Hi, I'm Ron

We have been a Latter Day Saints for 32 years

About Me

I'm almost 60 years old, I'm trying to keep my body 30 Years old, and my mind 20 Years old. Of course I'm not succeeding to my ideal excpectations, but I'm happy with my lot. Been married for 38 wonderful years and from what my wife keeps telling me she too thinks it's wonderful. We have been blessed with 5 children and 8 grandchildren whom we love dearly.

Why I am a Mormon

My first understanding of God was not from parents but from a woman named Dolly a live in babysitter who sang songs of praise of which I derived comfort. So at the age of 6, I began to cultivate the Spirit of truth via song. By 10yrs old Dolly was no longer part of my life and the Catholic Church entered, I became an novitiate (alter boy) which kept me so busy doing the outward ordinances I lost the Spirit of truth and began looking instead at how others worshiped, dressed, acted and when you view imperfection, you mock it. I was so busy looking at everyone else looking at everyone else I lost the ability to see within and could not see myself fall away.
At 21yrs the world was an awesome place with wonders so divers my mind once again returned to seek the source of all this wonder. My path in life had taken an intangible way, meaning no rules, anything was possible, if it was unconventional I sought after it. Although intriguing as this path was I would invariably come to the knowledge that this to was not truth, or at least my present state of knowledge at the time bore witness to me that it was not true. I guess the first time I was led to the truth was when one night I had to work a 12 hr shift during a snow storm in an isolated 8X8 shack. I had my meager lunch but had forgot to obtain reading material and to my chagrin the only book in the shack was the New Testament, so I read. At the end of my reading, as the last page on the last word I was compelled to my knees in prayer and supplication to the Lord about the truthfulness of what I had just read, it was then that I was overcome by the Spirit of Truth bearing testimony to me that Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior, so strong came that realization that I was beside myself with joy and such a deep love of all things. Because I was alone I could not relate my feelings to my fellow employees and my circle of friends would not condone or understand my religious expressions, so I suppressed the truth I knew to be true. It was from then on I tried all manner of different religions to see if that spirit of truth could testify to me again so I could know for certain what path I should follow. I tried Catholics again, but found plenty of rituals and mysteries, but little spirit Jehovah Witnesses, Pentecostal, United, Lutheran, Krishna, Satanic, Wicca, Zen Buddhism, I sought for the truth by seeking the Spirit that bears truth. I even looked for truth in the pleasure of the flesh but found no overwhelming confirmation of the truth of God was present. Then one day, four years later two young men in their early 20’s knocked on my door and spoke of a strange people in a strange book, they spoke of Jesus like most other religions but before I could get any clear impression my wife after 5 meetings sent them away.
Two frustrating years later and living at a new address, with still no promise of truth being found, my wife and I were discussing that we wished that we could change our lives to be different from what we were experiencing at that time, but didn't no how or what to seek. Shortly after, two different young men in their early 20’s came to our door and began to teach us about Jesus and a book I vaguely remembered, by now I was focused enough to weed out those pretenders of truth, and when the young men began to flash pictures and underlined scriptures I asked them to put away their pictures and scriptures and tell me why their church above all else was the true church of Jesus Christ. Unlike many others preachers of truth who when asked to do the same could only hum and haw, these young men simply put down the scriptures closed their picture book and each told me I believe from their inner most place in their heart that they knew this was the true church and why they knew. My countenance did not change but my heart leaped for what they said I knew was truth and I knew this by the only purveyor of truth, the Spirit. This was a ray of hope in my search and certainly more investigation was needed. But as I know now that was the beginning of my close relationship with Jesus and his Father. I actually thought and believed that at 27yrs and 9months of life I had a good understanding of Jesus but the more I listened and studied the Book of Mormon the more truth was revealed, the more I understood how little I knew. You see the truth is vital if you seek the Father and his Son, for false teachings lead you away not to him. I had gained a eternal perspective and the more I learned the closer I became with my Savior and his loving Father ways which only obedience to the truth can foster. My Savior is part of me because as a Latter Day Saint (Mormon) we live a life that invites my Savior in, and I am daily striving to be more like Him.

Personal Stories

How has the Holy Ghost helped you?

To believe or not to believe that is each person’s struggle. The logic and reasoning is weighted evenly on all sides, science disproves the existence of God and yet shows existence of intelligent design, and religion supports via scriptures and teachings that there is a God and because of the wars and persecutions perpetrated by religion thusly disproves God exists. I could set up plausible debate using science or religion to prove or disprove the existence of God. So how do I find out the truth? First know thyself. You need to know truth when you feel it. Not hear, not read, but feel the truth. As humans more then anything else we attribute much to feeling, we tend to trust our feeling more then anything else “Why”? It starts once we are born; you see all of our questions either big or small are passed through filtered layers of our understandings we have gradually built up inside ourselves. These understandings (what we call truths) are really our perception of what we believe to be true. All subsequent knowledge or whisperings and understandings are balanced against what we believe the truth to be. And then we as humans attach feelings to these truths to emphasize their importance to ourselves. So in essence everybody’s personal understanding are true to them and reinforced by their feelings, but may not be what we know as eternal truth. Eternal truth is not based on feelings but at the same time supported by feelings nor is it based only upon being true now, but past, present and future as well. In order for us to survive as a Children of God he has provided us with a gift that if used, will filter our knowledge so we may realign our misconstrued understandings to a known eternal truth. Without the use of this gift all our perceptions and feelings are flawed and we will never be able to ascertain eternal truth which is the fundamental nature of our being human. Hence the many conflicts between people who feel and believe they know the truth. This basic filter is available to all but unless developed will not confirm the required truths, and you will be left to guess or be persuaded by stronger feelings or beliefs of others. This gift is called the Holy Ghost the purveyor of truth.

How I live my faith

What I love about my religion is that the older you get the more valuable you are to the Church. At this time I'm functioning as a traveling minister, what we call a High Councilor. I get to travel throughout the area visiting, preaching, council & assist local church leaders to strengthen families and encourage all to come unto Christ our Savior. So in order to be spiritually in tune I need to communicate (pray) with Father (God) and continue learning of His ways by reading scriptures.

What is the Relief Society?

Ron answered...

A organization where women can do what they do best SHARING & CHARITY
Show more of my answers Show less of my answers One Moment Please
Kaitlyn answered...

The Relief Society is the organization in the Church where women come together to strengthen, serve, and teach each other. It's Motto is "Charity Never Faileth" which women of the Church live by to bring relief to the weary and down trodden. Women meet as a Relief Society each week to learn about the Gospel and grow closer to Jesus Christ. Women are asked to serve in many capacities within the Relief Society and give of their time and talents. There are also activities where women share skills and do service for those in their community as well as victims of disasters around the world.

What are some of the ways that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helps those around the world?

Liz answered...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides humanitarian service in many different ways. For instance, members living in Salt Lake City give of their time to assemble hygiene kits and relief kits to help those who have been the recent victims of natural disasters. These kits, along with food, first aid, and other necessities are rushed to the scenes of disaster all over the world. The Church works with communities that do not have sources of clean water to help them establish disease-free water sources, as well as teaching them principles of hygiene and maintenance that will keep their water clean. The Church has organized a training program to teach neonatal resuscitation to medical professionals all over the world, thus helping to prevent many unnecessary newborn deaths. The Church provides training, equipment, and supplies to eye care professionals and clinics in many poorer countries to help them prevent unnecessary blindness. The Church has an immunization program that helps to get much needed vaccines to children worldwide who might otherwise die of preventable diseases. There is another program run by The Church that helps to teach those in third world countries how to grow and preserve the food they need to be able to feed their families. Because we in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that all people are brothers and sisters, we seek to help those in need regardless of their location, ethnicity, and/or religious beliefs.