"It's true, isn't it?"

The name of this blog comes from the title of a talk by a former president of the LDS church Gordon B. Hinckley. A friend sent it to me in July of last year, and it was the catalyst for my baptism three months later.

A year and a half had passed since I started seriously looking into (or 'investigating' in Mormon-speak) the LDS church. Over the course of that time, I had gone from feeling like I needed to get baptized immediately, to apprehension, to confusion, to frustration, to apathy and back again. My quest for truth at times was exhausting. There were periods when I went exclusively went to LDS Church, other times to Catholic Church, and a few months when I attended both churches every Sunday.

Last summer, I had finally gotten myself to a point where I thought I might be able to find joy outside of the LDS church. I was working in Ethiopia for 10 weeks, traveling around the countryside, interviewing food aid beneficiaries, and enjoying the company of my three lovely colleagues. I could finally enjoy a coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverage without feeling guilty, which came in handy as Ethiopian coffee is amazing and one unsavory truckstop of a town was made more bearable by ending each day with a cocktail with friends. (Mormons follow a health code called the "Word of Wisdom," which prohibits coffee, tea, alcohol, smoking, and illegal drugs).

President Gordon B. Hinckely

Then, this talk landed in my inbox. I was back in Addis Ababa for meetings at the midpoint week. The words of the talk echoed through me as I sat alone in my hotel room. In the talk, President Hinckley recounts a conversation with a young man who had recently been baptized. He was about to return to his homeland where the majority of people were not Christian. When the Prophet (another title for the President of the LDS church) asked him how his family would react to the news, he replied, "My family will be disappointed. They may cast me out and regard me as dead. As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.” President Hinckley asked, “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?” The young man replied, “It’s true, isn’t it?” When the Prophet responded affirmatively, the young man answered “Then what else matters?”

I broke down in tears as I read it. Here this man was willing to risk everything for the Gospel, and I was mostly holding back because I was afraid of what people might think of me. How on earth could I tell people I was Mormon, especially after how I viewed the LDS church when I first learned of it. Would people think I had been brainwashed, duped, or was just really gullible? The Catholic Church had given me so much in my life, could I really give up my hopes of church reform and definitively turn my back on it?

But in that moment, I knew I was a goner. It was true. I knew in my heart that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was the the restored church of Jesus Christ and that he was at the head of it, leading it and guiding it. I knew that I had received a spiritual witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I knew that the members of the church that I knew were not perfect people, but they were committed to being perfected in Christ and I wanted to be like them. If I really believed all of that, how could anything keep me from being baptized and following all of God's commandments (including the Word of Wisdom and giving up my beloved coffee...)?