From Julia Roebuck:

First, let me say that I enjoyed the conference. I learned a lot, although it was not perhaps what I expected. I really enjoyed meeting everyone, and appreciate everyone's friendliness and down to earth-ness.

We have lived in Utah for five years. Ian and I have two boys, Andrew 14 and Josh 17. We moved here from South Carolina, where we lived for eight years. We came here because we knew it was what the Lord wanted us to do, and where He wanted us to be. We were Christians, of the evangelical conservative sort, from the time Josh was about a year old until just recently. Prior to moving to South Carolina, we lived in Colorado for five years. We left Colorado because we knew it was time to move and the Lord wanted us to be somewhere else. We did not really know where, although Ian had the idea that he wanted to move to the S.E., where he grew up. So we packed everything in a pickup with an old camper shell, and a makeshift trailer, and headed S.E. We did not know where we were going or why, only that the Lord wanted us to go. We ended up in Greenville, S.C., where the truck quit, and in the same area where Ian grew up, probably the last place he wanted to be. I hated S.C. at first, but I came to really love it by the time we left. It was very important for us to be there. It was a time of spiritual discipline and learning. It was very important for us to be Christians-to learn the doctrines and understand the things that the Bible has to say.

About five years ago it was time to move again, and this time the Lord brought us to Utah. Our time here has not been what we expected. Things have not worked out as we thought they would. I have felt abandoned by the Lord, like I had no more to contribute to the Lord's work, that He had no more use for me, and a tremendous amount of anger over the whole situation. In other words, it's been another learning experience. Aren't the Lord's ways wonderful?

Then one day a few months ago, in the middle of my spiritual turmoil, I came home and Ian announced to me that he had become a Baha'i again. I completely lost my cool, and Ian figured out maybe that was not the best way to handle the situation. He simply became quiet about the whole issue, understanding that I would come to the Truth by the Lord's leading, and with quiet guidance and information.

And I have come to understand that Ian was right when he came home from the last conference in the spring and said that now he understood why we were here-because that is the only way he would have come into contact with the Orthodox Baha'is, and we would have moved on to this new phase of our lives.

There is certainly much that I don't understand and much that is not comfortable for me. What? No church on Sunday, no ministers or pastors, no grace before meals? But I know that this is right and I feel a renewed sense of purpose and hope that I have not had for a long time.

I look forward to getting to know all of you better, and to participating in whatever way I can in the work that you are doing.

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