Sure thing. For me, the decision to convert boiled down to one question in the end: will this help me to become a better person?

Of course, I had sought to answer that question long before I even came into contact with the church. I read a lot, and some books quite many times. Some of them included 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Road Less Traveled, and Jordan Peterson's books 12 Rules for Life and Maps of Meaning, which certainly influenced my thinking and behavior somewhat already.

So then I met a person who would later become my wife. She had an interesting combination of admirable characteristics like courage, vulnerability, observation, and a certain intellectual drive that caught my attention rather quickly. The first time we met, we weren’t on a date yet. I showed her an opening from my notebook, she read it keenly and pointed out that the concept of service is also important to her. Most of the people I knew or who were in my life were like from a different planet compared to this woman, so this perhaps was the first encounter that made me wonder how she came to be the way she is.

Later on, as we were on our second date, I asked her one of my favorite questions back then: what is the one book I can read that would help me get to know you better? Even though I knew by then that she was religious, her response still kindly surprised me as she gave me the Book of Mormon with a dedication and some tips on where to start.

She also invited me to go to church the next day, and I went. I’ve had this principle in life to see things with my own eyes before making any decisions. Overall, it was an okay experience. I also remember that missionaries came to talk to me, but I kindly rejected them at the time, saying I would figure things out at my own pace.

At first, when I tried to read the Book of Mormon, it did not go very well. I was skeptical, questioning, and resistant. There were historical details, like the mention of an iron bow, that didn’t make sense to me. So I read some and then left it there.

We had started dating by then, but we were living in different cities quite close by. My religious progress was almost nonexistent at first. But a big thing happened soon after when she asked if I would like to meet the missionaries at her place, and I agreed. So I met these two brothers (who were really exceptional people). They almost immediately found a way to connect with me on a meaningful level by starting a conversation about interesting ideas and books. I was soon amazed to find out that Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was also a member of this particular church (although this is mentioned in the introduction of the book, I am living quite far away from the US, and the Church is not widely known here, so I had connected zero dots before).

That was a big “wait a minute” moment for me. Another happened soon as well. In Civilization IV, there is this incredible theme song in the menu called Baba Yetu. I had found online an interesting version by Alex Boye, which I had been listening to. And as I played it for my future wife, she wondered if the choir was BYU people. Then we found out that indeed it was, and also found out that Alex Boye is a member of the Church.

Although these kinds of “connecting the dots” moments were fun and meaningful, the actual dialogue with Church members and especially with my future wife was important.

Particularly, there are a few ideas that resonated with me:

The idea that we are all children of God, and that this earthly existence is a temporary state which we have entered out of our own choice in order to progress to become more like Him. So we all have the potential to become godlike if we choose to. Put in these words, it is inspirational. Eternal perspective. We have been in some plane of existence before we came to earth, in some form, and we will be in some form or another after earthly existence. And our conscious choices will matter as well. The Church is about Jesus Christ, most importantly, and He is the perfect example because He was a man but became a god. Jesus followed the will of the Father and showed the way. We all should follow His example. I’m not saying this is easy, or that I or almost any man on earth can do this perfectly. But His love and mercy are deeper than we understand.

So, as I was equipped with some of these ideas through conversation and our relationship was developing quite well, I decided to start learning more, on my own terms. I started off with the Biblical Series by Jordan Peterson (on YouTube), which really deepened my interest in the overall question of God. Around that time, I also decided to move to the same city as her, so I began attending church on Sundays—although at first, most of it was online streaming because it was around the time of COVID.

Then I picked up the Book of Mormon again, this time with a more open mind and less focus on picky details. As I started reading it more as a spiritual book and less as a history book, it started to open up to me: like the subtitle suggests, it’s another testament of Christ. For me, the important message and feeling was that Christ lives. It was a feeling I had never had before in my life. The strongest I have felt it is through following the teachings of Christ and the commandments of God. So I started committing more.

My wife showed me a temple from the outside, and we talked about it. I heard that these are special places where one can feel especially close to God and that they are also places where families can be united for eternity.

When I first heard about the idea of eternity, I was again skeptical. I thought, “Why would someone want to be with anyone for eternity?” But as I had grown up in a kind of broken family with more negative examples of life than positive ones, I started to change my mind as I met her family members, relatives, and other people who had built their lives on the foundation of Christ. It became very obvious to me that if I wanted something different, I could choose which foundation to build my life upon. In this sense, I respected my principle of seeing things for myself first, then making decisions.

By this time, I had reached a saturation point with both information and experience. I had been attending church, I had read the Book of Mormon, and I felt it had a lot to offer me. The Church in general had a lot to offer me. I knew that even though I was living a pretty good life, there were still some changes to be made. As I approached the missionaries and asked if they could start teaching me, I had already quit alcohol earlier and had just quit coffee as well in order to follow the Word of Wisdom commandment.

A difficult commandment for me was the law of chastity, which I still struggle with sometimes, often repenting because my mind is not as clean as I would hope. But I’ve gained perspective and motivation for it as well, especially now that I’m happily married, because I want to protect my wife and family.

After a few more weeks of learning, I got baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It has been three years now, and I feel like that was only the beginning of a grand spiritual journey that I am still on. Faith is more of a process than just an event. Nowadays, I ask myself: does what I’m doing invite more of the Spirit or less? This helps me become better and also learn the Father’s will.