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Al Fox Carraway, a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is as associate producer with The Mormon Channel. (Contributed photo)

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Al Fox Carraway, a convert to Mormonism, speaks at a recent event. Contributed photo

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LAYTON – Several hundred people packed into the Holmes Creek LDS building recently to get a behind-the-scenes look into the life of Al Fox Carraway, affectionately referred to as the tattooed Mormon whose blog about joining the LDS church a few years ago went viral a few years ago.

Carraway now lives in Utah and works as an associate producer for the Mormon Channel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but five years ago Carraway was living in New York, knew very little about the Mormons, and never thought she would move away from her family in New York.

At age 20 in 2009, having just graduated from college, Carraway met Mormon missionaries while helping a friend move. When they asked Carraway if she wanted to know more about Christ, she admits being a stubborn New Yorker and turned them down initially.

They persisted and after many months, the missionaries were about ready to give up on her when Carraway says their message finally sunk in. “I prayed to know if this church was true or not, but I didn’t want this church to be true, not even a sliver because if it was true, that would mean I would have to change absolutely everything,” Carraway said.

Carraway was baptized a member of the LDS church, but as a result, her friends and family turned away from her. Her co-workers even made her watch terrible videos of the LDS church. “I didn’t know how to defend myself. The only thing I knew was that the Book of Mormon was true and I felt like I was being punished for what I thought was the right thing,” Carraway said.

To combat the negative reactions from her family, friends, and coworkers, Carraway would pull out the Book of Mormon and start reading. “Not once did my situation change, but every single time I was given the strength and knowledge to be able to handle what I was going through,” Carraway said.

After her baptism, Carraway began praying to God about what to do next. The answer she received was simple. Move to Utah. “I said, ‘Hey God. You are wrong. I can’t do that,” Carraway said, “but then I felt guilty, so I accepted, but I told Him for the record, I wasn’t happy about it.”

Her family and even branch president told her not to move all the way across the county to a place where she didn’t know a single person because she wouldn’t fit in. “I pleaded with God to know why I needed to move here, but He did not tell me that and it was hard,” Carraway said.

Carraway uprooted her life from New York and moved to Utah in 2010, not knowing exactly why or what she would be doing, but found herself driving up State Street in Salt Lake City once she arrived, admiring the beauty of the mountains when she came across a Café Rio.

Once inside the restaurant while standing in line clutching an LDS church book with her tattooed arms, a man in line tapped her on the shoulder and asked why she was holding such a book.

“My heart broke. That was the very first thing that was said to me when I moved here and I immediately thought of everyone who had told me no one would like me and that I wouldn’t fit in,” Carraway said. “How badly I just wanted to turn to him and yell, ‘Do you know what I just went through and how hard this is? I don’t even know why I’m here.'”

Carraway chose to keep going and have trust in her faith. “I wanted to see what on earth Heavenly Father had up his sleeve, so all it took was a change of my mindset and as soon as I did that, I found myself in the Relief Society presidency and I started a blog that got bigger than it should have with over a million views in half a day,” Carraway said.

Shortly after, Carraway started making YouTube videos and began traveling all over the country talking about her experiences, and even found herself on the magazine of LDS Living. “All this stuff started happening, not because it’s about me, but it’s about you who need to be here and what you need to overcome and conquer,” Carraway said. “If you really try, you will find yourself in places you never thought of or would have ever dreamed.”

She concluded her message of hope saying, “Not once have things gone the way I expected it to, but I’m grateful that they did not go the way I had in mind because if I never could have imagined this for myself where I have a real, physical and lasting happiness,” Carraway said.

Two and a half years ago Carraway’s dad called her and the two have been in contact every day since. Two years ago Carraway got married and last summer the two had their first baby.

“Trust Heavenly Father always, even in the darkest and most confusing times. Everything I have now is because of that and I’m glad we will never have to experience life without him.”