This is Mormon Stories, I'm John DeLin.

Let me begin, maybe Mary, by having you tell us a bit about your early years in the church, your heritage, your...

You know, whatever is formative in your LDS upbringing that you think would help inform this narrative that we're going to tell tonight.

Okay. Well, I don't know how many generations Mormon. On both sides of my family, everybody, they're pioneers on every side of my family and I was raised in Salt Lake City in the state that actually it's boundaries and compass temple square.

And so the church is like in my soul. It's in my body. It was in... I mean, it was all around me growing up. I was the oldest of six kids and I was the only girl and I was the oldest. I said that.

And ever since I can remember, I wanted to go on a mission. Both of my parents were missionaries. The church was the center of my life, as long as I can remember. When I got to seminary, that was... I loved seminary. I was on seminary council and my life just centered around seminary and the church and maybe to kind of sum up where I was. I mean, on New Year's Eve it fell on a Sunday.

And my friends and I, we had a testimony meeting on New Year's Eve. I mean, that's how much the church was the center of my being. And for me, the central teaching was the two great commandments to love God and to love your neighbor.

And for me, the whole purpose of my life was to try to see everybody as a child of God. And for me, that was what resonated about the church.

Being the only girl in my family, I think the side of the church that was difficult for me growing up, because there was all the emphasis on Boy Scouts and the young men. And if there was something that I had trouble with in the church, it was that.

That I felt like there was so much attention paid to my brothers and not very many programs for me.

I went to BYU, went on a mission, married Peter in the temple, served in really sighted presidency, primary presidency, served in the young women's, kind of did it all.

Where'd you serve your mission?

New York, New York South mission. It took in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Staten Island. It was right in the inner city, mostly, in the hood.

And any fond memories of your mission experience?

I loved my mission. I still have lots of really great memories of my mission. I was an incredible experience to go from growing up in Salt Lake to all of a sudden, living in the inner city of New York.

And it's incredible cultural diversity, meeting people from every continent, people, and just people who had grown up in extreme poverty, all kinds of things I'd never seen.

It opened my eyes to a whole big world that I didn't know existed.

New York City.

Yeah, it was a great place.

How was BYU?

BYU? Well, I always wanted to go to BYU. That was always my goal. And if anyone asked me when I was at BYU, I was like, oh, it's so great. I love it there.

And there were things that I loved. But as I look back, if I look at my journal and my memories, I got really, really depressed at BYU.

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