LAS VEGAS — Although she didn't win the Miss America crown, Miss Wyoming, Anna Nelson, developed confidence and underwent a tremendous experience competing in the Miss America Scholarship Pageant.
Whitney Merrifield, the current Miss Utah from Lindon, has similar feelings.
"I didn't expect it to be so exhausting," Nelson said, "but it was really a positive experience."
To Merrifield's knowledge, she and Nelson were the only two Mormon women in the pageant. But Nelson said, "I was able to get into a couple of religious discussions with a few of the girls."
Merrifield prepared meticulously for the Miss America Scholarship Pageant, which was Jan. 30 in Las Vegas.
She practiced hard, worked on her modeling skills and prepped for tough questions about her Mormon beliefs.
Surprisingly, no one asked Merrifield about her religion until the very last day.
Even then, the questions were from other contestants rather than the press and judges and more about her beautiful, vintage-style, champagne-colored evening gown than about Mormonism.
As Merrifield tried to explain why the heavily beaded dress wouldn't work in an LDS temple wedding, her fellow contestants realized she was LDS.
Only then did they ask about what that means.
"It really didn't come up (before that)," Merrifield said after her return to Utah and BYU.
The judges asked her opinion on gay marriage ("I was just firm that I support traditional marriage"). She assumed the heavy questions would follow — but they didn't.
Perhaps having "American Idol" finalist Brooke White, who is also LDS, on the judges' panel helped, Merrifield said.
Nelson's confidence soared as she found she could get in front of people and answer questions. She found friends at the pageant as well.
"I learned that I could do this," she said. "I'm only 19, and it was kind of a scary thing. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hang with the other girls who were so much older."
Merrifield feels she was able to do her best, so not placing in the top 10 didn't matter so much.
"I got a lot of great, positive comments," she said.
She played her piano number well, she modeled well and enjoyed meeting the other contestants.
"I think I was as prepared as I could've been," Merrifield said. "That helped everything go very smoothly."
Her modest evening gown and one-piece swimsuit brought her lots of compliments from the other contestants.
"With my whole platform on breaking stereotypes, I wanted to show that Miss Utah can be just as up-to-date as anyone else, and I think I did that," she said.
Nelson was somewhat startled that a couple of the other girls also wore one-piece swimsuits.
"That was a nice little surprise," she said, "that it wasn't just us LDS girls."
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