TEN

“I was raised to hate the church. I grew up in an environment that taught me things like “LDS men have to marry a minimum of 10 wives” and “LDS women have to get married between 15-22 or else they can’t get married”. That never sat right with me. It didn’t make sense that a religion that claimed to preach the true teachings of Jesus Christ could have “policies” like that. But I pushed it out of my mind and focused on other things.

Fast forward many years, and it is the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. I was going to be taking French, so I found a website that matched teens with international penpals. There, I met a boy about my age who lived in London. After speaking on this website for a few weeks, we friended each other on Facebook. I saw on his profile that he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Given my limited knowledge about the church, I asked him to tell me about the church. After he told me what he could, I remember feeling something overwhelming in my chest, so I went onto one of the church’s websites (comeuntochrist.org) and talked to a set of online sister missionaries. They gave me a short rundown of the restoration of the gospel and helped me order a Book of Mormon, which the Elders brought to me the next day. They began teaching me the lessons the next day, and I quickly wanted nothing more than to learn everything I could about this faith.

I was an investigator of the church during the October 2014 General Conference, and I was watching a session with the Elders and a group of people. During a talk by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled “Lord, Is It I?”, he spoke about the fact that for many of us, it is simply our pride and stubbornness keeping us from experiencing the full blessings that the Lord can offer. I knew then and there that I wanted to be baptized. I was baptized a member of The Church of a Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on November 15, 2014, at the age of 15 years old. I was, and still am, the only person in my family that is a member of the church.

Getting baptized was the best decision I have ever made, and the second best decision I ever made was deciding to serve a mission. To say my mission was a blessing would be an understatement. I was given the opportunity to share with people what was shared with me. Given the opportunity to share with them the love and power of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I can truly testify that this church has been restored to the earth. The gospel spread by this church saved my life, and has pushed me father than I ever could have imagined. I love this gospel, my Savior, and His Father more than I could ever put into words, and I know that they love me just the same. Embrace that love and you’ll never regret it.”