I was afraid of death when I was younger. I wanted my mother to tell me what happened when you died, but she couldn’t, for she knew nothing either. But she said there was a book that could explain what happened when you died, but she never found it, even though she looked and looked at the library. I remember I was waiting for that book, but I never received it—until I got the Book of Mormon. We didn’t really talk much about God and faith at home. I started thinking about it more and what happens when you die in when I was around thirteen years old and then decided to attend a confirmation camp that the Swedish Church had. Around the same time, we met missionaries who knocked on our door. The first time they came I was alone at home. So I told them my mom and dad were gone, but that they could come back another day. We talked a little bit, but I had a lot of preconceived notions about people with faith and evangelical churches, I thought that they didn’t understand anything about how the “normal” world worked.
Then the missionaries began to teach us regularly for two years. When I went to the confirmation camp, I started to compare what the Swedish Church said and what the Church of Jesus Christ taught. It mostly concerned the Trinity.
The Swedish Church believes that God and Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit are the same person, unlike the Church of Jesus Christ who says they are all different individuals. It was as a witness to me and I felt it was right. My dad was the least ready to be baptized, but mom was convinced very quickly. I started hanging out with the youth in the church increasingly even if I still had one foot in the world and among my old friends. Our last year as investigators I lived as a member and was involved in all youth activities and youth conferences like Bolliaden. There were many young people in Borlänge branch at the time, and their example meant a lot. We received several requests to be baptized, and wondered what we should do. One evening, I told mom and dad that we should go talk to [redacted] for she seemed very intelligent and she had been active in the Swedish Church before becoming a member. We went to her, talked and had a prayer, which felt good.
I was confirmed in the Swedish Church and to do that you must first be baptized. Most Swedish people baptize their kids when they are young and newborn, but Mom and Dad didn’t do so with me. I do not know why, but it just didn’t happen. So I had to be baptized when I was big, around fourteen years old. It also meant that I was thinking more about what was right. I was first baptized and confirmed in the Swedish Church. It was in spring 1979 and then later in the fall when I had turned fifteen, we were baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.