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| Photo by Erin |
I was baptized into the church on February 27, 2010, the same day I married my current husband, Eron. I had met Eron while working as a computer technician in 1998, in Magna, UT. He was married and I was married...but not to each other. He and his (eventual) ex-wife helped me when I left my first husband and they showed me acceptance without judgement. They opened their house to me and gave me a safe place to go. That was the first time I had personal experience with the LDS church and its members. I lived with them for a couple months, went to church with them, sat with her when her visiting teachers came, and really enjoyed what I was experiencing even though I was going through a difficult time in my life. After my divorce, I moved to Hawaii to live with my parents and they went on with their lives. We lost touch with each other for 10 years.
During that 10 years, I married my second husband and missed the wholeness I had felt while living with and going to church with my friends in Utah. My second husband would invite the LDS missionaries to our house to eat and to debate the Bible vs. the Book of Mormon. I don't remember a whole lot about those discussions but I do remember the peace that would settle over the house while the missionaries visited and left when they did. That was my second personal experience with the church. My second husband decided after 7 years that he didn't want to be married to me but to his Jr High sweetheart that he had found online, so I packed up my son and myself and we moved from Hawaii to Arizona in 2008.
In late 2008, I found Eron again, online. He and his (eventual) ex-wife had moved around and had been living in New York when he got a job offer in Arizona. He took the offer and was moving down while she was staying in New York till the kids finished school. I was excited about reconnecting with some friends and said so. Little did I know that during those years of separation, they had fallen away from the church and were in the process of talking about divorce themselves. I will admit that having gone through 2 divorces myself, I was really hoping they could work things out...if nothing but for the sake of the kids. They didn't.
While Eron was working at the new job, his boss was a member and strongly encouraged him to become active again. During one of our dates, I asked Eron if he believed in Jesus Christ and that He died for our sins. He said, "Yes." I had been raised to avoid LDS and Catholics for most of my life, because they didn't believe the same things "we" did. This question opened up the dialog and Eron sent the missionaries my way. I decided that the only way I was going to get answers to the questions I had was to be honest about how I was raised and ASK! So I did. I mentioned a couple of the strange stories about LDS members that I had been told while growing up, I mentioned the questions I had about my personal faith, I asked, prayed, read the Book of Mormon for several months. I love how Heavenly Father can give you those small little answers when you are open to them. All those questions about the Trinity, how Heavenly Father could know us before we were conceived, and little things like that were starting to be answered and the "puzzle pieces" were starting to click into place. It was amazing.
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| Photo by ShotByChristina |
When Eron proposed to me, he said that he wanted to marry me in the Temple so we could be together forever. He didn't care which Temple, that was my choice. This raised a whole new question for me...married, forever? Is that possible? So I picked the missionaries brains about Temple marriages and all that Families are Forever stuff. Since Eron's first wife refused to be Temple married to him, we didn't have anything standing in our way but our membership. So, mine started on February 27, 2010 and he started working on becoming active again. We were sealed to each other and all our kids on December 3, 2011. I feel so blessed. I have someone in my life who believes in Heavenly Father, families are important, little blessings, and that we will be together forever. I am so glad Heavenly Father was patient with me and kept putting people in my life to lead me to the church.
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| Photo by Erin |
