“My Neigbor’s Magazine,” Ensign, Sept. 2008, 35
My Neighbor’s Magazine
We had become dissatisfied with the church we were attending and decided it was time to find another congregation of our faith. When we bought our first home in a nearby town, it was the perfect opportunity to attend another church.
One day the mailman accidentally delivered an Ensign magazine to our mailbox. It belonged to our new neighbors, Tom and Jan Smith, and that was how we learned they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I did not know anything about the LDS Church except what I had learned in school about the Mormon Trail, so I was curious to find out all I could. I kept the Ensign for a week and read it cover to cover. That particular issue featured articles on the family. I was overjoyed to find a church that believed what I did—that families are important and that it is our responsibility to care for them. I took the Ensign to Tom and Jan when I had finished reading it, but I did not tell them I had kept it for a week.
A year and a half later we received a job transfer to another state, but before we left, Tom talked to us about the Church. I truly believe the Ensign was delivered to our house for a purpose. The entire issue was devoted to the family, which was the very reason we had been searching for another church. As a result, I was able to listen to the plan of salvation with an open heart because I had felt the truth of the gospel in the pages I had read a year and a half earlier in the Ensign.
I gained a testimony and was baptized four months later. After my husband’s baptism, we were sealed for time and eternity in the Washington D.C. Temple, and we have since raised four children in the gospel. Our son and his wife were sealed in the Atlanta Georgia Temple and are raising their son in the Church.
Now, many years later, the Ensign is a staple in our home. It is a blessing to our family to have such inspiring articles and artwork available at our fingertips every month. I will forever be grateful to the Lord that the mailman delivered the Ensign to our home and opened our door to the blessings of the gospel.
Illustration by Steve Kropp