Debra Lee Thayn Hammer
Debra Lee Thayn Hammer
Left to right: Debbie, Wanda, and Faye Hammer
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for Bruce Hammer's Testimony
I
have thought much on what I need to say in bearing my testimony.
There is so much to say and so much I need to express that the
written word is inadequate. I have always known that Plural Marriage
was of God and a true principle, though I have not always known
that it was a principle that I must live in order to gain my exaltation.
It was my search to find out about Plural Marriage that lead me
to the Fullness of the Gospel and lead me to know about the plan
of exaltation. I have learned over the past few years that much
of what I knew was foolishness before God and that we all have
vain and foolish traditions that we have grown up with, that we
need to overcome. It reminds me somewhat of the words of Laman
and Lemuel when they said that the people in Jerusalem were good
and why on earth would their father and Nephi say they were going
to be destroyed. They could not see the apostasy of their generation
for they had grown up with it and were a part and parcel of it.
I too for many years did not see the apostasy of my generation.
It took me several years and much study to realize that much of
what I had grown up with were the traditions of the fathers.
I was born and raised a member of the LDS church. I took Seminary and I got married in the temple and did all the things that supposedly made me a "saint," i.e. pay tithing, have a recommend, accept all callings that came my way, etc.. Then one day I met someone that I felt I had known before. Then as my husband and I came to know this person, we felt the desire to live plural marriage and knew that this was an impossibility in the LDS church. What a dilemma! How could we have a relationship with this person and keep the Laws of God as we understood them? Since we believed that plural marriage was stopped because of the laws of the land, we started to investigate what actually happened and if there was any way to change the law, thereby making it legal to live plural marriage. It was our search to know, that lead us, to a knowledge of the deep apostasy of the LDS church and lead us to the truth of the gospel as it was restored by Joseph Smith Jr.
I have come to learn who my God is and who His servants are. I have learned how to listen to the spirit and discern the truth. I have had questions answered that I have always wondered about. I came to learn and know that my Father in Heaven loves me enough to come to a telestial world to provide mortal bodies for His spirit children and was Adam, the Ancient of Days. It was this knowledge more than any other that lead to my excommunication from the LDS church. When we were called into the stake presidents office, we were given a week to decide whether we would choose to be excommunicated or come back into the fold as it were. My husband, in his wisdom, told me it was my choice and I could do whatever I felt I should do, he said he had made his choice, mine was up to me. During the next week, I spent much time fasting and praying to know what I should do. I knew that plural marriage was necessary to exaltation, and many other things had been changed in the LDS church that were not in keeping with God's laws, but it was my knowledge of who God was that lead me to make the decision to be excommunicated. I also knew that when men deny that which they know is true, they loose that light which they had obtained. I chose to know God and I have never regretted my choice, for truly I have been blessed.
Within a year of that choice, the Lord lead us to Manti, where for the first time in our lives we came to understand the plan of salvation in its fullness and the plan of exaltation. I have seen signs in the heavens, I have seen prophecy fulfilled, and I have stood in the presence of the Lord God of Israel. I know where I'm going and what I must do to get there. I know that the work I am engaged in is the work of the last days and is of God. I know that the man who stands at the head of this work is a prophet of the Most High and only desires the exaltation and eternal life of men. I am thankful every day for what the Lord has blessed me with. I now have two wonderful sister wives and a great husband who can lead us all to the presence of God. I look forward to the Millennial reign of Christ and find great joy in His service. All praise, honor and glory be to Adam. our Father and God, Christ, His Son, and the mediator of the New and Everlasting Covenant and their prophet the Witness/Testator Joseph Smith Jr.
Debra Lee Thayn Hammer
Manti, Utah