Alma 5:6-7

In December 2013, I returned home after serving full-time as a missionary in New York for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly two years. Having served to the best of my ability, I stepped off the plane flight with many new lessons learned through experiences that were (at least to me) clearly orchestrated by the Lord. One of these lessons was, of course, the priceless value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Prior to missionary service, the continual presence of the Gospel led me to deem it as normal and ordinary rather than of value beyond description. But by seeing, as a missionary, first hand accounts of so many individuals finding joy and purpose in life by coming to a true knowledge of their Savior, all of that permanently changed.

Another big take-home lesson for me was that there is no such thing as a convenient conversion. I learned this through seeing the life-changing experiences of so many people, which were always accompanied with great sacrifices and challenges on their part. Without exception, it seemed as if everyone who I taught who became truly converted to the Gospel passed through the fiery furnace of affliction; they always seemed to be required to give up something of great worth for the sake of the Gospel. And those who didn't experience such difficulties on the gospel-path, did not remain actively involved for very long. Thus, the Lord taught me the lesson that a convenient conversion is essentially non-existent.

But as I stepped off the plane and walked through the jetway, pondering upon this very lesson, it seemed as if my own conversion produced a contradiction to it. From a young age, the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been handed to me by the hand of wise parents and church leaders; upon simply studying the scriptures that were given to me I could feel the truthfulness in them; and doing my best to live according to the Gospel truths rarely caused opposition due to the presence of supportive friends and family members. While my life certainly had not been void of faith-testing challenges such as epilepsy, brain surgery, and nearly getting sent home from a mission for medical reasons beyond my control, these seemed minimal in comparison to what the converts I taught on my mission experienced; I was never required to give up employment, relationships with friends or family, education, or deeply engrained beliefs in order to gain access to, and a testimony of, the priceless Restored Gospel. Knowing that God is no respecter of persons, I simply had to place this perceived contradiction on the "I currently don't know" shelf and wait for the answer to come eventually, and I knew it would.

A number of months later I found myself engaged in my personal daily scripture study, at that time reading through the fifth chapter of Alma in The Book of Mormon. Near the beginning I found the questions posed in the 6th and 7th verses to catch my attention:

"And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?

Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them."         ~ Alma 5:6-7

The conversion experience described here immediately seemed identical to that of the converts I'd taught as a missionary, and sounded as far from convenient as possible. This of course reminded me of the unanswered contradiction that arose only months prior of how my own conversion did not seem to follow such a pattern. But pondering further upon these verses I began to see that perhaps my own life might not be as much of a contradiction to the truth about the inexistence of convenient conversions as I once supposed. Perhaps, rather than myself, it was my fathers who were once in captivity and had needed to sacrifice so much and endure severe challenges for the sake of having the Gospel present in their family, and I was simply reaping the blessings of their faithfulness. But if this were the case, my honest answer to the all three questions posed in verse 6 would be "No", for I had not yet remembered nor even known any such stories of my ancestors.

Consequently, I immediately set forth to try and learn of the stories of my ancestors who originally converted to the Lord's Restored Gospel. If I was correct in reasoning that they had sacrificed so much so that I could have the gospel in my life from the very day of birth, I felt it my deepest obligation to uncover the legacy that they would surely expect me to emulate. Fortunately, The Church's family history website, FamilySearch, had only months prior expanded the capabilities of their site to allow users to upload stories of individuals. And with the far-reaching completion of my family tree, I was able to immediately find the names and stories of over 30 direct ancestors who were the first ones to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Emilie Theresia Lang Holzer was baptized in 1925 in Munich, Germany and, following the end of World War 2, emigrated to Utah with her (also baptized) husband and children. Despite the unwelcoming response of the Utahns to my "German Nazi" great-grandmother, she knew the Restored Gospel was true and stayed firm to it.

James Sawyer Holman was baptized in 1833 in New York, traveled with his family to Kirtland, Ohio, helped build the Kirtland temple, sacrificed many cherished friendships upon the apostasy at Kirtland, was driven by mobs out of their Kirtland home, helped construct the Nauvoo temple, and accepted the responsibility to drive a large herd of sheep west from Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley.

The Warnick family converted in the 1860s in Sweden, endured constant scorn and persecution by many local residents, sacrificed their employment rather than renounce their religion, and faithfully faced the challenge of finding a new home across the ocean and the American frontier, which ultimately allowed only four of the original 11 family members to survive.

Emma Girdlestone Smith was baptized in 1848 at the age of 13 in England, crossed the ocean and
plains to travel to Utah with the Willie handcart company, and despite losing both parents in the winter hardship of Wyoming she remained faithful her whole life.

Joseph Perry, Jr. was introduced to the Gospel in 1847 in England and, despite severe threats from his wife Mary, he knew it to be true. He was baptized, endured the strong initial disappointment (and potentialy divorce) of his wife, and had the patience and faith to wait until she too saw the light of the gospel. He then gave up his home, employment, and everything to travel with his family to Utah.

Upon learning of these, and many additional conversion stories of my ancestors, the lesson the Lord taught me on my mission was reaffirmed: there is no such thing as a convenient conversion. To endure such indescribable sacrifices and challenges, my ancestors must have looked forward to the coming generations and figuratively seen me; they must have known the Restored Gospel to be absolutely true, to the extent that they were willing to sacrifice anything to have it penetrate a multi-generational family. And now, rarely does a day go by where I do not feel deeply indebted to these stalwart ancestors of mine, triggering a internal desire to emulate their faith and not let the legacy die in any way. Thanks to a scripture in The Book of Mormon and a lesson learned as a missionary, my ancestral saints have come to mean everything to me.