my calling/testominy

My calling to Mormonism
Well here is the story of my calling to Mormonism. I will give a very brief history leading up to the time to better make sense. I was born in Michigan. My dad moved to the state of Maine where I lived for over 10 years then I moved to Chicago where I meet my wife Shelli. She was going to school in river falls Wisconsin, but lived in Minnesota.
I moved to Minnesota with my brother. When I lived in Chicago it was in 92, I just gave my life to Christ. I was not growing nor did I have a church. I moved to Minnesota in early 94. My brother found a church but it was very weak, The pastor was clearly a 9-5 pastor. He mostly taught on money or gave salvation messages to the saved every week to the same body. So I did not grow.
I meet JW'S, Satanist's, and people who are into the health and wealth gospel, I was almost deceived by a Jesus only group. Me and people from my church would go witness out on the streets, we met a couple of guys doing the same thing. Because I was not growing in the Lord I tried the goofy slain in the spirit churches, but I was way too stubborn to allow them to push me down, and If I did not feel the Lord throwing me down I would not drop. But the guys that were Jesus only almost deceived me. I did not know my word and they sounded so sincere and could answer most of my questions. But through people who cared about me, like my wife and others sharing the truth I ended our time together.
But every time I met a person or cult, I had to ask the pastor how to reply. I knew from when I lived in Maine, there was a rock solid pastor who taught the word of God. Well I am guessing it was like 3 years later I felt the Lord calling us Back to Maine. My wife refused, she said, you hate it here in Minnesota and you want to leave. It is not God calling you, it's your flesh.
Well I simply told her, go or stay, I am going where I believe the Lord is calling me and your going to go or stay here. So we had one of those stupid church nights where they were doing the slain in the spirit, Toronto blessing stuff. Sadly our church was moving in that direction. Anyway we had a guest speaker, and Shelli (my wife) went to get prayer. He told her she needs to listen to me and go where I go.
She grew up here and all her family and friends are here. She did one really stupid thing in here life, and was put on probation by the police.

She was told she was not allowed to leave the state for five years with out permission. She said due to this she could not move to Maine, and she had about 6 months left to go. I told her nothing was impossible for God and we are moving.
Here is the best part of all. When I told here were moving and everything that was going on, till the time we went to the department agency we needed to go to, to she about her moving was around 4-5 months. low and behold when we got there they said the government for some reason cleared her and she could move, they did this about 4-5 months ago and never told us. This confirmed to me God spoke to me, she had very mixed emotions. She did not want to leave but knew God spoke. She still tried fighting me.

We moved to Maine, and I lose track of the years. When we moved up there, I learned the gospel under my pastor, and I grew a lot. I confronted some so-called satanists at a Campus Crusade for Christ out reach. It was Halloween and Campus Crusade had some type of meeting on Halloween. Some people confronted the speaker, so I stood up and confronted them.
Later, I met a pastor who was teaching evolution and got in his face, He repented but seemed to fall back into his old ways a few years later. Then I met some JW'S, but did not get very far with them. Up until this time I never meet a Mormon, I have only heard about them. People always said they were a cult. They believed a false Gospel and Jesus. And I was told the Mormons goal in life is to become Gods and have unlimited wives and sex forever. This is all I knew about Mormons.

I did hate Minnesota and never wanted to go back. I even told Shelli, not even God can or will send me back. Well, one day my wife asked me if I wanted to go with her to see a friend of hers. I said sure. When we were there. They decided to go to the store. They said they would be right back. I thought I was all alone in the house. Then there was a knock at the door, I did not answer it because it was not my house. I heard someone come downstairs and answer the door. They said, sorry my mom's not home come back later.
Then the girl came into the room where I was, I asked who it was. She said some Mormon missionaries. I thought I was so smart because of the little I heard about them, and I thought for sure with the bible verses from Revelation 22:18-19, I would share those and convert them. I ran out the door wanting to speak to them, They were barely down the steps and seemed a little worried about me wanting to so gladly speak to them.
I shared those verses with them, but they could handle themselves better that I could. They really twisted the scriptures and I could not answer them as I really knew nothing about them. For some reason I really felt like the Lord called me to start sharing with them. I can only assume after all these years that he called me to them because I also was almost deceived and I have a desire to check all facts not just blindly believe stuff I hear. Now, I don't see this being true with every Mormon. But I still do not know why he called me to Mormonism, and not another group seeing how I had encountered many other cults.

I went back to the church on Sunday and started talking with other believers trying to figure out if this is really my calling or not. Some people in my church sadly told me to stay away from the Mormons, they are a cult going to hell and will not listen. I thought this was stupid. They need Jesus as much as the next person, it does not matter if they are an atheist or cult member, they are going to hell. Others in my church tried to support me and help me out however they could.
So I prayed and said, Lord I cannot rely on people in my church to help me, they are divided on this issue and at the very least some deny the great commission by telling me to ignore the Mormons. I prayed I really need a solid answer from You, and You only.
So one day some friends came to me and said, Rick, here is a computer disk with tons of info on it to help you out in your research. I said, I don't own a computer. they said, take it to the local library and use it their. I told them I knew from being their before that I was not allowed to do that, their were signs posted stating no outside disks were allowed. So they went aside for a few minutes and talked, it was a married couple, they came back and said, well how about we just give you a computer then to help you out. I knew right then and their God spoke to me and confirmed Mormonism was my calling.

Now I will be honest here so people don't think that they need something so extreme as it were from the Lord to know their calling. But The computer was not brand new, it was rather old and I never did use it. I did not know how to use a computer and just set it aside. I did go to the library and found only one book on Mormonism. It was called (Mormonism shadow or reality), very thick and very in depth. I read the entire thing. I found a ministry link in there for a Mormon ministry. So I called the ministry on the phone and talked with them.
The guy was very helpful, he never once Judged me, never questioned my calling or anything, he was very helpful, told me to write or call with questions, so I did. Because I did not search the scriptures, and was almost deceived. I am not going to just blindly believe, so I question and search everything. Yes I was almost deceived. We as people in general never will agree on issues. I might believe something and you disagree, and you might think I am deceived because I don't agree with you. At least I try and research and think for myself.
Anyway, I would write the ministry and would say, I read in the book (Mormonism Shadow or Reality) a certain story or article, and I would like to get photo copies from books that the LDS used. Then I would call Mormons over to my house or I would go look for them out on the streets. Now a lot has happened over the years and I won't remember everything, But I will do by best to say everything I have encountered over the years.

The church I was going to in Maine, I will not name names of the church or anyone, while I had issues with a few people, I feel everyone makes mistakes and needs to grow. I don't want anyone who reads this to judge the church as a whole or certain people if you happen to know them over something that happened years ago. Plus, I really feel the Lord used it to help me grow, even if their actions were not his will.
Anyway, I remember a time when my wife and I were leaving the house, I started to strap my newborn child into the car, Shelli was running a few minutes late and we lived on a busy somewhat major road. Not that it matters, but we lived about 6 houses down from the author, Stephen King. While waiting for Shelli, I saw a van turn down the road and let out 3 guys. I noticed they were Mormon Missionaries. So I told Shelli, I will be right back,( Yah Right). I went to talk to all 3 of them. I know I made some progress because the main guy doing all the talking was visibly shaken. I saw his hand shake like he was going to pass out. He did his best to pretend it never happened.
Well anyway, I met up with some missionaries at another time and planned to meet them at my house. So I asked a friend from church if him and his wife wanted to come over and help me, his wife could pray and me and my friend would talk. They did, so when I heard the knock on the door, to my great surprise the same Mormon I talked to on the street was standing in my door with someone new. So this guy sat across from me, and his partner sat across from my friend. We talked about two hours about sin, salvation, who is Jesus etc. When it was over, the younger Mormon just about jumped over the table to attack my friend. Seriously, we thought he was demon possessed. When he finally cooled down the other missionary again was shaken, and everyone noticed. We all talked about it after they left, and I told them about how I meet him before and what happened. I never saw him again.

The youth group at my church told me how they would go downtown on Friday nights and street witness, they said there were Mormons showing up to the bible study before hand, they would try and also convert people. So I gladly went along, boy what a nightmare. The people from my church would rebuke the Mormons and tell them your not allowed here and you need to leave. I would get really mad and rebuke the believers and ask them what their problem was. They would tell me, well some of the Mormons are hitting on the girls we bring, and others were just trying to distract us from sharing. Or they would say well we brought new baby believers with us and they cannot handle the Mormons.
I would rebuke everyone, I would tell them either leave the new believers at home. Regardless of the Mormons coming, they will just encounter heathens who have no agenda yet confront the new believers in Christ if you try and share with them. Also, I ask the Mormons about hitting on the girls, they denied it, and I could not prove either side was telling the truth. But I would tell the believers, we need to share the gospel with the Mormons just like everyone else, and like it or not, this is a public place being outside and downtown. You simply cannot just say leave. I think I talked with something like 6-7 Mormons all at once downtown. Once, one wanted to take away my book of Mormon from me so I could not use it.

Then the one thing that really boiled my blood was, a girl from the youth group boldly spoke out to the entire group of believers, trying to speak for everyone of us, and said to the Mormons, I feel we are casting our pearls before swine; we are finished talking with you. I then spoke out and said, please speak for yourself and no one else. I do not feel I am casting my pearls before swine. And proceeded to rebuke her. That Sunday at church I went to tell her father what I did. Her father was a deacon at the church and I wanted to set the record straight. He told me when his daughter got home from the Friday night outreach, she told him what I said. He agreed with me and also rebuked her.
Anyway, sadly, I called the Mormons from that night and had to apologize for the actions of my fellow believers for their attitudes. It was awesome. One of the missionaries and I spoke on the phone for about 2 hours. He shared with me and I shared with him. Shelli would look up verses for me while I was on the phone and I could here him talking with what sounded like at least two other Mormons looking up stuff for him. Sadly, I never saw him again either. But that is one thing with the Missionaries, they are only on a missions trip for two years at a time, and might be in an area for as long as 3 months or as short as one day.

There were stupid things along they way I said or did, and when I called the Mormon ministry to share, they would lovingly point out how not to handle things. That was good. After being back in Maine for awhile, Shelli started to enjoy it there and make friends. I, on the other hand, while I loved it, was feeling called back here to Minnesota. That was a struggle for me with all Shelli and I went through. Now I go and uproot us again. Well, we talked and of course she thought I was nuts. But along the way we tried to buy a house and I was applying for a cooks position at a hospital. This would have been a very high paying sweet job. But I believe the Lord had other plans. There were only two people who applied for the job at the hospital, me and my boss, the chef, where I worked.
Of course he got the job because he had a lot more experience that me. Go figure, just us two apply, and I did not even know he applied until he gave his notice. Then he told me there was only us two that applied. Doors were closing, telling me I was going back to Minnesota. Two really nice restaurants I worked at closed for good, housing fell through, the job at the hospital fell through, and I had a sweet part time job as a baker at a Maine college that fell through.

I really started to warm to the idea of going back to Minnesota. So I called the Mormon ministry and told him. The really funny thing is, he told me, right before I was leaving to Minnesota, a Mormon temple will be built and close to home. We left Maine in February of 2000, and we have been here ever since and I know beyond a doubt this is where we are supposed to be. When I arrived here I really still did not know a lot about Mormonism, not as much as I wanted. But I called the ministry and told them I am here. They put me in touch with a friend of theirs who has a ministry to Mormons.
Well once I got here, I just started to witness to Mormons wherever I could. I decided my approach would be to verify everything my self, I started to search used book stores, and went to eBay. I decide if I do not own the actual source I will not bring up a subject to a Mormon.
Sort of like an atheist saying, I heard your church teaches or does... I would talk to Mormons on a rather limited basis because I could not verify much, But in the years I have been here I have bought and read tons of their stuff.

I have had very long talks with Mormons, two of my talks have lasted for upwards of 4 hours. I keep in touch with the 2 ministries and share thoughts and ideas with them as they really have a heart for Mormons and will be very honest with me. Not that my friends wont be, but they don't understand Mormons as well as these people do. Then back in July of 2004 I took a two weeks paid vacation with a friend, and went to Salt Lake City, Utah to witness to Mormons. Most of the time we slept in my car, but the weather was some of the worst and so severe we needed to rent a motel room a few times, plus just needing a shower we had no other choice.
Boy, I just love this ministry, I would not give it up for nothing. I have been long since blacklisted by the Mormons, they avoid my place like the plague. If I want to talk to Mormons I need to have friends set up meetings at their place or I need to find them out in parks or on the street.
Well, I see good things coming in the future, but only God knows for sure. The sad part of it all is, so many believers even in my own church have this attitude like it cannot possibly be my calling. I will share my experiences with people, and I have had people say to my face, O-Boy, here he goes again. I've also had people roll their eyes at me and just walk away while talking. I say, O-well, God is using me and blessing me beyond belief. If people don't want to hear what I say, then so be it, I won't share with them.
Sadly, I know the people who don't care so I don't share with them. This is why it is nice to have friends in Christ who care. I have someone to share the Good news when it comes my way, and it blesses her (my wife). I hope this helps people to better understand why I am sharing with the LDS people. And my goal on this blog is to put out things I see as problems in Mormonism, and talk about these things. I am reviewing Mormonism. Rick Beaudin