feeling a bit sad...

As I was looking at Facebook last night. I saw a post from a friend from High School. In this post she had a clip of a video of her and her husband being baptized into a new church. In this clip she talked about how she had been baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as she reached adulthood (due to her mother not giving permission). She then started to say things, not so nice things about the LDS church. Normally it would make me rather upset to hear those kinds of things, but instead it just made me sad. Maybe it was because this was someone I knew and not a random person saying these things. I don't know, but I do know it made me very sad for her.

This friend is not the first friend that I had from H.S. or Jr. High that was once a member of the LDS faith who have turned away from it. It makes me so sad to see how their lives have changed so much from what they were. I am sure that they feel that the changes have been for the better, but a part of me hopes that they realize just what they have LOST because of those choices that they have made.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints myself. I LOVE the gospel and the precious truths that I find in it. I don't know where I would be or what I would do with out the knowledge that I have now. I hate to think of what my life would be like if I were not a member of this wonderful gospel.

As a youth I was inactive in the church (along with my whole family), I had some wonderful Young Woman leaders who started pulling me to church, helping me with rides and letting me sit with their families during church so I wouldn't feel so alone. I will be eternally grateful for those women and the way that they helped change my life for the better. I worry when I think of where I would be now if those wonderful women had not come along.

As I see the friends that I had from school, and think of where they are now, I can't help but wonder where I would be if I hadn't moved to Phoenix for College. Those times in college were the times that made me gain a testimony of my own instead of relying on those of my Y.W. leaders. Those times are when my testimony was set in stone. Where I grew the most spiritually. Where I had to rely on the Lord the most, and I learned that I would never be truly alone.

Its funny how I don't realize just how much I have grown since my H.S. days until I have something open my eyes to it. I am so grateful for the changes that have happened, and I hope that I will continue to change for the better.