Conversion Stories
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GEORGE WHITAKER’S CONVERSION STORY
“My Parents were good, moral people…” .
..“
I was born 18 Mar 1820 in
Blakedown, Kidderminster,
Worcestershire, England.
“I belonged to the same church they did.”
“I believed there was a God who
inspired us to do good, … and
“I believed in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer “
“I also believed in an opposite power
That inspired us to do evil.”
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“I tried to be honest in all my dealings . . . .”
GEORGE WHITAKER’S CONVERSION
“At 18, I began to
seriously think about
heaven and hell.”
“I did not think I was good
enough to go to heaven . . . “
“and to go to that other horrible
“
place, where there was no end
. . . Made me very miserable
/”
“I had read that God was full of
love and mercy and I could not see
that there was much love and mercy
in a God who would consign his
children to an endless hell!”
“I was then about 20, and about this time, my brother
and two sisters, who lived at Liverpool, had joined the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
THE SACRED GROVE
AA FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD
BOY WAS SEEKING ANSWERS
TO LIFE’S GREAT QUESTIONS
IS THERE A GOD?
WHICH CHURCH IS TRUE?
HOW CAN I KNOW?
I had actually seen a light, and
in the midst of that light I saw
two Personages, and they did
in reality speak to me
“JOSEPH, THIS IS MY
BELOVED, HEAR HIM”
For I had seen a vision; I knew it,
and I knew that God knew it, and
I could not deny it, neither dared
I do it; at least I knew that by so
doing I would offend God, and
come under condemnation.
JOSEPH SMITH PRAYING and
HIS PRAYER IS ANSWERED
GEORGE WHITAKER’S CONVERSION
“ I heard that Parley P. Pratt
was coming to Birmingham
to preach , only 14 miles away.”
“Elder Alfred Cordon preached in the morning and
took his text from the third chapter of John’s
Gospel, where Nicodemus came to Jesus by night.”
“The next Sunday Morning I
started early and got there by
meeting time.”
“I thought that I had never heard
anything so plain and easy to be
understood in my life …”
“After the evening meeting, I gave
in my name to be baptized….”
“I was baptized that same evening,
24 April 1842, by Elder Thomas
Tyson. . . . I returned home rejoicing
in the truth!”
“Later, on a dusty road near
Blakedown, while pondering
my future, I head a voice say,
‘Go to America’”
EVELINE PARSONS ROBINSON’S CONVERSION
Eveline’s Conversion is
closely linked to her
parent’s conversion.
She was born in Cushing
19 Dec 1827
Captain John Robinson and his
wife Abigail Parsons were
closely connected to the open
seas.
John was born 27 Sep 1792
Abigail was born 13 Jul 1793
They were from Cushing, Knox County, Maine,
and lived next to Broad Cove.
THE SACRED GROVE
AA FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD
BOY WAS SEEKING ANSWERS
TO LIFE’S GREAT QUESTIONS
IS THERE A GOD?
WHICH CHURCH IS TRUE?
HOW CAN I KNOW?
I had actually seen a light, and
in the midst of that light I saw
two Personages, and they did
in reality speak to me
“JOSEPH, THIS IS MY
BELOVED, HEAR HIM”
For I had seen a vision; I knew it,
and I knew that God knew it, and
I could not deny it, neither dared
I do it; at least I knew that by so
doing I would offend God, and
come under condemnation.
JOSEPH SMITH PRAYING and
HIS PRAYER IS ANSWERED
Captain JOHN ROBINSON & ABIGAIL
PARSON’S CONVERSION
During the year 1843,
Mormon missionaries
visited Cushing and
succeeded in making
several converts to their
faith. . . Capt John
Robinson was so
strongly imbued with
the principles of the
Mormon religion that
he sold his farm at
Broad Cove to William
H. Miller of Waldoboro,
and with his family,
removed to Nauvoo,
Illinois, in the summer
of 1844. (Ruth Aikins)
John Robinson gave up the
Sea and headed to the West.
Eveline P. was
baptized on
4 July 1844.
Only their younger
children came West
with them.
CAPTAIN JOHN ROBINSON AND
ABIGAIL PARSON’S CONVERSION
LEAVING MAINE, TO NEW ORLEANS, UP MISSISSIPPI TO NAUVOO, TO THE GREAT SALT LAKE
1844
1843-1844
PAYSONS
CAPTAIN JOHN ROBINSONS
1847
CUSHING BROAD COVE
CAPTAIN JOHN ROBINSON &
ABIGAIL PARSONS’ CONVERSION
The Captain was no
stranger to “Tall Ships”.
John and Abigail
lost 4 sons to the
sea.
William James Robinson, 23
Niven C. Robinson, 29
Benjamin Parsons Robinson, 27
Cyrus Robinson, 22
Tradition claims he made trips to
China, but the facts show that he
was Master of “coasters” that
plied the coast from Cushing to
Boston with goods and produce.
John and Abigail had
six other children:
Mary Ann, died 1850,
md Payne Orff. The
others came to Utah.
Eveline Parsons Robinson
John Robinson, Junior
Sarah Abigail Robinson
Hundreds of young men were
“Lost at Sea” from Maine’s Coast
Isaac Parsons Robinson
Lawrence Robinson
George Washington Hickerson AND
sarah WOOLSEY’S conversion
The Battle of King’s Mountain
Revolutionary War
Captain John Hickerson, “A brave man”
George Washington Hickerson AND sarah WOOLSEY’S conversion
My Parents are William Loving Hickerson and
Melinda Luster of Kentucky, Tennessee & Illinois
I was born 13 Dec 1813 in Smith
County, Tennessee
I only spent one year here
My father settled near Vandalia, Fayette
County, Illinois, where I met Sarah Woolsey
Goose Creek, Smith County, now Trousdale
County, Tennessee, near Hickerson’s Branch
George Washington Hickerson AND sarah WOOLSEY’S conversion
I am the daughter of
George Washington
Joseph Woolsey
and
Abigail Schaeffer
I was born 2 Oct 1820
Lexington, Kentucky is my birth place, but my father is
shown on the 1820 Jessamine county census, then moved to
Salt Creek, Jackson county, Indiana by 1830, and then
moved to Vandalia, Fayette County, Illinois, where he died
in 1839, and where I met George Washington Hickerson.
THE SACRED GROVE
AA FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD
BOY WAS SEEKING ANSWERS
TO LIFE’S GREAT QUESTIONS
IS THERE A GOD?
WHICH CHURCH IS TRUE?
HOW CAN I KNOW?
I had actually seen a light, and
in the midst of that light I saw
two Personages, and they did
in reality speak to me
“JOSEPH, THIS IS MY
BELOVED, HEAR HIM”
For I had seen a vision; I knew it,
and I knew that God knew it, and
I could not deny it, neither dared
I do it; at least I knew that by so
doing I would offend God, and
come under condemnation.
JOSEPH SMITH PRAYING and
HIS PRAYER IS ANSWERED