I was born in Utah into an LDS household, but by the grace of God my parents converted to Christianity when I was 2 years old. However, we never moved out of state. I grew up feeling out of place. All my closest friends were LDS, and I was a Christian. I came to Impact because all I wanted was to get out. I wanted to be immersed in a community of people my age who had the same beliefs as me. Little did I know I would be returning to my home state just a little over a month after moving out. I was frustrated, to say the least. I had grown up talking to LDS people my whole life. Why did I have to go back?
The first day, they were talking about things that I had seen and known for years. We toured places that my friends and I used to go to. I watched as everyone else’s hearts were broken for the people I walked by every day. As I lay in bed that night thinking through the day, I was overrun with guilt. Thoughts came like, “You have lived here forever, and you could have been doing God’s work,” and, “All you wanted to do was get out, and you were right here where so many people that need the Gospel are.” People asked me all the time on the trip how it was to get to do this all the time, and that just fueled the guilt inside me.
It was about day three when I finally sat down and prayed. I felt a release from this guilt, and I realized I was where the Lord wants me right now.
I had unique knowledge that God had given to me that I could put into practice immediately.
When we were going door to door, the first person who let us into her house was incredibly well versed in LDS theology. She came up with a defense for everything that my partner and I had been taught in class. I didn’t give up. I felt the Holy Spirit take the wheel and start using things that I had learned in my daily life. We talked to this girl for about two and a half hours, and it was a very fruitful conversation. If I had not grown up the way I did, we may have backed down from this conversation hours before. I left with a heart awakened for the lost, and eyes open to the people nearest and dearest to me, rather than just people across the sea.
“And who knows whether you have not come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?” -Esther 4:14b
Laurelyn Ewell, Class of 2027
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