Thoughts on Conversion

by Jessica

As a person born into a family that is a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am not familiar with the conversion process. A convert is a person is not born into the Church, but is taught and brought into the Church at a certain time in their life. My mother was converted when she was sixteen years old. My dad was born into the Church.

There are certain benefits to being a convert. It can be compared to being a foreigner, moving to a new place. For example, I was living in Utah for so long, I felt like I had nothing to left to learn about the state, even though there is much out there that I don’t know. On the other hand, for a person who is visiting Utah, it’s a vast new experience that they want to learn everything about. So, they travel, they learn, and they study everything about the state to learn more about it. The same goes for the Church. Being born into a family that is LDS, the youth can sometimes feel like they have already learned everything they need to know about the Church, as they grew up. It can make us a little lazy.

The converts, on the other hand, are those who made the decision to join the Church and have studied many aspects of it to understand it better. Converts tend to learn more about the Church and can have a stronger testimony, because they have studied more in-depth into the doctrines of the Church. I’m not saying that everyone who is born into the Church doesn’t study as much as a convert, but it’s been found that converts are more active than the born Mormons.

As a young kid, I moved around a lot to different places, some outside of the United States and some in the United States. When I lived on a small Island called Cyprus, the branch of the Church I attended was very, very small. Meetings were held in a tiny apartment every Sunday. The Primary (children’s) class my sister and I were in, usually just consisted of us, or sometimes two other children. Most like those in Cyprus, are converts to the Church. The people in the branch the strongest members that I have ever met.

Like I said in the beginning, my mother is a convert to the Church and is one of the biggest inspirations to me. Her continuing effort to learn more and more about the Church, has taught me and her other children, deeper doctrines of the Church. I’m guessing that most people that are going to read this very article are either new to the Mormon Church, or are looking into it for a possible conversion. I urge you to do as much studying as you can of the Church, whether member or not. Taking the time to read and study the doctrines of the Mormon Church, will enlighten you in ways that teachers could not do.

I have found that even though I was born into the Church, I have had to become converted, to develop my own personal relationship with Christ, and to learn to understand and act upon the promptings of the Holy Spirit. This conversion process is ongoing and very exciting.