There is a time in your life when the light goes on. It is in that moment when all your trials, experiences and lingering questions come together and then the answer appears.
I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also commonly called the Mormon Church. I was 18 years old and all of my childhood and youth could not have been further from Gospel principles. I was the youngest of four kids born to an alcoholic father and an extremely abusive mother, who divorced when I was 9.
I just figured that everyone’s home life was the same as mine, tumultuous, until I started school. I learned very quickly that it was not the same at all. When I was about 6 years old I remember praying to God about wanting to find people that were like me, that love kids and family was first, who knew that He existed and loved me unconditionally, that nothing is really a coincidence.
When I was 16 years old, I was kicked out of the house because I no longer fit into what my mom wanted in her life. It was tough living on the streets of a major city and continueing in school but I did it. After graduating high school I moved to another city to “start over”. I knew that I was searching for the meaning of my life but didn’t know where to find it or if it even existed.
An Introduction to Mormon Missionaries
I was introduced to the Mormon missionaries within 6 months. The moment that Elder Hause opened his mouth to teach me, the light inside me, the spirit inside me knew I had finally found my home. Since the Gospel has been in my life now for many years, I have never had more peace, pure joy and unconditional love. The Saviour took me gently by the hand and reached into my battered heart and I felt a calm, a peace and an assurance that I would never be alone again.
The Saviour knew me, little old me, the wallflower in the room, whose mother said was the one not wanted, the girl with lower than low self-esteem. And I knew in my heart that He knew me, better than I knew myself.
I realized that was what the missionaries had taught me, the “burning in my chest”. I knew that I could never, would never be able to deny it. I was as sure as the sun rises every morning and then sets every evening. I am a Child of God. My testimony was embedded into my heart. I knew at that split second that I wanted, needed and with the deepest desires of my heart to be baptized into the LDS church, the fully restored church that Jesus taught. When I had only known darkness and sadness, His light was both a comfort and a blessing to me. It was 13 short days after that first meeting with the missionaries that I was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Kay Cahoon is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), wife, mother of six, grandma of many, traveler and genealogist.
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