Rigmor Heistø

By all outward appearances, Rigmor Heistø was living an idyllic life. In 1963, the 43-year-old mother of three was married to a well-known physician, and she and her family lived in a comfortable home.

One afternoon, Heistø was visited by two Latter-day Saint missionaries. Intrigued by the message they shared, she began to meet with them regularly. In their message, Heistø found answers to long-standing and deeply felt religious questions.

Her husband, influenced by the negative writings of Norwegian theologian Einar Molland, opposed her conversion. One Sunday, during the sermon at her church, the pastor, quoting Hebrews 13:7, called on the congregation to “remember them ... who have spoken unto you the word of God.” She thought of the missionaries and felt impressed that they had shared the word of God with her. She again asked for her husband’s consent to be baptized. Eventually, and somewhat grudgingly, he agreed.

Her conversion caused additional stress on their already strained marriage. Heistø and her husband divorced three years later.

After the divorce, Heistø moved to a small apartment and enrolled in a college to study education. During one class, the professor, Inge Lønning, asserted that Norwegians had total freedom of religion. Heistø disputed this claim. “That applies only to members of the state church,” she said. “Just try and believe some other religion.”

After the class, Heistø recounted her experiences to Lønning and mentioned the impact of Einar Molland’s book on her former husband. Lønning, she discovered, was a personal friend of Molland and arranged for her to meet him.

Molland told her he could not understand how anyone could convert to the Church. “If I hadn’t known any more about the Church than you do,” she replied, “it would be the last thing I would have done. Where did you get the nonsense in your book?”

Molland explained that the information was gathered from sources in the university library. Heistø explained that these sources were biased. She suggested he could find correct information by simply contacting the mission president, whose office was a hundred meters down the road. She further explained how Molland’s book had damaged her marriage. At the end of the meeting, Molland promised to correct the errors in the next edition of the book and to allow members of the Church to review the changes.

“I have never felt the Spirit move me so much,” Heistø later recalled. “When I left ... we were the best of friends.” Molland kept his promise. In 1978, a revised edition of the book was published, which incorporated information from several members of the Church, including Heistø.

Rigmor Heistø spent much of her life seeking opportunities to share her faith with others. She was instrumental in establishing a professorial exchange program between Oslo University and Brigham Young University. In 1994, Heistø served as editor of Dette Tror Vi (This We Believe), a collection of essays written by representatives of 37 faiths in Norway discussing their faith.