![]() We had been living gospel standards-putting our coins in the bubblegum machine, so to speak-so I figured that we’d quickly be blessed with a child. Sometime after our marriage, Aaron and I decided we wanted to start having children. Aaron and I were blessed to make great friends in the ward, and we were later sealed in the temple. My family became accepting, and we were able to discuss some of their misconceptions about the Church. Though I wasn’t as abundantly blessed as I thought I would be by joining the Church, I did know the gospel was true, and that knowledge helped me turn to the Lord in faith and get through the challenge of joining the Church and remaining an active member.Įventually membership in the Church got easier. Either I could forget my baptism and go back to living what I saw as an easier path, or I could dig deep, grab the iron rod, and stay on the path. I was at a crossroads where my core beliefs were being tested. The ties of my old life tugged at me constantly. Instead, I felt I had immersed myself in a brand-new culture that was radically different from what I was used to. I knew I made the right decision to be baptized, so after my baptism-with my bubblegum-machine mentality-I thought that everything would be easy and I would feel blessed. Six months later Aaron and I were married. At age 21, I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. Eventually what I felt and knew on the inside overruled the external pressures in my life. But deep down I knew that the missionaries were teaching the truth. I had a background that included years of Catholic training, a family who didn’t understand what I was doing, and a fiancé who was happy to continue attending one-hour-a-week mass with my parents. Much to the dismay of everyone in my life, I sought out a nearby LDS Church, met the missionaries, and started taking the discussions. I remembered how I felt during that priesthood blessing, and I wanted to feel that way again. We carried on that way for a while, but it didn’t take long before I wanted more. Aaron loved the one-hour church meeting, and I liked feeling that I fit in. We lived with my parents (Aaron and I having separate rooms) and went to church with them, where I felt comfortable and at home. So when Aaron and I moved to Minnesota, I returned to life as a Catholic. I had been raised in a devout Catholic family, and even though I hadn’t been an active Catholic for some time, I was pretty well rooted in the traditions of that faith. But at that time I wasn’t interested in pursuing the issue further. I felt like many of the questions I’d had all my life were being answered. The Challenge of Following the TruthĪfter I received the blessing, Aaron’s parents talked with me about the Church. I thought I’d had spiritual experiences before, but I’d never experienced anything that compared to the feelings I had that day. I don’t recall any of his words in the blessing, but I clearly remember how I felt. At that moment I didn’t know what I was getting myself into or how that single blessing would change the course of my life. Then Aaron’s dad turned to me and asked if I’d like a blessing. That night Aaron’s dad gave him a father’s blessing. ![]() Just before we moved, we visited Aaron’s parents one last time. ![]() He wasn’t an active member at the time, and we didn’t talk about it much.Īfter dating for about two years, we decided to move to Minnesota for better jobs and to be near my family. When the topic of religion came up, Aaron said that he was Mormon. The process of my conversion to the gospel began after high school, when I moved to Montana, USA, and started dating Aaron. Through my own experiences and trials, I have learned that life’s challenges are meant to change us and turn us to the Lord in faith. I had to learn that having faith to turn to God and lay my burdens at His feet can be a difficult, heart-wrenching, and humbling experience. So it is not difficult to imagine my dismay when things didn’t always work out that way. My early testimony of the gospel was built on this misconception. Attend the temple and your righteous desires will be granted in short order. Go to church and your trials will be lifted. Say your prayers and they will be answered. I had what I like to call a bubblegum-machine mentality: You put a coin in the machine and out pops a gum ball. I kept hearing and misinterpreting statements like, “If you read your scriptures, say your prayers, go to church, pay your tithing, and attend the temple, you will be blessed.” While these statements are true, I wasn’t being blessed in the ways I thought I deserved to be. After my conversion to the gospel, I began to believe the misconception that if I lived the standards of the gospel, life would be easy and I would get the blessings I wanted.
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