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Dustin,
You have made amazing progress. The Holy Spirit must be working in your life. Your notions are mostly correct. The role of the pope is to guard the deposit of faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3, cf. 1 Timothy 6:20), not to invent new doctrines or change the Apostolic faith.
Just to clarify: Infallibility means that when the pope speaks definitively on matters of faith and morals, he cannot err. This happens relatively rarely. The whole body of bishops in communion with the pope also have this gift. Infallibility does not mean the pope is sinless or that he will always speak up for the truth; it just means that when he teaches all the Christian faithful in a matter of faith or morals, he cannot err. This protects the Church from endless dissension and disunity. See John 21:15-17 and Matthew 16:18.
As for Mary, you are on track, but I'd make one correction: She is our Mother, not our grandmother (Revelation 12:17). We are brothers of Jesus, after all. She is indeed there to comfort us and pray with us. Her role exclusively is to point us to her Son, Jesus. Do whatever he tells you. (John 2:5) she tells us. She is also a symbol of the Church (Galatians 4:26), who gives birth to us in Baptism.
Let me recommend a few books to you. These are conversion stories and I think they will speak to you.
The first is:
He is a convert from the Baptist faith so this book may speak to you most powerfully.
The second is Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David Currie.
Those two books are book-length conversion stories. There is a series of brief conversion stories called:
They are also excellent but the stories, being briefer, are more experiential and don't go through the scriptural arguments as much.
Don't feel you have to get all five. Start with the first one and if you're hungry enough, get the next one, and if you're still hungry get more.
Let us know what happens!
Eric
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