One of the assignments I was given was that of music director in the Relief Society.

Now, Relief Society prepares women for the blessings of eternal life by helping them increase their faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and help those in need. Relief Society accomplishes these purposes through Sunday gospel instruction, other Relief Society meetings, visiting teaching, and welfare and compassionate service (the information is from the Church's website, I figured they could do a better job at explaining that I would).

I do believe this is the oldest women's organization and, most likely, the one with the greatest number of participants.

Anyway, we always open and close the meeting with a hymn. I was called to be the music director. My job was to choose the hymns to be sung during our meetings and, generally, these hymns would go hand in hand with the lesson of the day.

I have always loved music. This calling was a great blessing to me as through those hymns the Spirit testified to me of the divinity of our Savior, the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us, the restoration of the Gospel, and other important truths.

Since the time I have served as music director, I have used the hymns to bring me comfort and peace when comfort and peace were needed, or to strengthen my testimony about specific church principles. 
Heavenly Father has truly blessed me through music.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, church members are given the opportunity to participate in various assignments (callings).
Some may be called to serve as teachers in the various classes, some to lead or play music, others to lead a specific group of people. These assignments are temporary, their duration varying from a few months to a couple of years. When one assignment ends, another one is given.
One time, an individual may be called to work with young children as a teacher, and another time to lead music during Sacrament meeting.

I do not remember all of the assignments I was given through the years nor the order in which they were given; however, I do know that with each and every position I was called to serve in, I grew in knowledge of the Gospel, in love for those I served, and in the desire to be more like our Savior.

Next time, I will start talking about some of those assignments I was given and how they allowed me to grow closer to Him, Jesus the Christ.

After the first attempt, my mom tried two more times, before giving up... 

Her second try was reserved for my middle school math teacher...

This particular math teacher was a nun at the Catholic school I attended (from 1st to 8th grade). This sweet nun just told her to be grateful I believed in Heavenly Father and was not doing anything against the Commandments. I kept in touch with this nun until her passing. Every time I went home, I visited with her and we would discuss our beliefs. To this day, I miss visiting with her. 

Next, she tried to convince a young man I had a crush on to tell me to leave the church. I have to sort of laugh at this one as this young man was a member of the church as well. I guess, somehow, she thought that he might see the errors or our ways and persuade me to leave behind this new religion I had found.

In the end, given that her efforts did not work, she just decided to let me be. She would comment to me, once in a while, about my decision; however, she no longer tried to dissuade me from being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She even supported my children during their summer visits, or the year long visit my daughter had with them.

I do have goodly parents and I love them dearly. I am grateful for their love and their support. They truly are the best non member parents one could ever ask for.

Sorry I am a day late with the next part of my conversion story. We had a Christmas Devotional at church and, by the time I got back home, my mind was too tired to try to put words in writing.

However, here it is now....

My mom thought that my "switching" religions was just going to be something short lived. When she realized that I was in for the long haul, she tried several things to convince me to change back.

She loved me and she thought that the decision I made was not to my benefit. She had not received the missionary discussions and, therefore, she did not know what prompted me to change. She thought it was just something I had decided to do for fun.

The first thing she tried to do was to have one of my aunts convince me to switch back. My aunt is a 100% practicing Catholic and she also holds a special place in my heart. When she did not receive support from my aunt, she turned to one of the math teachers I had in middle school.

Next Sunday, you will read about her other attempts.

For now, I want you to know that I love my mom for all she has done for me. She tried to get me out of the church because she lacked the knowledge. However, this does not change the fact that she raised me to be the best person I could be and that she has made sacrifices that I might have the best life possible she and my dad could provide for me. And for this, I am grateful to her and my dad.

I think I have shared this before, but I want to share again that I can honestly say, like Nephi of old, that I was born of goodly parents. I love talking to them every weekend. Although miles apart, they are constantly in my heart and I thank Heavenly Father for them.

After the baptism, I went home and I was so radiant that my mom asked me what was going on. I shared with her that I had been baptized. Her words were, "Of course you have been baptized. We baptized you when your were a few days old."

It is then that I explained to her that I had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She knew I had been meeting with the missionaries but my baptism came to her as a total shock. She was raised Catholic and I had been raised Catholic. Although she was not attending Mass regularly, I attended more than she did. She could not understand why I had changed and she felt betrayed.

She asked questions and tried to read things on her own to try to understand. However, every time I would try to explain something to her, even things that she asked about, she would stop me and say, "I don't want to hear anymore or you are going to convince me."

It was April 14, 1982 when I entered the waters of baptism. Not many people were present, as it was in the middle of the week and in the afternoon; it was a Wednesday, I believe.

I was very happy.

After the baptism, performed by a member of the church who was a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, I received the gift of the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by another member of the church who held the Melchizedek Priesthood.

I was on cloud nine.

What did being baptize mean to me? It meant, that all I had done in the past had been forgiven and washed away. I was going to start from scratch and, from that moment on, I had taken upon me the name of my Savior, Jesus the Christ, and promised that I would follow in His footsteps.

More questions were answered in following meetings. Each meeting left me in awe at how much Heavenly Father loved me and wanted me to be happy.

Soon enough, I no longer wanted to ask questions to trip them... I was now asking questions because I seriously wanted to know more and feel of their love and His love for me.

Through their teachings of our Savior, I felt I wanted to be more like Him. 

I wanted to be the kind of daughter Heavenly Father would be proud of. I knew He would love me no matter the choices I made, but I wanted Him to be happy about the way I was living.

I decided I was going to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The day came for me to meet with the sister missionaries again.
I asked them the questions that had been bothering me and, to my surprise, they had answers for them, and they made sense.

I was impressed, but at the same time I was still kind of leery and decided I was going to find questions to ask with the purpose of tripping them up. Certainly, there must have been things they did not know and had the answer to!

I think I had taken it as a challenge to aggravate them with my questions and I wonder what they thought of me. Nonetheless, they always had a smile on their faces and never once were they belligerent or made me feel I was not worth of an answer or their time.

The first question I had came about as I was reading the Book of Mormon, and Nephi was ordered to kill Laban. I thought, "Wait a second! we have been given the commandment thou shall not kill and here he is ordered to kill...what is going on?"

The two missionaries not only reminded me of Noah and the Flood, but also asked me to read a few verses down from where I had stopped and, sure enough, the explanation was there. "... It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."

Even the Bible explains this concept. Check out John 11:50: "“And you do not consider that is profitable for us that one man should die instead of the nation, and not that the whole nation perish."

With this question now answered, I moved on to the next one...

The day came for me to meet with the two sister missionaries (Sorella Dotti e Sorella Anastasio).

It was their "P" day (Preparation day: a day set aside for the missionaries to do their laundry, their grocery shopping, cleaning, and writing letters to family and friends)...

Those two young ladies gave up part of their day to come and see me, as that was the only time I could meet. Although disappointed that they were not dashing young men, I respected and appreciated the fact that they made a sacrifice to come and see me.

One of my sister missionaries (now married and living in Arizona) reminded me that the first thing I said to them was, "I am not going to join this church unless I know it is true."

I remember that statement. The reason behind it was that I did not want to join the church and then not attend because I had problems with what they were teaching (like it had happened with the Catholic church).

They began the lessons by teaching me about Joseph Smith and the First Vision.
They gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon to read and set up another appointment.

The first thing I did, once I got back home, was to read in the encyclopedia about the Mormons. I felt like I had opened a can of worms! So many questions started swirling in my head, but only one was weighing heavily on me. I could not wait to meet with them again and ask about that particular issue!

What an emotional day today.

My son opened his mission call...He has been assigned to the Italy Milan Mission!
That is where I am from. We have family and friends in that area! Never, in a million years, did I think he would serve in that area, because we have family and friends, and he will be there for two years.

Then, this evening, we went to wish well to a friend of ours who is leaving tomorrow to serve his mission in Mozambique, Portuguese speaking.

It is thanks to young people like my son and our friend that I am a church member today.

If you recall, the last time I left off with me sharing my thoughts and questions with another young lady who was at the park with the child she was babysitting...

She shared that she was no longer Catholic and that she had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

She asked me if I wanted to meet the missionaries. The first thought that came to my mind was that these were the tall, blond, young men I had seen walking around. They were well dressed (white shirt, tie, jacket) and handsome....

My answer was, "Of course. I will be very glad to meet with the missionaries!"

Little did she know that my interest was in the young men and not the message they were going to share with me. However, Heavenly Father knew my thoughts and wishes and He did send me two missionaries with their message! But these missionaries were two sister missionaries from Italy!

Back then, I was kind of upset. I truly wanted to meet these dashing young men. Now, I am grateful He sent me sister missionaries!

Have there been times in your life that you realized how Heavenly Father knows you and your thoughts?

I was born and grew up in Italy. As most of you know, the Catholic Church is the predominant denomination in the country. Growing up, I attended a Catholic school run by nuns. As a young child, I wanted to become a nun. I loved the way they could walk backwards so they could keep an eye on us little children walking from one class to the next. They seemed to do it so flawlessly and I wanted to do that too. Somehow, I thought I had to become a nun to do that!

I attended Catholic Mass, as often as I felt like it. Many times I felt as if people were attending only to see what kind of clothes their neighbor was wearing, and that is why I was not as active as I wanted to be. I did love the music though and that is what pulled me back the times that I did attend, besides the fact that I felt my Heavenly Father wanted me to be in Church.

As I grew older, and sporadically attending Mass, I started asking questions that did not seem to have an answer within the Catholic faith. For starters, I was not too keen on a priest telling me how to be a good wife and mother when he never experienced marriage and parenthood. I was also questioning infants being baptized.

These thoughts kept occupying my mind. One day, as I took the young boy I was babysitting to the park, these thoughts became spoken words I shared with another young woman babysitting for another couple.

What happened next, changed my life forever!

Have you ever had questions you could not find an answer to or that had an answer that did not feel right?

Today, I had lunch with two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Elder Rogers and Elder Hogan.

As we were sitting around the table, enjoying our meal, Elder Rogers asked me what made me decide to investigate the Church. I recalled the events of that day, and of the days that followed, which marked the beginning of my spiritual journey.

As I am now sitting comfortably on my couch, I have decided to start a blog with the story of my conversion.

I hope my story will bring others to ask questions and to recall their conversion and their path bringing them closer to our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

As for now, I am happy to say that "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..."