, fishing, boating and other things of this world.
My wife and I decided to return to church. We sang in the choir and were quite happy in doing so, but it was not long until Satan won out and had soon beguiled us into joining a square dancing club-though it was a great pastime, yet it completely took over our lives. Now, here is my testimony- when the club began to focus their lives on the more worldly interests and had ceased to find enjoyment in dancing, but turned to changing partners and trading wives, THANKS BE TO GOD this is when we left the dancing club and moved from Phoenix to Snowflake, Arizona.
My wife and I were trying to reorder our lives and to become active again when she took sick and she continued to grow worse until she passed away in January of 1985. Her dying request was for me to have the temple work done and her sealed to me. I promised Nell I would do this. It was not long until I became very active in the Church and I think I never prayed so much in my life as I did following her death. I had to somehow find peace and comfort. I knew there could be no other way but to get back into the church and change my ways of inactivity.
One early morning, a neighbor lady, June Nichols, came to my home and asked if I would be interested in meeting her sister. Sure, I knew there would be no harm in this. I met Maurine and found her to be a very wonderful woman. Now I had three choices in my mind-my Father wanted me to marry a young woman, and raise another family. I was considering a middle aged woman, and then there was Maurine. It was then, that I took myself away from home, walking about two miles to the West of Snowflake to a knoll of cedar trees, and there for about two weeks I knelt by some small trees and asked the Lord what I should do. Then it happened.
One day, it was about one and one-half years after my wife Edith Nell had died, I was up on the roof of my house repairing a leak, when I started to cry. I wondered why, because I thought that I had gotten over crying for her. Then a still small voice said to me, “Love Maurine and be good to her, for she is very special to me.” From then on there was no doubt in my mind, for I felt I had been instructed from the Heavens and that I would have a very enjoyable life with Maurine. Of course you can see why I married her, because she is an “Angel.”
I realized that it is through the Gospel in its Fullness that we will obtain the blessings of exaltation and eternal life. I knew from that experience the Lord had a mission for me to perform.
We married August 1, 1986, and our lives were immediately centered around the Gospel, and after ten months of marriage we were called on an LDS mission to the Canada Halifax Mission. Here we spent two wonderful years microfilming all the County records throughout the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (in part).
After returning home I proceeded to build a new house as I had promised Maurine I would do.
We were planning to go on another mission, but Maurine’s health failed. She was ill for two years. This of course prevented us from going on another mission. But again, the Lord was watching over us and teaching us continually- though we did not realize it then, we now know He was preparing us where we are at today. Therefore, I gave up my worldly possessions to answer the call to the Gathering.
We have been here for a year now and we have gained a great amount of light and knowledge and we believe that our Church Authorities in THE TRUE AND LIVING CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF SAINTS OF THE LAST DAYS are called of God to complete the work of these last days. This is my testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel in the name of Jesus Christ.
Another time, I was dreaming at night in my bed, about two months before we moved from Snowflake to Ephraim, when I saw two men dressed in buckskin clothes, and wearing fur caps. They had short dark beards and spoke with a strange accent. I asked them who they were, and they said, “We are scouts from the North Country.” Then they disappeared, and this woke me up. I have wondered if they have come from the Ten Tribes, to locate places to live.
Another time, I was awakened from a deep sleep with my bedroom full of light. There was a message given, but I do not remember now just what it was, for I was frightened. I only mention this because I know the Lord has been merciful to me – even through all my mistakes He has never lost sight of me. There were other times which I did not at the time fully understand when I experienced special happenings. I am a blessed man.
We are convinced that the LDS Church has apostatized from the teachings of Joseph Smith, and has lost its chance of ever becoming a ZION people.
They have transgressed the law, changed the ordinances and broken the everlasting covenants.
They do not live the LAW OF CONSECRATION, as we do, and they have gone over to the ways of BABYLON AND THE WORLD OR SATAN.
We are THE REMNANT that was prophesied of by many prophets that would come out of the MOTHER CHURCH, IN THE LAST DAYS, TO COMPLETE THE WORKS OF CHRIST, AND SAVE THE EARTH FOR HIM.
We know our PROPHET JIM HARMSTON IS A TRUE SERVANT OF GOD, AND THAT HE IS LEADING US UP THE STRAIGHT ROAD TO GOD.
I am sure that if we live the LAWS HE IS TEACHING US, we will gain our Exaltation.
THIS IS MY TESTIMONY, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.