Date
February 26, 2021
Sent By
Kayla
Conversion story
I received this from a new convert who Paige had the opportunity to teach and invite to be baptized. It’s testimony to how the Lord is gathering his elect.
President Maurer, this is my conversion story. I hope all is well with you. This is a rough outline also of a book I plan to write in the near future to help people like me find their way into the True Church of Jesus Christ.
“What is wrong with you, you have a church, a position that can be open to promotions, a comfortable second salary, and you are willing to drop it for this!” This thought ran through my mind in late October 2020, as I sat with a little blue Book of Mormon paperback in my lap. I was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA, a fairly moderate to liberal denomination, with prospects of moving to larger churches and larger fields of labor. I was a father with two growing sons, and a wife. I could use the salary that preaching in larger churches could bring. There was something though about that Book. This little paperback with the strange “Conan the Barbarian” type paintings with paintings of Jesus in the front. There was a draw I felt, and a tension. It was as if, there was two forces in the room, one saying “Open it!”; the other force saying “Keep it closed!” Which side would I take? Was opening this Book and listening to “kids” talk about it worth it? What would our Presbytery say? What about the ministers I had known and loved for so many years? Would I have to give up my occasional beer, glass of sherry, cigar, and pipe?
Eastern NC has religion in its soil. I grew up immersed in the Christian culture of the 1980s. I remember reading or watching the likes of Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, John Hagee, Max Lucado, and every Sunday night, Billy Graham. I was drug to church on Sunday twice, once for the morning service and then for the evening service. Wednesdays also were devoted to church. Dinner and dishes were done by 7 in order to get to the Prayer Meeting by 7:30. In that world of religion that I grew up in, it was expected that you would be baptized by the time you were 14 years old, and then you just sat, paid your tithes and offerings, and listened. Really it was just that, a weekly or bi weekly religious experience with little to know practical living associated with it.
As a teenager, we had a revival once, and I remember listening with rapt attention to the evangelist exhorting us to come to Jesus and flee the world! Come to Christ and be saved from wrath! He spoke eloquently and graphically of what happens to young boys and girls who give in to “carnal desires” and how the devil will pull them into hell overnight. Needless to say, most of my friends sitting on the bench with me and the girls on the bench across the aisle were scared out of our pants! After service, we had a big meal in the church hall for the evangelist and his family. The church really was full of good food. Judging by my size now, you can see I never missed a meal! I had a chance to speak to the evangelist, and I told him how I was troubled by thoughts of the “carnal nature” and that I really didn’t know what to do, and that I was afraid I would lose my salvation and end up in hell. What he said next shocked me, the evangelist told me to remember that they are just thoughts, and that as a young man to indulge in lust was ok, God would wink at what boys do because “boys will be boys”. He told me not to worry, that I can find a virgin to marry and then tell God I was sorry for messing around with loose girls or even “church” girls. He told me with church girls “to be moral, go oral” with a fiendish grin. I knew then and there that something was wrong with the religion I was brought up. I just didn’t know what. He was a hypocrite. He scared the “hell” out of the church and was counseling teens to go part of the way! I started slipping in my faith at that point.
College came, I was in the best days of my life. I had a steady girlfriend. I was helping with a rock band. I was a radio disc jockey. I began at this point to feel the call of God on my life even though I was still a great sinner. I did what all college boys are prone to do. I partied, I drank, I slept with my girlfriend. I still went to church every week. I was just as bad as that evangelist and even in my moments of God calling me to greater heights, I would get counsel to “sow my wild oats”! I sowed many. There came a time that I hit rock bottom. Graduation came, students left, the band broke up, I went further downhill into a dark hole, and I ran with a stupid crowd. At this point, I was a wreck. My girlfriend was gone. I was alone. God still heard me in those times. I heard Him speak to me, and I decided to clean up. I would be a reformer of the church! I would preach and live it! I had been to the bottom and I knew that Christ could save to the uttermost! So off I went studying for ordination. During that time, I also started teaching in a high school. My girlfriend and I got back together and we got married. Things were looking up. Life was getting better. That is I thought it was.
Skipping a few years and a few episodes that will go in my book, I finally arrived at my ordination day. It was a good day. I felt clean. I felt like for the first time in my life I was going to do something for God that He could be proud of. I was going to be another John Wesley or Martin Luther! I was going to preach hard and fast on the doctrines of grace, the reformed doctrines that were from the Bible and emphasize holiness! It was at ordination that I saw the first glimmers of darkness that was just beyond the horizon. The minister giving the charge rebuked me in front of the congregation for being too Biblical! This was my first day on the job, and I was being told I was too strict. Soon, I was settled in my first pastorate. Needless to say, I saw some things that made me aware that something was amiss. I was not living a Christian life. I wasn’t drinking much, but I was letting culture dictate how my home was run. I gave into consumerism and mass marketing. I gave into the myth of the country parson. The man who was invited to bury, wed, and baptize. The man who would preach, but not too hard because he enjoyed the perks of being paid. My wife, well she had to endure the judgement of “church women”. She was going through hell every week. Soon she quit going to church. She kept our young boys at home. This was bad. She was on the verge of leaving me and really on the verge of leaving her faith.
2020 found me at my wit’s end. I was doubting the existence of God. My church had almost split over politics and COVID response measures. I saw how Christian people could get ugly and get ugly fast. I felt as though that God was just a human construct. I started to spend Saturdays at home with my wife and boys, and sometimes just my wife. I was enjoying this time to get to know her again. We began binge watching shows on TLC. Our favorite was “Sister Wives”. Now, I wouldn’t recommend that show normally because it is so full of false doctrine. Kody Brown is not living a good life with multiple “wives”! However, I began to be interested in the Book of Mormon that he talked about on the show. I did some research online and found an ad for a free Book of Mormon in Wilson NC. I sent in a message to the person with the books. I drove to the LDS chapel and picked it up. I met two sisters, Savannah Johnston and Liz Carter. Johnston insisted that I read the Book of Mormon and tell them what I thought. I told them I was a pastor and I could tell by their eyes and body language, they didn’t know what to think! So, I was a possessor of the Book of Mormon. I didn’t know what to do. Read or not read. Pray or not pray. Everything hung on my decision. If I read, and if the promise of Moroni 10 was true, I was no longer going to be a pastor. I was going to be heading into unknown territory. I read an article on a Christian website saying not to pray to God asking if the Book of Mormon were true. I decided I would pray and ask if the Book was true. I wanted to know what would happen. Besides, if God answered it, then God was real! If not, then it was just as I thought, religion was man made, and I was just a humanist leader that was helping people and nothing more. I was forever changed. God answered the prayer. I had an appetite for the Book of Mormon and little else. Reading became a joy! I was like Parley Pratt, I read it and wouldn’t even stop to eat. Sisters Johnston and Carter began lessons with me. My wife was starting to see some changes. Something was in the air and she knew it. The congregation was noticing I seemed to be saying goodbye every week.
Sister Johnston left, and Sister Paige Nelson came to continue teaching. My mind was open to the Gospel and I drank it like a thirsty horse at a water trough. I accepted baptism. I resigned my position in the PCUSA. I felt the devil. The adversary attacked. The sisters helped in their encouragement. The devil turned every friend against me. I was asked to undergo mental evaluation from “competent authority”. I was asked to state my reasons for believing the Book of Mormon. Even my giving up coffee and tea was under scrutiny. This was a daily struggle. Then his full offense. The entire family got COVID 19. Thinking that I was going to get discouraged, Satan launched the COVID assault. I missed my baptism date. I was broken. Then I saw something happen that will forever stay with me. Wilson Ward came out with food. The sisters decorated our door for my birthday that happened while in quarantine.
The three sisters were amazing. They were full of the Spirit of God. They were on fire for Christ and their testimonies impressed me with their sincerity. I was blown away at the beauty of the Gospel and the fact that they knew Christ just like He was their Elder Brother.
This thought of Christ, as my Elder Brother, captured me completely. I grew in closeness to the Savior. The 2 weeks of quarantine was a time of trial, but a time of great learning. My wife decided to take lessons. My son decided he wants to be baptized. Truly a time of joy.
My baptism came. Sister Johnston joined the meeting by Zoom. The other two sisters, Nelson and Carter, ensured that that day would be special. It was. I tasted the waters. I knew for the first time Jesus Christ accepted me and I was His. I felt clean. I felt free. I felt His love wash over me like never before. I felt as though He was teaching me. I have lots to unlearn. Lots to trash. Lots to do.
Now that I am a Latter Day Saint, I feel closer to God. Closer to Savior. I feel the Holy Ghost as my comforter. I testify that Joseph Smith was called of God to bring in the Restoration. I testify that he is a Prophet of God, and that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of the Lord. I testify that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is my Redeemer, Lord, and Elder Brother. His true church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is led by a living prophet, Russell M. Nelson, and has all the offices of the Church in the New Testament. I testify that everything I have written is for the glory of God and Jesus Christ.
I love you, President Maurer. Thank you for being obedient. Thank you for coming here. Your witness led to the witness of the sisters, and because of your obedience I am here in the fold of the Church. I can’t express how happy I am that I am a Latter Day Saint.
May you always have the choicest blessings of God upon you,
Bradley Keith Whitley
Wilson NC Baptized and Confirmed 2/6/21
Taught by Sisters Johnston, Carter, and Nelson.
A Pastor, a Book, and Three Sisters