Jon Harmston
Jon Harmston
I was born March 1st 1974 in Ogden, Utah. I spent most of my life in Ogden and was very happy there. I was the youngest of five children, 3 girls and 2 boys. I always had a close family and enjoyed the many years spent with them at home. It was a regular childhood, during which I enjoyed vacations with the family, sports and all kinds of school activities. In the fall of 1990, my brother and sisters all having grown and left home, my parents and I moved to Manti, Utah. I was hesitant to move because of the roots that I had established in school, church, sports and friendships.
After we moved I continued High School in Manti. When I graduated I moved away for a year to Salt Lake City, Utah where I planned to prepare myself to go on an LDS mission. I spent a lot of my time (when I was not working) studying the scriptures and learning the doctrines. This was the major turning point in my life.
My father taught me the Gospel of Jesus Christ my entire life as a member of the LDS church. I was very active in church positions and through all of the various callings that I received over the years. The church and the gospel were very much a part of my life, and I took them very seriously.
Over the years my parents had taught me the fundamentals of the gospel as well as the deeper doctrines. During the years of 1991, 92, and 93, my parents received a lot of persecution for the amount of studying they did, and for the conclusions that they drew from that study (see Testimony of the Prophet James D. Harmston). As a result, my parents were excommunicated in October of 1992.
I was in the midst of all of this and felt very confused. This was the major factor for my leaving when I graduated. I wanted to leave on a mission and not have biased opinion towards me from my local church leaders because of my parents. My parents respected and supported my decision to move to SLC and prepare to leave on my mission.
The summer of 1992 I did just that and moved away. I was living with some friends who were very active in the LDS church and who helped me along very much. They tried to help me financially prepare for a mission and provided me with a job. I would spend as much time every night as I could engulfing myself in the scriptures to try and become more fluent in the teachings of what I supposed to be the doctrines of the LDS church that I had so faithfully been a member of all my life.
I will never forget the feelings that I had while reading through the Doctrine and Covenants one night. I found myself trying to justify the obvious errors that the LDS church was making in departing from the teachings that Joseph Smith Jr. laid down. It was plain as day, and I was disgusted at what I was finding out. When I read Sec. 20 v. 58 which reads "But, neither teachers nor deacons have authority to baptize, administer the sacrament, or lay on hands;." I had seen deacons passing or "administering" the sacrament for years, but, it never really clicked until now. I had seen many other unsettling things throughout the scriptures that did not groove with what I was seeing the church practice. The thought that I had was of total embarrassment. How stupid did the leaders think that I was? Did they honestly think that I would not take the scriptures seriously? That was the night that I could not make anymore excuses for the actions of the church. By this time I had seen too much to try and make excuses. I knew at that time that I could not serve an LDS mission and feel good about converting people to a church that did not practice their religion, even out of their own books.
I knew the doctrine, at least I knew the fundamentals of salvation. I spent a long time stewing in the scriptures and trying to learn more about the importance of the ordinances as well. I spent time reading talks from the brethren in the first part of this dispensation and clearly saw the departure from the fundamentals that Joseph established. I spent a lot of time on my knees trying to find out what the Lord wanted of me. I had a tremendous witness of the spirit that I had come to the right conclusion and that the LDS church was in apostasy. The debate was over for me, and I knew that I had to move home and get on with my life.
I moved back home and attended Snow College and wanted to pursue a career in Medicine. This was when the Lord really threw me for a loop. I knew that the church was in apostasy and it didn't have what I was looking for, but I kept attending the college ward. My life started falling apart as I went the way of the world. Then one day, my bishop called me in for an interview to discuss what was going on in my life in light of what he was hearing about my parents and the people that were gathering to Manti.
I played dumb and knew he was trying to dig up some dirt to make me see that what I was learning was contributing to my behavior at College with my colleagues. My parents had nothing to do with the things that I was involved with and the trials that I was having.
This was when my bishop tried to teach me about repentance. I had studied the subject and I had read what the early brethren thought about it; and what he was trying to convince me of was clearly contrary to the things that I had learned on my own from the "prima facia" evidence in writing. This set up a whole chain of events that continued for months. The Bishop continued to call me in and battle over doctrine. We tackled everything from Adam God, to the Priesthood Ordinances. Then one day I brought a whole folder full of teachings that Joseph and the brethren had taught on various subjects. We talked for an hour or so, and I showed him the obvious contradictions that the current brethren had with the early brethren.
I'll never forget when he told me, "Well, you're right, but you know what will still probably happen to you don't you?"
I said, "Yes, you will probably excommunicate me for studying and believing the doctrines as Joseph Smith taught them."
He said to me, "If you will just follow the brethren, then everything will be OK."
I said, "If God is so changeable then there is nothing that anyone could put their faith in. If Joseph was wrong, then the current brethren don't have a leg to stand on; and if He was right, then the brethren still don't have a leg to stand on. Joseph taught us that, 'If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for if we are not drawing towards God in principle, we are going from him and are drawing towards the devil.' (TPJS 216) If God was to change the Principles of Salvation and Exaltation, then there is nowhere to put your faith; because God has always been consistent with his teachings and the saving principles."
Anyway, I told him that I would like to prepare something to be addressed if I was to have a court called on me for what I believed. I never met with him again, in private or in a court. I received a letter in the mail a few days later telling me that I had divulged enough information to my bishop about my beliefs and was therefore excommunicated from the LDS church on the grounds of Apostasy. It didn't break my heart a bit, in fact it felt like I had the burden of the world lifted off of my shoulders. The spirit of the Lord rested on me and I felt absolutely right with God.
I continued to try and learn the mysteries of Godliness and to find my place within the Kingdom of God. I became a member of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days on Sept. 22, 1994. Over the last two and a half years I have married two wonderful ladies that are the joys of my life, and have had two little boys that are currently 5 months old. God has blessed and sustained me throughout my endeavors to seek him and his teachings. He has brought me here and has given me the powers of heaven which I cannot deny.
I am currently an Apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ and will bear solemn testimony of God's power here upon the earth. Adam is God, he has restored his authority on this side of the veil, and it is here in Manti. God is granting his revelations to his Elect, prophesied in the last days, and the power is upon us. There is no other people or place on this earth that are in communion with God, the Holy Order and the General Assembly as we are. God is preparing his people for the Millennial reign of his Only Begotten, and it has begun here in Manti. I know this to be true and bear the same witness as an Apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ.
E-mail: jonh@tlcmanti.org