Carma Naylor
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Descendant of Mormon pioneers, Mormonism was more than a religion to Carma Naylor; it was her connection with God. She fully believed that it was the only true church of Jesus Christ on earth, and she was committed to being a faithful servant to Him through serving in the LDS system and obeying its laws and ordinances. Beyond its place as a religious ideal, Mormonism was also her identity as a person, encompassing every aspect of her life. It was her lifestyle, culture, and heritage. Carma’s forefathers were a part of the Martin Handcart Company who trekked on foot from Iowa to Utah in 1856, pushing their belongings in wooden handcarts, and some members of her family died of hunger and freezing temperatures in the Rocky Mountains on that arduous journey. True to his Mormon beliefs, her great-great-grandfather became a polygamist. Carma was born in Ogden, Utah, daughter of a Mormon Bishop, who taught her what he believed was true, Mormon doctrine. She loved having theological discussions with him, and she believed he had every book ever published by the Mormon Church in the vast library that filled an entire room in their home. Carma graduated from the LDS seminary program in high school, fulfilled a full-time mission to New Zealand, and attended Brigham Young University where she met her husband. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple and Carma faithfully attended the temple for nineteen years. She served in music, teaching, and leadership positions, never expecting to be anything but a faithful Latter-day Saint. She was forty when she became a born-again Christian, and she wrote of that experience in A Mormon’s Unexpected Journey, Volume I, published in 2006. Carma and her husband reside in Southern California. They have five sons, three daughters, and twenty-seven grandchildren.
