A Catholic reads The Book of Mormon

After being in the beautiful State of Deseret for almost two months, there was a night in October when I decided to give the Book of Mormon a try. It is easier to adapt to a state like Utah and to the people when you better understand the culture. I am Catholic. I pray the rosary, believe in the Holy Trinity, my God has no body and drinking wine is part of my sacrament.
Coming to Utah gave me the opportunity to get to know a part of Christianity I previously knew nothing about.
In Germany, Mormons are guys wearing black suits, ringing doorbells to talk about God and are thougt to be a little strange. So how should I try to disprove these prejudices best?
I started going to sacrament every Sunday, went the relief society from time to time, met people at lunch & mingle, joined my ward at family home evenings or during night prayer and had the missionaries come to my place. Impressive. But still not enough.
What is it that makes people from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Days Saints go so crazy about their religion? What makes them refuse to drink coffee and alcohol, believe in chasity and this magical superpower called the priesthood?
That October night I turned on Paul Cardall and grabbed that little blue book, the golden letters on the front saying “Das Buch Mormon.“ I took a highlighter, quickly prayed for the salvation of my soul, my mother’s forgiveness and started.
I neither want to talk about the content of the book nor about what I think is true or false. This is about the experiences I had during my studies. I added no coffee, tea, or anything else I like, but Mormons do not do challenge for the time I needed to read the whole book.
The first week of my challenge started with headaches. I don’t know if it was because of withdrawl, or because of all the new information, but I fought it with hot chocolate. While giving up all the things I liked, I received a lot of respect and appreciation instead.
My mum was not that happy about it. She did not really understand why I would read the Book of Mormon when I never managed to read whole Bible. Catholics can be stubborn from time to time.
The Book of Mormon is essential to get to know the basics of the LDS religion. I read during my leisuretime and I found it inspiring. I am not yet done. A friend of mine, who is still supporting me, told me that “You do not need to eat the whole cake to know it is a good cake.“
That is probably true. Maybe this priesthood-superpower is real too, at least I felt really good after receiving my first blessing from a good friend.
Anytime before I read the book, I pray. Not if it is true, but for answers, and sometimes, miraculously, I got some. At least I think so.
As the writing style is not much different to the Bible I did not feel like this is not a real piece of scripture. The stories are as crazy as in the bible and I felt pretty smart when I found out that the place where my favorite shopping outlet is has the name of a prophet (I´m talking about Lehi, by the way).
Not drinking coffee and tea was hard at the beginning, but it is bareable now. I developed an addiction for hot chocolate, and I still think that being addicted to Pokémon Go or Red Bull is not much better than being addicted to coffee. And in my perfect celestial kingdom, food and drinks and a tasty Latte Macchiato are waiting for me. But I know, it is about sacrificing and following the commandments.
I`m through the first half of my challenge by now and I am on track to finish it. Reading piece by piece everyday is easy and people are supporting me. In the end it is not about knowledge or being right, but about faith and understanding, which was my goal from the beginning.
There might be other people like me, who also need to eat the whole cake to know that it is the best. But, dear Mormons, your cake is a quite delicious one. Thank you for letting me have a piece of it.