May 28, 2025 • 41 mins
Mae Morrow hails from the countryside of North Carolina, she recently moved here in 2023 from San Antonio Texas. She has lived in every region of the US except for Alaska, this includes 14 states, and one American Territory. She served her mission in the Irvine California Mission from 2014-2015. Mae comes from a single mother family. Her mother served in the Marine Corps and is currently an inspector for the city of Charlotte.
Mae enjoys many things that life has to offer, watching movies, listening to music, live concerts, taking road trips, going to art museums, walking outside, and throwing themed parties. She loves animals, especially cats and chickens. She has 4 cats at home and hopes to expand her family in the future with other stray animals.
In Mae’s realm of side quests to make money, she currently works as a Freelance Makeup artist for Estee Lauder companies, brands include, Mac, Bobbi Brown, Clinique and more. She is a graphic designer for Shubert Natural Healthcare and Chiropractic. She works as a Special Ed Para at West High. She also owns and operates her own horror movie show, Madame Mae’s Horror Frights.
Mae’s main goal in life is to change the world by opening resource centers for women in multiple locations across the county. She is passionate about women’s health and education opportunities.
Mae currently serves as the 2nd counselor in the Wichita YSA Relief Society. In the past she has been a Sunday school teacher for most of her adult life in the church and has also been a temple and mission prep teacher.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi friends, welcome to the Wichita KS State Podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Kitchen, a state history specialist.
This podcast is intended to helpbring followers of Christ closer
to him and to promote unity within the body of Christ by
listening to our state leaders share their personal stories of
faith. By reflecting on faith promoting
experiences, we can strengthen our individual faith in Jesus
(00:20):
Christ together. Welcome to our next episode.
There's a term that you'll hear today, and that term is YSA.
In the church, we refer to youngsingle adults as YSA, and that
term refers to members who are ages 18 to 35 who are currently
(00:46):
single. And we have AYSA Ward in our
stake, and the ward boundaries are the same as the stake
boundaries. I'm here today with Sister Mae
Moral. She hails from the countryside
of North Carolina. She recently moved here in 2023
(01:06):
from San Antonio, TX. She has lived in every region of
the US except for Alaska. This includes 14 States and one
American territory. She served her mission in the
Irvine, CA mission from 2014 to 2015.
May comes from a single mother family.
Her mother served in the Marine Corps and is currently an
(01:28):
inspector for the city of Charlotte.
May enjoys many things that lifehas to offer.
Watching movies, listening to music, live concerts, taking Rd.
trips, going to art museums, walking outside and throwing
themed parties. She loves animals, especially
cats and chickens. She has four cats at home and
(01:49):
hopes to expand her family in the future with other stray
animals in Mae Mae's realm of side quests to make money.
She currently works as a freelance makeup artist for
Estee Lauder Companies. Brands include Mac, Bobby Brown,
Clinique, and more. She is a graphic designer for
(02:10):
Schubert Natural Healthcare and Chiropractic.
She works as a special Ed para at West High.
She also owns and operates her own horror movie show, Madam
May's Horror Frights. May's main goal in life is to
change the world by opening resource Centers for women in
multiple locations across the country.
(02:31):
She is passionate about Women's Health and education
opportunities. May currently serves as the
second counselor in the Wichita YSA Relief Society.
In the past she has been a Sunday School teacher for the
majority of her adult life. The church and has been a Temple
and Mission Prep teacher. Welcome.
Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here.
(02:52):
Yes, excited to talk with you today.
We're going to have some wonderful stories.
I'm so excited to share some. So let's start with your
conversion. Will you please share your
conversion story with us? I would love to, I love to share
my conversion story because it'sa little unorthodox in a way.
And I think it's so funny because I feel like I'm a
walking testimony of how Jesus Christ really finds the
(03:15):
individual and teaches the individual.
And so my conversion story actually starts with my mom.
So my grandmother was working atHardee's in North Carolina with
this member of the church named Gladys.
And Gladys was telling my grandma all about Joseph Smith
and the first vision and Andrew Moroni.
And then my grandma comes home to my mom and my mom's 16 at
(03:35):
this point and starts to talk tomy mom about like how funny of a
thing it is and kind of mocking it.
And then my mom, she's like, no,like I've been looking for that.
I've, I've been searching for something like that because I
always laugh. My mom's really big into like
extraterrestrials and really biginto like space.
Like she wanted to be like an astronomer at one point and all
(03:56):
these things. And so she doesn't believe in
the like the little green people, but she believes in us,
just not on earth. And so she said right whenever
she heard about like the Angel Moroni coming to visit and also
like Joseph Smith seeing God andJesus Christ, that she felt it
in her soul that that was what she was looking for and she knew
it to be true. So that's how she found the
(04:17):
church. And then growing up, she kind of
fell away from the church for a while and had by two older
sisters in the Marine Corps. And then I was born and my mom
suffered from a lot of depression and anxiety, and she
got injured in the military, which is why she got retired
early. And so growing up, we were
(04:39):
familiar with the church, but wedidn't go every week.
And so it was whenever my sisterwas eight, I would have been
about four or five at the time, but she heard a talk in general
saying that it's the responsibility of parents to
make sure that their kids are baptized for their salvation.
And she said that struck her to her core.
And then that's whenever she decided to get all of us
baptized whenever we were ready and whenever we were growing up,
(05:04):
I didn't really, I didn't reallylike go to church very often.
And like, we would go to some things, like some activities,
but I went on a long religious journey where I actually was
investigating other churches andI didn't really know quite what
I was doing. I didn't have a specific deity
(05:24):
that I believed in. And so I was very fortunate that
my mom has four sisters and they're all different
denominations. So I, I believe one of my aunts,
she was Catholic. And then I had a Pentecostal, a
Southern Baptist, and then I think my other one was Methodist
at the time. And so I was able to stay within
my family unit, but to discover so many other religions and to
like learn of Christ very small by small and to get a good basis
(05:48):
before God really introduced himself to me.
And it was, and I had friends who were Buddhist.
And so I looked into that for a little bit.
And then it was actually my mother again at her house.
She was watching History Channel.
And this was when I was like 18,and she was watching the Easter
special about the Shroud of Turin, the shroud that was on
(06:09):
Jesus's face. And I remember her sitting down
watching it while she was makingbreakfast.
And this Jewish rabbi comes on and starts talking about Jesus.
And I was like, I thought Jewishpeople didn't believe in Jesus.
And so I was like, OK, so I thatreally piqued my interest.
So I really started to like research.
I was like, OK, why is this Jewish rabbi talking about this
(06:30):
Jesus person? And then come to find out they
believe in Jesus, they just don't believe he's the Messiah.
And so then that sent me on a long journey of what it meant
for somebody to be a Messiah, because apparently all these
other people are waiting for one.
And so then I started to gradually understand, like, oh,
who this person is? And what really got to me was
(06:52):
the historical record of this man named Jesus in Nazareth.
And so whenever I discovered that, I was like, OK, so it's
not just made-up, like we have actual historical records.
And then I remember, I can't remember who it was.
I think it was my Aunt Rose. She was the one who told me
like, I need to pray and I need to ask to know if, like, Jesus
(07:12):
was the Messiah. And so then I remember that
probably was about 8 months until when I was 18, and I
prayed, and then I got the overwhelming confirmation that
Jesus was the Messiah. And so I was like, OK, And then
actually a friend from church, her dad was the Bishop, actually
invited me to go to an activity with her.
(07:33):
And so I went to this activity. And I just remember feeling like
a little prick on my heart saying, discover this more.
It's time for you to look into this more.
And so then I looked more and more into it.
And then it was around that timeis whenever I had confirmation
that this church was the true Church of that Jesus Christ set
up. Because one of the things that I
(07:54):
did that I again was very fortunate to discover all the
other churches too. They helped build my testimony
in the Bible in the New Testament.
And I remember reading the New Testament and writing down what
Jesus said his people were and what his church was.
And I took the list with me whenever I went to all of these
churches and right when they didsomething that was not aligned
(08:18):
with what Jesus said, I decided not to go back to that church.
And I remember 1 specifically, Ithought these churches were
phenomenal and like they have such great communities.
I just remember this one. It was a non denominational
church. It was the simplest thing.
And I was like, OK, but Jesus said this is that they were
selling coffee on Sunday. And then I remember at looking
at that and then just thinking, I think this church is really
(08:40):
good. I just know that's not the one
I'm looking for because it's very specific in the Bible, Old
Testament and New Testament, we don't sell things on Sundays.
And so that's whenever I start to like, weed out different
churches. And then again my friend brought
me to this church and then I gotmy confirmation so.
That's that's awesome. Yeah.
What a great story. Thank you for sharing that.
(09:00):
Absolutely. It was a a couple of things that
you shared there in your in yoursearching your quest you shared
about it felt pricked in your heart.
There was some academic study. There was some prayer.
Will you share with us? How does God speak to you?
(09:22):
Absolutely. So God speaks to me in a variety
of ways. I think what's really funny is
that he, he really knows how to get my attention and what I'm
willing to focus on. And He's definitely willing to
work with me about what I'm focusing on instead of trying to
change my entire existence to focus on other things.
So I love movies and I love music and that's actually how he
(09:45):
speaks to me the most. That's so funny.
But during my discovering the church and figure out who the
Messiah is, one of the things that actually I'm laughing, but
one of the things actually got me to actually pray to know if
Jesus was the Messiah is I was watching Lord of the Rings
Return of the King. I remember looking at it and I
(10:05):
just remember because obviously it's God based, you know, like
the story and I just remember seeing it and no one had to
explain it to me. But I saw God in the movie and
then that really kind of trailedme into my journey into
Christianity. And so he speaks to me through
movies and he'll speak to me in the in unlikely movies.
(10:28):
I'm trying to think of other ones.
Lord of the Rings is just one ofmy favorite franchises.
So it's it's I'm really gratefulthat he has decided to talk to
me through something I enjoy, you know, And then with music,
I, I very much so feel music. I love to listen to music
whenever I close my eyes becauseI can almost feel things and
it's almost like the vibrations sync up with my soul in a way.
(10:49):
And so I really don't know how to explain that one, but I feel
of certain vibration and it, it's so reminiscent to the Holy
Spirit. And so the Spirit's able to
speak to me when I'm, I don't want to say like a trance per
SE, but like when I'm in a meditative state.
And so music really helps me bring that into like a reality
when I'm really stressed out. Wow, that's that's amazing.
(11:13):
It's a. Lot of fun.
I love that, but meditative state or some sometimes to to be
able to get there. Often we'll talk about present
moment, things like that being present and there are so many
ways to help us prepare ourselves to receive of the
(11:34):
Spirit, receive of the message that God has for us.
And I think that's awesome that like you said, that that God
chooses a way that you enjoy, but also that that you're able
to recognize that. That's wonderful.
Thank you for sharing. No problem.
I I just have such a huge testimony that he's really
willing to work with what you enjoy because like I love Enya,
(11:56):
for example. And so he talks to me a lot
through Enya. I do a lot of her from
meditation. But then also my favorite band
ever is My Chemical Romance, which is like an alternative
rock band. And I will still get heavenly
messages through those music. Like the certain lyrics will hit
me at certain times and I'm like, Oh, I'm understanding a
little bit more. Or there was one time I think it
was like a Guns N Rosa song. Like he will just speak to me
through the lyrics sometimes. Well, my my youngest son likes
(12:19):
My Chemical Romance. Well, he'll be glad to hear
that. Absolutely, yeah.
So tell us about the mission that you served.
Absolutely. So if anybody's ever wondering
if they should go on a mission or not, I like to say this
because I believe this is my testimony.
The only reason why I went on a mission was because God told me
(12:41):
in my patriarchal blessing. So I have a very strong
testimony in those two. I did not have a desire to go on
a mission at the time. So I found the church probably
back. I think it's 2011.
No, no, no, but like 2000, I don't remember, but if you were
like you had to be 21 as a womanto go on a mission and I
remember, OK, I'm so sorry, missionaries back in those
(13:03):
times, looking at a 21 year old woman and thinking, oh, she
couldn't get married, that's whyshe went on a mission.
You know, there was a whole stigma.
And so whenever the age lowered,I still did not want to go on a
mission because I assumed, I don't know why it's Satan.
I know what it is, but it was like undesirable for a woman to
go on a mission. And so I had no desire to.
(13:24):
And then I got my patriarchal blessing because I think it was
my Bishop was like, I think thatyou should consider doing this.
And I got confirmation that I should.
And then in it, he straight up said, he's like, I need you to
go, like I, I need you to go do this thing for me.
And so I went because my faith in Jesus Christ is my motivation
to do things, not necessarily because I want to do things.
(13:48):
There are sometimes I still fight with him, but the mission,
he made it very clear. He's like, this is something I
need you to do. So I went on my mission to
Irvine, CA loved it. You know, best mission in the
world. That's what everybody says.
But I funny enough, whenever I got my call, I was so
disappointed. I wanted to go to Japan or I
wanted to go to like Mexico. I wanted to go to Australia.
(14:09):
And I just remember looking and I'm like, what do you mean
California? Like that's like land here.
I'm already from this country, like let me go somewhere else.
I did tell him though, I was notgoing to go to Utah or Idaho.
So that's why everybody like he sent you to California.
And so when I got there, I remember it was about 8 months
into my mission, I realized the reason why I was supposed to go
(14:33):
there on my mission was because I was supposed to go back after
my mission and I was supposed tocontinue to visit.
And I, I go back almost every year now.
But if I was in Japan, I wouldn't be able to do that.
And it's because the connectionswith the people that I made
there And on my mission, I, I felt very weird about it because
again, I, to me, I was a recent convert, you know, because like,
(14:55):
I didn't know much. I, I, I didn't really know
anything. I OK, it's now because I've been
off my mission now for about 10 years, but I understand so much
more looking back and I understand why I was called.
I did not understand that when Iwas on my mission.
But the reason why he called me on a mission was because of the
(15:17):
knowledge I had of the New Testament.
That was something that I, I know now.
I was like, oh, that's why he called me before my mission.
I did not read through the Book of Mormon.
I didn't really have a necessarily a testimony of it.
I didn't like disagree with it. It was just something I didn't
really explore a lot of. And I remember on my mission, I
kind of felt bad. I was like, I don't think I need
(15:38):
to be here. I don't think I like deserve to
be here because I don't know what all these other people
know, You know, like I don't have a testimony of this thing
we're out here preaching about. And so I remember very specific
times where God put me with companions that were so strong
in the Book of Mormon, these beautiful women who knew
everything about the Book of Mormon like the back of their
(15:59):
hand. What he needed was somebody to
come in and kind of bridge the gap between what people already
knew in the Book of Mormon. So that way they were able to
testify of the Book of Mormon. I now see that my journey was
not to testify of the Book of Mormon.
It was to testify of Christ so that these people he prepared
was able to testify for them. And it's such a beautiful thing
(16:21):
to see now that he valued me formy knowledge and he prepared me
for what he needed to do, which is why he called me on a mission
the time that he did, because hecould have said like in my
patriarchal blessing, like afteryou read the Book of Mormon or
like whenever you develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon.
But he was he didn't say that. He said, I need you to go, I
(16:43):
need you to go do this thing. And, and now I see he's like,
oh, it's because you don't have to have a perfect knowledge of
everything. He wants what you have.
He does, he really does, and he tailors that message for us.
He does. In a way that that we'll
understand if we're willing to to hear him.
Because on my mission we had a couple churches, I'm not going
(17:04):
to name them, but they were megachurches.
And one of the mega churches, which is crazy to think about,
they actually had anti Mormon missionary classes that we
actually ran into people. So it's kind of interesting to
be there because sometimes my companions who did not know the
New Testament were not able to say much.
And like, I love to fight. So like, I was willing to fight
these people, but the spirit waslike, no, don't do that.
(17:25):
So what I would do is I would just understand what they're
trying to say. And then I was able to comfort
my companions and saying like, this is how they're interpreting
the scripture that they're quoting at you.
And so it was kind of interesting to see that too.
Wow. Yeah, but just ways that that
(17:45):
again, the Spirit may direct us to to use what we have in a way
that we don't necessarily or we don't think that we're prepared.
It's not the way that we would do it.
But when we listen, God will useus the ways that He wants us to.
Yeah. And it was about a year,
(18:06):
actually, after my mission, whenI got home from my mission, I
went to BYU, Idaho. And then I decided I was going
to read through the entire Book of Mormon, like front to back.
And it took me about a year. And I remember praying to know
if it was not true, like moron Moroni says.
And I remember the answer I got was a little frustrating.
(18:27):
I was like heavenly Father, like, help me, is this true?
Is this not true? What am I supposed to do with
this information? And then he straight up said to
me, he's like, you already knew this was true.
And I remember kind of frustrated because I've heard
like these conversion stories about how like big and grand
like gestures are and people like felt like they were on fire
or whatever. But I, I, I think about it now,
and that's exactly what I neededto hear because I I now know, I
(18:51):
never doubted. I now know because he answered
the way that he did. I was never the Book of Mormon
was never going to be a stumbling block for me.
It was always something that wassupposed to happen.
I. Love that.
What a wonderful way for him to to teach you that too.
(19:12):
So let's change the direction a little bit here and talk about
your professional life, OK. What influenced you to take your
professional professional coursethat you did?
So yeah, so I'm actually a licensed esthetician, which
means I do a lot of skin care and makeup, and so I can be like
waxing and eyelashes. So cosmetology is hair.
(19:33):
I do skin and so for those of you who are listening who don't
know what aesthetician is and sothat would.
Include me. Thank you for saying that.
No problem. So actually how I got on this
route, I was going to BYU Idaho and I wanted to be a family and
consumer science major. I wanted to actually teach
children how to become people because I just knew a lot of.
(19:56):
I'm very passionate about children and also women
healthcare like I put in there, but there's something about
children that has. I feel like my heart aches for
them because the way the world is, they're not, it's not even
not being raised right. It's they don't have that
support. I don't think it has anything to
do necessarily to do with the raising.
It's, it's the support from the community.
(20:18):
And I remember thinking about how many times like I didn't
know basic things and how I wanted to be a teacher and I
wanted to to help kids out as much as possible.
And to me being a family consumer science major, which is
home EC, So they got rid of thatword home EC for those of you
who don't know what family consumer science is.
And so I wanted to teach kids how to do basic baking, how to
(20:42):
sew on a button, how to like balance their checkbooks.
Like I wanted to teach them the like the life skills they
needed. And I was going to be like Idaho
for it. And then I remember I was there
for about two semesters, and I realized I was running into a
problem. There was no way that I could
(21:03):
teach these kids at school for an hour and a half, probably
like three days a week, right, in high school, because every
other day. And then if their parents don't
keep it up, they're going to forget it.
So then I was thinking, I was like, OK, so the solution to
what I want is not for me to become a teacher.
I've got to help the parents. And so then I was like, OK, what
(21:23):
can I do for parents to help their kids out?
And coming from a single mom, I didn't have a father figure
growing up. So like I didn't know anything
to do with men. I didn't know how to like help
you guys out or anything. So I was like, OK, let me focus
on what I do know, which is women.
And I was looking at a couple different things.
I also thought about doing social work.
But again, I just, I don't agreewith the way that certain laws
(21:46):
are. And I don't think I could ever
leave a child in this situation.So I just knew social work was
not going to work out for me. And so I was looking at how can
I help women? And I feel best whenever my skin
feels clean. I don't feel grimy, I don't feel
dirty. Like whenever my hair is
shampooed, whatever I have, likemy fingernails, there's no dirt
underneath them. I just feel good.
(22:07):
And I remember I was like, oh, whenever I feel good, I treat
people better. And so then I started to watch
people and I was like, oh, no, like you can see it.
Whenever people don't feel good,they don't treat people as
nicely as they should, right? Because it's a thing with like a
elderly people who are really cranky, it's usually because
they're in back pain or they have knee pain or something else
is going on. And so that's usually why
(22:28):
they're cranky. And so I was like, OK, So what
can I do with skin? And then my mom actually
contacted me and she's like, hey, like the Community College
down the road actually has an aesthetician program for two
semesters. And it was like $300.00.
And I was like, Oh, well, perfect.
So that's what I did. I went back to North Carolina
and I got my esthetician license.
And so with being an esthetician, I've done like
(22:50):
eyelash extensions, I've done like body waxings.
I've done what else was there. There's a couple other things,
but my favorite thing to do is actually to educate clients and
to educate the people who come to me, men and women, about how
to take care of themselves. Because you would be surprised
how much people don't realize your skin itself affects your
(23:12):
health and psychological and things like that.
And so a lot of people, unfortunately, they hear that
I'm a makeup artist or they hearthat I do like body hair removal
or whatever. And they think it's very like
vapid or very like, like self-centered.
And sometimes it can be. But what I love about being a
makeup artist is I have these women who come in my chairs who
have like almost like third degree burns on their skin from
(23:34):
whenever they were in their 60s,like or back in the 60s And they
used to get tan with iodine, right?
And so they have all this like horrible, like burns on their
skin. So I'm able to show them things
to help them with that. I've had women who like they've
been recovering with cancer, so their hair is falling out, so
they need to learn how to draw on their eyebrows.
Or I'll have women who are moms who just want to look a little
(23:56):
bit better because they don't have time for themselves.
So I'm able to sit down with these women, pamper them, show
them things, and then let them take it home.
And with my job as a freelance makeup artist, I'm not tied to 1
store like I used to be. And so I get to travel around to
like all the Ultas. Yesterday I was at Sephora.
(24:17):
I get to go to Dillard's and VonMar.
So I get to see all the types ofwomen and I just love to sit
down with them and educate them.And one of the things I always
say to them is I'm going to teach you how to shop whenever
I'm not here. So I take them through all the
ingredients that I can. I tell them I'm like, you're
saying this thing, these are thekeywords you're looking for is I
also know how so we're going to use predatory in a way.
(24:40):
The makeup sales can be, you know, like people want to take
your money. And so I always I love to be a
woman's first line of defense toteach them know these are the
type of products that that's actually worth your money.
Or I have women who will come inand they don't have a lot of
money. So I'm able to to show them
cheaper alternatives or I'm ableto show them this is what to
(25:01):
actually invest in. Don't invest your money in this.
And for me, I really feel like the Lord has put me here again
to teach women that eventually that will go back to their kids.
They're going home feeling better about themselves.
They're going home, they're feeling more confident, they're
feeling like they have a little bit of themselves back.
And so I feel like the Lord is full hands on inside of my my
(25:24):
profession. Wow, that's amazing that I mean,
it's, it's empowering the way that you were, you were wanting
when you were first looking at education, but definitely
helping people feel good about themselves.
They're going to be able to be those caregivers, do whatever
(25:46):
that they need to do and not have to focus on the way that
they feel or the way that they they feel like they look or
anything like that, that they'reable to, to have that.
I don't know. Empowerment is what I keep
coming back to, but it's it's more than a confidence because
because it's real. So most like an assurance, like
whenever I worked as an eyelash tech, so I would sit there for 2
(26:09):
1/2 hours and put on tiny eyelashes on hundreds of
eyelashes, right? And what really got me through
it was actually the nurses and doctors who would come in and
then would just say, I don't have time to do makeup, but I
want to still feel good. And so that's why they would get
their eyelashes done is because if they had an emergency, they
could just wake up and just feelgood.
Wow. That's awesome.
(26:31):
So if is there a story that comes to mind about your, your
profession, I mean, without revealing confidence or anything
like that, but something that you could share with us to to
help us know more. I mean you just you talked about
some medical professionals and is there another example that
you could share with us kind? Of thing, I have lots of
(26:53):
examples that I, I work with, I think about this one woman
because I strongly believe you just don't know what you don't
know. And so whenever I'm listening to
sales people on the floor, sometimes it's, it's difficult
for me to stand back and let them do their sales pitch
whenever I know they're using the wrong words or they're
(27:14):
misunderstanding their client. And so there's this one time
that I actually did intervene because I just, I just knew from
what they were saying that the woman wasn't going to be happy.
Going back to the lady with a really bad sunburn.
She had almost like third degreeburns because like she would
sunbathe when she was younger with iodine and corn oil.
(27:35):
I think she is what she said. And like she was working on her
farm too. And so she was just like really
badly burned. And there's this, there's this
concept color like analysis or color theory where because she's
red, you would put something green on her to help cancel out
the red. But what was the problem was
because of her skin texture, shewasn't red, it was the skin
(27:56):
underneath it. And so dealing with a lot of the
skin texture, I actually taught her a lot more about
moisturizing the skin. And this is a good tip for
anybody. So here's your free tip.
Whenever you're you cut yourselfor whether you have a burn or
anything like that, keeping it moisturized helps it not scar.
Scar tissue comes from whenever.OK, not professionals, maybe
this isn't the right way to say it, but is whenever your skin
(28:17):
splits and then it gets like, hard around it and it can't go
back together. But whenever you keep it
moistened and whenever you keep it hydrated, your skin gets to
move back together. That's a tip.
Yeah. And so I was able to help her
with that because again, the sales people here, oh, she has
redness. It's not redness, It's burn, you
know, it's, it's like burnt skin.
(28:39):
I actually wanted to be work in a surgeon's office and help with
people who needed reconstructivesurgery because as an
esthetician, like a licensed medical esthetician, I would be
able to help like burn victims. So that was something I was
looking into too. Well, then, it's not too late.
Right. I know it's not.
Yeah. So what's the talking about
decisions that you've made? What's the best decision that
(29:00):
you've made regarding a job? Absolutely.
So this is really funny. I actually got to pick this
question. The reason I'm saying that is
because of my answer. I think one of the best
professional choices I have evermade was when to leave a job.
I think that there is this mindset of scarcity that I have
to stay at a job because it's mysecurity.
I can't move because this is where I get my benefits.
(29:22):
This is where I get all my stuff.
And the best piece of advice I could tell, especially members
of the church is follow God and he will tell you when to move.
And I, I find that it's putting trust in God to let go of a job
that's really stable or really something.
And especially in our economy now in America, I feel like
(29:44):
there's that scarcity mindset, like, oh, the job market's not
good. Like it's hard to find a job.
And I feel like people can get stuck.
And I remember getting stuck in a job and I just hated it.
And I was so afraid to let go because the question was, what
if I don't find something else? But I just remember telling the
Lord, Lord, I'm not happy. I don't spiritually feel good
because I feel like I'm overwhelmed on Sundays and I
(30:05):
can't think about it in church. I want to let this go.
And then right whenever I let itgo, so much more came flooding
in. That's awesome.
Yeah. Again, trust that faith and
listening. Thank you.
Yeah, no problem. I do want to give a little shout
out because I know we we talked about it in my intro, but I want
(30:27):
to talk about my movie show realfast as that's that's OK.
So this isn't a plug. Y'all don't have to come to my
shows, but I moved to North Carolina.
It was like a transitional period back in 2023 for a couple
months. And there I didn't really know
what to do with myself. So I was looking around for
places to volunteer. And so I started volunteering at
(30:48):
this black box theatre in North Carolina and I was just doing
popcorn and I was just like handing out tickets and things
like that. And the owner came over and was
like, oh May like we would love to have you on like the board of
like artistic creators or whatever it was.
So I went to the board meeting and then they asked me they were
like, may like you're kind of spooky, like do you want to put
(31:08):
on like an Elvira kind of show? And so I was like, oh, like that
would be so much fun. And so that's how I kind of like
dived into the to the horror movie scene and what the Lord
showed me through that. And this is what I think it's
just so funny is the Lord uses me to pull together people who
are on the outskirts of society.I feel like almost because
(31:30):
whenever it comes to people who enjoy horror movies or things of
that, it can be very taboo for people and it can be very like,
oh, I don't want to participate in that, which it's not for
everybody. So if you don't have to do
anything, you don't want to do what I have seen and what God
has told me to do now, because one of my jobs is my horror
movie show is to give back to the community to let people
(31:52):
enjoy things together. I really enjoy movies, all types
of movies, and my favorite aspect is to talk about them.
And so one of the aspects of my horror movie show is like, we'll
watch, for example, we watched Signs.
Have you ever seen Signs? So it's actually a really good
church movie. Funny enough, I didn't realize
that until this past time. So my show is we'll usually play
Jeopardy like based off the theme of the movie, and then
(32:15):
we'll watch the first part of the movie, have an intermission,
do the second part of the movie,and then have a post show
discussion about the movie. And I remember growing up
watching Signs, it's about Aliens and remember being so
like, oh, this is like one of the best alien movies ever.
And then when I watched it again, I was like, Oh no, this
is a movie about a man finding God again after he so his.
(32:37):
Spoiler alert for people, but Mel Gibson's character, he's a,
what are they called, oh, in theCatholic Church, a father, the
clergy. He's a clergyman and his wife
gets killed in an accident. And so he swears off God.
He's like, I'm, I'm done with that.
God didn't protect her, so can'tdo anything about this.
And so he has two kids and then aliens invade.
(32:59):
And then through the alien attack, he starts to see signs
of miracles and he starts to find his faith again through
this whole thing. It's really interesting, but I
didn't realize the religious context until I was watching it
again as an adult. And I remember my audience was
talking about it, how it's not an alien movie with a family in
it. It's actually a family movie
(33:19):
that just happens to have aliensin it.
And so we have a really good discussion about that.
And then twice a year I'll do charity events.
And so last year we actually worked with the Lords Diner,
which is a they feed the homeless.
So one of my goals whenever I started this horror movie show
is I wanted to do Texas ChainsawMassacre with a BBQ dinner.
So that's what we did. You know, they're really fun,
(33:43):
but that's what we did, and we brought the community together.
We catered in barbecue and we had some really fun performers.
And then we were able to donate all the leftover food plus
canned goods to the Lords Diner.And then in August, I actually
did a woman's a woman's event. So every year I will do a
woman's period poverty event because there's a lot of people
(34:06):
don't realize that women don't have access to period products
of all ages. And so I always will will put on
a drive for it. This past year we did Carrie
because that entire movie is about a girl who gets her first
period and then she gets these powers and then she doesn't know
what to do with them. And then her mom's like this.
I don't want to say she's extremely religious and so like
(34:26):
says like carries the devil and all this stuff.
And so it's her transformation to figure out who she actually
is. And it's a really good allegory
for women about your healthcare and like figuring things out.
And so for that one, we had a panel of, I think it was 7
people who all talked about their experiences of what it's
(34:48):
life is like, you know, having going through what they're going
to. I'm trying not to be too, too
much for people who are listening, but one of the people
was actually my mother. She came and as a Marine, she
was actually one of the very first Marines to ever be
pregnant in the military. She would always say like before
they would just get out air quotations, they would kind of
(35:08):
force them out. But she would talk about how
like she when she was working with my oldest sister, how she
wasn't able to fit into her uniform, so she would have to
wear an Air Force jumpsuit. So she would always get written
up because she wasn't in uniform.
And then she also talked about like whenever she was giving
birth to my sister, she didn't know what was happening.
So she went to the hospital and on her record, it says like she
(35:28):
was like AWOL because they didn't know where she was.
So like, the reason why I love this kind of stuff is because
these are real stories happeningto these people around us.
And I find that when it comes tolike horror movies, we also do
things like Twilight and like over like Christmas, we always
do like Addams Family. So it's not always like hardcore
gory torture movies because I don't like those.
(35:49):
But we'll do like Creature from the Black Lagoon, right?
And like, we'll do these fun house on Haunted Hill from the
60s with one surprise. We'll do these fun movies.
So people get to get together, watch these things and then talk
about it afterwards. And, and it's a it's a great
community event. And the Lord has blessed me
enough that I'm actually taking it on the road this year and
this summer. And I'm taking it to different
States and I actually have charity events in different
(36:11):
states for this too. So that's one thing that I I see
the Lord again talking to me through movies and having me
bring together a community of people.
Wow, what a great example of, ofthe Lord not only allowing us,
but encouraging us to pursue ourpassion, the things that we
(36:32):
enjoy. Blessing other people is, is one
of your passions. It's not, it's not a side thing,
right? That that's become very clear in
the, the conversation that we'vehad today, but not not just
helping people, but seeking out people who are often
marginalized and helping them. That's that's something that the
(36:56):
Savior did. That's I really like this past
conference. I, I feel like this past
conference really spoke to me a lot because sometimes I don't
know if discouraging is the word, but you know how Satan and
the atmosphere can sometimes be like, Are you sure that's the
Lord telling you to do that? That happened to me a lot with
my movie shows because just the reactions I would get from
people who, who I would admire and they're like, oh, like we
(37:19):
shouldn't be doing that. All these things.
And this past conference made merealize Christ is reaching out
to everybody in all different ways.
And what I think is the most important things is for us to
stand up and say, you know what,the Lord did tell me this, I'm
following this. The Lord sees my effort and he I
(37:40):
truly believe this is that he will, he will make it very well
known when to stop. And that my job is to listen to
the inklings of the Holy Spirit.My job is to do everything that
I can and that the Lord will come in and say like your job is
done. That's wonderful.
That's that's all that any of usshould do.
Because I loved this past conference, I was able to go to
(38:02):
a session of conference. We actually drove out there and
the way that they spoke, it was so beautiful because I've seen
some changes in how people have been speaking over the past like
couple of years, probably 10 years in conference.
And one of the things that I noticed this past time is first
to be ready for when the Lord comes back.
That was like very like, oh, which I'm really excited about.
(38:24):
And then second is how do I say this?
It's not as serious as we think it is to kind of relax on
ourselves, to kind of take a step back and say what needs to
be done and what is, I don't want to say bare minimum, but
what's going to get us our salvation and what's going to
(38:45):
get us exaltation instead of worrying about a whole bunch of
other things? Because I really liked, I don't
remember her name, but she was the general young women's first
counselor. I believe she gave the story
about how she was diving and howthe judges base first on your
form, but also on the difficultyof that thing.
(39:06):
And I find that as humans that that's very true for me, because
I might judge people on how theydo things, but I don't
understand the difficulty of what they're doing.
So it might look easy to me, or it might look like it's really
hard for me, but the Lord is theone judging because He sees both
sides of it. And he's the only one.
(39:28):
Wow. I've really enjoyed our time
together today. Good.
Use this tomorrow. Absolutely.
Will you please end our episode with your testimony of the
Savior and His restored church? Absolutely.
I can say this with a surety is that I know that this is the
Church that Jesus Christ set up whenever He was here on earth.
I did all my research as you allheard earlier.
(39:48):
What I know is that Jesus Christloves us.
I know that. What I know is that this church
has brought me closer to Christ than any other church has.
This church has given me answersthat I have been looking for
that other ones did not have. And so the the answer was, you
(40:09):
know, don't ask those questions.What I know is that this church
encourages seeking and finding. I know that the Lord expects us
to knock and that he will open. I I know these things and I hope
that when Jesus Christ comes back, we will all be able to
(40:31):
recognize him. I have such hope in the people
of this ward of the stake that we'll be able to be unified
together. And I have a testimony that when
we are striving to be like Christ, the Spirit will
interpret to us who the disciples of Jesus Christ are,
that the sphere will be the one to interpret that energy and
(40:52):
that action, that call to actionto us individually to see.
That's a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And I know that Christ loves us and that God lives, and so does
Jesus Christ. I'd say that in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I hope that this episode of the Wichita KS Stick Podcast helped
(41:15):
bring you closer to Christ. I invite you to take some time
today to write about or record one of your own faith promoting
experiences.
Hi friends, welcome to the Wichita KS State Podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Kitchen, a state history specialist.
This podcast is intended to helpbring followers of Christ closer
to him and to promote unity within the body of Christ by
listening to our state leaders share their personal stories of
faith. By reflecting on faith promoting
experiences, we can strengthen our individual faith in Jesus
(00:20):
Christ together. Welcome to our next episode.
There's a term that you'll hear today, and that term is YSA.
In the church, we refer to youngsingle adults as YSA, and that
term refers to members who are ages 18 to 35 who are currently
(00:46):
single. And we have AYSA Ward in our
stake, and the ward boundaries are the same as the stake
boundaries. I'm here today with Sister Mae
Moral. She hails from the countryside
of North Carolina. She recently moved here in 2023
(01:06):
from San Antonio, TX. She has lived in every region of
the US except for Alaska. This includes 14 States and one
American territory. She served her mission in the
Irvine, CA mission from 2014 to 2015.
May comes from a single mother family.
Her mother served in the Marine Corps and is currently an
(01:28):
inspector for the city of Charlotte.
May enjoys many things that lifehas to offer.
Watching movies, listening to music, live concerts, taking Rd.
trips, going to art museums, walking outside and throwing
themed parties. She loves animals, especially
cats and chickens. She has four cats at home and
(01:49):
hopes to expand her family in the future with other stray
animals in Mae Mae's realm of side quests to make money.
She currently works as a freelance makeup artist for
Estee Lauder Companies. Brands include Mac, Bobby Brown,
Clinique, and more. She is a graphic designer for
(02:10):
Schubert Natural Healthcare and Chiropractic.
She works as a special Ed para at West High.
She also owns and operates her own horror movie show, Madam
May's Horror Frights. May's main goal in life is to
change the world by opening resource Centers for women in
multiple locations across the country.
(02:31):
She is passionate about Women's Health and education
opportunities. May currently serves as the
second counselor in the Wichita YSA Relief Society.
In the past she has been a Sunday School teacher for the
majority of her adult life. The church and has been a Temple
and Mission Prep teacher. Welcome.
Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here.
(02:52):
Yes, excited to talk with you today.
We're going to have some wonderful stories.
I'm so excited to share some. So let's start with your
conversion. Will you please share your
conversion story with us? I would love to, I love to share
my conversion story because it'sa little unorthodox in a way.
And I think it's so funny because I feel like I'm a
walking testimony of how Jesus Christ really finds the
(03:15):
individual and teaches the individual.
And so my conversion story actually starts with my mom.
So my grandmother was working atHardee's in North Carolina with
this member of the church named Gladys.
And Gladys was telling my grandma all about Joseph Smith
and the first vision and Andrew Moroni.
And then my grandma comes home to my mom and my mom's 16 at
(03:35):
this point and starts to talk tomy mom about like how funny of a
thing it is and kind of mocking it.
And then my mom, she's like, no,like I've been looking for that.
I've, I've been searching for something like that because I
always laugh. My mom's really big into like
extraterrestrials and really biginto like space.
Like she wanted to be like an astronomer at one point and all
(03:56):
these things. And so she doesn't believe in
the like the little green people, but she believes in us,
just not on earth. And so she said right whenever
she heard about like the Angel Moroni coming to visit and also
like Joseph Smith seeing God andJesus Christ, that she felt it
in her soul that that was what she was looking for and she knew
it to be true. So that's how she found the
(04:17):
church. And then growing up, she kind of
fell away from the church for a while and had by two older
sisters in the Marine Corps. And then I was born and my mom
suffered from a lot of depression and anxiety, and she
got injured in the military, which is why she got retired
early. And so growing up, we were
(04:39):
familiar with the church, but wedidn't go every week.
And so it was whenever my sisterwas eight, I would have been
about four or five at the time, but she heard a talk in general
saying that it's the responsibility of parents to
make sure that their kids are baptized for their salvation.
And she said that struck her to her core.
And then that's whenever she decided to get all of us
baptized whenever we were ready and whenever we were growing up,
(05:04):
I didn't really, I didn't reallylike go to church very often.
And like, we would go to some things, like some activities,
but I went on a long religious journey where I actually was
investigating other churches andI didn't really know quite what
I was doing. I didn't have a specific deity
(05:24):
that I believed in. And so I was very fortunate that
my mom has four sisters and they're all different
denominations. So I, I believe one of my aunts,
she was Catholic. And then I had a Pentecostal, a
Southern Baptist, and then I think my other one was Methodist
at the time. And so I was able to stay within
my family unit, but to discover so many other religions and to
like learn of Christ very small by small and to get a good basis
(05:48):
before God really introduced himself to me.
And it was, and I had friends who were Buddhist.
And so I looked into that for a little bit.
And then it was actually my mother again at her house.
She was watching History Channel.
And this was when I was like 18,and she was watching the Easter
special about the Shroud of Turin, the shroud that was on
(06:09):
Jesus's face. And I remember her sitting down
watching it while she was makingbreakfast.
And this Jewish rabbi comes on and starts talking about Jesus.
And I was like, I thought Jewishpeople didn't believe in Jesus.
And so I was like, OK, so I thatreally piqued my interest.
So I really started to like research.
I was like, OK, why is this Jewish rabbi talking about this
(06:30):
Jesus person? And then come to find out they
believe in Jesus, they just don't believe he's the Messiah.
And so then that sent me on a long journey of what it meant
for somebody to be a Messiah, because apparently all these
other people are waiting for one.
And so then I started to gradually understand, like, oh,
who this person is? And what really got to me was
(06:52):
the historical record of this man named Jesus in Nazareth.
And so whenever I discovered that, I was like, OK, so it's
not just made-up, like we have actual historical records.
And then I remember, I can't remember who it was.
I think it was my Aunt Rose. She was the one who told me
like, I need to pray and I need to ask to know if, like, Jesus
(07:12):
was the Messiah. And so then I remember that
probably was about 8 months until when I was 18, and I
prayed, and then I got the overwhelming confirmation that
Jesus was the Messiah. And so I was like, OK, And then
actually a friend from church, her dad was the Bishop, actually
invited me to go to an activity with her.
(07:33):
And so I went to this activity. And I just remember feeling like
a little prick on my heart saying, discover this more.
It's time for you to look into this more.
And so then I looked more and more into it.
And then it was around that timeis whenever I had confirmation
that this church was the true Church of that Jesus Christ set
up. Because one of the things that I
(07:54):
did that I again was very fortunate to discover all the
other churches too. They helped build my testimony
in the Bible in the New Testament.
And I remember reading the New Testament and writing down what
Jesus said his people were and what his church was.
And I took the list with me whenever I went to all of these
churches and right when they didsomething that was not aligned
(08:18):
with what Jesus said, I decided not to go back to that church.
And I remember 1 specifically, Ithought these churches were
phenomenal and like they have such great communities.
I just remember this one. It was a non denominational
church. It was the simplest thing.
And I was like, OK, but Jesus said this is that they were
selling coffee on Sunday. And then I remember at looking
at that and then just thinking, I think this church is really
(08:40):
good. I just know that's not the one
I'm looking for because it's very specific in the Bible, Old
Testament and New Testament, we don't sell things on Sundays.
And so that's whenever I start to like, weed out different
churches. And then again my friend brought
me to this church and then I gotmy confirmation so.
That's that's awesome. Yeah.
What a great story. Thank you for sharing that.
(09:00):
Absolutely. It was a a couple of things that
you shared there in your in yoursearching your quest you shared
about it felt pricked in your heart.
There was some academic study. There was some prayer.
Will you share with us? How does God speak to you?
(09:22):
Absolutely. So God speaks to me in a variety
of ways. I think what's really funny is
that he, he really knows how to get my attention and what I'm
willing to focus on. And He's definitely willing to
work with me about what I'm focusing on instead of trying to
change my entire existence to focus on other things.
So I love movies and I love music and that's actually how he
(09:45):
speaks to me the most. That's so funny.
But during my discovering the church and figure out who the
Messiah is, one of the things that actually I'm laughing, but
one of the things actually got me to actually pray to know if
Jesus was the Messiah is I was watching Lord of the Rings
Return of the King. I remember looking at it and I
(10:05):
just remember because obviously it's God based, you know, like
the story and I just remember seeing it and no one had to
explain it to me. But I saw God in the movie and
then that really kind of trailedme into my journey into
Christianity. And so he speaks to me through
movies and he'll speak to me in the in unlikely movies.
(10:28):
I'm trying to think of other ones.
Lord of the Rings is just one ofmy favorite franchises.
So it's it's I'm really gratefulthat he has decided to talk to
me through something I enjoy, you know, And then with music,
I, I very much so feel music. I love to listen to music
whenever I close my eyes becauseI can almost feel things and
it's almost like the vibrations sync up with my soul in a way.
(10:49):
And so I really don't know how to explain that one, but I feel
of certain vibration and it, it's so reminiscent to the Holy
Spirit. And so the Spirit's able to
speak to me when I'm, I don't want to say like a trance per
SE, but like when I'm in a meditative state.
And so music really helps me bring that into like a reality
when I'm really stressed out. Wow, that's that's amazing.
(11:13):
It's a. Lot of fun.
I love that, but meditative state or some sometimes to to be
able to get there. Often we'll talk about present
moment, things like that being present and there are so many
ways to help us prepare ourselves to receive of the
(11:34):
Spirit, receive of the message that God has for us.
And I think that's awesome that like you said, that that God
chooses a way that you enjoy, but also that that you're able
to recognize that. That's wonderful.
Thank you for sharing. No problem.
I I just have such a huge testimony that he's really
willing to work with what you enjoy because like I love Enya,
(11:56):
for example. And so he talks to me a lot
through Enya. I do a lot of her from
meditation. But then also my favorite band
ever is My Chemical Romance, which is like an alternative
rock band. And I will still get heavenly
messages through those music. Like the certain lyrics will hit
me at certain times and I'm like, Oh, I'm understanding a
little bit more. Or there was one time I think it
was like a Guns N Rosa song. Like he will just speak to me
through the lyrics sometimes. Well, my my youngest son likes
(12:19):
My Chemical Romance. Well, he'll be glad to hear
that. Absolutely, yeah.
So tell us about the mission that you served.
Absolutely. So if anybody's ever wondering
if they should go on a mission or not, I like to say this
because I believe this is my testimony.
The only reason why I went on a mission was because God told me
(12:41):
in my patriarchal blessing. So I have a very strong
testimony in those two. I did not have a desire to go on
a mission at the time. So I found the church probably
back. I think it's 2011.
No, no, no, but like 2000, I don't remember, but if you were
like you had to be 21 as a womanto go on a mission and I
remember, OK, I'm so sorry, missionaries back in those
(13:03):
times, looking at a 21 year old woman and thinking, oh, she
couldn't get married, that's whyshe went on a mission.
You know, there was a whole stigma.
And so whenever the age lowered,I still did not want to go on a
mission because I assumed, I don't know why it's Satan.
I know what it is, but it was like undesirable for a woman to
go on a mission. And so I had no desire to.
(13:24):
And then I got my patriarchal blessing because I think it was
my Bishop was like, I think thatyou should consider doing this.
And I got confirmation that I should.
And then in it, he straight up said, he's like, I need you to
go, like I, I need you to go do this thing for me.
And so I went because my faith in Jesus Christ is my motivation
to do things, not necessarily because I want to do things.
(13:48):
There are sometimes I still fight with him, but the mission,
he made it very clear. He's like, this is something I
need you to do. So I went on my mission to
Irvine, CA loved it. You know, best mission in the
world. That's what everybody says.
But I funny enough, whenever I got my call, I was so
disappointed. I wanted to go to Japan or I
wanted to go to like Mexico. I wanted to go to Australia.
(14:09):
And I just remember looking and I'm like, what do you mean
California? Like that's like land here.
I'm already from this country, like let me go somewhere else.
I did tell him though, I was notgoing to go to Utah or Idaho.
So that's why everybody like he sent you to California.
And so when I got there, I remember it was about 8 months
into my mission, I realized the reason why I was supposed to go
(14:33):
there on my mission was because I was supposed to go back after
my mission and I was supposed tocontinue to visit.
And I, I go back almost every year now.
But if I was in Japan, I wouldn't be able to do that.
And it's because the connectionswith the people that I made
there And on my mission, I, I felt very weird about it because
again, I, to me, I was a recent convert, you know, because like,
(14:55):
I didn't know much. I, I, I didn't really know
anything. I OK, it's now because I've been
off my mission now for about 10 years, but I understand so much
more looking back and I understand why I was called.
I did not understand that when Iwas on my mission.
But the reason why he called me on a mission was because of the
(15:17):
knowledge I had of the New Testament.
That was something that I, I know now.
I was like, oh, that's why he called me before my mission.
I did not read through the Book of Mormon.
I didn't really have a necessarily a testimony of it.
I didn't like disagree with it. It was just something I didn't
really explore a lot of. And I remember on my mission, I
kind of felt bad. I was like, I don't think I need
(15:38):
to be here. I don't think I like deserve to
be here because I don't know what all these other people
know, You know, like I don't have a testimony of this thing
we're out here preaching about. And so I remember very specific
times where God put me with companions that were so strong
in the Book of Mormon, these beautiful women who knew
everything about the Book of Mormon like the back of their
(15:59):
hand. What he needed was somebody to
come in and kind of bridge the gap between what people already
knew in the Book of Mormon. So that way they were able to
testify of the Book of Mormon. I now see that my journey was
not to testify of the Book of Mormon.
It was to testify of Christ so that these people he prepared
was able to testify for them. And it's such a beautiful thing
(16:21):
to see now that he valued me formy knowledge and he prepared me
for what he needed to do, which is why he called me on a mission
the time that he did, because hecould have said like in my
patriarchal blessing, like afteryou read the Book of Mormon or
like whenever you develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon.
But he was he didn't say that. He said, I need you to go, I
(16:43):
need you to go do this thing. And, and now I see he's like,
oh, it's because you don't have to have a perfect knowledge of
everything. He wants what you have.
He does, he really does, and he tailors that message for us.
He does. In a way that that we'll
understand if we're willing to to hear him.
Because on my mission we had a couple churches, I'm not going
(17:04):
to name them, but they were megachurches.
And one of the mega churches, which is crazy to think about,
they actually had anti Mormon missionary classes that we
actually ran into people. So it's kind of interesting to
be there because sometimes my companions who did not know the
New Testament were not able to say much.
And like, I love to fight. So like, I was willing to fight
these people, but the spirit waslike, no, don't do that.
(17:25):
So what I would do is I would just understand what they're
trying to say. And then I was able to comfort
my companions and saying like, this is how they're interpreting
the scripture that they're quoting at you.
And so it was kind of interesting to see that too.
Wow. Yeah, but just ways that that
(17:45):
again, the Spirit may direct us to to use what we have in a way
that we don't necessarily or we don't think that we're prepared.
It's not the way that we would do it.
But when we listen, God will useus the ways that He wants us to.
Yeah. And it was about a year,
(18:06):
actually, after my mission, whenI got home from my mission, I
went to BYU, Idaho. And then I decided I was going
to read through the entire Book of Mormon, like front to back.
And it took me about a year. And I remember praying to know
if it was not true, like moron Moroni says.
And I remember the answer I got was a little frustrating.
(18:27):
I was like heavenly Father, like, help me, is this true?
Is this not true? What am I supposed to do with
this information? And then he straight up said to
me, he's like, you already knew this was true.
And I remember kind of frustrated because I've heard
like these conversion stories about how like big and grand
like gestures are and people like felt like they were on fire
or whatever. But I, I, I think about it now,
and that's exactly what I neededto hear because I I now know, I
(18:51):
never doubted. I now know because he answered
the way that he did. I was never the Book of Mormon
was never going to be a stumbling block for me.
It was always something that wassupposed to happen.
I. Love that.
What a wonderful way for him to to teach you that too.
(19:12):
So let's change the direction a little bit here and talk about
your professional life, OK. What influenced you to take your
professional professional coursethat you did?
So yeah, so I'm actually a licensed esthetician, which
means I do a lot of skin care and makeup, and so I can be like
waxing and eyelashes. So cosmetology is hair.
(19:33):
I do skin and so for those of you who are listening who don't
know what aesthetician is and sothat would.
Include me. Thank you for saying that.
No problem. So actually how I got on this
route, I was going to BYU Idaho and I wanted to be a family and
consumer science major. I wanted to actually teach
children how to become people because I just knew a lot of.
(19:56):
I'm very passionate about children and also women
healthcare like I put in there, but there's something about
children that has. I feel like my heart aches for
them because the way the world is, they're not, it's not even
not being raised right. It's they don't have that
support. I don't think it has anything to
do necessarily to do with the raising.
It's, it's the support from the community.
(20:18):
And I remember thinking about how many times like I didn't
know basic things and how I wanted to be a teacher and I
wanted to to help kids out as much as possible.
And to me being a family consumer science major, which is
home EC, So they got rid of thatword home EC for those of you
who don't know what family consumer science is.
And so I wanted to teach kids how to do basic baking, how to
(20:42):
sew on a button, how to like balance their checkbooks.
Like I wanted to teach them the like the life skills they
needed. And I was going to be like Idaho
for it. And then I remember I was there
for about two semesters, and I realized I was running into a
problem. There was no way that I could
(21:03):
teach these kids at school for an hour and a half, probably
like three days a week, right, in high school, because every
other day. And then if their parents don't
keep it up, they're going to forget it.
So then I was thinking, I was like, OK, so the solution to
what I want is not for me to become a teacher.
I've got to help the parents. And so then I was like, OK, what
(21:23):
can I do for parents to help their kids out?
And coming from a single mom, I didn't have a father figure
growing up. So like I didn't know anything
to do with men. I didn't know how to like help
you guys out or anything. So I was like, OK, let me focus
on what I do know, which is women.
And I was looking at a couple different things.
I also thought about doing social work.
But again, I just, I don't agreewith the way that certain laws
(21:46):
are. And I don't think I could ever
leave a child in this situation.So I just knew social work was
not going to work out for me. And so I was looking at how can
I help women? And I feel best whenever my skin
feels clean. I don't feel grimy, I don't feel
dirty. Like whenever my hair is
shampooed, whatever I have, likemy fingernails, there's no dirt
underneath them. I just feel good.
(22:07):
And I remember I was like, oh, whenever I feel good, I treat
people better. And so then I started to watch
people and I was like, oh, no, like you can see it.
Whenever people don't feel good,they don't treat people as
nicely as they should, right? Because it's a thing with like a
elderly people who are really cranky, it's usually because
they're in back pain or they have knee pain or something else
is going on. And so that's usually why
(22:28):
they're cranky. And so I was like, OK, So what
can I do with skin? And then my mom actually
contacted me and she's like, hey, like the Community College
down the road actually has an aesthetician program for two
semesters. And it was like $300.00.
And I was like, Oh, well, perfect.
So that's what I did. I went back to North Carolina
and I got my esthetician license.
And so with being an esthetician, I've done like
(22:50):
eyelash extensions, I've done like body waxings.
I've done what else was there. There's a couple other things,
but my favorite thing to do is actually to educate clients and
to educate the people who come to me, men and women, about how
to take care of themselves. Because you would be surprised
how much people don't realize your skin itself affects your
(23:12):
health and psychological and things like that.
And so a lot of people, unfortunately, they hear that
I'm a makeup artist or they hearthat I do like body hair removal
or whatever. And they think it's very like
vapid or very like, like self-centered.
And sometimes it can be. But what I love about being a
makeup artist is I have these women who come in my chairs who
have like almost like third degree burns on their skin from
(23:34):
whenever they were in their 60s,like or back in the 60s And they
used to get tan with iodine, right?
And so they have all this like horrible, like burns on their
skin. So I'm able to show them things
to help them with that. I've had women who like they've
been recovering with cancer, so their hair is falling out, so
they need to learn how to draw on their eyebrows.
Or I'll have women who are moms who just want to look a little
(23:56):
bit better because they don't have time for themselves.
So I'm able to sit down with these women, pamper them, show
them things, and then let them take it home.
And with my job as a freelance makeup artist, I'm not tied to 1
store like I used to be. And so I get to travel around to
like all the Ultas. Yesterday I was at Sephora.
(24:17):
I get to go to Dillard's and VonMar.
So I get to see all the types ofwomen and I just love to sit
down with them and educate them.And one of the things I always
say to them is I'm going to teach you how to shop whenever
I'm not here. So I take them through all the
ingredients that I can. I tell them I'm like, you're
saying this thing, these are thekeywords you're looking for is I
also know how so we're going to use predatory in a way.
(24:40):
The makeup sales can be, you know, like people want to take
your money. And so I always I love to be a
woman's first line of defense toteach them know these are the
type of products that that's actually worth your money.
Or I have women who will come inand they don't have a lot of
money. So I'm able to to show them
cheaper alternatives or I'm ableto show them this is what to
(25:01):
actually invest in. Don't invest your money in this.
And for me, I really feel like the Lord has put me here again
to teach women that eventually that will go back to their kids.
They're going home feeling better about themselves.
They're going home, they're feeling more confident, they're
feeling like they have a little bit of themselves back.
And so I feel like the Lord is full hands on inside of my my
(25:24):
profession. Wow, that's amazing that I mean,
it's, it's empowering the way that you were, you were wanting
when you were first looking at education, but definitely
helping people feel good about themselves.
They're going to be able to be those caregivers, do whatever
(25:46):
that they need to do and not have to focus on the way that
they feel or the way that they they feel like they look or
anything like that, that they'reable to, to have that.
I don't know. Empowerment is what I keep
coming back to, but it's it's more than a confidence because
because it's real. So most like an assurance, like
whenever I worked as an eyelash tech, so I would sit there for 2
(26:09):
1/2 hours and put on tiny eyelashes on hundreds of
eyelashes, right? And what really got me through
it was actually the nurses and doctors who would come in and
then would just say, I don't have time to do makeup, but I
want to still feel good. And so that's why they would get
their eyelashes done is because if they had an emergency, they
could just wake up and just feelgood.
Wow. That's awesome.
(26:31):
So if is there a story that comes to mind about your, your
profession, I mean, without revealing confidence or anything
like that, but something that you could share with us to to
help us know more. I mean you just you talked about
some medical professionals and is there another example that
you could share with us kind? Of thing, I have lots of
(26:53):
examples that I, I work with, I think about this one woman
because I strongly believe you just don't know what you don't
know. And so whenever I'm listening to
sales people on the floor, sometimes it's, it's difficult
for me to stand back and let them do their sales pitch
whenever I know they're using the wrong words or they're
(27:14):
misunderstanding their client. And so there's this one time
that I actually did intervene because I just, I just knew from
what they were saying that the woman wasn't going to be happy.
Going back to the lady with a really bad sunburn.
She had almost like third degreeburns because like she would
sunbathe when she was younger with iodine and corn oil.
(27:35):
I think she is what she said. And like she was working on her
farm too. And so she was just like really
badly burned. And there's this, there's this
concept color like analysis or color theory where because she's
red, you would put something green on her to help cancel out
the red. But what was the problem was
because of her skin texture, shewasn't red, it was the skin
(27:56):
underneath it. And so dealing with a lot of the
skin texture, I actually taught her a lot more about
moisturizing the skin. And this is a good tip for
anybody. So here's your free tip.
Whenever you're you cut yourselfor whether you have a burn or
anything like that, keeping it moisturized helps it not scar.
Scar tissue comes from whenever.OK, not professionals, maybe
this isn't the right way to say it, but is whenever your skin
(28:17):
splits and then it gets like, hard around it and it can't go
back together. But whenever you keep it
moistened and whenever you keep it hydrated, your skin gets to
move back together. That's a tip.
Yeah. And so I was able to help her
with that because again, the sales people here, oh, she has
redness. It's not redness, It's burn, you
know, it's, it's like burnt skin.
(28:39):
I actually wanted to be work in a surgeon's office and help with
people who needed reconstructivesurgery because as an
esthetician, like a licensed medical esthetician, I would be
able to help like burn victims. So that was something I was
looking into too. Well, then, it's not too late.
Right. I know it's not.
Yeah. So what's the talking about
decisions that you've made? What's the best decision that
(29:00):
you've made regarding a job? Absolutely.
So this is really funny. I actually got to pick this
question. The reason I'm saying that is
because of my answer. I think one of the best
professional choices I have evermade was when to leave a job.
I think that there is this mindset of scarcity that I have
to stay at a job because it's mysecurity.
I can't move because this is where I get my benefits.
(29:22):
This is where I get all my stuff.
And the best piece of advice I could tell, especially members
of the church is follow God and he will tell you when to move.
And I, I find that it's putting trust in God to let go of a job
that's really stable or really something.
And especially in our economy now in America, I feel like
(29:44):
there's that scarcity mindset, like, oh, the job market's not
good. Like it's hard to find a job.
And I feel like people can get stuck.
And I remember getting stuck in a job and I just hated it.
And I was so afraid to let go because the question was, what
if I don't find something else? But I just remember telling the
Lord, Lord, I'm not happy. I don't spiritually feel good
because I feel like I'm overwhelmed on Sundays and I
(30:05):
can't think about it in church. I want to let this go.
And then right whenever I let itgo, so much more came flooding
in. That's awesome.
Yeah. Again, trust that faith and
listening. Thank you.
Yeah, no problem. I do want to give a little shout
out because I know we we talked about it in my intro, but I want
(30:27):
to talk about my movie show realfast as that's that's OK.
So this isn't a plug. Y'all don't have to come to my
shows, but I moved to North Carolina.
It was like a transitional period back in 2023 for a couple
months. And there I didn't really know
what to do with myself. So I was looking around for
places to volunteer. And so I started volunteering at
(30:48):
this black box theatre in North Carolina and I was just doing
popcorn and I was just like handing out tickets and things
like that. And the owner came over and was
like, oh May like we would love to have you on like the board of
like artistic creators or whatever it was.
So I went to the board meeting and then they asked me they were
like, may like you're kind of spooky, like do you want to put
(31:08):
on like an Elvira kind of show? And so I was like, oh, like that
would be so much fun. And so that's how I kind of like
dived into the to the horror movie scene and what the Lord
showed me through that. And this is what I think it's
just so funny is the Lord uses me to pull together people who
are on the outskirts of society.I feel like almost because
(31:30):
whenever it comes to people who enjoy horror movies or things of
that, it can be very taboo for people and it can be very like,
oh, I don't want to participate in that, which it's not for
everybody. So if you don't have to do
anything, you don't want to do what I have seen and what God
has told me to do now, because one of my jobs is my horror
movie show is to give back to the community to let people
(31:52):
enjoy things together. I really enjoy movies, all types
of movies, and my favorite aspect is to talk about them.
And so one of the aspects of my horror movie show is like, we'll
watch, for example, we watched Signs.
Have you ever seen Signs? So it's actually a really good
church movie. Funny enough, I didn't realize
that until this past time. So my show is we'll usually play
Jeopardy like based off the theme of the movie, and then
(32:15):
we'll watch the first part of the movie, have an intermission,
do the second part of the movie,and then have a post show
discussion about the movie. And I remember growing up
watching Signs, it's about Aliens and remember being so
like, oh, this is like one of the best alien movies ever.
And then when I watched it again, I was like, Oh no, this
is a movie about a man finding God again after he so his.
(32:37):
Spoiler alert for people, but Mel Gibson's character, he's a,
what are they called, oh, in theCatholic Church, a father, the
clergy. He's a clergyman and his wife
gets killed in an accident. And so he swears off God.
He's like, I'm, I'm done with that.
God didn't protect her, so can'tdo anything about this.
And so he has two kids and then aliens invade.
(32:59):
And then through the alien attack, he starts to see signs
of miracles and he starts to find his faith again through
this whole thing. It's really interesting, but I
didn't realize the religious context until I was watching it
again as an adult. And I remember my audience was
talking about it, how it's not an alien movie with a family in
it. It's actually a family movie
(33:19):
that just happens to have aliensin it.
And so we have a really good discussion about that.
And then twice a year I'll do charity events.
And so last year we actually worked with the Lords Diner,
which is a they feed the homeless.
So one of my goals whenever I started this horror movie show
is I wanted to do Texas ChainsawMassacre with a BBQ dinner.
So that's what we did. You know, they're really fun,
(33:43):
but that's what we did, and we brought the community together.
We catered in barbecue and we had some really fun performers.
And then we were able to donate all the leftover food plus
canned goods to the Lords Diner.And then in August, I actually
did a woman's a woman's event. So every year I will do a
woman's period poverty event because there's a lot of people
(34:06):
don't realize that women don't have access to period products
of all ages. And so I always will will put on
a drive for it. This past year we did Carrie
because that entire movie is about a girl who gets her first
period and then she gets these powers and then she doesn't know
what to do with them. And then her mom's like this.
I don't want to say she's extremely religious and so like
(34:26):
says like carries the devil and all this stuff.
And so it's her transformation to figure out who she actually
is. And it's a really good allegory
for women about your healthcare and like figuring things out.
And so for that one, we had a panel of, I think it was 7
people who all talked about their experiences of what it's
(34:48):
life is like, you know, having going through what they're going
to. I'm trying not to be too, too
much for people who are listening, but one of the people
was actually my mother. She came and as a Marine, she
was actually one of the very first Marines to ever be
pregnant in the military. She would always say like before
they would just get out air quotations, they would kind of
(35:08):
force them out. But she would talk about how
like she when she was working with my oldest sister, how she
wasn't able to fit into her uniform, so she would have to
wear an Air Force jumpsuit. So she would always get written
up because she wasn't in uniform.
And then she also talked about like whenever she was giving
birth to my sister, she didn't know what was happening.
So she went to the hospital and on her record, it says like she
(35:28):
was like AWOL because they didn't know where she was.
So like, the reason why I love this kind of stuff is because
these are real stories happeningto these people around us.
And I find that when it comes tolike horror movies, we also do
things like Twilight and like over like Christmas, we always
do like Addams Family. So it's not always like hardcore
gory torture movies because I don't like those.
(35:49):
But we'll do like Creature from the Black Lagoon, right?
And like, we'll do these fun house on Haunted Hill from the
60s with one surprise. We'll do these fun movies.
So people get to get together, watch these things and then talk
about it afterwards. And, and it's a it's a great
community event. And the Lord has blessed me
enough that I'm actually taking it on the road this year and
this summer. And I'm taking it to different
States and I actually have charity events in different
(36:11):
states for this too. So that's one thing that I I see
the Lord again talking to me through movies and having me
bring together a community of people.
Wow, what a great example of, ofthe Lord not only allowing us,
but encouraging us to pursue ourpassion, the things that we
(36:32):
enjoy. Blessing other people is, is one
of your passions. It's not, it's not a side thing,
right? That that's become very clear in
the, the conversation that we'vehad today, but not not just
helping people, but seeking out people who are often
marginalized and helping them. That's that's something that the
(36:56):
Savior did. That's I really like this past
conference. I, I feel like this past
conference really spoke to me a lot because sometimes I don't
know if discouraging is the word, but you know how Satan and
the atmosphere can sometimes be like, Are you sure that's the
Lord telling you to do that? That happened to me a lot with
my movie shows because just the reactions I would get from
people who, who I would admire and they're like, oh, like we
(37:19):
shouldn't be doing that. All these things.
And this past conference made merealize Christ is reaching out
to everybody in all different ways.
And what I think is the most important things is for us to
stand up and say, you know what,the Lord did tell me this, I'm
following this. The Lord sees my effort and he I
(37:40):
truly believe this is that he will, he will make it very well
known when to stop. And that my job is to listen to
the inklings of the Holy Spirit.My job is to do everything that
I can and that the Lord will come in and say like your job is
done. That's wonderful.
That's that's all that any of usshould do.
Because I loved this past conference, I was able to go to
(38:02):
a session of conference. We actually drove out there and
the way that they spoke, it was so beautiful because I've seen
some changes in how people have been speaking over the past like
couple of years, probably 10 years in conference.
And one of the things that I noticed this past time is first
to be ready for when the Lord comes back.
That was like very like, oh, which I'm really excited about.
(38:24):
And then second is how do I say this?
It's not as serious as we think it is to kind of relax on
ourselves, to kind of take a step back and say what needs to
be done and what is, I don't want to say bare minimum, but
what's going to get us our salvation and what's going to
(38:45):
get us exaltation instead of worrying about a whole bunch of
other things? Because I really liked, I don't
remember her name, but she was the general young women's first
counselor. I believe she gave the story
about how she was diving and howthe judges base first on your
form, but also on the difficultyof that thing.
(39:06):
And I find that as humans that that's very true for me, because
I might judge people on how theydo things, but I don't
understand the difficulty of what they're doing.
So it might look easy to me, or it might look like it's really
hard for me, but the Lord is theone judging because He sees both
sides of it. And he's the only one.
(39:28):
Wow. I've really enjoyed our time
together today. Good.
Use this tomorrow. Absolutely.
Will you please end our episode with your testimony of the
Savior and His restored church? Absolutely.
I can say this with a surety is that I know that this is the
Church that Jesus Christ set up whenever He was here on earth.
I did all my research as you allheard earlier.
(39:48):
What I know is that Jesus Christloves us.
I know that. What I know is that this church
has brought me closer to Christ than any other church has.
This church has given me answersthat I have been looking for
that other ones did not have. And so the the answer was, you
(40:09):
know, don't ask those questions.What I know is that this church
encourages seeking and finding. I know that the Lord expects us
to knock and that he will open. I I know these things and I hope
that when Jesus Christ comes back, we will all be able to
(40:31):
recognize him. I have such hope in the people
of this ward of the stake that we'll be able to be unified
together. And I have a testimony that when
we are striving to be like Christ, the Spirit will
interpret to us who the disciples of Jesus Christ are,
that the sphere will be the one to interpret that energy and
(40:52):
that action, that call to actionto us individually to see.
That's a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And I know that Christ loves us and that God lives, and so does
Jesus Christ. I'd say that in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I hope that this episode of the Wichita KS Stick Podcast helped
(41:15):
bring you closer to Christ. I invite you to take some time
today to write about or record one of your own faith promoting
experiences.
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