Transcript for That Church Ruined My Childhood • followHIM Favorites • June 4-June 9 • Come Follow Me

You know how an Elma 410 it says the wickedness of the church became a great stumbling block. Right. And what is that? It's something we trip over it. It impedes our progress, right?

Yeah. And President Hinkley told this story in the April 2006 conference, I have to warn you first. It's a bit of a gut punch, you know? Okay. But so is that verse? The wickedness of the church becoming a stumbling block. Hey, that's not what we're after. So this is what President Hinkley says about a young man who is not a member of the church and he says his parents were active in another faith. And he recalls this young man that when he was growing up, some of his LDS associates, okay, get ready for the gut punch. Bullittled him, made him fill out of place, poked fun at him. He literally came these are President Hinkley's words. He came to literally hate this church and it's people. He saw no good in any of them. Then his father lost his employment and had to move. In a new location at the age of 17, he was able to enroll in college for the first time in his life felt the warmth of friends. One of whom named Richard asked him to join a club. And he said, for the first time in my life, someone wanted me around. I didn't know how to react, but thankfully I joined. It was a feeling that I loved the feeling of having a friend. I had prayed for one my whole life and got answered that prayer. And then he talked about having a tent partner in a summer job. I don't know what that means. I guess you have a job where you work in a tent, right? Okay. Clearly a very intense job. Wow, okay. So he said he noticed this friend Richard reading a book every night and one night asked what is that book and he said it's the book of Mormon. This young man said I quickly changed the subject and went to bed. After all, that is the book that ruined my childhood. Oh, see how many gut punches? I asked why he was reading that every night. I couldn't stand this unanswered question in my head. So one night I asked him, what was so important in that book? What was in it? He read about Jesus and about his appearance in the Americans and I was shocked. These are his words. I didn't think that Mormons believed in Jesus. on the subsequent occasion this young man and his friend were traveling. Richard handed him the book of Mormon and asked if he would read it aloud and he did so and suddenly the inspiration of the Holy Spirit touched him. Time passed, faith increased and he agreed to be baptized. Which is great. President Hinkley said that is the end of the story but there are great statements in that story. One is the sorry manner in which members of the church treated him. Next is the manner in which the new found friend treated him. Totally opposite from his previous experience. It led to his conversion and baptism in the face of terrible odds. So it's just kind of saying, don't be a stumbling block, right? Yeah. Be a stepping stone. And we don't want Elm of Fortin to become true of us.

Yeah. That's got to be the fruit of what we believe is the way we treat people.

It's another gut punch.

And you know, not everybody's going to join the church, but we can always let them know. Yeah. I knew a member and they were kind.