“God Was Calling Me Again,” Ensign, August 2017
Latter-day Saint Voices
God Was Calling Me Again
Illustration by Carolyn Vibbert
After I completed my college education, I became a research scientist. Trained in the scientific method, I accepted only what could be sensed and proven. I lived without God’s influence in my life; I was practically an atheist.
Then one morning I received a call that my son had been in a serious automobile accident. On the way to the hospital, I felt prompted to say the Lord’s Prayer, which I had learned in childhood. I could not remember it, but I felt that I needed to pray anyway.
Even though God had called to me, when the crisis subsided and my son recovered, I continued to live without Him in my life.
Years later I began dating a woman named Rubí. She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though she was not active. We were together for three years when she began to feel the desire to go to church. She would ask me to go with her, but I always refused.
One day the missionaries came to our door. They gave me a Book of Mormon and left me with reading assignments. I read what they requested but felt nothing. I also attended church but was always skeptical. Even so, I felt I needed to keep reading the Book of Mormon. God was calling me again.
As I continued reading, I started to feel that the book was true. My faith was growing. When I reached 3 Nephi 13:9–13 and read the Lord’s Prayer, the Spirit flooded over me. I broke into sobs. God was calling me a third time. This time I listened.
My faith in God grew. I wanted to know more. In a short time, I read all the standard works. I continued attending church, and after Rubí and I married, I was baptized. I will never forget the joy I felt when I was confirmed a member of the Church.
Today I am still a research scientist. But now I see the hand of God in all things. I agree with Alma, who said, “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).