Cayman Islands Conversion

 I never expected to have a roommate from the Cayman Islands when I signed up for housing at BYU Provo. Yet my wonderful roommate helped me get through some of the most difficult times of my college experience and I treasure the friendship I have with her. Little did I know that I would be called to the Florida Jacksonville Mission and would visit the Orlando Temple as a missionary, the same temple where she was sealed to her family. Her entire family converted to the Church when she was young. This is their story. 



     This is a summary of how my family came to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One day, sometime in October of 2001 my wife Camille was home with our youngest daughter Mari who was barely 5 months old at the time. Camille would usually take the opportunity to do a bit of cleaning and laundry, etc. while the baby was asleep during the day. Once she was finished she would sit and read a little if time permitted. On that particular day she said she had the urge to clean the house and then read her scriptures.

     No sooner had she sat down to read her scriptures when she heard a knock on the door. It was two young men in white shirts and ties and dark pants. The missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints introduced themselves and then asked her to do the same. After a few minutes of conversation about our family they introduced her to the Book of Mormon and invited her to read a few verses from Moroni 10:4 and pray that night about the authenticity of the book. They promised to return the following Sunday when I was home.

     When I came home later that day Camille casually mentioned the visit of the missionaries and expressed surprise at herself for even opening the door to speak with them. You see, we lived at that time on a fairly busy street with quite a bit of pedestrian traffic. Because of that we got fairly frequent visits from persons from different Christian denominations handing out tracts and pamphlets or selling religious books. Usually we would either poke our heads out the door and tell them we’re not interested or refuse to answer the door. I listened to her account of the visit and promised to take a look at the book but never got around to doing so.

     The following Sunday when I awoke Camille reminded me that today was the day the missionaries were returning sometime after lunch. I then somewhat reluctantly requested the book and saw the area towards the back where the missionaries had marked for us to read. I read it and thought to myself "Why would they ask a person to read from the back of a book?’" (I had no idea what the Book of Mormon was; I had never heard of it and didn’t know it was scripture so I was expecting a regular book.)

     I decided then that it made sense to read from the very front of the book to understand what it was about. I read the Title Page, the Introduction, the Testimony of Three Witnesses, the Testimony of Eight Witnesses, and the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, right on into a few chapters of 1 Nephi. I stopped only long enough to have breakfast and shower and went back to reading what I found to be a most interesting text! In fact I was still reading when the missionaries came by around 2:00pm.

     I was almost a little disappointed at how young they were when I first saw them – to this day I’m not sure why. However once they introduced themselves and we got to talking I realized they had a maturity about that that was well beyond their age. Their names were Elder Folk from California and Elder Larson from Idaho. They told us about their mission and what they wanted to talk about. For the first half an hour I was expecting them to try to sell us something (after all that’s what most of the religious people did when they came by) but they simply outlined some strange sounding topics they wanted to talk about and asked if they could return at some point in the future. They seemed pleased that I was at least reading the Book of Mormon. Both Camille and I sat down with them and Jenessa our oldest daughter was there quietly listening. I was really interested when they mentioned that the Book of Mormon was scripture that was found on plates hidden in the ground in America and translated. We arranged to meet again on Tuesday evening.

     Over the next two or three weeks we met with the two Elders and I had lots of questions about the pre-earth life and the three degrees of glory and Apostasy and priesthood, etc. They invited us to church and we went. I was amused to see that they met in the old town-hall building that was used as a traffic courthouse on weekdays. The congregation was about twenty-five to thirty-five persons but there was a peacefulness and comfortable feeling I could not explain in those gatherings. On one Sunday I saw an older man and a teenage boy talking to each other and for some reason they looked familiar as if I had seen them somewhere before. After a while I remembered. They had knocked on our door one evening months before and said they were from the Church of something or other and I had told them I’m not interested!

     Because Mari was still very young, we could not always stay for all three hours at Sunday meetings with her. Besides she was born prematurely and quite small and fragile even at six months. Sometimes however I would take Camille and the kids home after sacrament meeting and return in time for Sunday School and Priesthood.

     During those few weeks I learned a lot about the church. I read from the Book of Mormon and was fascinated by the fact that persons lived on the American continent that knew Christ. I was a big fan of novels and movies about the American West and the Indians and immediately recognized that the Great Spirit mentioned by the Indians in these novels could well be the Christ their ancestors knew! Everything I learnt had strangely very familiar ring to it as though I had heard it before or somehow already knew it.

     During one of their visits the missionaries asked us if we would pray about a date when we would like to be baptized. Camille and I did so on several occasions and I recall feeling comfortable about being baptized at some point. We however did not discuss it for several weeks; telling the missionaries on every visit that we were still praying about. Finally one day I said to Camille after a visit from the elders ‘I don’t know about you but I feel quite ok about being baptized.’ She looked at me and replied ‘I know, I feel the same way. I was waiting for you to ask’. We decided then that we would tell the missionaries we wanted to be baptized.

     They were thrilled. The entire congregation seemed overly excited at the news. Everyone came to us the next Sunday and congratulated us on our decision to be baptized. It was arranged for December 8th 2001 at a member’s home with a pool. I was to be baptized by the president of the Elders’ Quorum and I did not recall at the time whether he was going to baptize Camille.

     That Saturday morning we went as a family to the member’s home and the entire congregation seemed to be there gathered on the pool deck. We felt special. I felt nervous but good inside. I was baptized by the branch president and was then confirmed a member of the church. They then proceeded to ordain me to the office of priest in the Aaronic priesthood. Immediately following this I was asked by the branch president whether I wanted to baptize Camille. Of course! I went into the water with Camille and following instructions, I baptized Camille.

     We continued to attend church and also Institute classes on Wednesday evenings taught by the branch president’s wife. I was amazed at this new doctrine we were learning. I was given some books by the branch president. Among them were ‘Jesus the Christ’ and ‘Articles of Faith’ by James E. Talmage. I began to read these immediately.

     One Sunday morning sometime in January of 2002 as we were preparing for church, the branch president knocked on our door. Accompanying him was the mission president visiting from Jamaica for a few days. They explained that I was being considered for the Melchizedek priesthood and needed to be interviewed by the mission president. That interview took place in our living room and I was ordained later that morning during the priesthood meeting.

     In February of 2002 the branch president and his family had to return to the United States due to work. I was called as the 1st Counselor in the branch presidency and I was also called as the Institute teacher in that same month. Those were exciting times! My reading was accelerated as I prepared for the weekly classes. I will always be grateful for those callings because I think it give me a good foundation of gospel knowledge.

      On the 1st anniversary of our baptism, Jenessa was baptized by me having turned 8 years old in October of that year. In the summer of 2003 we were sealed as an eternal family in the Orlando, Florida temple.

     We have continued since then to serve in many callings in the branch here. I have served as branch president, Elders’ Quorum president and branch Mission Leader. Camille has served as a Primary teacher, Primary president, Relief Society president and first counselor and Seminary teacher. We have embraced the restored gospel and have watched the blessings flow into our lives as we tried our best to keep the commandments and magnify our callings.