Dad's Conversion Story

As a young boy, his mom would read Bible stories to him and his brothers from an illustrated childrens' Bible. But...his childhood was not ideal. He grew up in an alcoholic home and by the time he was a teenager, he, too, had become an alcoholic and was starting to get into trouble. At about 17 or 18, he started to steal cars for joyriding with his friends. Sometimes he got away with it and sometimes he didn't. One time when he was in court for stealing a car off the dealer's lot, the judge asked him if he had stolen his car. He said his car was missing and gave my husband a description of it. My husband knew exactly what his car looked like because it was sitting at the end of his father's 3 acre property, where my husband had left it a few nights prior!! But, my husband responded, "No, your honor, I haven't seen it." His sentencing for stealing the car from the dealer's lot was jail or service in the armed forces, which is something that doesn't happen anymore. My husband chose the armed forces. Soon he was enlisted in the Marine Corps about 1974. He luckily missed having to go to Vietnam and spent his service in North Carolina. After he was there a few years he started to yearn for more meaning to life and remembered the Bible stories from his younger years. Being in the Bible belt, there were numerous churches to check out. None of which gave him what he was looking for. One church had a portrait of Christ that resembled Charles Mason and he remembers having a very dark feeling and almost ran out of that church! But trouble found my husband again and this time he was court martialed and had to serve time in the brigg. While he was in the brigg, he, again, had a desire to seek out religion and to try to change his life around. He went to the brigg library to find some books about religion. On the shelf he found a book called A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards. He not only read it, but he copied it on loose-leaf paper because he knew he would have to return the book and he wanted to remember all of the teachings in it. He knew the story of the First Vision was true merely by reading about it in the book. The next book he checked out was Jesus the Christ by James Talmadge. He absorbed that one as well. As much as a newbie can absorb Jesus the Christ, but he certainly felt the Spirit of the book. The one book that was not on the library's shelf was the Book of Mormon. He was determined to go to Salt Lake City and get one as soon as he was out of the Marine Corps. After his release from the brigg, he was doing guard duty. He saw,on a Sargent's desk, the Book of Mormon! He couldn't believe it. He approached the Sargent and asked him where he got that book. The Sargent, Doug Campbell, thought my husband was mocking him and wanted to know why he wanted to know about the book. My husband explained that he read about it in A Marvelous Work and A Wonder and was not able to find a Book of Mormon in the brigg library. Sargent Campell explained to my husband that he didn't need to go to Salt Lake City to get a copy of the book, but he can join him on Sunday at the church building not too far off base and get one there. In his search for churches previously, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was not one that he had seen on his search. The following Sunday he attended church and started to meet with the missionaries. He was baptized by Sargent Campbell a week later. Soon he was released from the Marine Corps and came back home to NY. We met in the Young Single Adult program in NY and we were sealed in the Washington DC temple in 1981. We had tried over the years to find Doug Campbell, but our search on the internet brought up about over 50 Doug Campbells!! Then one day.....now over 40 years later, my husband received an email from our bishop stating that a Doug Campbell had reached out to him for our contact information and was it all right to give it to him. After all these years, they were finally able to reconnect. Now to the conclusion....you might be wondering how did Doug Campbell find Bill Hettinger after 40 years? Well, one day while Doug Campbell was in the break room of a temple in the Midwest. He was relating to the other ordinance workers the conversion of Bill Hettinger. He stated that he had tried to find Bill Hettinger but he hadn't been successful. That's when one sister ordinance worker got up from the table and said, "I'll be right back." After some time she came back and handed Brother Campbell Bill Hettinger's bishop's email address and phone number. She advised him to reach out to the bishop for help. Who was that sister? It was President Nelson's daughter!