I went on Sunday from Bangs to the city Friedrichshafen to hear the first sermon of the Mormons for me, these missionaries from Utah spoke with such a wonderful power of the Holy Ghost. It gave me a strong desire to know what is the true religion, and that was made known to me right there by that wonderful power which I never was acquainted with before, testifying to me with great force that Mormonism was of God and the true Plan of Salvation.

That gave me great joy, and satisfaction, but I wanted more evidence so that I may be sure that power was from God. I must pray to receive more light so I would know for sure what I was doing.

I appointed a secret place I wanted to go to, after the day’s work was done. I went and when I got there I met the opposite power, I was so surprised. That power stopped me from praying, testified to me that Joseph Smith was a false Prophet, and if I wanted to join Mormonism, I would have him to fight with, proving to me I met the power of Satan.

O, I now felt the most terrible miserable feeling, until I found another place to go and pray after the day’s work was done.

I now prayed and was answered with the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit like at first. I was told that I now had received evidence and had been under the influence of the two powers, the power of God and the power of the devil or Satan, you can now take your choice of which one you obey.

If you obey God and accept the true gospel, Mormonism, you will save yourself and your relatives; but if you reject Mormonism, you will be condemned together with your relatives, if you reject it.
Now I got all the evidences and information I wanted, I now went and both me and a Bible and began to study and I got the standard books of the Church and I got so interested in learning now.

I am changed now, and I am so converted to Mormonism, and I am now a scripture student and have been born again. In a month’s time or so, I was ready for Baptism. With the greatest of pleasure, I received the first spirit of Mormonism as soon as I heard it.

When the Elders laid their hands upon my head for the gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt a power from their hands like an electrical current go through my soul. So now I have been baptized both by water and by the Holy Spirit, and I now stand as a witness for God, that Mormonism is true, and the only true Church of Jesus Christ.

I went and visited my parents and made known to them that I now was a Church member, a true Mormon. I visited them often and explained the difference of the Lutheran Church and the Mormon Church.

In the fall of the year I went to the first Aalborg Conference and enjoyed myself to listen to the speakers. President C.D. Felted told a little story which I shall relate.

He says that we hold conferences to hear the reports of the Missionaries in different places. The devil does the same thing. He has Missionaries too, who give reports. One after the other they come and give their report, how many nations he had struck up to war…One tells how many ships he caused to be sunk, the other how many railroad collisions he caused to be and each one gave in his report of destruction.

At last a little fellow came and said he had not done much, all he had done was to sneak in and make trouble in the families, make trouble between man and wife and in the family circle. When the president heard that report, he was so well pleased he said “You have done more than all the rest combined.” The devil made that report very commendable. That suited him first class.

My parents heard Mormonism from their young days but did not believe it. They had a neighbor Mormon that immigrated to Utah, and promised to pay the fare for my parents, if they would accept the true gospel. They rejected it at the time. When I presented it to them it was the same, they did not believe it at first, and I worked hard with them before I could get faith and repentance into their hearts. I took a job by my father, worked at the same job as he did just for the purpose to get him converted. At last he came close to the point. He said he may accept it but he would never pay tithing or quit tobacco. I told him these two things would hold him out.

While I worked with him I asked for some of my money to pay tithing. That was a hard thing for him to do. He said to give him the money and help let him pay his debt, and not give it to the Mormons. I explained to him how to get out of debt. The promise of God is that if we will pay the tithing which belongs to God, he will open the way to better prosperity.

It is to prove our faith if we will believe God and obey Him, He will bless us more abundantly and fulfill his promises.

And tobacco is not good for man that is the word of the Lord. My beloved father at last got so converted, that he quit his tobacco before he was baptized. He got so converted to the law of tithing that he borrowed the first ten crowns and paid in tithing and he kept it up for fifty years until his death, to pay his honest tithing all the time.

With Mr. Foss of Overshoe, every farm and house, had a name in Denmark, I now began to do real farm work. I was put to drive teams most of the summer, in fact all the time except when there was something else to do. I went along fine.

In the fall of the year, I went and hired myself out to a big Dairy farm, by the name of Bangs, in Fade Song, near the Ossian on the east.

I was now sixteen years old and was doing a man’s job, driving teams and what so ever was required. I began to enjoy life among the youth of my own age. I must go back to my miserable school days and say a few more words about it. The custom of the Lutheran Church is to start school when eight and to be confirmed when fourteen, and then one can stay out of school. The confirmation is done by the Priest. The baptism is done when the child is a few weeks old.

As I was told by my school teacher many times, “You are as ignorant as the child that was born last night.” He also told me I did not know anything. He did not know what the matter with me was. He said that I had a good head on me but I just could not learn anything. I had my mind set that if I could get out of this I would never open a book any more. I got confirmed and I never opened a book of any kind again, until I first heard the Mormon Missionaries from Utah. I got a chance to find out what Mormonism is.

When I was 14 years old, and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church, the last counsel and warning I received from the Priest together with the class I was among was, “Now you are turned loose to yourself, and whatever you do, look out for the Mormons, and have nothing to do with that false religion, for they are a very bad set of people.”

When I came to Bangs, there was a Mormon. He wet to a meeting on Sunday, he asked me if I wanted to go with him to hear the Mormons. I answered, “Yes, I’ll go with you, I have never been to a Mormon meeting before.” This was a very enjoyable time for me.