A friend asked if I had joined The Church because I married a member. This is my response to her.
No, I did not join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because I was marrying a member. After I joined the Church, I found a strong member of my faith to marry, because I wanted a partner who would share my beliefs and help me to grow.
When I was 16, I met a girl in a summer school class in California and we became friends -- still are! I was impressed with her values and her family. There was a love there that wasn't in my family. As I told you I was looking for truth. I've never had any interest in "religion" -- in joining some group and adopting their ideas. I really don't understand why people do that -- security? I am an exceptionally independent person who lives by principles and not much of a "groupy".
Instead of a religion, I was looking for what was true in life. I began to ask my friend many questions about her church. She suggested that I talk with the missionaries. I nearly drove the missionaries nuts with questions. I examined everything. I kept asking myself, "What if this is true and I turn away from it?" I had to know for myself, so I read the Book of Mormon. If I could have seen the gold plates which the Book of Mormon was written on, or had some historian tell me that they really were the age the should be, it would not have been enough. How could I know if the words in this book were really true? -- have a letter certifying it was from God!? No amount of physical "evidence" would have done it for me. What mattered to me was if the words in the Book of Mormon were true. If they were, then all the rest was true. I read the book and I found more pure truth, more revelation, and more light than I had seen anywhere. Things made more sense than anything else I had ever read. There was a familiarness to everything, like something I had always known, but had forgotten.
At the end of the Book of Mormon it says,
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.
What do members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe? Truth! We believe in all truth that has ever been revealed and in all that will yet be revealed.
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