Testimony of Carolyn Klah

The following is a transcript of sister Carolyn Klah, a Navajo lady and member of the church who saw Jesus in the RLDS Auditorium. Her testimony was shared with the Odessa (Missouri) Restoration Branch, and is given below.

"Good evening. I just thought I'd share my testimony with you. It just happened last Tuesday [July 16, 1991]. This was my first time to see the Auditorium. My mom has been to the Conference a lot of times. When she was there she bought some postcards of the Auditorium and the organs. She had been wanting to show me those postcards, which she never did until the day we were leaving, she found them in her briefcase. She said, "Maybe you'll get to see it;" and I said "Yeah, I probably will." So when Iva [Eggert], who we're staying with, told us that we were going to see the Auditorium, I was just so excited to see it. Well, let me go back first: I didn't know anything about the church separation until one friend in Arizona told me that the church had got separated, which we had never heard until like about six months ago. So, I was really interested in seeing the Auditorium.

We got there and we went in. I saw the organs, and Iva asked us if we wanted to sit down, and we said "Yeah." Then this guy comes up and says that we are going to be playing some organ music, so we went down and we sat somewhere in the middle. I heard a voice, and we were with Shaundel [Iva's daughter]. She was there with us. And I looked at her -- she didn't call me. And I looked at Mae [Nez], and I looked at Iva. They were just talking away. I was standing there [thinking], "Who was it?" I didn't know what. So I just turned around and didn't see nobody there but just us and some people that were already seated.

Then we sat down and I heard the same voice again, and I was there, we sat down and I just didn't know who was calling me. And finally I looked up. When we went in I didn't see that oval thing that was up there. I saw it and I was looking up, and I could see a face there, but it wasn't clear. I just stared up there and I saw the Lord was up there, and so, and He told me, He says He was sorry that I was (well it was my first time to see the Auditorium), but He says He was sorry that it had to be like that when it was my first time to see it. He said He would fix it. "And you never know, those people might be back in here to share the same church again with everybody." I was just, didn't know what to say. I've never experienced--well, in the past I experienced something like that with the Lord, and I was just...It was so neat to see Him. I'll let Paul [Simmons] do the rest."

[Elder Paul Simmons, Odessa Missouri]: "She asked me if I would help her. She gave me this testimony that she's sharing with you, right after it happened to her. I tried my best to keep it in mind exactly what she said. To help her out a little bit: She was confused as to why the church is separated. And when she went into the Auditorium she said, "Lord, why? Why is it that the church is separated the way it is...I don't understand." And she said that the Lord told her that there were some people that refused to worship him and to do what he asked. And she asked, "Well, how long? Will it always be this way? How long?" And she said that the Lord spoke to her and told her -- or, she'd first asked "Why?" and then "How long?" and "Why can't you change it now?" And the Lord spoke to her again and told her that there are a lot of people out there yet that have not made up their mind, and that He is waiting. But he said, "I will not wait much longer." That, "Before long I will set things in order." And as she told you, she looked up trying to see where this voice came from, and she witnessed the face of Jesus on the ceiling.

This is nothing unusual. The scriptures have told us that He will speak to his people. And the Navajo are His people. We know that their ancestors [were] from Jerusalem. And not only was she given this, but her cousin Mae also. They neither one knew that the other was seeing or hearing until they got home and they discussed it. But there were two witnesses. They both received the same thing. Is that correct, Mae? (She indicated that Yes, it was.) She says yes. When Carolyn shared this with me, I can bear witness also that the Spirit of God was truly with them, and I believe it to be the truth, that they did see and witnessed these things that she has told you."

Carolyn Klah and her cousin Mae Nez are both Dene Indians (the correct term for what is generally known as Navajo), from Pinon, Arizona. I transcribed the above testimonies from the tape of the service and was there to personally witness.

Phil Tandy, Priest, Odessa MO Restoration Branch

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