My conversion story
I was raised in a Catholic Church. Going to Sunday school and church every Sunday and going to holy days of obligation. When I got into high school I began doing things that I’m not proud of. I went to talk to the priest and he only told me to pray not that he’s going to pray with me or for me. So I fell away from the Catholic Church. I started to pray for a sign that I was going to be okay. One day I was out at a goodwill with my friend and we were in the Book section. I found a Book of Mormon and I paid 1.25 for the book and I put it on my shelf and ended up forgetting about it. I just kind of gave up on religion I knew there was a God but I was without a job and all my friends were in relationships or getting married I fell into a depression because I felt like there was nobody that was on my side. July 27, 2017, I finally got my dream job as a teacher at a preschool and I ended up meeting my best friend Kelsey. Kelsey and I started to just talk at work then October 8, 2017, I lost my grandfather and 5 days later Kelsey got into an accident and totaled her car. She really wanted to go to an ugly Christmas sweater party for Christmas of course I said I’ll take her. Well little did I know it would be snowed out. The first church function I went to was the Easter egg hunt of 2018. I started to go to FHE on Mondays. The very first time I met the Missionaries was at the variety show when sister Hart and sister Ka’ili were companions. I first met Sister Hart while getting food and she asked how long I was a member of the church I told her I wasn’t a member. She asked how I came to the church when I told her about Kelsey. Sister Hart was pretty new to the church so I was trying to point out Kelsey. Being short sister Hart and I had to go walk to find Kelsey and Kelsey was talking to Sister Ka’ili about me. I started meeting with the sisters every Sunday after church. At the New Year’s Eve party they had a wall for people to put down their goals my goal was to become a Mormon in 2019. January 26th I was going to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Those plans fell through. My mom was against me getting re-baptized because I was baptized in the Catholic Church as a baby. I struggled with why my mom was so against me joining the church. My parents read some false things online about the church and chose to believe them. After that, I struggled with going to church every Sunday and going to activities I was wondering why a loving father in heaven would let me struggle with being baptized if it was something I really wanted to do. I started to pray again and got my answer of it wasn’t the right time you just need to pray for your parents. October 2019 I started coloring in my coloring book and something didn’t feel right about it so I flipped to a different page and the page said “love never ends” I wrote my mom a letter about why I needed to get baptized and that I loved her but I needed to get baptized for me. She was so angry she walked out of the room and didn’t say anything. My dad and I stayed and talked for an hour about why I needed to get baptized he finally agreed with me and he said that he saw a positive change in me since I started going to the church and if I needed to do this he was okay with it. A few days after I gave my mom the letter she gave me a heart jewelry holder that said “love never fails” my mom said that she was okay with me getting baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. November 10th will always be a special day to me. It was the day my life changed I gained the Holy Ghost for eternity and I will always have people on my side. I know this church is true. I know that everything happens on God’s timing and not the timing we want. If you pray and you don’t get an answer right away it may not be the right time to hear the answer. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Madeline
Roswell, Georgia