My First Communion

One of the things that I am most grateful to my parents for is exposing me to many different religions and faiths. As a youngster, I took seriously the call for every member to be a missionary. I loved inviting my friends to church with me. Some of the friends that I invited to church didn’t regularly attend any church, but some of them did. One thing about LDS Primary is that it is a lot of fun, and some of my friends often wanted to forgo their church meetings and attend church with me for that reason. This didn’t often go over well with their parents, so my parents often suggested that each time they sent their child to church with us, my parents would send me to church with them the following Sunday. Or my friend and I would attend church at the LDS Church and also at the church my friend attended in the same Sunday, if time permitted. The latter often led to a really long Sunday, but I learned so much from it.

When I was turning 8 years old and was preparing to be baptized, I wanted one of my best friends to attend my baptism. She was also turning 8 and preparing for her First Communion in the Catholic Church. Our parents decided that she would attend church with me some Sundays - this way she could accompany me to Primary and learn about baptism and why I was doing it. In turn, I would attend the Catholic Church with her on some Sundays and also her religious classes so I could learn what communion was and why she was doing it. We had so much fun learning about each other's religions and even at the age of 7 we were able to recognize so many of the similarities in our faiths.

She was shopping for a beautiful white dress for her occasion, and my Mother was making me a beautiful one for mine. On her big day I felt so special to be included. I watched as she and all the other children, the boys in their suits and the girls in their white dresses and veils, walked down the aisle holding candles. I watched as she partook of the Sacrament for the very first time in her life, and I understood what she was doing and why it meant so much to her and her family. I had taken the Sacrament many times, but watching her do so and seeing all the preparation she had done to be able to partake of it helped to remind me of how important the Sacrament is. On the day of my baptism she attended and she understood what I was doing and why it meant so much to me and my family. The Sunday following my baptism, I tried very hard to think about the sacrifice Jesus Christ had made for me while I partook of the Sacrament, I couldn't remember the very first time I had taken the Sacrament, but I wanted to remember this one.

Thanks to each of our parents being tolerant of the other's religion and teaching us the same. There is a picture of she and I at age 8 in our white dresses, standing in the church parking lot with our arms around each other, the temple is behind us, I love that picture, we look so happy. Today my friend is still Catholic and I am still a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What I learn from my many religious experiences is that it isn’t always about conversion, sometimes it’s simply about trying to make each interaction with a person of another faith a positive one.

Do you often attend church services of faiths other than yours, why or why not? Do your children invite friends to church with them? Do your children attend church with their friends? Tell us about an experience you have had inviting a person of a different faith to church with you. Tell us of an experience you have had attending a church of a faith other than your own.

Sista Laurel