Conversion Stories - Michelle Reaves

Michelle Reaves was one of four members invited to speak of their conversions for a June 2003 sacrament meeting for the Cambrian Park ward. She kindly gave me her prepared text and permission to include it here.

Michelle Reaves' Conversion Story

I was asked to tell you my conversion story, and it reminded me of the times as an investigator that I wondered why so many people made it a point to say that they were converts to the Church. I have realized through the years that everyone has a story to tell, and I would like to share mine with you.

I have spent most of my life in the San Jose area. I went to Leigh High School and my daughter went to Prospect High School. I have been a single parent since my daughter was a baby, and we have been through everything imaginable - especially since I lived a very worldly life. As a child I was active for a few years in my grandparents Baptist Church and I was baptized. I was left with a strong belief in God, but I did not attend Church much as an adult.

When my daughter was young I worked for an electronics company and was just trying to survive. During the years of my employment with that company, I met a lot of interesting people, but there was one special person who spent the least amount of time with me and yet made the biggest impact. It was a man by the name of Wayne. The only thing I knew about Wayne was that he was a really nice guy who was married and had a bunch of kids. He stopped by my office a couple of times and spoke to me about "life" and asked me how I was doing as a single mom. He invited me to attend his church, and I said "maybe", I drove by the building that held the church meetings, and it was an old converted store - I thought that was kind of a weird place to have church, and I didn't end up going. BUT, I was left with something from Wayne that I didn't even realize at the time - an impression on me that touched me to my very soul. I believe Wayne was my first contact with someone from the Church.

In 1990 I moved to New York to live with my brother and his family, and during the two years I was there we attended a church on and off. Due to business circumstances, my brother went through some hard times and prayed about what to do for his family. His answer was to move to Las Vegas because of the employment opportunities there.

We all packed up and moved - his wife, their kids, myself and my daughter. Once in Las Vegas, I remember there being talk of finding another church to attend and we stopped at an LDS chapel so that my sister-in-law could run in and pick up some pamphlets. I remember as clear as if it were yesterday, when she came out to the car and said "they don't have any pamphlets, but they're going to send someone to come to our home and talk to us".

My brother and sister-in-law ended up receiving the missionary lessons, but I didn't want any part of it. I hid in my bedroom during the lessons - once in awhile I would happen to walk past the room they were in and they would invite me to join them, and I would say "thanks, but no thanks".

They joined the Church, and during the first year of their membership, my daughter and I were going through hard times. My brother informed my daughter that she needed to go to church as a condition of living in our home, and that I was going to take her. Well, she was 19, and that didn't go over too well with her, and I wasn't especially pleased myself in having to take her. Needless to say, he knew exactly what he was doing. The very next Sunday I took her to the Singles Ward and dropped her off at the front door. At the time, I was fully expecting her to keep on walking through that building, and slip out the back door. Years later she told me that that was exactly what she was thinking also, but the minute she walked into the lobby she was surrounded by members welcoming her.

I immediately learned about a thing known to some as Mormon Standard Time. It seemed like the Mormons were late a lot to functions, but in terms of the big things, time could really travel fast. Six weeks after she started attending the Singles Ward, she was getting baptized, and three weeks after that she was engaged to be married to a returned missionary.

Now things started to get serious for me. My daughter had a real hear-to-heart talk with me. Even through I was attending sacrament meetings and ward functions with the whole family, she understood my reluctance in joining, just because everyone else did. She said that I might as well just get the discussions and check it out for myself. Also, she and her fianc$eacute; were going to have a long engagement so that they could be sealed in the temple. If I wanted to see her get married in the temple, I had a couple of months to make up my mind about how I felt, and what I wanted to do.

I decided that I would just have the discussions only. I remember the night my brother and sister-in-law were sealed in the temple, there was a get together at a member's home for them afterward, and the sister missionaries were excited because I was going to meet with them for the missionary discussions later that week. I reminded them in front of everyone at the get-together that I was not as excited as they were, and that they really had their work cut out for them in trying to convert me! I had no idea that Heavenly Father had a hand in my conversion already, and was touching my soul in various ways.

The first lesson was in our cramped apartment with people, animals, and commotion all around and I was easily distracted. A sister in the ward said that I could have the discussions at her house, and that's where they were held from then on. I heard each discussion and thought, well, this all sounds good, but something is missing. I cannot make the decision to be baptized just because everyone else did, or just because my daughter's getting married, and I want to attend the sealing.

During one of the discussions, there was mentioned that I should pray about what I was learning - I thought OK - no big deal. I had prayed a lot of times in my life, but during my adult years it tended to be the type of "I'm desperate, I need help" kind of prayer more than anything else.

That night the sister in the ward whose home I was in, mentioned to me that her son was praying for me already. I had seen him in the house numerous times, and he was around 7 years old. I cannot begin to tell you what this knowledge did to me - this was another moment of my soul being touched. I decided that if this young boy who didn't even know me could pray for me, it must be really important, and I could at least do the same and pray for myself.

All during the times of the previous lessons I didn't ask many questions, I didn't want to say the prayers, or participate much at all - I was just going along with whatever came my way, which had been the pattern for most of my life.

During that next week I prayed with a sincerity that I had never experienced before. I received my very own confirmation of the truthfulness of the lessons, of the fact that I was not only going to be baptized, but it was exactly what I needed to do in my life, and that it was exactly what I wanted to do, with all my soul. I was filled with a sense of purpose and peacefulness.

At the next missionary discussion, the sister missionaries asked me if I had prayed, and how I felt? I immediately told them that 1) I wanted to be baptized, 2) I wanted to be baptized on this certain date, 3) I knew who I wanted to give the talks, and 4) I knew what I wanted for the special music. Needless to say, they were initially shocked, but immediately knew what had happened to bring about this huge change in me.

I was baptized in February of 1994. I received my endowments in February of 1995, and a month later I attended my daughter and son-in-law's marriage and sealing after their 14 month engagement.

After my baptism I was able to track down Wayne, the former co-worker of mine from so long ago. I visited him and his family in Arizona, and I had the opportunity to tell him face-to-face with many tears of gratitude, how he touched me with the Spirit that he brought with him to our talks.

I am glad to share my conversion story with you, because it has given me the opportunity to be reminded that a conversion is only the beginning.

The sense of purpose and the peacefulness that I received during the missionary lessons has only grown and expanded in my life, as I learn more and more of the Gospel and what my Heavenly Father has in mind for me and my life. I have had the opportunity to have more of life's experiences that enable me to continue to grow, to learn, and to be touched to my very soul.

I am also reminded that it is my responsibility to continually work on obtaining my own personal testimony of the so-many things that are a part of the Gospel. And I am grateful for this responsibility!