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As best as I can remember my beginning with the Mormon church began in August of 2003 when my mom and I moved into a duplex where I discovered our neighbors were Mormons.
I had come to Christ about 3 years earlier, so I was interested in what Mormons believed.
Shortly after that I checked out my congregations library and watched this video called 'The Gods Makers' by Ed Decker.
I was surprised by what the video showed and asked my neighbor some questions about it.
He said if I wanted to discuss the Mormon teaching in depth I should meet with some missionaries.
My friends mom who became a Mormon about 3 years earlier, hooked me up with a Book of Mormon that I read, along with Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
After that I met with some missionaries, and they told me they had never heard of the teachings presented in the God makers film, and suggested I just go through these lessons with them.
I assumed the video was promoting lies or was uninformed, so I started the lessons with the missionaries.
The missionaries would tell me to pray about whether the Book of Mormon was true, which I did and never received any feeling.
Since coming to Christ I had continued reading the Bible daily, and much of what the missionaries told me seemed to go against what the Bible was teaching.
When other saints heard that I was researching Mormon things they would say how it was untrue, but would never present any reasons why.
I kept meeting with the missionaries and brought up these questions, and they would provide verses from the Bible that put to rest any contradictions I saw.
Amos 8:11-12 were some verses that appeared to teach a great apostasy, as taught by the missionaries.
On one of the missionary visits, one of the missionaries asked me 'If you discover what we are teaching is the truth, what are you going to do?'
I though about it and replied 'I guess join the church'.
The idea of one church cooperating with all it's congregations worldwide appealed to me, so in July of 2004 I was baptized into the Mormon church.
Also known as 'the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints', or LDS.
I was told there was no point in me attending my Christian congregation if they were not teaching the complete truth, so I left and started attending my Mormon branch.
About 2 weeks later my Christian brother Tim called me and said how he had not seen me for a while.
I then told him why, and he asked if he could come over and meet with me to which I said sure.
Time came over and told me how he had grown up around a lot of Mormons, had attended their services, but was not sure if all their teachings were correct.
He then asked me if I would willing to read this book, and I being open minded said yes.
The book was 'God's Word, Final, Infallible, And Forever: Compelling Evidence for the Bible's Inspiration and Preservation' by Floyd McElveen.
This book showed how the Bible's teaching of there being only one god was very obvious, and held up the Bible as being reliable.
I devoured the book and asked my bishop about many of these contradictions I was seeing, to which he gave me answers that did not completely convince me.
I had told my mom that I was a Mormon and she flipped out.
But I told her if I am following something false God will reveal it to me.
Since the Bible seemed to be supporting opposing viewpoints, I studied the various passages I was reading.
This was the first time in 5 years as a Christian that I actually studied the Bible, rather than just reading it, listening to sermons, and praying.
When I studied the context of these verses the missionaries showed me I discovered that many of them were saying something completely different.
A short while later I got a call from one of the pastors of my former congregation, and he met with me and provided me with some more information that fully convinced me that the Mormon church could not be from God.
A couple of weeks later I got up on what Mormons know as testimony Sunday to tell my branch that I was leaving, but they thought I was only leaving their branch.
I occasionally attended the Mormon branch after returning to my former Christian congregation because I wanted to reach my fellow Mormons, and show them the errors of Mormonism.