Dear LDS.NET community, So, it's time for another update from your favorite convert! (hahaha. right.) I went to the Temple the other day. I live about 10 minutes away from the Sacramento Temple and it was my Ward's temple night. Eh, what the hay. Today I'd like to write about my first truly spiritual experience as a Latter Day Saint. Over the last few weeks I had been contemplating my past religious experiences. Catholic, Buddhist, Atheist (for a time), and even Neo-Pagan (It was complicated). One thing seemed to be in common among all of these, that is, the presence of a Spirit that could be changed, even replaced, by a form of ritual. As I walked into the Confirmation room, I braced myself for having to repeat my unusual and difficult last name (A two part, Scottish/German hyphenated last name. And the first part is now commonly used as a first name. People think my last name ends in a D, but it ends in a T. But enough on that.) As I began to relax, I found myself repeating the names of the newly confirmed. When it was my turn, I felt something odd. Instead of merely repeating the names, I attempted, for a second, to replace my soul with the soul of the saved. After all, I'm doing it for and in place of _______. The baptisms were the same. I felt an emptying of my own will, my own spirit, being replaced by the Spirit of the Lord, and the spirit of the Saved. The closest visual counterpart that I could come up with is in the Disney version of the Little Mermaid, when she's getting her voice taken away. I knew that I was doing the Lord's work. I know that I am (trying) to do the Lord's Work every day. As I searched for Scriptures to express how I felt, I couldn't find them. Nothing does this justice. I dunno if I'm crazy or just highly tuned into the Lord. Either way, the experience was as interesting as it was unsettling. I'm tired. That's all I have to say tonight.

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