LDS Living

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Channel • 5 Shows

Christianity

Christianity

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Religion & Spirituality

Religion & Spirituality

Updated weekly
Religion & Spirituality

Religion & Spirituality

Updated weekly
History

History

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Christianity

Christianity

Updated weekly

01/02/2023

Tarsha Joyner: A Food Network Champ's Recipe For Discovering Your Worth

Cookies, desserts, gingerbread—you name it, Tarsha Joyner can bake it. As a Food Network champ and owner of her own bake shop, Tarsha is known for her beautiful and tempting treats. But ironically, the best lessons she's learned in life don't come from the competitions she's won or the business she's built. Instead, the best knowledge Tarsha has gained in life was as a foster child when she recognized her value as a daughter of God. When she found the gospel, that knowledge only became more concrete. So while Tarsha may not give away her actual cookie recipes, on this week's episode "Mrs. Joy" is more than willing to share her secret recipe for a happy life. 1:20- Packaging First, Product…Second? 5:55- What You Should Know About Recipes 8:03- Knowing Your Worth As a Child of God 12:42- From Foster Care to Family 15:25- Someday When You're In Control 17:43- Mrs. Joy 20:33- Food Network 22:17- Believing in Yourself 24:28- Owning a Business 25:33- Joining the Church 33:49- Promised Blessings 35:53- Family History and Time Well Spent 41:30- What Does It Mean to Be All In the Gospel of Jesus Christ? "Most people are preparing for retirement and I'm preparing for eternity." —Tarsha Joyner Links Tarsha's TikTok Video interviews with Tarsha- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvZ96kzfIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5ZxEWn0gg See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

01/02/2023

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44 min
11/10/2022

How To Mourn With Those That Mourn with Lisa Valentine Clark

Getting comfortable being a support to others in their times of grief and pain isn't always natural. Mourning with those that mourn and comforting those who need comfort means simply showing up, asking how they are doing, providing a listening ear, and even sometimes sitting with them in their silence. In this episode, we discuss how we can show up for others—both near and far—and comfort one another as we rely on God's miracles. "The way we show up in the world is a gift to other people." Lisa is a freelance writer, producer, actress, and host of BYU Radio's The Lisa Show. She wrote the book, Real Moms, Making It Up As We Go, co-hosted the feel-good service show "Random Acts," and headlined the musical improv tv series Show Offs, for three seasons on BYUtv. Lisa and her late husband Christopher have 5 kids and a Labradoodle named Gus. You can find her on Instagram @yourfunnyvalentine Top Takeaways from this episode! As women of God, we need to expect miracles and know that we are seen as individuals to Him; He will come to us in our specific needs. We can show up for people, even when we're not physically there. When we know our loved ones better, we can be specific about our service to them. (Like dropping off cheese and Diet Coke for Lisa!) Sometimes we just need to sit in silence when we mourn with others instead of trying to problem solve. The Lord can make beautiful things out of the horrible and ugly and unfair things in life when we rely on his promises God will always bless us more than we deserve. Something to think about: How can you be more compassionate to yourself when you are going through a painful or grieving time? Small and simple weekly challenge: Think of that person who is going through a really hard time right now and reach out to them. Put the phone away, give them your undivided attention, and ask them, "how are you feeling today—but really? I want to understand." Links: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lisa-valentine-clark/yes-and-the-creative-art-of-living/ https://www.ldsliving.com/act-ii-scene-i-lisa-valentine-clark-on-grief-laughter-and-love/s/94511 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11/10/2022

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46 min
29/04/2020

Scott Hales: Becoming "Saints"

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last published a multivolume history in 1930. Millions from across the globe have joined the Church in the 90 years that have passed since that history and "Saints" is the effort to preserve the story of the ongoing restoration. We are all a part of the story told in the Church's new history—it is our story of becoming Saints "through the Atonement of Christ the Lord." On this week's episode, we talk with lead writer Scott Hales about the research that went into the book Church members around the world have fallen in love with. "I think the Lord knows the kind of book He wants. And I think He knows the kind of stories that the Saints need at this time, and makes sure that that happens in the process." Show Notes 1:30- A Lifelong Interest 4:21- The Beginnings of "Saints" 6:08- Transparency 8:14- Complexity 10:58- Writing Style 14:40- Tragic Beauty 16:01- The Writing Process 23:39- Getting to Know Someone 26:44- Spending Time With Joseph 32:30- Gathering the Saints 35:10- What Does It Mean To Be "All In" the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Find the full episode transcript at ldsliving.com/allin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29/04/2020

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37 min
09/03/2020

Weak Things Made Strong

Stories in this episode: Bullied most of her life, Julie discovers that the autism that made her different is actually the exact thing that makes her gifted at family history work; A comic book heroine helps Sarah find her own superpowers when it comes to connecting with others; Kurt struggles with the weight of his calling as a bishop until the memory of a red superhero cape reminds him of his true desire to help others. SHOWNOTES To see pictures of our storytellers and get a look at Sarah's DATING GIRL comic, go to ldsliving.com/thisisthegospel Follow us on instagram @thisisthegospel_podcast and facebook to find upcoming themes and to learn more about our team. TRANSCRIPT KaRyn 0:03 Welcome to This is the Gospel, an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith every day. I'm your host, KaRyn Lay. I can't exactly remember when I first heard the phrase "double-edged sword." It was probably in Mrs. McAfee's eighth grade English class, or maybe Ms. Turse's ninth grade English class. Well, whichever well named English teacher at Rockland Junior High taught it to me, I have never forgotten it. Because a double-edged sword basically describes life. If your junior high teacher never taught you that phrase, let me explain. A double-edged sword is anything that has the potential to have both positive and negative consequences in our lives. It's that thing that is both a strength and a weakness all at the same time. Need a concrete example? Okay, let's talk about perfectionism. It's the standard answer to the question, "What's your greatest weakness?" in a job interview because it's a strength disguised as a weakness. Or is it a weakness disguised as a strength? Trick question. It's both. And I know this because a desire to get things right is my constant companion, and it spurs me forward in so many cool ways in my life. But it's also the thing that when left unchecked leads to anxiety and deep paralysis. See? A positive and a negative, all in one, a double-edged sword. I suspect that if we dig deep, it won't take long for each of us to recognize this pattern of strength and weakness coexisting in ourselves. It's what makes us both human and heroic. And today, we'll hear stories from three people who discovered exactly what kind of superpowers were waiting at the other end of their weakness. Our first storyteller is Julie who learned that her greatest challenge in life could be transformed when she focused her efforts in service. Here's Julie: Julie 1:54 When my daughter was four years old she was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, and when I was reading through the symptoms of it, I realized that most of the symptoms applied to me as well. I was very socially awkward as a kid, and I was often bullied for it. I didn't understand social cues or body language very well, and I would come off as rude because I would interrupt people and I would kind of be silly in a way that they just didn't understand. So it was hard to make friends. I was really fascinated with names and dates and I didn't understand why. I come from a very big family and I would make lists of everybody's full names and their birth dates and how old they would turn that year, and I didn't understand why I was driven to do this and I didn't want anybody else to see it because they wouldn't understand it either. It wasn't until many years later that I realized that it was because of family history research that I had that unique quality in my mind. In fact, when I was 16, I had my patriarchal blessing and I was told that I would recognize the choice quality of the mind that my Heavenly Father had given me. And I always thought that maybe I would just realize I was smart, but I think it was more to do with my autism, that my mind worked in a unique way from other people, that I would be able to look at different family records and decipher information that other people had overlooked. And because of that, I was able to break down a lot of walls that we had come to in our genealogy. I think I was given that because Heavenly Father knew that I would be the one to be able to find these people to have their temple work done for them. After my dad died in 2001, after a couple of years, I had a dream where I saw him in our backyard, and he was bathed in a white light and wearing the purest white clothing, and he was walking toward me and all of a sudden I could see the veil separating him from me, and it was of the finest material that I had ever seen. It was completely see-through. It was like a curtain hanging down. And he turned to his right and I could see couples standing just behind this veil. And he would point to them and name them off and I recognized the names in the dream of people that I had been researching, but I hadn't done their temple work for them yet. And they were looking at me with pleading in their eyes, smiles on their faces, but this pleading and they never spoke to me, but I felt that they were saying that they wish that their temple work could be done. And they were like, "Please, please, please get our work done for us." And that is something that I've kept with me for 20 years of just remembering that feeling and it's really spurred me on to be able to find these people. When my oldest was very young, I started doing family search indexing because I had watched my mom do it. And at that time, it wasn't done on computer, it was done where I would have paper copies of documents, and I would transcribe them over to index cards that I would send over to the temple or to the church office building. And I really enjoyed that aspect of it because I realized that I really enjoyed the data entry part of it. And it was after we started doing indexing on the computer, I realized that touching the keys gave me a lot of good sensory input that really helped calm my mind. Something about autism is people will really like to have sensory input where that sense of touch gives you comfort. And because of that gift, I was able to do about 90,000 names in indexing because I can type really fast and it feels really comforting to me, and I can do it with a very high rate of accuracy. And I believe that's a superpower that heavenly Father is giving me because now I can help other people find their family members. In 2002, I went to the Navoo Temple open house with my husband and our young son. And we were going to be staying in the same city that my relatives came from, and I was really excited about that because I could do research, and I dedicated an entire day to be able to go out and do research, but because of our schedule, I ended up with only an hour. And so we went to a cemetery and I prayed to Heavenly Father to help me to find my family. Even though I had hardly any time, and I went into the office and I found the information that I needed to go out and find their graves, and I found a branch of the family that I only had very minimal information on. And I was really excited that I found... their oldest daughter actually passed away as a child and I had never even seen her name, and I was excited because I was able to record her and submit her for her temple work to be done when I had never even seen her name before, and this was the only way that I would have found her until many years later when those records were available on the internet. And I really did feel like that was a miracle Heavenly Father had given me. It was at that point that I realized that family history research is really a treasure hunt, and I knew that my unique mind could help me with that. I have an urgent desire to help these ancestors of mine because I'm doing a work that they can't do for themselves. And I really believe that it is helping me build Heavenly friendships and relationships and deep bonds that I struggle to have here on this Earth. And I like the fact that I can be a savior on Mount Zion and be a hero for them. I like to tell my daughter who's 14 years old now that her autism can be a superpower for her as well. She has an immense love of animals and ecology, and she has an amazing talent with art. And I know that she can go out there and make a difference. And I tell her that. I tell her that she has a unique quality in her mind that she could get out there and maybe think of solutions other people haven't thought of, and that she can help save the world. And I'm just really glad that Heavenly Father gave me this ability because it helps me to help her to make a difference. KaRyn 9:19 That was Julie. From the first moment we heard this on our pitch line, one of my favorite things about Julie's story is that as she began to rely on the Lord to tell her who she was, through things like her patriarchal blessing and personal revelation, she could tune out those voices that were telling her that she was awkward and weird, and begin to see her autism as a gift, and a superpower, a superpower that literally helps her to save souls through genealogy, family history, and temple work. And that's not all. Her autism also helps her to be the coach and the mentor that her daughter needs. I think about that all the time. Wouldn't it be so great if we could all have someone sooner rather than later who tells us that the things that make us feel different might actually be the key to our greatest successes. And the good news for those of us who are still looking for that reassurance is that it is available to us right now from a loving Heavenly Father. Even if there's nobody here on Earth who wants to tell us that, he really does, and I believe that, and Julie's story helps me to realize that it's never too late to ask and to receive. Our next story comes from our friend and my fellow producer, Sarah Blake. Here's Sarah: Sarah 10:29 Growing up, I la

09/03/2020

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37 min
26/10/2020

Act Well Thy Part

Stories in this episode: Brothers Charlie and Sam start a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro only to find that the steepest trail ahead lies in their conversations along the way; An important spiritual lesson on-stage leads Broadway performer Sandra to the surprising truth about her most challenging role off-stage. PLEASE NOTE: stories may contain themes addressing topics that are sensitive for some listeners. We suggest previewing before sharing with children or youth. Show Notes: To see pictures and links for this episode, go to LDSLiving.com/thisisthegospel Transcript: KaRyn 0:03 Welcome to "This Is the Gospel" an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith everyday. I'm your host KaRyn Lay. Our theme today comes from an oft-repeated phrase, "What ere thou art, act well thy part," which has made its way into Latter-day Saint cultural consciousness in really interesting ways over the years, like its cousin, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it," this phrase is often misattributed. Sometimes it's attributed to the scriptures, sometimes to Shakespeare, and sometimes to the Prophet David O McKay. But it's none of these things really. Nobody really knows where it came from. It was the life motto of President McKay, but that's because he first spotted the saying engraved on a stone in Scotland, where he was a discouraged missionary. The saying brought him comfort, and it helped him to buck up and jump back into the work of gathering Israel with his whole heart. And since then, he has shared it with all of us. And it has come to mean a lot of things to a lot of people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, many years later, it became a touchstone for Sister Elaine Dalton's ministry, as the General President of the Young Women's organization. And if you are old enough to listen to conference in 2013, you might actually remember her very last talk before she was released. She talked about how this phrase sustained her during a time of deep discouragement. But why? What is it about acting well our part that captures our imagination and buoys us up in the face of disruption or challenge? Well, in today's episode, we have two stories from three people who found out what Shakespeare, or Shakespeare's brothers cousin, or whoever it was, who wrote that, what they already knew, when they carved that phrase into the rock. Our first story comes from two brothers who faced a steep mountain both literally and figuratively, and came down the other side with a clear sense of their part in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll start with Charlie, and then you'll hear from Sam as the story develops. Here's Charlie and Sam. Charlie Bird 2:08 So the first thing I remember thinking was, "Is this real life?" Because I'm looking at this mountain above me. And honestly, I couldn't really see much. It was just like a jungle with trees and vines, and it was just going higher and higher. And then it was just lost in the clouds. And I couldn't believe that I was actually at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. If you know anything about my family, it's that we're kind of extreme and we love physical challenges. I'm there with my dad and my little brother, Sam, and my sister, Hannah. What we decided to do for this Kilimanjaro summit was try to do an unassisted hike. So most of the time, when you're hiking the mountain, you have like porters to carry your food and your water. But we wanted to go unassisted, which means we had everything with us just on our own backs. So I hoist this bag onto my shoulders, and I was like, "Oh my gosh." This is like the first moment that it's actually hitting me that I have to take this bag to the top of the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. We go to weigh it in, and I can't remember exactly how many kilograms it was, but I did – it was like 30 kilograms, which is roughly 65 pounds. And I'm looking at my brother Sam, and we're like, "Are we cool? . . . Or are we crazy?" And looking back, I think it was a little bit of both. And honestly, all the park rangers there thought we were definitely crazy. For about two years before that I'd become a really avid hiker around Utah. And so I would do Timpanogos on the weekends with friends just for like fun and Angels Landing was a breeze and I was hiking all over the Wasatch Front and all over southern Utah. And I felt pretty good. But about 20 minutes into this hike – Kilimanjaro with 65 pounds on my back – I realized this was not going to be like any hike I'd ever done before. One of the most incredible things that I noticed immediately was the environment, my surroundings. I've never seen so much foliage and animals, there was monkeys jumping through the trees, the landscape was just so beautiful. And there was these mossy vines that were hanging over this dirt path, the light was coming in, in like filtered scattered bursts illuminating the floor and there were flowers on the jungle floor. This is, this is the kind of trip that you know, everyone wants to go on but I was actually living it. I was like, "I cannot believe I'm doing this." And even better, with some of the people who I loved the most. A couple hours into the start of our hike, we're just climbing. Elevation is steep and me and my little brother Sam are just moving out. For some reason. We were just feeling good. I think we were just excited to be there. We kind of got ahead of the rest of the pack. And for a while it was just me and Sam on the trail. And it was so interesting to look over at him. And notice that, you know, he'd always been my little brother. He's five and a half years younger. It was always kind of like – he was just little, you know? But now I'm looking at him and he's the same height as me and our strides are matching and I was like, "Dang, my little brother's like – a man." You know, I'm protective of him. I've always been like a caretaker of sorts to him, but now he was an equal and that that was kind of the moment I realized that he was an equal as we're moving out on this trail. Sam Bird 5:18 Charlie and I had always been close. He had always been my best friend, my older brother, five years older than me. So I've always looked up to him, really in everything. Just the way he's been able to interact with people. He – we always said that Charlie is so skilled and talented in so many different fields that, that he could literally do anything. And I wanted to be like that. And he coached me through a lot of things and taught me a lot of things. And I was just happy to be with him. Charlie Bird 5:46 You know, sometimes I wish there was a word that conveyed something stronger than brother, because that's how I've always felt with Sam. Growing up, we shared a room, and we basically shared everything. We played basketball – he's a basketball star – I honestly can't remember a single time I've ever lost a pickup game at the Rec Center, when Sam's on your team, like you want Sam on your team. And we just loved adventure. And we would explore and we would sing together and try to cook together and stay up late every night talking just about our lives and what we wanted to do and our big dreams. And then now as adults, we share the same clothes and we bought the same type of car. And just everything we did, we were we were essentially like twins. And so sometimes using the word "Brother" to describe Sam doesn't seem like it's full enough – that it's meaningful enough, because our relationship was just, was just so deep. But there was one really important part of me that Sam didn't know anything about. And as we're walking up this mountain, and I realize that he's no longer just a little brother, that he's my equal, I'm realizing that I was hiding something really important from him. The fact that I'm gay. At this point in time, I was putting so much emotional and mental and spiritual energy into trying to figure myself out and figure out how to reconcile my faith with my orientation. And so much of my life was devoted to that. And he didn't know anything about that. And I felt that – it almost felt like a physical barrier to our relationship. I get asked quite often, "Why do you have to come out? Like, straight people don't have to come out." And in a way, I think that's kind of the point, like, the assumption is that everyone is straight. And so everyone – at this point in time – was assuming that I was straight. And to be completely honest, for a little bit, I liked that. Because for a long time, I wanted to be straight, so bad, I really wanted to fit in. And so when people assumed I was straight, I felt like I didn't have to work so hard to prove my worth. And the paranoia of someone thinking that I was gay, would go away. But as I became more accepting of myself, and as I started praying about the nature of my orientation, and feeling like I needed to accept it and stop trying to change, everyone else thinking I was straight got really awkward. Because – because I'm gay. And people were like, either always trying to set me up on dates with girls, or talking about my future wife and my future family. And I just felt so weird about it. And especially with Sam. I mean, we're brothers. So like, we talk about girls. And like, that was a big part of our relationship. And it was a part that I had faked my entire life. I just felt so insincere and, and awkward hiding this part of me. So there I am, on what I consider to be like one of the most exciting, beautiful, like vacation, trip, adventures of my life, and now we're three hours into the hike and I'm having this existential crisis. Because I'm like, "Sam doesn't know I'm gay. And no one knows I'm gay." Well, actually, at that point, my sisters and my cousin knew and that was it. And I was like, "I'm living a lie." And I was t

26/10/2020

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50 min
06/05/2020

God Needs Mothers of All Kinds

The daughter of a prophet's wife, a young woman who recently adopted her first child, and a stepmother of teenagers—these are just three "kinds" of mothers highlighted in this week's "All In" episode. You may know many other types of mothers. There are those who are unable to have children of their own, single women, grandmothers, birth mothers who give someone else the opportunity of motherhood through adoption, and mothers who share their children with a stepparent. The world is full of women who are actively involved in mothering—for as Sheri Dew famously said, "Are we not all mothers?" "Nobody's mother is everything, and we find mothers all over. People who mother us and teach us and nurture us in ways that maybe our mother couldn't. And so when I look at single parents or even people who have both parents, I think we have an opportunity to mother wherever we go. I think it's a responsibility women have, is to reach out and mother and be mothered by others." -Virginia Pearce Show Notes 2:25- Put on Your Oxygen Mask First 4:47- Raised by the Hinckleys 10:36- Creating a Refuge 12:28- Nourish Yourself 13:22- A Mother of Adult Children 17:45- Mothering as a Widow 20:34- Supporting Your Children's Interests 22:06- What Does It Mean to Virginia to be "All In" the gospel of Jesus Christ? 23:57- Miscarriage 28:00- Waiting in the Standby Line 33:30- Adoption 37:50- Learning about Love from Christ 39:25- A Birth Mother 40:37- What Does It Mean to Breaunna to be "All In" the gospel of Jesus Christ? 42:28- Expectations Vs. Reality 45:43- An Instant Love 47:35- Parenting Teenagers 50:03- The Magic of Family—Of All Kinds 52:04- Creating an Unlikely Friendship 58:11- What Does It Mean to KaRyn to be "All In" the gospel of Jesus Christ? Find the full episode transcript at ldsliving.com/allin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

06/05/2020

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1 hr
14/10/2019

Unexpected Friendship

Stories in this episode: Sarah longs for a new perspective after loss and finds it with a feisty group of octogenarians in LA; A kilt-wearing stranger shows up to Brian's weekly game night and volunteers to take a road trip with him; Emily promises 99-year-old Mac she'll get him to 100 and finds the best friend she was promised by God in the process. SHOW NOTES: To see pictures and videos from our storytellers this week, go here. TRANSCRIPT: KaRyn Lay: Welcome to "This Is the Gospel," an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith every day. I'm your host, KaRyn Lay, and I'm here with my friend and fellow producer Sarah Blake. Sarah: Hi, everybody. KaRyn Lay: Sarah, why are we here together today? Sarah: Because today's episode is about unexpected friendships. And we're talking about friendship and our friendship is something to celebrate. KaRyn Lay: It's totally something to celebrate! Sarah and I first met, actually, I don't remember the moment that we first met, do you? Sarah: No, me neither. KaRyn Lay: I just feel like I've always known you. But I do know that we first met in a singles ward in Salt Lake City in our 20s when we were just doing the things that single people who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do in their 20s. So like, I'd see you at FHE and occasionally like at a "Munch and Mingle," if we felt like we had the energy to go to that and try to flirt with a boy, right? I feel like you and I just always had so much in common. So it was really easy for us to be friends. Sarah: Yeah, really natural. We're readers, we're writers, we're prolific Goodwill shoppers. KaRyn Lay: I was always jealous of your red boots. Sarah: Those were my best find ever. KaRyn Lay: Yeah, that was a good find. So we've been thinking about friendships and how it's really easy to be friends with somebody who has a lot of things in common with you. And it's much harder to be friends with the people who seem different. Sarah: Or maybe it's, maybe it's that it's harder to start those friendships, right? It can be unexpectedly easy, but you weren't looking for it and you didn't know how to start it. KaRyn Lay: And I think Sarah, the reason that you're here, beyond just us celebrating our friendship, is that you have a story about a really unexpected friendship that you want to share with us, right? Sarah: Yeah, when we picked this topic, this story of my own immediately came to mind. Do you want me to tell it? KaRyn Lay: Of course I want you to tell it. I love a good story. Sarah: Okay. So when my husband Casey and I were first married, we lived in Los Angeles. And it was a very fun time. We were renovating this duplex we had bought, we lived pretty close to the beach, sometimes we saw movie stars. It was pretty idyllic in a lot of ways. But we had this little dark rain cloud in our life, which was infertility. We really wanted to start our family but we just didn't get pregnant, didn't get pregnant, then I had a miscarriage. And then we couldn't get pregnant and had another miscarriage. And it was a hard time for me and I wasn't talking to very many people about it. I just couldn't even bring myself to say the words of what I was struggling with. And I remember even a couple days after my second miscarriage, I went to babysit for my friend's kids, so she and her husband could go to the temple. And I really wanted to do that for my friend, I also thought it'd be good for me to get out of the house instead of laying around crying. So I went and her kids wanted to watch the Disney movie, "Tarzan." And that opening scene where the gorilla mom loses her baby, I mean, I just sat there crying and crying in the dark, trying to wipe away tears so her kids—my friend's kids—wouldn't see how sad I was. But I still didn't tell her even, like I didn't tell my friends at night when she got home what I was dealing with. I just couldn't talk about it. But I needed someone who understood. And I think heavenly father knew what I needed. So in our ward, there was this row of old ladies, what do you call a group of old ladies? A gaggle? A pew? They all took the back row in the chapel and everybody knew that was their place. And these women were in their 80s and 90s. They had all moved to LA in the 40s and 50s for their husbands to work for Howard Hughes Aircraft stuff. And then they'd all had a ton of kids and their kids are all grown and their husbands were all dead. And now they had each other in this awesome sisterhood that sat together. They were spunky, feisty, interesting women. And one day I was sitting next to one of them in Relief Society and she mentioned that they had formed a chapter of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. And I really identify with my own, like Utah pioneer ancestry. And so I said, that's super cool. And they invited me to come to a meeting. So I went to a meeting and I didn't know what to expect, but it was just all the ladies from the back row of the chapel. I don't know if they'd ever invited anybody young before or if anybody else had ever been interested, but they were really excited to have somebody new there. And somebody gave a presentation about a pioneer ancestor, and we all stood with our hand on our hearts and recited something and we sang a song and scheduled the next meeting. But then it got really fun when they broke out the deserts and just sat around talking. And I realized that as a young woman growing up, you don't very often get to see older women in their natural habitat, you know, just like letting loose and talking with their friends. And I know my mom had good friends and those friendships were important to her, but I never saw them quite like this, and my grandmother's, too. But what was amazing to me was these women sat and talked about their lives, and they were just reminiscing, but they were telling the stories of the worst things that had ever happened to them. And then they were laughing their heads off because like life had moved on and they saw it with this perspective that I think you can only get in your 80s. Like, "Remember the time when all our husbands got laid off at the same time and one of the husbands had to lay off half of them?" Or the time the kid jumped off the roof and broke his arms. Or, one of them had a disabled son and she spent literally decades fighting with doctors to keep him out of institutions. And another woman had this daughter who just did everything wrong that she could, like doing drugs and running away to follow a rock band and saying the most outrageous and rude things. And they would tell a story and then they would just like laugh until they cried, wiping the tears from their eyes and slapping their knees and stuff. And it was amazing to me. And I didn't even realize quite how it was causing a shift in me. But I remember driving home from that meeting. And I don't think there's very many moments in life where you feel changed by just a few hours, but this was one of those for me, because I realized that I had been just, I felt surrounded by these walls of my doubt and my self-pity, my tragic sense of how hard my life was right now. And it was like all those walls had been pushed way back by the perspective of older women. Seeing it in their own lives really, truly, "Time heals all wounds," and "This too shall pass," and life will go on. I suddenly had a vision that there's a future me out there in her 80s, maybe she's surrounded by loving posterity or maybe she's not. But either way, she's okay. And like, it's going to be okay. This is just a moment, and life is still full of joy. And none of my younger friends could have taught me that. Anybody saying you know, "You're probably going to get pregnant soon, it's going to be fine." It wouldn't have done it for me, it wouldn't have been what I needed in the same way it was just rubbing shoulders with these women whose own life experience could show me truly it is going to be okay. KaRyn Lay: First of all, I adore the visual of you in your 30s, sitting in this room full of octogenarians, slapping your knees and laughing. Sarah: I wish you could have met them. They were so great. KaRyn Lay: It sounds so great. And I love that that friendship was exactly what you needed at that exact moment. And the other friendships with people that you would have immediately been drawn to, maybe that had something more in common with you like age or stage of life, wasn't actually what you needed. Sarah: I think that is probably true for a lot of hardship. Like when you're going through something, your usual friends might not be the ones you need the most. KaRyn Lay: So how do you find these kinds of friendships? Like, what's the secret for opening yourself up to a kind of friendship that you wouldn't maybe naturally look out for? Sarah: Well, I think a lot of it is just a gift of God sometimes, right? And being open to that. But I think in the stories in this episode, there's an element of risk. And on the other side of a little risk is the reward of a new friendship. KaRyn Lay: So true, so true. And like you said, today we've got two more stories from people who took that risk, who opened themselves up and found friendship that absolutely surprised them in the best ways. Our first story comes from Brian, who was perfectly content and happy with the friends that he had when a kilt-wearing stranger offered to accompany him on a road trip. Here's Brian. Brian: So I guess it's kind of ironic that in a room that included dwarves and elves and ogres, that it would be the bald human that would have such a profound effect on my life. Growing up, I was always a real introvert, I only had a couple of really close friends. And it stayed that way until I got home from my mission and started going to a young single adult ward. I started to beco

14/10/2019

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47 min
17/04/2019

Surviving Columbine: God in the Midst of Tragedy with Will Beck

Will Beck was a sophomore at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, the day of the Columbine shooting. 20 years have passed since that fateful day but on this week's episode of "All In," we talk with Will about his memories of that day, what he learned from that experience and how it has shaped his life in the years since. He also responds to those who may question where God was that day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17/04/2019

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34 min
20/01/2021

Dr. Candace Mcnaughton: Discipleship in a Pandemic

In February 2020, Dr. Candace Mcnaughton participated in her first conversations about coronavirus at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. While she has been on the frontlines of COVID-19, she has witnessed the toll the virus has taken on patients and their families, tirelessly researching how to bring about the end of the pandemic with her colleagues. On this week's episode, she graciously answers our questions surrounding COVID-19 and shares what the experience has taught her about discipleship. "They talk about this...resistance training or high intensity training. That's kind of what we're all getting spiritually this year. It's like one extended, very long series of repetitions of patience." Show Notes 5:41- Witnesses of a Miracle 10:48- How Does a Vaccine Work? 15:09- Real Humans Battling COVID-19 23:05- The Parable of the Lost Sheep 32:17- How Will We Respond? 37:40- Misinformation 41:34- What Does It Mean To Be All In the Gospel of Jesus Christ Find the full episode transcript at ldsliving.com/allin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20/01/2021

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43 min
11/09/2019

Justin Su'a: The Role of Spirituality in Developing Mental Toughness

He helped coach the Boston Red Sox on their way to becoming World Series champions but on today's episode of "All In," Justin Su'a coaches you on how to enhance the way you show up in life by cultivating a strong mentality. Su'a also explains the importance of faith in athletics and in the lives of disciples of Jesus Christ. "I think as you have faith in the process, and do everything you can and build your life with these heavenly habits around you, you'll end up finding that you can be happy in the moment, you're going to find joy in keeping the commandments and doing what the Lord asks. And...that's when the magic happens. And when the Spirit is filling your life, it becomes palpable and tangible, and you wake up excited to do it the next day." Show Notes 1:34- Winning a World Series 4:02- Journey to Mental Skills Coach 8:28- When One Door Closes 9:49- Prepared For Sports Psychology 14:45- Experiences With Faith On The Job 19:55- "Increase Your Impact" Podcast 25:15- Raising Mentally Tough Teens 29:00- Modeling Strong Mentalities 33:23- Strengthening Your Mentality 37:14- Spending Time With God 41:00- The Role of Faith 43:50- Choosing the Right 47:24- What Does It Mean To Be "All In" The Gospel of Jesus Christ? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11/09/2019

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50 min

LDS Living podcasts bring you faith-filled stories, ideas, and inspiration from Latter-day Saints around the world who are practicing and living their religion every day. From interviews with Latter-day Saints about what being “all in” means to them to beautiful stories of faith, you can trust LDS Living podcasts to bring important conversations and powerful examples of discipleship directly to you—whenever and wherever you need it most.

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