By Karley Nelson
As a recent convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a BYU baseball player, Ryan Chambers created a personal motto: If you can''t beat em'', join em''.
Entering BYU as a confirmed Catholic, Chambers said he did not resist the temptation of conversion as well as he previously hoped. In fact, he was baptized two and a half years after arriving at BYU, and said he does not regret a second of it.
Chambers said many people from his hometown, Yucaipa Calif., told him to stay away from BYU because all the Mormons try to do is baptize non-LDS students.
At first, as far as Chambers was concerned, he said he was attending BYU only to get an education and play baseball. He said he never thought he would be baptized and promised people he never would.
In the beginning, Chambers said he felt strange going to church with his friends, but later realized they just had different morals.
'I did my own thing, which was the same thing I have been doing my whole life,' Chambers said. 'Some of the things I did fit in with what the members did, but some of the things didn''t.'
Chambers said his Sunday habits were always a lot different than those of his LDS friends. He said he used to shop on the Sabbath and never really went to church. He said because of his LDS friends, he began to change some of his Sunday routines.
He said it was easy to make friends at BYU because the students treated him no differently than anyone else. As he became closer with LDS members, he was warned by all of his non-LDS friends to watch out, or else he was going to be baptized before he knew it.
Chambers said he would always reply, 'Yeah, whatever. I''m not getting baptized.'
Michel Bergeron, Chambers'' teammate and a senior from Ontario, Canada, said he definitely knew otherwise.
Bergeron said during the summer of 2003, Chambers wanted to go to church and attend firesides. He said it was Chambers who felt like he needed to be there, so there really wasn''t much persuasion involved.
'There was no question in my mind about baptism,' Bergeron said. 'I don''t think there was a question in his mind either. It was just a matter of time.'
Bergeron said he knew the BYU religion classes really helped Chambers become more curious about the LDS faith.
Paul Warner, a BYU chaplain who taught Chambers his non-member religion classes, also thinks the classes had a huge impact.
Warner said Chambers was always interested during his religion classes and that he could tell Chambers didn''t come to class just to fulfill his religion requirements. He said Chambers was interested in what the Book of Mormon had to say and was always intent on the material.
'Because of Ryan''s sincerity and interest, I knew he would be given an answer towards baptism.' Warner said. 'An answer that would help him move ahead.'
Even after promising never to convert to the LDS religion, Chambers said he realized after being around members all the time, he began to do the same things they did.
'The people here really have a good impact,' Chambers said.
He said they set good examples and he noticed he always wanted to be around them.
'Later I found myself trying to become like them, and that''s when I noticed that maybe I shouldn''t fight it,' he said. 'Maybe this is a good thing.'
Chambers said because of his previous Catholic standards, he had already been following the guidelines of the Word of Wisdom, so the transition wasn''t too difficult.
'You want to try to become the best person you can be ... and whichever way you feel you can accomplish that, that''s what you do,' Chambers said. 'And so I did it.'
Chambers was baptized in January 2004. He said he is treated no differently now than when he was a Catholic.
'Ryan is one with a good spirit and a good attitude,' Warner said. 'It was no surprise when he said he really wanted to be baptized.'
Because Chambers is now a member of the LDS church, he has broken promises he made to non-member friends, but said being Mormon is worth the sacrifice.
'I let people know that I got baptized because I wanted to,' he said. 'I finally figured it out for myself.'