Well guys, welcome to 3 Mormons. We are here with my friend Carly and she's
gonna tell us her wild conversion story. You are going to be shooketh like unto
a dish. You're going to be....No it's tight like unto a dish. I know. It's shooketh like unto a
brother of Nephi. Hmm? Oh I got it.
Carly tell us about where you're from. Um so I actually say that I'm from
New York, but I've actually was born in Hawaii. I've moved to California, Florida,
New York, and then back to Hawaii, then back to New York, and went to Arizona
State and went back to New York and basically moved to Utah of January of
this year. Wow. So I've kind of lived everywhere
but if somebody asks me "Where are you from?" I just say New York cuz that's
where I spend most of my time. It's where I've had the most growth in my life I
think. Okay yeah, you're very New Yorker I know you, you're very much a New Yorker.
Like she doesn't text, she calls you and she'll be like, "Hey you almost here?
get over here." Like it's very much New Yorker. No time.
Yeah and you just joined the church, a little while ago. I did. So I just had my
year anniversary. I was baptized on July 8th of 2017. You were baptized two days
for my birthday. No way? July 10th is my birthday. Here we go.
And well basically let's just start about let's talk about how it started.
So I do want to preface my conversion story by saying that I in no way endorse the way
that I was living and I in no way want to indulge in the darkness of my past.
But by saying these things and sharing these things I'm just setting the
standard and setting the precedent. For me moving forward with faith
wasn't easy but a true understanding of repentance and the atonement was
absolutely necessary. So the first time I heard the word Mormon I was maybe like
10 years old, it was in the sixth grade. This kid named Elias McMore, who will
probably watch this. I'll send this to him. He pipes up and he like "I'm Elias McMore
and I'm a Mormon." And at that time I was going to a
Protestant middle school. So I go to my Protestant Baptist pastor's wife and I
asked her you know "What's Mormon?" and she proceeds to tell me about how bad Joseph
Smith is and like how bad the Mormon Church is and this
like just feeds my investigations. And I'm like alright well you know I just go
about my life. Anyway that was my first, that was my first real encounter. And I was
like ok like this kids Mormon, like they exist. Yeah. But my second encounter was
just like people in high school I knew where Mormon
didn't really pay attention to them. So um Protestant Baptist middle
school. So I went to a Catholic elementary called Saint Ann's in New York.
JLo's mom was my middle or my kindergarten gym teacher. Jennifer Lopez? Jennifer
Lopez. So if you search Lupe Lopez she was my gym teacher at Saint Ann's parish
school in New York. Went to a Catholic elementary school and then I went to a Protestant
middle school and high school. Okay wait but so were you predominantly any
of these religions like growing up. So like God was not this foreign or freaky
concept to me I was always surrounded by it. I was intelligent, like I went to school
like it was everywhere so I was like okay God exists right. So what I
did believe was that if I were to die and I did something wrong like steal the
cookie out of the cookie jar that day and I didn't repent that night I was
going to hell. So I was kind of one of those people that believe like okay I
just like ask God to forgive me right before I go to bed or right before I die
I will go to heaven. But it was out of fear of going to hell. The fiery pits of hell. So that just came because you
went to these schools that were religious or did your family go too? They
kind of just like stuck me into school and they were just like God is good, you
know. So they didn't really um my family dynamic is pretty interesting. So I
didn't really grow up with my mom and my dad. So my dad was in the military, my
mom's a nurse. They divorced when I was nine but I didn't find out til I was 12.
So for most of my life or most of my childhood like my parents weren't really
present so I had like nannies, babysitters and it was just like that's
just how I lived my life. I've learned how to take care of myself I had to it was like
society raised me yeah right so like the community I just taught me what I know
and I had to learn everything else on my own and when my parents divorced my aunt
my uncle had raised me in Hawaii and so my aunt my uncle well my aunt
ended up passing away in high school and from there my mom was like well all I
know how to do is kind of like send her to somebody else who's gonna take care
of her so that's when they sent me to New York so I kind of had this what does
it call this geographic relocation every like every every so often but when I got
to Arizona State I was definitely more I was getting older right and I was like
okay like I need to figure out what I want in my life and I was living a life
that wasn't necessarily good you know when I was on the state well that's a
top party school in the nation ASU one doubles reliance so ASU so you get to
Arizona State and tell us tell us what your lifestyle is like well my lifestyle
kind of started way before then so obviously like I kind of covered that
like my fan family dynamic was very different I didn't really have like a
mom and a dad I just had myself and that's what I had to depend on so by the
time I was 13 years old I was definitely indulged in an active drug addiction it
was the first time I didn't start off with like most kids start off with
drinking with smoking I was like nope ecstasy at 13 years old really fast
really fast I went like straight into all of that and then I was diagnosed
with ADHD and they gave me at all so by the time I was 13 it was like I saw that
these things made me feel better you know they were like they were taking the
real Carly to sober Carly that's in front of you right now and they were
like let's make her the Energizer Bunny so I was like all right off to the races
so from 13 years old I was active in this addiction and my parents don't
really or like my family didn't really know what to do they were just like
something's wrong with her but she has these friends she like does well in
school she plays sports so on the outside it's like this picture-perfect
life but by the time I was 18 it was it became overdoses multiple suicide
attempts because when you're up and down for so long because of
drugs the downs are really low that's why it's called getting high so by the
time I was 18 my family had just given up right they were like all right you've
got a bend by yourself so when I got to New York I had overdosed for the first
time I ended up in like rehab and in the hospital and my family was just done
they were like how could you do this to us how could you know and my family ever
watches this I just want to clarify that you know they're amazing people and they
did the best they could in the capacity of which they knew how but with me they
didn't know what to do I had become resentful and entitled and
I kind of wanted to live my life in a certain way that just wasn't like
socially acceptable by anyone by any means so my addiction has started and
then my parents had completely cut me off so I was right when I got out of
rehab I kind of had nothing I was living on the streets this was in New York City
this is in Newark well it's in Westchester so right above New York City
and this is and what age are you in rehab 18 so I was in out of rehabs from
the time I was 18 to 19 so I had I managed to accumulate some sober time
and then by the time I was 19 this family friend random totally random
reaches out to me and she's like have you heard of like it Arizona State like
I couldn't my sister goes to Grand Canyon University I moved out to yeah I
moved out to Arizona and I was like why would I ever move to Arizona like I've
never heard of yes so anyway for some reason I just end up moving out there
and I realized Arizona states this huge party school so I'm like yes I can
supplement my lifestyle and pretend to be a normal kid
so I remind you I don't have like mom I don't have dad I don't have this family
I'm just like you here by myself but I managed to seem like I was normal
by like making all these friends by like drinking and I tried to convince myself
that okay drugs are like socially unacceptable right like you don't need
to do drugs like that's not okay but I could drink like a normal person yeah
definitely not yeah like once you once I have that added personality it's like
you're gonna drink everything site so you transfer to ASU and you're
partying it up you know you're having some having some fun yeah and and then
what what happens so that's when finally I got introduced to drugs again so for a
while I was just trying to supplement with drinking right so I had gone to
rehab gotten sober and then I was like okay well now I can just drink drink
maybe smoke some weed you know so I was like I just won't do coke and I just
won't do I just won't do any of the hard stuff so um I'm living this life and my
due when I was 18 I had met this man right
his name was Marcus Allen in a perfect world he would have been the perfect man
so I fell in love when I was in New York but I wanted to supplement my active
addiction so I moved to Arizona but the whole time we had stayed in touch so met
him when I was 18 and this is now I'm like 21 right I'm in Arizona I just got
my first corporate America job and I'm still talking to this guy from New York
and we're like trying to sever our relationship and one day I'm like coming
off a lot of cocaine and I'm just crying and I'm at this bottomless pit where I'm
just like you know what like I can't do this anymore I don't want to live like
this like it just hurts too much like there was just no getting high anymore
like my body could not take it so I tell him I'm like I can't do this anymore
and he looks at me and he's just like Carly you don't have to you don't have
to live this way anymore and he's like we can work on our relationship we can
you know build a future for ourselves so here I am withdrawing off of drugs at my
first real job yeah and I'm like trying to work 9:00 to 5:00 and I'm just trying
to be like a functioning member of society right and I'm coming home every
day and asking this guy for like help but wow I'm at this job two of the guys
that I happen to work with were LDS so I see this guy and I see that he's around
my age of 21 he's 23 he's married he's got kids he's got a house he's got the
sweetest wife in the world he's like bringing us pizzas yeah like I'm just
like well what's he got that I don't yeah you know what's he doing that I'm
not doing um and it was just the light of Christ you know what I know now is
what impressed but he was just doing everything that I had wanted you know he
had a second baby on the way and I was by no means like was I close to this
person and he just worked with me and I just saw this example and I was like
okay I want that you know what like I'm getting sober like I want to be this
person in my life that I never had so I never had like a mother I never had a
father and I was like so you know what yes I was like I saw the importance of
you know the role of the family in life and I was like well Mormons they love
their families like they put this huge emphasis on is true for their
relationships and they just they're just good people you know they don't drink
coffee they don't do drugs like they don't like you know they've got all of
these like coffee do you know they by all means like they don't have sex
before marriage you know like they're they're trying to do everything right so
I'm like bull all right let's try to change my lifestyle so I go home to
Marco so I'm like listen like we've I want to do what he's doing whatever he's
doing we've got to do it and so wait Marco says in New York so right yes you
guys was like calling every night calling every night facetiming and then
eventually so I moved back to New York in October of that year okay so I moved
to New York I move in with Marcos and we're like building this relationship
right so we're basically married living this my in my world right the perfect
life I was like yes like I got the man I can make my family now I'm sober like
I've got somewhat of a moral compass but so here I am thinking that this is it
and the whole time that I'm living with Marcos I'm kind of like asking these
questions like okay well like Mormons have they they value family right but
what's their view on the Godhead because growing up going from a Catholic school
to a product very different views there were the only thing that I really saw
was like the view on the Godhead right or the own Holy Trinity that was like
really what separated me between the two churches yeah so I was like whoa what
makes why it's different like what do they think about the Holy Trinity
so that was one of my other investigating questions because I I knew
this Mormon girl when I was in Arizona so I just texted her one day and I was
like hey why do you guys like Mel you family she sends me the proclamation and
a few days later I'm just like hey like what do you guys think of the Holy
Trinity she sends me some like article in LA I saw everybody on the Godhead
yeah I'm just like okay well like you know this is all good and gravy so I go
to Marco said I'm like Marco's you know like what's up at the Mormon Church and
he proceeds to show me the anti-mormon the band anti-mormon Jesus and my marcos
had grown up Catholic he's a Greek so he grew up like believing certain things it
was just like this is what Mormons believe and I was like you don't really
think I watched this cartoon I was like you don't really think that like a
millions of people believed it was extreme but in a perfect rule like that
this was going to be my life and I had to accept Marcos for who he was in
January of 2017 he had relapsed and his own addictions and by April of 2017 he
was dead so here I am like I'm living with this man and like the person I knew
and had fell in love with right just completely changes and Here I am like
trying to stay so close to faith and trying to find the church right right so
after he passes away a lot of people or like everybody kind of like tries to
take care of you and I'm like what's going on everyone wants to help and
they're there for you and one of one of the care packages I had received the
Book of Mormon in it so I start reading this book right and
I'm like I asked if it is true whatever you know I I'm not thinking too much
about it but I was like you know what Mormons are doing something right I want
to join this church and I just don't know how so one day
hi I'm living closer to the city now and after I'd marcos had died and I go to my
neighbor's house one of my good friends and I'm like hey Kim like what do you I
want to join this church and I just don't know how she's like listen there's
this girl in this building I'm pretty sure she would say like Salt Lake City
Utah something but I'm pretty sure she was Mormon instrumented Utah I'm pretty
sure she's Mormon yeah that's a pretty sure assumption yeah I've never met
someone from Utah who wasn't Mormon so you're trying to figure out you like you
you you know you were to join the church you know much about it but you were just
because the lifestyle is appealing but yeah so there's something different
about so you find this a secure connection - yeah
so this woman I like reach out to where I get her phone number and I'm just like
hey wanted you in the church and I just own a home so she gives her number to
the bishop the bishop gives my number to the missionaries the missionaries set up
to meet with me the next day in a park so I'm sitting with these two Mormons
apart war is so fast so here I am and I'm like
crying cuz I'm like my boyfriend just died like a month ago
like my life is like I don't know what I'm doing with my life right so I'm
meeting with these two little like missionaries I have the baptism
questions and just yeah tell me what's up and they invited me to be baptized on
July alright so yes true so so like when they told you you know Jesus Christ son
of God not the father not the spirit like they so you asked me the Holy
Trinity yeah yeah yeah they wouldn't you know Joseph Smith and his
so yeah so visit the restoration then you just like alright I'm in I'm in so I
like that's hella sorry yeah they're just like July 8 so you joined the
church you get baptized wait is it was that like a crazy process at all or did
you two go smoothly um honestly I feel like that point of time was definitely
like a blur I was like searching for it and I had wanted it and I wanted to
learn more right like when you're first investigating at the church you're just
like tell me everything tell me everything I need to know and I think
that for a long time like I thought a lot of people were just like oh she's
been Mormon her whole life and I'm like that's pretty awesome though well I
think that I just had this like gift of just understanding and just getting it
like yeah hearing something and realizing okay well like I'm gonna
question that but do I feel whether or not it is it's true like there are
certain things like the Mormon cartoons where I was like that's insane like who
does believe that so I get baptized in New York and it was a little bit of a
rough transition just because I had this kind of perfect conversion right I was
surrounded by not only like people who were personally and professionally
successful but people who were also extremely spiritually fit like these
were to this day they're the most celestial people I've ever met in my
life yeah and they're just examples of I'm just like you're ready for the
second go was great to have that example especially like you're saying like a
majority of her life has not you haven't had that yeah so I was from like one
extreme to come into the church amazing leaders and people that help you yeah so
you know I made best friends my best friend's to this day are the people who
have you know kind of showed me the church the missionaries had to introduce
me to a girl named Camry Smith who was now Camry dance congratulations very
cute name every dance is it very yes um and she's my best friend to this day the
missionaries introduced me to her and from there she was able to you know have
her own missionary experience too she served a full mission in Hong Kong and
she was praying for this missionary opportunity and Here I am this little
investigator who's like be my friend and she's my best friend of this day but
then you but then you move back to Arizona right yes so during this whole
weird period of time this family offers to kind of take me in and show me the
church right there like this is what it's like to be Mormon come out to
Arizona we'll pay for a semester of tuition and like will kind of take care
of you you know so you know you know a Legally Blonde the hairdresser oh yeah
sorry thank you black no I'm legally blonde in real life though you know I
went to beauty school for a little bit and I went back to college and then I
was like law school here I come you are well you're yeah so I moved back to
Arizona I do my semester I do a semester of school there and I'm just sad right
I'm like kind of like you know why like I just joined this church and I'm really
far away from like Arizona State's campus so I'm away from like everything
that I've ever like known and grew up with and Here I am in this like why I
say word were like the girls are like 18 and like the kid the boys are like just
home from their missions and I'm kind of like I just came from New York City were
like you were like very different I don't want to be critical of this board
that I was in but I was just I had come from a very it was a very interesting
transition for me it was very um I had gone from young adults who are you know
very ambitious and driven and I went to kids who have never lived outside of
their parents homes yes it's a very different very different environment
where New York City is like go get them and Arizona and Mesa Gilbert was you
know very comfortable mm-hmm so here I am and I'm kind of Miss ruin
I'm calling my friends from New York so all of my friends that were in New York
were all in internships in New York City and they happened to be students at BYU
there it here in Provo Utah and they were like Carly do you belong in Provo
and I'm like why would I ever move to Utah what I never thought I was gonna be
in Arizona - I never thought it was gonna be Mormon move to Utah so I drove
around I'm like listen I get a job in Provo Utah I will
move Heavenly Father was like here's a job offer so I am later anything and
also when you're in Arizona you met you met Keeton Keeton he'll yeah it's my
good friend and your good friend and that's why I met you yes guess what you
moved to Provo Utah and Here I am and I met her today I didn't know like most of
this until right now so you have any questions you know I know it was kind of
like fast and kind of like whoa I'm from New York we talk for us I do have one
question when you compare your life now as a latter-day saint as in the Relief
Society presidency of your board to life before what is like what is what is the
biggest difference like besides the gospel like what is the biggest
difference you've seen in you I feel like I have more of a purpose no I of
course like my patient call blessing plays a huge role in that I've kind of
went from living my whole life thinking well as soon as I turn 18 that's it like
I thought I was gonna be dead but you know now like I thought I was gonna be
dead by the time I was either 18 or before I was 21 and I was I really
didn't have like a life to look forward to and I always thought that I had to
work really hard for what I wanted and I didn't know why right you know I didn't
know what the purpose of was of you know why do I even want these things why do I
want to be a wife why do I want to be a mother
and a lot of it was giving somebody else like what I never had and gospel
definitely gave me that and gave me an opportunity to become someone who was
worthy of doing these things right one thing I really liked about your story is
that just because you became a member of the church your life didn't become
perfect yeah and I and I think that's a lot of people look for like expect that
almost when they joined the church is that suddenly it's like okay now my life
is better because the God but your life is better because of the gospel yeah
you're still you show me your now you have assistance of the Holy
Ghost and the principles of the gospel absolutely and it's definitely it holds
me more accountable it holds me to a standard where you know I didn't know
existed before yeah you know and I'm not perfect by any means but you know it
does give me a chance to realize that if Saul could become Paul you could change
your life forever that's yeah Wow well thanks so much for coming on the show
this is a beautiful conversion story and I think we're going to touch a lot of
people thanks for coming thank you guys so much for having me I enjoyed being on
the show if you're not already following them or if you're not already subscribed
make sure to click that button right there make sure to follow quick ooh and
yeah and boldly
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