In quiet moments, reminiscing on her journey of faith, Cambrie Taylor, an Arizona Latter-day Saint, recalls the Lord’s hand directing her — even when she pushed it away.
“I’ve always felt His pursuit of me, His rooting,” she said.
Having grown up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Taylor holds fond memories of attending church, sharing relationships with her five siblings and growing closer to God. “In my eyes, it was just the most beautiful childhood,” she said.
“And then it just came crumbling down in front of me.”
‘I knew in my heart this wasn’t who I was’
Taylor and her family moved from Gilbert, Arizona, to San Tan Valley, Arizona — a place where she had to start fresh and make new friends.
“The only thing I had was the Church. Going to girls camps and going to Young Women and things like that held me together.” Taylor dove headfirst into seminary, the Personal Progress program and Young Women’s activities.
It didn’t last forever, though.
Taylor’s involvement in Church activities felt like a way to gain “other people’s validation,” something she said she lacked due to familial circumstances.
During this time, Taylor attended church meetings, though she felt she was playing a righteous persona rather than receiving the spiritual blessings she sought. “I tried so hard to tell myself, really convince myself that there’s no God and that it’s the universe,” she said. Thinking back on her time dismantling her beliefs, she said: “I just felt I knew in my heart this wasn’t who I was.”
As she went through her high school years, and as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread, her sphere of influence grew dark, and her circle of friends left her questioning her faith.
“I was looking into crystals and the universe, and I was looking down that route,” she recalled. “I just felt so ‘in the world.’”
‘I could never doubt’
About a year later, in 2021, Taylor and her boyfriend, Jadrian Taylor, found out they were having a baby boy — Jadrian Jr.
Cambrie Taylor describes it as one of the most spiritually defining moments that led to her religious renewal, an “epiphany”: “I really had to refocus my life and wanted to ask, ‘What do I want?’ she said. ”In my heart, my soul, my spirit, I could never doubt the experiences I had in the Church. I could never doubt my feelings with it. I could never doubt my testimony," she said.
Taylor described the humbling moment as everything coming back to her memory — her dream to be sealed in the temple and raise children in the gospel.
Growing up in the Church, Taylor remembers listening to Young Women leaders, general conference speakers and other examples telling her she held so much potential as a woman in the Church. “What am I supposed to do in this life?” she asked herself.
She knew she had to gain a personal relationship with Christ if her child was going to be raised in the Church. She recalls thinking she couldn’t “be good in this life” when centered on drugs and alcohol, limiting her relationship with Christ. “I just felt like I wasn’t whole then,” she said.
‘I didn’t know any of this was possible’
Throughout the next few years, Taylor developed a deeply personal recommitment to the gospel. Her faith sparked Jadrian Taylor’s interest about the gospel — one that led to frequent missionary visits.
“He would express these concerns to me or these questions,” she recalls. “I just felt it was on his own time — when he wanted to have the missionaries over, he would have the missionaries over.”
Though her influence in their home is what Taylor believes led to her boyfriend’s increasing curiosity about the Church, Jadrian Taylor’s desire to make her happy included attending sacrament meeting with her and their boy.
Cambrie Taylor recalls her boyfriend’s first experience with the missionaries: “He was like: ‘Wow, I had no idea. I had no idea any of this was a thing. I didn’t know any of this was possible.’”
The two were engaged in July 2022 and married the following December, making way for Jadrian Taylor’s baptism in March 2023.
“He’s seen the blessings in our life, together as one, and the blessing of our kid and all the miracles,” Cambrie Taylor said.
‘OK, we got one more’
The two had their second son, Booker, in September 2024 as Jadrian Taylor began basic military training, and was preparing to leave for future military training in Georgia in February 2026.
Cambrie Taylor knew raising two young sons with her husband away would not be an easy task. “I knew I was going to have to lean on God in every single way. So, I was like: ‘Coffee, any sin I’m doing is not worth it. I need to be in the place of the Lord. I need to feel that Spirit. I need to feel the goodness.’” she recalled.
She made the goal for herself to receive her endowment.
“I feel like my whole heart and soul is just so into this into the gospel — not even the Church — just the gospel and what that brings to my life,“ she said. ”I’ve seen differences. I’ve seen how it’s helped me personally and others around me.”
Walking into the celestial room of the Mesa Arizona Temple, Taylor was embraced by three of her siblings, friends, and her bishop and his wife, a moment she described as “falling into heaven.” While sharing a moment with her siblings, one whispered to the others: “OK, we got one more.”
“I just couldn’t help but think that that’s got to be how our Savior and our Heavenly Father think, too,” said Paul Hawkins, Taylor’s bishop. “I’ve got this sheep. Where’s the next one? Who’s the next one?
“There’s always one more that we can reach out and try to help and try to pull in,” Hawkins said before referencing a 2024 general conference talk by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“Elder Kearon recently said that God is in relentless pursuit of us, and I feel like that’s pretty evident with Cambrie, where she went through her process, but God was always in relentless pursuit of her and that came around,” Hawkins said. “And now interacting with Cambrie, you see kind of it’s passed on to her where she is now in relentless pursuit of Him.”
