Making progress

Guess what! I'm at college now! Three weeks of classes under my belt, and I'm really liking it here. Especially the whole I-can-go-to-church-whenever-I-want part :D I'm attending YSA activities, I did (almost) a full fast for the first time on Fast Sunday (still had water, but I get dehydrated easily and that leads to massive headaches. Also, fasting in general used to lead to massive headaches. Last Sunday, though, I was fine!!), and testimony meeting was awesome.

#collegebound, and History Trek

This whole being an adult thing isn't working out for me, guys. If we could go back in time one year so I could have my senior year back, that would be great! :)

An update and much busyness

Hey internet friends! Is busyness even a word?

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Turns out graduating high school doesn't mean you suddenly have free time. I have a job. Grad parties take a lot of work. I didn't realize I would have to take college placement tests. There is much cleaning of my room to be done in prep for moving out. There are many thank-you cards to be written for grad party gifts. Orientation is coming up fast, and so are all the things I have to do before going. And I'm not even close to moving in yet!

So I would like to apologize for being absent from the blogging world. Not only have I not been posting, I probably haven't read any posts by my fellow bloggers. I'll try to get to that soon, but my life is kinda hectic at the moment :) It's like life just keeps getting busier. I should probably get used to it and kick my procrastination habit.....

Update on me taking the missionary discussions:

Patience, grasshopper

Today was my first missionary discussion :D

I'm 18 now, I've finished my senior year of high school (no more homework!!!) and I'm super excited to be taking steps towards finally getting baptized!!!

The discussion was amazing. The Elders told me a little about themselves, and I shared my conversion story (well, the events thus far, anyway, as I obviously haven't been baptized so it isn't quite official). We talked about my parents' thoughts on me joining the church (more on that later). One of them said he felt impressed that we would receive revelation as to how to help my parents feel more comfortable with my conversion. They asked me how I think of God; I said as a loving, Fatherly figure who cares about us. We read some scriptures and talked about the Restoration. My goodness, the Spirit was strong. And also, I learned that I need to have patience.

So maybe I can't get baptized June 14 because my dad needs time to ask questions and come to terms with what this all means. A couple of my friends might miss my baptism, but it's more important that my dad is happy and comfortable with my choice. I really don't want to wait, but I've known for two years that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience. Maybe I haven't quite learned enough yet :)

Know this: right now, I am just as serious about getting baptized as I was June 12, 2012, when I was prompted to make my choice. I know that this is the right path for me to follow. I'm not doing this because my friends are members. I'm not getting baptized to make people happy.

I want to get baptized because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true Church. I want to get baptized because we are to follow Christ's example. I want to get baptized because I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost prompted me to choose this path. Baptism symbolizes beginning a new life, but that doesn't change my personality. It barely changes my standards, because I've been trying to live LDS standards for two years now, maybe even a little more. It might change how I spend my Sundays, but that's certainly a good change. "By their fruits ye shall know them," and attending church will certainly bring forth good fruit in my life.

LDS readers, I want you to think back to your baptism. Why did you want to get baptized then? If you were a convert preparing for baptism right now, what reason would you give for wanting to get baptized? How has your testimony grown by attending church since you were baptized? Please share in the comments, I would love to hear your experiences :)

<3 Marie-Rose

Tutoring at midnight

I am exhausted and I really need to get up on time tomorrow, so this is gonna be short, but on Twitter this morning I promised you guys a post. So here it is :)

I'm up super late tonight cuz I was helping my sister with her math homework. Her class is learning the same concept as my Calc II class, but she's seeing it for the first time, whereas we're expanding on things we've seen before. My sister is struggling with the concept. I feel like I finally understand it at the level her class requires, but I'm drowning in the new material I'm supposed to learn. 

Guest Post: Katie's Talk

As promised, Katie's talk from Stake Conference :)

Good evening; I am Katie from the (location withheld) 5^th ward. I am 18, the middle of five children, and my parents were converted into the church after having my two older siblings. This gave me the great blessing of growing up in the church, though we haven't always gone to church consistently. My younger sister is disabled and has to have one of our parents home with her almost all the time. Furthermore, she doesn't have a working immune system, so we can't bring her to church with us. Because of this, only one of my parents can attend church every week with us kids. But, my mom is also a nurse, so when she worked Sundays, us kids would have to be dropped off by ourselves at church. Because I wasn't comfortable being at church without my parents, I often didn't go. Because I wasn't at church often, I didn't know a whole lot about the doctrines. I knew the basics and believed what I had heard, but I felt like I was missing a lot of the knowledge that my friends had.

I have a testimony of fasting and prayer

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend Stake Conference for the first time ever. Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so I didn't think my parents would let me come. BUT my neighbor, seminary class, and various leaders prayed and fasted that I would be able to go.

Friday night, my dad told me I wasn't allowed to go. I was majorly disappointed, especially cuz Katie would be speaking. More specifically, she had been asked to speak about her work as a member missionary, being involved in both my conversion and the conversion of another friend (whom I call BatMoose on the internet). (PS I've asked Katie to email me her talk so I can put it up as a guest post for you guys!)

Ye are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)

I realize I've posted on this topic a million times before (see I wanna be baptized, 212 Days, and Eternal Awesomeness) (okay, so maybe not quite a million, but close enough!), but today is the 14th of the month. Three guesses what that means!!

Two months left, guys! I get baptized in two months!! Well, actually that date might be slightly subject to change, as I have a friend leaving for a summer semester at BYU and another friend going on vacation right around that date, but I am determined to not push it back any farther. If anything, I'll move the date *up* :D 

"Excited" does not even begin to describe it. 

OH! Also guess what :)

Productivity, patience, and also a mini spaz attack.

I was reading the April issue of  New Era trying to find a good topic for a new blog post, and listening to the EFY 2013 CD on YouTube, when this song came on. It's called The Girl I Am and it's exactly what I needed to hear today.

Prayer

So today has been all about prayer for me. I went to both mass and church, and prayer came up a lot.

In mass, I don't remember the topic of the priest's homily, but I do remember one specific thing he said. When he was in priest school (actually called seminary, but it's more like legit college than it is like early morning seminary), he felt like he was really bad at praying. So he told one of the instructor-type people; he felt like he couldn't keep doing the whole priest thing. Okay, maybe it wasn't that extreme (I forget, cuz this was before 10am and it's been a long time since then), but he was pretty discouraged. And d'you know what he was told? "Just keep showing up." The quality doesn't matter, just what's in your heart. That really hit me. Cuz I feel like I'm absolutely terrible at praying.

So like a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach? Not faking feelings or thoughts or whatever, but the act of praying. Just do it. Just pray however you know how. We'll come back to that.

Then I got to go to church! For the second week in a row! That never happens. I went literally once in 2013. My friend Sarah gave an amazing talk on how we are children of God. Then a lady that I don't know gave a talk on following Christ's example. And then a guy I don't know gave a talk on that feeling where you just can't keep your head above water, and used a real-life story about a kayaking accident where a guy did actually get stuck underwater and his friends had to pull him out. He compared that to how we are saved. No matter how much we think we will always make good choices, we will all sin sometimes. And we need the Atonement to save us.

The second hour of church, which I think is called Sunday school but someone please tell me if I'm right, we talked about knowing who God is. We as Mormons know that He has a body. He's not just some random cloud. He's a Being. We look like Him. We know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are all one in purpose but separate in being. We know that They know each of us personally. The guy teaching us had us go find scriptures that tell us something about God. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anything, but I did! 3 Nephi 9:21 "Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin." He is our Savior.

We also discussed beliefs about God that other Christian churches have that are different from ours. One of the guys sitting behind me brought up the Trinity. I was proud of him cuz he correctly identified it as a belief of the Catholic church and defined it as the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in being, not just in purpose. Then the guy teaching us pointed us to some scriptures that seem to support the Trinity. So we talked about how being "one" can mean one in purpose, not being, and how Heavenly Father trusts Christ so much that He lets Him act for Him.

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Then in YW we talked about how we can know Heavenly Father better. Prayer was a big part of it. See, there it is again! And also Sarah gave me the option to say the closing prayer for the second week in a row, but I chickened out. Next time, I think I'll probably do it :)

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Anywho. So the lesson. The lady teaching us (what is the proper term for these people?? Are they teachers, or leaders, or what??) had three things: a flashlight, a map, as a cell phone. Object lessons. The flashlight represents the Spirit, the map represents the scriptures, and the phone represents prayer.

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One thing Abby, another one of my awesome friends, said when we were discussing prayer was the fake-it-till-you-make-it approach! I told you we would come back to that! We can't suddenly magically have a perfect relationship with Heavenly Father. It takes some work and some praying and some scripture reading and some missionary moments and some service and some faith. But you'll get there. And I'll get there. And it shall be awesome :)

<3 Marie-Rose

PS oh and I almost forgot!! Abby also said that we often see prayer as a chore, something we have to do before we can eat or go to bed. But really, it's a gift from God. The gift of being able to directly communicate with Him! And isn't it considered polite to use gifts you have been given, to show your appreciation? Even that ugly sweater you got for Christmas, you gotta wear it once, just so the person who gave it to you feels like you appreciated it. Now, on a scale of ugly sweater to iPhone, how often should you use the gift of prayer? I would answer "constantly" :)

BYU

So my first choice for what college I wanna go to is BYU. I figure, being a new convert and leaving home for the first time, it'd be easier for me to be surrounded by other members. It'd be more natural to stick to my standards, and it'd be much easier to find an awesome guy :)

But guess what.

As mentioned in this post, I can't go to BYU :( it's crazy far away from where I live. My mom doesn't want me to be that far away. And the major I originally wanted to go for (fashion design, yeah!) doesn't exist at BYU. RAWR.

So I shall be going someplace else. It has Institute, but the program is super small (yes, I look into all this stuff waaay ahead of time!). Plus out of state tuition is nasty. *sigh*

But ya know what I figure? There's gotta be a reason BYU isn't gonna work out. There's gotta be something at the college I plan on going to that I need to do/see/experience.

So the plan is to trust in Heavenly Father's timing and His plan because it's much more awesometastic than mine could ever be :)

<3 Marie-Rose

PS sorry this is so short compared to my usual posts. Wifi has not been my friend the past couple days, so I haven't been online to post. I've got wifi for the moment, but not for very long, so I had to make it quick in order to get the post up.

Eternal Awesomeness

I know I've done a post like this before. But I'm just so excited, guys. This is some exciting stuff. 

Six. Months. From. Today. 

Oookkaaayyy, but Marie-Rose, what's so special about June 14?? 

I wanna be baptized that day, that's what's special about it!! 

SIX MONTHS!!!!! That's so very crazy close!! And super exciting! 

It doesn't feel real yet. It probably won't feel real for a very long time. Sometimes I feel like I'm waiting for a possibility rather than a certainty. Like an "I might be able to get baptized" rather than an "I WILL GET BAPTIZED." I still WANT to either way. But oftentimes I'm scared that something will prevent it. Which is totally irrational, cuz I will be 18 and I can't think of anything that could stop it. But ya know how, whenever you want something SOOO much, it seems like it always falls through? I'm terrified of that. 

Because I want to be baptized more than I've ever wanted anything. 

Earthly desires are one thing. But baptism is important. It means something eternally. And I want that eternal awesomeness. I want the Holy Ghost to be with me, I want to be worthy to have Him with me, and I want to be baptized. 

<3 Marie-Rose

Ps I saw Batmoose today and it MADE MY DAY. I hope you still read this, Batmoose :) <3 I got you a Christmas present. Hopefully I see you on Thursday. I love you! 

Self Improvement

I need to work on being more outgoing.

I'm usually really shy. I don't go up to people and start conversations. I don't go out of my way to make friends in my classes (I'm not at the same school I was at last year, so I don't know a lot of my classmates). The only time I consider myself to be even slightly outgoing is at work, cuz being a cashier, I kind of have to be comfortable talking to people.

Well guess what. When I go to college, I'll need to be able to talk to people so I can make new friends. I will hardly know anyone when I get there (if I went to BYU, I would know people, but I won't be going to BYU and that's a story for another post).

Guess what else. You can't have missionary moments if you never talk to anyone.

So I need to work on being more outgoing. My speech class is really helping with that. Very few people in the class are quiet. It's like they took all the loud, talkative, friendly people and put them all in the same class. Which makes class really entertaining :) it's actually my favorite class. And being required to get up and talk in front of these people... it forces me to be less shy. I get to know my classmates and we're all super supportive of one another. Plus I can talk to them about my religion :)

*seemingly random change of subject*

The other day, my family went to go get a Christmas tree. After much wandering, we had chosen one and were dragging it back to the barn where the people running the tree farm would shake it out and put netting around it so we could easily get it home. We passed a young family, also dragging a tree. They had only one child, less than four years old, and the parents were having difficulties carrying everything. The tree farm provides everyone with a saw and a measuring stick (so you know if your tree will fit in your living room), and the couple couldn't carry the saw, the stick, and the tree all at once. Plus the little girl was too young to help.

So I walked up and asked if they needed me to carry anything. It's something I would normally only do at work.  I kinda surprised myself. They were super grateful and asked if  I could carry their saw and measuring stick. But that's not the point of me telling this story. The point of telling the story is to prove to myself that I can talk to random people in public. (PS we had been planning on getting our tree a different day and then plans changed, so maybe Heavenly Father had a hand in helping this couple out? It could have been a prompting that caused me to walk over to them...)

Cuz, after all, if you can't talk to people, how can you spread the gospel?

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<3 Marie-Rose

Growth

Yes, another "thoughts from mass" post :)

Advent starts today. That's like the four Sundays leading up to Christmas or something like that. I like Advent. Have you ever seen those wreaths with three purple candles and one pink one? Those are for Advent. They count down the weeks till Christmas. The priest gets to wear purple robes for mass! We're all pretty sick of the green ones by now. Green robes are for "ordinary time," when nothing special is happening. It lasts forever. 

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Anywho. Growth. That's what today's homily was about. A homily is like when the priest gives a talk, after he reads part of one of the gospels. 

All of us are always growing. Not physically, but spiritually. And sometimes (usually), growth is slow and painful. But we need to keep growing. That's what He sent us here to do! 

Some scriptures about growing:

D&C 50:40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

Alma 32, about planting the seed of faith and allowing it to grow by nourishing it, and then you can see that it is good. 

Matthew 13

31 Another parable put he forth unto tvhem, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

D&C 82:14 For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments.

Quotes from various talks:

"Developing spirituality and attuning ourselves to the highest influences of godliness is not an easy matter. It takes time and frequently involves a struggle. It will not happen by chance, but is accomplished only through deliberate effort and by calling upon God and keeping his commandments........The place to begin is here. The time to start is now. The length of our stride need be but one step at a time. God, who has, 'designed our happiness,' will lead us along even as little children, and we will by that process approach perfection."

-Howard W Hunter, April 1979

"An infant's body is tiny, and its spiritual capacities are undeveloped. While the body may reach the peak of its maturation in a few years, the development of the spirit may never reach the limit of its capacity, because there is no end to progression."

-Russell M Nelson, October 1997

"Growing up spiritually requires faith, great diligence, and patience.......Growing up spiritually requires us to see beyond our own desires and to enlarge our way of seeing things. We not only have to let go of our selfishness but sometimes let go of things we want very badly to come to understand our Heavenly Father's point of view."

-Janette C Hales, April 1994

We are always growing. I think that's awesome. There is no "point of perfection" that one can reach and suddenly know all there is to know and no longer need to grow spiritually. Nope, there's always something else beyond where we are. And sometimes that's a discouraging thought. But since there isn't an Earthly destination, we can enjoy the journey that much more :) we just need to grow and endure! 

<3 Marie-Rose

212 Days

Guess what today is.

It's November 14. Guess what happens 7 months from today.

Seven months from today is June 14, 2014. That, my friends, is the day I will be baptized. 212 days from today.

It's been a year and 5 months since I decided I wanted to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. THAT'S SUPER AWESOME. I am SO EXCITED.

I know this Church is true. I know because I feel peace when I read the scriptures. I know because simply thinking about how happy I'll be when I get baptized makes me super happy now. I know because the gospel has brought me nothing but joy. I know because every time I see the little spire thingy on the Stake Center, I'm reminded of how awesome this Church is. I know because talking about our faith brings my friends and I closer. I know because I've felt the Spirit prompting me in the right direction.

I KNOW that I'm in the right place. I know I belong here.

Happy happy happy :D

In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN.

<3 Marie-Rose

PS I'm not doing 30 days of Thanksgiving like lots of the awesome bloggers I follow, cuz I know I would forget or not have time and feel bad cuz I missed a day, but today I'm thankful for my faith :D

I wanna be baptized!

D'you know how excited I am for that day to finally come? I even have a date picked out, even though it won't be until June. I have a countdown and everything.

244 days until June 14, 2014, in case you wondered :)

No, that date is not my birthday. See, on June 12, 2012, I made the decision to be baptized. Two days later, I told my parents (June 14). So the 14th is kinda special for that reason. Plus, in 2014, the 12th isn't a Saturday, but the 14th is. And EFY will be that week, so most of my friends would be out of town on the 12th. But they should be back by Saturday evening (I hope)!

It's been a long time to wait. I still have a long time to go. But at the end of these two years I've been waiting, it'll totally be worth it.

Sometimes I feel left out and frustrated that I haven't been baptized yet. My friends do everything they can to help me not feel like that, and I appreciate it very muchly, but it still happens.

Sometimes, tho, I'm just so excited to be so close. It doesn't matter that it hasn't happened yet. It will soon. My mind is made up and nothing will stop me :)

<3 Marie-Rose

General Conference

I was unable to watch general conference over the weekend. It was super sad. My aunt was in town (we never get to see her, she lives super far away), and she's my mom's sister (my mom's side of the family being strongly Catholic), so I didn't want to make waves by asking to go to a friend's house to watch conference. Plus it was homecoming weekend and I had waay too much homework to do and my parents wanted to do family stuff with my aunt......... *sigh* Life. So therefore I couldn't watch conference. (don't get me wrong, seeing my aunt and family stuff and all that jazz was awesome. But still)

So I downloaded audio podcast versions of conference talks on my iPod.

I haven't quite figured out the formatting of the podcast app yet (apparently Apple did some weird thing where they took podcasts out of the music app? And reviews of the Apple podcast app are terrible, so I got some other app. Anywho). But I kinda sorta know how to pick a talk and get it to play. I can't tell which ones go with which session or in what order and it drives me crazy, but that's okay. I turn the volume all the way up on my iPod speakers (I drive a super old car and dunno how to connect my iPod to the car's speakers) and listen to the talks that way on the way to school. It's not quite as loud as I like, and I miss stuff cuz of that (plus driving safely is a little more important in that moment than concentrating 100% on what the speaker is saying), but it leaves me in a good mood.

Which is like my substitute for seminary, seeing as how I can't do that, either (can you tell I'm frustrated with all this stuff I can't do?). Anywho.

So I really like the idea of having access to conference talks on my iPod. Even if I'd been able to watch, I still woulda downloaded them anyway. Cuz there's always those days when you need to go back and remember how awesome conference is. It's a long six months between conferences. And with the holiday season, I'm willing to bet that a lot of us will take some sort of car trip. I know my family will. Twelve hours in the car with my sisters? Yeah, not fun. So I "listen to music" *cough*conference*cough* and that helps a lot. (They don't know I'm converting. That would be awkward. So I just try not to let church come up in conversation....)

Even if you don't take a long car trip, I'm sure you could find a time when it's useful to have access to the words of the Prophet and general authorities. In the words of my speech teacher, the spoken word "goes out, and then falls" (or something to that effect, I can't quote her exactly). But if you listen to it over and over, you can remember it! You ever have that feeling when you're reading the scriptures and you recognize a passage because someone used it in conference? I have. I hear it in their voice, too. It's pretty awesome.

<3 Marie-Rose

The Power of Member Missionaries

I have a testimony of the power of member missionaries. Those of you who are out there, trying to share your beliefs with the non-members around you -- some of them just don't listen, and it's frustrating, isn't it?

Guess what?

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I'm proof that what you do isn't worthless. I have an amazing group of friends who were willing to share their faith with me, and they let me share mine in return, and here I am setting my baptism date.

Ya know what the one requirement is in all of this? Patience. Actually, I lied, there's a second one. Kindness.

Patience means that some people take years to start thinking maybe the LDS faith is for them. It took me at least three years, I think, if I'm doing my math right.

Kindness means that you never push people to believe as you do. It means that you ask questions about what they believe. It means that you accept that some people will never change their minds. It means that you be a friend to everyone, regardless of their religion. It means tolerance, and even more importantly, acceptance. If you come across as pushy and aloof, no one will listen to you. Yes, we believe that the Mormon faith is the one true Church on earth. No, we do not force others to accept this as fact.

Think of it this way.

I was originally Catholic. Now, if a Catholic came up to me to try to bring me back, would they be able to do it? Nope. By the same logic, if I walk up to the same Catholic to try to convert them to Mormonism, could I do it? Nope. Unless Heavenly Father prompts a change in their hearts, there's nothing I can do.

Kay, so now I'm contradicting myself, right? Only kinda. You should always be willing to share your faith with others. And don't feel like you're not making a difference. My friends made a huge difference in my life. But don't expect that your sharing your beliefs will always "work". D'you know what? Being pushy just makes people less likely to hear you.

We all just wanna understand each other a little better, right?

<3 Marie-Rose

My Story

So here it is. My conversion story. The shortened version :)

In 7th grade, I was invited to Wednesday night activities by my Mormon friends. We made gingerbread houses :) it was the first time I'd ever gone to a "Mormon" event. I had a blast.

Around that time, I started asking questions. I didn't know anything about the Mormon faith, and once I learned that they didn't have priests like Catholics have, I had to know more about this weirdness. Granted, my Mormon friends thought Catholicism was pretty weird, too.

Anywho.

So we were all asking questions. This required me to learn more about Catholicism so I could answer their questions, and they had to learn more about Mormonism to answer my questions. There was much learning and spiritual growth happening all around.

The summer after freshman year, they invited me to girls camp. Oh boy, was that a blast :D at camp, I went to my first testimony meeting. It was a powerful experience. Most of camp, I focused on hanging out with friends and having fun, but I was very interested in the spiritual side, as well. I was impressed that people my age were so into religion. I hadn't thought it was "cool" to be "into" religion. Well, come to find out, these girls didn't care that it wasn't cool.

The same summer, I also went to Youth Conference. Many much religion classes and discussions took place at YC. I attended my second testimony meeting. Right before the meeting, I was talking with one of my friends, Sarah, about random stuff in general. One topic was colleges. I had no clue where I wanted to go, but I was pretty sure my mom would be a major influence in the decision and I did not want that. Another topic was how Katie, another friend, was mad at Sarah. Anywho, religion wasn't a major topic. But I started breaking down. I teared up (cuz of the colleges topic, believe it or not). After testimony meeting, I teared up more (Maggie, another friend, was moving out of state soon after YC). There was lots of emotional stuff going on. And suddenly, on the way home, I was suddenly questioning my entire Catholic belief system for no apparent reason. I totally broke down. My emotional state was not good.

That fall, I started doing research. Finding answers for my questions about Catholicism, not answers for my friends. I didn't always understand or agree with what I found. Everything seemed to be the "textbook answer," and I already knew most of those. It just didn't make sense. That was the year I was to be confirmed, so that got awkward real fast. I didn't tell my parents till after I was confirmed in the spring (side note- I didn't feel the Spirit at my Catholic confirmation. Problem? I think yes). My mom booked me an appointment with a priest at the church my family goes to, thinking I just had "major questions," not "major problems." I let the priest think he'd answered my questions, when in reality he didn't give me too much more to go on than the internet had the previous fall (granted, he did have some new and interesting things, but not enough).

That night, after the interview, I was reading True to the Faith, an LDS scripture reference book. While reading the section on the Holy Ghost, I suddenly thought, "I want to be baptized." Whoa, slow down! Where did that come from?? It sure wasn't me. I believe it was the Spirit.

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The next morning, one of my friends texted me about a Book of Mormon question I'd had the previous night. Within two minutes, another friend texted me from EFY (another church camp), saying she had some BOM verses she felt that I should read. If that wasn't Divine Inspiration, I don't know what is!

It's been over a year since I decided to be baptized, and I still want it just as much, if not more, than the day I made the decision. My parents requested that I wait (they didn't flat out say no, but they do want me to wait), so I'm waiting. And I will be exceedingly happy when that day finally comes :D

<3 Marie-Rose

*all names have been changed

Seminary

You might think I'm crazy. And maybe I am. But today I got to go to seminary and I was SUPER excited.

I rarely get to go to seminary. My parents aren't Mormon. I wasn't raised Mormon (convert, remember?). So at my house, sleep and homework comes before seminary. Always. Except today! One of my best friends is moving out of state soon. She asked me if I could come to seminary one more time before she goes. With my work schedule and my sleep schedule and my school schedule, today was the best day for me. So I went!! :D

I absolutely love our teacher. She's so full of energy. She's decided to focus on the scriptures majorly this year, to prepare us for missions. So we talked about the plates that the Book of Mormon came from. She showed a cheesy little video that really explained it well. There's a bunch of different plates, most of them abridged by Mormon and Moroni.

Anywho.

After class, I stuck around to chat with her a little bit, cuz I can't come to class every day. She told me how much she loves it when I can come, and how the class loves it too. She actually remembers that one time when I was 14 or so, when my Catholic religion teacher was doing a unit on other religions and got the Mormonism bit wrong and I corrected her! I've been asking questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since I was in 7th grade. In 9th grade is when my Catholic religion teacher gave us incorrect information. So my current seminary teacher was pretty impressed that I'd actually stood up for the church, before I'd even decided to become a member.

So seminary kinda made my day :) not only cuz of chatting with my teacher after, but cuz I felt the Spirit during the lesson. We spent much time pointing out why it's obvious that Joseph Smith didn't write the Book of Mormon, he HAD to have translated it, and he HAD to have had help from the Spirit.

I know, deep in my heart, that this church is true.

And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen :)