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March 2022
I sent an email in the early 2000’s telling you how despicable I thought you were. I AM SORRY. You were always telling the truth. The church is so harmful. I can’t believe how brainwashed I was until recently. Keep up the GREAT work.
April 2022
[From an LDS customer who actually ordered one of our books, then wrote the following. (She contacted us. We did not initiate contact with her.)]
You people in your cult ministries, you’re really arrogant and haughty!! Why is it that you’re always right and everyone else is wrong? You dismiss a God-Given testimony, giving it no credit or importance at all; then condemn the group or church the convert has just joined!! . . . You think you’re so right and you push your beliefs upon others. I, for one, cannot be pushed around like that. . . .
June 2022
I am sure that Sandra isn’t reading this, but just in case, thanks for being the exact opposite of who I was taught you are Jerald were. You have heard it thousands of times, but I will forever be in your debt, thank you for everything. You guys kick ass.
June 2022
This was my second order from utlm as I have been more than grateful for Sandra and Gerald’s examples of truth, honesty, and integrity.
I saw Sandra on one of the episodes of Mormon Stories back in 2015 when I was having my “faith crisis” with the church and have loved and admired her since. Please give her the biggest hug from me and let her know that there are people in this world who love and value her more than she will ever know! I have appreciated her sacrifices to bring this truth to the world. My life has been incredibly blessed because of it.
June 2022
Thank you Sandra and your late husband Gerald for your years of hard work and perseverance to provide reliable materials and support to those who are investigating the Mormon church, usually from within the ranks. I, like many others, saw this book [Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?] on the series [Under the Banner of Heaven ?] and I’m eager to read this publication too. I’ve read other books and work your ministry has done. I’m really excited to read this one too! Bless your whole ministry for what you are doing: working on distributing the truth!
July 2022
I recently got your book in the mail, 3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon. It’s been really eye opening! I am also a former Mormon. I was baptized into the LDS faith in June 2015, and left in September of 2016. I accepted Jesus as my Savior on September 9, 2016, and he is the only one I need. I’ve seen many of your interviews, on John Ankerberg, Mormon stories podcasts, and also a couple of documentaries on Mormonism. Your ministry has really helped me study the true history of the Mormon faith. Thanks for all you do Ms. Tanner!!
July 2022
We are still so appreciative and amazed that you came out and visited with us 4 years ago, just days after Christmas! What a wonderful and special honor it was to meet you. Thank you so for your 2 hours of time, for sharing your great knowledge, and for devoting your life to truth and to the gospel of our Savior. I sat across a table from you, where you lovingly explained so much that I never knew. Barbie and I praise God for your part in helping me come to a glorious place in my life; to be free and worshipping in a non-denominational church. We have found community and can rest in His Grace. Praise God for blessing you with His care, protection, and love. We certainly love you and pray for you always.
August 2022
I received my copy [of the Tanner biography] yesterday and have [read] the first 100 pages. So far l am loving this book. Some cool pictures too. Sandra is right, Jerald was a handsome young man. He looks like he’s fresh out of high school in that wedding picture. I want to say thanks for the extras you sent with it. Especially that copy of the Nauvoo Expositor. That was awesome and l appreciate it.
August 2022
Dear Sandra
I live in the UK . . . and about 2 months ago 2 LDS missionaries turned up at my doorstep. I did initially try to avoid them and kept avoiding them but did end of talking to them in the end and met 3 times and talked for about 10 hours in total.
Initially I was positively surprised (especially by one of them) and was impressed with their commitment and dedication to their mission. What they told me did not seem to deviate from standard Christianity all that much and for the first time I felt that God and Jesus became a bit more accessible to me through them and the Book of Mormon than before (I was raised by Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox grandparents).
However, I did also do my own research on the side as I am a naturally curious and skeptical character. It was when I went beyond the Book of Mormon and I came across Joseph Smith’s King Follett Sermon [http:// mldb.byu.edu/follett.htm] I realized that Mormonism fundamentally differs from Christianity. Joseph Smith’s claims about the nature of God (and the Council of Gods) contradicts all descriptions of God in both Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In particular the claim that God created the world out of ‘chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory.’ God summoned the council of Gods and then came up with the plan to create the universe out of this chaotic [matter] that already existed. However, this raises the question: did its existence pre-date the existence of God? If so it raises the question who or what in turn created this matter and where does it come from?
Joseph Smith also mentions that God was once a man like we are now in this mortal ‘Fall of Man’ world and then became God and this is something we all can achieve and aspire to. But this would mean that there must have been meta-Gods (or something like that) that existed before God and these created the world for him to prove himself in and then became God.
None of this is spelled out in the Sermon and these logical gaps remain. I wanted to ask you as you are much more familiar with LDS ideology than I am: is it just me and my lack of complete understanding or does this simply not make sense? (to anyone who actually tries to think it through).
When I asked the missionaries they shrugged shoulders and said they did not know. (As it’s not in the Book of Mormon and they generally don’t want to talk about anything that is not in this book.)
I also cannot really buy into their claim that there has been a Great Apostasy and that priesthood authority was given to Joseph Smith by the Ghosts of John the Baptist, and Peter, James, and John and that the LDS Church is the only church on this earth that now has the authority to give the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.
Their Celestial Kingdom also seems to have a very ‘manmade flavour’, it’s a re-combination of things that already exist on this earth (just like most of the things in the Book of Mormon that make sense are pinched from the Bible and are a pastiche of it).
They say that these things are true and that if I don’t believe them I need to pray more and read more of the Book of Mormon and eventually it will happen.
I assume you have heard stories like mine many times by now. But what is interesting is that these missionaries seem to have unlocked and revived my belief in God and Jesus and I have started to pray and read the Bible and the Holy Spirit is giving me wonderful insights and experiences that are bringing me closer to God (I was effectively an atheist before they turned up).
August 2022
Sandra, you were very instrumental in getting me out of the cult. Born again, God bless.
August 2022
Thank you so much for your ministry. I have been able to touch dozens and dozens of people’s lives with relative ease because of Gerald and Sandra’s decades’ long hard work. I am grateful for you and your team. Many blessings.
August 2022
I never thought I’d say this, but thank you so much for all of the hard work you & Jerald did researching the LDS church history.
I grew up thinking your “Anti-Mormon” literature was of the devil, but when I could no longer get answers from church sources & I needed to know the truth I realized your research told the truth. I’ve been out of the church for 1 ½ yrs. & your ministry/bookstore was an important part of my journey. Thanks for spending time with my mom & me when we came to visit. You are a God-send to so many.
September 2022
I’ve told you before, but we will forever be grateful for what you did for us. The day after Thanksgiving or Christmas—the day after that holiday, about 7 years ago—I was through w/LDS religion, but my TBM husband was unsettled by the things I had told him.
We dropped in to your bookstore, and you were THERE! The Lord provided the space, the time, and a bookstore free of other patrons, and you sat across your desk and with the gentle brilliance you possess, shared so much with him – for 2 hours! You planted a beautiful seed, and although it took several more years, [my husband] and I now rejoice in our new life in Christ and worship actively in a non-denominational church. I cannot imagine being happier in our new life. Thank you.
September 2022
If there ever was “A Marvelous Work and Wonder” it [would] have to be the Utah Lighthouse Ministry and all the work that Brother and Sister Tanner have done in bringing Light to a Darken Religion.
With much love
October 2022
I became a believer in 1974 but I was not strong in my doctrine when in 1977 (at age 25) I was being proselytized by a Mormon young lady at Columbus Air Force Base where I worked. Not having the answers to her allegations about 3 levels of heaven, a mother god, God once being a man, etc., I turned to a friend who put me onto the works of Dr. Walter Martin and he also provided me some of the resources he had obtained from you and Jerald. . . .
Your resources (along with Walter Martin’s books) provided me what I needed. Your research allowed me to respond to her accurately. This interaction with her actually began a life-long study of Mormonism (and the cults in general) that has strengthened my faith over the years and allowed me to address many, many other Mormons through the years
. . . in confidence and truth.
October 2022
I’m sure you will be getting many of these ‘thank you cards’ over the next few months, but I wanted to be included with those saying thank you.
In 1975 I found myself in love with a boy from an LDS family who having completed a mission to France was now questioning Mormonism. We had many discussions and I even came to SLC to meet with you. I gave him [Mormonism] ‘Shadow or Reality’ to read.
It was that book that convinced him that Mormonism was an evil cult
. . . He became a Christian & . . . he deeply loves & trusts the Lord now. We have [grown] children and grandchildren who all love & serve Jesus.
. . .
Thank you for being faithful, humble, honest & persevering through what I’m sure were hard times . . .
Originally appeared in:
“Excerpts from Letters and Emails,” Salt Lake City Messenger, no. 136, December 2022, 7-8.