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Date: July 13, 2020 09:34AM
(APR 2019)
https://www.ldsliving.com/Why-3-Amish-Families-Risked-Everything-to-Join-the-Church/s/90550In the fall of 2011, a customer stepped into Raymond Weaver’s furniture store in Danville, Ohio. He was a good friend of Raymond’s, and in the course of their conversation Raymond mentioned his curiosity in Native American history, specifically how these ancient people came to live in the Americas. Raymond remembers his friend, Harry Proudfoot, replying that he had a book that could help with that.
Two weeks later, in mid-September 2011, Proudfoot handed Raymond a Book of Mormon. His life, the lives of his family, and the dynamics of his community would never be the same again.
Investigating another church had never crossed Raymond’s mind. “I was Amish with no intentions of ever changing that,” he says. “I thought to myself, 'There is no other church on the face of this earth that I know of that I would want to raise my children in.' I didn't know of a better place to be than where we were.”
Six weeks after receiving the Book of Mormon, Raymond had read it cover to cover along with most of the Doctrine and Covenants. “I knew that this was the Lord's church, and I could not deny it. I knew for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Raymond says. “I knew I had some tough choices to make.”
As the son of an Amish bishop, Raymond Weaver knew that being baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would not only jeopardize his family relationships but his entire way of life. If he decided to follow the Spirit and the command in the Book of Mormon to be baptized, his community—those he’d lived, loved, and worshipped among for 35 years—would systematically shun him.
An Undeniable Experience
In November 2011, Raymond lay awake for three nights after reading the Book of Mormon, trying to quiet his mind and sleep. He was lucky to get two hours of fitful rest a night. “Every joint in my body ached,” Raymond says. “It was the most harrowed up experience that I had ever had in my life. . . . I thought to myself, ‘If this is what the rest of my life is going to be like, I don't even want to be here.’ But I knew that the Lord was trying to tell me something.”
Finally, Raymond walked to an 8-foot by 8-foot storage shed that housed the community phone. In isolation, he pondered the new truths he’d learned from Latter-day Saint scripture as well as an ancient biblical story. “Jonah couldn’t get away either,” Raymond distinctly recalls thinking about the prophet who faced behemoths and great depths after failing to act on what he knew was true.
In that small shed, Raymond prayed. “I prayed that Heavenly Father would let me know, that He would let His will be done, whatever it is,” Raymond says. Within 10 minutes of finishing his prayer, the pain left Raymond’s muscles and joints. That night, Raymond “was instructed by the power of the Holy Ghost, and from the other side of the veil, about what to do to move forward with the gospel in the community.”
“I knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ had come to the Amish community, and I knew that I was the vessel that the Lord had chosen to use for that to happen,” Raymond says. “And I wondered why it had to be me. It was the most intimidating, the most daunting thing that I had ever experienced in my life, but at the same time it was the most joyful thing I had ever experienced in my life.”
Though Raymond didn’t know what would happen or how he would accomplish what he now knew he had to do, he says, “I knew if I followed the Holy Ghost day by day that Heavenly Father would help me navigate through this maze.”