I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have been a member my whole life.

I was born in Brunswick on April 30, 1998. For the rest of this school year, I will finish attending my eighth grade year at Mt. Ararat Middle School. However, I’m making the decision of doing Brigham Young University independent Study for my high school years.

I live with my mother and father, twin brothers and a little sister. We are all active members of the church.

My parents joined the church in May 1995 in Newport, R.I., where my father was stationed in the Navy at the time.

Neither of my parents grew up in the church. In fact, out of all my parents’ relatives, our family is the only family to be members of the church. My father was raised as a Catholic. Therefore, most likely no one would have ever guessed that he would join the Mormon church when he grew older.

He was born and raised in Tucson, Ariz., by his mother and father. He grew up with two younger sisters and three brothers.

He definitely had it rough growing up, from stories he has told. That makes him feel so blessed now to be a member of the Mormon church.

Growing up, my mother attended the First Baptist Church at Five Islands, where she lived. She was raised by her mother and father, alongside her big sister and little brother. She lived better than some and worse than others. Her father was a hardworking lobsterman.

In 1969, her father, at age 34, was disabled due to a massive coronary, followed by a two open-heart surgeries. She now believes that growing up with great church leaders helped her and her family through the hard time of her father’s sickness. Having the gospel structure there to support her was really nice.

As for my family, when people look at my twin 16-yearold brothers, no one would have them pinpointed as Mormons. They’re both football players for Mt. Ararat High School, and both love to make music. They’ve just started going to church at the beginning of this year after stopping for about a year.

My father gave them the option to use their “free agency.” My brothers don’t see it now, but I know going back to church will bless them.

As for me, I love field hockey and competition cheerleading. I couldn’t pursue my wishes to keep cheerleading this year. In view of the fact that I have an illness that progressively got worse and worse, I couldn’t do my part for the team.

I still am sick to this day, although things have picked up and gotten better than they were in the beginning. I’m getting there.

My little sister still gets to do competition cheerleading, at which she is amazing. I’m so happy that she still gets to do what she loves. I love going to watch and support her. Of course, it’s not the same as being on the mats performing.

I’ve had a lot of faults in my life and millions of ups and downs. One of the biggest “downs” in my life was growing older and questioning my religion. I always believed it as a child because that’s what I was taught by my parents and taught by my primary teachers.

Once I really started thinking for myself, I was unsure. I did not want to go to church. I dreaded it because I felt: How can this be true? How can this be so real? How can people know all these things from hundreds of years ago?

I had so many questions, that I never took the time to get answers to. I don’t believe I told my parents I felt this way. It was so hard to keep a good head on my shoulders when there were so many influences all around in every direction.

I was probably about 11 when I entered middle school. There were so many different temptations 24/7 at school. Also none of my friends went to my church, let alone any church at all. So I think it was really hard having so many different standards than my friends.

Not being able to have a sleepover on a Saturday because I had church the next morning, or not being able to do a sport I wanted because there were meets or practice on Sundays were challenges. Not being able to drink iced tea, iced coffee or any form of either of those beverages was something my friends couldn’t understand.

I felt so different from everyone else. I got so angry I just didn’t want to go to church anymore, I thought it was dumb that I couldn’t sleep in or do this or that.

I never wanted to go to Stake Conference or go watch General Conference at the Church because I got “bored.” If I didn’t go to church, I would sleep in, get on my phone or computer, which I used to talk to friends.

When I think back, that was such a bad choice. Like one of my old teachers said when talking about school, “You have to be selfish sometimes, and put what you know is right first.”

Your friends aren’t always going to be there, but the church always will. I’ve just come to realize that now.

All of that continued to the end of my seventh grade summer in 2011. That’s when I started to outgrow the feelings I had about the church. I watched my parents go to church all the time, and we would have the missionaries over so much.

Seeing how strong not only my parents believed in the church, but also seeing the missionaries — these young adults on their mission, which no one made them go on — helped me. Their made a choice because they believe in the church.

That made me think, that if all these young adults are on their mission, and no one made them, then something must be right. It made me feel the spirit more in our house having the missionaries over and seeing my parents go to church.

I then started going to church and learned more. Soon I found out for myself that it is true. I then started attending Young Women’s and finding answers that I needed. Church means so much to me, church and Young Women’s.

Those two things along with my family are the best things in my life. I enjoy going to church and Young Women’s every week. It helps my spirits lift up. No one ever judged you in our church. They make you feel so welcomed and try to help the best they can with anything that you need.

I truly believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and everyone else in the world — so that we can repent and be clean. I believe that everything that has happened to me, good and bad, happened for a reason.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have a plan for me. They have my whole life planned out, every little detail. They know how my life’s going to turn out for me.

The challenges they put me through now, are just preparing me for the future. Heavenly Father and Jesus wouldn’t put a hard task in front of me, so I could fail. They put a hard task in front of me, because they have faith in me — like I have faith when I pray to my Heavenly Father that he will answer my prayers. They wouldn’t face me with anything I couldn’t handle.

They have both kept me strong by giving me supports on this earth. I have a strong testimony for my church, so strong that words aren’t enough.

I’m a regular kid, I have a regular goofy family, a family full of growing teens, and we’re proud members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Gabi Laurelez lives in Topsham.

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