Becoming a true Member of The Church

My sister-in-law asked, in response to my Pres. Hinckley post, to tell my activation story. I was born into the church. My dad started getting into different religious views and slowly led our family from the church. After my little brother died my mom decided she couldn't take it anymore and divorced my dad. At that time in my life no one in our ward really fellowshiped me and I felt the young women forgot about me. I started to grow apart from the church. When I was 13 my family moved to Orem. Who do you think were the first people to befriend me? Yes they were young women, but the ones that got into trouble. Having felt a desperate need for friendship I followed. It didn't help to have relatives and my dad that would sway me in the same direction as these friends did.

My mom was a good mom and worked really hard to get us back into the church. She always loved me and never stopped, but also made it clear when we were doing something wrong. I still, to this day, will never forget how I made her feel during those years. She claims she never thinks about it or remembers until I bring it up.

I don't need to go into details of the kind of trouble I got into. One night I had a situation that scared me to death and really knocked some sense into me. We were hanging out with a bunch of friends and one of the boys older brothers was around. He tried to have his way with me and I got out of there as fast as I could and made my friend take me home. My "friend" just let me know how it was my fault. I cried all night to my brother Joe. When I told my mom about all my wrong doings she was there for me, let me know it was wrong, and that she loves me. I think my mom and family showing me the pure love of Christ is what changed me. They never gave up on me and that made all the difference.

From that night on I was completely changed. I remember one girl telling me that she felt it was too late for her and all I could think about that night was even if it was too late to make it to the Celestial Kingdom I would work my hardest to make it as close to the Lord as I could.

I lost all my friends and it took a while to gain some again because of my reputation. All the good kids knew I hung out with the trouble makers and all the trouble makers knew I was a "goody, goody" as they called it. Then a young women named Becky befriended me and we became inseparable. The funny thing is later on a few of the friends I hung out with (the troubled crowd) soon followed me after.

As awful as that night was I thank the Lord for it. Since then I have watched several of my original peers get pregnant out of wedlock, end up in jail, etc. One "friend" even drowned in Payson Lake trying to swim across it while intoxicated. I am proud to say I never got drunk, stoned, or had sex out of wedlock. This is probably due to the fact I had a family that cared. This story doesn't make me special, but it makes my family members special to me.