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Hi I'm Sarah
About Me
I am a 31 year old book lover and novelist. I love all kinds of music, spending time on the internet and talking with friends who are far away on the phone and through instant messaging. I recently started my first graduate school classes and am working towards a Master of Library Science degree. I am trying to teach myself how to knit, and I enjoy making homemade cards and hair barrettes.
Why I am a Mormon
The story of my conversion is a long, unusual one, which started in August 2009. At that time, I had very recently joined an independent Bible-teaching Christian church after being raised non-religious and being an atheist for several years. I wasn't looking for a new church by any means -- I was quite happy at that time with the one I was attending. What I was doing was performing character research for a book I was writing. I had been developing this story and its characters for a while, trying to get a grip on exactly where I wanted it to go, etc. Over the course of my work on the main female character, she emerged as a modest, kind, gentle person, with a natural practicality and sense of perseverance. For most of the time I was developing the story, the characters didn't have religions at all except in a vague, "yeah I went to church when I was a kid" type of way, because I wasn't religious. Once I became a Christian, I boosted the importance of each character's religion a little more, because I felt it added to the themes of the story. At that time, the female character, Cecilia, was Episcopalian. Then, during that research push in August 2009, I got on one of my kicks where I read a lot about a certain topic, and in this case it was cults. Since there are those who think the LDS church is a cult, it appeared on some of the pages. But some of the things said were completely ridiculous to me, to the point where I started to think they were making stuff up. So, I looked further, and found official and Mormon apologist pages with better information. Quickly, I saw the ridiculous things I had read were either really big misinterpretations or things made up to make the Mormons look bad. And as I read more, I realized that a lot of the ideals of the church were things that Cecilia already was, and that the doctrines of eternal family and marriage would be a very interesting theme to add to my story, and that they would also comfort Cecilia through a lot of the sad events in the book. So, I decided that she was LDS, and undertook researching the church with great zeal to inform her character. I had no intention of joining the church at the time, but quickly found that some of the doctrines I was reading about were very compelling to me, and made more sense than the ones I was being taught at my church. I dismissed it at the time, though, because I was happy with the way things were, and afraid to really consider such a huge change when I had just made the huge change of becoming Christian. Then, in April 2010, a pair of sister missionaries came to my neighborhood. I was very excited to ask them inside my house and ask them lots of questions about the church and being a woman in it. I soon began to meet with them frequently, and finally managed to attend a stake conference meeting a few weeks later. While I was there, one of the hymns we sang, "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go," made me tear up and almost start crying. The song talks about going where God wants you, even if it wasn't where you might have wanted to originally, or where you had planned to go. When the missionaries asked me on the way home if I would set a baptism date, I knew that it was the right thing to do, even if it would shake up my life. I was baptized on July 4, 2010 and have not regretted it at all. I have learned so much about the gospel and met so many amazing people. Best of all, I have found great peace and security in the gospel, and an eternal purpose that puts the troublesome moments in perspective.
How I live my faith
I am currently and happily serving as the librarian for my congregation. I was amazed and humbled to be given that job to do, since I am a library student and it is very much something that interests me. I was also amazed that the church leaders who asked me if I would like this position did not know I was preparing to go to library school. In the church we believe that the tasks people are assigned in the church are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and being offered this position has strengthened my testimony of that.
