How do you keep your faith strong in the world we live in today?
This Sunday, we kickoff a special 5-part miniseries called “Faith to Stay”, that discusses topics from Latter-Day Light's host and founder, Scott Brandley’s latest book on “strengthening faith during the storms of life.”
In episode 1, past guests Sheri Ramirez, Shane Baldwin, and Dusty Smith return to the show to share their eye-opening insights on the concept of “Faith in The Church Today.” Together, they tackle how faith crises' begin, how to rebuild a broken testimony, and what daily habits actually keep faith alive in today’s modern society.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re one storm away from letting go, this conversation is sure to remind you why it’s worth holding on.
*** Please SHARE Sheri, Shane, and Dusty’s stories and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode, visit: https://youtu.be/acndD6mysNc
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To READ Scott’s book “Faith to Stay,” visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/
To WATCH Sheri’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/mml_j7nCFoA
To WATCH Shane’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/rjRNgcMbi6M
To WATCH Dusty’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/CcIixBh2aZc
To READ Shane's book "The Honest Lie," visit: https://www.amazon.com/Honest-Lie-How-Navigate-Matrix/dp/B0C9FXZZH9
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Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdaylights
Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Brandley (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite hope andinspire others.
On today's episode, we'rediscussing faith in the church
today, what we can do tostrengthen it and how we can
help those who are strugglingwith their faith.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hey everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day
(00:31):
Light.
You probably noticed that thisisn't our normal format.
That's because, throughout thismonth, as part of my official
book launch of my new book,faith to Stay, I'm actually
doing a special five-part series, with each episode related to a
different part of my book, andtoday is the first episode in
(00:51):
that series, and the topic ofour discussion is going to be
faith in the church today.
And with that being said, I'vegot some really cool guests that
know a little bit about faith,and so I'd like to introduce you
guys.
So I'd like to introduce to theshow Dusty Smith, sherry
(01:12):
Ramirez and Shane Baldwin.
How are you guys doing today?
Sheri Ramirez (01:15):
Good.
Dusty Smith (01:16):
Just pinching.
Scott Brandley (01:20):
Yeah well.
So, like I just said before wegot started, this is kind of
like a reunion, because we'vebeen doing the show now for
three years, which is crazy, butwe've never had people come
back on and just have adiscussion like this.
So this is really unique.
And to get started on the topicof faith, I want to give a
(01:45):
little bit of background on yourguys' stories Now.
We'll put links in the shownotes to each one of your guys'
episodes, so if anybody wants tolearn more about your stories,
they can go and do that.
But to kind of kick it off,you've each had some incredible
experiences in your life Tragedy, loss, hope, redemption.
(02:08):
There's a lot of reallyinteresting things that have
happened here.
So, just to start off, I'llstart off with Sherry, and you
can correct me if this is wrong,but this is what I remember
from our episode.
So you got married when youwere 18, right?
Sheri Ramirez (02:28):
19.
So close.
Scott Brandley (02:30):
Okay, you're 19.
And then you found out thatyour husband-to-be had chronic
liver failure.
Sheri Ramirez (02:37):
Chronic kidney disease Yep Close.
Scott Brandley (02:40):
I'm close.
It's been a minute During thattime.
So the time you were married,you were dealing with that right
and going through a lot.
Sheri Ramirez (02:51):
Yeah, I learned what dialysis was, so it was
quite a lot.
Scott Brandley (02:57):
And then he unfortunately died suddenly when
you were 22.
Sheri Ramirez (03:02):
Yep, yep.
He dropped me off at work andhe didn't come back, so that was
the day he had a brain aneurysm.
So we were married for aboutthree and a half years at that
point.
Scott Brandley (03:15):
Okay, and then you ended up getting remarried,
yes, and now you have kids anddoing the thing right.
Sheri Ramirez (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, we're the taxi mom, my teacher, my
husband's deaf, so I've learnedsign language and he actually
was the one that I met firstbefore.
Scott Brandley (03:37):
Right.
Sheri Ramirez (03:38):
Husband that had passed away.
So yeah, it was a full circlethere.
Scott Brandley (03:43):
Awesome, all right, so we got Sherry.
We Awesome, all right, so wegot Sherry.
We got Shane, shane Baldwin.
This was quite the story.
It was well.
I'll kind of tell a little bitof what I remember.
So you basically had everythingthat the world had to offer and
(04:05):
you're doing incredibly well inthe financial world and then
you ultimately lost it all,including your wife, right?
You got divorced.
Shane Baldwin (04:14):
Right.
Scott Brandley (04:15):
And then went to prison for five years and I
remember.
The one of the things that Ireally remember in your story is
you talked about all thesedifferent ways that you could
kill yourself because you didn'twant to keep going and you
starved yourself for 13 days,Was it?
Shane Baldwin (04:34):
13 days and I felt amazing after 13 days, so,
so clearly um.
Killing myself was not not, Icouldn't even starve myself.
Scott Brandley (04:45):
Yeah, and then you kind of went through that,
through that experience, you hadkind of a vision or a dream,
right.
Shane Baldwin (04:55):
Right.
Scott Brandley (04:56):
And it gave you some different options in your
life that you could take and youchose a hard option and kind of
had that redemption throughprison and helped a lot of
people to come closer to God,right.
Shane Baldwin (05:12):
Right.
Sometimes we think, boy, I wishI could go back and do that
differently.
And you come to find out thatthe best path for us is the one
that you're currently on.
And so we all chose our, ourpaths for a different reason,
and we need to, I guess, own ourexperience and that path and
(05:33):
recognize that it was all forour experience and all for our
gain.
Scott Brandley (05:38):
Right, yeah.
And then you wrote a book ofyour experience called the
honest lie.
Shane Baldwin (05:45):
That's right.
Scott Brandley (05:46):
Yeah, so we'll put that in the show notes as
well.
Shane Baldwin (05:49):
I came on your podcast before I had my own
podcast, so and and you guysdidn't cancel me, so I really
appreciate that, because I hadgone on other podcasts and I
just shared my story and itwasn't up for 24 hours and they
turned it off because of all thenegative comments.
I think it's because I looklike a Disney villain character
(06:14):
and so, for whatever reason,they just turned me off.
So I appreciate you guysallowing my story to stay up and
, yeah, you guys inspired me tosay, hey, this podcasting can
really impact people in apositive way and coming on your
show, I had a lot of people thatmessaged me about my story and
(06:36):
it really inspired me to do whatI'm doing right now with Zion
Media.
So I appreciate that, scott.
Scott Brandley (06:41):
Yeah, you bet man.
Then we've got Dusty Smith.
Dusty, your story is prettyincredible too.
You joined the church as aconvert, and you were in your
early 20s right 23, yes.
Okay, right, went on a mission,came back and then ended up
(07:03):
leaving the church and fightingagainst the church for 26 years
and then, through a series ofincredible events, you ended up
coming back and now you defendthe faith right, you can call
them miracles, it's okay, okayyeah, I man.
(07:27):
I've told people you're all ofyour guys stories.
In fact, one of the things I dowhen I finish a podcast, I'll
go out into the living room andI'll tell my kids and my wife
the stories that that we hear.
It's so much fun, wow so that'skind of the background.
Sheri Ramirez (07:44):
Oh, go ahead that's amazing of the background
.
Oh, go ahead.
That's amazing.
I love that you guys can sharethat with each other.
Scott Brandley (07:50):
Yeah, it's kind of a bonding experience for my
family.
Honestly, it's been really cool.
So let's jump into the topic,which is faith in the church
today and the way I started mybook out.
Kind of my background to thiswhole thing is that when I was a
(08:11):
bishop back in 2014, I had twofamilies leave the church and
the first family that left thechurch totally floored me.
I was just a brand new bishop,maybe for a couple months, and
they talked about the churchessays that had just come out
(08:31):
back then and I went and readthem all in one night to try to
help this couple to stay in thechurch and I ended up having a
faith crisis of my own and itwas pretty scary, because one of
the things about our faith isthat it's ingrained into
(08:52):
everything we do, every decisionwe make, all of our friends,
our social circles, even thekind of jobs we do.
I mean, it's it's veryingrained into our lives and I
remember thinking what happensif this isn't true?
(09:14):
How does how, what does my lifelook like, and?
But ultimately I was able toovercome that and that's kind of
how I overcame.
That is part of my book, sothat's kind of my background to
that.
But as we get into this topicof faith in the church, the
first question I want to throwout there is why do you guys
(09:36):
think faith in general is soimportant in our lives?
Why is it important to havefaith?
Dusty Smith (09:43):
Well, if you don't have faith, then there's no
reason.
If you don't have reason, thenwhat's the point?
And that's pretty simplistic.
But faith is what you've got tohave faith in something, and it
might be faith in your family,faith in your wife that causes
you to get up every morning andhave that good marriage, faith
(10:03):
in your job that you're going tohave a job tomorrow.
So faith is the starting pointof almost everything we do.
But to give your life purposeyou have to have faith.
To not have faith, I can'timagine what it would be like to
not have faith in God, becausethen your life really does not
have a purpose and you have nohope for anything past death.
(10:26):
And what a terrible existencethat would be.
Scott Brandley (10:31):
When you fell away from the church.
How did that?
When you're talking abouthaving purpose, what happened in
your life?
Dusty Smith (10:39):
Well, okay, so many people who leave the church
become they claim to becomeatheist.
Ok, I don't.
Again, I don't believe inatheism.
I think to say there is no God,as an atheist would say, to
know that that there is no Godmeans you are a God to know that
(11:00):
.
So it kind of defeats thepurpose of being an atheist to
say that there is no God,because then you become a God.
I think the best you can say isyou don't believe there's a God
, but regardless, I never didthat.
I stayed.
I always believed in God.
So I never lost my faith in God.
I lost my faith in what Ithought was an evil church.
(11:21):
Um, and I was Catholic for everuntil I came back to the church
.
Scott Brandley (11:27):
Gotcha Shane, what you're going to say,
something.
Shane Baldwin (11:31):
Yeah, I mean, I mean faith is the first
principle of the gospel and Imean it's the, it's the reason
we take action.
For me I have this bracelet on.
This is a.
I got this.
Uh, this was before prison,this bracelet, and on this
bracelet it says faith.
And when I went to prison, they,they take everything from you,
I mean everything.
They took this bracelet from meand and I faith is so important
(11:56):
to me I want to be reminded ofit every day.
So literally, these guys inprison would grab uh garbage
bags and they would cut theminto these little skinny strips
and then they would braidgarbage bags together and they
would use color pencil to dyesome of the garbage bag.
And I paid somebody in prisonwith with ramen noodles to make
(12:20):
me a bracelet that said faith.
And the whole time I was inprison I wore that, that
bracelet of faith.
And I, uh, when I got out, I putthis bracelet on with my other
bracelet and I, I said once, um,once that bracelet that was
made for me in prison out ofthis garbage bag falls off, then
I know that that my face, faithhas now become sufficient and
(12:44):
it fell off a couple of yearsago, and so I feel like, okay,
I'm getting there, I'm makingprogress with my faith.
This one still stays on becauseI still have to continue to
exercise that faith muscle.
But faith is extremelyimportant.
As Dusty said, it's thestarting point of all action.
(13:05):
Without faith, you wouldn'thave any purpose.
Scott Brandley (13:11):
Wow.
Sheri Ramirez (13:14):
Yeah, I do.
I want to add to that.
I think, for everything that'sbeen said is so truly beautiful.
When I think of faith and whenI think of the life that I've
lived, I feel like for me, faithis also the faith of how much
love God has for me and also thelove that comes from other
(13:37):
people, having faith that, as weendure, our worth is always
there, the faith that we camefrom God and his light is inside
of us.
I think that struggle has alwaysbeen so raw for me at every
single phase of my life,distinguishing that worth and
(13:57):
worthiness are two entirelydifferent things.
Our worth can never be taken.
That was given to us, and Ithink so many women feel like
they have to prove themselves tothe world, and so having faith
is such a deep seed that youhave to really plant and nourish
(14:20):
every single day, because it'sso easy to forget how much love
he has and having the faith thathe's there and that his love is
really the only one thatmatters the most.
But we live in a world ofsocial media and being online,
with so many attacks andjudgment and people, and even in
(14:41):
our everyday lives, I thinkfaith is just kind of that seed
that lets everything flourish.
So as long as you're plantingthat seed of faith and
everything in your life in everyaspect, I feel like that's what
you get to hold on to.
Scott Brandley (14:58):
Okay, okay.
Well, that kind of ties intothat.
You said social media, and thatkind of brings up my next
question, because I think thisis related.
There's a lot of distractionsin the world today and there's a
lot of members that are havingfaith issues and a lot that are
(15:21):
even leaving the church.
Why do you think members arehaving so many faith issues
today?
Shane Baldwin (15:29):
Listen, we have so much information out there
right now and when you stopreading the Book of Mormon and
you start reading other things,it can create a faith crisis.
And I tell everybody that comesto me that's having a faith
crisis.
I'm like, how often are youreading the book of Mormon and
(15:49):
for how long?
Every day, and most of the timeit's like, well, I haven't been
reading the book of Mormon.
And I'm like, well, what areyou reading?
And they're reading stuffonline and I'm like, okay, do
this for me, quit reading thisstuff online and for the next 30
days, just read the book ofMormon for 30 minutes for the
next 30 days and then come backto me and tell me if you're
still struggling and having thisfaith crisis every single time.
(16:11):
For every single person that'swilling to do that, their faith
crisis seems to be fixed.
But for a lot of them, they'reunwilling to go back to the
first works the book of Mormonand because they're something
that is, in their mind, moreinteresting online with what
somebody else is saying orthey're watching some podcast or
they're reading something, andthey got to get back to the
(16:36):
scriptures in my mind.
I know Dusty has something onthis, because he's doing
firesides all over the place andhe's probably interacting with
people that their children aredealing with this challenge.
Dusty Smith (16:46):
I get this question quite a bit.
The problem that we have isthat people tend to get wrapped
around the axle about thingsthat they shouldn't get wrapped
around the axle about.
And I tell people go back tothe basics, because what you
(17:07):
find and you ask people, okay,so why are you having trouble?
Well, I read this about thechurch that Joseph Smith did
this back when he married aFanny Alger or something like
that.
You know it's this stuff and Iwould tell people number one you
(17:31):
cannot, cannot, it's not fairand it should never happen that
you judge people in the 1800susing your 2025 moral goggles.
You can't do that because andyou better hope that no people
20 years, 200 years from now,don't judge you with their moral
goggles, because they're goingto find things about us they
didn't like.
So go back to the basics and Itell people did Joseph Smith
(17:54):
have the first vision?
Yes, did he interpret the Bookof Mormon?
Yes, after that, what elsereally matters, truly, what else
really matters?
So, go back to the basics.
Don't let the things you don'tknow overcome the things that
you do know.
As Elder Uchtdorf said, don'tlet your doubts overcome your
faith.
Go back to the basics and pray.
(18:15):
A testimony is like a livingorganism If you don't feed it
and water it, it will die.
If you feed it the wrong things, it will die.
So you have to take care ofyour testimony.
You have to take care of yourfaith.
And it goes back to the faiththat Sherry was talking about,
that faith that just guides you.
Scott Brandley (18:36):
If you got to go back to that, yeah, I mean when
I, when I had my faith crisis,the thing that brought me back?
I went on a lot of walks duringthat time trying to figure it
out.
The thing that brought me backis I had this impression in in
my mind.
To break down my faith into itsmost basic, fundamental pieces,
(18:59):
like you're saying, Dusty, andI came up with five at the time
Is God real?
Is Christ the Savior of theworld?
Is Joseph Smith a prophet?
Is the Church of Jesus Christtrue?
And is the Book of Mormon true?
And I had to build that back uppiece by piece but, like you
said, those fundamentals makeall the difference.
Sheri Ramirez (19:22):
And then I just want to add to that I think,
dusty, what you're talking about, that living organism, it's
whatever you're feeding it.
That was exactly on point withwhat I was thinking too.
I feel like it's so easy to bein the busy world, and it's so
easy to be in the busy world andit's so easy to click into an
app and you just start scrollingand it's so mindless that you
(19:43):
lose track of time, and thiswill probably happen every
single day for most people.
Or you're posting something,and so it's this constant
feeding of yourself, of theworld, and getting that
connection with other people,because that's what I do
sometimes and I get caught inthat trap.
And then I realized what I'mdoing and I'm like, well, what's
the most basic, essential,important thing in my life?
(20:06):
And that's my family.
But what am I doing?
I'm scrolling on my phone,trying to get information and
feeding myself whatever comesfrom my phone.
So I think a lot of people justdo that out of habit, whatever
comes from my phone.
So I think a lot of people justdo that out of habit.
But a habit for me is notusually clicking into the Book
of Mormon app, so I feel likethat's something that could be a
good challenge, like Shane wastalking about, how he said the
(20:29):
30 days about you go and readthe Book of Mormon for 30 days.
That's an amazing way to breakit down, because sometimes it
feels overwhelming.
I feel overwhelmed to read oldEnglish and to read the
scripture sometimes, but when Iplan a lesson to teach my
teenagers for Sunday school, I'mlike, okay, it's not that
(20:51):
complicated.
So then it's kind of likebreaking it down for me.
So I think sometimes it'simportant to maybe set small
goals so that you can feed thatorganism with the right things.
Scott Brandley (21:02):
Yeah, that makes sense.
The second family that left thechurch when I was a bishop.
One of the reasons they left isbecause they got distracted and
they started looking at othersources, which is you guys have
kind of all mentioned Like, onceyou get distracted, you look at
other sources other than thescriptures or or the prophets.
(21:26):
It's easy to get caught up inthe world, you know.
Ok, let's go on to the next one.
How has your life been affectedby the trials that you've had
to go through?
Your faith?
How's your faith been affectedby the trials you've had to go
through?
Dusty Smith (21:51):
Well, I will tell you that there is no scarier
words that you will ever hearthan when the doctor says you've
got cancer, and that that thatrocked my world.
I mean, I got the news thefirst week of January of 22.
(22:15):
And my first thought was I'mnot going to have to do New
Year's resolutions.
You know, I don't think that Iwould have been able to get
through cancer and I'm still notthrough it.
I have all kinds of radiationafter effects, but I don't think
I would have been able to getthrough cancer if not for my
(22:36):
faith.
I don't think I would have beenable to get through cancer if
not for my faith.
You know, I would pray and Iwould say Heavenly Father, I
know you have the power to healme, but your will be done.
I gave it up to him and said ifit's my time, it's my time, but
your will be done.
And the Lord brought me throughcancer and and watched, you know
(22:57):
, took care of the surgeons asthey operated on my throat and
my, my neck, and and I, if youhave, if you have that faith,
you never, I never once felt, Inever asked why me?
I always said why not me?
I always said why not me?
(23:25):
When you have that faith, youtake your personal out of it and
you give it to him andtherefore you don't have that
blaming, I'm blaming God.
Someone said, well, why did Godgive you cancer?
Well, god didn't give me cancer, he brought me through cancer.
And when my grandson died acouple of years ago, people said
why did God take your grandson?
And my words were he didn'ttake my grandson, he welcomed my
(23:47):
grandson.
You know.
So if you have that faith, itcan take you through anything,
but you just got to give it toGod.
But you just got to give it toGod.
Shane Baldwin (23:59):
Wow, I know for me.
I was going through mytribulation and I remember
reading the story of Joseph, whogot sold into Egypt, who was in
prison, and as I read his wholestory I thought to myself, man,
if he can rise from this pit,so can I.
(24:21):
And that story of him helped mehave faith that I was exactly
where I needed to be.
And as soon as I figured outthat the way to get myself out
of my tribulation is to helpsomebody else out of theirs, the
(24:42):
whole shift happened for me,and it allowed me in prison to,
instead of saying oh, poor me, Iwas instead helping and serving
other people get out of theirpit, which pulled me out of mine
.
Scott Brandley (24:55):
This is so fun, which pulled me out of mine.
This is so fun.
It's just incredible to hearyour guys' different experiences
and how you viewed faith andyour trials in your lives.
How about you, sherry?
Sheri Ramirez (25:07):
I feel like mine's ongoing.
I don't really feel likethere's a beginning or an end,
but I did choose into infidelitywith my first husband and that
was pretty heartbreaking becausewe were at the point where I
had chosen into infidelity notsexual, but it was still
(25:27):
physical and emotional and thenhe passed and it was pretty
devastating to know that we werenot going to go on that journey
together being able to heal.
But I did learn of Christbetter when I learned that I can
still have those healingconversations with my first
(25:49):
husband and I really truly feellike a lot of my faith comes
from my husbands.
They really truly teach me alot that I just have this
selfishness in me and I thinkthat was kind of taught to me
from the adults when I was young.
But being able to heal with myfirst husband through multiple
(26:12):
conversations, I just feel likegoing through that veil is just
so pure and it's so hard todescribe.
But when you could feel thatand connect with someone on the
other side, there's just thelove that he has is what I'm
going to say my first husband,that love that was inside of him
(26:34):
, that he has for me, and thegrace and the forgiveness and
the repentance.
I can't tell you how many timesmultiplied that would be coming
from Christ.
So, being able to feel it froma human that I was able to have
you know my journey with, I canonly imagine how much love
(26:55):
Christ has for everybody.
Only imagine how much loveChrist has for everybody.
So I think that's my reminderevery day.
When I get into that selfishmindset of like I got to take
care of myself and make sure youknow that I have all my needs
met as the main provider in myhome, all the time I always feel
like my cup is depleted.
So I just feel like the trialscome every day.
(27:18):
But the bigger trials, you know, have been in the past, as I
also chose into emotionalinfidelity with my current
husband and he chose to staywith me.
So that is just such atestament to the strength of God
and his love that he has forhis children that my husband
(27:40):
would choose to stay withsomebody you know who was not
faithful.
That's extremely hard forsomeone to stick with just
because it's easy to getdivorced.
These days I feel like back,you know, in my parents' time.
It wasn't as simple, but ittruly is, and I feel like our
world does teach us about howeasy it is to get divorced and
(28:00):
how fun and exciting it seems.
But it's not such a simpleanswer and there's just so many
complexities with everyrelationship and so, whatever
way it went and whatever way myhusband chose who I'm currently
with, I just have seen the lovethat he's given me, so I feel
(28:23):
like that's a true Testament toGod reaching out, telling me
like there's so much more beyondthis life.
We have to do the best that youcan and be as faithful and
repent now.
Scott Brandley (28:36):
Yeah, I think we do have big.
There's big things that happenin our lives that really test
our faith and you guys have hadsome of those really big moments
.
But there are, like you said,sherry, there's it's kind of an
ongoing battle.
Right when you think you've gotit, then God throws you a curve
ball and you're like oh, Idon't got it.
Sheri Ramirez (28:57):
Every time it then God throws you a curveball
and you're like, oh, I don't gotit Every time.
Scott Brandley (29:09):
So I guess the next question would be how do
you keep your faith strong today?
What are there things that youdo to keep going, to keep
building your faith as you go onin life?
Dusty Smith (29:19):
building your faith as you go on in life.
I think we've talked about that.
I think that we talked aboutreading the scriptures, praying,
going to church, being a partof that church family, doing the
things that going to the temple, you know, doing the things
that we have been taught thatwill increase our faith,
(29:41):
strengthen our faith andsometimes it's not so much
increasing it as it isstrengthening it, because you're
going to get beat downsometimes and if you're not
prepared for those spiritualbattles look, when I left the
church back in 89, I was notprepared for a spiritual battle.
I wasn't physically prepared,mentally prepared, emotionally
prepared.
I was in law school.
(30:01):
I wasn't prepared for that.
We have to do those things thatwe talked about to strengthen
and feed our testimonies and ourfaith.
Faith in order to be preparedwhen life does send its cancers
or its prisons or its death orits loss.
(30:24):
If your testimony or faith isweak, then you have a risk of
that being shattered whensomething really really terrible
comes up.
Sheri Ramirez (30:39):
I think for me it's also checkpoints.
I ruminate in my head and Ioften get stuck in spiraling
thoughts, and so this happensevery day.
If I get a negative comment onmy platform, I will spiral and
think they're attacking mycharacter.
It's really hard for me stillyears later.
(31:00):
But I have people who I checkin with and sometimes I'm like,
hey, I'm spiraling, so I knowexactly who to go to when I feel
stuck, because it really takespeople for me to be able to
dissect through that.
But the other thing that I'vebeen doing recently is I go on
Google and I will type ingeneral conference talks and
(31:23):
then like a keyword like divineworth and like it'll pull up the
most beautiful talks.
It's like God speaking to methrough the internet, good
things feeding my soul, and thenI get to click and it's like
that's where I get hooked andit's way better than scrolling.
So that's been my new likescroll addiction, but it's been
(31:45):
a good one.
So I really like that piece ofit, cause I don't connect as
well reading the scriptures.
Scott Brandley (31:52):
That's a good idea.
Shane Baldwin (31:54):
Yeah, I listen, I know, I know.
For me, uh, one of the greatestblessings has been I mean, I've
filmed a three podcast today ofthe greatest blessings has been
I mean, I've filmed threepodcasts today.
And so for me, being able toshare the gospel and do
missionary work throughinterviewing people or talking
to people or have a podcast.
(32:14):
I have a guy I meet with atseven o'clock every morning.
He lives in I don't knowMonticello or somewhere crazy,
but he and I get on at seveno'clock in the morning and right
now we're studying the book ofMalachi.
We just finished the book ofrevelation.
So I try to find opportunitiesfor me to interact with other
people.
And what I find is, as I helpother people build their faith,
it builds my faith.
(32:35):
And so I'm constantly lookingfor opportunities to do that,
because I've noticed, when I'mnot doing that, when I'm not
helping other people build theirfaith, my faith diminishes some
.
And I've noticed and it's trueeven if for those of us who have
been on a mission man, ourfaith is so strong and so
(32:56):
powerful during that timebecause we are helping other
people with their faith.
And so, if you want to increaseyour faith, help others,
increase theirs and it increasesyours, and it's a really cool
thing that we can do to increaseour faith by helping others
increase theirs.
Scott Brandley (33:14):
Wow, I love that .
Yeah, I think that doing thispodcast has been a huge blessing
in my life and really helped mewith my faith, definitely get a
different perspective and havemore empathy for people, for
what they're going through andthe struggles.
And I don't cry, but Aliciadoes all the time.
(33:35):
I feel it inside, but the tearsjust don't come out of my eyes.
I don't know what it is side,but the tears just don't come
out of my eyes.
I don't know what it is.
Yeah, all right, so this hasbeen awesome.
Thank you guys so much for yourtime.
I want to kind of end it onwhat.
(33:55):
Well, kind of leave it up toyou.
What would you guys want toshare with people that are
struggling with their faith?
Just from your personalexperiences in life, what's the
thing that you'd like to shareto help people that are
struggling?
Shane Baldwin (34:11):
Sherry, I feel like you got something.
Sheri Ramirez (34:12):
I do, but I'm trying to formulate it, I'll get
it out.
Okay, I feel like, as a woman,I constantly compare myself and
so I die inside of comparisonevery single day, like truly
suffocate myself.
So I feel like a lot of people,a lot of women, especially
(34:35):
being on social media.
You just compare yourself andyou think, well, why can't I do
this, why am I not better, whyam I not not, not, not, not.
So you get into this spiral andit's super easy because you're
constantly being throwndifferent things all day long.
So it really takes a lot ofstrength to ground yourself.
(34:56):
But I feel like the worldgrounding yourself is different
than spiritually groundingyourself, feel like the world
grounding yourself is differentthan spiritually grounding
yourself.
So I feel like there's a finebalance of being able to pick
from both but also reallytouching on that spirituality
and connection with Christ,because you can ground yourself,
you know and be present, and itcan feel nice, but it doesn't
(35:20):
last and I have learned thatthat is super important to
remember my worth by groundingmyself and doing different
things like listening to generalconference talks or
communicating.
Hey, I need like 30 minutes tomyself today, or else I'm just
not going to be nice.
So being able to communicatehas been important for me as a
(35:44):
woman, learning that that iscrucial for me to not burn out.
So I think when you do takethat time for yourself, feed
yourself positively and nourishyourself, especially in faith,
uplifting material, because it'sso easy to just scroll for that
30 minutes if you choose to,but then you're still going to
(36:06):
feel depleted and you have to goon with your weeks and take
care of your kids, usually ifyou have kids.
But that's my advice is totruly nourish yourself with
something that's going to upliftyou every single day and make
sure that you really get thattime to yourself, because it's
easy to give everything awayuntil you're depleted and then
(36:30):
you don't know who you areanymore and you're just
struggling.
So that's my biggest piece ofadvice.
And also to remember TamaraRunin in the April conference.
I wrote it down because I'llforget Tamara Runin in the April
conference.
I wrote it down because I'llforget.
She said worth isn't tied toobedience, it's constant and
it's given to us by God.
So that's been the biggestblessing after hearing her talk.
(36:59):
It's different than worth, andso or worthiness sorry,
worthiness is different thanworth.
So no one can take that fromyou.
No matter what people think ofyou, what they say about you,
your worth is from God.
So that was just superresonating for me, as I live in
the world.
But I don't.
I'm not in the world, sokeeping myself grounded in that
way, I love that.
Scott Brandley (37:22):
I love spiritual scrolling instead of doom
scrolling.
Sheri Ramirez (37:25):
Yeah.
Scott Brandley (37:25):
It changes the dynamic.
That's a really good insight.
I'll go ahead.
I'll go ahead and take this.
Shane Baldwin (37:32):
Okay, yeah.
So I think when we are havingfaith crises, we need to be open
about it, we need to talk aboutit, and the first place to go
is probably your heavenly fatherand go have an out loud
conversation.
Go on a walk, go on a hike andstart asking God the questions
(37:57):
that are resounding in your mindand start asking God for
clarity and for answers.
And whatever's not making sensefor you or whatever's not
clicking for you, or whateverdoctrine you're struggling with
or what you read you'restruggling, go ask God, go be
serious, go on a fast, go fastfor two days, fast for three
(38:19):
days and seek an answer from Godand you will get an answer he
has promised us.
Ask and ye shall receive.
And I know that's true.
And even in a faith crisis it'shard because maybe you're
struggling.
Is God even there?
Does God even hear me?
Does God even know me?
And I promise, if you'll justexercise a little bit of faith
(38:40):
and start having thatconversation, that open
communication with your heavenlyfather, you'll start to solve
things and pay attention, notjust when you're talking to God,
but listen to the voice, as thevoice speaks to you, give time
for God to speak as well and sitthere and you may think, oh
well, is this just me talking?
No, it's not.
And sit there and you may think, oh well, is this just me
(39:01):
talking?
No, it's not.
If you're asking a question,listen to that voice inside of
your mind that is giving youanswers.
Pay attention to the songs thatcome on as you're asking these
questions, or whatever it is,because God is constantly trying
to speak to us, if we're aware,and so I often tell people hey,
go have an open conversationwith God, share your frustration
(39:26):
, share your challenges withyour faith and seek answers
there.
But oftentimes we go and seekanswers from other people that
are having a faith crisis thatwe can commiserate with and
you're going to get what you'relooking for.
But if you truly want truth andyou really want to know if God
is there and you're strugglingwith your faith or you're
(39:48):
struggling with church historyor whatever it is, take it to
God.
Go and take it to God and seekan answer and he will give you
an answer.
Scott Brandley (39:56):
I love that.
Dusty Smith (39:59):
I think that when someone comes to me and they say
I'm having a faith crisis, myresponse is usually that means
you have faith, because youcan't have a faith crisis if you
don't have faith.
So you have to pay moreattention to the faith part of
that and not the crisis part ofthat, because if you ask God to
(40:20):
give you better, more faith andstronger faith, guess what that
means?
You're going to be tested OK.
Your faith doesn't get strongerjust because you go to go to
bed and say give me strongerfaith.
You wake up next morning, gowow, I have stronger faith today
.
No, you're given those faithchallenges to help build your
faith.
So when someone says I have afaith crisis, I tell them that
(40:41):
means you have faith.
You can't have a crisis offaith unless you have that faith
.
So lean on the faith part ofthat and not the crisis part of
that.
You have to give God a chanceand give yourself a chance for
that faith to grow and lean onhim, lean on the word, lean on
(41:01):
your friends.
Call somebody.
I get so many emails andmessages from people just saying
will you pray for me, will youpray with me?
And I tell people all the time.
Just give it to God.
And they'll say, well, I can'tsleep tonight, I couldn't sleep
because I had.
I say, well, give it to God,he'll be up all night anyway,
(41:23):
you know.
So it's it's, it's a.
It's a matter of focusing onthe faith and not on the crisis.
Scott Brandley (41:33):
Wow, man, I just feel so fortunate to be here
and be with you guys.
Thank you so much for sharingyour thoughts and your time with
me and with our viewers.
It's a real treat and an honorfor you guys to be here.
Dusty Smith (41:53):
honestly, I'm honored to have been asked.
Thank you.
Scott Brandley (41:56):
Same Thanks for asking Well cool, that's a wrap,
I think, for episode one.
Um, make sure you go and checkout, uh, dusty's book and
shane's book.
Sherry, you don't have a book,do you?
Sheri Ramirez (42:13):
not yet, maybe one day.
Okay, I wrote it, but gotta getit published great.
Scott Brandley (42:21):
Hey, I submitted my book to Amazon last night at
1230.
It was like a huge win.
It was.
It was a celebration.
Shane Baldwin (42:28):
Congratulations.
When.
When does it?
When does it release?
When's the release date?
Scott Brandley (42:33):
So officially, it's going to be on the 1st of
June, which will be when thisepisode airs.
So you guys, are kind ofbringing it in advance, but
it'll be on this day.
Shane Baldwin (42:44):
Awesome.
Scott Brandley (42:45):
Congratulations.
Dusty Smith (42:47):
Congratulations.
Scott Brandley (42:50):
So thanks again, guys.
Also go check out my book Faithto Stay it's actually I'm
giving away for free.
So you can go get the digitalversion and the audio version on
faithtostaycom and those arecompletely free.
So you can go get the digitalversion and the audio version on
faithtostaycom and those arecompletely free and hopefully
they'll help to improve yourfaith and help others that are
(43:13):
in need.
So I'll leave that.
Thanks again, guys, and we'lltune in next week for another
episode of Latter-day Lights.
Until then, take care, see ya.
Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite hope andinspire others.
On today's episode, we'rediscussing faith in the church
today, what we can do tostrengthen it and how we can
help those who are strugglingwith their faith.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hey everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day
(00:31):
Light.
You probably noticed that thisisn't our normal format.
That's because, throughout thismonth, as part of my official
book launch of my new book,faith to Stay, I'm actually
doing a special five-part series, with each episode related to a
different part of my book, andtoday is the first episode in
(00:51):
that series, and the topic ofour discussion is going to be
faith in the church today.
And with that being said, I'vegot some really cool guests that
know a little bit about faith,and so I'd like to introduce you
guys.
So I'd like to introduce to theshow Dusty Smith, sherry
(01:12):
Ramirez and Shane Baldwin.
How are you guys doing today?
Sheri Ramirez (01:15):
Good.
Dusty Smith (01:16):
Just pinching.
Scott Brandley (01:20):
Yeah well.
So, like I just said before wegot started, this is kind of
like a reunion, because we'vebeen doing the show now for
three years, which is crazy, butwe've never had people come
back on and just have adiscussion like this.
So this is really unique.
And to get started on the topicof faith, I want to give a
(01:45):
little bit of background on yourguys' stories Now.
We'll put links in the shownotes to each one of your guys'
episodes, so if anybody wants tolearn more about your stories,
they can go and do that.
But to kind of kick it off,you've each had some incredible
experiences in your life Tragedy, loss, hope, redemption.
(02:08):
There's a lot of reallyinteresting things that have
happened here.
So, just to start off, I'llstart off with Sherry, and you
can correct me if this is wrong,but this is what I remember
from our episode.
So you got married when youwere 18, right?
Sheri Ramirez (02:28):
19.
So close.
Scott Brandley (02:30):
Okay, you're 19.
And then you found out thatyour husband-to-be had chronic
liver failure.
Sheri Ramirez (02:37):
Chronic kidney disease Yep Close.
Scott Brandley (02:40):
I'm close.
It's been a minute During thattime.
So the time you were married,you were dealing with that right
and going through a lot.
Sheri Ramirez (02:51):
Yeah, I learned what dialysis was, so it was
quite a lot.
Scott Brandley (02:57):
And then he unfortunately died suddenly when
you were 22.
Sheri Ramirez (03:02):
Yep, yep.
He dropped me off at work andhe didn't come back, so that was
the day he had a brain aneurysm.
So we were married for aboutthree and a half years at that
point.
Scott Brandley (03:15):
Okay, and then you ended up getting remarried,
yes, and now you have kids anddoing the thing right.
Sheri Ramirez (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, we're the taxi mom, my teacher, my
husband's deaf, so I've learnedsign language and he actually
was the one that I met firstbefore.
Scott Brandley (03:37):
Right.
Sheri Ramirez (03:38):
Husband that had passed away.
So yeah, it was a full circlethere.
Scott Brandley (03:43):
Awesome, all right, so we got Sherry.
We Awesome, all right, so wegot Sherry.
We got Shane, shane Baldwin.
This was quite the story.
It was well.
I'll kind of tell a little bitof what I remember.
So you basically had everythingthat the world had to offer and
(04:05):
you're doing incredibly well inthe financial world and then
you ultimately lost it all,including your wife, right?
You got divorced.
Shane Baldwin (04:14):
Right.
Scott Brandley (04:15):
And then went to prison for five years and I
remember.
The one of the things that Ireally remember in your story is
you talked about all thesedifferent ways that you could
kill yourself because you didn'twant to keep going and you
starved yourself for 13 days,Was it?
Shane Baldwin (04:34):
13 days and I felt amazing after 13 days, so,
so clearly um.
Killing myself was not not, Icouldn't even starve myself.
Scott Brandley (04:45):
Yeah, and then you kind of went through that,
through that experience, you hadkind of a vision or a dream,
right.
Shane Baldwin (04:55):
Right.
Scott Brandley (04:56):
And it gave you some different options in your
life that you could take and youchose a hard option and kind of
had that redemption throughprison and helped a lot of
people to come closer to God,right.
Shane Baldwin (05:12):
Right.
Sometimes we think, boy, I wishI could go back and do that
differently.
And you come to find out thatthe best path for us is the one
that you're currently on.
And so we all chose our, ourpaths for a different reason,
and we need to, I guess, own ourexperience and that path and
(05:33):
recognize that it was all forour experience and all for our
gain.
Scott Brandley (05:38):
Right, yeah.
And then you wrote a book ofyour experience called the
honest lie.
Shane Baldwin (05:45):
That's right.
Scott Brandley (05:46):
Yeah, so we'll put that in the show notes as
well.
Shane Baldwin (05:49):
I came on your podcast before I had my own
podcast, so and and you guysdidn't cancel me, so I really
appreciate that, because I hadgone on other podcasts and I
just shared my story and itwasn't up for 24 hours and they
turned it off because of all thenegative comments.
I think it's because I looklike a Disney villain character
(06:14):
and so, for whatever reason,they just turned me off.
So I appreciate you guysallowing my story to stay up and
, yeah, you guys inspired me tosay, hey, this podcasting can
really impact people in apositive way and coming on your
show, I had a lot of people thatmessaged me about my story and
(06:36):
it really inspired me to do whatI'm doing right now with Zion
Media.
So I appreciate that, scott.
Scott Brandley (06:41):
Yeah, you bet man.
Then we've got Dusty Smith.
Dusty, your story is prettyincredible too.
You joined the church as aconvert, and you were in your
early 20s right 23, yes.
Okay, right, went on a mission,came back and then ended up
(07:03):
leaving the church and fightingagainst the church for 26 years
and then, through a series ofincredible events, you ended up
coming back and now you defendthe faith right, you can call
them miracles, it's okay, okayyeah, I man.
(07:27):
I've told people you're all ofyour guys stories.
In fact, one of the things I dowhen I finish a podcast, I'll
go out into the living room andI'll tell my kids and my wife
the stories that that we hear.
It's so much fun, wow so that'skind of the background.
Sheri Ramirez (07:44):
Oh, go ahead that's amazing of the background
.
Oh, go ahead.
That's amazing.
I love that you guys can sharethat with each other.
Scott Brandley (07:50):
Yeah, it's kind of a bonding experience for my
family.
Honestly, it's been really cool.
So let's jump into the topic,which is faith in the church
today and the way I started mybook out.
Kind of my background to thiswhole thing is that when I was a
(08:11):
bishop back in 2014, I had twofamilies leave the church and
the first family that left thechurch totally floored me.
I was just a brand new bishop,maybe for a couple months, and
they talked about the churchessays that had just come out
(08:31):
back then and I went and readthem all in one night to try to
help this couple to stay in thechurch and I ended up having a
faith crisis of my own and itwas pretty scary, because one of
the things about our faith isthat it's ingrained into
(08:52):
everything we do, every decisionwe make, all of our friends,
our social circles, even thekind of jobs we do.
I mean, it's it's veryingrained into our lives and I
remember thinking what happensif this isn't true?
(09:14):
How does how, what does my lifelook like, and?
But ultimately I was able toovercome that and that's kind of
how I overcame.
That is part of my book, sothat's kind of my background to
that.
But as we get into this topicof faith in the church, the
first question I want to throwout there is why do you guys
(09:36):
think faith in general is soimportant in our lives?
Why is it important to havefaith?
Dusty Smith (09:43):
Well, if you don't have faith, then there's no
reason.
If you don't have reason, thenwhat's the point?
And that's pretty simplistic.
But faith is what you've got tohave faith in something, and it
might be faith in your family,faith in your wife that causes
you to get up every morning andhave that good marriage, faith
(10:03):
in your job that you're going tohave a job tomorrow.
So faith is the starting pointof almost everything we do.
But to give your life purposeyou have to have faith.
To not have faith, I can'timagine what it would be like to
not have faith in God, becausethen your life really does not
have a purpose and you have nohope for anything past death.
(10:26):
And what a terrible existencethat would be.
Scott Brandley (10:31):
When you fell away from the church.
How did that?
When you're talking abouthaving purpose, what happened in
your life?
Dusty Smith (10:39):
Well, okay, so many people who leave the church
become they claim to becomeatheist.
Ok, I don't.
Again, I don't believe inatheism.
I think to say there is no God,as an atheist would say, to
know that that there is no Godmeans you are a God to know that
(11:00):
.
So it kind of defeats thepurpose of being an atheist to
say that there is no God,because then you become a God.
I think the best you can say isyou don't believe there's a God
, but regardless, I never didthat.
I stayed.
I always believed in God.
So I never lost my faith in God.
I lost my faith in what Ithought was an evil church.
(11:21):
Um, and I was Catholic for everuntil I came back to the church
.
Scott Brandley (11:27):
Gotcha Shane, what you're going to say,
something.
Shane Baldwin (11:31):
Yeah, I mean, I mean faith is the first
principle of the gospel and Imean it's the, it's the reason
we take action.
For me I have this bracelet on.
This is a.
I got this.
Uh, this was before prison,this bracelet, and on this
bracelet it says faith.
And when I went to prison, they,they take everything from you,
I mean everything.
They took this bracelet from meand and I faith is so important
(11:56):
to me I want to be reminded ofit every day.
So literally, these guys inprison would grab uh garbage
bags and they would cut theminto these little skinny strips
and then they would braidgarbage bags together and they
would use color pencil to dyesome of the garbage bag.
And I paid somebody in prisonwith with ramen noodles to make
(12:20):
me a bracelet that said faith.
And the whole time I was inprison I wore that, that
bracelet of faith.
And I, uh, when I got out, I putthis bracelet on with my other
bracelet and I, I said once, um,once that bracelet that was
made for me in prison out ofthis garbage bag falls off, then
I know that that my face, faithhas now become sufficient and
(12:44):
it fell off a couple of yearsago, and so I feel like, okay,
I'm getting there, I'm makingprogress with my faith.
This one still stays on becauseI still have to continue to
exercise that faith muscle.
But faith is extremelyimportant.
As Dusty said, it's thestarting point of all action.
(13:05):
Without faith, you wouldn'thave any purpose.
Scott Brandley (13:11):
Wow.
Sheri Ramirez (13:14):
Yeah, I do.
I want to add to that.
I think, for everything that'sbeen said is so truly beautiful.
When I think of faith and whenI think of the life that I've
lived, I feel like for me, faithis also the faith of how much
love God has for me and also thelove that comes from other
(13:37):
people, having faith that, as weendure, our worth is always
there, the faith that we camefrom God and his light is inside
of us.
I think that struggle has alwaysbeen so raw for me at every
single phase of my life,distinguishing that worth and
(13:57):
worthiness are two entirelydifferent things.
Our worth can never be taken.
That was given to us, and Ithink so many women feel like
they have to prove themselves tothe world, and so having faith
is such a deep seed that youhave to really plant and nourish
(14:20):
every single day, because it'sso easy to forget how much love
he has and having the faith thathe's there and that his love is
really the only one thatmatters the most.
But we live in a world ofsocial media and being online,
with so many attacks andjudgment and people, and even in
(14:41):
our everyday lives, I thinkfaith is just kind of that seed
that lets everything flourish.
So as long as you're plantingthat seed of faith and
everything in your life in everyaspect, I feel like that's what
you get to hold on to.
Scott Brandley (14:58):
Okay, okay.
Well, that kind of ties intothat.
You said social media, and thatkind of brings up my next
question, because I think thisis related.
There's a lot of distractionsin the world today and there's a
lot of members that are havingfaith issues and a lot that are
(15:21):
even leaving the church.
Why do you think members arehaving so many faith issues
today?
Shane Baldwin (15:29):
Listen, we have so much information out there
right now and when you stopreading the Book of Mormon and
you start reading other things,it can create a faith crisis.
And I tell everybody that comesto me that's having a faith
crisis.
I'm like, how often are youreading the book of Mormon and
(15:49):
for how long?
Every day, and most of the timeit's like, well, I haven't been
reading the book of Mormon.
And I'm like, well, what areyou reading?
And they're reading stuffonline and I'm like, okay, do
this for me, quit reading thisstuff online and for the next 30
days, just read the book ofMormon for 30 minutes for the
next 30 days and then come backto me and tell me if you're
still struggling and having thisfaith crisis every single time.
(16:11):
For every single person that'swilling to do that, their faith
crisis seems to be fixed.
But for a lot of them, they'reunwilling to go back to the
first works the book of Mormonand because they're something
that is, in their mind, moreinteresting online with what
somebody else is saying orthey're watching some podcast or
they're reading something, andthey got to get back to the
(16:36):
scriptures in my mind.
I know Dusty has something onthis, because he's doing
firesides all over the place andhe's probably interacting with
people that their children aredealing with this challenge.
Dusty Smith (16:46):
I get this question quite a bit.
The problem that we have isthat people tend to get wrapped
around the axle about thingsthat they shouldn't get wrapped
around the axle about.
And I tell people go back tothe basics, because what you
(17:07):
find and you ask people, okay,so why are you having trouble?
Well, I read this about thechurch that Joseph Smith did
this back when he married aFanny Alger or something like
that.
You know it's this stuff and Iwould tell people number one you
(17:31):
cannot, cannot, it's not fairand it should never happen that
you judge people in the 1800susing your 2025 moral goggles.
You can't do that because andyou better hope that no people
20 years, 200 years from now,don't judge you with their moral
goggles, because they're goingto find things about us they
didn't like.
So go back to the basics and Itell people did Joseph Smith
(17:54):
have the first vision?
Yes, did he interpret the Bookof Mormon?
Yes, after that, what elsereally matters, truly, what else
really matters?
So, go back to the basics.
Don't let the things you don'tknow overcome the things that
you do know.
As Elder Uchtdorf said, don'tlet your doubts overcome your
faith.
Go back to the basics and pray.
(18:15):
A testimony is like a livingorganism If you don't feed it
and water it, it will die.
If you feed it the wrong things, it will die.
So you have to take care ofyour testimony.
You have to take care of yourfaith.
And it goes back to the faiththat Sherry was talking about,
that faith that just guides you.
Scott Brandley (18:36):
If you got to go back to that, yeah, I mean when
I, when I had my faith crisis,the thing that brought me back?
I went on a lot of walks duringthat time trying to figure it
out.
The thing that brought me backis I had this impression in in
my mind.
To break down my faith into itsmost basic, fundamental pieces,
(18:59):
like you're saying, Dusty, andI came up with five at the time
Is God real?
Is Christ the Savior of theworld?
Is Joseph Smith a prophet?
Is the Church of Jesus Christtrue?
And is the Book of Mormon true?
And I had to build that back uppiece by piece but, like you
said, those fundamentals makeall the difference.
Sheri Ramirez (19:22):
And then I just want to add to that I think,
dusty, what you're talking about, that living organism, it's
whatever you're feeding it.
That was exactly on point withwhat I was thinking too.
I feel like it's so easy to bein the busy world, and it's so
easy to be in the busy world andit's so easy to click into an
app and you just start scrollingand it's so mindless that you
(19:43):
lose track of time, and thiswill probably happen every
single day for most people.
Or you're posting something,and so it's this constant
feeding of yourself, of theworld, and getting that
connection with other people,because that's what I do
sometimes and I get caught inthat trap.
And then I realized what I'mdoing and I'm like, well, what's
the most basic, essential,important thing in my life?
(20:06):
And that's my family.
But what am I doing?
I'm scrolling on my phone,trying to get information and
feeding myself whatever comesfrom my phone.
So I think a lot of people justdo that out of habit, whatever
comes from my phone.
So I think a lot of people justdo that out of habit.
But a habit for me is notusually clicking into the Book
of Mormon app, so I feel likethat's something that could be a
good challenge, like Shane wastalking about, how he said the
(20:29):
30 days about you go and readthe Book of Mormon for 30 days.
That's an amazing way to breakit down, because sometimes it
feels overwhelming.
I feel overwhelmed to read oldEnglish and to read the
scripture sometimes, but when Iplan a lesson to teach my
teenagers for Sunday school, I'mlike, okay, it's not that
(20:51):
complicated.
So then it's kind of likebreaking it down for me.
So I think sometimes it'simportant to maybe set small
goals so that you can feed thatorganism with the right things.
Scott Brandley (21:02):
Yeah, that makes sense.
The second family that left thechurch when I was a bishop.
One of the reasons they left isbecause they got distracted and
they started looking at othersources, which is you guys have
kind of all mentioned Like, onceyou get distracted, you look at
other sources other than thescriptures or or the prophets.
(21:26):
It's easy to get caught up inthe world, you know.
Ok, let's go on to the next one.
How has your life been affectedby the trials that you've had
to go through?
Your faith?
How's your faith been affectedby the trials you've had to go
through?
Dusty Smith (21:51):
Well, I will tell you that there is no scarier
words that you will ever hearthan when the doctor says you've
got cancer, and that that thatrocked my world.
I mean, I got the news thefirst week of January of 22.
(22:15):
And my first thought was I'mnot going to have to do New
Year's resolutions.
You know, I don't think that Iwould have been able to get
through cancer and I'm still notthrough it.
I have all kinds of radiationafter effects, but I don't think
I would have been able to getthrough cancer if not for my
(22:36):
faith.
I don't think I would have beenable to get through cancer if
not for my faith.
You know, I would pray and Iwould say Heavenly Father, I
know you have the power to healme, but your will be done.
I gave it up to him and said ifit's my time, it's my time, but
your will be done.
And the Lord brought me throughcancer and and watched, you know
(22:57):
, took care of the surgeons asthey operated on my throat and
my, my neck, and and I, if youhave, if you have that faith,
you never, I never once felt, Inever asked why me?
I always said why not me?
I always said why not me?
(23:25):
When you have that faith, youtake your personal out of it and
you give it to him andtherefore you don't have that
blaming, I'm blaming God.
Someone said, well, why did Godgive you cancer?
Well, god didn't give me cancer, he brought me through cancer.
And when my grandson died acouple of years ago, people said
why did God take your grandson?
And my words were he didn'ttake my grandson, he welcomed my
(23:47):
grandson.
You know.
So if you have that faith, itcan take you through anything,
but you just got to give it toGod.
But you just got to give it toGod.
Shane Baldwin (23:59):
Wow, I know for me.
I was going through mytribulation and I remember
reading the story of Joseph, whogot sold into Egypt, who was in
prison, and as I read his wholestory I thought to myself, man,
if he can rise from this pit,so can I.
(24:21):
And that story of him helped mehave faith that I was exactly
where I needed to be.
And as soon as I figured outthat the way to get myself out
of my tribulation is to helpsomebody else out of theirs, the
(24:42):
whole shift happened for me,and it allowed me in prison to,
instead of saying oh, poor me, Iwas instead helping and serving
other people get out of theirpit, which pulled me out of mine
.
Scott Brandley (24:55):
This is so fun, which pulled me out of mine.
This is so fun.
It's just incredible to hearyour guys' different experiences
and how you viewed faith andyour trials in your lives.
How about you, sherry?
Sheri Ramirez (25:07):
I feel like mine's ongoing.
I don't really feel likethere's a beginning or an end,
but I did choose into infidelitywith my first husband and that
was pretty heartbreaking becausewe were at the point where I
had chosen into infidelity notsexual, but it was still
(25:27):
physical and emotional and thenhe passed and it was pretty
devastating to know that we werenot going to go on that journey
together being able to heal.
But I did learn of Christbetter when I learned that I can
still have those healingconversations with my first
(25:49):
husband and I really truly feellike a lot of my faith comes
from my husbands.
They really truly teach me alot that I just have this
selfishness in me and I thinkthat was kind of taught to me
from the adults when I was young.
But being able to heal with myfirst husband through multiple
(26:12):
conversations, I just feel likegoing through that veil is just
so pure and it's so hard todescribe.
But when you could feel thatand connect with someone on the
other side, there's just thelove that he has is what I'm
going to say my first husband,that love that was inside of him
(26:34):
, that he has for me, and thegrace and the forgiveness and
the repentance.
I can't tell you how many timesmultiplied that would be coming
from Christ.
So, being able to feel it froma human that I was able to have
you know my journey with, I canonly imagine how much love
(26:55):
Christ has for everybody.
Only imagine how much loveChrist has for everybody.
So I think that's my reminderevery day.
When I get into that selfishmindset of like I got to take
care of myself and make sure youknow that I have all my needs
met as the main provider in myhome, all the time I always feel
like my cup is depleted.
So I just feel like the trialscome every day.
(27:18):
But the bigger trials, you know, have been in the past, as I
also chose into emotionalinfidelity with my current
husband and he chose to staywith me.
So that is just such atestament to the strength of God
and his love that he has forhis children that my husband
(27:40):
would choose to stay withsomebody you know who was not
faithful.
That's extremely hard forsomeone to stick with just
because it's easy to getdivorced.
These days I feel like back,you know, in my parents' time.
It wasn't as simple, but ittruly is, and I feel like our
world does teach us about howeasy it is to get divorced and
(28:00):
how fun and exciting it seems.
But it's not such a simpleanswer and there's just so many
complexities with everyrelationship and so, whatever
way it went and whatever way myhusband chose who I'm currently
with, I just have seen the lovethat he's given me, so I feel
(28:23):
like that's a true Testament toGod reaching out, telling me
like there's so much more beyondthis life.
We have to do the best that youcan and be as faithful and
repent now.
Scott Brandley (28:36):
Yeah, I think we do have big.
There's big things that happenin our lives that really test
our faith and you guys have hadsome of those really big moments
.
But there are, like you said,sherry, there's it's kind of an
ongoing battle.
Right when you think you've gotit, then God throws you a curve
ball and you're like oh, Idon't got it.
Sheri Ramirez (28:57):
Every time it then God throws you a curveball
and you're like, oh, I don't gotit Every time.
Scott Brandley (29:09):
So I guess the next question would be how do
you keep your faith strong today?
What are there things that youdo to keep going, to keep
building your faith as you go onin life?
Dusty Smith (29:19):
building your faith as you go on in life.
I think we've talked about that.
I think that we talked aboutreading the scriptures, praying,
going to church, being a partof that church family, doing the
things that going to the temple, you know, doing the things
that we have been taught thatwill increase our faith,
(29:41):
strengthen our faith andsometimes it's not so much
increasing it as it isstrengthening it, because you're
going to get beat downsometimes and if you're not
prepared for those spiritualbattles look, when I left the
church back in 89, I was notprepared for a spiritual battle.
I wasn't physically prepared,mentally prepared, emotionally
prepared.
I was in law school.
(30:01):
I wasn't prepared for that.
We have to do those things thatwe talked about to strengthen
and feed our testimonies and ourfaith.
Faith in order to be preparedwhen life does send its cancers
or its prisons or its death orits loss.
(30:24):
If your testimony or faith isweak, then you have a risk of
that being shattered whensomething really really terrible
comes up.
Sheri Ramirez (30:39):
I think for me it's also checkpoints.
I ruminate in my head and Ioften get stuck in spiraling
thoughts, and so this happensevery day.
If I get a negative comment onmy platform, I will spiral and
think they're attacking mycharacter.
It's really hard for me stillyears later.
(31:00):
But I have people who I checkin with and sometimes I'm like,
hey, I'm spiraling, so I knowexactly who to go to when I feel
stuck, because it really takespeople for me to be able to
dissect through that.
But the other thing that I'vebeen doing recently is I go on
Google and I will type ingeneral conference talks and
(31:23):
then like a keyword like divineworth and like it'll pull up the
most beautiful talks.
It's like God speaking to methrough the internet, good
things feeding my soul, and thenI get to click and it's like
that's where I get hooked andit's way better than scrolling.
So that's been my new likescroll addiction, but it's been
(31:45):
a good one.
So I really like that piece ofit, cause I don't connect as
well reading the scriptures.
Scott Brandley (31:52):
That's a good idea.
Shane Baldwin (31:54):
Yeah, I listen, I know, I know.
For me, uh, one of the greatestblessings has been I mean, I've
filmed a three podcast today ofthe greatest blessings has been
I mean, I've filmed threepodcasts today.
And so for me, being able toshare the gospel and do
missionary work throughinterviewing people or talking
to people or have a podcast.
(32:14):
I have a guy I meet with atseven o'clock every morning.
He lives in I don't knowMonticello or somewhere crazy,
but he and I get on at seveno'clock in the morning and right
now we're studying the book ofMalachi.
We just finished the book ofrevelation.
So I try to find opportunitiesfor me to interact with other
people.
And what I find is, as I helpother people build their faith,
it builds my faith.
(32:35):
And so I'm constantly lookingfor opportunities to do that,
because I've noticed, when I'mnot doing that, when I'm not
helping other people build theirfaith, my faith diminishes some
.
And I've noticed and it's trueeven if for those of us who have
been on a mission man, ourfaith is so strong and so
(32:56):
powerful during that timebecause we are helping other
people with their faith.
And so, if you want to increaseyour faith, help others,
increase theirs and it increasesyours, and it's a really cool
thing that we can do to increaseour faith by helping others
increase theirs.
Scott Brandley (33:14):
Wow, I love that .
Yeah, I think that doing thispodcast has been a huge blessing
in my life and really helped mewith my faith, definitely get a
different perspective and havemore empathy for people, for
what they're going through andthe struggles.
And I don't cry, but Aliciadoes all the time.
(33:35):
I feel it inside, but the tearsjust don't come out of my eyes.
I don't know what it is side,but the tears just don't come
out of my eyes.
I don't know what it is.
Yeah, all right, so this hasbeen awesome.
Thank you guys so much for yourtime.
I want to kind of end it onwhat.
(33:55):
Well, kind of leave it up toyou.
What would you guys want toshare with people that are
struggling with their faith?
Just from your personalexperiences in life, what's the
thing that you'd like to shareto help people that are
struggling?
Shane Baldwin (34:11):
Sherry, I feel like you got something.
Sheri Ramirez (34:12):
I do, but I'm trying to formulate it, I'll get
it out.
Okay, I feel like, as a woman,I constantly compare myself and
so I die inside of comparisonevery single day, like truly
suffocate myself.
So I feel like a lot of people,a lot of women, especially
(34:35):
being on social media.
You just compare yourself andyou think, well, why can't I do
this, why am I not better, whyam I not not, not, not, not.
So you get into this spiral andit's super easy because you're
constantly being throwndifferent things all day long.
So it really takes a lot ofstrength to ground yourself.
(34:56):
But I feel like the worldgrounding yourself is different
than spiritually groundingyourself, feel like the world
grounding yourself is differentthan spiritually grounding
yourself.
So I feel like there's a finebalance of being able to pick
from both but also reallytouching on that spirituality
and connection with Christ,because you can ground yourself,
you know and be present, and itcan feel nice, but it doesn't
(35:20):
last and I have learned thatthat is super important to
remember my worth by groundingmyself and doing different
things like listening to generalconference talks or
communicating.
Hey, I need like 30 minutes tomyself today, or else I'm just
not going to be nice.
So being able to communicatehas been important for me as a
(35:44):
woman, learning that that iscrucial for me to not burn out.
So I think when you do takethat time for yourself, feed
yourself positively and nourishyourself, especially in faith,
uplifting material, because it'sso easy to just scroll for that
30 minutes if you choose to,but then you're still going to
(36:06):
feel depleted and you have to goon with your weeks and take
care of your kids, usually ifyou have kids.
But that's my advice is totruly nourish yourself with
something that's going to upliftyou every single day and make
sure that you really get thattime to yourself, because it's
easy to give everything awayuntil you're depleted and then
(36:30):
you don't know who you areanymore and you're just
struggling.
So that's my biggest piece ofadvice.
And also to remember TamaraRunin in the April conference.
I wrote it down because I'llforget Tamara Runin in the April
conference.
I wrote it down because I'llforget.
She said worth isn't tied toobedience, it's constant and
it's given to us by God.
So that's been the biggestblessing after hearing her talk.
(36:59):
It's different than worth, andso or worthiness sorry,
worthiness is different thanworth.
So no one can take that fromyou.
No matter what people think ofyou, what they say about you,
your worth is from God.
So that was just superresonating for me, as I live in
the world.
But I don't.
I'm not in the world, sokeeping myself grounded in that
way, I love that.
Scott Brandley (37:22):
I love spiritual scrolling instead of doom
scrolling.
Sheri Ramirez (37:25):
Yeah.
Scott Brandley (37:25):
It changes the dynamic.
That's a really good insight.
I'll go ahead.
I'll go ahead and take this.
Shane Baldwin (37:32):
Okay, yeah.
So I think when we are havingfaith crises, we need to be open
about it, we need to talk aboutit, and the first place to go
is probably your heavenly fatherand go have an out loud
conversation.
Go on a walk, go on a hike andstart asking God the questions
(37:57):
that are resounding in your mindand start asking God for
clarity and for answers.
And whatever's not making sensefor you or whatever's not
clicking for you, or whateverdoctrine you're struggling with
or what you read you'restruggling, go ask God, go be
serious, go on a fast, go fastfor two days, fast for three
(38:19):
days and seek an answer from Godand you will get an answer he
has promised us.
Ask and ye shall receive.
And I know that's true.
And even in a faith crisis it'shard because maybe you're
struggling.
Is God even there?
Does God even hear me?
Does God even know me?
And I promise, if you'll justexercise a little bit of faith
(38:40):
and start having thatconversation, that open
communication with your heavenlyfather, you'll start to solve
things and pay attention, notjust when you're talking to God,
but listen to the voice, as thevoice speaks to you, give time
for God to speak as well and sitthere and you may think, oh
well, is this just me talking?
No, it's not.
And sit there and you may think, oh well, is this just me
(39:01):
talking?
No, it's not.
If you're asking a question,listen to that voice inside of
your mind that is giving youanswers.
Pay attention to the songs thatcome on as you're asking these
questions, or whatever it is,because God is constantly trying
to speak to us, if we're aware,and so I often tell people hey,
go have an open conversationwith God, share your frustration
(39:26):
, share your challenges withyour faith and seek answers
there.
But oftentimes we go and seekanswers from other people that
are having a faith crisis thatwe can commiserate with and
you're going to get what you'relooking for.
But if you truly want truth andyou really want to know if God
is there and you're strugglingwith your faith or you're
(39:48):
struggling with church historyor whatever it is, take it to
God.
Go and take it to God and seekan answer and he will give you
an answer.
Scott Brandley (39:56):
I love that.
Dusty Smith (39:59):
I think that when someone comes to me and they say
I'm having a faith crisis, myresponse is usually that means
you have faith, because youcan't have a faith crisis if you
don't have faith.
So you have to pay moreattention to the faith part of
that and not the crisis part ofthat, because if you ask God to
(40:20):
give you better, more faith andstronger faith, guess what that
means?
You're going to be tested OK.
Your faith doesn't get strongerjust because you go to go to
bed and say give me strongerfaith.
You wake up next morning, gowow, I have stronger faith today
.
No, you're given those faithchallenges to help build your
faith.
So when someone says I have afaith crisis, I tell them that
(40:41):
means you have faith.
You can't have a crisis offaith unless you have that faith
.
So lean on the faith part ofthat and not the crisis part of
that.
You have to give God a chanceand give yourself a chance for
that faith to grow and lean onhim, lean on the word, lean on
(41:01):
your friends.
Call somebody.
I get so many emails andmessages from people just saying
will you pray for me, will youpray with me?
And I tell people all the time.
Just give it to God.
And they'll say, well, I can'tsleep tonight, I couldn't sleep
because I had.
I say, well, give it to God,he'll be up all night anyway,
(41:23):
you know.
So it's it's, it's a.
It's a matter of focusing onthe faith and not on the crisis.
Scott Brandley (41:33):
Wow, man, I just feel so fortunate to be here
and be with you guys.
Thank you so much for sharingyour thoughts and your time with
me and with our viewers.
It's a real treat and an honorfor you guys to be here.
Dusty Smith (41:53):
honestly, I'm honored to have been asked.
Thank you.
Scott Brandley (41:56):
Same Thanks for asking Well cool, that's a wrap,
I think, for episode one.
Um, make sure you go and checkout, uh, dusty's book and
shane's book.
Sherry, you don't have a book,do you?
Sheri Ramirez (42:13):
not yet, maybe one day.
Okay, I wrote it, but gotta getit published great.
Scott Brandley (42:21):
Hey, I submitted my book to Amazon last night at
1230.
It was like a huge win.
It was.
It was a celebration.
Shane Baldwin (42:28):
Congratulations.
When.
When does it?
When does it release?
When's the release date?
Scott Brandley (42:33):
So officially, it's going to be on the 1st of
June, which will be when thisepisode airs.
So you guys, are kind ofbringing it in advance, but
it'll be on this day.
Shane Baldwin (42:44):
Awesome.
Scott Brandley (42:45):
Congratulations.
Dusty Smith (42:47):
Congratulations.
Scott Brandley (42:50):
So thanks again, guys.
Also go check out my book Faithto Stay it's actually I'm
giving away for free.
So you can go get the digitalversion and the audio version on
faithtostaycom and those arecompletely free.
So you can go get the digitalversion and the audio version on
faithtostaycom and those arecompletely free and hopefully
they'll help to improve yourfaith and help others that are
(43:13):
in need.
So I'll leave that.
Thanks again, guys, and we'lltune in next week for another
episode of Latter-day Lights.
Until then, take care, see ya.
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