Written on Facebook April 15, 2014
You know, there are points and places in your life that hold great significance. I was driving down the street in Orem today and passed by one of mine.
In my youth I made some very poor choices leading me to this point and place in my life.
20 years ago (May 31, 1994) right around this time of year I was standing on this porch talking to friends about a rave we were going to go to that night. In my mind I had convinced myself I was going to not hold back and would let happen what happened that night. I had already fallen off the cliff, but I was ready to do a swan dive the rest of the way down.
I was standing there when my friend informed us that the prophet of the Mormon church (Ezra Taft Benson, May 30, 1994) had died the day before hinting at the coincidence of that and the microburst that had happened earlier that day.
I remember standing there looking the mountains like in the photo when I felt as though someone grabbed me and held me. As I stood there looking up at the sky right above Mount Timpanogos (there where puffy clouds in the sky at the time) I heard a voice tell me if I did not change i would die.
I turned to my friends and told them I had to leave. I went home and cut off my hair which had grown quite long. And, I started to change and never turned back.
I wish i could say I have been 100% perfect since that day. I have been anything but that.
Even though, God in his great mercy blessed me for the decision I made that day. I could have said, wow that was trippy, and be 6 feet under in a casket today.
But I didn’t. Instead, by some miracle I was able to serve a mission. Graduate from college. Marry a beautiful girl in the temple. Have 3 beautiful children.
I know that is a little personal, but it is true.
The Hour My Life Began
I was always the new kid in school; when I was 15 years old
my family moved to Blackfoot, Idaho. Before that we had lived in California, Oregon, Montana and all
over Idaho; in fact, Blackfoot was the 23 rd time we had relocated. I remember feeling that we were
some sort of gypsies, my dad followed construction and we lived in a little trailer house about thirty
foot long; when he got laid off a job he would hook on to that trailer-home and drag it to the next job
in the next town. As far as I can remember Blackfoot was where I first met members of the Church.
During the move to Blackfoot, from Boise Idaho, the adults were making jokes about the Mormons
that lived in Blackfoot. I recall, not knowing any different, thinking: Mormons must be the morons in
the little moron jokes that were popular back then.
As mentioned above my family moved to Thomas, Idaho, a little
community just west of Blackfoot, when I was just 15 years old. As you will see, even though I had
lived so many places, this is literally where my life began. I already knew a boy my age, from the
Snake River School District and through him I found out when football practice began and from there,
I met many other young men.
I only recall a few things associated with church members but I couldn’t yet link these
memories to the Latter-day Saints because I didn’t know enough about them then to make the
connection. These are just memory glimpses but they contribute to my whole high school age
impression of the church. I remember things like the temple garments worn then; I had no idea what
they were but remember when seeing them thinking: geez that guy sure wears strange underwear. I
remember hearing the name “bishop” all the time and thinking: people around here must sure like that
name. But the thing I remember most was that there was something different about the men here. The
men in my life were not to be annoyed but the LDS men I met were, for the most part, more patient
and far nicer than the grown men I had always known.
During my sophomore year in Snake River High School. I made a lot of friends and became
very aware that the LDS church was the dominant religion in this area. I found a mild prejudice against
those of us that weren’t members, especially in High School sports. Living in trailer parks my whole
life had gotten me accustom to a degree of contempt for construction workers and their families, so this
kind of prejudice had already become an expected part of life for me. Some openly treated us like we
didn’t belong here but I was okay with that because I really didn’t, nor did I want to. The single
moment that is still burned into my memory is the first time I saw Christine. It was on high school
registration day and I being a boy was checking out the girls in another new school. Even though I
thought Christine was gorgeous that wasn’t what seared my memory. There were other girls that I also
thought were pretty but what I’ll never be able to explain is that she felt familiar to me. 1 I felt that
somehow, I knew her but I also knew there was no way in the world I could’ve seen her before that
day.
To keep a short story short I dated, played sports and gladly put myself on the nonmember side
of the subtle but obvious division. There were so many members of the church attending Snake River
High School that I naturally had a lot of LDS friends but my interests always leaned toward being
accepted by and counted amongst those that weren’t Latter-day-Saints. I moved steadily in that
direction and had zero interest in having anything to do with church, especially the LDS church. I did
however, accept invitations to MIA pizza parties and once in a while played church basketball with
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LDS friends. A year and half after first seeing Christine, on that sophomore registration day, we started
flirting and I was instantly head over heels.
Very soon she started talking about church; anxious to continue our sweet relationship I was
attentive to her attempts to explain the importance of temple marriage. I remember hearing her and
other LDS friends make it clear they would only marry in the temple, ‘cause its forever.
I wanted to understand temple marriage but really had no knowledge of anything about their
church; in fact, at that time, I hadn’t really even considered whether or not there was a God, I had
never given it a single thought but now I was wondering about marriages being forever.
Christine had invited me dozens of times to come to church with her but I always refused.
Finally, one Saturday, after I had refused another invitation, she explained that she was beginning to
have feelings for me but soon she would have to stop seeing me unless I would come to church with
her. I remember asking: “what is it with you and church?” She explained that eventually she was going
to be married in the temple so she would only marry a member of her own church. It had come down
to me going to church or the most precious thing I had ever experienced in my young life was going to
be yanked away. I hesitate to say it that way because, as you will see, I didn’t join the church so
Christine would continue seeing me; I joined because of what happened when I did finally attend
church with her.
After agreeing to go to church I started using every excuse I could come up with not to go;
finally, on the Sunday I had agreed to go I used my best, last excuse. I explained that I couldn't go to
church because I didn’t have anything that even remotely resembled church clothes, not even a neck-
tie. Christine had waded right through all my other excuses and hurriedly had her father teach her how
to tie a tie so she could put one on me.
This brings us to the fateful first sacrament meeting. I had been to a few different churches in
my childhood; every once in a while, we’d move into a neighborhood and be befriended by
neighborhood kids that went to church on Sundays. They’d invite me to go to their church with them
and I’d go just to spend time with my friends. I went to church, with Christine the first time, expecting
nothing more than to hear things like I had heard in the other churches I had attended. I remember
hoping to hear what they had to say about forever marriage but doubted that would happen in just one
visit and I had no intention of spending my Sundays in church.
I remember very little about the meeting except Christine explaining a few things as the
meeting opened. She whispered bits of instruction about the sacrament and probably explained other
things to comfort me. But as the services progressed, I became more and more uneasy; I wasn’t at all
comfortable in my first neck-tie experience but more than that I began to experience a completely
unfamiliar feeling. Christine watched me fidget and sweat and knew that I was not enjoying church. I
don’t remember what was spoken, I didn’t feel the sublime peace that other converts tell of, I didn’t
hear a message that I felt was given specifically for me, I was just so uneasy.
When the meeting ended, Christine and I walked into the East foyer of the Thomas church
house where she said: “I am so sorry, I won’t make you go again” and I remember saying: “no, I’ll
come again I really felt something important here today.” As my mind was busy trying to make sense
of what had just happened; I vividly remember just as I stepped through the door leaving the Thomas
church house hearing the words: 2 “Gordon, these people belong to the true church” in my mind. I
immediately realized that I didn’t even know what that meant. I didn’t know anything about any
church but now, somehow, I knew that this church was the 'true' church.
Christine and I walked to the parking lot together, said our good-byes and she left with her
parents. I leaned against the front of my big green ‘59 Chevrolet and thought: oh boy what am I going
to do now. Somehow in that single meeting I had learned that this church was true, without even
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knowing what it taught. How did I dare tell my dad; I was terrified of him and was sure he’d hit the
roof. And, what were my friends going to say; no doubt, they’d think I was an idiot. Members of the
church were the people we joked about but all of a sudden, I felt I didn’t have a choice, because
somehow, now, I knew this church was true.
As I wondered at what had just happened, a long-forgotten memory flooded into my mind. "I
was a little boy in the third grade; it was a Monday morning, following a sad, sad weekend full of ugly
experiences; experiences that seemed to replay again and again in our lives. Mercifully, I remembered
very little of the details of what had happened but I vividly remembered that morning. We lived in
Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho and I saw myself walking to school feeling heart broken and afraid my little
world had fallen completely apart. Nearing the school, not wanting anyone to see me crying, I worked
my way, back between two big long steel dumpsters; I remembered that I cried and cried and then I
remembered myself crying out: “…this cannot be the only way there is to live; there has to be a right
way for families to treat each other.” With this sad memory, I nearly gasped at what could only have
been the spirit again: 3 “Gordon, this is the answer to your question, this is the right way to live.”
I now recall, immediately following that revelation, deciding right there in that church parking
lot, leaning on a '59 Chevy, that I would, in the language of a boy, "okay, I'll do this church thing." I
clearly remember this being my decision to become a member of this church for life. And once again, I
realized that I had no idea what joining the church meant. Well, my dad didn’t hit the roof but my
friends did think I was an idiot. And, I’m sure, then and now, that some still believe I joined the church
because of my love for Christine but I can honestly tell the world that I didn’t, couldn’t make and keep
that type of commitment without knowing that this church really is 'true'.
I dare not compare myself to the prophet Joseph Smith but like him I could not deny what I
knew and now I knew that this church is ‘true’. Not once, since that fateful day, have I tried to talk
myself out of what I experienced that day and I have known for fifty years that for me to have ever
said that I didn’t know the church was ‘true’, would’ve been a lie.
For the next few weeks, I continued going to church with Christine but was far too cool to take
missionary lessons; I just wanted Christine to teach me about the church herself. A few weeks after
that first meeting, I attended what I later learned was a yearly Primary program. The topic of the
presentation was missionary work; the spirit must have been at it again because right afterward I told
Christine: “okay I’m ready to listen to the missionaries". I took the lessons in Bishop (there’s that word
again) Arnold Dance’s office.
After this many years I don’t remember the lessons given but I must’ve learned about the
Prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Lord’s 'true' church and about Sabbath day observance
and the Law of Tithing. What I clearly do remember was realizing that each of these new truths would
change the entire order and direction of my life, And, because I now knew that the church was ‘true’, I
never doubted or even questioned that everything the missionaries taught me had to be true, as well.
During this time and ever since I have never had a moment when I considered changing course;
for all intents and eternal purposes I was born that day.
Now I knew the church was ‘true’, however, growing up in a household that taught, encouraged
and even celebrated worldly behavior made the transition from the life I was raised to live to the life of
a Latter-day Saint neither simple nor immediate. It required years of course corrections, it took
Christine telling me countless times: “Gordon we don’t act like that.” It took learning and then
accepting Christ’s doctrine, one line and one precept at a time, it took letting my little vision of life
expand until I think I can see life eternal, and it took heeding promptings of the spirit again and again
and again.
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Never has any of the Gospel Doctrine I’ve learned since, diminished the wonder I still feel
about what I learned in that very first meeting. In that single hour, without knowing what it was, I felt
the spirit of the Lord for the first time in my life. I learned that He had a church and that this was it,
and that He wanted me to know it. I have come to realize since, that for all this to happen the Lord had
to know me and wanted me to know Him.
I still rejoice in the knowledge I gained following that first Sacrament meeting and that I
accepted the invitation to trade my life for something far better.
Oh, and the good news: I joined the church and shared that temple marriage Christine wanted
with her. How great is that?
Above, I made a statement, as part of this special story. It could
easily be passed over as just an unimportant personal thought; here's the statement: "The single
moment that is burned into my memory is the first time I saw Christine. …I felt that somehow, I knew
her.”
As mentioned, I had spent the first 15 years of my life moving into and out of more than twenty
new and unfamiliar cities, neighborhoods and schools, so for me this was much more than a
meaningless feeling – it literally altered the course of my life. Without even knowing it, this
recognition marked a beginning for me; the beginning of awareness. Before that day the only thing I
knew was what I saw; now new unfamiliar impressions and feelings made me ponder upon things that
had never before entered my mind. With little understanding of right and wrong, my mind was often
busy processing the ‘who am I’ and ‘how is it possible’ questions. I tried to understand the second
coming and accountability and agency but also spent a lot of time wondering if this path might be too
steep for someone like me.
By then I had already developed the notion that my life would unavoidably follow the
directionless paths I had watched so many others follow. In my mind, I remember, it seemed okay to
plan wrong, expecting to fail, because that’s what we do; plan to fail always pursuing self-gratification.
Hopefully you can understand why this faint recognition of someone like Christine presented
an unexpected opportunity for me. I can’t say that I saw, in her, a path leading to eternal happiness; I
just saw her, and oh, how I loved her. Being with her, for a very long time, was like proceeding along a
new path that I couldn’t really see. Now, looking back, it’s quite clear; but back then this was just a
chance to be happy. I had found the path to my own happiness and I now know that had I ever altered
the course I had started, chosen anything in favor of Christine, my happiness would’ve been exchanged
for much less.
My life began with that faint recollection of another life, a forgotten life where I had known
Christine and I fully expect to discover someday soon that I have always loved her – what a wonderful
title for my love song: “I have always loved Christine.”
Gordon Lee Woods
1 Christine later told me she had had the same feeling; she felt that she somehow knew me that day.
2 Our ward was relocated from the Thomas church building to the Stake Center while I was serving as Bishop so we hadn’t
been in the Thomas church house for several years. In 2018 Christine and I attended a funeral for a ward member in that
building; as we pulled into a parking spot it occurred to me that I was parking right next to where my “big green ’59
Chevy” had been parked that fateful day. We approached the building from there and as I stepped onto the East foyer
entryway and grabbed the door handle, I paused and said to Christine: “you know, right here, on this very spot is where the
Lord told me that this is His true church”. Later, after the funeral, we exited through that same door and some friends,
brother and sister Cummings, that we had served in the Idaho Falls temple with, were standing on that landing; we shook
hands and visited for a moment, then I felt impressed to share: I told Christine, a little while ago, that right here is where the
Lord told me that this was His true church. It was a joyful occasion to remember the events of that special day.
3 I've realized since that day that even though I had never attempted to pray the first time the Lord spoke to me, He called
me by name – twice.