My Journey

When I was 19 years old I began a serious quest to find life’s answers.  Coming from a somewhat broken home (my father left when I was a baby) I came to a point in my life where I longed to have a family of my own.  But unlike my life as a child when I had many questions concerning the things around me but little answers from anyone in my family, I wanted to have my own family that I could share those answers with.  I wanted to have children that, when they asked me those serious but child-like questions, such as “Daddy, where did we come from?” or “Daddy, what’s the real purpose of life?” that I would have the answers for them.  To be a real Dad…to love them enough to feed their souls…to care for them enough that I would find the answers they sought from me, their Daddy.

At the time I had moved from my home into a house with two of my friends…members of our rock and roll band.  My life, at the time, was going somewhat nowhere…kind of like the song, “I’m a real nowhere man, sitting in my nowhere land, making all my nowhere plans for nobody.”  I had dropped out of Junior College and was working full-time driving locally for a construction tool company delivering power tools to construction sites all over southern California.  It was a job that gave me lots of time to think.

As I began to ponder my life and where I was going, I felt no real purpose.  The real questions of life weighed heavily on my soul.  Inwardly, I asked, “Where am I going in life?”  “What is my true purpose?”  “What am I going to tell my children when they ask me the same questions that I am asking myself?”  “Will I be like everyone else and say, “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll find out one day,” or “It’s just one of God’s mysteries…we don’t know all the answers.”  Perhaps you have felt that way as well.  After all, we are all children of God…why wouldn’t we all be asking those same questions?

It was at this time in my life that I felt inspired to make a life-changing decision.  I was going to do all that it took to find these answers.  I was going to quit doing the things my friends and I had been doing and, for the sake of myself and my future family, I was going to find those answers to life’s questions…and find them now!  I made some inspired decisions.  To keep away distractions, I sold all my record albums (and I had quite a stack) to a used record store.  I felt moved in the direction to read the Bible for the first time in my life, and to pray to God and ask for light and understanding for I had faith, even as a little child that my Heavenly Father was real and that he not only knew more than I did, but that I was his spiritual son and that if anyone cared for me, He did.

So thus started my journey…my quest if you will… to find life’s answers and direction for me and my future family.  I often have thought how humorous it must have been to God…to look down upon my home and see me in one room reading the scriptures and praying... and seeing my friends in the other two rooms continuing to pursue the things of life in which I had once partaken.  Nevertheless, I pressed on reading… and praying as I read… that God would guide me in the path I was seeking to know his mysteries and the answers to things that thus far in life had alluded me, or more precisely, me them.

As I was thus reading and praying, I felt that perhaps a certain religion might have something to do with the answers I sought.  At this time I had read many selected passages of Old Testament scripture and I had started into the New Testament.  A few months had passed since I began my journey.  So, during the week I would read and pray and, on the weekends, I started to attend various churches…some organized, some not so much… Jesus freaks as people called them.

Over a period of about two months I visited the Baptist church, the Quaker religion, and several protestant and “Jesus freak” meetings.  The Catholics I was already familiar with as my mother had come from that religion and, as my mother had converted to Mormonism, I was familiar with that religion as well and had attended their meetings throughout my childhood until I moved from home.  On these religious “visits” I took occasion to ask the several ministers or leaders of these groups’ questions I had about life, or unanswered questions I came across in the Bible.  To this day, I succinctly remember a few of these encounters.

I remember asking a Baptist minister what was the device worn by the Hebrew priests in the temple known as the Urim and Thummim.  Surely he would know, right?  His response surprised me when he gave the pat answer that it was a mystery of God.  I chuckled inside myself, knowing that if the Hebrew priest was wearing it, surely he knew of its significance and meaning so why not the “ministers” of my day?  I also remember the Quakers…such a wonderfully nice group of people…so sincere in their neighborly ways and their quest for peace in a troubled world.  I also remember several “Jesus freak” encounters and the looseness of their congregations…almost nomadic in nature.  But through all these encounters not one of my questions was answered adequately enough to give me the feeling that yes, this is the true religion of God.  They couldn’t answer my questions.  Not only inquiries concerning the Urim and Thummim, but also those of why temples (special houses of worship), why no prophets, why no authority of being anointed and ordained by a prophet as opposed to going to college to get a theology degree (this concept was very foreign to me…did the prophets or Jesus go to college to preach God’s word?), why no 12 apostles as Jesus had set up in his church, why different forms of baptism which Jesus had expounded as a requirement “to enter into the kingdom of God” when he, himself, was submerged in the river Jordan by the prophet John the Baptist, why innocent children were being told they were sinners and must be baptized, and many more questions I had that they could not answer such as where we were before we were born, what was our true purpose on earth, and where we were going after death.

It was at this time that I realized that I must make my journey alone.  That if God really was my spiritual Father, and the Bible was his word, He would answer me and I would feel satisfied and my mind would be at ease.

One day, as I was reading in the New Testament I came across a scripture that had a deep impact upon my heart and mind.  As the Jews where questioning Jesus as to his status as the Son of God, he answered them thus:  "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (see John 7:16-17)  Here was an answer to my petitions to God.  All I had to do was the will of God - to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ - and through the doing, I would know the answers to the things I sought...that it was the doctrine of God!  I was anxious to learn more...to read the words of Christ and to make an honest commitment to his teachings, putting aside the worldly and insignificant things in my life as a sacrifice for an answer from God as to my eternal destiny and purpose.

I read the words of Christ, including those he gave in the sermon on the mount, and tried my utmost to live by his teachings.  A short time later I read that he promised those who sought to do his will the Spirit of God to help them. He said, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; he will shew you things to come." (see John16:13)  I sought more earnestly in my prayers for this "Spirit" to lead me and guide me in my search for truth.  I also at this time felt impressed with the principle of fasting (abstaining from food and drink) and felt that it was meant to get our minds away from the physical wants and desires and focus on the spiritual.  Through a period of deep commitment and soul-searching, I felt inspired to make the decision to fast for a culminating experience that would take me from a person with questions to a person with answers - for myself and for my future family.  I thus decided that beginning on the subsequent Friday I was going to fast for 3 full days and read, ponder and pray for an answer.

It was on the following Saturday morning that I felt inspired to make a phone call to a girl I knew when I was 14 years old who had attended church with me.  I hadn't talked with this girl for five years, (and I had heard that she had since been involved in some rather heavy drug use) but her name dropped into my mind as if I was being led to her, so I decided to make the call.  I remembered the area she lived, which was a town west of my city, so I called the telephone operator and asked for any number listings with her last name.  The operator said their were 3 or 4.  I wrote them down and proceeded with the first one.  A man answered the phone and I asked for the girl.  He remarked that she was not there but that she was the daughter of his sister and proceeded to give me her phone number.  As I hung up the phone and readied myself to call my former friend's home, a sudden sense of anticipation and excitement struck me such that my heart began to beat strongly within my chest.  I had that feeling we get when something exciting is about to happen.

As I made that call a woman answered the phone and I instinctively knew upon hearing her voice that it was my friend's mom.  All the while I was thinking what the odds were that my former friend would even be home.  After all, it was the year after high school and she, like most kids of my day, was probably off to college or working somewhere.  I asked her mom if she was there.  Without hesitation she said, "Just a minute, I'll get her!"  As I waited for her to come, my heart began to pound.  I thought about her for a moment...that she would probably come to the phone with, perhaps, a druggy voice and depressed-like demeanor.  As she answered the phone, I introduced myself whereupon she totally took me by surprise saying something like, "Oh Greg, it's so great to hear you. How have you been?  I am so happy to hear from you!"  We talked, and I cannot even begin to describe to you the feelings of excitement I felt as she told me how happy she was and that she had gone back to church and was playing the piano for the meetings.  It was as if her happiness was flooding down the telephone line into my ear and down into my entire soul.  I have never to this day experienced a telephone call like that one!  Here I had expected her to be the downtrodden one who may have needed my help, but it was really me who was amazed at what I was experiencing from her!  We chatted for what seemed a small moment whereupon she asked me if I would attend church with her the following Sunday.  I was excited at what I was feeling inside and accepted.  Anxious to see her again but also excited at the possibilities that may lay in store.

It was a Sunday I will never forget.  I had been to many church meetings before.  This was a special Sunday of the month for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, or Mormon).  It was set aside as Fast Sunday, a day to fast from food and drink and donate the proceeds or more to help other members who needed the financial assistance.  During the main meeting no talks were given but the entire hour was set aside for members to bear testimony one to another of the things they knew to be true.  At this point I was on my third day of fasting and could feel God's spirit that he had promised, with me.  During the time of "testimony bearing" by the members I had an experience that I had not previously had, or have not had to that degree, since.

As each member came forward to bear their witness of the truth, I felt the exact same feelings they were feeling...not a likeness of their feelings, but the exact feelings they felt...it was as if I were them, completely.  These were people who were expressing sincere feelings and not some whipped up frenzy like most of us have seen on television.  Some of them wept for the deep emotions they were feeling.  I wept also.  Some of them expressed the joy they were feeling.  I, too, felt their joy exactly.  That day I received a special witness of the truth of their expressions...the "burning in the bosom" feeling that Christ had promised...the witness of the Holy Ghost.  I knew that they knew.  I knew for a surety that they were honest people...that there was not a lie or stretch of imagination in their expressions...that everything they said was true and that it, too, came from a spiritual witness within them...it came from God.

I had such a wonderful feeling that day, and as my friend offered me a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, I accepted.

I knew that the Book of Mormon contained the writings of prophets from a people that had left Jerusalem about 600 years B.C. and were led to the Americas.  I knew that it also contained the visitation of Jesus Christ to the Americas after his death and resurrection in Jerusalem and that he taught the people there the same basic teachings he had taught his disciples in the Old World.  I also knew that its history ran to about the year 400 A.D. whereupon great battles ensued between the two main factions which resulted in one faction being wiped out by the other and that the remaining people dwindled in unbelief.  What I didn't know is whether the book was true or not because I had never read it, pondered it, or prayed about it.  That was about to change.

As I left my friend from her church meeting, I had the most wonderful feeling of peace as I drove back to my home.  I was still fasting and I had committed to remain so until I was able to read and ponder the Book of Mormon.  There was no time better to find out about this curious book than now.  I remember as I opened its pages and began to read.  I first said a prayer, asking God to give me a witness of the book as I read.  I knew that if the book was true, I would also know that the church represented by it was also true.  I hadn't had any questions answered as yet, but I was following spiritual promptings and feeling the assurance that if these things were true all of my questions would find answers.

As I began to read, I was captured by the feelings I was experiencing...In some degree it was as if I was experiencing the same feelings as the people in the book, second hand of course, but very real and personal.  As I continued reading a light, as it were, began to illuminate the pages such that certain words were lifted, as it were...or magnified...off the pages to emphasize certain points.  At the same time, I felt, as it were, a voice within me...or prompting...witnessing unto me...unto my soul...that the things I was reading were the truth...that these were real people...real prophets...teaching us real principles directly given by a loving Father in Heaven.  That this was God's chosen way, and always had been, of communicating generally with his children.  Trusted prophets that would keep his children united and together like sheep with a shepherd.  Like the family I was seeking for myself.

I can't even begin to express in man's terms the feelings that came over me and the things I experienced that night.  I was engrossed in those feelings as I read throughout the night and into the early hours of the next morning.  It was as if nothing else mattered.  I felt as if there was a spiritual light in my room and a brighter light around my being.  My heart was swollen in these spiritual feelings.  I rejoiced in what God was giving me and rejoiced in the knowledge that I was receiving and the witness that came forth that night that the Book of Mormon was indeed true.  I completed the entire book...all 500-plus pages...at approximately 5:00 that morning, filled with the Spirit of God.

My journey had just begun...and continues to this day.  Like anyone else, I have had my ups and my downs.  I have experienced obedience to God, and disobedience also.  But it's easier to get back on track if you know the track is there.  I know the track is there.  My questions were answered in such a manner that I was able to give the answers to my children...and continue to do so.  My questions with the Urim and Thummin, temples, authority through ordination, the innocence of little children, where we were before birth, why we are here now, and where we are going...and a whole host of others have been answered.  As questions continue, answers continue also.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is literally, the Church of Jesus Christ in our day.  I have a spiritual witness of its truth.  As His witness, I proclaim that this Church is organized the same way by Him that it was organized in days past...with prophets and 12 apostles...Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.  The Book of Mormon is true.  It is a second witness, along with the Bible...like two nails in a board that makes it immovable.  I am confident enough to declare these things knowing that I will stand before God one day.  He revealed them to me.  And he will reveal them to you.  Follow the pattern...obey, study, ponder and pray.  Ask, and ye shall be given; Knock, and He shall open.  I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ.

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or call or email me:

Greg Scott
(801) 653-3110
followmehealthy@gmail.com