I grew up in a small Kansas farming community. We lived 5 miles from the town where our school was located. My family was Lutheran, then Baptist. (Kind of a longer story and probably not nearly as interesting as I think it is.) Anyway I was fortunate enough to move there when I was 4 and not have to move again until I was 18 so I grew up there.
When I was in 3rd grade a family moved into our small (20-30 homes) neighborhood who happened to be Mormon. That fact really didn’t mean much to me at the time, their girl was my age and she played nicely with me and my friends so we didn’t give much thought to her religion.
When we were in high school I convinced her she should try out for cheerleader so for 2 years we were on the same cheer squad. Our senior year in high school we wanted to see the group “Chicago” who was performing at our State Fair. Her mother wouldn’t let us go unless we took a guy with us. (This was 1987 after all and she didn’t like the idea of the 2 of us and her little brother driving 60 miles one way by ourselves.) So this friend got her cousin from Oklahoma to come up and go with us. He was after all a freshman in college, so he’d be able to help us with any trouble we could get into!
Her cousin & I hit it off. After that concert I began exchanging letters & phone calls with the cousin. I also began going to Wednesday night seminary & mutual with my friend. That turned into me taking the discussions. (Here’s the only international part of the story) The Elders serving at the time were from Utah & Horsefly, British Columbia, Canada and I don’t know for sure but I’m fairly certain that I was one of the easiest conversions they had.
When they would present an aspect of the Gospel it just made sense to me. Heavenly Father would not send us here without a way for us to return to Him or to know what He wants us to do.
I did have some setbacks as I had to set two different baptism dates because my mom thought I was moving way too fast. I don’t begrudge her one bit. She had a lot on her plate at the time and I think she wasn’t sure what it all meant for her either. So instead of being baptized in March, I was baptized a week after my high school graduation. That cousin I mentioned earlier was the one who did the actual ordinance. It’s been 25 years now, and it’s amazing to me how it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. When I know in reality everything I do I do it because of the Gospel in my life.
Oh and that cousin/ the guy who baptized me – we celebrated anniversary #24 last month. Isn’t it amazing how life works out?!
~ Paula Copeland ~
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HUGS, the Gospel really does make sense, it all just connects so easily together!
Thank you for sharing your story, Paula. It is so wonderful to read it on a Fast Sunday. It invites the Spirit to our home. *hugs*
Hugs! Tons and tons of hugs!!
Fantastic!
Hugs!
((Hugs)) I just love happy endings!
Beautiful! Isn’t it amazing how wonderful Heavenly Father is present in our lives, always guiding and directing us back to Him if we care to listen. Thanks for listening Paula and for sharing your testimony.
Hugs to Paula! Thank you for sharing. and what a charming love story.