Come Back Podcast

"I was like, I'm doing this. And then I remembered, this is my mom's church. I was like, oh no. Anything but that, she can't be right! And then I looked at myself and I just thought how am I gonna sit in Relief Society looking like this? You can't ask me to do that. That's too much, they ask a lot of you in that church, and I don't think I could do this. But if it meant saving my children then I was all aboard. I didn't care. Nobod...

" Becoming a mom just was this huge invitation to try again, see the world in such a more beautiful and dynamic way. It's not two dimensional, it's not black and white and I don't have to be afraid of the gospel. It's not something to be afraid of. And truly just learning how to feel God's love for me."

00:00 Faith Crisis as a New Mother

02:42 Special Guests: Andrew and Carrie

03:37 Andrew's Journey with Cerebral Palsy

07:57 Early Rela...

"My testimony evolved a lot after I became a father. I could now relate in a different way than I'd ever understood before to what I think our Heavenly Father views with us in the trials that we go through. I think He is up at night, tears in His eyes sobbing because He knows the pain that we're going through, but He also knows that we need to go through it. The pain is part of what teaches us so much. Oftentimes it tu...

"I'm a feminist theologian who was excommunicated and I'd been a Gnostic Christian for 15 years. I didn't know where to start. We let Christ, the living bridge be the bridge between us. We didn't presume to come from our own perspectives. You know, I was saying things like. "Well, you know, I was excommunicated. Do we need to go back and revisit all of that?" And they said, "No, no. All we care a...

"We didn't get that miracle that we really desperately pleaded for, but I feel like I have a stronger testimony of miracles than I ever have, even though it wasn't the one that I wanted. I don't know the answers of why she didn't get to live the rest of her life and why she isn't here with us and why am I still here? It's like such a strange, backward feeling that you have a child that's no longer here and then I feel like she is--...

 "I come out of this with a sense of humor, and also some toxic skills. If there's anybody out there who kind of identifies here, these skills served you when you were young. So we don't want to shame those. Like, why am I this way? Why do I respond this way? Through the therapy I've been through, I would say you have to thank that part of you. For enabling you to survive. Because without my anger, I wouldn't h...

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"And I think that's why it took me 20 years to come back to the church is because it was never enough. Fear was not enough to get me to come back to the church. Shame was not enough to get me to come back to the church. Honestly, it was love, like, love brought me back to the church. So, you know, I've got too much proof. I'm still in the culinary world, there's still temptation, still surrounded by all the sam...

 "I'm just so grateful for the atonement. I don't know where I would be if I wasn't able to start new and have the love of the Savior. And I know that everyone has it. Everyone has the light of Christ in them, and it's a minute at a time to an hour at a time to a day at a time. And if you don't get those answers that you're looking for, just keep hanging on, keep holding on. Find someone that you can tr...

"If there are some of you who have been tricked into the conviction that you have gone too far, that you have had the poison of sin, which makes it impossible ever again to be what you could have been then hear me - I bear testimony that you cannot sink further than the light and sweeping intelligence of Jesus Christ. I bear testimony that as long as there is one spark of the will to repent and to reach, He is there. He did not jus...

"I have the fortunate experience of having seen so many critical questions answered that I just have faith that there's going to be an answer somewhere for most of it. But really for me, it also comes down to the Book of Mormon. Because I believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have a witness of that. I feel that there is evidence of that, not proof, but strong evidences that indicate that it is true. There's ...

"  I wish I had this knowledge at the age of 12 or even 8 when I was baptized. And I know it was probably preached to me, but I wish I would've grasped it. But I wish I knew who I was before. I wish I knew that I was truly a son of God. You can figure out who you are by gaining a relationship with your Father in Heaven. It's real. It's almost tangible. There's times where I say prayers and I feel the spirit so ...

" It felt like the spirit was like- 'You have been trying to do this by yourself for so long, and I've been here the whole time, whether or not you choose to utilize it, I'm here the whole time and I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere. We're gonna get through this together.' And I needed that so bad because I had no idea how bad it was going to get."

September 5th & 6th COME BACK TO CHRIST EVENT Tickets can be purchased at ht...

 "When you're in those dark moments or dark places, it's hard to feel God, it's hard to find him in your story. Looking back on my whole story, I was expecting an answer of him removing this sickness from me, and it was more so Him showing up in my story. I believe in a God who works 24/7. I don't believe in coincidences. It's easier to look back and see His fingerprint, but ultimately He's there with y...

" I think studying a little bit about a hard topic can be more dangerous than studying a lot about a hard topic because there's so much more under the iceberg that can help contextualize what's going on. And so I would definitely say if you're struggling, don't be afraid of the hard questions, but just do it with an approach of faith, hope, and charity. Take a deep breath, make sure you take your time and are doing it in a mindset ...

" I remember the last thing that he landed on was talking about Jesus Christ, and I just remember thinking like, oh my gosh, like, what am I doing? How am I doing this by myself? How am I thinking I can possibly get through this crazy time in my life... How am I doing this alone? So I said, you know what, I'm going to read the Book of Mormon, everything revolves around this book, right? Let's see what it's actually...

"One evening after work, I actually had been pondering all this. And just realized, I was completely convinced that God had tried to reach out to the world, reach out to me through Christ, and so I went into one of the little side classrooms that they have there that was empty and prayed, and just accepted Christ, confessed my sins, my sinfulness. And that night walking home I just experienced wave after wave of peace coming o...

 "It's a little scary, you know, going to church with tattoos for the first time or having multicolored hair and going to church or dressing a certain way. But like at the end of the day, we are all children of God. He's just happy to see us there. And even if you don't feel like you belong, you belong because he accepts you. You belong because you belong with Christ. Not because you belong with the crowd, but beca...