Why We Believe

Nathan Gwilliam
  • 5.0 (60)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Why do we believe? What inspires faith, testimony, and conversion in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Dive into the personal conversion stories behind faithful members of the church. Join Nathan Gwilliam, host and life-long member of the church, as he sits down with guests with unique backgrounds and perspectives to discuss the deeply personal and spiritual journeys that led them to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ and why they believe. Through one-on-one interviews, hear firsthand accounts of the life-changing conversion stories and events that ignited and solidified these members' beliefs and personal testimonies. Gain powerful insights into the many unique paths that lead to faith and discover what continues to feed their dedication year after year. Join us each week for inspiring stories from faithful Latter-Day Saints and discuss Why We Believe.

  1. 4d ago

    Michelle Kaufusi: Mother of 2 NFL Sons Shares Play-by-Play Recap of Her Faith

    On an early morning run, with her heart praying the way it always did, Michelle Kaufusi heard a voice tell her she would be the mayor of Provo and that she would not do it alone. No woman had held that seat in the city's 166-year history. She had been raised by a single mother as what felt like the only divorced family in the whole county, working as a young girl to help put money on the table. The faith that carried her into that office was not handed to her. She built it herself, one hard question at a time, on the rock of her Redeemer. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Michelle to trace the faith behind a lifetime of unlikely callings. She remembers the young women's leaders who kept showing up for a free-spirited twelve-year-old until the Spirit could do its work. She describes the year she spent wearing out a young bishop with hard questions before she felt ready to enter the temple. She explains why she still closes even her public speeches with a testimony, why she told an agent her sons would not leave BYU without a degree, and how the steady faith of her husband holds her when the criticism comes. Through all of it, Michelle keeps pointing back to the same source: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that nothing can move. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that a faith built on the rock of our Redeemer cannot be moved, no matter how hard the storms beat against it. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ.   Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Michelle Kaufusi: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayorkaufusi/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayorkaufusi/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/M_Kaufusi

  2. Jul 13

    This Broadway Tenor Chose the Prophet Joseph Over Phantom of the Opera (with Dallyn Vail Bayles)

    Dallyn Vail Bayles has one of the most recognized tenor voices in Latter-day Saint music. He has sung the Phantom on a national tour of Phantom of the Opera, led Les Mis as Enjolras, made his Carnegie Hall debut, performed at the Kennedy Center, and stood beside the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Then a call came from New York offering him the Phantom tour again, right as rehearsals began for a small pageant in Nauvoo, Illinois. Any performer would take the tour. Dallyn turned it down to play the Prophet Joseph Smith instead. It was the kind of choice that could quietly end a career, and it is one he has made more than once. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Dallyn to trace the faith behind those choices. Dallyn shares the counsel of an apostle who told him on a film set that he did not have the talent to portray the Restoration, that none of us do, and that he would need to rely on the Lord. He describes leaving Broadway to move his family back to Utah and teach seminary, a sacrifice that opened the door to the most sacred work of his life. He talks about the strength he draws from his wife Rachel and the sealing that binds them, and he closes with the reason he keeps choosing the Savior: to whom shall I go? Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that giving your best gifts back to God is never a loss. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Dallyn Vail Bayles: Website: https://www.dvbayles.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallynvailbayles/

  3. Jul 10

    The 'Unshaken': What to Do When Your Faith is Shaken (with Jared Halverson)

    Jared Halverson spent his doctoral years at Vanderbilt reading the sharpest attacks ever aimed at religious belief, and he walked out with a stronger testimony than he carried in. Today he teaches ancient scripture at BYU and leads Unshaken, a ministry reaching people in faith crisis worldwide. But the test that mattered most was waiting inside his own home. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Jared to trace where that conviction was forged. Jared shares the one attribute of God his father-in-law prizes above all others, the answer he gave his wife when she apologized for her illness, and the pandemic that turned his classroom into a worldwide ministry. Through it all, one anchor holds. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the hardest trials can be God's quiet vote of confidence. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Jared Halverson: Website: https://www.unshaken.org/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/unshaken Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unshakensaints/

  4. Jul 6

    Faith and Reason Are Not Enemies. This Scholar Spent His Life Proving It. (with Casey Griffiths)

    Casey Griffiths has spent his career helping thousands of students face the hardest questions in church history without losing their faith. He is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, has published dozens of books and articles on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, co-hosts the Church History Matters podcast, and even holds a Guinness World Record. For fourteen years he lived inside the papers of a forgotten Apostle named Joseph F. Merrill, a physics professor who, Casey says, believed science and faith were two sides of the same coin. Casey came away convinced that faith and reason were never meant to be enemies, and that the people who lose their testimony over church history are usually the ones who know too little of it. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Casey to trace the faith behind a lifetime of study. Casey shares the story of Joseph F. Merrill, who knelt as an eight-year-old boy to ask if the Church was true, heard nothing, and kept asking every night for ten years until the answer finally came the night before he left home. He explains why a cardboard version of perfect prophets does more harm than the real, flawed history ever could, and why he came to relate to the Apostle Peter more than he expected. He walks through the imperfect Saints who became his stepping stones to Christ. And when Nathan asks him why he believes, Casey does not reach for evidence or theology. He says the gospel of Jesus Christ makes him a better person, and that is reason enough. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that deep faith and honest questions can live together. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Casey Griffiths: Website: https://religion.byu.edu/directory/casey-griffiths

  5. Jul 3

    The Sacred Records That Deepened This Church Historian's Faith (with Keith Erekson)

    For seven years, Keith Erekson directed the Church History Library, the official archive of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and home to more than 20 million records. He holds a doctorate in history, spent years as a tenured professor in Texas, and wrote the go-to book for members who want to engage their own history honestly. Once people learned what he did for a living, they kept asking him the same thing: did anything in those archives ever shake your faith? The question confused him at first. Nobody had asked it when he taught secular history. The answer he landed on surprised even him, and it had nothing to do with facts. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Keith to trace a testimony that grew long before he ever set foot in an archive. Keith shares the priesthood blessing that healed him as a sick boy in Baltimore, the witness that came at twelve when his family finished the Book of Mormon, and a woman in Brazil whose dream taught her the plan of salvation before the missionaries said a word. He explains why prophets point people to Christ and never to themselves, and he describes the morning a letter from Joseph Smith passed into his hands and filled an archive room with the Spirit. Church history, Keith says, did not give him his testimony, so he cannot see how it could ever take one away. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who wonders if hard questions about Church history have to cost them their faith. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Keith Erekson: Website: https://www.keitherekson.com/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/KeithAErekson

  6. Jul 1

    Navy Chaplain's Secrets to Spiritual Toughness (with Dr. Justin Top)

    Dr. Justin Top has spent his life chasing one question: how does the grace of God actually reach us? He has looked for the answer in places most people never see. He lived his junior year of high school in Jerusalem. He served a mission in South Korea. He taught seminary for seven years, then traded the classroom for a Navy uniform, deploying twice in the War on Terror and later building a spiritual fitness program for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. He has sat with the dying as a hospice chaplain and with the hurting as a psychologist. Everywhere he has gone, he has watched grace show up in the dark. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Justin to trace where that grace has met him. Justin tells of an ICU patient who had not let herself be happy for twenty years, since the day her daughter was kidnapped, and a priesthood blessing where words he never planned came out of his mouth. He shares the mission companion he once begged God to fix, only to feel God turn the request back on him. He revisits the night he was ready to quit, when an Elder Holland message found him in the dark. Through all of it, Justin keeps arriving at the same witness: God's grace is with us even when we cannot feel it. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to be reminded that God's grace is with them even in the dark. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Justin Top: BYU Profile: https://religion.byu.edu/directory/justin-top

  7. Jun 26

    Depression Nearly Destroyed This Mission President, Until He Felt the Savior's Love (with Brent L. Top)

    Brent L. Top spent 34 years teaching the gospel at Brigham Young University, where he rose to Dean of Religious Education and wrote more than 30 books. For years he had counseled students to cast their burdens on the Lord. Then the relentless weight of leading a mission brought him to a breaking point, and he had to find out if he truly believed what he had taught. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Brent to trace a faith tested across a lifetime. Brent shares the witness that came to him at 18 in the Austrian Alps, the discouraging Denmark mission that quietly became his own great conversion, and the embrace from Elder Uchtdorf that finally taught him how to offload his burden onto the Savior. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the Savior's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Brent L. Top: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-l-top-8b24198b/

  8. Jun 24

    He Has Felt the Joy of Forgiveness, So He Knows the Resurrection Is Real. (with Craig Ostler)

    Craig Ostler has spent more than 40 years teaching the Restoration. He taught seminary and institute for 15 years, then 28 years at Brigham Young University, and co-wrote a 1,200-page commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants with Joseph Fielding McConkie. He has photographed and walked nearly every sacred site in early Church history, and he lived in Jerusalem with his family twice. With all of that study behind him, he will still tell you a testimony is not built from books. It is felt. He felt it at seven years old, kneeling on a porch when his dog had gone missing. He felt it on his mission, the night God told him in every fiber of his being that he was His son. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Craig to trace the moments his faith stopped being inherited and became his own. Craig describes the gentle change of heart he felt in the mountains before his mission, when he knew he had been forgiven. He shares the promise he had to make to a man facing prison and ruin, and the night he walked away and fell apart because the cost of belief had become real. He remembers watching his young children kneel to pray in the Sacred Grove, and standing in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem contemplating the resurrection. Craig has never seen a resurrection. But he has felt the joy of forgiveness, and so he trusts that the rest is true. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the joy of forgiveness they have felt is a witness that the resurrection is real. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Craig Ostler: BYU Faculty Profile: https://religion.byu.edu/directory/craig-j-ostler

    He Has Felt the Joy of Forgiveness, So He Knows the Resurrection Is Real. (with Craig Ostler)
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About

Why do we believe? What inspires faith, testimony, and conversion in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Dive into the personal conversion stories behind faithful members of the church. Join Nathan Gwilliam, host and life-long member of the church, as he sits down with guests with unique backgrounds and perspectives to discuss the deeply personal and spiritual journeys that led them to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ and why they believe. Through one-on-one interviews, hear firsthand accounts of the life-changing conversion stories and events that ignited and solidified these members' beliefs and personal testimonies. Gain powerful insights into the many unique paths that lead to faith and discover what continues to feed their dedication year after year. Join us each week for inspiring stories from faithful Latter-Day Saints and discuss Why We Believe.

Information

  • Creator
    Nathan Gwilliam
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2024 Why We Believe. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Why We Believe

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