Thurl Bailey's wonderful life

With Sindi, of course, he found something else: a new faith. Bailey's conversion story sounds like a made-for-a-Mormon-fireside talk, which is exactly what it has become. The irony is that Bailey lived in Utah for eight years — but joined the LDS Church years later, while he was living in Italy.

His 16-year pro basketball career was winding to a close. He was fielding offers from NBA teams when he got an offer to play in Italy. All logic told him to refuse it. Going to Italy meant leaving behind his children from his first marriage, passing up fatter NBA contracts and taking a new baby to a foreign country. He went there anyway.

"I was at a place in my life where I knew something out of the ordinary needed to happen," he says. "I needed a change. I didn't like who I was becoming."

The divorce and later his succumbing to the temptations of NBA life had taken their toll on him. "It's there," he says of the temptations. "You don't even have to look for it. They know what room you stay in, they know how to get to you. . . . Going to Italy turned out to be the best decision I ever made. Would I have joined the church if I hadn't? I don't know."

From the outset of their marriage, Sindi had established that she would always attend her church and so would their children. "When we started dating, he knew I was Mormon," says Sindi. "I didn't drink, didn't have sex. I think he had a lot of respect for me because of that. He hadn't been around that before. For him it was kind of refreshing. I always knew he would join the church. I don't think I would've married him if I hadn't. But I never pushed it on him. I never gave ultimatums. He asked a lot of questions. I just taught him by example."

Bailey went to Italy several weeks ahead of his wife to make arrangements for a car and housing. While he was there, he arranged to meet LDS missionaries. After several discussions with the missionaries, he called Sindi in the United States. Expecting a call from Thurl, she picked up the phone and was greeted by silence. "Hello?" "Thurl?" Nothing. On the other end, Thurl was choked with emotion and couldn't talk. Finally, Sindi said, "You're going to be baptized, aren't you?"

He waited a month so Sindi's father could fly to Italy and baptize him on the last day of 1995.

"I knew Thurl was doing it for the right reasons," says Sindi.

In February 1997, the couple had their marriage solemnized in the LDS Church's Swiss temple. Bailey, the clerk of his Mormon ward, is now a popular fireside speaker. He used to do them every Sunday until Sindi intervened and cut them back to two per month to give him more time with his family. One recent fireside took four-plus hours.