Lynne Whitesides is a convert to the LDS Church and has a different perspective on things than a lifelong member. We'll talk about her perspective on the Sept Six. Check out our conversation...

https://youtu.be/oef3Zc0OLj4

 

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Growing up Outside the Church
Interview

GT  00:25   So let's, go back and talk about you growing up. So, you grew up Italian Catholic or?

Lynne  00:30   No, actually, my grandmother's from Italy. My grandfather was from Germany. And my mom grew up with basically immigrants. My grandmother, I think, was either pregnant, or she was born here. But she spoke only Italian until she was in eighth grade. So I grew up with those people. They were my grandparents, I hung out with them. So. My grandmother made really just one, what's the word, concession to my grandfather. She became a Lutheran and let go of Catholicism. So, I was raised Lutheran, actually. And it's a long story, but my parents moved a lot when I was kid. I moved in 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade. And at some point, I didn't want to do that anymore. And I started investigating the Mormon Church. And I thought that there was something about it that felt stable, to me, I think, at 17. And they were totally against me becoming Mormon, completely, because they just thought it was the weirdest church. And so, I started investigating, and I've got to also say the missionaries were very cute, and I was 17. {Rick laughing} So I was in Florida, and then they moved back up to Pennsylvania. I went from Pennsylvania to Florida a bunch of times. So, they moved back to Pennsylvania, and that's where I became a Mormon. I was baptized in New Jersey. And then my parents went to my baptism, and two months later, they became Mormon.

GT  01:54   Oh, wow.

Lynne  01:55   And then all of my Italian family became Mormon.

GT  01:58   No way!

Lynne  01:58   Yeah, I don't know. There's like [about] 30 of them that [joined:] my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my brother.

GT  02:03   Is that because of you?

Lynne  02:05   I wasn't. It was my parents [who] were going around doing it all. I was at BYU by this point.

GT  02:10   Okay.

Lynne  02:10   So everybody just became Mormon.

GT  02:14   Wow.

Lynne  02:15   Like, maybe 20, something like that, became Mormon. That changed everything, too. Because by this time I was at BYU. At BYU, I was becoming a little clearer, because the Church in Pennsylvania is very different.

GT  02:30   Very different.

Lynne  02:31   Yeah. And then I went to BYU.

GT  02:31   Okay. {chuckling}

Lynne  02:31   Than the Church in Provo, Utah. And I remember thinking, "Oh, man, this is--now all these people are joining. What am I going to do?" Like, this is not the way they said, they didn't-- when I joined, they didn't talk about racism. They didn't talk about misogyny. They didn't talk about--they didn't talk about much, really. They just like, "Come in. It's this lovely family thing." So, when you're 17, you're not investigating too much because the missionaries are cute. So that's how I got into the Church. So, I went to BYU.

GT  02:42   So you went to BYU. You were kind of a fish out of water at BYU?

Lynne  03:06   Totally a fish out of water.

GT  03:08   Okay.

Lynne  03:08   My second year at BYU, I got called in and they said, "We think another university might be better for you." I think it may have been because I was hitchhiking to church, and I was wearing--it just wasn't a match. It just wasn't a match. And I realized it wasn't. So that's what happened.

GT  03:25   You were hitchhiking. Don't you just go to your classes to go to church?

Lynne  03:29   No, actually, because the wards were all over the place back in '70's. I mean, they were all over Provo. But, anyway, the whole thing is they said [that] we think another university would...