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Former Church of Ireland Member
Heavenly Father Has Guided Me Home
By Margaret Curry
I have always been drawn to The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have an early re-collection of the
Church on the Holywood Road when it was just built. It stands on the
outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland. We used to visit my Aunt
Annie (my Mother’s Sister) every Saturday.
Every time the bus took us past the Church I would ask what the
letters along the side of it said. My Father would patiently help me
to read it every single time. He never ever grew tired of constantly
answering our repetitive questions. He would read with me; "The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". Then he would say that
it was also known as The Mormon Church. The word ‘Mormon’ was
familiar to me as my Mother’s two brothers and their wives were
Mormons. So it made me more sense to me.
One Saturday afternoon, when we were on our way
home traveling, by bus, down the Holywood Road, it had just stopped
raining as we drew level with The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, I looked up and there was a rainbow just over the
top of the Church.
It looked so beautiful. I pointed to it out to my Father and told
him that one day I would go into that Church. He just smiled. I was
never under any illusion that one day I would indeed attend the
Church.
Living in Northern Ireland we were ever mindful of
the great religious divide that imposed itself on our Country. We
attended many of the children’s clubs in a number of Churches around
Dundonald.
"The Troubles" started again in Northern Ireland in 1969. However,
despite them, or maybe, in spite of them, we had a happy childhood.
Every so often ‘the troubles’ would brush lightly against our lives
but thankfully never much more than that. We were so fortunate. Many
families in Northern Ireland lost loved ones but we were lucky our
family remained in tact throughout. Seldom a day went by without
someone dying and that lead to all types of denial.
Denial in God was rife then. Growing up in a Village like Dundonald
was a privilege we had green fields all around us. We would get up
in school holidays and go ‘fishing’, catching smicks in a net and
putting them into an empty jam jar with a string tied around it. In
spring time we went up to a little pond and we would ‘fish’ for
frogs’ pawn but my parents had warned us that under NO circumstances
were we to bring any of that home!!! In winter we would go there
when the pond was frozen to try to walk on the ice.
In 2001 I was going out with Stephen Gordon and he
was going to Salt Lake City and invited me to go with him. During
the day when he was working I would often sit in the gardens at the
Tabernacle. It was both peaceful and serene and hard to believe I
was in the center of a busy city.
When we were in the Tabernacle I remember feeling
a sense of belonging, of coming home and I remember saying to
Stephen that maybe my Aunts and Uncle had been in that very spot
almost fifty years before me.
After Stephen and I split up, my life just seem to
drag on. I had nothing in it, no one special. Nothing. Then I did
something I hadn’t done since I was a child, I got down on my knees
and I prayed for the first in years. I pleaded with God to please
let me know what I had to do. Show me the way. Help me.
Later that evening out of the 200+ channels I had
on my TV I was watching one that was advertising "Find Faith in
Christ", a DVD for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In early August two Missionaries, Elder Hillary and Elder Moyes,
called out to my home with Brother Stewart.
After their visit I decided to go to the Church the following
Sunday. As soon as I went into the hall I met the two Missionaries
and Brother Stewart. They introduced me to some of the Sisters and I
went into Relief Society.
Later in the morning we went into Sacrament in the Chapel and I
immediately felt I had come home. I continue to have this feeling
every time I enter the Church, "I am home. I am where I should be.
Heavenly Father has guided me home." I know now that He was always
trying to guide me to the true Church but I was always too busy.
I was Baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, on the Holywood Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
on Saturday, 24th September (the 5th anniversary of my Father’s
death.) This is truly the best decision I have ever made. My Baptism
was filmed for the BBC and it was lovely to "witness" the entire
event.
I will soon be a year in The Church and I am proud
to call myself a Mormon or a Latter-day Saint. I’m not good with
abbreviations. I’m the person who thinks that they sell furniture at
MI5 (MFI) and if I used the LDS initials I would probably go about
saying that I was an LSD, then people would think we were into drugs
or something.
I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I love my
Heavenly Father and I love the Holy Ghost. I love my Church and I
know it is the true Church. I have a Testimony that ours is the True
Church and that the Book of Mormon is true. Also, our Founder Joseph
Smith was indeed a Prophet of God and that our current President
Gordon B Hinckley is also a Prophet of God.
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