Herald of the Second Invitation, Vol 8, November 2021

John, was born to James Franklin Medearis, Jr and Kathryn Worsley, who used the pen name Kathryn Kay, on the evening of 4 Jul 1945 in Downey, California. I am a patrilineal descendant of Domingo Madeiras who immigrated to the Virginia Colony (now Virginia) about 1640 from Portugal. My mother's father Fred H. Worsley was of English and Swedish ancestry. His mother was from Mormon pioneer heritage, a descendant of Clarissa Hancock, sister of Levi Hancock of the seven presidents of the Seventy, as well as several other pioneer families.

My mother was raised as LDS in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, where her best friends were from the families of the LDS Church leaders, including a daughter of President Joseph F. Smith. After one year at the U. of Utah, she moved to California where she attended UCLA, became a poetess, and eventually married Frank in 1941. He was not religious, but he was strong, handsome, and intelligent.

Frank and Kathryn had two sons, James Franklin III and John Paul. Frank returned from World War II with an injury from an explosion, and soon they were divorced. Kathryn and her two sons moved back to live with her parents in 1946, so John grew up in Salt Lake City.

In 1953 Kathryn met and married LeGrand Billeter Pratt, great-grandson of Parley P. Pratt, one of the original apostles of the LDS Church. John's name became John Paul Pratt and he spent the rest of his youth in Salt Lake City.

John was active in the LDS Church throughout his youth. When he read the Book of Mormon at age 14, he did not believe it. The story seemed too theatrical and unrealistic. He told God that the golden plates should be on display at the Pioneer Museum on Temple Square. He heard a voice respond in his mind that even that would not convince him because he would just claim that the plates had marks in an unknown language! The Spirit explained that what he really wanted was the translation which was in his hands! He knew that was true, and very soon the Spirit revealed to him that the book was indeed true, which he has believed ever since.

John was an eager student and he graduated at the top of his high school class. He obtained bachelor degrees in both Physics and Math at the University of Utah, being chosen as the Outstanding Student of Physics in 1968, graduating in the upper 1% of his 1969 class. He had served in an LDS mission in Southern Brazil from 1965-1967, serving in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, for five months. He loved Brazil and studied Portuguese diligently all during his mission.

John met Ruth McOmber in 1969 and they were married in the Idaho Falls temple by her father, Calvin D. McOmber, Jr, on 14 Aug 1970, after John had finished one year of graduate school in physics at the U. of Utah. Her father was currently a patriarch and in the temple presidency.  Ruth's mother, Frances Brodilova, was the first member of the LDS Church to be baptized in Czechoslovakia.

Immediately after their marriage, John and Ruth moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he spent six years gaining his PhD degree in astronomy from the University of Arizona in May 1976. He been both a teaching assistant and also research assistant, and thus graduated almost debt free. During that time, they had two children, John and Julie.

There were few jobs for astronomers in the USA, so most of John's colleagues went out of the country to teach. During that summer, the business world discovered that computer programmers should be paid more than secretaries, and John was able to start work as a programmer for the Eyring Research Institute for more money than he could have earned as an assistant professor of astronomy. Thus, he was happy that his entire dissertation had been a computer program modeling the interior of a star. They moved to Layton, Utah, where he worked at Hill Air Force Base, doing Minute Missile computer simulation. He also began a serious study of the Hebrew and Mayan calendars.

Their daughter Mary was born while they lived in Layton, after which they moved to Kaysville, Utah, where two more sons were born to them: Jared and Joseph. The contract for John's work ended in 1988, at which time they moved to Orem, Utah, where John obtained a 3-year research grant. During this time he began to discover and study sacred calendars, some of which had been hidden from the world throughout history. When the grant expired, he began to work for WordPerfect as a programmer. That company was sold to Novell, after which John worked in search and indexing. Later he worked for Cogito, then for Omniture, and finally he left there to work at Perfect Search.

John played table tennis in competitions from age 25 to age 70, being rated in the top 30 players in Utah for decades. He led a table tennis club in Pleasant Grove, Utah, from 2000-2009, while his family lived there and in both American Fork and Lindon, Utah. He has enjoyed playing chess most of his life.

In 2009 John was diagnosed with stage 4 leukemia, with a two-year life expectancy. He chose to forgo chemotherapy, but instead retired and moved to Duchesne, Utah. There he had a home built on their vacation lot. John felt that he needed to be away from the city to recover and yet Ruth needed to be near their grandchildren. This separation led to a divorce, leaving her free to remarry and stay in Orem.  John recovered from leukemia by 2012.

In 2008 John began reading Denver Snuffer's work, and in 2014 he officially joined his group, which attempted to return to gospel practices as they were in the days of Joseph Smith. Then in May 2019 John learned of The Sealed Book, which claimed to be a translation by a Brazilian seer of the first part of the sealed portion of the Plates of Mormon. He believed it was true, but felt that each person should find out for himself. Then in prayer, the Spirit told him to post a positive book review on his website johnpratt.com. When he asked why, the response was, “Because no one else will.” He did so.

Then John felt prompted to write about multiple mortalities, which led to four articles in October 2019. Immediately afterward, the seer who had translated The Sealed Book, Mauricio Berger, invited him to speak at the first general conference of his church in November 2019. He asked John to explain about multiple probations. John flew to Brazil, and not only spoke, but also felt prompted to be baptized and confirmed a member of the fledgling church! After that, he was chosen to become an official witness of the gold plates. As soon as he saw them, he knew by the Spirit that they were authentic. He wrote an article describing his experience.

On 4 Apr 2020, John was confirmed to be an elder in the Church, and one week later, he opened an official church branch in Duchesne, Utah. He  continued to post articles on his website supporting the Church and also over 100 articles about sacred calendars. He began secondinvitation.info to provide background information. On 21 Nov 2020 John was called by revelation during the general conference to be both First Counselor in the then forming First Presidency, as well as a Davidic servant to fight a “giant”, referring to the LDS Church. On the next day he was ordained to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, set apart in the presidency, and anointed to the Davidic calling.

“God has revealed to me the truthfulness of this work, that Mauricio is the chosen seer to bring it forth, and that The Sealed Book is authentic. The foundation of the Church of Christ has been relaid, which will continue into the Millennium. The United Order of Zion is functioning, and the gospel of the Kingdom of God is being broadcast to the world, testifying to all of the goodness of God!” (John Paul Pratt)

"The legacy of President John Paul Pratt will always remain among the Saints of the Second Invitation. The knowledge, wisdom and revelations through the Holy Spirit that he received will always serve as an inspiration to this covenant people, becoming powerful tools for the building of Zion."

“Brother Pratt you will always be with us, see you in Zion..."

Prophet President Maurício Artur Berger.