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Excommunication of Emily Prentice

Dec. 2014
Hello, my name is Emily Prentice.

I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We went to church every Sunday and prayed and sometimes tried to read the scriptures together. I attend Seminary all 4 years. That first year of seminary I bought myself a quad and told Father I would read His word every day. Looking back over those 20 years, I see that by faithfully reading the word of God everyday and asking many questions, it saved my life. twenty years is a long time to hold on to the iron rod before reaching the tree of life, but wow it's so nice to be here.  

I had depression from age 13 and desired to die often, though I would have never ended my own life. Most people had no idea I had a problem, it's easy to hide when you aren't close to anyone. I just went to school and went to work; I didn't have any close friends. I graduated from high school and went to Snow College for two years.  I felt lost this whole time. I dealt with the depression fairly well, I would go to the temple or go visit someone and try to serve where I could. I never wanted to take medication.  

I served a mission at age 21. That was really hard for me.  I couldn't speak the language very well and I didn't like being babysat nor having conferences all the time that didn't bring me closer to Christ. Why didn't we do things the way the scriptures say to?  It was really hard for me to stay the whole time, I was miserable. I was on a plane alone one time and desired the plane to crash so as to be released from the torture. I like how John says it in Revelation 3:17 "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable and poor, and blind and naked."  I knew that I was miserable wreched and all the other things, but I didn't know what to do about it. Missionaries were manipulating the people to be baptized! Then a Seventy came and told me to do some stupid salesman's trick on contacts in the street; so I couldn't listen to him. Then my 2nd to last zone conference some returned missionaries came and talked to us. There were boasting of themselves and what a wonderful job they had done. (which we knew the truth, we saw the bad fruit of their labors)  But because I hadn’t received the Holy Ghost yet, I was too weak to stand up to this evil I kept seeing. I had to walk out with my companion running behind me.

What mockers of God they were. I just cried. The president’s wife said something to the effect of “grow up.” She asked if I needed medication for the depression. I never took any. How would that fix the problem anyway? Jesus will heal me. I held on to that.  

So what do I do? This is the church Christ set up. Joseph Smith was a true prophet. The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel and yet I see this evil in the church and everyone else thinks it’s correct and normal. So I came home and was still lost.  I dated a little bit but guys in the church just weren't for me.

The world says go to school, Why? I’m not here for that. I'm not here to gain the world and die. I don't care about making a lot of money or living rich.  But since I was lost I went to UVU and received a bachelors degree because the world says that’s what I need, when I knew it wasn't for me.

Praise God I never let go of the iron rod that leads to the fountain of living waters. Praise God also that I was hindered in reading, so I never read garbage, I just stuck with the scriptures. I was introduced to Denver Snuffer in 2010 but I didn’t read the Second Comforter because I was overwhelmed by the size of it. That would take me 2 years to read!

So I married a non-member in 2008. I needed him to help correct the error that I had in me.  We had a baby girl and when she was 5 months old my husband asked us to leave.  So I moved in with my parents for 4 months until I had some money to move. I had 5 dollars when I left my husband.  I moved in with another single mom and worked at night so I could be with her during the day.

My husband came back in 2011 and we got married again. In the fall of 2011 we were reading the New Testament  and I believed Paul’s words about the gifts of the Spirit. So I thought about all of those listed and I prayed for the gift of faith, knowing that I didn’t have sufficient faith in Jesus Christ to produce salvation. My faith was not a tiny mustard seed, but microscopic. So of course here comes Satan to kill me, him knowing what I asked of God. I became pregnant soon after and I was miserable. I was still working graveyard to take care of my 3 yr old during the day. For a month I did nothing by lay on the couch, and then go to work three nights a week. My poor daughter just watched movies all the time and was not using the toilet like she knew how to do. I didn’t know at the time what all this meant.  Everything is symbolic and I didn't realize what God was teaching me through my daughter. My husband went to jail 3 months later and still hasn’t returned.

I quit my job Dec. 31, 2011, we bought a truck in my name 3 days before my last day at work and my husband was taken March 8, 2012.

Trusting in my arm of flesh, I was good with money. But just as Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple, the same thing needed to be done in my temple. I didn’t know how to trust God, but that’s what I had asked Him to teach me. He set everything up so beautifully, as always, so that I could learn of His higher way. My 401K paid for the 2nd loan on the truck (it being a bi-fuel and more expensive) and I had no job and no husband. Praise God I had no contract where I was living so I was able to move out the end of March with no fees. God softened my grandpa’s heart to let us live with him until the baby was born in August.

Since my husband was taken 400 miles away, we travelled a lot. His best friend Glade lived there and his friend Debby was visiting. I had a place to live and a babysitter, great!

I woke up one morning while we were down in Vegas and God said it was time to go. So I assumed back to Utah, but no, I needed to take Debby back to Oregon. So just like Nephi saying he broke his bow, I broke my bank obeying the voice of the Good Shepherd so that His power could be shown forth.

God told me not to work for a year and a half, but not up front of course. I knew when it was time for me to work. He led me exactly where to go and for how long (4 weeks). Then my neighbors offered me a job at their company and I’ve been there ever since.

We started living off of miracles after I prayed for the gift of faith, so I slowly started learning how to praise Him for His goodness and long suffering towards me. He softened my friend’s heart to have me clean and garden for him to pay for the baby. (No more trusting in the government) My friend again offered the Second Comforter to me and this time I was ready. What joy I felt as I read it and believed. It took me 7 months, not 2 years :).

I struggled with having the baby without my husband, but a week before she came I accepted His peace. I just prayed for a nice experience, which it was, it was beautiful. Hadassah (my daughter) came to save my family as Queen Esther (Hadassah) did to hers. I needed her to come.  

We moved in with my parents and we are still here. That first Sunday, going to my parents ward was really hard for me. I grew up there and knew everyone. Hadassah was only 3 days old. I wanted that initial shock over with. I cried pretty much the whole time. After about 10 months of being in the ward I was ready. I had finished the Second Comforter and I couldn’t be quiet any longer. It was in Relief Society that first time where I stood up and praised the Lord for His long-suffering and mercy towards me, and for the next 8 months, after that, I was up every fast and testimony meeting.

In July 2013 was the first time I had shared my testimony in that ward in sacrament meeting for a long time. I didn't have a problem in other wards, just this one. So a week or so after that first sharing of my testimony in Sacrament meeting I went on vacation with my family to Idaho; way up in the mountains. After 2 or 3 days with my family and their “eat, drink and be merry” attitude, I was miserable and wanting to die again. (Looking back it's so obvious what I needed to do but I just couldn't figure it out) So I am walking down the road pulling my girls in a wagon with my family up ahead and my dad close by me, him not knowing the misery inside of me. Then Jesus, most lovingly, extended His hand of mercy to me and offered me life, when what I asked for was death. Really? He said, “Yes! Praise me every day and the depression will never return.” The invitation was very simple and I understood the covenant extended to me, and I know that God isn’t a liar. So after 18 years of that misery, the powerful master healer, with a touch of His hand, healed me of something the world says is impossible, but with my God nothing is impossible!

At the time I didn't know what had happened, only that he was right there talking to me and that he healed me.  What happiness I felt!  Looking back I know what happened.  Because I knew that Denver Snuffer was a true messenger sent from Father I was able to be presented at the veil having been true and faithful in all things and desiring further light and knowledge from the Lord Himself.  I finally received the Holy Ghost! The comparison is huge! I read the scriptures for 18 years and didn't understand them, but line upon line I am understanding them now.

So in March 2014 I shared my testimony for the 8th time in the ward that knew me for 32 years. So I had the Holy Ghost with me for seven of them. I was called in to the Bishop’s office after that 8th time. One of the times I had shared my testimony of Jesus healing me and the bishop thought I had said that I had used a lot of drugs. What? People who have deaf ears and blind eyes are really deaf and blind.  He couldn’t hear my testimony no matter how plain it was said. This poor man has no idea what is contained in the scriptures and people are coming to him for answers about what I say in my testimony and he has no idea what to say to them. I was hoping that he would be humble and search the scriptures more but I soon found out that his heart became more hardened.  

The next week I was called in again. A counselor in the Stake Presidency was there this time (my mom had been emailing him, I never asked what she said, it doesn’t matter). In my last testimony over the pulpit I said that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and Nephi was a prophet and that they both cared about my salvation. So I was asked by these two men why I didn’t say anything about Thomas Monson. I replied "well because he is not a prophet, he is the president of the church, but not a prophet." So of course they say that they think they have a sure knowledge of and I invite them to read The Second Comforter and they refused.

I think I met with my Bishop one more time before receiving the letter of invitation to come to a court about my standing in the church. (God always prepares us for what we need to do. My friend was excommunicated the month before, so that helped prepare me.) So I went to my disciplinary council and the Bishop’s eyes were an orange color, strange. He didn’t let me talk much. I added what I could when I could, but he said he had already told the counselors what I said so there is no need in repeating. So I went out into the hall while they prayed. So the very last day of March I was excommunicated. That’s fine with me. It had been hard going to church for a really long time. (What’s sad for them is, that nobody from the church has ever come to see us.) The Stake sent their missionaries over before I was excommunicated and I shared my testimony with them and they had nothing to say and never came back.

I met with the new Stake President and he said he couldn’t help me. So I wrote my letter of appeal to the First Presidency directly. Three months later I went before the Stake Presidency and High Council for my appeal. (Mind you I don't desire to be back in the church, I appealed because God said to) My letter to the first presidency basically just called them to repentance so it was only God's will that it happened.

So with God at my side I walked in that room with 18 large men and for at least 40 minutes I taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ—-inviting them to do as Alma says and plant these seeds that I had just given them, testifying that the fruits were very delicious. It was so sad they only asked me 3 questions. The first being, “Do you want to be in the church?” I said no, but I should have said that I only seek to do God's will. They left the decision as it was, to be excommunicated.

So back in May, God had me go up to a church in the city and just walk in and share my testimony and leave. I did so seeing 5 people I knew as I walked in. The Bishop’s son was one of them. A month or so later I was called into the Stake President’s office and verbally warned to not say anything at church again or they would throw me in jail, they being lawyers and serious. (The Stake President had called Salt Lake not knowing what to do with me.)

All this is in hindsight. It always takes me some time to understand what really happened. I never let go of the iron rod and it led me to the fountain of living water where I was baptized having found a true messenger sent from Father. The iron rod led me further to the tree of life where I was presented at the veil and took Jesus’ hand, receiving the Holy Ghost. Then the washing of the head, hands and feet come of which I’m learning about and witnessing. I'm finally realizing that Nephi lays the whole thing out in the small plates.

No wonder I was miserable! I didn’t know the path. I hadn't received Love, for God is Love. I don't feel lost or alone anymore. Praise God for giving me scriptures ever since I could read. What a glorious thing it is to receive the Holy Ghost and have him be able to teach me truth and His mysteries.

- Emily Prentice