Happy Sunday!

WHY I’M A MORMON

I’m Mormon because I wanted a more meaningful way to live my life. When I came back from Vietnam, I took a leave of absence from the military and visited my hometown of Brooklyn.

I found out that a lot of my friends were angry with me for being in the military and for having served. So instead of getting a ticker-tape parade, I got animosity and anger. By the time my leave of absence was over, I was really confused.
The military reassigned me to Fort Lewis, Washington. I started having problems with drugs and other things that I’d used in Vietnam. But my mind was clear enough to start thinking about my past and the things that I used to rely on.
One of the things that I remembered was the sermons that were given about Jesus Christ when I was young. The military always gives you a Gideon Bible, so I started reading it. As I read, I enjoyed the stories about Jesus Christ. I started applying some of the principles to my life, and my life became easier and easier as a soldier. I didn’t get in trouble as much.
Eventually, I decided that I really wanted to know if there was a God—someone whom I could communicate with.
So, I told God, “If you exist, I need to know for sure, because then I can talk to you on a regular basis. You can guide my life.”
I had a locker on the military base, and I didn’t have much in it. So I said, “The first thing you have to do, God, is put one million dollars in unmarked bills in my locker. I really don’t want the money. I just want to open it up, see it, feel it, and I’ll close the locker and you can make it disappear, and then I’ll know you exist and we can talk on a regular basis.”
The next morning I woke up, so excited. I opened up the locker, and it was empty. I was very, very disappointed—to the point where I decided that if there really isn’t a God, then what is the purpose of life? Why are we here? The typical questions.
I went to the second floor balcony of the base. They have a little area where you can look over the soldiers marching. I think I was at the point of suicide, but I also knew that I wasn’t high enough in the balcony to jump and really kill myself.
As I was standing there thinking about the locker and why God didn’t put the million dollars in it, I heard someone say to me, “Do you want to know the truth?”
I turned around because it was coming from behind me, and there was another soldier standing there, looking at me.
I recognized him from the barracks, but I didn’t know him personally.
He looked at me and said, “Do you want to know the truth?”
“The truth about what?” I said.
“I saw you reading the Bible,” he explained. “I know why we’re here, and I know what our purpose in life is. Are you looking for that?”
“Not really,” I lied, embarrassed.
We went and set on the bunks together. “I’m going to tell you a story about this guy named Joseph who lives in New York,” the other soldier began.
He told me a story about this guy, Joseph, who lived on a farm, who had the same problems I had of wanting to know the truth. He prayed and asked God for help, and he had a vision. He saw God and His Son Jesus Christ.
I grew up in a family where there we heard stories about miracles and saints and religious people all the time. So this was just another one of those stories. I declined an invitation to go to church with the soldier. But we became friends, and he started living with me off base.
Every single Sunday, my friend borrowed my car to go to church. My car had to be started a certain way; otherwise it wouldn’t start. One cold Sunday, I could hear the car outside the mobile home struggling to start, so I went outside and started the car myself.
“While you’re in the car, why don’t you just drive me to church?” my friend said. “I’ll only stay for the first service.”
I agreed. The service had already started when we walked into the building. I sat in the back. Someone got up and gave a speech that sounded like it was designed for me. I thought that the speaker knew I would be coming, but my friend reassured me that it was just a normal Sunday service.
Afterward, I met the missionaries, and learned about the purpose of life. Then they gave me a Book of Mormon.
Right after that, I went on a military maneuver for two weeks. Whenever we had a break, everybody else lit up cigarettes; I took the Book of Mormon out of my coat, and read and read.
One late night after the lights were out and everyone was asleep, I stayed up reading the Book of Mormon with a flashlight.
It was at that moment while I was in bed reading the book that I realized that this was, in a very strange way, how the Lord wanted to answer my prayer. He didn’t want to put a million dollars in my locker. He wanted to do it through this book, and as I read it, I knew that it was absolutely correct. I quickly came to the conclusion that if this book was true, Joseph Smith must be a prophet, and this church that I went to must be true also.
I remember distinctly how frightened I was, because I didn’t want religion. I just wanted to communicate with God. I threw the Book of Mormon across the bed onto my footlocker and stared at it.
But as I sat there, I thought to myself, Isn’t this what you wanted to know? Isn’t this what you asked for? Here’s the answer on your footlocker.
So I picked up the Book of Mormon and finished it completely, and I committed myself at that moment to do whatever the Lord wanted me to do.
When the maneuver was over and I went to church that Sunday, I told the missionaries that I had read the entire Book of Mormon and felt that it was accurate—that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the Mormon religion must be true, too.
I was baptized soon after that.
To me, the greatest expression of my faith is just living everyday and dealing with the challenges of life. The true picture of an individual isn’t when things are going well, it’s when you’re being challenged.
This year has been really tough for me. I could very easily abandon the ship and express no faith in the Lord. But I work hard and continue to do what I’m doing to overcome my challenges and have a positive attitude.
Challenges help me see what I’m made of and what my faith is made of, using prayer and fasting and reading the scriptures. I think I’m closer to the Lord now because of these challenges than before when I didn’t have them and life was pretty good.
If you’re looking into the church, try to read the Book of Mormon with real intent—just like it says in the book. Do it with an open mind and with an open heart. And pray to God. For me, that was the step toward realizing a new life and a new way of thinking.
And if you don’t know he’s there, ask him for a million dollars in unmarked bills. And he’ll answer your prayers—probably not in that way, but in a way that only you will know for sure that it’s true.


I loved this story.  Hope you enjoy it too!  Happy Sunday!