"When I got into prison the first thing I asked my family was to send me a triple combination. I had never read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. Prior to that it was piece by piece. It is hard to put into words the amount of darkness you feel while in prison that is surrounding you. You are always reminded of how horrible your decisions are, you are beaten down left and right. I religiously started reading the Book of Mormon everyday, really studying it and trying to understand it and grow my own testimony. I started to notice it brought me so much comfort no matter what was going on around me. My scriptures became a guide and a light to me in such a dark place."

A.J. shares his heartfelt journey with us about his struggles with mental health and returning to his faith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sharing stories of coming back to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

If you have a story of coming back email ashly.comebackpodcast@gmail.com
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"The thought of the temple came to my mind and to my heart so clearly that I had a homesickness for it. I also had a remembrance that I could go there and within those walls, while not everything is solved or fixed, everything is okay. You leave feeling like everything is okay. You're elevated. At that moment, I'm like, I know I have to take the steps to get back to the temple. I have to make this an active part of my life - not just a thought. I have to say that receiving the restoration of my temple blessings was the most incredibly profound experience I've had in coming to know the power - the atoning power - of my Savior, Jesus Christ."

contact Kat: knelsonartist@gmail.com


https://www.plantwhys.com/⁠⁠comeback⁠ 

Kat's testimony of the strength that comes within God's church - that she couldn't find anywhere else

"When I was in Young Women's, one of the themes was... I'm a daughter of Heavenly Father who loves us and we love Him. You always say those things but I never really thought about what it really meant. And then I really thought about it one time, like, I'm a daughter of Heavenly Father. Which means if I have inherited things from my earthly parents, I must have inherited things from my heavenly parents. That means I have a divine potential. We all have divine potential! Which means that we can do things that we cannot even imagine. There are people doing things around us that we never thought possible until somebody does it. Just the knowledge that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and Mother and that they really love me. They know me. They know everything about me. They know more about me than I know. Knowing that gives me so much strength. So now every day I use this as an affirmation. I say to myself, I'm a daughter of heavenly parents. I have divine potential. I have the power to overcome everything. I have Christ -like love inside of me. I receive this love from others and I give this love to other people. Doing this makes me strong, it helps me keep the commandments."


Link to Paula's eBook:
https://www.lulu.com/shop/paula-andriessen-and-debbie-drennan-bennett-and-heidi-gassman-yates-and-griffins/the-power-to-overcome-everything-ebook/ebook/product-w4vzkzv.html?page=1&pageSize;=4


https://www.plantwhys.com/comeback 

Paula was the only black member of her family, after her first boyfriend she realized she was gay. How she has battled and overcome her trials

"I've read a lot about history, like the founding fathers and enlightenment and tried to really get into their heads of how they thought. I feel like they had a kind of expansive view of Christ. They thought that His teachings of the golden rule applied not only to bringing brownies to your neighbor, but also in big things like how you structure the government. I feel like what's happened over time is kind of a shrinkage where if you have problems with your plumbing, you call a plumber. You're not like, oh, let me go look in the Bible. Over time, I think what's happened is if you have an economics question or if you have an ethics question, you go to the economist, or you go to the ethicist. I feel like what's happened is that the influence that Jesus has and the gospel has is kind of shrinking as it's being crowded out by these secular theories, which again, if they pointed back to gospel truths, that would be okay, but they didn't seem to, at least in my opinion. So that was one last thing that just drove me crazy. I had to figure out who was right. Either the economists are right or Jesus is right. My money's on Jesus."


Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brett_alder
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brett.alder/

Brett served a mission and went to BYU where he studied the sciences. He then became atheist and after years of thoughtful studying was reconciled to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"There is a truth and there is a line. I did cross that line and I am back. Christ is our savior. He did do what he did. There is evil. I felt it. I felt it on a stage. I felt the coldness of being on that stage in front of an entity of evil spirits. I felt it to my core. It made me shake I felt it so much. I've also stood next to President Nelson. he came to our mission and I got to look at him and be with him. And I felt on fire. I felt calm. I felt peace. And so I knew at that moment, and this, by the way, was the week that President Monson had died and President Nelson was being put in as prophet."

Tony started to explore the New Age movement and found himself in a dark place. How the Book of Mormon brought him clarity.

"We need to learn how to let go of those things. We can't focus on the bad things. We have to move along. We have to move forward. It is hard. It is very, very hard. It's very challenging, but it's not impossible. I can tell you that it's not impossible. For those of you that are struggling with your testimonies and are questioning things about the church, ask Heavenly Father. You've got to get it from the direct source. Don't go looking at videos and don't go talking to people that you're not sure of. Just get down and ask God, because he will tell you and he has his own ways of telling you. It may not be something huge. He may not open the heavens to you with all this dramatic stuff that some of us are looking for. Sometimes it takes that one little small, tiny, still voice to resonate in our soul."

After experiencing the loss of his young son, Jason quit going to church. He suffered years of hardship, eventually leading him back to the temple with his family.

A.J. shares his heartfelt journey with us about his struggles with mental health and returning to his faith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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