Rocky – Ex-Mormon

ROCKY’S AND HELEN’S JOURNEY TO CHRIST

Rocky was raised as a 6th-generational Mormon. When challenged by his wife Helen, who came to salvation in Christ through her research into Mormonism, he adamantly refused and set out to prove her wrong. Then in 1986, while attending the Bible Studies of a cowboy preacher, Rocky was saved. He and his wife have been exposing Mormonism and preaching the REAL Jesus ever since.

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Rocky was born a sixth-generation Mormon and brought up in the faith. His father and mother were “Temple Mormons,” being married in the Logan, Utah Temple. Rocky lived in the Western part of the USA until he enlisted in the Navy in 1973.

Helen was born in a non-church attending family and met Rocky in the summer of 1979. Helen was neither a Christian nor an atheist. She simply didn’t know or care one way or another if there was or wasn’t a God.

Rocky was a member of his ship’s rodeo team and most of their dating revolved around rodeos and bull riding. Rocky took Helen with him to Phoenix on a trip to pick up a new truck, and Helen was literally thrown out of his parents’ house because she was not a Mormon. This began Helen’s introduction to Mormonism.

In July of 1980, Helen and Rocky were married against the wishes of his family and the Navy transferred them to the eastern area of the United States. When pressed by Rocky about Mormonism, Helen answered,

“If or when I should become interested in religion, your God will do.”

In July of 1981, Helen and Rocky lost their first child in a pregnancy complication. At this time, Rocky began to earnestly talk to Helen about Mormonism, as the “Families are Forever” philosophy of Mormonism promotes the concept of being able to raise a lost child in the next life. This idea appealed to Helen, and she agreed to take the Mormon Missionary Lessons.

While the missionaries provided the lessons and did their best to try to convince Helen to be baptized into the Mormon Church, she did not comply by merely receiving the lessons and following exactly the outlined program provided. Instead, she read the Bible extensively to gain the full context of the verses being discussed. When she was not satisfied with the proof-text explanations given by the missionaries, she refused to be baptized and sought additional information about Mormonism.

Her journey led her to a Christian bookstore (which she looked up in the yellow pages, not knowing there even was such a thing as a Christian bookstore). The clerk directed her to the cult section for information on Mormonism. This trip to the bookstore resulted in two things: The purchase of a book called The Changing World of Mormonism, by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, and meeting a Christian woman by the name of Sandy Smith whom the Lord used instrumentally in helping Helen become a Christian.

The book The Changing World of Mormonism caused a major upheaval in Rocky and Helen’s home. Rocky viewed the material as “anti-Mormon” and nothing more than a complete pack of lies. The book is a significant study by the Tanners on early Mormonism and the changes and alterations of Mormon doctrines and publications. This information convinced Helen that the Mormon Church was not the “only true church on the face of the earth” but rather a false religion.

Sandy invited Helen to attend church and Bible studies with her and in November of 1982, Helen was saved. Rocky, on the other hand, was adamant that the Mormon Church was the only true church on the face of the earth and that Helen was wrong to have become a Christian instead of a Mormon. Rocky therefore set out to prove that Helen was wrong.

Then in October of 1983, Rocky and Helen were transferred by the U.S. Navy back to the West Coast. There, Helen continued to attend various churches in the community. However, for the most part, Rocky refused to go until 1985 when, while attending a rodeo, they heard of a Cowboy Church service to be held the following morning at the rodeo grounds.

At this service, they met the cowboy preacher, Brent, who invited them to attend Bible studies at his home. It was through these Bible studies and the Cowboy Ministries fellowship, that on New Year’s Day of 1986, Rocky was saved.

Rocky and Helen were active with Cowboy Ministries Network and attended Victory Chapel until December of 1989, when the Navy again transferred them to the East Coast. Moving several times throughout Rocky’s Naval carrier, they gained experience at serving in various leadership capacities within many different church dominations of Christianity.

Then, in 2002, in anticipation of Rocky’s retirement from the US Navy, Helen and Rocky submitted the paperwork to initiate their ministry to Mormons called the Mormon Missions Midwest Outreach, Inc. This ministry that the Lord gave them immediately took off and remained intensely busy. They conducted numerous seminars and Pastor’s Conferences at Christian Churches and began a weekly TV show, Truth Outreach, on a local Christian TV station (WTJR Quincy, Illinois).

This lasted until August of 2003 when Rocky was notified of a promotion to the rank of CWO5 (Chief Warrant Officer Five), and in June of 2004 was deployed to the Persian Gulf. Upon Rocky’s return from the Gulf in December, he and Helen began filming new Truth Outreach TV shows and once again began seminars in Christian churches to educate the Body of Christ concerning the false religion of Mormonism.

In September of 2005, they were selected to become the new Directors of the Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center (NCVC), which they “officially” began on October 24, 2005.  Rocky and Helen served at the NCVC until June of 2008. Family health issues caused them to resign, allowing them to follow Biblical principles and take care of family. Rocky took no salary at NCVC and in order to provide financially for their extended family needs, Rocky had to go back to work. He now teaches Navy Junior ROTC in high school and has re-established their original ministry: Mormon Missions Midwest Outreach.