My grammy's conversion story and testimony.
As told to Sister Ginger Franz, Temple Missionary of the Nauvoo Temple:
“My dad, Eugene Autrey, was a Pentecostal Minister in the small town of Georgetown, Louisiana. The year was 1948. One day my parents went for a drive out into the country to an abandoned farm to look for useful items that may have been left behind. It was the custom in those days that whenever someone abandoned a farm they would box up the things they couldn’t or didn’t want to take with them, and leave the boxes in their barn for others to look through and claim whatever they wanted. Dad looked through the boxes but couldn’t find the tools or anything else he wanted, so he climbed up into the loft of the barn where he found a box containing some old books.
He kept two of the books that looked interesting and took them home. One was called The Book of Mormon and the other The Doctrine and Covenants. He read both of these books, and was immediately convinced that they contained the word of God. He had never heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before, and wasn’t really interested in joining any other church, but what he read in those two books did interest him very much. He asked me to go to the library and check out another book for him that he called The Pearl of Great Price. I did as he asked and he read this book also and said that in his heart he knew these books were true, that they told more about Jesus Christ than any other book he had read, including the Bible.
Dad believed The Lord had lead him to these books, and told my mother how he felt, but she was against it and told him that Satan had lead him to those books. Dad believed so strongly in the teachings he had discovered that he began preaching sermons to his congregation using this new knowledge about the Savior. Members of his church were not instructed to read the words of the Bible for themselves and so no one ever knew or suspected that new scriptures were being introduced to them.
My mother continued to oppose Dad’s studying and preaching out of these books, but it didn’t stop him. Even though he preached these new doctrines, he was not actively looking for the church that had published them, since he had his own church and congregation that he was very happy with, but he did tell me that if the true church of Christ existed somewhere that the one thing that would distinguish it from all others was that it would have a Prophet. He also said that Christ’s true church should have Apostles and all the gifts of the spirit, such as healings.
He encouraged me to read “The Pearl of Great Price” and said, “It’ll scare the hell out of you!” Of course I had no interest in being scared. I was just fourteen years old at the time and my interests were not so much in religion as they were in waiting to see what young man would choose to sit next to me during the church service.
The years passed. After I was married with two children of my own, life began to take on a deeper meaning for me. I wanted more than anything else for my children to be brought up Christian, but I wasn’t satisfied with the churches I knew about. By this time I had quite forgotten about the books that Dad had found, though I still remembered the things he told me that the ‘true church’ of Christ would have, beginning first of all with a Prophet. None of the churches I knew about had a Prophet. So I became a self-taught Bible scholar, studying intensely everything in the Bible that I believed should be the doctrines and practices of Christ’s church. I wrote down all of these points of doctrines in detail, filling up several pages. I learned about tithing, and wanted to pay it, but the few churches that did practice this doctrine, including Dad’s church, placed these tithes and offerings into the Pastor’s hands to use for whatsoever he desired. This struck me as being wrong for I felt very strongly that this was God’s money and shouldn’t be spent at the Pastor’s whim. I also was looking for a church with Apostles and a {Prophet} and for the proper way to receive the Holy Ghost, which was not the way it was believed to be received in Dad’s church. One important principal that Dad did practice in his church, however, was the taking of the Sacrament.
As I studied and recorded all that I learned, my collection of papers multiplied. During this time of searching I visited other churches and questioned their ministers, but they could not answer my questions to my satisfaction. I told them that I was looking for Christ’s true Church and they told me I was wrong to be doing this. My mother also condemned me and told me to stop my search because she believed it was of the devil, that I would go to hell if I didn’t give it up. But I could not stop. This was too important to me. I became so involved in this search for truth that I seriously considered starting my own church which would teach and practice all the things I had learned from the Bible, though I didn’t know where or how I would find a Prophet to lead my church.
And so I continued to study and search, praying all along that God would help me find the truth. One day two young men came to my door, wanting to tell me about their belief in Christ. They were not the first to come to my door wanting to teach me their religion, and by listening to others I had only become more discouraged when their beliefs did not agree with my own. This time, however, I made an agreement with these two young men that I would listen to what they had to say only if they would agree to first listen to my beliefs. They agreed and I invited them inside. I excused myself long enough to get my papers and then rejoined them. They sat and listened to me for about an hour and a half without interruption, looking quite amazed at what I was telling them. As soon as I concluded one of them exclaimed, “I don’t understand that you’re not already a Mormon!” And they gladly informed me that a Prophet did indeed lead their church.
So, I began listening to the message of these Missionaries. We had no telephone and they were unable to call to arrange for appointments to meet with me, but would just show up, hoping to find me home. Since I was a child I had had dreams and visions of things that were going to happen. Now, I began having dreams informing me that the Missionaries would be coming the very next day. Not only that, but I was also told in the dream what message they would be teaching me. The Missionaries always came the next day and I told them I had been told in a dream that they were coming and also what message they were planning to give me, and I was always right. This truly astounded them. When they persuaded me to attend that first Sunday School meeting with them, I had another dream the night before regarding a question that I thought about asking, pertaining to The School of The Prophets. Sure enough this subject was brought up in the class and I asked the teacher the question and the answer I received was in harmony with my understanding of the subject. I always felt that these dreams were a gift from God, and as such it helped me to readily accept Joseph Smith and his visions.
During this time while the Missionaries were teaching me the Gospel a few of the preachers I had previously talked to found out about it and came to my home trying to redeem me from making a serious mistake. They warned me that what I was doing was wrong, and condemned me to hell forever if I didn’t stop listening to these men. My mother also warned me that if I joined the Mormon Church that I would be giving up my family.
I loved my family and didn’t want to lose them, but I also loved the truth and believed that I had at last found it. Still, the decision to join the Church was the most difficult one I had ever faced. I had to know without a doubt that this was the right thing to do, and that whatever I decided would be final with no turning back, ever. As always when meeting with the Missionaries they would ask me to pray with them, and in my prayers I asked God to let me know if this was right for me to do. The Missionaries told me that my prayers were beautiful and sincere and promised me that the Lord would give me an answer soon.
The next time they came, I put all of my heart and soul into my prayer, telling the Lord that I had to know if these two men were telling me the truth, in which case I would accept it, but if they were not that they would be cursed from the face of the Earth. At the conclusion of that long, pleading prayer a warm, sweet and peaceful feeling came over me, completely enveloping me. And a voice clearly spoke these words to me, “This is the truth. Hear it.”
I never doubted or questioned again. I was baptized, and my children after me. My husband joined some time later. My mother had attended my baptism and when I referred to the fact that I had been washed clean, she insultingly told me, “You’ve been brain washed.” To which I replied, “Some people need their brains washed.” My brother and sister turned against me. I continued to live the Gospel and never tried to push it onto my family. During all this time Dad had continued to study the LDS scriptures, keeping that old Book of Mormon he had found on his nightstand. Even before I joined the Church, if I had a question concerning the teachings of the Mormon Church, I went to my dad and he helped me to understand them, always in favor of the Church. Dad, himself never joined the Church because of two things; the opposition heaped upon him by my mother and others who discredited his ideas, and because he personally had a big problem accepting and understanding the Mormon’s belief in the Godhead as being three separate beings.
Dad did not, however, object to my joining the church. After my mother died Dad helped me do our family’s genealogy. I took him often with my family to Church history sites, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He especially loved to go with me to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. He would remove his hat and stand in quiet reverence as he felt it was a sacred place. He and my son said that they could feel ‘electricity’ there. We came to Nauvoo a few times before the Temple was rebuilt and I would sit on the edge of the site of the original baptismal font and pray that the Temple would be rebuilt someday in honor of those early Saints who sacrificed so much. I never expected it to happen in my lifetime, however.
My dad died at the age of 99 years and 9 days, having continued to read the LDS scriptures. He believed them to be true, as much as he was able to understand them. Referring to The Book of Mormon, he told me, “This book is true. No doubt in my mind about it.” I told him I was glad he knew it was true because after he was gone I planned to have his Temple work done for him. He said that would be alright with him.
On May 25, 2007, I had my parents sealed to each other in the Nauvoo Temple. I then had myself and my deceased sister sealed to them.
Dad’s ‘old’ Book of Mormon that he found and kept beside his bed all these many years now has a place in my personal library. It is a very treasured book.
How grateful I am for the true Church and how it has blessed my life as we strive daily to be humble and obedient, and prayerful that others will seek the truth. We, in my family are so very close to our missionaries and really love the pair of guys on those bicycles. We have them in our home often and love the spirit that is with them. I now have a grandson who is serving a mission in the New Zealand, Auckland Mission which makes me feel that I have at last begun to bear the fruits of my conversion.
It seems that the Lord has given me everything that my heart has desired if asked in humility and righteously desired. To know the eternal truths makes me so joyful and brings me everlasting peace within.
My Maw Maw Faye is such a big influence in my life. There is something about her that makes others want to follow her example. She had me a little worried while she was in the hospital, but she is out now. :) I love you, grandma!
