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Hi, I'm George
I joined the Church in 1956, am a father of 7 children and a High Priest in the Church
About Me
My parents suffered from alcoholism. My mother resented my little brother and I because we interferred with her tavern hopping. Later in life, she told me that she had tried to abort me. When two years old she took me to bed with her to die because my father was in jail and she had no money. "What else was I supposed to do?" she said when recounting the incident. She later abandoned my 5 year old brother and me at age 11.
For good reason, my father doubted he had fathered me and treated me so. Abandonned by my mother and left to care for my little brother (and at times my alcoholic father), I learned self reliance at a young age. I gained direction for my life and determined that I would never consume alcohol or anything that could affect my reason.
Whenever things got bad, a quiet voice, like an angel on my shoulder, whispered assurance not to worry. That all would me made right. I am grateful to Heaven for placing me in that home. Were it possible, I would make the same choice of parentage again. It was an education in what not to do with your life and I learned it well and am a better person for it.
Wanting a stable home, at age 18 I married a childhood sweetheart age 17, who gave up a music scholarship to marry me. With Heaven's help (long story) and dozens of jobs, I worked my way into professional positions trusting in Heaven's help.
Why I am a Mormon
About five years into our marriage, with two children and an expectant wife suffering depression, we began having conversations wondering what the purpose of life was. It was as if we were living in a vacuum of sorts. Why are we were here on the earth, where did we come from, where are we going. What follows when this life is over? The questions seemed to have no answer.
We decided we needed a church so I began attending a church each Sunday to find one we could attend. But my questions of the minsters all received the same answer. "We're not meant to know such things". During this time, two LDS Mormon missionaries knocked on our door. I didn't like the idea of being approached by a religion in this door to door salesman fashion so determined to tell them politely that their interpretations of the Bible are individual to each particular person's view of things and so have no real bearing on what is true or what isn't.
At the conclusion of the first discussion they offered, I planned to tell them so and terminate the matter but before I could, one of the missionaries looked directly at me and stated that we should not believe what they had taught (because they said it was true), but that we should pray and ask God the Eternal Father if it were true. I was stunned! No other church I visited taught that God hears and answer prayers in these days. Unbelievable! Every one else maintained that the Heavens were closed.
We began reading the Book of Mormon and reconized it to be true. The Spirit made it know to us that it was indeed a true account of happenings in the ancient Americas. Each of us did ask and receive independant confirmation of the truth of the book and what had been taught. We were baptized in a short while, sealed as a family and married for all eternity in a temple a year later. That was 1956. From that time to this, in hardship or plenty we have never found reason to fault our decision to join the church.
Personal Stories
Please explain the part prayer plays in your life?
Prayer is the most important part of my life and that of my wife. Our children all have there own families now. My wife offer a prayer together each morning and night and individually during the day. It is like checking in with our Father in Heaven and offering thanks for all the benefits and helps we receive and a time to ask for those things we need.
How has the Holy Ghost helped you?
None of the accomplishments of my life would have come to be without the blessings of help from the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost sounds a little strange. Think of it as a spirit of truth that permeates everything and from which you can learn what you need to know whether in your job, relationship building, whatever.
How I live my faith
Since the Bishop, his councilors and all who serve in each of the Wards or Branches of the Church are unpaid, the work of each unit is carried out by the members of that unit. Over the years I have taught Early Morning Seminary, Sunday School classes of various ages, Priesthood classes, served as Branch President, Group Leader in the Canadian Arctic, as counciler to Bishops and Branch Presidents and directed congregational hymn singing and in the past, performed tenor solo work in Sunday Meetings, funerals and in amateur theater on occasion.
Our first day of attending church we had trouble finding one of the children's shoes so arrived late. The congregation was singing the opening song as we walked up the sidewalk to the chapel doors. There was a loving, welcoming spirit, so strong it almost took our breath away. Anyway, that is what it was like for us. The Bishop owned a plumbing business. His nine children were seated with his wife on the front row where he could assist his wife in keeping them reverent by glaring at them now and then.
What I most enjoyed was attending the main Sunday Meeting with my children. When you come to Church the children are not trundled off somwhere. They sit with their parents and all learn together but it can be a little noisy at times. After the sacrament meeting there is another meeting geared to the specific ages with story telling, sharing time and scripture study that suits the age of the particular class.
The women are active in what has become the largest society of women in the world. It is know as Relief Society because of its humanitarian work. Men meet in a Priesthood meeting to discuss the needs of members (and how to help those who may need help) and to study the scriptures and other pertinent works.
I know that Jesus is the Christ. That Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ and did indeed translate the Book of Mormon. It is true.
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