Guest Post: Letter to a new convert

Happy New Year's Eve! Tonight I have a snazzy guest post for you guys :) WhitneySue over at Feel My Sunlight has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her whole life and I super love her blog.

Recently, she had this brilliant guest post idea that we write letters to each other. Her letter is titled "Letter to a New Convert," and mine is "Letter From a New Convert," posted over at her blog (see it here!). When she emailed me to tell me about her idea, she said it would be awesome to see different perspectives on being part of the LDS church. She's been a member her whole life, but admits that sometimes life-long members can take the church for granted - talking to new converts helps remind her of why she "first fell in love with the gospel" :)

On the other hand, life-long members can have valuable insights to share with new converts, plus reading her testimony is pretty amazing. Enjoy, and be sure to check out her blog with my post! :D

<3 Marie-Rose

My baptism

So, as promised, here's how my baptism went :) Be warned, this post got kinda long...

I am now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

EXCITING NEWS! I WAS BAPTIZED ON NOVEMBER 15! I no longer have to say "convert to the church" when identifying my religion- I can say MEMBER! :D

A post about everything is coming, but I spent all of today (Nov 16) in bed sick, and I have a LOT to do before Thanksgiving break. Patience, and I'll get to it :)

Thank you guys for being awesome readers! Your support has been awesome! I'm so excited to share events of yesterday with you!

<3 Marie-Rose

Happy Dance :D

Soo yesterday I had my baptismal interview. It still doesn't feel quite real that things are finally happening, but November 15 is a week from today!!! :D

My dad came to visit last weekend, as I mentioned he might do in this post. He brought the lefse things, and also we sat and talked for a long time. We started out discussing school, and then what everyone at home is up to, and work, and what I've been up to... And finally we got into talking about church.

!!!!!!! THERE IS NOW A BAPTISM DATE !!!!!!!!

Tonight, I had the opportunity to meet with the sister missionaries. They're pretty much the best. We've been meeting weekly since I've been here at college. And tonight was one of the most amazing spiritual experiences I've ever had.

Guest Post by Mikayla: A Conversion Story

Hey guys, so I don't remember if I mentioned this, but a while back I had a reader contact me wanting to talk about the church. She had been attending church for like 6 months, but due to the lack of a ride and her job she had to quit going. She had questions about some things, like the Word of Wisdom, but she was pretty sure the church was mostly true. We sent emails back and forth a lot, and eventually added each other on Facebook and exchanged phone numbers. She just got baptized last Saturday the 13th, and I am SO happy for her. I asked her to write a guest post, and here it is :)

<3 Marie-Rose

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

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.

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 :)

Why church shouldn't be boring

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typical Catholic stained glass window - Sacrament of Communion imagery

When I was little, mass was the worst thing ever. Every week was a struggle for my parents to get us to go to mass. We tried every excuse we could think of, tried "oversleeping," just sitting on the floor and refusing to get ready, but-she's-staying-home-sick-why-can't-we-stay-too.

Mass was boring. And I only had to sit through one hour. It felt like the longest hour of the entire week.

Testimony

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First of all, credit goes to WhitneySue from Feel my Sunlight for this post idea. I kinda copycat-ed her post :)

Secondly, click "Image source" for the Facebook post about the picture/Temple. This picture is gorgeous. I love it.

Thirdly, my thoughts :)

Faith

I'm gonna try doing a series. A series on the YW values. Which means I shall start with faith.

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My faith is very important to me.

Several years ago, before I even started looking into the Church, I put God on the same level as Santa Claus. Well, almost the same level. I KNEW Santa was fictitious, but I couldn't figure out if God was "just a myth," too. My parents told me He was real, but they said the same thing about Santa. My Faith Formation teachers told me He was real, too. I wondered if they were in league with my parents. I mean, flash forward to the present, I as a cashier help parents establish and maintain the Santa Claus myth when necessary. It's quite entertaining :)

God felt different from Santa, though. There's a whole book, the Bible! So either some mastermind was lying to the entire world, or...

I prayed sometimes. I remember praying a lot for my grandma, who A Strange Christmas references. Yes, the one who had surgery Christmas Day. I prayed that she would be healthy and live for a very long time (I was maybe 10 years old, maybe younger). But I didn't know what else to pray for, or if it did any good.

Then I met these people. These Mormons. And they really KNEW that God was not like Santa. God was real. And I could even talk about Him with them! Especially with Katie. And seeing the effect He had on their lives was amazing.

And you can go read this post for my conversion story :)

Now, I have faith. I have a testimony. I KNOW Heavenly Father is there. I KNOW He loves us. I KNOW that His timing is so much more awesometastic than ours. I KNOW He has an amazingful plan for every one of us, and that plan is absolutely perfect. I KNOW that we must have faith in these things and endure to the end.

I have this ring. It's not a CTR ring. It says "Faith" on the outside. Inside, it says "Live by faith, not by sight." If I didn't have two CTR rings that I wear every day, I would wear my Faith ring all the time. And I did, before I got my CTR rings.

This isn't my ring, but it looks almost exactly the same :)

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Hebrews 11:1
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Alma 32:21
"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

Alma 32 is that chapter about planting a seed. Remember that one? I remember reading it for the first time. It really struck me. You gotta exercise faith by planting the seed. You gotta nourish it. And it will grow. And the fact that it grows increases your faith. So it grows more. And so on :)

You have to take action and have faith in order to get that "warm fuzzy" feeling (or however you personally feel the Spirit) that confirms to you the truth of the gospel.

I read a blog post about this recently, and I apologize for not being able to point you to the specific post. It was another convert's blog, and she talked about how she "tried" to live the Church standards when the missionaries were teaching her. But she wasn't sincere. So she didn't get that confirmation of the truth. But eventually, she changed her mindset. She was still going through the same motions, but sincerely this time. And then came the confirmation :)

Heavenly Father can't give you that confirmation until you have faith.

Oh yeah, faith, that was my topic. I may have strayed from that a little.

Live by faith, not by sight. Hope always and pray constantly. You are in the world, but should not be of the world. You lived with Heavenly Father before you were born on Earth. What you see here on Earth isn't all there is. What you see people doing here isn't always good. Have faith that Heavenly Father is there, rooting for you, and you CAN endure to the end.

<3 Marie-Rose

Changed by Rascal Flatts

"I came up out of the water
Raised my hands up to the Father
Gave it all to him that day
Felt a new wind kiss my face
Walked away, Eyes wide open
Could finally see where I was going
It didn't matter where I'd been
I'm not the same man I was then

I got off track, I made mistakes
Back slid my way into that place where souls get lost
Lines get crossed
and the pain won't go away
I hit my knees, Now here I stand
There I was, now here I am
Here I am
Changed

I got a lot of "Hey, I'm sorry"s
The things I've done
Man, that was not me
I wish that I could take it all back
I just want to tell em' that
Tell 'em that

I got off track, I made mistakes
Back slid my way into that place where souls get lost
Lines get crossed
and the pain won't go away
I hit my knees, Now here I stand
There I was, now here I am
Here I am

I'm changed for the better
More smiles, less bitter
I'm even starting to forgive myself

I hit my knee, I'm here I stand
There I was, now here I am
Here I am, Here I am, Here I am
Changed
Yes I am
I'm changed for the better.
Thank God I'm changed."
(Source link)


I absolutely love this song. It totally fits me. "I hit my knees, now here I stand" :) and the first bit, about baptism- that WILL be me. I can't wait to get baptized.

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The abbreviated story:
Remember how, in my conversion story post, I said after YC I started questioning my entire Catholic belief system and my emotional state was "not good"? Well, it went a little deeper than simply "not good," and it stayed that way for a long time. Sophomore year sucked. So did parts of junior year. I'm much better now, but I have a lil ways to go yet. This song, Changed, is like my theme song.

One time, I was driving home with my best friend, Katie, in the passenger seat. Changed came on the radio, so of course I had to sing along. It had been an amazing day, and I was super content with where I was, spiritually and emotionally. I'm not sure if she could hear it in my voice, but the feeling of peace and contentment was strong. It was amazing.

Anywho, the moral of the story is that it gets better. There will be times when your life takes a downhill turn.

And there will be times when you feel "Changed" and like you can smile again.

<3 Marie-Rose

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

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 :)