April 21, 2024 • 34 mins
Sometimes the smallest act can lead to the most significant shift in our perspective. Join us as Lisa shares here incredible testimony of how storytelling and journaling are a powerful way to remember Jesus Christ in your life!
Her simple yet impactful habit of journaling gratitude, which started with a mere three words a day, later unfolded into an inspiring account of finding joy and contentment in the face of life's trials she was able to look back on when she needed it most!
Wrapping up our soul-stirring session, we explore the art of storytelling, particularly through the lens of the powerful narratives found within the Book of Mormon and Bible. The tale of Shez in Ether 10 becomes a platform for discussing the enduring significance of spiritual legacies and the ability of personal stories to forge deep, meaningful connections. We ponder the spaces left within parables for personal interpretation and growth, sharing how even during times of uncertainty, such as the pandemic, stories have the power to guide us to introspection and profound life lessons. With every anecdote and reflection, we celebrate the mosaic of redemptive journeys and the pervasive presence of Jesus Christ within each chapter of our lives.
Her simple yet impactful habit of journaling gratitude, which started with a mere three words a day, later unfolded into an inspiring account of finding joy and contentment in the face of life's trials she was able to look back on when she needed it most!
Wrapping up our soul-stirring session, we explore the art of storytelling, particularly through the lens of the powerful narratives found within the Book of Mormon and Bible. The tale of Shez in Ether 10 becomes a platform for discussing the enduring significance of spiritual legacies and the ability of personal stories to forge deep, meaningful connections. We ponder the spaces left within parables for personal interpretation and growth, sharing how even during times of uncertainty, such as the pandemic, stories have the power to guide us to introspection and profound life lessons. With every anecdote and reflection, we celebrate the mosaic of redemptive journeys and the pervasive presence of Jesus Christ within each chapter of our lives.
Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello everyone and welcome to.
More Than Coincidence,remembering Jesus Christ in your
Story as the author andfinisher of our faith, our
Savior writes personalexperiences into each of our
lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace
upon reflection.
This podcast is dedicated tosharing these anchoring memories
(00:26):
from everyone's unique storiesin order to collectively
remember and testify of thereality of Jesus Christ and his
presence in our lives.
I'm your host, lily, and I'mvery excited to share these
experiences together.
All right, good eveningeverybody.
Today we have Lisa on thepodcast.
Lisa, you want to introduceyourself a little bit.
I will.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
I learned about the church whenI was a teenager and I have now
been a member of the church forseveral decades.
I'm super happy about that.
I love the Savior and I lovethe gospel and I have a
wonderful family and, yeah, sosuper happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
That's awesome Heard.
You just got back from amission, which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, we did.
My husband and I both servedindividually as young adults.
But we said at the beginning ofour marriage, in fact the day
we got engaged, we said we'regoing to serve a senior mission
someday, and so it finally gotto the place where our youngest
son was at an age where he couldbe here and take care of the
place and everything.
And so we did, and we served onthe border of California, mexico
(01:38):
, in a city called Calexico,california, in the California
San Diego mission, and we'vebeen home for three weeks,
that's awesome, wow.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, welcome back, and I'm sure it's mixed feelings
, emotions being home, but Ireally appreciate you taking the
time to chat with me and toshare your testimony.
So I'll just ask you, lisa whatmemories do you have in your
life that you reflect on, thatprick your heart and remembrance
of our Savior, jesus Christ,and anchor you, you, to him?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
well, the one that I pulled out, of all the ones that
I could think of, were veryimpactful and life-changing, and
I, you know, I don't think thatany as a story collector, I
will say, and a family historian, I don't think there's any
story that's too small to noteand I just really think that
(02:28):
sharing stories is important fora number of reasons that I hope
to touch on.
But anyway, the first one thatI'll start with is that when I
was a kid not naming the decadeor the year that I was born,
that I was born with there wassomething called a five and dime
(02:50):
store, which meant that youcould go in and get stuff for,
yeah, for like five cents anickel or a dime.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right, I feel cheated .
There was like all a dollar andfamily dollar now, but there
was a point where there was onlya dime or a nickel.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, not everything, because the thing that I got
was that was really special andI don't know why I don't have it
with me and I was going tobring it just to.
I know you wouldn't see it onthe recording, but anyway, just
to show you.
But it was across the streetfrom the grocery store that we
went to every week and this wasa place that if we got to go to
it I was pretty sure I was goingto come out of it with a
(03:21):
coloring book, which was a bigdeal to me, because my family
didn't shop for no reason.
You know, we weren't that waywith our funds and we didn't
have the funds to just do that.
So it was a big deal.
Yes, you know, like I alwayswanted to have the 64 crayon box
of Crayolas, but you know wedidn't.
It wasn't my family.
So to get to go to the five anddime was a big deal.
(03:44):
And so I found and I can'tremember cause I was, like I
don't know, eight years old, Ithink.
So I can't, I just can'tremember the details but I found
a little one of those with thethumb edges in the paper
five-year diary with a littlebitty key.
I still have it even though Igot it when I was eight and I
(04:05):
still have the key.
Now it's the the.
The key latch is falling aparta little bit, but yes, I have it
all these decades later.
Um, and it survived a lot and Ijust thought it was the coolest
thing and my mom was so sweetand she bought it for me and I
know that that did not cost anickel or a dime.
(04:26):
It was adorable.
It has it.
I mean it is, it's cute.
It's got little gold.
Well, I thought it was realgold, you know, like designs and
the gold edge on the pages.
And you just open it up and itjust says five-year diary and
you just fill in the decade orthe year and you just, and it's
very small but it's, it's justadorable, yeah, it's special,
special to you, yes, and andspecial to me in that when I was
(04:51):
little, I just like to fill upblank paper and it's just like I
would grab notepads and justfill them up and draw and write.
I I don't know what I wrote.
I wrote a lot of stories, Iknow that, but um, just, I just
like doing that and it wassomehow it served to de-stress
me, you know, to calm me down tosoothe me and stuff, and so I
(05:12):
wrote a lot of stories.
It was just my thing and I loveto read.
So I I read classics I love,like Jane Eyre, and anything by
Dickens or Twain or any of those.
Um right, so stories are myfavorite thing in the world and
that was what I like to do and Ikind of feel like a journal is
kind of a story, you know,because you're great 100 it's
(05:33):
your story.
It's your story, right?
Yeah, and so the diary?
Yeah, it just became thislittle place where I could go
and just write my thoughts.
I mean, I didn't.
When people, when people hearthe word journal, it can either
make them feel really bad, likeI should be doing that and I
should do it every single dayfor paragraphs and paragraphs,
or they're like me and theythink out of the box and they
(05:55):
say well, you know, journalingis really just me writing
whatever I want or recordingwhatever I want, however I want,
which is what I hope thatpeople will take away from about
journaling.
But anyway, so I kept the habitup.
I did not write every day.
I want to say that I haven'tjournaling for decades, yes, but
write every single day, no,right, I don't think that's
(06:15):
really the reason why, at my agenow, as a mother and
grandmother, my writing hasevolved to the point where I
write to fill my soul.
I don't write to just writewords anymore.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I mean, I think that has more meaning, like more soul
to it, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And so you know, like I said, I kept, I kept going
kind of hit and miss when I wasa little girl with this little
journal, and then a teenager,and then finally, when I was
baptized as a member of thechurch, as I referred to before,
I was 19.
And that's when I really gotserious about it.
And then I served a missionreally soon after I got baptized
.
So I was writing in a missionjournal and it just kept going
(06:56):
and just kept going, um but um.
To me I think that the, thereading and the journaling went
together, just like I said,because I love stories and I
think stories are amazing.
But as time went forward, aftermy mission and my husband and I
were married and we had all, wehad three children we have four,
(07:18):
but we had three and our familywas passing through a very
stressful time and as a mom, Iwasn't sleeping, I wasn't able
to take good care of myself.
I kind of just gave up on that,you know, and all of my energy
was was putting out fires.
I just remember thinking I'mjust putting out fires, that's
all I'm doing every day.
(07:39):
I would get up and I wouldthink I'm going to drag through
this day and I'm going to hopethat I can catch two hours of
sleep and then I'll get up andI'll do it all again.
And that was about where I wasmentally and emotionally at this
point.
And I remember that we wentthis is back in the day went
visiting teaching with a friendof mine and I don't know what
(08:05):
came what.
I don't know how theconversation went, but I know it
got to be about gratitude andand showing thanks and being
grateful for life or good thingsin our lives or whatever.
And I remember sitting therethinking, suddenly the thought
came to me and I thoughtgratitude, I'm feeling very
grateful.
At that time I was thinking okay, you know what heavenly father
(08:29):
I'm here, I'm serving thee by,you know, taking care of these
children that thou has sent me.
But gratitude, really.
And so I didn't, yeah, I, Ijust left the aren't you
grateful that I'm doing this?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Aren't you grateful that I'mdoing this?
Yeah, I know.
Is that?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
what you mean.
Where do?
Sorry to say this, but where'sthe payback in that?
I don't get it right now, likeI'd like to be in bed like a lot
of the time, have somebody youknow, bring me my meals and
whatever, but.
But so the problem was that Imean, that was a really pivotal
thing.
That was a pivotal thing.
Getting that little five-yeardiary was absolutely a momentous
(09:10):
thing.
Even though it was, it probablytook two minutes for my mom to
check out at the cashier box,but that changed my life
literally.
And then this moment where myfriend just happened to say
something to the other womanabout gratitude, and I remember
going through what I justdescribed and I just I thought
well, number one, even the thingthat I love the most, that
comforts me the most, which isjournaling.
(09:30):
Well, music also, I'm amusician, but those two, you
know, the journaling was reallya place where I could just let
off steam.
Yeah, it was a safe place forme to write and I didn't have to
worry about someone elsereading it, and I knew better
than to write things that Iwouldn't want someone to find,
but I still let things out Right.
And so I was frustrated becausethat wasn't comforting me
(09:53):
anymore.
I mean, I was really in a dark,dark place, and so I remember
that after that meeting, I justkind of pushed it away and
didn't think about it.
And then I think, just out ofsheer frustration, I think I of
pushed it away and didn't thinkabout it.
And then I think, just out ofsheer frustration, I think I
must've just said well, fatherin heaven, I just don't know.
I, I, I need to journal, I needto write, but I just I'm so
(10:14):
miserable, I don't feel like it,and this is comforting to me.
So what do I do?
And the thought just came to me,with a picture in my mind of
myself writing in differentcolor inks.
I know that sounds really dumb,and people sticker and glue and
collage and bullet journal anddo all these things.
But this was not then.
It's a long time ago.
And I thought, oh, my gosh,that makes so much sense Because
(10:38):
visually I could see that if Iflipped through my paper journal
and saw one colored ink forthings I was grateful for and
the other color ink just sort ofwhatever, then I could look
back at the journal which peopledon't talk about, but you
should, right.
And I could see the purplepopping off the page.
Yeah.
So I just said yes, and so Iprobably went ahead of myself.
(11:02):
But, yeah, I decided well, I'vealways liked the color purple,
that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go and get apurple pen.
And it was.
It didn't go very well.
I found a purple pen.
It didn't go very well becausethe first thing I wrote was
three words, and those wordswere.
I got up.
Yeah, that was it, that was itfor that day.
(11:24):
Yep, that's how bad it was.
And so, um, but I pushed myselfon it.
I was like, no, I feel likethis is the spirit talking to me
.
I'm going to do this.
As hard as it is, I'm going todo this.
And pretty soon I noticed thatthere was more and more purple,
there's more and more things.
I mean cause I was honest, Iwas honest with heavenly father,
(11:47):
I wrote, I got up.
That is the best thing that Ican find, the most positive
thing I can find, in the daysthat I actually got out of bed,
feeling the way I feel right nowand dealing with everything
that I'm dealing with.
And so, just like I said, it'sa little by little.
I just kept a purple pen aroundand yeah, and so, anyway, so
(12:12):
that those, those two things,those two events as decades, as
apart as they are.
Those are, yeah, those are thetwo stories that came to my mind
and I also just wanted to shareone thing about, about the
whole, the whole idea of likestories and remembering.
Yeah, Because I took ajournaling class because I
(12:37):
thought it would be fun and itreally was, it was at the
university that my husbandfinished his graduate degree in
in Houston and cause we met itat in Utah, at BYU, and then we
moved to Houston.
Anyway, so he finished his upperdegree there, upper his
graduate degree there, anyway,and I took a class and one of
(12:57):
the things that one of thewhat's the word I want, the ways
in which you can journal.
This teacher was amazing.
She was a writer, so she knewwhat she was a writer, so she
knew what she was doing.
And she said you know, everyother day, for example, like on
you could say odd days and evendays on the odd days, write
about where you went and yourgrocery shopping and whatever.
(13:19):
On the even days, write aboutyour feelings, write about your
emotions or your impressions andinteresting, yes, and I thought
that sounds like the book ofmormon and it sounds like a
little purple pen, right,somehow all of this is coming
together and so I I guess it'sjust anyway.
So, studying the scriptures,it's very obvious that it's a
(13:42):
commandment from father inheaven to write things down.
That it's a commandment fromFather in Heaven to write things
down, right, it's all asurprise, right, and it's also a
commandment to remember everyweek or at any time we
participate in an ordinance, asacred ordinance, and you know,
for the sake of our audiencehere, I will just say that those
are rituals that are consideredsacred that we do in
(14:04):
remembrance of Jesus Christ,exactly, exactly that are
considered sacred.
That we do in remembrance ofjesus christ, exactly exactly.
That's the best way I could sayit, because we believe.
Our theology teaches us thateverything on the earth is in
his similitude.
It's all symbolic of him, so wecan see him every in everything
around us if we look.
That's that's the problem, isthat we need to look, but anyway
(14:24):
.
And so father in heaven issaying we need to tell this
story, which is the biggeststory of all.
It's a story of redemption,it's a story of renewing, it's a
story of rescue right, and soif he's commanding us to do that
and he's saying you know, thechildren of israel have the
(14:46):
passover right, that's repeated,that's their story.
They look back to moses and saythat's where we were saved, you
know we were saved.
And they tell that to theirchildren, right, all down the
generation.
I found this really interestingspot in the book of mormon.
That was really random, oh, Idon't know.
Years and years ago and I'venever forgotten it.
It's very, very short.
(15:08):
It's in the book of Ether,chapter 10.
And it's about a person namedShez.
That's S as in Sam H-E-Z.
Yeah, shez, and there's not soEther 10, there's not a lot
there because there's not either10.
There's not a lot there becauseit there's 30 something verses,
but what it does is it justgoes down from king to king to
(15:30):
king to king to king, rightright right.
All of these leaders and youknow, maybe like four out of the
20 mentioned there were livingthe covenants that they made
with God, right, and so so whatit does, is it kind of shrinks?
So what it does, is it kind ofshrinks?
You kind of see this picture inyour mind of, wow, when things
(15:51):
were going great for thesepeople, they remembered the way
their fathers had been saved.
Yes, yep, they remembered that.
They repeated that to theirchildren and did whatever rite
or ordinance or sacred ritualthey were supposed to do.
However that looked, theyshared that story with all the
generations that went down fromthem, and so that's when things
(16:12):
went well.
And you can see that in theBible.
You know over and over.
You see where people are.
If they forget the story ofMoses and they kind of worldly,
go worldly, and they don'tremember the spiritual things
that happened to theirforefathers, how they were
rescued, then they don't connectto anything.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, and that's what I learned and that's what my
that's part of what reallyinspired this entire podcast and
that's what my entire firstepisode was about, that I
finally realized that the Bookof Mormon is these individual
people telling their storiesright.
It's these specific things thatthe Lord knew, because stories
(16:51):
are powerful, that these are thelessons and these specific
testimonies are what's going tohelp everybody.
Right, because stories do havepower, and I feel like,
especially stories, storieswhich I feel like testimony is
also kind of basically anotherword for like they can not,
(17:12):
they're not exactlyinterchangeable, but I feel like
when we share our personalstories, that is where this I
felt the spirit the strongest,not just for me, but but from
other people as well, becausethat's where we see Christ
ministering to the one.
That's where we see theseincredible things of how he
(17:34):
truly is, in the small andsimple things that when we look
back and we remember them, wesee the picture.
We see it right.
So I love that you bring this up, because I I'm the same, like I
love reading stories and I Ifeel like the book of mormon
didn't have as much meaning forme until I realized, oh my gosh,
(17:59):
this is like enos's journal,this, like this is the.
These are their things, and Ilove how you brought up that.
It was well, maybe it was inour conversation before we
started recording, but I thinkyou're bringing up about how,
now that you're older, you writein your journal differently,
and it made me think about nephi, like I think all the things
(18:20):
that he recorded were hisreflection upon what happened,
right, and so it was on hisreflection of those memories and
him remembering those memoriesthat he was able to see.
Oh my gosh, I didn't know theLord was going to tell me this,
but I went and did it and thisis what happened.
(18:40):
I didn't know all these thingswere going to happen, but this
you know, and, and so I thinkthat that puts it in a different
light and it just makes it, atleast for me, so much more
personal, I guess, and relatable, because I relate.
I relate to stories and I relateto people more than I relate to
I don't know like sermons, likebig old sermons right, and
(19:05):
that's just me personally right.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, I think most of us are that way.
I think that was one of thethings that I relearned as a
missionary, and since it's sorecent in my mind is that people
, you know, for example, if wewould go into someone's home and
we would sit with themissionaries, obviously they
would lead out.
They would, you know, sayhere's what we're going to talk
about tonight.
We, they, you know, we'd havethe prayer and whatever.
(19:31):
But the missionaries would lookat me and ask me about my
conversion story.
That was, most of the time, whatthey wanted me to share.
Sometimes they would, but theywould always.
In other words, they wouldalways ask the question in a way
(19:52):
such that it was hey, sisterCoffee, how did you feel when
you first read the Book ofMormon?
Or how did you feel when themissionaries talked to you about
, you know, joseph Smith andeverything you know?
And that's how I am and I thinkthat's true and it's kind of
interesting.
This is a little bit scientificand I won't stay on it too long
, but I was.
I'm so fascinated by the ideaof storytelling and stories that
(20:12):
actually I made a little bit ofa study of it on my own.
That's good.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I learned.
I know, I know it sounds really, yeah, it's just who I am.
Anyway, I reached out to apsychologist that I found online
who is a member of astorytelling group she's
brilliant and I just said I knowyou don't know me from anybody,
but I know that you tellstories and that you're in a
guild that tells your group thattells stories, stories whatever
(20:40):
.
And you studied, you know, theeffects of narration on psych,
in psychology and psychologicalways.
And so she gave me a fewresources and I learned that,
getting to it, I promise ourbrains are physically hardwired
for narrative.
Yes, we think that way.
(21:00):
We think in opening,introducing characters, little
bit of rise in conflict, andthen you know some action, and
then way up here to the superhigh conflict, I mean there's an
arc, right, the story arc, yeah, and there's this rising action
and oh my gosh, and thenthere's a resolution at the end,
right, that's how our brainsare wired.
(21:22):
And so the idea that the Lordhas commanded everybody to tell
stories is not really a surprise.
It's, yeah, it's a confirmationthat this is how we're put
together.
This is what we should be doing.
We should be telling ourchildren's stories, and right,
well, in christ taught inparables a story that's my next
thought.
yes, yes, that was my nextthought, because they're so
(21:43):
simple.
My husband and I were talkingabout that the other night
because we wanted to picksomething to read together and
we were reading out of Jesus theChrist, and I said let's talk
about parables because I lovestories so much, and OK, so we
were reading about that, andyou're right.
I mean, there's just all thesedifferent layers, like well,
what does that mean?
And then it can be analyzed ina different way.
(22:04):
Someone can learn.
You can learn one thing from aparable.
Lily and Lisa might learnanother thing, and that's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, you know Well, and I think the unique thing
about parables is that you don'tnecessarily know all the
details.
Like there, there are so manyparables that I'm like okay,
either this was not recordedcorrectly or I need some more
details because, I have thesequestions, but I think it's
because there's that gap in thenarrative, that there's this
(22:31):
like there isn't a resolutionall the time, or maybe there's.
You know there's, there'ssomething that I don't know, it
makes me think about it and itmakes me kind of like insert
different ideas.
You know, one of the ones thatI kind of struggle with
sometimes is the parable oftalents and the parable of the
workers in the vineyard.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And I think that's I know the one, the talent one,
that that's what that was called.
But like for you know, forexample, with the vineyard, I
just wonder.
I'm like, because an elder likeI really have really looked
into this because they kind ofmake the people who are sitting
out on the highway like elderholland's talked about them in a
couple conference talks.
He makes them sound like thesebums on the side of the road,
just like not wanting to go towork until the 11th hour, right,
(23:14):
like there's just so much thatI just I feel like there's
something I'm missing here.
And as I and as I sat and Ithought about this story and I
and I pondered on this parablethe Lord taught me no Lily.
These people at least for me,these people were doing their
(23:34):
own things.
They were moms rushing arounddoing all these things.
It's not like all of them wereidle.
It did mention that some ofthem were idle, but I felt in my
heart that there were also somewho were like me and I feel
like, oh my gosh, I have allthese things I want to do.
I can't go serve in thevineyard yet, or I want to serve
in the vineyard, but I have allthese other things.
(23:55):
And then, and then the Lordcame to me and said, lily, now
is not your time to be servingin my vineyard.
I will come and get you whenit's time for you to serve in my
vineyard.
Oh, I love that, right.
And so, and then I and and itwas like, even lily, if you are
the 11th hour serving in myvineyard, you're fine, like I
(24:16):
see these other things thatyou're doing, right, yeah, and
so that's why that's, and thatwas something you know, and we
can go into parables, we can gointo stories, but I think I love
that you bring that up, becauseit's true that the savior
taught in parables and he taughtin stories.
The scriptures are replete withstories and the reflections of
people's lives, and it's as westart seeing those as not just
(24:37):
like a narrative of like, oh,the bad guy and the good guy,
and which it's, it's good tolook at that, it's good to look
at those too, but but also justkind of see it on that human
level, like the humanity in itand like what the?
lord, like connecting to thesepeople.
I think that's, at least for me, where the power comes, and I'm
like, oh yeah, like I get youguys, like this totally makes
(25:00):
sense.
God, doesn't become like thisweird, nebulous thing.
It's like no, no, this is howhe taught, this is how he spoke,
this is his way that hedelivers his messages, and it
and it means more to me.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So yeah, didn't mean to go on a long tangent, there.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
No, I've been going on tangent.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
No, I've been going on a lot of tangents.
The thing is that first, beforebefore I do forget, though,
back to the thing about thedeliverance every single story
that you've collected andeverybody, okay, every single
story you've collected has beenabout redemption or recovery or
renewal.
Every single one of them.
Yes, if I listen to them, andthat's what people talk about,
and the reason we talk aboutthose things is like I'm saying
(25:38):
to you about the little, thefive year diary, the, the moment
that my friend started talkingabout gratitude and I picked up
a purple pen.
I mean, you know, those soundsso silly and dumb, but for me,
they changed my life and theycame to me through the holy
spirit.
Yes, so we think that, oh, it'ssome, gotta be some big story
(25:59):
or whatever.
Or I guess what I'm saying is Iwish I could go out into the
world and look everybody in theeye, one at a time, and say you
know what?
You probably have an amazingstory.
And maybe you're having a reallycruddy day right now, but I
want you to know you haveprobably been delivered from
more than you know.
Find it, figure it out and tellit to yourself every time you
feel cruddy.
(26:20):
Really, though, I can't put itthat I'm not good at putting
things, not good at putting itthe way I want it to be, but I
know, know, know, know inside ofmyself that every single one of
us has a Christ-like redemptivestory in our lives.
Every single one of us has hadmultiple times where we didn't
see a way out and we're kind oflike, oh great, now I'm stuck.
(26:42):
And then something happens.
But like the parable of the 10leopards let's go back to
parable it's the idea of makinga note of it.
Now, for me, I'm a writer.
That's what I do for otherpeople.
Maybe they have other ways ofremembering.
Maybe they, I don't know maybethey, or maybe they don't
struggle with remembering asmuch as I do, or they don't feel
a need to keep track of itBecause I don't want to get off
(27:04):
on.
Oh, this lady is going to sayjournaling is the answer.
No, for me, writing is the wayI keep track of things.
Other people will have otherways of remembering Christ in
their lives.
I'm just saying that for me,that's where the power comes, is
through stories.
And then to go on to fartherfrom that is being a very active
family history consultant and avery active pursuit of stories.
(27:31):
And I could even go off intothat, even, and just say like I
love what you talked about, howyou said some of the parables,
of moments like these, theparables have blank spots and
you're like, right, okay, sowhat does that mean?
Run, let me, who's gonna fillthat one in for me?
And it's true, because if youdidn't have the curiosity that
you had, it would just be blankand you could just go right by
(27:54):
it.
But you had the curiosity, youknow, and during COVID my
planner went blank.
You know, like I had all thesetravel plans and you can see I
have a picture of my planner, Itook a picture of it, all these
travel plans, and you can see Ihave a picture of my planner.
I took a picture of it and Ijust crossed with red, you know,
and I was.
And then, and then it went fromhaving the, but when it went
from that to being just blank,right, nothing was getting
(28:17):
filled in those little boxes,and so that's kind of how I feel
, like like what you're talkingabout, those blank spots.
You know father in heavendoesn't spell things out on
purpose so that we can wait tillthe story resolves.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You know, we sometimes we just have to do
that and it's not fun or act andnot be acted upon, so many main
characters kind of have to godo things or else they'd be a
really boring story I wouldn'twant to read.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
That's true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Oh yeah, that's wonderful.
I didn't mean to go on a hugelong digression, but I think
this was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
No, it's not a digression at all, because I
mean, I just I can't say enoughabout what I think the power of
stories are.
I mean, my mom, for example,mentioned once that they lived
in Michigan when she was reallylittle.
And as I was writing mypersonal history during COVID,
which was another thing thatcame to me, I should my personal
history during COVID, which wasanother thing that came to me.
I should probably preface thatby saying when COVID broke out
(29:29):
and it was time in the statewhere we live, where the
governor said we are not goingto go out randomly and we're
going to follow, you know,whatever the other, there are
other states that had planssimilar to this way, anyway, and
I, I, my husband, could stillwork from home on Zoom and I
said I cannot live in this muchfear and darkness.
(29:49):
And I literally just prayed tofather in heaven, what would you
have me do?
And he said, lisa, write yourstory.
Yeah.
And I thought, okay, I guessI'll do that.
I've been journaling all theseyears.
Surely I can put together this.
And it turned out to be themost amazing experience of my
life Another one because of theresolution I got from telling
(30:13):
all kinds of stories and I didnot start like I was born on
March, whatever.
It was not like that at all.
It might my personal history ormy memoir.
I like to call it because it'sa book, it's bound, it's a book
of stories.
That's all I did.
I just, I just not all I did.
Oh my gosh, it took me a yearand a half.
(30:39):
That's a lot of work andediting, and editing, and
editing, and writing, andwriting, and edit, and scanning,
and scanning, and I just I meanit was really, really healing
in a lot of ways for me.
But what I would like to sayjust here, as a testimony, if I
could, just before I forget, isthat I noticed a pattern in each
(31:00):
of the chapters which was astory.
Every single chapter was just astory.
And I noticed a pattern thatevery single one of those
stories started out with aconflict, some rising action.
You know the huge, the climax,everything at the yeah, the
(31:22):
climax, oh my gosh, what's gonnahappen?
Yeah, and every single time, atthe end of the essay and the
end of the story, I found myselfwriting and that's how I knew
the Lord was with me.
Yes, that's how I saw his handin my life.
Yes, because of this.
And so that's that's, I guess,to me.
That's just why I think storiesare important, because, you know
(31:45):
, like going back to Passover,going back to Shez, you know, he
, he remembered.
I mean, in the verse in thescripture it's very, very short,
it just says he remembered thedeliverance of his fathers.
This is really short and I'mprobably not even quoting that,
right, it's like four wordssomething.
And and so there's, there's,there's little blanks in between
all these other Kings andleaders, just like we're talking
(32:05):
about the blank in the story.
And but the thing that they did, that the prophet did record to
fill in that blank, was thatthe reason they recorded?
Shes saying that is because hedid remember, and remembering
was the key that kept them onthe covenant path.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yes, I love that, that's incredible man.
All the goosebumps tonight.
I love that, that's incredibleman.
All the goosebumps tonight.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
All of the wonderful feels tonight.
I'm loving it, thank you, yeah,I love it too.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
So yeah, would you mind, Lisa, if there are no
final thoughts, or I should say,if there?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
are no other thoughts .
Would you mind leaving us witha testimony?
Well, I don't mind leaving witha testimony For me.
I believe that every person onthe planet matters.
Every person has a story.
You don't have just one storyeither.
You have plenty.
All of us have been redeemed orrenewed somehow or rescued
somehow, and I just want to say,especially to people that are
(33:04):
struggling with depression andanxiety because I know those
things personally that youmatter, your voice matters, your
story matters, and that theSavior is in your story, with
you.
You may not know it or you maynot recognize it, but he is,
he's there.
He created us, he gave us life,he gave us breath, he gave us
(33:26):
everything that we have, andthere's no way that he would
just walk away from us and leaveus alone on our path.
Absolutely not.
And, yeah, and I love thescriptures, I love the Old
Testament and its focus onstories and passing stories down
, and the same with the Book ofMormon, and I know that those
are both sacred records given tous by prophets who were called
(33:47):
by God.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Wonderful.
Well, and I just want to put ina little plug.
So you just started a Facebookpage called A Little Purple Pen.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yes, yes, I did, and it's under construction, but be
patient, there's much more tocome.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Wonderful.
Well, thank you, lisa, so muchfor sharing your testimony and
nerding out about stories withme, because I love stories too
and it's been so much fun and Iyeah, thank you for coming on
tonight.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Thanks, lily, thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Thanks again for tuning into More Than
Coincidence, remembering JesusChrist in your story.
Please follow us on socialmedia or share us with a friend.
If you have an experience you'dlike to share, feel free to
reach out tomorethancoincidencerememberhim
at gmailcom.
I can't wait to hear all of theamazing memories you all have
of our Savior.
(34:40):
See you next time.
Hello everyone and welcome to.
More Than Coincidence,remembering Jesus Christ in your
Story as the author andfinisher of our faith, our
Savior writes personalexperiences into each of our
lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace
upon reflection.
This podcast is dedicated tosharing these anchoring memories
(00:26):
from everyone's unique storiesin order to collectively
remember and testify of thereality of Jesus Christ and his
presence in our lives.
I'm your host, lily, and I'mvery excited to share these
experiences together.
All right, good eveningeverybody.
Today we have Lisa on thepodcast.
Lisa, you want to introduceyourself a little bit.
I will.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
I learned about the church whenI was a teenager and I have now
been a member of the church forseveral decades.
I'm super happy about that.
I love the Savior and I lovethe gospel and I have a
wonderful family and, yeah, sosuper happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
That's awesome Heard.
You just got back from amission, which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, we did.
My husband and I both servedindividually as young adults.
But we said at the beginning ofour marriage, in fact the day
we got engaged, we said we'regoing to serve a senior mission
someday, and so it finally gotto the place where our youngest
son was at an age where he couldbe here and take care of the
place and everything.
And so we did, and we served onthe border of California, mexico
(01:38):
, in a city called Calexico,california, in the California
San Diego mission, and we'vebeen home for three weeks,
that's awesome, wow.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, welcome back, and I'm sure it's mixed feelings
, emotions being home, but Ireally appreciate you taking the
time to chat with me and toshare your testimony.
So I'll just ask you, lisa whatmemories do you have in your
life that you reflect on, thatprick your heart and remembrance
of our Savior, jesus Christ,and anchor you, you, to him?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
well, the one that I pulled out, of all the ones that
I could think of, were veryimpactful and life-changing, and
I, you know, I don't think thatany as a story collector, I
will say, and a family historian, I don't think there's any
story that's too small to noteand I just really think that
(02:28):
sharing stories is important fora number of reasons that I hope
to touch on.
But anyway, the first one thatI'll start with is that when I
was a kid not naming the decadeor the year that I was born,
that I was born with there wassomething called a five and dime
(02:50):
store, which meant that youcould go in and get stuff for,
yeah, for like five cents anickel or a dime.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right, I feel cheated .
There was like all a dollar andfamily dollar now, but there
was a point where there was onlya dime or a nickel.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, not everything, because the thing that I got
was that was really special andI don't know why I don't have it
with me and I was going tobring it just to.
I know you wouldn't see it onthe recording, but anyway, just
to show you.
But it was across the streetfrom the grocery store that we
went to every week and this wasa place that if we got to go to
it I was pretty sure I was goingto come out of it with a
(03:21):
coloring book, which was a bigdeal to me, because my family
didn't shop for no reason.
You know, we weren't that waywith our funds and we didn't
have the funds to just do that.
So it was a big deal.
Yes, you know, like I alwayswanted to have the 64 crayon box
of Crayolas, but you know wedidn't.
It wasn't my family.
So to get to go to the five anddime was a big deal.
(03:44):
And so I found and I can'tremember cause I was, like I
don't know, eight years old, Ithink.
So I can't, I just can'tremember the details but I found
a little one of those with thethumb edges in the paper
five-year diary with a littlebitty key.
I still have it even though Igot it when I was eight and I
(04:05):
still have the key.
Now it's the the.
The key latch is falling aparta little bit, but yes, I have it
all these decades later.
Um, and it survived a lot and Ijust thought it was the coolest
thing and my mom was so sweetand she bought it for me and I
know that that did not cost anickel or a dime.
(04:26):
It was adorable.
It has it.
I mean it is, it's cute.
It's got little gold.
Well, I thought it was realgold, you know, like designs and
the gold edge on the pages.
And you just open it up and itjust says five-year diary and
you just fill in the decade orthe year and you just, and it's
very small but it's, it's justadorable, yeah, it's special,
special to you, yes, and andspecial to me in that when I was
(04:51):
little, I just like to fill upblank paper and it's just like I
would grab notepads and justfill them up and draw and write.
I I don't know what I wrote.
I wrote a lot of stories, Iknow that, but um, just, I just
like doing that and it wassomehow it served to de-stress
me, you know, to calm me down tosoothe me and stuff, and so I
(05:12):
wrote a lot of stories.
It was just my thing and I loveto read.
So I I read classics I love,like Jane Eyre, and anything by
Dickens or Twain or any of those.
Um right, so stories are myfavorite thing in the world and
that was what I like to do and Ikind of feel like a journal is
kind of a story, you know,because you're great 100 it's
(05:33):
your story.
It's your story, right?
Yeah, and so the diary?
Yeah, it just became thislittle place where I could go
and just write my thoughts.
I mean, I didn't.
When people, when people hearthe word journal, it can either
make them feel really bad, likeI should be doing that and I
should do it every single dayfor paragraphs and paragraphs,
or they're like me and theythink out of the box and they
(05:55):
say well, you know, journalingis really just me writing
whatever I want or recordingwhatever I want, however I want,
which is what I hope thatpeople will take away from about
journaling.
But anyway, so I kept the habitup.
I did not write every day.
I want to say that I haven'tjournaling for decades, yes, but
write every single day, no,right, I don't think that's
(06:15):
really the reason why, at my agenow, as a mother and
grandmother, my writing hasevolved to the point where I
write to fill my soul.
I don't write to just writewords anymore.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I mean, I think that has more meaning, like more soul
to it, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And so you know, like I said, I kept, I kept going
kind of hit and miss when I wasa little girl with this little
journal, and then a teenager,and then finally, when I was
baptized as a member of thechurch, as I referred to before,
I was 19.
And that's when I really gotserious about it.
And then I served a missionreally soon after I got baptized
.
So I was writing in a missionjournal and it just kept going
(06:56):
and just kept going, um but um.
To me I think that the, thereading and the journaling went
together, just like I said,because I love stories and I
think stories are amazing.
But as time went forward, aftermy mission and my husband and I
were married and we had all, wehad three children we have four,
(07:18):
but we had three and our familywas passing through a very
stressful time and as a mom, Iwasn't sleeping, I wasn't able
to take good care of myself.
I kind of just gave up on that,you know, and all of my energy
was was putting out fires.
I just remember thinking I'mjust putting out fires, that's
all I'm doing every day.
(07:39):
I would get up and I wouldthink I'm going to drag through
this day and I'm going to hopethat I can catch two hours of
sleep and then I'll get up andI'll do it all again.
And that was about where I wasmentally and emotionally at this
point.
And I remember that we wentthis is back in the day went
visiting teaching with a friendof mine and I don't know what
(08:05):
came what.
I don't know how theconversation went, but I know it
got to be about gratitude andand showing thanks and being
grateful for life or good thingsin our lives or whatever.
And I remember sitting therethinking, suddenly the thought
came to me and I thoughtgratitude, I'm feeling very
grateful.
At that time I was thinking okay, you know what heavenly father
(08:29):
I'm here, I'm serving thee by,you know, taking care of these
children that thou has sent me.
But gratitude, really.
And so I didn't, yeah, I, Ijust left the aren't you
grateful that I'm doing this?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Aren't you grateful that I'mdoing this?
Yeah, I know.
Is that?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
what you mean.
Where do?
Sorry to say this, but where'sthe payback in that?
I don't get it right now, likeI'd like to be in bed like a lot
of the time, have somebody youknow, bring me my meals and
whatever, but.
But so the problem was that Imean, that was a really pivotal
thing.
That was a pivotal thing.
Getting that little five-yeardiary was absolutely a momentous
(09:10):
thing.
Even though it was, it probablytook two minutes for my mom to
check out at the cashier box,but that changed my life
literally.
And then this moment where myfriend just happened to say
something to the other womanabout gratitude, and I remember
going through what I justdescribed and I just I thought
well, number one, even the thingthat I love the most, that
comforts me the most, which isjournaling.
(09:30):
Well, music also, I'm amusician, but those two, you
know, the journaling was reallya place where I could just let
off steam.
Yeah, it was a safe place forme to write and I didn't have to
worry about someone elsereading it, and I knew better
than to write things that Iwouldn't want someone to find,
but I still let things out Right.
And so I was frustrated becausethat wasn't comforting me
(09:53):
anymore.
I mean, I was really in a dark,dark place, and so I remember
that after that meeting, I justkind of pushed it away and
didn't think about it.
And then I think, just out ofsheer frustration, I think I of
pushed it away and didn't thinkabout it.
And then I think, just out ofsheer frustration, I think I
must've just said well, fatherin heaven, I just don't know.
I, I, I need to journal, I needto write, but I just I'm so
(10:14):
miserable, I don't feel like it,and this is comforting to me.
So what do I do?
And the thought just came to me,with a picture in my mind of
myself writing in differentcolor inks.
I know that sounds really dumb,and people sticker and glue and
collage and bullet journal anddo all these things.
But this was not then.
It's a long time ago.
And I thought, oh, my gosh,that makes so much sense Because
(10:38):
visually I could see that if Iflipped through my paper journal
and saw one colored ink forthings I was grateful for and
the other color ink just sort ofwhatever, then I could look
back at the journal which peopledon't talk about, but you
should, right.
And I could see the purplepopping off the page.
Yeah.
So I just said yes, and so Iprobably went ahead of myself.
(11:02):
But, yeah, I decided well, I'vealways liked the color purple,
that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go and get apurple pen.
And it was.
It didn't go very well.
I found a purple pen.
It didn't go very well becausethe first thing I wrote was
three words, and those wordswere.
I got up.
Yeah, that was it, that was itfor that day.
(11:24):
Yep, that's how bad it was.
And so, um, but I pushed myselfon it.
I was like, no, I feel likethis is the spirit talking to me
.
I'm going to do this.
As hard as it is, I'm going todo this.
And pretty soon I noticed thatthere was more and more purple,
there's more and more things.
I mean cause I was honest, Iwas honest with heavenly father,
(11:47):
I wrote, I got up.
That is the best thing that Ican find, the most positive
thing I can find, in the daysthat I actually got out of bed,
feeling the way I feel right nowand dealing with everything
that I'm dealing with.
And so, just like I said, it'sa little by little.
I just kept a purple pen aroundand yeah, and so, anyway, so
(12:12):
that those, those two things,those two events as decades, as
apart as they are.
Those are, yeah, those are thetwo stories that came to my mind
and I also just wanted to shareone thing about, about the
whole, the whole idea of likestories and remembering.
Yeah, Because I took ajournaling class because I
(12:37):
thought it would be fun and itreally was, it was at the
university that my husbandfinished his graduate degree in
in Houston and cause we met itat in Utah, at BYU, and then we
moved to Houston.
Anyway, so he finished his upperdegree there, upper his
graduate degree there, anyway,and I took a class and one of
(12:57):
the things that one of thewhat's the word I want, the ways
in which you can journal.
This teacher was amazing.
She was a writer, so she knewwhat she was a writer, so she
knew what she was doing.
And she said you know, everyother day, for example, like on
you could say odd days and evendays on the odd days, write
about where you went and yourgrocery shopping and whatever.
(13:19):
On the even days, write aboutyour feelings, write about your
emotions or your impressions andinteresting, yes, and I thought
that sounds like the book ofmormon and it sounds like a
little purple pen, right,somehow all of this is coming
together and so I I guess it'sjust anyway.
So, studying the scriptures,it's very obvious that it's a
(13:42):
commandment from father inheaven to write things down.
That it's a commandment fromFather in Heaven to write things
down, right, it's all asurprise, right, and it's also a
commandment to remember everyweek or at any time we
participate in an ordinance, asacred ordinance, and you know,
for the sake of our audiencehere, I will just say that those
are rituals that are consideredsacred that we do in
(14:04):
remembrance of Jesus Christ,exactly, exactly that are
considered sacred.
That we do in remembrance ofjesus christ, exactly exactly.
That's the best way I could sayit, because we believe.
Our theology teaches us thateverything on the earth is in
his similitude.
It's all symbolic of him, so wecan see him every in everything
around us if we look.
That's that's the problem, isthat we need to look, but anyway
(14:24):
.
And so father in heaven issaying we need to tell this
story, which is the biggeststory of all.
It's a story of redemption,it's a story of renewing, it's a
story of rescue right, and soif he's commanding us to do that
and he's saying you know, thechildren of israel have the
(14:46):
passover right, that's repeated,that's their story.
They look back to moses and saythat's where we were saved, you
know we were saved.
And they tell that to theirchildren, right, all down the
generation.
I found this really interestingspot in the book of mormon.
That was really random, oh, Idon't know.
Years and years ago and I'venever forgotten it.
It's very, very short.
(15:08):
It's in the book of Ether,chapter 10.
And it's about a person namedShez.
That's S as in Sam H-E-Z.
Yeah, shez, and there's not soEther 10, there's not a lot
there because there's not either10.
There's not a lot there becauseit there's 30 something verses,
but what it does is it justgoes down from king to king to
(15:30):
king to king to king, rightright right.
All of these leaders and youknow, maybe like four out of the
20 mentioned there were livingthe covenants that they made
with God, right, and so so whatit does, is it kind of shrinks?
So what it does, is it kind ofshrinks?
You kind of see this picture inyour mind of, wow, when things
(15:51):
were going great for thesepeople, they remembered the way
their fathers had been saved.
Yes, yep, they remembered that.
They repeated that to theirchildren and did whatever rite
or ordinance or sacred ritualthey were supposed to do.
However that looked, theyshared that story with all the
generations that went down fromthem, and so that's when things
(16:12):
went well.
And you can see that in theBible.
You know over and over.
You see where people are.
If they forget the story ofMoses and they kind of worldly,
go worldly, and they don'tremember the spiritual things
that happened to theirforefathers, how they were
rescued, then they don't connectto anything.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, and that's what I learned and that's what my
that's part of what reallyinspired this entire podcast and
that's what my entire firstepisode was about, that I
finally realized that the Bookof Mormon is these individual
people telling their storiesright.
It's these specific things thatthe Lord knew, because stories
(16:51):
are powerful, that these are thelessons and these specific
testimonies are what's going tohelp everybody.
Right, because stories do havepower, and I feel like,
especially stories, storieswhich I feel like testimony is
also kind of basically anotherword for like they can not,
(17:12):
they're not exactlyinterchangeable, but I feel like
when we share our personalstories, that is where this I
felt the spirit the strongest,not just for me, but but from
other people as well, becausethat's where we see Christ
ministering to the one.
That's where we see theseincredible things of how he
(17:34):
truly is, in the small andsimple things that when we look
back and we remember them, wesee the picture.
We see it right.
So I love that you bring this up, because I I'm the same, like I
love reading stories and I Ifeel like the book of mormon
didn't have as much meaning forme until I realized, oh my gosh,
(17:59):
this is like enos's journal,this, like this is the.
These are their things, and Ilove how you brought up that.
It was well, maybe it was inour conversation before we
started recording, but I thinkyou're bringing up about how,
now that you're older, you writein your journal differently,
and it made me think about nephi, like I think all the things
(18:20):
that he recorded were hisreflection upon what happened,
right, and so it was on hisreflection of those memories and
him remembering those memoriesthat he was able to see.
Oh my gosh, I didn't know theLord was going to tell me this,
but I went and did it and thisis what happened.
(18:40):
I didn't know all these thingswere going to happen, but this
you know, and, and so I thinkthat that puts it in a different
light and it just makes it, atleast for me, so much more
personal, I guess, and relatable, because I relate.
I relate to stories and I relateto people more than I relate to
I don't know like sermons, likebig old sermons right, and
(19:05):
that's just me personally right.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, I think most of us are that way.
I think that was one of thethings that I relearned as a
missionary, and since it's sorecent in my mind is that people
, you know, for example, if wewould go into someone's home and
we would sit with themissionaries, obviously they
would lead out.
They would, you know, sayhere's what we're going to talk
about tonight.
We, they, you know, we'd havethe prayer and whatever.
(19:31):
But the missionaries would lookat me and ask me about my
conversion story.
That was, most of the time, whatthey wanted me to share.
Sometimes they would, but theywould always.
In other words, they wouldalways ask the question in a way
(19:52):
such that it was hey, sisterCoffee, how did you feel when
you first read the Book ofMormon?
Or how did you feel when themissionaries talked to you about
, you know, joseph Smith andeverything you know?
And that's how I am and I thinkthat's true and it's kind of
interesting.
This is a little bit scientificand I won't stay on it too long
, but I was.
I'm so fascinated by the ideaof storytelling and stories that
(20:12):
actually I made a little bit ofa study of it on my own.
That's good.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I learned.
I know, I know it sounds really, yeah, it's just who I am.
Anyway, I reached out to apsychologist that I found online
who is a member of astorytelling group she's
brilliant and I just said I knowyou don't know me from anybody,
but I know that you tellstories and that you're in a
guild that tells your group thattells stories, stories whatever
(20:40):
.
And you studied, you know, theeffects of narration on psych,
in psychology and psychologicalways.
And so she gave me a fewresources and I learned that,
getting to it, I promise ourbrains are physically hardwired
for narrative.
Yes, we think that way.
(21:00):
We think in opening,introducing characters, little
bit of rise in conflict, andthen you know some action, and
then way up here to the superhigh conflict, I mean there's an
arc, right, the story arc, yeah, and there's this rising action
and oh my gosh, and thenthere's a resolution at the end,
right, that's how our brainsare wired.
(21:22):
And so the idea that the Lordhas commanded everybody to tell
stories is not really a surprise.
It's, yeah, it's a confirmationthat this is how we're put
together.
This is what we should be doing.
We should be telling ourchildren's stories, and right,
well, in christ taught inparables a story that's my next
thought.
yes, yes, that was my nextthought, because they're so
(21:43):
simple.
My husband and I were talkingabout that the other night
because we wanted to picksomething to read together and
we were reading out of Jesus theChrist, and I said let's talk
about parables because I lovestories so much, and OK, so we
were reading about that, andyou're right.
I mean, there's just all thesedifferent layers, like well,
what does that mean?
And then it can be analyzed ina different way.
(22:04):
Someone can learn.
You can learn one thing from aparable.
Lily and Lisa might learnanother thing, and that's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, you know Well, and I think the unique thing
about parables is that you don'tnecessarily know all the
details.
Like there, there are so manyparables that I'm like okay,
either this was not recordedcorrectly or I need some more
details because, I have thesequestions, but I think it's
because there's that gap in thenarrative, that there's this
(22:31):
like there isn't a resolutionall the time, or maybe there's.
You know there's, there'ssomething that I don't know, it
makes me think about it and itmakes me kind of like insert
different ideas.
You know, one of the ones thatI kind of struggle with
sometimes is the parable oftalents and the parable of the
workers in the vineyard.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And I think that's I know the one, the talent one,
that that's what that was called.
But like for you know, forexample, with the vineyard, I
just wonder.
I'm like, because an elder likeI really have really looked
into this because they kind ofmake the people who are sitting
out on the highway like elderholland's talked about them in a
couple conference talks.
He makes them sound like thesebums on the side of the road,
just like not wanting to go towork until the 11th hour, right,
(23:14):
like there's just so much thatI just I feel like there's
something I'm missing here.
And as I and as I sat and Ithought about this story and I
and I pondered on this parablethe Lord taught me no Lily.
These people at least for me,these people were doing their
(23:34):
own things.
They were moms rushing arounddoing all these things.
It's not like all of them wereidle.
It did mention that some ofthem were idle, but I felt in my
heart that there were also somewho were like me and I feel
like, oh my gosh, I have allthese things I want to do.
I can't go serve in thevineyard yet, or I want to serve
in the vineyard, but I have allthese other things.
(23:55):
And then, and then the Lordcame to me and said, lily, now
is not your time to be servingin my vineyard.
I will come and get you whenit's time for you to serve in my
vineyard.
Oh, I love that, right.
And so, and then I and and itwas like, even lily, if you are
the 11th hour serving in myvineyard, you're fine, like I
(24:16):
see these other things thatyou're doing, right, yeah, and
so that's why that's, and thatwas something you know, and we
can go into parables, we can gointo stories, but I think I love
that you bring that up, becauseit's true that the savior
taught in parables and he taughtin stories.
The scriptures are replete withstories and the reflections of
people's lives, and it's as westart seeing those as not just
(24:37):
like a narrative of like, oh,the bad guy and the good guy,
and which it's, it's good tolook at that, it's good to look
at those too, but but also justkind of see it on that human
level, like the humanity in itand like what the?
lord, like connecting to thesepeople.
I think that's, at least for me, where the power comes, and I'm
like, oh yeah, like I get youguys, like this totally makes
(25:00):
sense.
God, doesn't become like thisweird, nebulous thing.
It's like no, no, this is howhe taught, this is how he spoke,
this is his way that hedelivers his messages, and it
and it means more to me.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So yeah, didn't mean to go on a long tangent, there.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
No, I've been going on tangent.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
No, I've been going on a lot of tangents.
The thing is that first, beforebefore I do forget, though,
back to the thing about thedeliverance every single story
that you've collected andeverybody, okay, every single
story you've collected has beenabout redemption or recovery or
renewal.
Every single one of them.
Yes, if I listen to them, andthat's what people talk about,
and the reason we talk aboutthose things is like I'm saying
(25:38):
to you about the little, thefive year diary, the, the moment
that my friend started talkingabout gratitude and I picked up
a purple pen.
I mean, you know, those soundsso silly and dumb, but for me,
they changed my life and theycame to me through the holy
spirit.
Yes, so we think that, oh, it'ssome, gotta be some big story
(25:59):
or whatever.
Or I guess what I'm saying is Iwish I could go out into the
world and look everybody in theeye, one at a time, and say you
know what?
You probably have an amazingstory.
And maybe you're having a reallycruddy day right now, but I
want you to know you haveprobably been delivered from
more than you know.
Find it, figure it out and tellit to yourself every time you
feel cruddy.
(26:20):
Really, though, I can't put itthat I'm not good at putting
things, not good at putting itthe way I want it to be, but I
know, know, know, know inside ofmyself that every single one of
us has a Christ-like redemptivestory in our lives.
Every single one of us has hadmultiple times where we didn't
see a way out and we're kind oflike, oh great, now I'm stuck.
(26:42):
And then something happens.
But like the parable of the 10leopards let's go back to
parable it's the idea of makinga note of it.
Now, for me, I'm a writer.
That's what I do for otherpeople.
Maybe they have other ways ofremembering.
Maybe they, I don't know maybethey, or maybe they don't
struggle with remembering asmuch as I do, or they don't feel
a need to keep track of itBecause I don't want to get off
(27:04):
on.
Oh, this lady is going to sayjournaling is the answer.
No, for me, writing is the wayI keep track of things.
Other people will have otherways of remembering Christ in
their lives.
I'm just saying that for me,that's where the power comes, is
through stories.
And then to go on to fartherfrom that is being a very active
family history consultant and avery active pursuit of stories.
(27:31):
And I could even go off intothat, even, and just say like I
love what you talked about, howyou said some of the parables,
of moments like these, theparables have blank spots and
you're like, right, okay, sowhat does that mean?
Run, let me, who's gonna fillthat one in for me?
And it's true, because if youdidn't have the curiosity that
you had, it would just be blankand you could just go right by
(27:54):
it.
But you had the curiosity, youknow, and during COVID my
planner went blank.
You know, like I had all thesetravel plans and you can see I
have a picture of my planner, Itook a picture of it, all these
travel plans, and you can see Ihave a picture of my planner.
I took a picture of it and Ijust crossed with red, you know,
and I was.
And then, and then it went fromhaving the, but when it went
from that to being just blank,right, nothing was getting
(28:17):
filled in those little boxes,and so that's kind of how I feel
, like like what you're talkingabout, those blank spots.
You know father in heavendoesn't spell things out on
purpose so that we can wait tillthe story resolves.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You know, we sometimes we just have to do
that and it's not fun or act andnot be acted upon, so many main
characters kind of have to godo things or else they'd be a
really boring story I wouldn'twant to read.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
That's true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Oh yeah, that's wonderful.
I didn't mean to go on a hugelong digression, but I think
this was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
No, it's not a digression at all, because I
mean, I just I can't say enoughabout what I think the power of
stories are.
I mean, my mom, for example,mentioned once that they lived
in Michigan when she was reallylittle.
And as I was writing mypersonal history during COVID,
which was another thing thatcame to me, I should my personal
history during COVID, which wasanother thing that came to me.
I should probably preface thatby saying when COVID broke out
(29:29):
and it was time in the statewhere we live, where the
governor said we are not goingto go out randomly and we're
going to follow, you know,whatever the other, there are
other states that had planssimilar to this way, anyway, and
I, I, my husband, could stillwork from home on Zoom and I
said I cannot live in this muchfear and darkness.
(29:49):
And I literally just prayed tofather in heaven, what would you
have me do?
And he said, lisa, write yourstory.
Yeah.
And I thought, okay, I guessI'll do that.
I've been journaling all theseyears.
Surely I can put together this.
And it turned out to be themost amazing experience of my
life Another one because of theresolution I got from telling
(30:13):
all kinds of stories and I didnot start like I was born on
March, whatever.
It was not like that at all.
It might my personal history ormy memoir.
I like to call it because it'sa book, it's bound, it's a book
of stories.
That's all I did.
I just, I just not all I did.
Oh my gosh, it took me a yearand a half.
(30:39):
That's a lot of work andediting, and editing, and
editing, and writing, andwriting, and edit, and scanning,
and scanning, and I just I meanit was really, really healing
in a lot of ways for me.
But what I would like to sayjust here, as a testimony, if I
could, just before I forget, isthat I noticed a pattern in each
(31:00):
of the chapters which was astory.
Every single chapter was just astory.
And I noticed a pattern thatevery single one of those
stories started out with aconflict, some rising action.
You know the huge, the climax,everything at the yeah, the
(31:22):
climax, oh my gosh, what's gonnahappen?
Yeah, and every single time, atthe end of the essay and the
end of the story, I found myselfwriting and that's how I knew
the Lord was with me.
Yes, that's how I saw his handin my life.
Yes, because of this.
And so that's that's, I guess,to me.
That's just why I think storiesare important, because, you know
(31:45):
, like going back to Passover,going back to Shez, you know, he
, he remembered.
I mean, in the verse in thescripture it's very, very short,
it just says he remembered thedeliverance of his fathers.
This is really short and I'mprobably not even quoting that,
right, it's like four wordssomething.
And and so there's, there's,there's little blanks in between
all these other Kings andleaders, just like we're talking
(32:05):
about the blank in the story.
And but the thing that they did, that the prophet did record to
fill in that blank, was thatthe reason they recorded?
Shes saying that is because hedid remember, and remembering
was the key that kept them onthe covenant path.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yes, I love that, that's incredible man.
All the goosebumps tonight.
I love that, that's incredibleman.
All the goosebumps tonight.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
All of the wonderful feels tonight.
I'm loving it, thank you, yeah,I love it too.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
So yeah, would you mind, Lisa, if there are no
final thoughts, or I should say,if there?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
are no other thoughts .
Would you mind leaving us witha testimony?
Well, I don't mind leaving witha testimony For me.
I believe that every person onthe planet matters.
Every person has a story.
You don't have just one storyeither.
You have plenty.
All of us have been redeemed orrenewed somehow or rescued
somehow, and I just want to say,especially to people that are
(33:04):
struggling with depression andanxiety because I know those
things personally that youmatter, your voice matters, your
story matters, and that theSavior is in your story, with
you.
You may not know it or you maynot recognize it, but he is,
he's there.
He created us, he gave us life,he gave us breath, he gave us
(33:26):
everything that we have, andthere's no way that he would
just walk away from us and leaveus alone on our path.
Absolutely not.
And, yeah, and I love thescriptures, I love the Old
Testament and its focus onstories and passing stories down
, and the same with the Book ofMormon, and I know that those
are both sacred records given tous by prophets who were called
(33:47):
by God.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Wonderful.
Well, and I just want to put ina little plug.
So you just started a Facebookpage called A Little Purple Pen.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yes, yes, I did, and it's under construction, but be
patient, there's much more tocome.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Wonderful.
Well, thank you, lisa, so muchfor sharing your testimony and
nerding out about stories withme, because I love stories too
and it's been so much fun and Iyeah, thank you for coming on
tonight.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Thanks, lily, thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Thanks again for tuning into More Than
Coincidence, remembering JesusChrist in your story.
Please follow us on socialmedia or share us with a friend.
If you have an experience you'dlike to share, feel free to
reach out tomorethancoincidencerememberhim
at gmailcom.
I can't wait to hear all of theamazing memories you all have
of our Savior.
(34:40):
See you next time.
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