Hi there! I’m Venetia Smith Greenhalgh, and I’ve been a Mormon for 28 years.
I was 18 when I joined. I grew up in a family that taught me people invented God to explain natural phenomena. No one in my family has the tiniest spiritual inclination. I went to lots of churches accompanying friends and didn’t find them very interesting. Then I went with a Mormon friend and decided on the spot at age 12 that this was what I wanted to be when I grew up. In retrospect I know this was the Spirit talking because there was nothing magic about that church but at the time I didn’t care what it took to join that church. I took the discussions at my friend’s house and was dying to get baptized. I remember it was really hard for me to ask my parents to let me join but I did it. Unfortunately they told me they would prefer I waited until I needed their permission and was an adult. That made sense to me so I committed to myself to do so. (Knowing my parents, it was a very diplomatic thing to say, but they were hoping I would drop it and assumed I certainly would before I ever reached adulthood. They think of themselves as very open-minded people, and had magnanimously told me I could choose a church if I wanted to, but I think they never dreamed I actually would, and when I did, they did NOT like my choice!)
I remember standing on my front porch in California where we lived with the door closed behind me so my parents wouldn’t see the missionaries were on the front step, and telling them I couldn’t get baptized. I don’t remember seeing them again.
So somewhere there are two missionaries who taught a 12 year old girl whose parents wouldn’t let her join and they didn’t see her again. What they don’t know is that years later she did join the church as soon as she didn’t need their permission, married in the temple, brought six kids into the covenant, and is currently wielding the mighty sword of truth and establishing Zion on a mountaintop in the mission field of Northwestern Massachusetts (that last part may be a bit of an exaggeration, sorry).
And, obviously, Joshua 24:15. (BOO-ya!)
(Sort of related, and equally crazy, was the actual baptism story: I went to UCLA right after the 1984 olympics and was finally able to go to church and be the mormon I had always wanted to be. However, since I was a freshman and knew enough to “pass”, it was six months before they figured out I wasn’t a member and offered to baptize me. My gospel essentials teacher happened to be Peter Vidmar, who had just won a few gold medals as a gymnast, and I was too intimidated to speak in his class.).
~ Venetia Greenhalgh ~
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Having grown up in the church, I always wonder if I would have accepted the gospel if I hadn’t been raised in a mormon family. Would I have had the spiritual sensitivity? I will never know. Perhaps it would have been difficult for me, so that is why I was born in to the covenant. I always really admire people who were able to recognize the truth without having been taught it as a child. Thanks for sharing your story.
Hugs to Venetia! Thank you.
Hugs Venetia! Is Vidmar as cute in real life?
Loved reading your story.
I love your story, Venitia! Twelve was the age when I was first struck with the desire to find truth as well. That memory has greatly impacted how I see and teach the youth. I will share your story with my son who is on a mission. Thank you!
I love that story. I am always amazed by youth who stay strong in spite of opposition or lack of enthusiasm from their families.
And MMM, I finally added your button to my own humble blog. You can thank me later. I did it in the hope that my southern Baptist readers will click through to you in curiosity!
Wouldn’t that be great to find those two missionaries? And Peter Vidmar . . . wow!
What a great story! Thanks for sharing Venetia! I would have been too intimidated to speak too! Hugs to you!
Thank you for sharing your story, Venetia. I’m so glad you stood firm and kept your faith for all those years before your baptism. You’re very strong, and I know that Heavenly Father was proud of your choice and very pleased with you.