MY JOURNEY OUT OF MORMONISM AND INTO THE ARMS OF JESUS- Janet    "You're playing with fire", the voice inside my head said. I had just sat down in a Mormon ward for the first time in 21 years.  I ignored the warning voice and the service begain.  How could a Christian woman who had spent the last 20+ years of her life studying the errors of Mormonism come back to what she knew was wrong?  Let's start at the beginning.:       The year was 1970 and I was 13 years old. My father, being the history buff that he is, took me to Nauvoo, Illinois to tour the old Mormon settlement there.  I had no idea what a Mormon was and little did I know, I was about to be taken in by it.  As we sat in their visitor's center watching a slide show explaining Joseph Smith and his visions of God and Jesus and angels, I was immediately intrigued.  After the slide show was over, I remember turning to my dad and asking him, "Why don't we believe this, Dad?", and he answered matter-of-factly, "because it's not true".  My  dad was spirituually mature enough in his Christian walk to discern a counterfeit. I was too unlearned in the scriptures to know of Paul's warning to the Galatians:      "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace Of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)     I, however, was just a kid without any knowledge of counterfeit gospels or the plan of Satan to deceive God's children.      I was brought up in a Christian home and we attended church regularly. Our congregation was part of the Lutheran Church in America. Unfortunately, there was no activities for teenagers. At the age of 13, I was in the middle of confirmation classes and the class had a lot of questions. Things weren't as open then as they are now, and many of our questions (i.e. the Trinity) went unanswered. Our Pastor told us to accept this concept by faith and not to question. I was too timid to go to him to explain my questions and to get help in my walk with Jesus, so I kept my concerns inside.      Secretly, I delved into Mormonism as best I could. I would go to the local library and look up information and read books. I only found Mormon "faith promoting" books. It has been said that Local Mormon missionaries will go to the libraries and hid any books that they feel show Mormonism in a bad light. That could be the reason why I never found any books that told the other side. Since this was in the early 70's, this was long before the internet and access to historical Mormon documents that told the truth about Joseph Smith and his involvement in the occult and forces of darkness.      Because I kept my interest secret, my parents could not help me see the errors of my ways and by the time they fiound out, Satan had already convinced me that Mormonism was the truth and the path to salvation. I had no idea that I was on the path to hell.      Then came the Osmonds, the only Mormons that I would know for a few yars. Being a crazy teenager and a fanatic Osmand fan, they validated what I was studying. They published a lot of pro-Mormon material and spoke about their faith and family.  This was also a draw to me as most of my friends came from homes that had problems and my own family had its share of problems.  I was too young to realize that all people and families go through rough times...I was looking for utopia and theMormon church seemed to have what I was looking for.

When I was 16 years old, I told my parents about my desire to attend the Mormon church.  They were livid, understandably.  They wanted me to talk to the Pastor first.  I can still picture that day...I was sitting in his office and told him that I wanted to become a Mormon. He completely freaked out, jumped up and got a Book of Mormon that was on his shelf and, while throwing it on the floor screamed out "dont you realize you wwill go straight to hell???" I know now that he was right, but his attempt to convey that to me was lacking in love and compassion and it drove me completely into the firy pit of Mormonism.  Very reluctantly, my parents allowed me to attend, however it was a source of great conflict with us.

A source of grief to me this day is that I took my best friend with me for the next few years of my journey. She was a good Baptist girl and to this day remains in the clutches of Mormonism.  I continue to pray for her and her husband and children that they will desire to know the true Jesus and will be set free from the bondage that they are under.      When we started attending the Mormon church, we were instantly "love bombed" by the members. This is one of the many techniques used by ults. I had new friends, lots of activities and was very impressed by the family unity that I saw. Many of these families would fall apart in the years to come, but initially I had my blinders on and was only seeing the good.  My best friend and I started taking the missionary discussions on a weekly basis.  I remember praying fervently that God would tell me that the book of Mormon was true.  I received no answer at all because my mind was already made up and I wouldn't have listened to anything contrary to that. If I had been open to receiving an answer from God and it was against the Book ofMormon, I would have dismissed it as an answer from satan.  In retrospect, I know it was Satan who was guiding my steps into Mormonism and putting the scales on my eyes. I remember giving a birthday present to a Mormon girlfriend of mine - a beautiful cross. I can still see the look on her face when she opened it...she was momentarily speechless. Then she said "Janet, we don't wear crosses". "You don't wear crosses??", I said. "Why?" She replied, "because they represent the death of Jesus...it's like wearing an electric chair on a chain". I now believe that Mormons shun this Christian symbol because they do not accept the saving blood of Jesus. Theirs is a works-based religion and their Jesus only died for original sin.  Each Mormon must earn their own way to heaven and work out their own salvation.      My parents finally allowed me to be baptizedinto Mormonism in january of 1975.  My father would not attend, but my mother and grandmother did. They attended only out of love for me...in their hearts they were mortified by my actions. I remember being taught prior to my baptism that the experience was going to be so wonderful and that all my sins would be cleansed...I would literally have a clean slate. When I came up out of the baptismal waters, I felt no change at all .I was so disappointed and secretly blamed myself and lack of faith. But as all cult members do, I faked it and pretended it was glorious. It would be years before I would come to know the true Jesus. It would be years before the scales would fall from my eyes and I would know that it is only jesus who can forgive our sins and make us a new creature.      Shortly after my baptism I took a road trip with 3 other friends to Utah. It was on this trip that I was able to visit the Salt Lake Temple for the first time, to do "baptism for the dead".                                                 continued on next page