Nine stories illuminate what it means to be Mormon and how faith serves to humanize, in a work that includes a seriocomic portrait of a young Joseph Smith.
Details many events that happened from the very beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand in the 1850s. Behind each is a story of faith, devotion, and many hardships.
In the fall of 1974 Robert E. Kleasen invited two young missionaries to his house in Austin, Texas, for deer steaks. Though apprehensive, they felt compelled to go. They should have bolted. Though convicted of homicide, Kleason would later be released from death row on a technicality. Upon hearing of the murders, then-LDS president Spencer W. Kimball was so disturbed that a physician had to be summoned to his home. The reader will mourn with the missionaries' families as details of the crime unfold.
“You have a call, Elder Wilder.” When missionary Micah Wilder set his sights on bringing a Baptist congregation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he had no idea that he was the one about to be changed. Yet when he finally came to know the God of the Bible, Micah had no choice but to surrender himself—no matter the consequences. For a passionate young Mormon who had grown up in the Church, finding authentic faith meant giving up all he knew: his community, his ambitions, and his place in the world. Yet as Micah struggled to reconcile the teachings of his Church with the truths revealed in the Bible, he awakened to his need for God’s grace. This led him to be summoned to the door of the mission president, terrified but confident in the testimony he knew could cost him everything. Passport to Heaven is a gripping account of Micah’s surprising journey from living as a devoted member of a religion based on human works to embracing the divine mercy and freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.