Well, I was born and raised in Carlsbad, in a family that was LDS, in a very good LDS ward. I was going to Church. I was very active. I got out of high school and decided to go to work in the oil fields to make some money for my mission. But when I came back, I just wasn't taking it too seriously. I believed the Church, but at the same time, I also had the addiction to pornography-- I don't know if I can say that or not-- from a young age and had been battling that the whole time. At the age of 21, I ended up getting myself excommunicated. When I got involved in drugs and alcohol, mainly alcohol, I just got progressively wilder and wilder. And I remember one day, waking up and looking in the mirror and thinking, you're the worst person you know. [MUSIC PLAYING]
And I was begging God to help me. [MUSIC PLAYING]
I got past alcohol and drugs. I was going to a 12-step program. A lot of that had to do with the whole time I was praying in the evenings and reading the scriptures. I got to a point where I just, no matter what I did, I couldn't-- I couldn't get back. I couldn't stop certain things. I was not doing the drugs and alcohol, but it was coffee and cigs and pornography and just not being the best person I could be and sex and blah, blah, blah. And I was going through a really, really rough patch. And I moved to this area, and I was feeling weak all the time and just getting more and more despondent and depressed.
December 1st, 2013, a good friend of mine that I'd grown up with called me up. He had been praying to Heavenly Father for rescue. And he was literally begging the Lord to help him find a way that he could come back. And he asked, "Owen, what's new in your life?" And I said, well everything's the same, except I've been doing indexing. Then the next day, I'm talking to one of my brothers, and he said something about indexing. And so I downloaded the program, and I got into it. And almost from the beginning, I could feel the Spirit. I could feel a difference.
He called me the very next morning and told me he had indexed his first 100 names, and he was starting on his next 100. At some point, I realized I'd gone longer than I'd ever gone before without looking at pornography. And I was getting excited. And I was talking to people in my bishopric about indexing. And one of them wanted me to teach them, so I taught him. Then I taught someone else how to do it. I stopped, not only looking at porn. I stopped wasting a lot of time on the internet. I actually kind of cut-- my TV time went way down. If I was having some kind of emotional or some kind of temptation or whatever, in 1.2 seconds, I could click on that icon. I could be doing the Lord's work and get through it real fast. I didn't want to watch anything that looked inappropriate. I was praying in the morning and the evening. I was reading my scriptures daily, without fail, trying to do all the things I could as a non-member. And I knew I was-- I just had the feeling I was close to getting re-baptized, but I just didn't know how long it was going to be. I figured it would be a few months. Then the bishop called me in, and we talked. I knew it was time. I called Stephen back into my office and began talking with him. And then I shared with him that the Lord had accepted what he has done, and it was time for him to be baptized again. December 2nd, 2013, is when I started indexing. On April 25th of 2014, I was able to get past all of my addictions, go through the things with my bishop to get myself ready for it, all of that, and be able to get baptized last night.
I just don't feel like doing anything wrong when I'm indexing. That's the best way to put it. I don't feel like committing any sins when I'm indexing. But it's not just for battling addictions, whether it be pornography or a word of wisdom or whatever it may be. Indexing, for me, brought the availability of the Spirit, almost at will.
Redeeming the dead has redeemed me. And it can work for anybody-- anybody. [MUSIC PLAYING]