Conversion

Keep in mind that a lot of this story deals with my mom, as she was baptized before I was.

In August of 1999 in Madison, WI my mom and I were in the middle of putting together a new gas grill and eating pizza when there was a knock at the door. I went to answer and there were two men in suits standing at the door who asked for my parents. My mom went to talk to them and invited them in.

--Background Time!--

My mom grew up in a Catholic family and went to 12 years of Catholic school, but she says it never really did much for her. She was interested in religion but felt that something wasn't quite right with everything she had been learning. So when I was young she studied around, and we went to a few different churches. When I was about 7 she started studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses (in Ann Arbor, MI while she was going to grad school). I spent most of the time in the basement playing with their son, Noah. The only thing I remember about him is that he used to make his own board games and they were actually pretty fun) She studied with them for about a year until she finally asked them how they knew that what they were teaching was true. When they talked about how they have the best Bible scholars who understand the Bible better than anyone else, she thanked them for the time she had been studying and sent them on their way. Her interest in learning about religion and her time spent studying with the JW's was a primary reason for her not turning away the two LDS missionaries who showed up at our door in August of 1999 while we were building a grill.

All I remember about the first discussion we received then was that I kept leaving to get more pizza, and that I was surprised to see that the modern-day prophet didn't look all Moses-style but wore a suit and looked like a pretty normal guy.

A couple of months went by as we got to know a good number of missionaries that passed through the area. We invited them to dinner, had Family Home Evening with them, and got pretty attached to some of them. My mom had been thinking about (but not reading much from) the Book of Mormon. She was also going to church on Sundays (I wasn't). The missionaries continued to plead with her to read from and pray about (not just think about) the Book of Mormon. Finally one day in a discussion she asked the missionaries how they knew that everything they talked about was true. (Years later my mom asked me if I remember when she did this, because she was fully expecting for this to be one of the last times we met with them, and was worried that I would think she was being too harsh on them.)

Of course they had a simple answer that my mom wasn't expecting. They had prayed about it and had received and answer that it was true. This is when it finally dawned on her that she could do the same. (Even though the missionaries had been telling her all along.) Even then it took her another few weeks to finally do it, but once she got around to it (in a beautiful rolling-hills part of Wisconsin that served as a leash-free dog park) she received her confirmation.

As a 14 year-old, I thought the missionaries were neat, and I respected what they taught, but didn't really think twice about it in the serious way that it deserved. My mom was baptized in November of 1999, and I had actually started going to church and even early morning seminary by the end of the year. The missionaries started re-teaching the discussions for my benefit, and in February committed me to baptism. I honestly wish I remembered the details of this whole part better, but I do remember being baptized on March 12, 2000 just after turning 15.

Looking back, I realize that my real testimony didn't come until after I was baptized. I remember reading the Book of Mormon with my mom one night in 2 Nephi 9 and just having an overwhelming feeling of peace. I had prayed about the Book of Mormon before, but I guess this was the moment that was right for me to finally receive an answer.

It's been an amazing journey since. I've gotten to be the first in my family to serve a faithful two-year mission. I really can imagine how empty life would seem without knowing the truth of the gospel. I don't bear my testimony often, but I hope that doesn't lead anyone to think that I doubt it. I've had doubts and gone through hard times, many questions, and less-diligent phases, but time and time again I'm reminded of how blessed I am to know the truthfulness of this gospel.

p.s. this is probably my favorite picture from my mission. Taken looking from the island of São Migual, Açores.

I'm not a sugar daddy

Starting tomorrow Kellie "the Bone" and I are going to refrain from eating anything with refined sugars in it for 5 days. I am positive this will turn out to be MUCH harder than I think. Pretty much anything that comes in a box will have sugar added to it, and I won't be able to eat it. I may end up starving tomorrow until I get a chance to go to the store on Monday to buy stuff I can actually eat. Or maybe I'll just eat oatmeal all day.

Just thinking about it makes me realize that I definitely don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. And that makes me think that maybe I'm not as healthy as I thought I was. Or maybe I just say that because I ate half a large pizza today. Yeah that's probably the real reason.

Anyway, I guess it'll be an adventure. It reminds me of when I was in high school and my mom and I decided we were going to eat like vegetarians for one week. The only thing I remember is that I went over to a friend's house and told his family about it (it came up in regular conversation) and I overheard them talking about it to each other and they thought it had something to do with me being Mormon. (I had recently converted.)

Anyway, I'm done writing. Maybe tomorrow I'll blog about my conversion, because I realize I haven't really said much about it on here. Yay!

Somber

Somber: dark or dull in color or tone; gloomy.

I'm in one of those moods today. It's been like one of those constant, "everyone else is doing something either productive or fun, and I'm at home doing nothing productive nor fun." It got better once we had our intramural games in the evening, but seriously once I got back from my internship (I spent most of the time social bookmarking. Oh boy.) I had NOTHING to do.

Strike that, I had stuff I could have done, but decided not to. I wonder if, subconsciously, I just wanted to be able to complain about it later. I like to think of myself as a glass-half-full kind of person, but I guess something I prefer to see the half-empty side of things and fill up the other half with social interactions.

You know how sometimes you like to just be alone? I don't get that feeling very often.

On a few positive notes, I'm almost done with The Magician's Nephew, and we won our Ultimate game, despite being one man down the whole time! We actually started with only 5 players, so they dropped a player to make it slightly more even, but once we scored twice in a row they decided we didn't deserve that luxury. Fortunately someone else came to make it 6 on 7, and we still won 12-7. Booya!

Anyway, did anyone actually read this? Leave a comment if you did :-)

I'm hungry

Here's another exercise in stream of consciousness writing. It can be a good way to get thoughts out of my head and onto a place where I can read them. Unfortunately I can't really go back and change what I wrote because, well, that would completely defeat the purpose. (Except for spelling mistakes, since for whatever reason I temporarily forgot how to spell "purpose")

I had my first tennis match today for the spring intramurals tennis tournament. It went well enough, since I won. I had a few good plays in there, and for the most part my serves were consistent. But it wasn't as glorious a win since the guy I was playing was simply having a bad game. He seemed like he had the technical aspects down well, but just was making a ton of unforced errors. Too bad.

I just watched the Count of Monte Cristo again for the first time in many years. (Saying many years makes me think of a British person from the 1800's. Maybe because I just watched the Count of Monte Cristo...?) What a great movie! I almost can't help but wonder, though, if what Edmund was accomplishing through his revengeful schemes wasn't simply enacting justice. I mean, everything that happened to those he got revenge on was just (I think). So maybe the key difference between spiteful revenge and just revenge is the motivation? Or can there not be such a thing as just revenge? Or maybe, as the movie seemed to be saying, only God can really deal out justice. What patience!

K, I don't want to make this too long since no one will probably want to read it anyway. I'm just tired and hungry and think I'll go to bed so I can be rested for my tennis matches tomorrow. (Er, later today. Ugh.)

Baffling

I still haven't quite grasped the concept that a girl can actually like a guy. I still feel like they just put up with us because they're supposed to. I also haven't quite grasped that a girl can actually pursue a guy, as in show signs of interest. Even when I receive those signs, I just call the girl outgoing and flirty and don't think twice about it.

Maybe I've just seen too many movies.

Or maybe I just don't want to seem stupid by assuming someone is interested only to find out she's just outgoing and flirty.

Confusion! Probably (hopefully) where confusion isn't necessary...