From Addiction and Temptation to Triumphant Redemption: Joe McCally's Story - Latter-Day Lights - LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Episode Transcript
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Scott Brandley (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brantley.

Alisha Coakley (00:02):
And I'm Alisha Coakley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite growth andinspire others.

On today's episode we're going to hear how
one man's journey of faith hasshown him that God is in
relentless pursuit of us andwill exhaust every possible
measure to bring us back to Him.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hey everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day

(00:37):
Lights.
We're so glad you're here withus today.
We're really excited tointroduce our special guest, joe
McCally, to the show.
Joe, welcome.

Joe McCally (00:43):
Yeah, thank you.
Welcome to you as well.

Thank you, I am so excited.
We had your dad on a few monthsago and his story was just so
beautiful and it was so filledwith a spirit, and so when you
reached out and you were likeI'm just feeling like I should
tell you ours too, I was soexcited.
I love it because I feel likeit kind of connects multiple
stories together.
You know, like I know, youwon't really be talking about

(01:08):
the same things that your daddid, but just just having like
like that knowledge of likewhere he came from and then
knowing where you came from andwhatever else, I think it's
going to be a really good one.
So I'm super excited to haveyou on and very, very thankful
that you reached out to us todayto have you on, and very, very
thankful that you reached out tous today.

Yeah, I'm kind of glad I did, but it was more of
my daughters said dad, you'vegot to tell your story.
Um and especially since you,you got to do it.
You, you got to tell your sideof the story.
And, um, my oldest daughteralways tells me that she loves
my conversion story and it's thebest conversion story I've ever

(01:51):
heard in her words is what shehas told me Aww, yeah, so that's
where it put me is reaching outto you folks.

Yep, awesome.
Well, you mentioned you have atleast two daughters.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit more about yourself?

Sure, I am the father of four.
I have three daughters.
The oldest is 24.
The twins, boy and a girl inthe middle, are 20.
And then the youngest is 19.
Um, wife and I for the mostpart had almost eight months of

(02:34):
being empty nesters.
Um, our youngest daughter tooka job here in town and came back
from.
They all moved to to Idaho, sonew Idaho kind of thing, and so
but yeah, that's kind of wherewe're at now.
The twins are married, justcelebrated a year.

(02:58):
So the boy and the girl gotmarried.

Like they're twins and they got married in
the same year yeah, the sameyear.

What are the chances of that?
Well, the son is about just shyof two hours older than his
sister, but he got married amonth or two after she did oh,
oh, okay, gotcha, I bet yourwallet didn't appreciate that
very much.

(03:29):
It wasn't bad because we had alot of volunteers.
My wife is creative as well, asher family is too, and
everybody just pitched in and itdidn't really cost a lot, but
it did cost something.
So it it worked out.
However, my son, on the otherhand, he decided to get married
in Texas and, yeah, that wasmore expensive.

Where at in Texas.

What is that?
Commerce, Texas Okay.
I'm not familiar with thatnumber.
I think it's northeast ofDallas, fort Worth area.
Okay, gotcha, very cool.
We went down there.
We pulled the fifth wheel allthe way down there.
It was in the park and atornado hit in the area.

(04:21):
So we thought like well, we'regoing to be like Dorothy and
we're not going to end up inKansas anymore, kind of thing.
It was rocking the RV and thefifth wheel and it was
interesting.
The slide outs kept pushing andbuffeting in with the wind and
whatnot, but it didn't actuallytouch down exactly where we were
.
But we were getting themicrobursts and the heavy winds

(04:46):
while we were there.
But the wedding was great, itwas beautiful.
I will never go back to Texasin the summer.
That's when my son and wife nowdecided to get married.
Humidity is terrible.
All the wedding pictures.
I am literally wringing wet.

(05:06):
So my coat is dark and therewasn't an inch of me that wasn't
covered in sweat.
And I learned a new thing toowhile I was down there that you
get something that's calledswamp fingers, really like
you've stuck your fingers inwarm water and let them smoke,
yeah.
And I told my daughter-in-law'suncle I said is this a normal

(05:33):
thing?
He goes yeah, it's normal.
We call it swamp finger, butjust be careful, when you grab
onto something and twist, it'llrip your skin off.
It's like okay, that's good toknow.
Yes, yeah, oh my gosh, wow sowhat do you?

Yeah, oh, my gosh Wow.

So what do you do?

for a living, Joe.

Well, I am an RN.
I have been for the last 16years.
I just recently took a job witha community college doing
nursing education, so it's justwithin the last couple of weeks
no, excuse me, last three weeksI've been working as a clinical

(06:10):
instructor for a communitycollege in Eastern Montana.

Nice, that's really cool.

Yeah, I've been married for 25 years to the love
of my life.
Yeah, which is an interestingstory that we'll get into later.
It's part of the the transitionor the story of my life, I
guess, is how it's put.

So I love it.
Well, I'm excited, so I want tohear more.
Let's go ahead and turn thetime over to you, and you can
let us know where your storybegins.

Sure, I guess we can go all the way back to the
beginning.
I was born in November of 1972,which is exactly just shy of
exactly one year after my folkswere married, which, if you've
listened to the podcast at all,you'd know his story.

(07:08):
He got married in Idaho Fallsin 1971, november I believe it
was 16th and I was born the nextyear on the 9th of November.
I am the oldest of Larry andJudy McCally and for any all
intents and purposes, I mean Ihad a normal childhood.

(07:31):
I was raised and taught bygoodly parents, as Nephi talks
about, and sort of grew up inthat 70s era where it's like you
get told to go outside and playand then the door gets locked
behind you.
Well, yeah, we survived from thegarden, clothes and playing

(07:55):
outside, you know, and that'swhat we did.
We just we were outside all thetime and I, you, I always
really did enjoy that, that sortof normal childhood.
Um, I uh don't know why, but,uh, my mother and I have a very
strong connection.
Um, I don't know if it was herdeepest desire to have a, a boy

(08:20):
or not, but, um, I guess youcould call me a mama's boy, but
it doesn't matter, I don't care.
I'm all of six foot one andwell over 300 pounds, and at one
point in my life I used to beable to bench press 625 pounds.

So you know, it's just something, holy cow
yeah, gosh, stripling warrior,mama's boy, I think, is the term
for that one which is funny.

I mean with with that, you know, being so
connected to my mother.
Um, I'm gonna, I'll tell astory on her.
Um, growing up, of course wehad that wonderful connection,
but one day she smacked me sohard she knocked a tooth out of

(09:15):
my mouth.
Oh no, she smacked me so hardthat a tooth fell out of my face
.

Holy cow Did you ?

deserve it, though.
What's that?
Did you deserve it, though?
What's that?
Did you deserve it?
Though, as paul harvey wouldsay, the rest of the story is I
was sauce mouth and her and shesmacked me, but the tooth was
already loose anyway.
So you know, it's it'sperspective.
How you tell the story is howit's perceived.
So when I start right, mom hitme and she smacked me and

(09:48):
knocked a tooth out of my facewhen I was young.
But the rest of the story is,yes, I deserve it.
So you know, at the time,growing up I mean, as earlier I
was talking with Scott, I'm fromnowhere and everywhere all at

(10:13):
the same time and because wemoved around and I'm sure if you
listen to dad's story you knowthat he worked for GM and he got
moved around a lot but at thetime when I was first born, we
lived in Oregon City, oregon,and in Oregon City, depending on

(10:33):
where you are, it's all on ahill.
So you're either on hilltop andeverything is downhill, or you
live somewhere in between.
So if you want to go up, it'salways uphill or downhill.
So for me, once I got to gradeschool age, it was a mile to the
elementary school and it wasall downhill, no big deal, not a

(10:56):
problem.
But going home it was alluphill.
Going back to the house, andit's not that well, it was
uphill both ways.
No, it was downhill was goingto and uphill was coming back.
And I really, during gradeschool I absolutely I hated the

(11:16):
walk.
It was a mile one way and therewas no bus and we had to walk
it.
Rain, winter sleet, kind oflike the postal service, you
know rain, sleet, hail or itdoesn't matter.
You went and not going toschool was not an option, but

(11:37):
mom would kick us out of thehouse.
She was a housewife and thatwas a kind of a constant in my
life, that mom was always there,which later in life I came to
appreciate.
But when I talk with friendsit's like I don't want to go to
my house, but they always wantedto come to my house because mom
was there, which is an oddscenario.

(11:58):
But with that having to go toschool and walking back, one day
while I was walking home, in mymind I'm thinking and pondering
like, oh, I hate this walk, whydo I have to walk this every
day?
I wish somebody would just stopand pick me up.

(12:20):
Pick me up and I was probablywithin a half a mile of being
home and this 1970s sedan pulledover and rolled down the window
and said hey, your mom sent meto pick you up, you want to ride
?
And while I was standing thereon the side of the road hearing

(12:43):
this gentleman, this man, whileI was standing there on the side
of the road, hearing thisgentleman, this man, which there
was no one else in the car, sayyou know, come here.
You know, I'll give you a ride.
You know, your mom sent me tocome get you.
That was sort of the beginningof hearing the spirit talk to me

(13:05):
and tell me.
And during that thatinteraction with that man, I
clearly heard a voice say do notget in that car.
And then I thought, well, maybeI should, why not?
But it was so powerful and sooverwhelming I heard it again do

(13:26):
not get in the car with thatman.
And of course I did listen toit.
I'm like thank you, no, I'mjust right here, you know.
And no, he left.
But that was like one of thosetimes where the Lord reached out
and said I'm going to protectyou and please listen to me.

(13:50):
And at that time I did listento him and honestly I firmly
believe, had I not listened tohim, I probably wouldn't be here
today.
Him, I probably wouldn't behere today.
So it was pretty interesting.

I'm sorry.
I was just asking how old wereyou when that happened.

I was probably six, maybe seven about that time.
Oh wow, yeah, I startedkindergarten when I was five.
Of course, because I was bornin November, I would either be
the oldest or the youngest,depending on where I started.

So, mom started me at five and I was always the
youngest all the way throughschool.
Wow, like to remember that,like I don't think I remember
hardly anything when I was sixor seven years old.
Really, I mean very, verylittle, but like that must've
been a really big impression,you know.

It was huge, and a lot of my childhood memories I
don't remember, except for thesespiritual high points.
I suffer from sleep apnea andwas undiagnosed until I was
about 26.
So a lot of my long-termmemories when I was younger I
just don't have.

(15:16):
But these high points, thesehigh spiritual moments and
significant events, I doremember quite well.
Life progressed after that asbest to describe it.
He was a pedophile that waslooking for his prey and I was

(15:37):
having to be on the road at thattime and I'm truly grateful
that the Lord helped me in thatsituation and especially truly
grateful that I actuallylistened at that time.
I don't always listen, asyou'll see as my story

(15:57):
progresses, but at that time Idid listen and I'm very grateful
that I did.
But at that time I did listenand I'm very grateful that I did
.
Later on, as I progressedthrough life, we're still living
in Oregon City.
We moved to a newer house whichwas probably four blocks away
from the original house where welived and there was a deep

(16:22):
canyon.
That was at the Oregon CityHigh School.
If anybody that listens to thishas seen the old Oregon City

(16:42):
High School, the football fieldis down in a canyon.
There was an old growth pinetree up on one side of the
canyon that had those big ropesthat you kind of climb in gym
class and it shimmied up thetree and tied it off and had cut
the branches all below that andyou could swing as a pendulum

(17:06):
out across this big canyon.
And at full swing of thependulum on this rope you were
probably four stories off theground and I want to say I was
probably seven, maybe eight, andI wanted to do it.
I had done it a couple of timesbut I just, you know, kind of,

(17:27):
you know slow, didn't really getget a good run at it and
finally built up the courage, uh, one time, to get a good run at
it and really swing out there.
And as I hit the apex of thependulum I lost my grip and that
was the last thing that Iremember.
At that point, friends say thatI ended up in the blackberry

(17:54):
bushes down below and thatsomehow I had gotten up and
started walking home.
I don't remember the walk.
I don't remember the walk.
Until I got within two blocks ofmy house, there was a gentleman

(18:21):
who I had never met, never seenbefore and I never saw again,
walking me home.
When I finally came to in mymemory, and he got to the corner
, he walked me to the cornerwhere I would turn and head down
to our house and he said youcan make it from here now.
And then he turned and left andit was gone.
When I turned around he was notthere anymore.
Was he one of the threeNephites?

(18:42):
I don't know, but what I doknow is I never met the man
before, I never saw him againand no sooner than he said, told
me that I could make it fromhere and I said okay, and I
started to walk.
I took two steps.
It was um, thank you, um they.
They got me back, um, and Ididn't honestly break any bones,

(19:15):
I didn't suffer anything that Iknow of Um, and life sort of
progressed and went on fromthere.
Then I got to eight years old.
I apologize, I keep looking andwhen I'm in deep thought I look

(19:39):
off into places that Ishouldn't.
I got to about baptism age,which was eight years old, and
all things were set and ready,and I got baptized at eight and
I remember I don't necessarilyremember the plunge we'll call

(20:05):
it being baptized, but what I doremember is coming back out to
be confirmed and hearing anaudible voice tell me you were
tricked, which, as lifeprogressed that you've been

(20:27):
tricked put a lot of doubt andfear in my mind as I went along.
I grew up in the church, so Ihad the fundamental basis of the
gospel of Jesus Christ and thechurch of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, of JesusChrist and the Church of Jesus

(20:48):
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But at my baptism I ferventlyremember hearing that voice in
my head saying that I wastricked, which sort of started
me on a slight downhill spiralafter baptism spiral after

(21:13):
baptism.
Shortly after baptism, probablyabout nine years old, was my
first entering into tryingtobacco, chewing tobacco like
Copenhagen snuff, and the worstthing about it was I liked it
and I liked it a lot.
Um, so sort of this uh, ebb andflow of my life of, as best

(21:37):
could be described, a pridecycle.
Things start going good, you,you know you're, you're in the
righteous position.
Then things go good, you go eh,this isn't so good.
Then the pride comes in andjust this whole vicious circle
of going round and round with mylife.
Dad always calls it riding theroller coaster of life, which it

(22:00):
makes sense because there's upsand downs, and that was my life
.
So Also around that time.
Of course this was the late 70sish and pornography was harder

(22:25):
to get than it is nowadays,where you you pull up one of
these little devices and it'sinstantaneous.
Um, I've found a deck of cardsthat had pornographic pictures
on them and about nine years oldI I really started like, ooh,
this is.
You know that in psychology incollege they call it the rat

(22:48):
brain.
You know the that fundamental.
You know core ethos that's inthe in the brain ideology.
Um, but um, that sort ofstarted me on, um, on again, off
again, kind of wanting to seethose pornographic pictures.
Um, in moving ahead into middleschool, um, which, how old

(23:19):
would I be in middle school?
but I just don't remember um, sousually 12-ish I was gonna say
yeah, someone was wherever thatmight be, about 12-ish, 11, 12
so probably for me I would havebeen 11.
Um, because I, like I said Iwas always the youngest um in
school is when I really got moreinto I tried my first cigarette

(23:44):
.
I.
I liked it too.
So any tobacco products that Icould get hands on.
And those were the days thatyou could forge a note that said
, you know, and run down to thegrocery store, the pharmacy, and
you know, grandma told me youknow, give you this note and
sell me cigarettes.
It worked out, you know.

(24:04):
Yeah, you this note and sell mecigarettes.
Yeah, it worked out.
You know.
Um, yeah, we don't do that.
But, uh, growing up that'struly what they did.
I, because of all that sportsand things that I did in my life
, um, with power lifting andwrestling and football, I have
chronic pain in my joints so Igot to move a little bit.

(24:29):
So I apologize if I'm makingpeople dizzy as I go about here.
So middle school happened, andabout middle school is when, up
until that point, dad had beenworking for a local Chevy

(24:49):
dealership in the Oregon Cityarea, and right at middle school
was kindergarten through sixth,and then middle school was
seventh through eighth or ninth,I don't remember, because right

(25:15):
at that time, after the firstyear of middle school there in
Oregon city, dad started withgeneral motors and they
transferred us up to YakimaWashington and in Yakima they
had middle school, but it was6th, 7th, 8th and then high

(25:35):
school was freshman on to senior.
So the two different schoolswere kind of a little different.
The two different schools werekind of a little different, but
that's when we we moved toYakima Washington and to say
that I was a putz during thoseyears is is an understatement.

(26:02):
I was, I wasn't really a goodkid and I was seeking out
pornography, seeking out alcohol, seeking out tobacco products,
and it really got bad when wemoved away from the core friends
that I had, because in OregonCity we had a lot of church

(26:26):
members that were my friends.
So I had sort of a yeah, maybeI shouldn't be doing this kind
of what would you call thatguide marker or guide poster
Right Peer group that helpedkeep you on the straight and

(26:48):
narrow, as it were.
Uh, so when we moved to YakimaWashington, um, we moved into a
kind of a, a rural, um area offarming that they had, and, um,
I really became not so good.
I would stealing things and ofcourse, the alcohol and going to

(27:11):
parties and getting drunk at 11, 12 years old.
And at one point this has kindof been throughout my life I
would get into accidents but Ireally wouldn't get hurt.
And why the Lord has preservedme I may never know until I

(27:34):
actually go onto the other sideof the veil.
Why did you always keep me soprotected that I didn't get
seriously injured in my life?
I was riding a three-wheeler ata drunk party in Washington in
middle school and if anybody'sever been in the, you know

(27:55):
around three-wheelers they'rekind of dangerous, a little
tippy, oh yeah.
I went over a jump drunker in askunk.
My foot slipped off the footpeg and my foot hit the ground
and of course the rear tire ranover my foot and pulled me off
of the three-wheeler.
Of course I was going as fastas the thing would go and it

(28:20):
drove my knee directly into theground and all it did was cut my
pants a little bit and put alittle cut in my leg.
And it should have done moredamage than that, because when I
fell I fell right onto my headand of course you know the
tumbling that happens thereafter, why I was preserved from any

(28:43):
other harm, I don't know why Iwas preserved from any other
harm, I don't know.
But I guess God watches out fordrunks and fools, and I was
both.
So so we, just half a semesteror half a year into my freshman

(29:03):
year in Yakima, washington, ofcourse, gm from dad moved us
back to Oregon.
We moved into Willamette,oregon, and I started attending
the high school there West LynnHigh School, still kind of off

(29:26):
again, on again.
Really didn't do much morealcohol when I left, but I still
would have, you know, thechewing tobacco, the snuff.
At that time I had beenwrestling since I was about six
years old and so I got involvedin wrestling and sports and

(29:54):
football in high school as welland sort of kind of went through
high school.
I didn't have a whole lot offriends in high school.
I was sort of a quiet, sort ofa loner as it were.
But I did have two prettydecent friends, one that I still
talk to this day.
He's sort of my best friend, asit was in high school, and he

(30:20):
and I got into a lot ofdifferent troubles in high
school what was it I was 14 or Ithink of different troubles in
high school.
What was it?
I was 14 or I think I was 15 inhigh school and I got involved
in the Explorer Scouts andlearned how to be a firefighter
and EMS first responder typestuff.
I got certified as afirefighter and so on and so

(30:46):
forth in my teens andvolunteered as well, got
involved in that and found it tobe quite enjoyable, but, um,
but still being connected and inthe unrighteous desires of

(31:10):
wanting to seek pornography andbourbon whiskey and coffee and a
cigarette before I would gointo classes.

(31:32):
My senior year, my senior yearwas the year of the I would call
the mega putts, and and Gave upwrestling and football, which I
wasn't always overly good atfootball, I mean, I was average

(32:02):
wrestling.
I got deathly ill with, I think, influenza and had two matches
at the state tournament and lostboth of them because I was
deathly sick.
So, and then my senior year,like I said, the mega putts came
out and I I basically told thecoach where to stick it and how

(32:28):
the sun didn't shine where Iwanted him to put it.
Of course I wasn't doing thethings that I should be.
I firmly believe that my highschool diploma was a
participation trophy, believethat my high school diploma was

(32:48):
a participation trophy.
I think I did have one summerclass after my senior year that
I had to take, which was anelective, before they would
actually give me my diploma forhigh school, which I studied
industrial diesel mechanics atone of the skills centers there
outside of Westland Oregon Ithink it was in Clackamas.
And this part of the story ofnot really doing what you're

(33:15):
supposed to do in high schoolcomes to play when I get older
and decide to go to college,when I get older and decide to
go to college.
When we were in Young Men, youngWomen, we went on a whitewater
rafting trip on the DeschutesRiver and they have class four,

(33:36):
class five.
It's pretty intense whitewaterrafting.
And we got to a section in theriver where, um, you could get
out and jump in, out of the boatand jump in with your life
jacket and float down and gothrough this little bit of a

(33:58):
rapids.
And it was.
Everybody did it and you'vebeen doing it for years.
Um, and so we did we.
We got out and we jumped in foryears.
And so we did.
We got out and we jumped in, wefloated down.
We were there, the entire youngmen, young women group, all day
.
I was there, and my youngerbrother, who was two years
younger than me, was there aswell.
Um, while we were there, um, Ikind of was like, no, I, I, I

(34:31):
don't want to go another time.
I'd already gone like three orfour times.
I was like I don't want to doit.
And so my brother said, well,I'm going to go do it.
And he, he runs up and goes tothe head of where you jump in
and then float down.
And, um, the thought came to meit's like you should go anyway.
So I did.
I am like, whatever, you know,I'll just go.
So I ran up and jumped in.

(34:54):
How many minutes after mybrother had jumped in, I
couldn't tell you.
I want to say it's more thanfive, maybe less than 15,
somewhere in there.
And when I did, I startedfloating down and all of a
sudden I got sucked in by thisundertow and as I went down, my

(35:18):
feet kicked, something that washuman, that was under the water,
and I knew that my brother hadgone before me.
So what I did is I reached downbetween my legs and I grabbed
the life jacket that he had onand I squatted down and with all

(35:38):
my might and force I lifted himup and forced, shot my legs up
and I pushed him to the surfaceand from what I can recall he
said, when he came out of thewater he actually his feet came
up out of the water.
I had forced him up and then,of course, I forced myself up as

(36:00):
well and got out of thatundertow, but for whatever
reason he was stuck and he wasdrowning in that river.
Reason he was stuck and he wasdrowning, um, in that river.
Had I not listened to that,that thought of, hey, you know,
just just go anyway.
Um, my brother would havedrowned that day.

(36:20):
Um, and why I was was able tofind him, or get sucked in and
feel him it.
Literally it was the strangestand oddest thing that could have
happened.
And of course, that was in myteenage years.
Um, after high school, I reallydidn't like living under my

(36:46):
father's roof and, um, he said Ineeded to get a job or move out
and he wanted me to pay rentand basically I told him it'd be
a cold day in hell when I payhim.
So I left.
Growing up, I always had heardvague stories of my grandfather,

(37:11):
my mother's dad, that he was acowboy, you know, growing up and
I always wanted to learn who hewas.
I wanted to see who he was, buthe died when my mother was 10.
So I never really got to meethim, but I'd hear, you know,

(37:34):
generalized stories of how goodhe was with horses and training
horses and so on and so forthfrom my grandmother, which is
odd.
I told you earlier how I hadsuch a great, wonderful
connection with my mother.
Even to this day I still callher the mother type unit.

(37:55):
She takes it as a term ofendearment.
I just do it to try and annoyher, but she doesn't get annoyed
because it's like whatever.
But I was raised with strongmaternal influences.
In my life I had my grandmother,my mom's mother and my dad's

(38:20):
mom that we spent a lot of timewith throughout our growing up
years, and I know that dadtalked about his mom and the
service that she provided.

(38:40):
My mother's mom, my grandmother, was the same.
She was the epitome of service,had nothing, but when she would
get things that she would getdonated to her, she would put it
together and and make thingsfor christmas gifts or for a
gift for her grandkids.

(39:01):
Um.
So she would end up gettinglike yarns of color that nobody
wanted.
So you'd have these interestingcolor schematics of knitted or
crocheted items that she wouldmake and spend countless hours
making.
Um, but it was odd colors, Imean, like purple and and forest

(39:24):
green and just things thatpeople didn't really want.
Um, she could get for free andmake these things for her
grandkids, but you know, she wasthe one that was married to my
grandfather, who was the cowboy,and so I always wanted to know

(39:47):
who he was and I always wantedto live that cowboy life.
So after I graduated high schooland basically told my dad to
stick it, I left home in a 1961GMC pickup that had a canopy on
the back and a door at the backand put my old twin-size

(40:14):
mattress in the bed of it and anold Coleman cooler and a little
one-burner Coleman stove andall my clothes and blankets that
I had.
And I left to Montana, drovearound a lot looking for work,
didn't really find anything andthis was sort of the path that

(40:42):
had to humble me and basicallyat that time of many months of
trying to look for work, I wasbound and determined to do it on
my own.
I didn't want anything from myparents.
I didn't talk to my parents, Iwanted absolutely nothing to do

(41:05):
with them.
At this time I was about 17,because that's when I graduated
high school, 17, almost 18 yearsold, and so, for all intents
and purposes, I was homeless.
I had the pickup, I had thecanopy, and that's what I lived

(41:29):
out of, and that's what I livedout of.
And to save money, I would onlygot to the point that I would
only eat about a half a can ofpork and beans, because you
could get them for 15, 20 centsa can, but I'd eat half a one a

(41:56):
day so that I'd have enough toget through the week.
You know, doing odd things,trying to get some money, but
basically homeless, trying tofind work.
And of course, it humbled meenough that I finally did call
home and dad said have you tried?
At the time I think it wascalled LDS Employment Services.
I reached out.

(42:19):
I was humbled enough that Ireached out and found some work
in Montana, where I was, and Iended up in Helmville, montana,
found a job and started working.
After the first week there theyhad a branding.
At the end of that week theneighbors came to help.

(42:42):
Like all brandings happen, theneighbors come and they help and
everybody just helps each otherduring that branding time
because it's a lot of work andit's not easy work.
And apparently I impressed someof the neighbors, so much so

(43:02):
that after the second week ofworking on this ranch hay farm,
working on this ranch hay farm,I was told to go disc this field
and prepare it for planting ofnew alfalfa growth.

(43:25):
And I worked late into thenight and I disc the entire
field and got all the clodsbroke down and it was prepped
and ready to go.
And so I spent countless extrahours, you know, thinking I was
doing a good job, trying to putin that extra mile, you know, to

(43:46):
prove that, hey, I'm a goodemployee, you know, good
employee.
And we showed up at the end ofthat week I think it was a
Friday and the boss everymorning would say hey, I want
you to go down to here and dothis.
And he just sort of divvied upwhat he wanted us to do for the

(44:06):
day and he pointed at me andsaid I want you to go back there
and disk it.
And I said well, sir, I workedlate last night and I got it all
done and he said what are youtrying to do?
Work yourself out of a job.
You're fired.
And fired me for working extra.
So there I was.
I had to leave.
I'm homeless again, but I didhave a little cash in my pocket.

(44:30):
But I did have a little cash inmy pocket and I happened to
stop at the local bar, which hasa cafe.
I wasn't actually drinking atthat time.
I ordered a hamburger and wassitting there having a hamburger
for lunch.

(44:51):
Um, you know I'd been outdriving that morning looking for
work and one of the localranchers that had um been there
to help with the branding umstarted talking with me and he
said uh, yeah, it doesn'tsurprise me that you got fired.
A lot of people get fired.
We don't know what's wrong withthis guy.
He's a new, new um um boss forthis company ranch that I was

(45:16):
working at and nobody likes himlocally is what he said.
But he said I was superimpressed with how you were
working that day when we cameout there to brand and I want
you to use my name and just tell.
And he told me his name.
I don't remember it, but, um,he said use my name and I tell.
And he told me his name.

(45:36):
I don't remember it.
But, um, he said use my nameand I want you to go to the big
hole.
And he told me how to get there.
And he said you go to some ofthose ranches and you, you use
my name as a reference and yougo work down there.
You're just, you're too good towork here, you need to, you
need to go down there.
I firmly believe that he wasdivinely inspired to tell me to

(45:58):
go down to the big hole, becausethis is where the story kind of
gets a little interesting, atleast for me and my family,
because I took his advice, Iwrote down his name and went to
the big hole and I ran into somepeople in the big hole, got to

(46:18):
talking with them and they saidyou know what, we'll help you.
And the next day I found a jobworking on the Huntley Ranch.
And I'd been working on theranch probably for two or three

(46:39):
weeks and the whole time I wasthere on that ranch, every hill
that I crested, when I would,you know, go out on a horseback
to go check fence or to go checkthese cows or to go irrigate

(46:59):
some field, something aboutevery part of that ranch that I
went to seems so very familiarto me, almost like a deja vu
kind of interesting plight, andI mean I would question it's
like, why is this so familiar tome?
And after about three weeks Iwrote home, wrote a letter
specifically to my grandmother,my mom's mom, and told her I

(47:22):
said, hey, you know, justletting you know, I'm in Montana
, you know I'm working on, youknow the Huntley Ranch and so on
and so forth.
You know the Huntley Ranch andso on and so forth.
And the story that I got backthat ties all this together is
mom said that she was sitting,my mother was sitting with

(47:45):
grandma as she was reading thisletter.
And she said she almost fell onthe floor.
And my mother asked my grandma.
I was like well, what's wrong?
What's going on?
She goes you don't understand.
And this is where she wroteback to me and told me what I'm
about to tell you.
The ranch that I was working on.
Not only was my grandmotherborn and raised in the town,

(48:08):
which was just a few miles awayfrom this ranch, but my
grandfather, my grandma'shusband, worked on that very
same ranch.
Not only did my grandfather,but my great-grandfather worked
on the same ranch for the samepeople that I was now working
for.

Wow.

Wow, that's cool.
So it's one of those tendermercies of the Lord that allowed
me a righteous desire to be metand to meet, at least walk in
his footsteps, to know who mygrandfather was.
And it was such an amazingstory in there.

(48:54):
To really dive into thathistory, grandma sent me some
snap photo picture books thatshe didn't know who these people
were.
So what I did is I took them tothe guy that owned the place

(49:16):
and he had inherited from hisfather and his father was the
one that my great-grandfatherand grandfather worked for.
But the man I was working forhe looked.
I said can you take a look atthese pictures and see if you
recognize any of these people?
And we went through this entireI mean it was pretty thick
picture book and he said oh yeah, I know that guy and he would

(49:39):
tell me stories about thatperson and who their name was
and so on and so forth.
And he even remembered a storyof my great grandfather that he
said I remember him.
I remember coming to the cookhouse and he was a big, burly
man.
He was huge, at least to myeyes.
His name was Clayton.

(50:04):
The owner of the ranch wastelling this story to me.
He said I remember him, he'dcome in and when he would sit
down it felt like the earthmoved.
You know, of course he was akid at the time and he said he
had one rag to wipe the sweatoff of his head and one rag to
wipe his mouth.
You know, it's just theselittle snippets of someone

(50:28):
else's life that no one knewbefore, someone else's life that
no one knew before.
And being allowed to have thatjourney in there, while I was

(50:51):
there, I was trying to kind ofget my life in order.
I hadn't been looking atpornography, I hadn't been
seeking out any of that, and Iwas trying to get away from
tobacco and I really I hadstopped any alcohol that, um, I
had been doing.
And one night, while working onthat ranch, um, two of the other
ranch hands wanted to go totown and get drunk.

(51:12):
So they asked me if I'd be thedesignated driver because they
had known that I was stayingaway from alcohol.
So I agreed and I drove theminto town in one of the ranch
hands pickup.
It was an old, either 77 or 78Ford F-250 pickup and we've

(51:39):
never seen the mirrors on theside that those year pickup.
Has you either had theseginormous moose ears or antlers
on them, or you had this tinylittle mirror about probably
about this big that stuck outfrom the side of the vehicle,
maybe 12 inches maybe, and anycloser, and the you know you'd
be touching the side of thevehicle.

(52:00):
Um, the reason I described thatso well is when I took these two
gentlemen in, uh, drove them,drove them in, um, the guy that
owned the pickup drove us in andI was going to drive them back.
I got tired of waiting and themore drunk they got, the more
belligerent, the more it's likeI don't even want to be here.

(52:22):
So, um, I told them it's like,when you're ready to go, find me
on the road.
So I'm going to start walkingback to the ranch, which why I
decided to do that, I don't know.
It was probably not thesmartest thing in the world to
do, because the ranch from townwas probably about 20 miles and

(52:47):
so I was walking back.
It's late at night, it's dark.
So I was walking back.
It's late at night, it's darkand I hear, if you've ever heard
a 460 Ford motor come rumblingand roaring at you, you kind of
remember it, you know what itsounds like, and I'm just
walking on the shoulder of theroad, on the right-hand shoulder

(53:09):
of the road, and I figurethey're going to stop, they're
going to see me, they're goingto stop.
I didn't really bother to lookbehind me and that's when that
mirror I described the outermostpart of it hit me at highway
speed at the back of my left armas I was walking on the side of

(53:33):
the road, and that's howliterally close to death I was
by getting hit and struck bythis vehicle driving down the
road, by a drunk cowboy.
Apparently, it busted themirror off.

(53:53):
They heard it, or their wordswere.
Well, we heard some kind ofnoise.
So we stopped and we backed upto see what was going on.
Of course I used some colorfulmetaphors and told them how
stupid they were and took us outof the driver's seat and I'm

(54:15):
involved.
So then we went back to theranch and that was kind of the
end of that story.
But, um, was your arm okay,surprisingly?
Yes, I think I was more mad anddidn't realize how.
You know, it just slapped me inthe back of the arm at highway
speed, um.

(54:36):
So I really didn't Um, and Idon't recall if it hurt the next
day, I really don't, um, but atthe time I I couldn't say that
I noticed it and that it hurt,other than it hit me in the back
of the arm.
Okay yeah, so kind of duringthat time, because I was trying

(55:00):
to get my life in order and allthe good things that had been
happening to me at the ranchthere, I started the process to
submit my missionary papers andso I moved back home to my

(55:23):
folks' place for a very shorttime and I did the medical,
physical and kind of started thepaperwork.
And then that voice of you'vebeen tricked came back to play
and so I ran away from thatYou've been tricked sort of came

(55:51):
back and I fully listened to itthis time and it's like I am
not going on a mission and Ileft and I went back to Montana
to different ranches and gotinto sexual sin with women and

(56:15):
pornography and alcohol andtobacco I mean getting so
belligerently stinking drunk,going into the town pump,
standing there in one of theaisles looking at the beef jerky
in one of the aisles looking atthe beef jerky, and then the
next thing you remember issitting on top of the cigarette

(56:36):
case that was behind you, thatyou had literally passed out and
fell backwards into thecigarette case.
It was an interesting fall,really, of trying to go as far
away from the teachings andgospel of jesus christ as I

(56:58):
possibly could um can I ask realquick, when you you know you
twice now you've heard thisvoice at big times in your life.

where you're, you were going to be doing
something you know, gettingbaptized and things like that
Did the voice feel or sounddifferent to you than what like
those other times were Like?

do you remember?

thinking like oh , this sounds the same as
everything else, or did you notreally pay attention?

I would probably have to say I really didn't pay
attention to how it sounded.
Sometimes it yeah, that's adifficult question I really more
along.
I think more along the lines ofI really didn't pay attention,

(57:50):
other than hearing the voice sayyou know, you were tricked.
I'll have to really think aboutthat more and but yeah, I don't
.
I can't say I noticed anydifference.

Right, well, cause, like I know you know it,
just it reminds me of, like whenJoseph Smith was praying, you
know, in the grove right Like hewas praying, he was asking for
answers and and and things likethat, and Satan intervened,
right Like Satan tried to stopthat from happening.
And so it very much feels thesame as you're talking about
this, but I can see how thatcould be.

(58:24):
That could have been reallydisheartening and really
confusing, especially if youweren't expecting any, any type
of like oppression or any typeof you know like, like, uh,
walls to to be standing in yourway there.

Um, so I was just curious, kind of like to
yeah it seems like you weretrying to do what was right, you
know which is funny and notfunny, ha ha.

Just an odd coincidence Now that you
mentioned that there has beentimes not only sometimes, it's
not always the voice that I hearbut there has been times, like
when Joseph Smith talked aboutit, when a dark force came over
him, so much so that it wouldbind him and his tongue.

(59:17):
I've felt that probably four orfive times in my life where a
dark physical force wouldliterally pin me to the bed and
bind my tongue to where I couldnot speak or utter words.
The first few times that ithappened it was extremely
frightening.

(59:37):
I didn't know what to do or howto get out of this, and
eventually I did.
But after about the third timeit almost became a nuisance to
me.
To where now, if it does happenand it hasn't happened in many
years where that and it's likeyou said, during those pivotal

(59:59):
moments in my life thatsomething happens like this to
where that dark force tries tostop me from whatever I'm trying
to do or going, you know, downthat road, and now it's more of
a all right, get thee behind me,satan, I'm sick of this crap,

(01:00:21):
go, you know.
So, but I have felt that sameforce that Joseph Smith has, and
, like I said the first timethat I felt it, it was extremely
, very worrisome to me.
At the time, after I want to sayprobably about five or six

(01:00:53):
years of cowboying and workingon different ranches, the desire
that was in me to have a familywas always there.
I knew I wanted to be married,I wanted to have a family, have
a family, and so, knowing thatranching really didn't pay a

(01:01:14):
whole lot, I decided to startdriving truck over the road and
I moved back to Oregon and gothired on with a trucking company
that drove truck over the road,and this is where I really fell

(01:01:34):
into a lot of pornography andsexual sin and, um, alcohol and
tobacco, um, so much so when Iwas driving truck over the road,
case in point I'm not proud ofthis.

(01:01:55):
I've told this story that I'mrelaying to you, to my kids, to
try and help them to know howbad it can be More of a warning
voice for them, more of awarning voice for them.
But when I was driving truckover the road, kind of towards

(01:02:20):
the end of when I really, it'slike you know what, I can't keep
driving truck over the roadanymore, I'm going to go down a
road that I don't want to godown.
I was sitting late at night ata truck stop and sitting in the

(01:02:41):
cab of the truck and had the CBtuned to the channel that you
could get a date for the night,as it were prostitute and had
the microphone to the CB in myhand and was almost ready to
call out have one of theseladies come to my truck.

(01:03:02):
And for whatever reason, Ididn't.
But that's how close to thefalling down in that pit and
that abyss, that darkest ofhours kind of hole that I,
that's how far I had fallen frombeing born and raised in the

(01:03:27):
Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints and having
that light from basically frombirth and all these different
miracles throughout my life ofGod's tender mercies and still
being that prodigal son, as itwere, and just going down that
road of dread.

(01:03:49):
And one positive that did comeout of driving truck over the
road is I drove through CentralOregon Bend Redmond area quite a
bit when I was driving and Ijust this impression, this

(01:04:11):
thought of this is beautiful,this I want to live here, this
is where I I want to move to.
So I quit driving truck overthe road and I started working
running heavy equipment.
So excavators, motor graders,bulldozers, front end loaders,

(01:04:32):
and you're going.
How did you learn how to do allthis?
Mechanical things have alwayscome easy to me, but working on
the ranch, they had bulldozers,they had backhoes, they had
front end loaders.
So you had to learn and ofcourse it was interesting to me.
And after I got married I toldmy wife I got the greatest job

(01:04:58):
in the world.
I get paid to play and digholes in the dirt all day long.
Just a big old kid.
But I wasn't married at thattime when I first moved to.
I moved to Lapine, lapine,oregon, and started working for

(01:05:19):
a construction company runningheavy equipment.
Construction company was andwhere I found a log cabin that I
lived in on the LittleDeschutes River there in Central
Oregon, just south of Sun River, oregon, and Sun River, if

(01:05:40):
anybody's ever heard of, isquite a vacationer's playground,
as it were, in Central Oregon,just south of the Newberry
crater, which is a lot of youknow volcanic activity was, and
so there's cinder buttes and allsorts of different geological,

(01:06:01):
volcanic geological anomaliesthat happened in that area.
But anyway, in driving from thecabin that I lived in to work,
it just happened to be one ofthe roads that drove past one of
the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints church

(01:06:23):
buildings there in Lapine andevery time I'd drive past it you
know, coming to and from workit's like maybe I should go stop
.
I mean, I was still doingpornography, or viewing
pornography, still drinkingalcohol, still, um, doing
tobacco things, products, Um,and just like maybe I should

(01:06:53):
just stop, maybe I should stop.
And this went on for a couple ofmonths and finally I built up
the courage to stop in to thechurch building and happened to
be a Sunday that the stakepresidency was there and this
building, if you've ever seen,like a branch building where the

(01:07:14):
cultural hall, the gym,basketball court and the chapel
are all one.
It's all carpeted.
It's a smaller building.
It was an interesting designthey did and it had partitions
and dividers.
You could divide it off buthalf of it was a basketball
court and the other half waskind of the chapel, but it all

(01:07:35):
connected and when they had asacrament meeting they would
open up all the dividers.
They'd have chairs, you know,down on the gym floor that you
could see up to the podium andwhere the choir and the
bishopric and everybody wouldsit and the day that I decided

(01:07:56):
to come, the stake presidencyfrom that stake was there and
the meeting was like I don'tremember any spectacular
anything that was in any of thetalks that happened that day.
But when the meeting was overand the prayer was done, I got

(01:08:21):
up and I was bound anddetermined never to come back
again.
It's like this is I don't care,this is not what I want.
And in that type of churchbuilding the hallways run
parallel, kind of like allchurch buildings.

(01:08:44):
They have hallways.
On the outside of the gymcultural hall, as you call it,
the gym cultural hall, as youcall it, I watched as I was
walking out the back door, as Isat in the back.
I came in a little late and Ijust snuck in and sat in the
back.
As I was getting up and headingout the back of this cultural

(01:09:06):
hall, I watched the stakepresident literally run from the
podium down the stairs, out thedoor and down the hall and
before I could get out of thecultural hall into the hallway
he caught me at in the hallway.

(01:09:27):
I will always remember hiswords.
He said I've heard that you'vebeen away for a long time.
Welcome back.

(01:09:50):
And then he reached out and gaveme one of the biggest hugs I've
ever had in my life and heliterally melted my stone heart
and started me on the path toreturning to the gospel of Jesus

(01:10:10):
Christ.
President Chastain was his name.
He's long since passed away,but what an amazing man to just
be so in tune to the Spirit, tobe able to say what was needed

(01:10:33):
to be said, to melt a stoneheart of a young man that
thought this was never going tohappen for him.

Scott Brandley (01:10:47):
That was like a critical turning point, then
right, I mean, you werebasically walking out the door
and never coming back.

Joe McCally (01:10:56):
Yeah, it was absolutely pivotal.
Apologize, I'm not crying, myeyes are sweating.

It happens.

I'll tell people I was like I ain't crying, my eyes
are sweating.
Yes, it was absolutely pivotaland that was the catalyst that
turned my life around within avery short time.
I didn't have a large libraryof pornography movies at the

(01:11:30):
time.
That was VHS.
Library of pornography moviesat the time, that was VHS.
But I took any remnants of thepornography that I had and I set
it on a stump and I took asledgehammer to it and destroyed
it all.
I stopped alcohol and tobaccothat very same year.

(01:11:52):
I stopped drinking coffee, allof it in the very same, that
very same day.
Cause it which is odd theaddiction for tobacco is strong.
Cause when I talk aboutCopenhagen chewing tobacco or
snuff, my mouth begins to water,even to this day, and I haven't

(01:12:15):
had any tobacco products in.
Let's see, married to the wife,25 years, so 26 years I have
not had any tobacco Dang.
And which is funny because fromthat pivotal moment to coming

(01:12:40):
into, you know, more moderntimes now is there's been
pivotal moments where I knowsomebody somewhere is praying
over my name to for a calling Um, those desires of certain

(01:13:08):
things that I used to do sort ofrear their ugly head.
Um, and it becomes verydifficult at those times.
Um becomes very difficult atthose times, but I still remain
strong.
I don't fall back into thosepractices.
But it's a constant battle.
It never goes away.
It's something that you livewith and combat the rest of your
life.
At least so far it's been thatway for me.

(01:13:28):
So I got my life in order.
I was 24, 25, somewhere in there, and a young single friend from
that ward, the Pine Ward, cameto me one day and says hey, I

(01:13:49):
need a ride.
I want you to go with me to theYoung Single Adults FHE Family
Home Evening.
But it's in Bend and you got togive me a ride.
I don't want to go.
But I relented and said fine,I'll take you, but I'll sit in
the parking lot.
Got there and it's like no, yougot to come in with me.
Okay, fine, I'll go in.

(01:14:11):
Oh, you got to come in with me.
Okay, fine, I'll go in.
So I and of course it was asteak center where they had a
family home evening with theyoung single adults and I was a
wallflower I sat up on the stageand like, yeah, I don't want to
do this monkey business.
You know they'd have activities.
You know volleyball andbasketball and all sorts of

(01:14:32):
different things that they woulddo.
And I think I'd been going theretaking my friend a couple weeks
and this beautiful young ladywalked up to me as I was sitting
on the stage and she said hey,um, a bunch of us are going down

(01:14:56):
to the Sherry's restaurantafter you know, fhe, you want to
come?
We just, you know, have friesand maybe a milkshake or
something.
We just sit and talk and justsort of have fun.
Do you want to come?
I said okay, um, that was thefirst meeting I'd ever met who

(01:15:17):
later became my wife, and wetalked a lot, even after the
main group left the Sherry'srestaurant.
We spent a lot of hours talking.
The main group left theSherry's restaurant, we spent a
lot of hours talking.
So I invited her and her friendto go out to a restaurant which

(01:15:42):
was it's called the cowboydinner tree they're in central
Oregon which all they have issteak or half a chicken and the
steak is it's more of a roastthan it is a steak.
Um, well, and all theaccoutrements it's kind of set
in the uh old West kind of motif.
Um, you still get the pie pin,uh, pie, pan, pie, tin, uh

(01:16:06):
plates, um, you know, andbiscuits, it's all.
It's really really good, um,and I offered to pay for her and
her friend.
Um, we went out there.
Um, I really didn't thinkanything of it.
Nothing was even thought of.

(01:16:38):
I was just trying to be nice.
I mean, I was getting back intothe church.
I was trying to do the rightthings.
I'd been conversing with dad alot during that time, telling
him my righteous desires ofwanting to have a family, and I
wanted to get married and Iwanted to.
You know all these these goodthings, and you know, he told me

(01:17:01):
he said I promise you just prayabout it and work as if it all
depends on you, but pray as ifit all depends on him.

(01:17:22):
Um, and so I I did.
Um, I invited both of them, um,my wife who is my wife now
wasn't at the time and herfriend to come to a service
project that I was doing for afamily in my ward.
I had rented a D4 cat and wasgoing to clear a bunch of land

(01:17:42):
and trees and lodgepole pinesoff of their property, and only
Melissa, my now wife, showed upand as I was working and running
the bulldozer, she was outthere with this family and she
was working hard.
And every time I'd move that D4coming back I'd see her out

(01:18:06):
there just working hard Like man.
That's one amazing woman.
She's a hard worker, you know.
And just seeing her thereworking during this uh project,
project got done.
I invited her on an officialdate.
Um, we went to the movies andafter one official date, the

(01:18:34):
spirit was unmistakable that Ihad to ask her to marry me.
So, after a whirlwind courtshipof about a week, I asked her to
marry me.
Oh my gosh.
And after about a month and ahalf we were married in the
Seattle temple.
And that was another high,pivotal point in my life to have

(01:19:05):
seen how far into the abyss Iwas to be on this high spiritual
mountain of kneeling across thealtar in the house of God and
having the Holy Spirit ofpromise reach down and touch me

(01:19:25):
as I held her hand across thataltar so powerfully and so
strong that even someone who, asI told you earlier, used to
bench press 625 pounds, shook meto my core of witnessing to me
that this was the woman that wasto be my wife and was willing

(01:19:49):
to be my companion throughoutall eternity my wife and was
willing to be my companionthroughout all eternity.
To say I loved her then is anunderstatement, because the love
I thought I had for her thenpales in comparison to the love
that I've learned from her after25 years and going strong of,

(01:20:10):
you know, being married to thiswoman.
We have four beautiful childrenthat are just as ornery and, of
course, if you ask her, shewould say, no, they're your
children, exactly.
My mother-in-law doesn't callit orneriness, she calls it

(01:20:32):
determinedness.
I'm determined.
So, yes, my wife is verydetermined.
She puts me in my place and ofcourse I do need it at times.
Sometimes it's received well,other times not so much.
We laugh and joke.

(01:20:55):
She will have disagreements andI'll realize very quickly that
I was wrong and I'm not afraidto go to her and apologize the
minute I know that I screwed upand she goes.
I just want a minute to be moremad at you for a little while
longer.
But I mean, she's such abeautiful and creative

(01:21:22):
individual, I mean so.
You know, we got married and wewent from the Seattle Temple.
We spent the night in a hotelthat our parents had got for us
and then we immediately went onto our honeymoon on to the

(01:21:45):
Oregon coast.
We stayed in a bed andbreakfast, which I'm going to
tell a story on myself here.
While they're at the bed andbreakfast, the lady was very
proud of her food and she wouldsay oh, there's the sun-dried

(01:22:05):
tomatoes and this and this fancycrap and this and that, and is
there anything else that youwould like?
Yes, can I have some ketchup?
And you'd have thought I'dasked something very
inappropriate.
That's just who I am.
Don't tell me all this fancycrap.
I don't care, no-transcript,and I'm not necessarily into the

(01:22:33):
really fancy stuff, but I callmyself an amateur barbecue pit
master.
My kids tell me no, dad, you'rea pit master, you are good at
what you do.
Just a lot of learning YouTubevideos as well as PBS movies on

(01:22:54):
barbecue and such.
And my wife's father, believeit or not, was sort of born and
raised in the South and he and Ibump ideas and recipes for
barbecue off of each other, evento this day.
Um, but while we got done withthe honeymoon, then we had a

(01:23:18):
belated um reception and this,the reception was like fine,
whatever it was, it was, it wasa reception, it was fun.
We had laughed, we joked, but amiracle happened that day.

(01:23:39):
My wife's grandfather, who hassince passed away, and of course
his lovely bride is now passedaway as well.
But he suffered when my wifeand I first met.
He had suffered for many yearswith asbestosis, which he was in

(01:24:01):
the naval shipyards and gotexposed to asbestos, and he
suffered very heavily withrespiratory problems and I was
witness to my father-in-law andbrother-in-law and, because my

(01:24:23):
wife's grandfather was in hisvehicle, basically an absolute
respiratory failure, not beingable to breathe.
At the point of ready to callan ambulance, I watched my
father-in-law give him apriesthood blessing and then I

(01:24:45):
watched him stand up, my wife'sgrandfather and go back into the
reception and dance with hiswife.
He was an amazing man, my wife'sgrandfather, even my
father-in-law.
He's an amazing man.

(01:25:05):
He has an amazing conversionstory which I don't want to tell
his story, but it's amazing,which I don't want to tell his
story, but it's amazing.
So after that, just lifehappens, we got married, we

(01:25:33):
moved in together and veryquickly kept getting these
impressions you need to startyour family, you need to start
your family.
And I told the wife this and wehad planned, like, no, we'll
wait, you know, a year before,you know, starting our family.
And of course, we've only knowneach other for maybe two, two

(01:25:58):
and a half months at this timewhen we're starting out, maybe
three months, when I startedgetting these impressions that
we should start our family andshe kept saying no, no, no, no,
no, no.
But that impression continuedto it's like you need to start

(01:26:18):
your family.
So I said, well, let's go tothe temple.
So we went to the PortlandOregon temple and we did a
endowment session.
And as we were sitting there inthe chapel prior to going to do
the endowment session, sheleaned over and said all right.

(01:26:39):
I said, well, we need to startour family.
So we did.
That was 1999.
And in almost a year later fromwhen we got married to when our

(01:27:02):
oldest daughter was married.
Our oldest daughter was bornwas about a year later, so we
had our first child in 2000.
Child in 2000.
And on the day that she was bornI had been working in Great
Falls, montana, for aconstruction company and I had

(01:27:30):
just started.
It had been working there forabout a month and a half.
My wife stayed with her folksin Central Oregon because that's
where her doctors were and shehad family to help her through
the pregnancy.
And the day came for mydaughter to be born and so I

(01:27:50):
hopped on a flight and flew intoRedmond, oregon, and I didn't
quite make the berth, but I wasthere very closely.
After I had it all set up withmy boss that, hey, my wife's
pregnant, when she gives birth,I'm going to do this, and here's

(01:28:11):
exactly the itinerary.
He said not a problem, you justlet us know, know, and you can
go.
So the minute I knew that I hadto fly out, I told him,
informed him, said hey,everything that I talked about
and prearranged here it'shappening.
Now, the day that my wife wasdischarged from the hospital,

(01:28:36):
which was like a day or twolater, we went back to my
in-law's house and we werestruggling with the whole
breastfeeding problem that mywife just not able to do that.

(01:29:00):
So we were new parents, we werescared, we didn't know what was
going on.
We listened to the lactationnurse at the time and we were
struggling with this new childand then I got a phone call and

(01:29:20):
I got fired, even though I'dprearranged to have it.
You know it just another kickin the shorts to basically
probably humble me for somereason.
But we got through that livedlife, trying to live the gospel

(01:29:50):
and follow the teachings ofChrist and do the things that we
should.
We felt impressed that I shouldgo back to Montana and find
other work, which I did, whichgot me closer to something else.
And we ended up moving back toOregon and I started working for

(01:30:12):
a construction company thereand really had been getting
tired of being laid off and knewthat I had this brand new child
and not wanting to be laid offin the every winter and having
to go through that financialstruggle.
But I should probably back upjust a little bit, um, but I

(01:30:34):
should probably back up just alittle bit.
When we were in great falls, um,melissa and our oldest daughter
, emma, um moved to great fallswith me and there was a set of
sister missionaries that um, itseemed that they were at our
house a lot, but, um, sisterAnderson and Sister Karchner in

(01:31:00):
the Great Falls area.
For some reason it wasn't thegreatest of missions for sisters
, for some reason, I don't knowwhy, but they would come to
where we lived and they'd spendtime with my wife and, honestly,
I think the reason that thesesister maritimaries really
didn't have a whole lot ofproselyting things to do was to

(01:31:22):
be there to help my wife throughthis transition of being a
brand new mother.
They were a godsend and theyyou know, sister Anderson, even
later years moved in with us fora while as she was trying to
get her life in order after shegot off her mission.
She's an interesting lady, tosay the least.

(01:31:45):
It was odd.
I used to joke about it.
I'd come home.
I was like hi, hon, how are youdoing?
Oh, hi, sister Anderson, howare you?
You know, house full of menhere.
So it was interesting at best,let's put it that way it was fun

(01:32:09):
.
They were great missionaries,they were great people.
So we did end up moving away, um, from Great Falls and, uh,
moving to Oregon and during thattime you know, just just life,

(01:32:29):
things happening, um, and allfor the positive.
I mean you can't always beexuberantly happy 24, seven.
You know there's there's ebbsand flows and and whatnots.
Um, I started working for thehighway department, um, which

(01:32:51):
was to me and, having discussionwith my wife, would give us a
more year round solid base of ofemployment and which brought us
to getting hired on with thehighway department and then

(01:33:12):
moving to La Grande, oregon.
And after about three years ofworking for the highway
department, just pondering it atnight, you know, during the
graveyard shift, of plowing snowand keeping the Ladd Canyon
there in Eastern Oregon openduring the drifting and blowing

(01:33:34):
snow, it's like this is not whatI want to be when I grow up.
And the more that I pondered andthe more that I thought, um,
during that time, um, I knewthat when I was a teenager I
really enjoyed the EMS, thedoing the firefighting things

(01:33:55):
and doing that sort of medicalstuff, and.
But I also knew that paramedicsdidn't make a whole lot of
money.
So the thought came to me whydon't you be a nurse?
Nurse?
So, okay, all right, at 31years old I've now got one

(01:34:21):
daughter that's four years old,and now I got a set of twins
that are on the way they'restill baking in the oven, as it
were and I decided to startnursing school, or start to get
the prerequisites so I couldattend nursing school.

(01:34:42):
And this is where the trophypros uh, trophy diploma, the
participation trophy diplomafrom high school comes into play
.
Um yeah, I ended up having totake no less than 26 credits or
more every term from summer of2004 until I graduated the

(01:35:04):
summer of 2008, just to make upand get myself into a position
where I could understand whatwas going on in college.

Were you working at this time too.

Luckily, this is where stories kind of converge
with dad's story and mine.
I ended up not having to work,but my full-time job was college
and during this time is when mygrandfather my dad's dad moved

(01:35:45):
into that apartment that hebuilt over his house that he
talked about, and because of themoney that, um, his pension and
everything that got paid tograndpa, dad didn't need it, so
that extra money helped to payfor the minimal amount of

(01:36:08):
mortgage that I had on a housethat I was living in and
provided a place for my familyto live that I didn't have to
worry about.
Of course we were on foodstamps and other things because
I was unemployed and attendingcollege.
But that's where another sideof the miracle of my

(01:36:32):
grandparents kind of comes intoplay.
My grandparents kind of comesinto play Because, without the
little bit of money thatgrandpa's pension had truly paid
for our, our, a place for us tolive, even though he was living
with my folks which is here'san anecdotal sidebar note to

(01:36:59):
grandpa living over the garagein his apartment in my folks'
place, they had a CCTV camerasin his apartment so they could,
you know, kind of keep an eye onhim in different areas.
We call it vision, that's whatwe called it.
Um, but my wife and I, you know, up until this point we would,

(01:37:28):
we'd come visit my folks and youknow we would take care of
grandpa while mom and dad wouldgo off and do things.
Um, he just, uh, a funny littledude that's blind and had
dementia, and it wasentertaining.
He had these funny littlequirks that he would do, like
we'd sit down to feed him andhe'd go, and it'd be some kind

(01:37:50):
of meat product or a soup thathad some meat in it.
He's like, oh, meat meat.
You know he, just these cutelittle things that he would do.
And it's like, hey, grandpa,you tell me you're full.
And he's like, oh yeah, I'm sofull I can't eat another bite.
It's like, well, we got somechocolate cake.
Grandpa, you want somechocolate cake?
Oh, there's always room forchocolate cake.
He'd say, kind of hilarious toyou know he, he just, he was

(01:38:24):
happy in his little bubble anddad was right, he, he, he put
these rails and you'd hear himtalking to himself Like I wonder
where this rail goes, you know,and he'd follow it, like, how
did it know?
I wanted to go here, you know,it's just, it's, it was just
funny to see you know's, justit's.
It was just funny to see youknow.
I mean even from my standpoint,I mean you know even my kids,
to this day, you know, like myoldest daughter she goes.

(01:38:45):
Oh yeah, I remember watchinggrandpa vision, you know, and
grandpa, vision so well, that'scool yeah so.
So I attended nursing school.
Well, I started at a communitycollege, got a year under my
school, which was Oregon HealthScience University, ohsu, which

(01:39:22):
is a pretty big medical facilityand education for all things
medical, I mean doctors anddentists, and it's just, it's
huge in Portland metro area,dentists, and it just it's huge
in Portland metro area.
But they had a satellite campuson the campus of Eastern Oregon

(01:39:44):
University and I applied forthat and I know the Lord had his
hand in it.
I was accepted immediately andwhen I started college, the wife
wife said you got four years,that's all you get, and
especially during that time, youknow, taking so many credits to
try and get it all done, trulydoing in four years what normal

(01:40:09):
people would probably do in sixor seven years.
That's just how heavy a loadthat I had to do because of how
stupid I was in high school.
There's no mincing words inthat.
I was an absolute moron, putz,mega putz in high, and so I

(01:40:35):
graduated college with a 3.5 GPA.
So I did something right.
Right Before graduation I toldthe wife it's like I'm moving

(01:40:58):
back to Montana.
I have to, we have to move toMontana.
We got to, and bless her heart.
She said, okay, but I'm notmoving there until you have me a
house.
I said, okay, we can do that.
But I also had to promise herwhen we did move this was the
last move, at least until allthe kids had graduated high

(01:41:20):
school, and of course I heldthat end of the bargain and so I
graduated nursing school.
I had to take the state boards,the national boards, actually
the NCLEX, which is a hugenursing test.
It's the final, final exam.

(01:41:41):
You can graduate nursing schooland have a bachelor's of
science in nursing, but stillnot be an RN.
So but I passed the NCLEXboards and got my RN license and
I, by the time that I graduatedcollege, when we started

(01:42:09):
college, I had basically threekids, one that was born and two
that were on the way, um.
But by the time I graduated, inthat four years, we had our
fourth child, our youngestdaughter, um, which is kind of
an odd, funny story when we werewent in for the ultrasound of

(01:42:32):
the twins, went in for theultrasound of the twins, the
tech was counting heartbeats andwe knew that multiples was a
possibility, because from ouroldest daughter to the twins is

(01:42:53):
a four-year gap, and so she wason fertility drugs to try and
have the next set of excuse me,kids.
So multiples was a possibility,a high probability, and, um, so
we were in the ultrasound andthey're counting heartbeats.
The tech was like one, two andI could hear her muttering under
her breath One, two, uh-oh,move the ultrasound probe some

(01:43:17):
more.
One, two, uh-oh, wait a minute,what is this?
Uh-oh, oh, three technicians.
Later, finally, they got thesupervisor in there and they're
like listen, ladies, wait aminute, you're counting this
heartbeat twice.
So we actually, up until thatpoint, we thought we were having

(01:43:39):
triplets, but it was just so.
We assumed that the next childwould be just as difficult.
But she's an ornery little turd, we love her.
But she's an ornery little turd, we love her.
Very talented, our youngestdaughter.

(01:44:02):
But she was born 13 monthsalmost exactly to the day that
the twins were born.
The twins were born on what isit?
The 23rd of April 2004.
23rd of April 2004.
And in May, 22nd of 2005, ouryoungest was born.

(01:44:24):
So even the scare of tripletswas still like raising triplets
because they were so closetogether.

Right yeah.

Yeah, which put together the whole empty nest.
When I mean it was like thetwins graduated high school and
then the very next year we wereplanning another graduation and
she graduated and everybody poof, just just that fast was gone.

Wow, yeah um, I know, man, it goes by so fast.
It just feels like the snap ofa fingers.
And you're like your kids areall grown up and they're getting
married and moving out andyou're like, wow, that was way
faster than I thought so, yeah,it's been one wonderful ride.

I mean from that pivotal moment of that stake
president catching me in thehallway until this very day.
You know I've been a nurse forthe last 16, going on almost 17
years years.
I started off thinking that Iwanted to be a NICU nurse

(01:45:37):
because of the.
It was a traumatic an emergencyC-section for my youngest
daughter because her cordprolapsed so they had to
emergency take her.
So she spent the night in theNICU and of course I was going
through nursing school and it'slike what do you want to do,
seeing the way that the NICU?
And of course I was goingthrough nursing school and it's
like what do you want to do,seeing the way that the NICU

(01:45:59):
nurses work on my daughter?
And you know it's like that'swhat I want to be when I grow up
.
So I did do a little bit ofNICU training.
I never did get hired into theNICU, but I did stick with
pediatrics.
I moved to Montana, got hiredwith one of the local hospitals

(01:46:23):
and spent the next five yearsdoing pediatric surgical as well
as I'll call it perioperativesurgical.
I only very rarely would I gointo the operating suite to help

(01:46:43):
out this most post-operativesurgical.
That I did for five years.
I've worked basically fromcradle to grave.
I was a hospice nurse in therefor a large chunk of time in the
last 16, 17 years and I'm atthe point now where I was

(01:47:05):
glutton for punishment and go tograduate school to get my
master's in science and nursingeducation and try and give back
to the nursing community.
And within the last three weekshere I started working at a
community college here ineastern Montana, work as a

(01:47:34):
clinical nursing instructor.
Now and in probably I thinkthey said next summer, possibly

(01:47:57):
next fall, I'll be hired onfull-time permanent as a faculty
nursing instructor.
So professor type and that sortof brings us to today.
I mean, since that day wherePresident Chastain reached out
and gave me that hug, I have hadcallings in the church with the
young men.

(01:48:17):
I've been an Elder's Quorumpresident.
I have been an award financeclerk and most recently within
the last year I was called to besecond counselor in the
bishopric in our ward here inShepherd, counselor in the
bishopric in our ward here inshepherd, um, which is what I
came running from um as soon aswe were done today we'll have

(01:48:46):
this interview wow.

So from teenage turd to just really stalwart in
the gospel what a change, yeah.
Have you ever looked back whenand thought about like why you
got those those voices, thatyou'd been tricked.
Have you ever like thoughtabout why that happened or what
your life would have been likeif that didn't happen?

Um, not as much as I should, but I kind of look
back reminiscently on it, asthat was the journey that I was
called to make Um, and there wasa reason for why I went down
that path, because there was alot of people, even in the

(01:49:34):
darkest abyss, that I would runinto um.
Case in point, um, there was ayoung man that I ran into, um
during my dark times, that hewas even in a more darkest, uh a
time of his life that he wascontemplating suicide, a time of

(01:50:02):
his life that he wascontemplating suicide, and just
conversation, of talking withhim, and it's it's odd it's kind
of like President Holland andElder Kearing talk about this
that it doesn't matter how darka spot you're in, christ is
always there looking to try andbring you out.
He's never given up on you,he's never given up on me.

(01:50:22):
He just won't, he just doesn't.
He's always there.
And why he chose to reach intothose dark spaces for me, I
don't know.
I know someday I can ask himthat question and I'm sure he'll
give me an answer of you werethe one that I needed in that

(01:50:44):
spot to help my other child toget through these things, and I
never denied Christ ever.
I always knew he was there, butI wanted to run from him.
I didn't want him to see me, Iwanted to do it on my own.

(01:51:06):
I was too headstrong.
It just.

(01:51:39):
It's an interesting thing of how, if you allow it, how the
Spirit of Jesus Christ can workthrough you, even where you
would think that there is nolight, there is nothing, there's
nowhere I can go.
I'm lower than a whale turd.
I'm down at the bottom of theocean and I'm the pond scum that
feeds everything else, but Iwould say that you're not,
you're not far.
I mean the Lord and HeavenlyFather.
He wants you, he needs you, andthat's the crux of what my life

(01:52:01):
has really been.
I've seen those dark places.
I've been homeless.
I've been in dark turmoil.
I've had these miraculousmiracles happen in my life where
, even when I was trying to runaway from the gospel of Christ,
that he would show to me howmuch he loves me by allowing me

(01:52:26):
to walk in my grandfather'sfootsteps, by allowing me to
have these miracles, even when Ididn't deserve them.
Even even to this day, I don'tknow In my prayers, it's like I
don't know what I did to deservethe beautiful miracles that you
have given me in my life.

(01:52:47):
What did I do before this lifethat allows me to have such a
wonderful and powerful testimonyof how much Christ loves us and
how he is always there,blessing our lives, reaching out
for us?
I actually have it as ascreensaver.

(01:53:10):
It's a picture of Christwalking on the water, reaching
down into the water to pull youup.
His hand is always outstretched, it's always there if you just
reach for it.
And that's what happened to mewhen President Chastain.

(01:53:30):
He was the mouthpiece for theLord that day that brought a
sinner such as I into a lifethat I wouldn't trade for
anything, for family, forknowing a love of a woman that

(01:53:53):
don't tell her this, but she'sthe best for me.
I mean, I do all I can.
I pray every day that I can beworthy of her, because I know
how far I sunk.
She is the miracle in my life.
She made me a father and I havefour beautiful children because

(01:54:15):
of her, and that's that isthat's truly the crux of
everything that I would everreally hope that someone could
see, or to hear that, whereveryou are, god is there.

(01:54:41):
Christ is there.
You just have to want to listen, to reach out, let him be that
light.
Follow it and you will havepowerful miracles in your life.
They may not be as huge,grandiose things, but simple,

(01:55:01):
everyday, tender mercies that ifyou truly look for them, you
will find them and you will beable to come back into that
light that truly is almostshining like on my ball of
noggin.

Yeah.
I got some of those too.

I mean, what a powerful testimony to know that
Christ and our Heavenly Fathernever and I mean never gives up
on us.
They are always there, theywant us to come back.
But it is our choice, ouragency that he gave us.

(01:55:44):
I can't imagine the sufferingthat he goes through on a daily
basis of his wayward children,of his wayward children is
almost unfathomable to trulyunderstand.
You know, being a father myselfand I know I'm sure you guys

(01:56:08):
have children too If I hadn'thad a family, if my wife hadn't
blessed me with children, neverknow such a powerful love for
individuals that truly canchange the course of life and
your destiny and the way thatyou are in life.
I try and go through lifetreating people as treating

(01:56:37):
people as I want to be treated,which is odd.
I go under the adage of Godgave you two ears and one mouth
so you should listen twice asmuch as you should speak.
And using that in the nursingprofession and that's something
I really never talked aboutduring this interview, and
that's something I really nevertalked about during this

(01:56:59):
interview of how the Lord willuse the power of the Holy Spirit
to touch you as a nurse or as amedical professional to save
the life of someone else.
There's been so many timeswhere, of course, in nursing
school, they call it yournursing intuition.

(01:57:20):
They didn't want to call itanything else.
They called it nursingintuition.
Now, it's the Holy Ghost, it'sall it is.
It's the Holy Ghost and youknow hearing that voice, hearing
those promptings and knowingexactly what to do.
I know President Nelson talkedabout it in some of his

(01:57:46):
surgeries of in my mind's eye Isaw exactly where I needed to
cut.
It happens for the medicalprofessionals that are willing
to listen to that still smallvoice and to save the life of
others or to ease the sufferingof others, if you just listen.
So I guess, in a nutshell, thatis my message of hope that you

(01:58:09):
can come out of that darknessand see the light and have that
powerful feeling of light inyour life.
And I would say that andtestify that all I have said
today, to the best of myrecollecting, is true, and I do

(01:58:31):
so in the name of Jesus Christ,amen.

Awesome.
Thanks so much, joe for comingon.

Alisha Coakley (01:58:41):
It's really just so inspiring to see that people
can change right and not thatyou have to go through really
hard times or dark times.
It's not necessary all the timeto go through that, but the fact
that knowing if you do, if youmake choices that take you down
that path, or if other peoplemake choices that force you down

(01:59:01):
that path, Heavenly Fatheralways, he's always going to
have multiple ways to pull youback and and to guide you and to
forgive you and to to use youright, Like even in your darkest
, hardest times, you still wereable to be a vessel of light to
other people, Even if youweren't being your.
You know your most excellentself, right, Like the best

(01:59:21):
version of you that you could be.
Heavenly father can work with.
He can work with all of us atany point, at any time, anywhere
you know, and half the time wedon't even have to realize that
he's working with us for him tostill be working with us.
But it always is a lot morepowerful when you pay attention
and you know, when you're ableto, to use that to add to your
testimony to build um, you know,build a stronger testimony, and

(01:59:46):
I love that you, that you didthat.

So thank you so much for for sharing your story
with us today.
Yeah, yeah, thanks, joe.
Dad I've heard it three times,I don't need to hear it again.
He can sell a ketchup popsicleto an Eskimo and the Eskimo
would say, hey, this is thegreatest thing on the world.

Well, thanks again, joe, for being on the
show and thanks everyone fortuning in to hear Joe's story.
If you have a story that you'dlike to share, go to
latterdaylightscom and tell usabout it.
We can have you on the show.

Alisha Coakley (02:00:46):
Yeah, absolutely , and do your five-second
missionary work.
Guys, share Joe's story.
You just never know who outthere needs to hear it and needs
to have a little more light, uh, you know, induced into their
testimony.
And so we, we just reallyappreciate all of our guests
that come on here.
Joe, we appreciate you fortaking the time out to come and
to talk to us and to really justhelp us fortify our own

(02:01:08):
testimonies, and we're thankfulfor our listeners too.
Guys, we, we love you, we lovehearing comments.
So go ahead and comment, let usknow what really stood out to
you in Joe's story and, like Isaid, share it with others.
We would love to be able to getyou know, give this out there
for everybody.

Yep.
So thanks again, joe, thanksagain everybody for being here,
and we will talk to you againnext week with another episode.
Thanks See in here and we willtalk to you again next week with
another episode.

(02:01:48):
Thanks see, ya, thanks.

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From Addiction and Temptation to Triumphant Redemption: Joe McCally's Story - Latter-Day Lights

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Addiction and Temptation to Triumphant Redemption: Joe McCally's Story - Latter-Day Lights