Come Back Podcast

"I felt so confused. I would listen to something that was negative and then I'd listen to something that was positive for the church. And it felt like I couldn't be in the right mindset to fully grasp what they were talking about. So I needed to just turn it all off and go directly to the scriptures and Heavenly Father. That is where I found absolute truth, it was in the source. Even this conversation, this can be a beautiful spiritual conversation you and I have, but if someone is actually just questioning and none of this is helpful to hear, then turn me off, turn my voice off and go directly to Heavenly Father and talk to Him. He is our truth, He knows the truth of everything. So instead of trying to seek for truth here or there, I would just turn it off and go directly to Him." https://www.aubreygrossen.com/ https://www.amazon.com/He-Came-Me-Stories-Modern-Day/dp/B0C6BXJ3F8 Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

"Jesus' first miracle was to transform water into wine. It was almost a foreshadowing of what He can do. He can transform things, He can transform people. I feel like that's what He's done with my life. Not about being gay -- it's never been just about that. But going from pride and not knowing, to knowing good from evil and becoming perhaps a little bit more humble than I was back then. I just love the teachings of the church around family, without that, I would not have even tried to have a family." https://youtu.be/i7gfejDrdn8?si=MPfYluHfW1c3DNPw https://www.northstarsaints.org/ ACT IN DOCTRINE by Elder Bednar Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

"For anyone who has left and even has the smallest desire to come back, one thing that I would say to you is: I could have left my marriage and maybe I could have healed. But me healing within my marriage was like nothing else. I don't know that I could have healed another way. Sometimes people need to come back to heal within the church; maybe they feel like the church broke them and the church caused them a lot of pain. I see that, but that might be just the place that you could come back to. And if you can heal there, it's such a deep part of us, and if you can come back there to heal, it's like nothing else." Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains sensitive content that may be triggering or offensive to some audiences. Parental discretion is advised. "Once I got to the celestial room I was just sitting and thought 'I am ready, 100% if you tell me to do something I will do it.' I sat there for 20-30 minutes and nothing was coming to me. At this point I was beginning to remember what the Spirit felt like and what promptings felt like because I had experienced a lot of that on my mission. After sitting there for 45 minutes all of a sudden it was like a bus and boom I heard 'You need to be in the church, I have a lot of plans for you, you need to be here.' It was like a light switch after that, I had conviction not just in school but in every part of my life. Things I had never been able to accomplish before I was now able to do." Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

"I remember my dad, he sent me an apologetic video -- initially I was like 'dad I don't want to listen to this pseudo scholarship, this mental gymnastics the church isn't what it claims to be, come on give it a rest.' He was like just watch it. I sort of recognized that I'm not being very open-minded, I'm not willing to listen. I'd already come to a firm conclusion so I was like fine I'll watch it. It was by a guy called Bruce Porter and it was about the connections and correspondences and parallels between our temple endowment and ancient Egyptian temple rituals. If I'm being intellectually honest and consistent, just as I couldn't deny that there are things which are similar - if not identical, between a Masonic ritual and the temple endowment, there were things which correspond quite well. So I was like, 'okay, I can understand why a true believer they might think that the temple endowment is like a restoration of an ancient temple ritual.' So that sort of sparked some curiosity and I started to explore more evidence for things like this." Check out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @mormonismwiththemurph  Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

David Alexander, a Christian who found fulfillment in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ after 47 years of searching, discusses his journey and the impact of the Jesus Movement, division within Christian denominations, misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and finding a welcoming community.

"How I handle things when I have questions is I do my own studying and I look at things from different sides, but I always lean on Heavenly Father, I always keep Him in the loop. I always tell Him what I am questioning, what I am struggling with and He always points me to sources that help. Sometimes it takes a while, the answers don't always come right away. But He always points me to something that helps me understand things or helps me feel at peace about it even if I don't fully understand it." PSA: The Letter For My Wife is another anti LDS document that Sarah is writing a rebuttal to on FAIR https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Sarah_Allen_CES_Response_Posts Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

"There were a lot of small steps along the way, and then one day I had a revelation. A voice came to my head, it was my first spiritual experience in 15 years and it said: "your family needs you, it's time for you to go back to the church." And I just said who are you? But I knew what I heard and I knew what had happened and it was a faith filled journey from there. I had to rethink things again. One thing I thought about was the story of Rip Van Winkle. It was like all the sudden I woke up and thought how did I get here? What am I doing on the side lines? Why am I not in the church anymore? I just felt upside down." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/waiting-for-the-prodigal?lang=eng Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

"A faith journey is a long conversation. One of the things that gave me great comfort when I came back to the church was reading the story of Abraham. The father of the three western religions would sometimes go decades between spiritual manifestations. If Abraham is going decades between spiritual manifestations, you might go decades too and that's ok. Remember that it is a long process, the sooner you can get back to having the faith of a child the shorter your faith crisis is going to be because those spiritual manifestations are real." Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains sensitive content that may be triggering or offensive to some audiences. Parental discretion is advised. "I was able to bring suppressed memories to the surface, deal with it as an adult, go back and forgive my mom and forgive myself. That was when real healing began. If you are holding a grudge against someone -- no matter how bad it was -- number one you have to forgive them, or else you will get eaten up. You aren't hurting anyone but yourself if you're not forgiving someone. Number two pray, and God will guide you on how to do that. That is where healing came, it was still a process and work but then I was able to deal with committing to someone and not running. I no longer had the desire to use women anymore because I had dealt with that." Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia