Couple’s Conversion Inspired by Piano Guys Music Video

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A love for the music and videos of The Piano Guys sparked the conversion of Bob and Joanna Walch from New Jersey. 

Bob and Joanna’s baptism last year into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could be traced back to the The Piano Guys rendition of “What Makes You Beautiful,” shown above.  

After the Walches’ nephew introduced them to the popular video in the summer of 2013, Joanna Walch became glued to the group’s YouTube channel and proceeded to watch their videos for hours.

This led to the eventual purchase of concert tickets to The Piano Guys in Albany, New York.

During the concert, The Piano Guys mentioned that it was not luck that brought the band together, but God had brought them together to touch lives through inspiring music.

“They had so much love and energy,” Joanna Walch told Deseret News. “[They had] no problem stating that they were Mormon and had 16 kids between the four of them.”  

As the couple continued following The Piano Guys for another year, one question remained in their minds: “Why are The Piano Guys so happy?”

The Walches’ personally asked them this burning question at a concert meet-and-greet. The Piano Guys responded simply by saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ made all the difference.

The Piano Guys with new Mormon converts
The Piano Guys meet with new converts Bob and Joanna Walch. Image via Joanna Walch.

Jeremy Crawford, operations manager for the band, referred the Walches to LDS missionaries in their area via the Church’s website. The Walches decided it would be best to meet the missionaries at a sacrament meeting… a missionary’s dream.

The Walches were impressed by the friendliness of the church members, which helped them to progress through the missionary discussions.

However, Bob Walch, a former Catholic, had been searching for five years for a new faith and had some hesitations.

“One week before our baptism, [I] began to wonder whether [I] was doing the right thing,” Bob Walch said in an interview with Deseret News. “That’s when a package arrived… Inside were two sets of scriptures with [our] names embossed on the cover. And inside the scriptures were handwritten testimonies from Crawford and Schmidt.”

The Piano Guys continue to have a close bond with the Walches. The Piano Guys will be in attendance for the Walches temple sealing in August.

Bridget is a newsroom writer at LDS.net. She graduated in April 2015 from Brigham Young University in communications with an emphasis of public relations. She served a Spanish speaking LDS mission in McAllen, Texas. She is a skilled pianist and an expert baker of chocolate chip cookies.