Parents

The other day between sessions of General Conference I had gone out and sat on the bench at the in-laws house. The sun was shining and at that time there was no wind so it felt real good just to sit there and think about what I had heard. I was also thinking about my parents. I know I never really gave them as much credit as I could have. The thing I was thinking about was how they helped shape my faith. I was not raised in the church, at least not the first 13 years of my life, but I would like to share two things that my parents did that got me to that point.
I wanted to start with my dad. He, like my mom, was not super religious. He became catholic because of something he had witnessed in WWII. He was in the middle of a battle and there was the priest running around, with bullets flying every where, administering last rites and comfort where he could. Through all this he never got a scratch. To my dad that was incredible to see. It was that experience and a few other things that dad shared with me. He gave me a personal testimony that he knew God was out there. I was young and it was before I knew about the church but dad at least tried to give me a sense that there is a God.
My mom also tried to instill in me her belief that there was a God and Jesus Christ was real. Some times she would alternate regular stories with stories from the bible, the standards like Noah, Moses Joseph, just to name a few. In the little town of Washington where I spent most of my formative years my mom started a Sunday School for us kids. There was probably about 7 of us but she made sure we each had a Bible, it was the good news bible if I remember right. And we would sing a hymn and then "read" or talk about a story in the bible. Since we were all kids (ages between 7 - 12) we would do art activities afterwards to show what we had learned. We also had to memorize certain passages from the bible, my moms answer to 12 articles of faith memorization. It was not to many the two that stand out was the Lords prayer and the Psalm that begins, "the Lord is my Shepard I shall not want...". Plus the ten commandments.
Between the two of them they at least instilled in my a sense that there was a God. Even when there was not a Church around. I would sometimes of my own free will read from the bible. I always liked the stories about the prophets. I was also blessed that when I did come to know the church and wanted to join they were supportive of me. Thanks Mom and Dad