Remember Me?

By Jeannette McQueen-Nobbs

My parents were baptized members of the Church just before I was born. We went to church every Sunday, and we would pray together. But after my ninth birthday, my family moved from Toronto, Canada, where the Church was strong, to a rural area with few members.

A few months later my family fell into some difficult financial times and became less active. For many years I lived in a home that did not have the gospel. I heard anger and even bitterness towards the Church expressed in my home.

When I was 17, some missionaries came to see us. At that time most of my siblings and I were caught up in worldly lifestyles and had no desire to change. We were disrespectful and rude to this missionary and his companion.

A year later I moved back to Toronto to work. I was lonely, so I looked up some members of the Church who had known me as a child. I visited them on Saturday, and before I left they had asked me to go to church with them the next day. I agreed.

When I arrived, they introduced me to a young woman about my age, who took me to the Gospel Principles class. A missionary was teaching the lesson. I kept thinking I had met him before, but I didn’t know where. At the end of class, I remembered. He was the missionary who had visited my family a year earlier.

After the closing prayer, I went up to him and described the day I had met him. He remembered me and my family. I told him that my parents had become less active when I was a child and had fought about the Church. My mother said the Church was true, but my father said it wasn’t. I asked to be taught the discussions so that I could learn for myself if the Church was true. He arranged for some missionaries from my area to teach me.

The missionaries came and taught me the discussions. They challenged me to read the Book of Mormon. I agreed, and once I began reading, I couldn’t put the book down. I read the Book of Mormon everywhere and could barely eat—I had such a desire to read the book. My soul hungered for it.

I didn’t know right away if the Church was true. I continued reading the scriptures and attending Church meetings. I repented of my worldly ways. My testimony grew as I kept the commandments.

I felt the influence of the Spirit in my life. I realized that Christ had died for me so that I could repent. I began living a righteous life and have continued to do so. I became born of God in my heart, mind, and spirit. It’s been a hard, long road, but I’ve overcome many obstacles, and now I rejoice in my testimony of the gospel.

Illustration by Sam Lawlor