I have been exposed to critics of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints my entire life. I have run into them in my teenage years, on my mission, and throughout my married life. It has usually either been because a non-LDS person had questions or an LDS friend or family member ran into these things and was struggling with them. As a result, I have read many of these criticisms and then done my own research to get to the truth of the matter.
In telling my story or experiences, I do not claim to be any great person. In fact, in hindsight, if I erred, perhaps I was a bit too bold. But I learned a great deal from these experiences, for which I will always be grateful. I hope that the reading of this story will be reassuring and help build faith in those who are running into or dealing with critical accusations against the LDS church from “anti-mormons” for the very first time.
It has been a shock to me, both running into these things as a young man and then since, to come to the realization that people intentionally lie. And they do so while pretending to serve God. Some lie because, for some reason, they hate the LDS church. And even more sad is that others do it for money.
The gratifying part has been that every time I have dug deep into anti-Mormon accusations and done my research, their arguments (deceptions really), have fallen apart. Without fail, every time, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have always been vindicated.
I must say digging into these (anti-Mormon) accusations is never something I enjoy. But they attack the restoration, damaging the faith of our loved ones, so that I have often felt to echo the words of Helaman’s 2,000 stripling warriors in Alma 56:46, where they say to Helaman, “Behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone.” We may not be fighting with swords now, but these are evil attacks by Satan, and we are fighting for the eternal life of our friends and loved ones.
Northview Bible Church – 1981 to 1982
This is a recent picture of Northview Bible Church in Spokane, Washington. My first story has to do with this church. In the early 1980s, it was just newly built and was quite a bit smaller than it shows in this picture.
When I was in 9th and 10th grade, I started getting many of my school friends coming up to me and telling me what a terrible “cult” I was a member of. They would tell me twisted versions of LDS doctrines, how horrible it was that we believed these things and that we would go to Hell. They also made some very negative accusations about Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS church. What I then found out was that Northview Bible Church was having big “Anti-Mormon” (as we called them) meetings regularly, and this was where all my friends were getting their information from.
When I asked my father about these things, his expertise was in the scriptures. He had a masterful knowledge of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Not only did my dad take me through each doctrinal claim against the church, explaining our actual beliefs, but he also showed me Bible scriptures that supported each one.
My dad and I both had a good friend in the ward (congregation) by the name of Ron Hull. Ron had many doctrinal and historical books on the lds church. He was a bit older than my dad and I spent many hours over at his house going over the claims against the prophet Joseph Smith. I don’t remember what the specific claims were back then against Joseph, but I remember Ron easily disproving each one. (I miss my dad and Ron!)
It did not take me long before it became apparent to me that this Northview Bible Church was saying things that were obvious fabrications, not only in their claims about our church history, but even distorting our basic doctrines. It was my first exposure to someone actually and purposely lying about the church. Right or wrong, I decided I wasn’t going to take this lying down.
So I went to my dad’s office and borrowed his typewriter (I was a lousy typist so this was an arduous process!) and I typed out a 3 or 4 page article I called “52 Questions About The Gospel Of Jesus Christ”, or something similar to that. Each of my questions were questions about LDS doctrines that this church was misrepresenting, and then I answered them quoting scriptures from the Bible that clarified or supported each doctrine. I then used my dad’s copy machine and made a hundred or so copies of my article, and stapled each one together.
The next Sunday I showed up to the Northview Bible Church 20 minutes or so prior to the start of their meeting. Not many people had arrived yet for the meeting so I walked around their chapel and placed one of my stapled together “52 Question” articles in each of the hymn book slots behind their hymn books. I put one in just about every hymn book slot before most of the people started showing up. And I had put my full name at the end of each article!
I then sat in a pew in the back row with the few articles I had left. As people filed in and sat down for their meeting I saw many of them pulling out my article and looking it over. (I have to say here that neither my dad nor Ron Hull knew I was going to do this. They were innocent!) Then once their meeting was out I stood by the exit doors and handed out the rest of the copies of my article until I had handed them all out. Then I got in my car and headed back to the LDS church for the rest of our meetings.
We had this thing called phone books back then that had most everyone’s phone number in it. A couple of days later, Tuesday or Wednesday, I got a telephone call from the main pastor of this church asking me to come down to the church to meet with him. The pastor was in his office and free right then so I jumped in my car and drove right down to meet with him. I had my scriptures and I was ready.
The pastor was amicable, although I could tell he wasn’t overly happy with me. He asked me to please not do that again. I then asked him, politely, to please stop spreading falsehoods about the LDS church. I don’t remember much of the conversation after that other than to say we discussed the Bible a bit and he let me show him some of my scripture answers to doctrine. We had a cordial conversation, and I left on good terms with the pastor. I didn’t do that again to his church.
Dr. Walter Martin – Shadle Park High School Meeting 1983
In the 1980’s there was a man by the name of Dr. Walter Martin who made his living writing books, hosting a radio show, and doing speaking tours making accusations against the LDS church, calling it a “cult”. He wrote a book entitled “The Kingdom Of The Cults”. And some friends of mine from school told me that this Dr. Martin was going to be speaking in the large auditorium at the local Shadle Park High School in Spokane Washington. I decided to attend.
A friend and I attended this meeting. Dr. Martin preached against The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints for well over an hour. In the beginning and end of the meeting they sang a christian song, and at least once, if not twice, Dr. Martin prayed. They also passed around the collection plate asking for donations.
Having done the studying I had done, both for my document for Northview Bible Church and since, I knew of several blatant lies Dr. Martin was telling. Again as I recall some were incorrect doctrinal representations, as well as inaccurate comments about Joseph Smith. I decided to go up to the stand immediately following the meeting to ask Dr. Martin about his accusations.
When I got to Dr. Martin he shook my hand and I asked him about his most obvious falsehood. I wish I could remember what it was but too much time has passed for me to remember. I was polite but matter of fact with my question. I simply said something along the lines of “Hi Dr. Martin, why do you say” such and such “when the truth is actually” such and such? He gave me a very startled look, turned and kind of grumbled off towards the back side of the stage.
My friend was tagging along behind me and so I then walked over to some of the stage workers that were there helping out with the event. The first person I spoke to was a high school aged kid who said he worked for the high school lighting/stage department. I asked him if he had met Dr. Martin and what he was like.
It took no more prodding than that. He was anxious to tell me about Dr. Martin. He said that Dr. Martin and his staff were very rude to him as he was setting up the stage. This kid’s exact words to me were “that man is the meanest and most foul mouthed man I have ever met!” Because Dr. Martin was so rude to this kid, he said it made him want to know more about the Mormon church. I befriended this kid and Ron Hull helped me arrange to have the missionaries teach him a couple of missionary lessons.
I have thought since how very strange it was that Dr. Martin did not even try to defend his position with me. I was a 17 year old kid! The meeting was over and we were not standing near a microphone. There was just 8 or 9 of us that had come up on stage to talk to him, most of which were his supporters. If he was confident in his position it could have been a teaching moment, a chance for him to win another lost soul.
Etiwanda Community Church – Rancho Cucamonga, CA 1985
In the fall of 1985 I was in my second area serving my mission in Rancho Cucamonga California. One day my companion and I were tracting (door knocking) on the then country road called Etiwanda Avenue. It was quite a walk in between houses when the next building we came up to was this little country church called the “Etiwanda Community Church”. You can see a picture of it on the left.
I started walking up to the door when my companion cautioned me “Wait Elder, this is a church!” I simply said “yes and it looks like there might be someone home”. We walked up to the two double doors and they were locked, so we knocked.
In a moment the minister answered the door. He seemed startled to see two LDS missionaries standing there. I told him we were representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we had a short message for him about the savior. Then I asked him if we could come in and talk to him. He let us in.
He took us inside to his small office and we began to tell him about the prophet Joseph Smith and the first vision. He had heard the story before and he asked some questions. I didn’t get the impression that he was really that interested, but he was being polite. At one point I felt prompted to open to the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants and I asked him to read starting with verse eleven.
He read”11 We, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, being in the Spirit on the sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two—12 By the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God—13 Even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning; 14 Of whom we bear record; and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision.”
Then I asked him to read these verses “19 And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about. 20 And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness; 21 And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever. 22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! 23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father— 24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.”
As he read the feeling of the Holy Ghost was palpable. This minister started to get choked up as he got to the part “For we saw him, even on the right hand of God”. He then wiped a tear out of his eyes, stood up and said “I think you had better leave”. Then he politely walked us back out of the church.
“EX-LDS” Private Home- Corona, CA 1986
At this time in 1986 I was still on my mission and serving in the town of Corona California. I was serving with one of my all time favorite companions. This particular companion was from near St Louis Missouri. I don’t remember his exact height, but 6’5″ comes to mind. Either way he was quite tall. And he was a very kind hearted, serious kind of a person.
I can remember his favorite quote that he hung by his bed on the wall was by Joseph Smith that said “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” He would read that quote to us both whenever he felt discouraged.
One day he and I were tracting through a neighborhood in Corona. As we walked up to the next house we noticed that the license plate on the car in the driveway said “EX-LDS”. My companion, probably wiser than me, said “Elder let’s skip this one and go to the next one”. But I wanted to knock on this door too, so we did.
The owner of the home answered the door and let us right in. “Elders!” he said “come on in, my name is pastor” so and so. He then introduced us to a woman from his congregation that was staying with he and his wife in the home. He invited us and this woman into his office. One of the very first things he said to us was “now Elders, this is my home, and I don’t want you to bear your testimony or pray”. That was kind of an odd thing for a “minister” to say, especially the no praying part.
He then told us how he had been a convert to the church and then a “temple going Mormon” for about 5 years. He was talking more to the woman about us than he was talking to us. He then began to lay into many of the same common false accusations I had heard since high school. And he would slip in every slanderous comment about the temple he could squeeze into the conversation.
I know this may sound weird, but it is true. During all of this both my companion and I felt the most warm, powerful, comforting, and protective feeling of the Holy Ghost. Even though this man was doing his best to get us angry neither my companion or I felt the slightest bit agitated or offended. We felt peace. The few times I spoke I felt like I was being given the words to say, by the spirit, and felt the Holy Ghost confirming the truth of what I spoke.
My companion didn’t speak, he just quietly listened. His face looked a bit more red than normal, but he was calm. Finally since the man was not able to get the reaction out of us he was hoping for, he asked us to leave. We went about the rest of our day. I felt the spirit more than normal the rest of the day, but other than noticing that, I didn’t think much more about it. Then later we went to bed about 10 pm as usual.
Missionaries are poor. We did not have bed frames for our twin beds. So our box springs and mattresses sat directly on the floor. At about 11:20 pm or so that night I was awoken by my 6’5″ companion towering over my bed with the light on and he was pointing at me talking. It took a minute to make sense of what he was saying because I was half a sleep and he was so tall standing over my bed already low due to sitting directly on the floor.
My companion was very choked up baring his testimony to me of temples, and the prophet Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. He said he had never felt the spirit like he felt that day while talking to that pastor. “Elder did you feel it?” he said, “Did you feel how powerful the Holy Ghost was around us?!”
Crossroads Christian Church – Corona, CA 1986
As this same companion and I continued to serve in Corona California we ran into tons of people who were very critical of the LDS church, “Anti-Mormon” as we called them. We soon began to discover that all of these people had one thing in common, they all attended the Crossroads Christian Church. This was the most popular church in the area, and every Sunday the parking lot was not only full, but all of the streets around the church were full of cars attending its meetings.
A member of the LDS church in our ward (congregation) said that he loved it whenever the Crossroads church would have a big anti-Mormon rally, because every once in a while a family from the Crossroads church would show up that next Sunday to one of our LDS meetings, to see if all of the horrible things their church had been saying about us was true. This member said that they had baptized several families into the LDS church that way.
The picture in the above left is the current Crossroads Christian Church in Corona. This is a much bigger facility than they had in 1986. They were building this new church when I was serving there in 1986 because they had outgrown the building they were currently in.
Handing Out Copies Of The Book Of Mormon
One day my companion and I (my same companion) were tracting through the neighborhoods near the Crossroads church. As we came to the end of the street the next building was the Crossroads church. It was a weekday afternoon, but it looked like there were a few cars there, so we walked up to the door and went in.
There were a whole bunch of high school kids there in their chapel. They were setting up the chapel for a youth meeting they were going to have there later that evening. It was the youth pastor they told us who always held the anti-Mormon meetings. These kids were all really nice to us though. I asked them if they had ever wondered if all that negative stuff their pastor said about the Mormons was really true? They all said yes they had. So I asked them to all gather round and I taught them all a little mini lesson on the Book of Mormon. There was about 8 or 10 kids there and we gave each of them their own copy of the Book of Mormon.
Attending A Crossroads Church Meeting
As the next few weeks went by we kept running into people who were not interested in talking to us because of the false negative things they were being told about us by the Crossroads Christian Church. They were holding regular anti-Mormon meetings and since they were such a popular church we were running into the effects of it all the time.
So the next Sunday I decided to go attend a meeting at the Crossroads church just to see exactly what they were teaching. My companion said he did not want to go, but a 16 year old son of our ward mission leader (an LDS ward member) really wanted to go with me. His dad told him he could go with me. We had to leave about 5 minutes early from our sacrament meeting in order to get to the Crossroads meeting on time. As it was we got there about a minute after they started.
The only seat available was on the front row, so we had to slip in and walk clear up to the front row to get a seat. The whole congregation watched as this Mormon missionary and a young teenager walked to the front of their chapel. I hadn’t planned it that way. I had meant to get there on time so that we wouldn’t make a scene.
As soon as the meeting was over this young man and I were immediately surrounded by their members wanting to talk to us. Nobody was really mean to us, I think they were just all surprised we came to their meeting. The youth pastor, the one who held all the anti-Mormon meetings came up to me and invited me and the young man that was with me into his office to talk to us. I asked the young man with me if he was okay with that and he said he was.
Meeting With The Anti-Mormon Youth Pastor
We went into the youth pastors office and he shut the door. There were four of us in the room, the young man and I, the youth pastor and a particularly vocal member of their congregation who wanted to come in. The youth pastor asked me why I was there at their meeting. I explained that everywhere we go we keep running into members of their church who have been taught completely false things about LDS by the Crossroads Church. I said I wanted to come by and meet them and find out why they would teach provably false things to their congregation. I pointed out that we did not teach negative things about any other religion.
About this time the member of the congregation who was there started talking, and told us that he was an “Ex-Mormon”. He said falsehood upon falsehood about the LDS church. He was not trying at all to have a civilized discussion. He was hateful and angry. He was saying things like that Mormons worship Joseph Smith. I simply said that we no more worship Joseph Smith than the children of Israel worshiped Moses. We revere Joseph Smith, but we certainly do not worship him.
This member started talking about our temple, and basically making fun of how we dress and the things we do in the temple. I looked over at the young man that was with me and he was getting more and more red in the face. I started thinking maybe I should excuse us and get him out of there. I thought this kid was going to explode.
Then very quietly this young man spoke to the ex-LDS member who was doing all the talking. He said to him “Brother Jones, you don’t remember me do you. I am” so and so’s son, so and so. The ex-LDS member looked surprised at this young man. Then the young man said “why don’t you tell these people the truth? The only reason you are no longer a member of the LDS church is because you were in the bishopric and you had an affair with the Relief Society president Sister” so and so. The only reason you got excommunicated from the LDS church is because you would not give up that affair.”
The member of the congregation (the former Mormon) just slumped down and didn’t say much after that. I could see that this was not going to be a productive conversation and so I excused us and we left. I had not really intended on getting into a meeting that day with anyone, I was just wanting to see what these guys were teaching about LDS.
My Former Mission Companion And An Uncle
“A little more than a decade or so after our missions, one of my favorite former mission companions” (not the same companion as above) “was struggling with his testimony. He had been struggling since returning home from his mission on and off. For the purpose of this article I will call him Bill. Bill had been an excellent missionary but arrived home to some problems with his family that really shook his faith in the Church.
I had spent many hours over the past decade talking to Bill and trying to answer questions. Bill is a very analytical person and at first read all of the writings of the early christian reformers and then got heavily into all of the anti-Mormon accusations. At the same time period I had one of my uncles also struggling with his testimony. My uncle had friends digging things out of the church historical archives trying to prove that the church was originally true but had fallen away after Joseph Smith’s death.
Neither of these two would listen to anything I said unless I read everything they sent me to read; so I read a lot of this stuff back then. This was the winter of 1998-1999 up to the summer of 1999. I remembered advice given by Apostle M. Russell Ballard in his talk entitled “When Shall These Things Be?” from 1996 where he challenged a former missionary that was reading anti-Mormon literature to “give equal time” to the reading of The Book of Mormon. He told this missionary to read whatever he wanted as long as he gave equal time to the Lord.
As I read all of this stuff given to me from both my uncle and Bill, I made a point to read about the same amount of time from The Book Of Mormon. As they gave me a ton of things to read, I was reading double. So I read a whole lot of The Book Of Mormon during these days!
The Experience
Then one day I got a call from Bill. I was by myself in my office at work. Bill was particularly angry and negative that day and began making very vile accusations about Joseph Smith and the Holy Temple. These same accusations were the whole point of some of the materials he had given me to read, but I think it was the tone with which he said it as well as what he said that got to me.
As we ended our conversation and I hung up the phone I stood up from a chair that was in front of my desk, intending to walk around and sit back at my desk. At that moment the thought went through my head “well maybe the church isn’t true”. Obviously I had wondered that before, especially back in my early days before the answer to my prayer at age 14. But this time I wondered that thought more deeply.
As I walked around my desk I saw sitting on an end table a copy of the July 1999 Ensign (shown in the above left image) that had a picture of the prophet Joseph Smith on the cover. No sooner did I glance at that picture of the prophet than I had the most powerful feeling of the Holy Ghost come over me I have ever felt in my life.
I felt that same palpable warm enveloping by the Holy Ghost that I felt when I was 14, but multiplied many times in strength. I was wrapped in a warm blanket of the Holy Ghost from head to foot. It felt almost like I was floating in the air. More powerfully than I had ever experienced before, I was being told that Joseph Smith was and is everything he claimed to be. He was Jesus Christ’s own prophet. It is hard to put into words.
And the feeling didn’t leave for a long time. It must have gone on for at least twenty minutes. As the spirit bore witness to my soul of the divinity of Joseph Smith’s calling, I could do nothing but cry uncontrollably. It was so powerful. I walked over and laid down on a couch in my office and just basked in that witness and cried until it eventually subsided.” See “The Divine Calling Of The Prophet Joseph Smith – My Witness!”
Reading Literature Critical Of The LDS Church
Throughout all of the experiences I talk about in this article, as well as since then, I have read very close to all, if not all, of the anti-Mormon accusations published. And I don’t enjoy reading them. I have only ever read them in order to either answer non-member’s questions or help answer the questions of an LDS friend or family member struggling with this stuff.
And here is something I have learned that is very important. No matter how many times you have read the Book Of Mormon in the past, it is very important to read it again whenever you read anti-Mormon things. And it is also important to read the responses written by members, if any exist so that you can hear both sides.
It is impossible to read The Book Of Mormon with an open mind and not be amazed at its complexity, goodness and spirit. It is not the kind of book a fraud would write. It is too pure and good. It teaches you to be Christlike.
And frauds don’t write books they make no money from or have to give their life for. Joseph Smith made zero money from the church he restored. And he endured much misery and gave his life in defense of it. You don’t do that if you are a fraud.
Currently I have family members who are struggling because of coming across anti-Mormon information. Therefore I have been reading exhaustive amounts of this stuff again. I have been poring over all that I can get my hands on in order to be up to date and “well read” on the criticisms that are out their currently. What I am finding is nothing new. I am finding recycled and repackaged accusations that originated from the same sources I have always encountered.
The CES Letter
A good current example of this is something called “The CES Letter”. It has created many casualties, causing many LDS members to lose their faith. And what is amazing is that it is just a poorly researched exhaustive list of almost every bogus accusation leveled at the church from the past. It is like Jeremy Runnells is trying to just throw everything up on the wall to see what sticks. I guess he wants to bowl us over so that we give up over the sheer number of his accusations.
But the deeper you get into this letter it is just one blatant misrepresentation and fabrication after another. I am totally amazed that anyone gives it any credence at all. It is really that phony; no exaggeration. And like most of his contemporaries in the past, Jeremy Runnells is making his living promoting this work of fiction.
I decided to write my own response to Jeremy’s CES letter entitled “CES Letter – My Response“. At the time of this writing I am just under half way through writing this response.
And I can honestly say that researching each of Jeremy’s claims, and getting to the actual facts, has been one of the most uplifting and faith promoting things I have ever done. In fact, I will be a bit sad once I am completely finished with it. It has been that faith promoting.
The Best Other Response (that I have found)
I have read several different replies to the CES Letter. And this is no easy task. In order to explain the truth about each of Jeremy’s accusations, those writing the response of necessity write at least multiple paragraphs of explanation for each accusation. These responses are long. But they totally and completely lay bare the blatant deception intentionally crafted by Runnells.
My personal favorite out of the other responses I have read is the one written by Jim Bennett called “A Faithful Reply to the CES Letter from a former CES Employee”. Jim really does his homework and completely chews up each of The CES Letter’s phony accusations one bite at a time. What I like best about Jim’s response is he writes it in simple, clear and easy to understand English. Here is a link to this response: A Faithful Reply To The CES Letter by Jim Bennett.
A word of caution though about Jim Bennett’s response. He does criticize Jeremy Runnels a fair amount. I have sent several people to Jim’s response who didn’t like it because of his criticism. Said plainly, Jim makes fun of Jeremy at times.
In Jim’s defense, being in the process of writing my own response at the moment, I can attest that it takes real self discipline to treat Jeremy kindly. It seems to me that nobody can do as poor of research as Jeremy has done, or draw the conclusions he does from facts that so obviously don’t support those conclusions, by accident.
So I have made a real effort in writing my response to treat Jeremy in a Christlike manner while still pointing out the facts. Hopefully I have succeeded.
Book Of Mormon Evidence
I just want to inject something here while we are talking about the CES Letter. Runnells makes a big deal about there being “no archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon”. If you watch these videos you might disagree.
My Personal Witness
Members of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints like to “bare their testimony”, and I guess I am no exception. Contrary to what it may seem like in reading these selected experiences in my life, I really don’t seek this stuff out. But I do not run from this stuff either.
What I can absolutely promise whoever is reading this article is that Joseph Smith is Jesus Christ’s own prophet. He is who he claimed to be and had the experiences he claimed to have. No matter what accusation is leveled against him or this church, when you dig deep enough and get to the actual facts, Joseph Smith and The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints will always be vindicated. I have proved this over and over and over again to myself throughout my lifetime.
If you are troubled with accusations made by critics of this church, dig deep, really deep, with an open mind. And don’t just read the critics, read the LDS responses as well. And regardless of how many times you have read the Book of Mormon in the past, read it again, now!
Strive to spend at least as much time reading from the Book of Mormon as you spend reading critics of the church. If you do you will feel the spirit, pureness and holiness of that book. You will recognize in it a simplicity as well as a complexity that a fraud would not go to the trouble to create. And finally pray. Pray in faith with real sincere intent. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.