To Begin

When I was in high school in Las Vegas, I sat next to a free-spirit, hippie type in my Spanish class. She knew I was a Mormon, or LDS, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That wasn't all that unusual. Our seminary building was across the street and there were large groups of us that went back and forth between seminary and high school. At that time, about one in every ten students in my high school were LDS. There were LDS kids in every sport, every extra-curricular activity, and every class. We were everywhere.

I felt like I had answered a lot of questions about my church, too, by that time in my life, so I wasn't at all uncomfortable when she started to ask me about some of the things that we believed. She sticks out in my mind, though. Apparently, after every question, I would begin my answer by saying, "We believe . . ." After only a couple of answers like this, she interrupted me and said, "I don't want to know what your church believes, I want to know what you believe."

And there it is. The fundamental difference between reciting something I had been taught and bearing testimony of something that I sincerely feel, somewhere in the very inner sanctums of my own mind and heart. What do I believe? And not so very unrelated, why do I believe? As an intelligent, thinking person, how have I accepted these beliefs and how do I live with them? Why do they matter to me?

So, I have no scholarly degree, no authority from some high leadership within my church. The only thing I do claim is to feel a desire, even a responsibility, to share with the world what I know and to help others understand. I do it in the hopes that it will help others as they try to find truth in their own journeys in life.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints encourages every member to in effect, "warn their neighbor," by proclaiming the gospel to the world. I will try to do this in my own little way.

I will also try to do it, for reasons other than membership in said church. I will try because I am a daughter of God and I believe that He would want me to. For me, that is what everything comes down to in the end.