I had become friends with one of my classmates. We formed this alliance. We were always together. At first we were interested in learning English. We heard that English classes were available, taught by Mormon missionaries. I didn’t really start studying English at school until I was in the fourth grade of the secondary school. But about the same time we started going to the English classes at the Mormon church. e classes were cleverly arranged so that directly after them came the Mutual Improvement Association and its youth activities. ey were a whole lot of fun. We did that for a couple of years with no further interest in the church. Gradually, we began to go to church on Sunday. My family was not religious at all. Nobody. Not the grandparents that I knew, my father’s father and my mother’s mother. Nobody was religious. But I was always somewhat interested. Finland was at that time officially Lutheran. That was the state church. It had a favored position and collected taxes from its members. You did not have to belong, but if you did, then you paid a tax. No tithing, but tax, which was a lot less than tithing. I had heard stories of people who le the church because they did not want to pay the tax. The church had no meaning for them.
Because there was a state church, we had religion classes in school.
The parents could request that their children not participate, but almost nobody ever did. It was just part of life. I became interested in religion and began to ask questions. We had a wonderful religion teacher when I was about thirteen or fourteen. That’s when I became more interested in the church, maybe about fifteen. We’d go occasionally to the Lutheran church and did certainly go through preparation for confirmation ceremonies. But eventually I joined the Mormon church. I was baptized when I was almost nineteen. I did not have to have my parents’ permission then. They were not furiously opposed, but they certainly were not in favor. They just didn’t think that there was any particular use or interest in joining a church.
I was fairly fluent in English by the time I graduated from high school. I’m sure we had missionary lessons. I do not remember. But we just sort of eased into the church. ere were two of us, my friend and I, and as I said, we were always together. At first it was largely social because we had so much fun in the youth group. But I was interested in religion. From the time I was a small child I had heard stories of Jesus and they had a great deal of appeal to me. We learned the Old Testament stories in our religion classes. I can’t say that there was a conversion experience, certainly not a feeling of new birth, but eventually we sort of jointly eased into the church.