Our Friend Matthew

About a year ago, our mutual friend Matthew Murray joined the church after investigating it for a long, long time. Matthew's journey with the church started with a work trip to Salt Lake City and a visit to Temple Square. In many ways, the Salt Lake City Temple - the structure, everything it represented - was the start of Matthew's conversion.

After returning home from the trip, he connected with a coworker (and member of our ward) named Brian Westover, and began attending church regularly. So regularly, in fact, that he was Marcus' home teaching companion for about a year before joining the church.

Marcus was able to take a quick trip to Utah this past weekend to be with Matthew and some close friends involved in his conversion as he received his own endowment - punctuating the journey at the place it started. 

It was a great day - there is a lot more to tell, but that's Matthew's story / Marcus' to tell to those that may want more details. Here are a few photos:

Marcus and Matthew after the session

Landon Kenworthy (Matthew's old home teacher who now lives in Atlanta), Michael Alemany (the former Elders Quorum president who now attends Dartmouth), Matthew Murray, Brian Westover (Matthew's co-worker who was keystone in his conversion) and Marcus

The larger group - Landon, Michael, Nathan (once Elder Turley), Matthew, Brian, Dallin (once Elder Busby) Marcus and Blane, Brian's father

Another individual played a key role in Matthew's journey - John Young, who now lives in the UK. He wasn't able to attend, but did Skype with everyone after the session at Marcus' parents house. 

(Blog Post by Marcus)