Around February (or however it is spelled) 28th, I began to look into the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has been sort of something I always intended to do for a number of reasons, but I never really got to it. I suppose it was how close I was getting to one particular LDS friend of mine, Rachel, and the frustration I had when I hear some of our fellow brothers in Christ base their best arguments against Mormonism on their "convictions" that Latter-day Saints were just "stupid" (such demeanor can obviously only be harmful to the Christ-like manner the Body of Christ is supposed to present).
I will admit that in the beginning I felt really overwhelmed by the way the LDS Church seems to have such good arguments for their faith; I will admit that I was starting to somewhat agree with them in many areas, it seemed as if all the answers I could provide from the Bible really could be easily argued with. My delusion got so far that I even was influenced by Moroni 10:4-5 of the Book of Mormon to pray about its "truth." It was then that God reminded me of all the apologetic works I had been reading in previous months (e.g. Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict, C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity). It was as if He was asking me, "Why are you of such little faith? Have I not given you proof to affirm the truth that is me?"
It was in the preceding days that I really got serious about everything. Getting into God's Word and studying Mormonism has become somewhat of an extracurricular activity for me. My prayer life is unlike anything I have experienced before. God is making me more willing to allow him to work in other aspects of my life (i.e. passing the 10th grade >_<) The rise of the Latter-day Saint Church may have been a tragic occurence, but God has surely used it for the better in my life.
I would just ask that I be aided in prayer in my witnessing attempts to my LDS friends as the subject heading shows. Please pray both for God to intervene in the lives of them and their families, and also for my own preservation of a stable mental state, all of this can still be a heavy burden on me at times. If anyone is willing to help me in some way, or wants to talk more to me on this subject, you can e-mail me at striderebc@yahoo.com. You may see this thread posted at other message boards (at other sites of course), so forgive me if it appears redundant. Godbless!