FW

I love being a student at BYU and feel very fortunate to be here. It made me think of my mom who grew up in Scotland and did not have this opportunity. She and my grandparents are converts to the church and joined when my mom was eight years old. They joined the church in Dundee, Scotland and since there was not a church building at that time, they were baptized in a small local pool. There were nine youth in her ward six girls and three boys. My mom was the only member in the church in her entire school from kindergarten all the way through high school. Growing up she had many opportunities that we will never have, she became Sunday school secretary when she was thirteen, young women’s president at nineteen, and a member of the stake Relief Society board when she was twenty four. It was difficult for her and her friends to find young men to date who were members of the church but my mom knew she would settle for nothing less than a temple marriage. The closest temple for members in Scotland to attend was in London, England. Members of her ward would lease a bus and drive through the night arriving early on a Saturday morning. They would work in the temple all day and start their journey home around 5:00 AM Sunday morning. Sunday school, relief society, and priesthood were all held on the bus on the way home. Although many parts of her story are similar to parts of my youth I know that having the opportunity to go to a University were the majority of the students are Latter Day Saints has helped maintain my testimony in a way that my mother was not as fortunate. Her story does have a happy ending because in her mid to late twenties she met my dad and they were married in the Salt Lake City temple.