Personal Narrative : An Open Letter

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

Mormonism is known as one of the most successful (in present time) and government involved religions from the 1800’s. Joseph Smith, who had much curiosity in religion, and what was real and what was made up, founded the religion. He claimed that Jesus Christ and God himself visited him and that they told him, .all denominations have strayed from the truth and that he should not join any of them. After that event, he didn’t think much of it and moved on through his life. Once he told his father of his vision, he was scorned, and went to seek forgiveness. When praying for his sins to be relinquished he received a vision by the angel named Moroni, who spoke of a book written on gold plates and buried in a nearby hillside. As Smith went to the gold plates, he continued translating what became the Book of

I was incredibly excited. School was starting tomorrow. The first few days were just icebreakers, learning everyone’s names, blah blah blah. Then the real learning began. Of course, teachers started to write our lessons on the board. I started to notice a few changes in what I was seeing. The words they were writing were just...black lines! I didn’t pay much attention to it, I just asked my friends what the board said. As the year went on, it affected me more and more, especially in math. I saw a 2 as a 6, and and an A as an 8.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I rush into my home and run up the stairs to my room. I jump on my bed and roll over to my laptop and open it quickly. I log onto the One Direction site and see that I made it in time to see the bid. I scroll and try and find my name and I see I'm in third place for the tickets and the time is running out. I've already bid $7000 for three tickets and backstage passes. The reason it's so expensive is because these passes are the last set of passes for their concert. 5sos is also playing so we would be meeting two bands and hearing both of them play.

Women make up 56% of the Mormon population and as a group Mormons are younger than most religious groups with 66% being under the age of 50. Approximately three-quarters of all Mormons are married and are known for having large families. Caucasians make up 86% of the membership compared to just 71% Caucasians in the general population of the United States. IN the area of education, 61% of Mormons have some college education which leads to more Mormons being in the middle-income bracket ($50,000 to $100,000) than the general population. Now that the Christian knows a little about the demographics the next step is to study the Mormon worldview.

In his book, Fundamental’s F. Henry provides statements of primary belief of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. His writing reflects both the older RLDS theology and provides an opening for new paths. For this paper, I have chosen areas that have been reflected in one of our most recent Doctrine and Covenants:

Growing up in an all LDS member family, the Book of Mormon has been apart of my life for as long as I can remember. Between personal study, reading it together as a family, sharing it with my friends, and pondering its message, there is always something that brings me back to reading it over and over again. I love the quote, “sooner or later every member of the Church must discover the scriptures for themselves.” And I truly believe that from discovering the scriptures, and more specifically the Book of Mormon, it has helped me to recognize why I keep coming back to the same book.

In 2025, I will be twenty-nine years old and hopefully married. I will be married to my significant other of ten years Earnest Palmer III, who is a dentist. I would have been recently graduating with a bachelor’s in Culinary Arts and trying to plan to open my own restaurant, BubbaD’s Eateries. Knowing my big headed husband of mine, I probably had a baby then and trying to have another baby. Hopefully, by then Earnest will get rid of the idea naming our son, King. We will be living in the suburbs near New York City but working in the city. Being a woman with great memory, I probably wrote a memoir about my crazy life and trying to sell it to a publisher. If none of the publishers wants to publish my memoir, I will probably sell it the Lifetime

The Mormon’s left behind as a legacy their migration to the salt lake valley, the founding of Salt Lake City, temple square in salt lake city, about one-hundred and thirty temples worldwide, the Book of Mormon, which Mormon’s believe is sacred scripture that complements the holy bible, and Mormon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), or as it is more commonly referred to, the Mormon Church, is a loose branch of the Christian religion. Although the Mormon Church believes in the same God, it split early on from mainstream Christianity. Joseph Smith founded the church in New York in 1830, during the period of religious revival in America, referred to as the Second Great Awakening.

Interviewer: What was the main reason(s) for you to decide to follow the Mormon faith?

I grew up in the church and was baptized at the age of accountability, which is eight years old. Thus, I already had an understanding about the LDS religion. I know how the inner workings of the church work and have faced stereotypes against the religion. This led me to become interested in how other churches were conducted and how the people in these other religions acted. A young thirteen year old girl invited me to attend church with her in order for me to be able to grasp a limited understanding of the Messiah Lutheran

“Casey, your group needs to do the stunt one more time!” coach said imprudently. It happened March 26, 2015; it was at the end of a two hour practice. During the summer months in South Georgia, it is utterly hot and humid, especially in our cheer gym (a warehouse with no air conditioner); it only has two heavy-duty fans and a roll-up door. With this in mind, my group became slightly irritated. Everyone was exhausted; nevertheless we still had to do the stunt anyway.

This year in Sunday school we will be studying the Book of Mormon. As a Bishopric we invite all ward members to reread the Book of Mormon. Then “we invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Introduction to the Book of Mormon, italics added)