Mike Kennedy Ep. 298 The Cultural Hall

The Cultural Hall Podcast

An excerpt from Mike Kennedy’s conversion story:

Several of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s descendants have joined the Mormon Church (officially The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), but most of them knew about their family history from a young age. Mike Kennedy did not know about his heritage until he was given an assignment in his Tonopah, Nevada, high school to research his family history and to write a paper on one of his ancestors. When Mike asked his father for help on the project, his father gave Mike a large cardboard box full of pictures and family history.

At this point, Mike had never even heard of the Mormon Church. As he was rummaging through the items he had dumped out on the coffee table, there was a knock on the door. It was two Mormon missionaries. (Remember, Mike knew nothing of the Church at this time.) Mike called his father to come do the door. He also called all of his siblings in to watch. Only a few days earlier, Mike’s father had thrown a different pair of missionaries from another church out of his house. Mike expected the same thing this time and thought his siblings would like to watch the “fun.” However, Mike’s father welcomed the missionaries like they were “long-lost friends.”

As the missionaries visited with the family, they glanced at the papers on the coffee table and saw a picture of Lucy Mack Smith. Curious, they asked what the documents were. Mike told them he was doing a report on his family history on “some guy who started the Mormon Church.” Mike continued, “They went ballistic. I think they tried to give us all six discussions in the next ten minutes.” The missionaries were understandably very excited to get to meet and teach actual descendants of Joseph Smith about the fullness of the gospel which the Mormon prophet helped to restore.