Gnanapragassen Chowriamah jumps to answer the phone. “Hi, it’s Yanem,” he says, referring to his nickname. His next few words flow effortlessly as he speaks to his sister in Creole, his native tongue.

Chowriamah, a junior, was born and raised as a Catholic in Stanley, Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa where Hinduism makes up 60 percent of the population.

Now, at age 23, Chowriamah has accepted the gospel and received his mission call to the Massachusetts Boston Mission. He will report to the Missionary Training Center Jan. 11.

Chowriamah’s father, also born and raised Catholic, chose to hold onto traditions of his native Indian culture despite his Catholic faith, which culture includes Hindu customs.

“It was hard for [Catholics] to see people be baptized in the Catholic Church and keep their Hindu culture,” said Chowriamah. “The Catholics didn’t want that, and the Hindu’s said we weren’t Indian, but black, just because we weren’t Hindu.”

Mauritius has a population of more than 1 million with only 350 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the 2005 Church Almanac.

Even raised Catholic in a Hindu culture on an island where the closest mission home is in Madagascar, Chowriamah was still able to come in contact with the Church.

His two aunts met with missionaries while in Germany, were soon baptized and raised their children in the Church.

Later Chowriamah ran into Latter-day Saint missionaries who tracted to his area. His interest in the Church began to spark at around age 15.

“I took the discussions at age 17 without my parents knowing, and I would skip Catholic Church to go to the Mormon Church,” Chowriamah said. “My sister and I both wanted to get baptized so badly, but we were too young and still depended on our family.”

The desire to be baptized stayed with Chowriamah even in adulthood, but contention at home left him with the feeling that he needed to wait.

“Things got really rough with my mom and dad, especially with my dad. For the next three years the missionaries that came counseled me not to get baptized,” Chowriamah said. “They told me to keep reading the Book of Mormon and changing my life as much as I could to fit the gospel, and then the Lord would find a way for me to be baptized.”

The missionaries did more than just help Chowriamah find the gospel. One elder in particular, Isaac Jacob, from Orem, Utah, offered to let Chowriamah and his sister live with his parents in the United States.

Both gladly accepted the offer, recognizing that once in America they could be baptized, but Chowriamah was once again faced with a setback.

“Things got harder for me at home. I had a girlfriend who was Hindu, and her parents hated me because I was Catholic,” Chowriamah said. “I started to drift away. I had bad friends and was led away by bad influences.”

With the help of persistent missionaries and his sister, he decided it was time to start over, and Chowriamah applied to BYU, BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii.

When he saw that he was accepted to both BYU-I and BYU-H for the fall in 2003, Chowriamah felt he needed to come to Idaho.

Chowriamah came to America in August 2003 and lived with the Jacob family until school began. He was baptized November 26, 2003, by Isaac Jacob.

“The decision to come here, well the Lord did that for me. He kicked me out of my country just to get me better,” Chowriamah said. “And I am changed because of the gospel ... I have a new life and can be happy again.”