How a Barefoot Marathon Led Me to the Book of Mormon

My two Jewish parents raised me in Dallas where I was born in 1961. My Mom was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from the Netherlands in 1942.

As a child, my family celebrated major Jewish holidays and were “reformed” but practicing Jews. For my Bar Mitzvah, I learned to read Hebrew.

We always had a Passover Seder at home, which seemed like my Mom and Dad’s favorite night of the year. My favorite game growing up as a child was a hilarious version of Monopoly called Chutzpah.

2014 was a major year in my life, but I didn’t know how major at the time. My Mom died in January and we had a big funeral for her with her many friends in Dallas.

In June, I climbed in the Alaska range. In July, I climbed in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains so I could summit Mount Elbrus, the mountain considered the highest point of Europe.

But then came November 2nd. I ran the NYC Marathon barefoot. New York City surprised me with how fun it was to run through all 5 boroughs.

I ran a terrible race. I’m an awful runner. If you looked at me, you’d see why. Nevertheless, I had a blast.

To celebrate running the Marathon and to sit down, I got tickets to a Broadway Show at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, The Book of Mormon by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It was a good show and very funny.

It’s about Elder Kevin Price who, while at the MTC, prays to be sent on his mission to Orlando, Florida. The Lord instead sends him to Uganda.

After the show, I walked out of the theater, having enjoyed every moment of the humor and music. There was a semicircle of missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the sidewalk outside the theater handing out the real Book of Mormon.

They were as friendly and clean-cut as the Elders depicted in the musical. Two of them handed me my own copy of the Book of Mormon, but it gathered dust in my home for a few years.

In late 2017, I finally picked up the Book of Mormon. I had waited 3 years. For some reason I still can’t quite understand, I decided to read 1 chapter per day, so I’d get the book finished in 289 days.

On the 8th day of reading the Book of Mormon, I got to Lehi’s Tree of Life vision where I read something that felt like a bomb going off in my heart. It was about “an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost.” (1 Nephi 8:23)

I knew I was living in the great mist of darkness! I realized this book is no normal book. Instead of reading the Book of Mormon one chapter per day, I finished the rest in 3 weeks.

I read the Book of Mormon three more times over the next two years, twice with annotations.

In late 2019, I was walking door to door for something else, in the Magnolia Trace subdivision near Magnolia, Texas, and ran into two young men wearing white shirts and ties. I knew who and what they were—I had seen the musical and watched the South Park episode.

I walked right up to them, gave them my name, and said I was interested in baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They seemed a bit stunned.

After the lessons, I was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Spirit on May 6, 2020. Strangely enough, I felt that, despite all of what I had done in my life, and all of the time that elapsed in my life and all the sins I had committed, Heavenly Father still welcomed me into His arms.

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Eric Yollick lives in Texas and is a Senior Missionary in the BYU Pathway program. We are deeply grateful to Eric for sharing his heartfelt testimony and inspiring experiences. His story serves as a testament to the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the infinite reach of God’s grace.

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Holly Wallace

Holly Wallace is a writer and storyteller drawn to meaningful questions and overlooked details. Her work explores Latter-day Saint life and culture through faithful inquiry, inviting readers to pause, consider, and engage more deeply with what matters most.