The Happiest Day of My Life...

Most people consider their wedding day or the birth of their first child to be the happiest day of their life. Mine was my baptisim into the LDS church. But what made this day special was it was with my future family, I watched my future father-in-law cry, and Brent was the one who baptized me.

I was raised traditional Roman Catholic and hated every minute of it. My mother was Baptist and my father was Catholic. To appeal to the families my parents decided to raise me under the beliefs of the Catholic church. My parents separated when I was young and, in the church that my mother and I were still practicing, divorce was considered unallowable. We were shunned from the churched and labeled. This put a very poor view of religion into my mind and I believed that as long as I knew who I was inside and knew that my faith was true, then who needed a church.

After watching General Conference in October I asked Pam Fowles if I could go to church with them the next Sunday. She was so excited and quickly began planning, yikes! To my surprise, I felt comfortable and found myself wanted to come back. Pam encouraged me to meet with the missionaries and learn about the church. She reinforced that no one could make my decision for me to join the church and if I chose not to then it would not be a big deal. After meeting with the missionaries a couple of times, talking with Pam, and learning from Brent I began to fall in love with the church. I made the decision to convert to LDS and be baptized.

Brent's family was excited and nervous all at the same time. His father, Joe, had the most worries because of his devotion to his faith. He was afraid that I was converting just to be with Brent but it was still not getting through. Brent's parents thought that it would be nice for me to get baptized in Smithfield with family. I agreed to this and the planning began. This also meant that I would have my last discussion with Brent's parents. Most father's of the bride are the ones who stare down the guy and give them the 'talk', right? This was not the case. During my final discussion, Joe sat across me at the fireplace staring me down as I answered questions. Needless to say I was scared out of my mind. I wanted him to know that I was doing this for myself because I actually had found a faith that I believed in and I wanted him to realized how much I loved his son. After the discussion, Joe welcomed me to the family and we all began the processes of planning the baptism.

I was baptized on November 27, 2010 and confirmed the following Sunday in our branch in Pinon, AZ. Brent describes my baptism as the happiest day of his life as well. At one point, the missionaries sang a song during the program. I looked over at Brent and slow tears began rolling down his cheek. I leaned over wiped one away and he returned he smiled at me. He had a sort of glow about him for the rest of the trip and seemed to never stop smiling.