“My Unseen Investigator,” Ensign, September 2016
Latter-day Saint Voices
My Unseen Investigator
Illustration by Allen Garns
I was blessed with wonderful parents. My mother was a member of the Church, and although my father wasn’t, he still supported us in our Church activities. Growing up, I prayed daily that my father would join the Church.
When I received my patriarchal blessing at age 16, I was promised that I would be an influence in helping my father join the Church. I talked with him about the things I learned in seminary. I told him about the scriptures that state that it is necessary to be baptized and confirmed to enter the kingdom of God (see John 3:5). Tearfully, I told him about the blessings of the temple that would make it possible for us to be together forever.
I attended a small school in Arizona, USA. I had wonderful friends during high school, even though I was the only Church member in my class. At the time, President David O. McKay (1873–1970) was the prophet. We often heard his counsel for “every member [to be] a missionary” (see Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O. McKay [2011], chapter 6). One summer my sister Marilyn and I invited some friends to take the missionary lessons. They took two lessons and were no longer interested. We were disappointed, but it didn’t end our friendships.
I went to college at the end of that summer. During spring semester, I received a letter from my dad. He wrote: “It is my greatest privilege to be the head of a household of wonderful girls. Because of all of your strong testimonies of the gospel and the meetings and interest in other young people last summer, I really started getting interested in the Church. While I was outside the house painting and you and the kids were inside holding those meetings, I was convinced I had been on the outside looking in long enough. I have thanked Heavenly Father many times for your mother and the fact that she was brought up in the Church and for the way she has brought up you girls.”
My father was soon baptized, and a year later our family was sealed for time and eternity in the Mesa Arizona Temple.
Even though none of our friends joined the Church, the most important person in our lives did. We never know how we will be blessed when we follow the counsel of the prophet.