From Standing Out to Standing Together

“People weren’t very nice at first,” Tyler explains. “They’d be nice to my face, but then they’d turn around and talk about me. ‘The new girl is Mormon, and she doesn’t drink coffee,’ or ‘She’s too nice; it’s got to be fake.’”

In those early days, all Tyler knew how to do was to keep being kind and to continue living by her beliefs. Little by little, as others got to know her, that started to make all the difference.

“I met some good friends on the volleyball team, which helped me make friends throughout the summer. Once I made more friends and got to show people who I was, people started having my back. People started to know me and that I was actually just kind.”

As folks got to know her a little better for who she really is, they started asking sincere questions about her beliefs.

“I had an hour-long class where everyone turned to me and asked questions about my beliefs,” Tyler says. “They were just curious because they think our teachings are so different.”

But Tyler didn’t let the spotlight fluster her. “I just answered them honestly. You know—I answered them to the best of my ability.”

Some of her conversations looked something like this:

“You’re not a Christian.”

“No, I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ.”

“Well, you have a different book. What is that book? What is it about?”

“It’s another testament of Jesus Christ, of when He came to the Americas.”

“What? Christ came to the Americas?”

“Yeah!”

“Well, do you read the Bible? You definitely don’t read the Bible.”

“I do! I read the King James Version.”

“Oh, really? Me too!”

Since most of her new friends and classmates were also Christian, Tyler found beliefs they had in common and built up from there. “The main common ground is that we all believe in Jesus Christ. We all strive to be like Christ and to be His disciples,” she says.

Not only do Tyler and her friends bond over their belief in the Savior, but they help each other to be the best they can. “We all try to be better people, which is just being Christlike. We help each other out.” Her new friends now even defend Tyler and embrace her religious differences! She does the same for them.

How do Tyler and her friends help each other in their different religious beliefs? By going about doing good, just like the Savior did (see Acts 10:38).

“One time we wrote a bunch of notes with Bible verses on them and put them on people’s cars. We wrote ‘Jesus loves you’ and stuff like that. We would try to be nice and help people who were struggling.”

“I try to be good because that’s who Christ is: a good person. My friends also try to be better people.”

Tyler knows that because she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she’s going to stand out because she’s different. She also knows what it’s like to feel lonely and left out.

“I try to just be myself. I smile at everyone, and I’m nice to everyone. Even the people who are very different from me at school—I’m friends with them. I’ll be walking through the halls, and when I see them, I say hi and ask how their day is going. Simple acts of kindness and service to other people is my way of leading by example,” she says.

Tyler lives her testimony by letting it be part of her daily activities and interactions with people. “I know that Christ loves me personally. I see Him in my everyday life. When people give me compliments or say something nice, I know it’s Him telling me something I needed for that day.”

“I know that Heavenly Father hears all my prayers, and that He knows my thoughts and intentions. If I strive to be like Him, it’ll make me be a better person.

“And why not be a better person?”