Our Family History Moments: Saturday September 2, 1961

~Richard Bruce Martin~

1960-1961 School Year

When Richard married Connie Lorraine Hubbard on December 12, 1959, he was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after they were married, he started to investigate, ponder, read, and study about the church. At the time, Richard was teaching music in Firth, ID.

During the summer, Richard, Connie, and Heidi (born January 9, 1961) moved to Hagerman, ID so he could teach music at the Hagerman High School. One day while Richard was reading his scriptures he came across 1 Corinthians 15:29---"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"

In later years, I can hear Dad's voice as we talked about his conversion. He said, "Heidi, all of the sudden everything that I had studied, thought, asked questions about, the missionary discussions I had, things I had read, and prayed for made sense. If there were baptisms for the dead in the time of the Savior, there absolutely had to be baptisms for the dead today. It didn't matter to me any more when I saw people going to church on Sundays then not acting like members of the church during the rest of the week (he gave some examples). It occurred to me that they were doing their best and at least they were in church on Sundays and I was not."

Richard and Connie made a phone call to Firth, ID to the home of Harold and Amy Child (Connie's parents). Richard said, "Harold, what are you doing next Saturday. Do you think you could come to Hagerman and baptize me?"