Come Back Podcast

"I would pride myself on having a simple testimony. I would always say that. It's simple. And it was, and it is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple. And that's all that we're required to have, right? This faith and belief in Jesus Christ. I had that, but I really didn't have much more than that. So having to open my life up to answering these questions really, really made me dig into our faith and what I believe and answer some questions that I had that I put up on a shelf. I really had to start dusting off some questions and lean in on that. A lot of the stuff that you guys talk about on your podcast, with the history of our church and, polygamy and Joseph Smith and, all of the things that everyone has questions about or tries to poke holes in. I had all those same questions and I feel like if I wouldn't have opened myself up, to answering questions about my faith, I feel like I would still just be coasting. Like in that same pre-2020 era of my life where I was like it's simple. I just have a simple testimony."

Come Back Team:

Episode sponsor: Serve Clothing

https://serveclothing.com/?gad_source=1

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains sensitive content that may be triggering or offensive to some audiences. Parental discretion is advised.

Come Back Team:

Episode sponsor: Serve Clothing

https://serveclothing.com/?gad_source=1

"It was interesting to see where Hayden was in high school to where he was when I came back from my mission and how big of a change that was. I was able to see this with the conversations we were having about the gospel. I saw so much more conviction in him after he put his beliefs on the table and dissected them and then to finding those pillars in which he had to stake his faith on. It allowed me to see his conviction and also to trust him more as a source to go to with the questions I still had - even after serving a mission."

Come Back Team:

"Something told me to read the New Testament again under these new eyes of coming back to faith. I was prompted to start in the book of Acts because that told me how the early church was laid out. You see that the apostles have authority. You see the apostles laying on their hands to receive the Holy Ghost. You see the apostles baptizing. You even see the apostles go to the temple. While looking around, no other church fit that criteria but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I really started to want to come back to the church because I felt that it was the closest to the Bible."

Come Back Team:

Episode sponsor: Serve Clothing

https://serveclothing.com/?gad_source=1

"I think that's actually why New Age is so dangerous, because there's so much about it that are counterfeits of the restored gospel. There's so much about it that feels true and sounds true, you can convince yourself it is true because it's a bunch of truth mixed with lies. It's a counterfeit of part of the restored gospel. I think that's why a lot of LDS women seem to gravitate towards it because it's so similar to what they already know and feel. That's what makes counterfeits so dangerous is that they look like the real thing. Even meditation is not bad, I think the highest form of meditation is prayer. What is prayer if it's not meditating with God? Do you want to spend this 20 minutes meditating with yourself and just opening your mind up to whatever? Or do you want to spend that 20 minutes meditating with God in prayer, which is something you already have? And then there's energy healing, but where does the healing come from? These people don't have the priesthood they're not getting it from Christ. So where is that coming from?"

Come Back Team:

Episode sponsor: Serve Clothing

https://serveclothing.com/?gad_source=1

"Before Oliver passes away, he goes out of his way on several occasions to publicly and ardently bear testimony of the restoration of the Book of Mormon. One of the more well -known accounts is a guy named Jacob Gates. He's on his way to his mission and he stops in Richmond to visit Oliver Cowdery. Jacob Gates asks Oliver, 'Is it all true? Can you tell me if it's true?' Oliver Cowdery says, 'Jacob, I want you to remember what I say to you. I am a dying man. What would it profit me to tell you a lie? I know that this Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God. My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched. I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain imagination of the mind. It was real.' I think this was recorded two or three months before Oliver passed away. And he says, he doesn't have any reason to lie at this point. In fact, he wants to tell the truth because he knows he's about to meet his maker. And he still bears his testimony on the Book of Mormon."

Come Back Team:

Episode sponsor: Serve Clothing

https://serveclothing.com/?gad_source=1

"I go and meet with my branch president. Just the nicest, goofiest, happiest person. I just felt so comfortable. I knew this guy loved me. He's not going to judge me. I went in and I confessed everything. I told him I messed up, but I wanted to go to the temple. I remember he said, 'Nate, you've confessed and you've forsaken. You are forgiven. But what's most important now is you need to forgive yourself.' That was the hardest part. I remember thinking 'God, if you could forgive me, maybe I can forgive myself' because I just felt so bad. I had missed so many opportunities to do good things. I messed up - I messed up really bad. And I didn't love myself. I remember after that meeting just thinking, 'I did it! I let it go, I let it go! I was able to do it with president Donnelly's help!' I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and if He was willing to pay the price to die for me, then I can have the courage to let it go. I can let my ego go and it's all on Him. So when I walked out of that office I remember just feeling like, yes! I felt so free, just so clean and happy and light."

Come Back Team:

"There's very logical reasons to be members of the church, and very logical reasons to believe in a higher power --something beyond that's bigger than us, that has a spiritual aspect. This isn't irrational, this is rational. And so once you can get back into realizing that belief is reasonable, then you can ask the questions that will truly give you a testimony through prayer and study and pondering those primary answers we hear all the time. I talk about the heart and the head. I believe that we can, and should, have knowledge in our heart, feeling emotion, yearning for God, along with rationality and reason. For me, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints is God's true and living church on the earth. I know that in my heart and I know it in my head. I have both of those. I think critics have had their way for a long time trying to convince people that there's no reason to have a rational testimony. But the 'Light and Truth Letter,' it's showing that it is reasonable -- and rational to believe, there's a lot of space for belief. My hope is that if you're struggling and you're a believing member, but having doubts -- If that's the case for you and you're telling yourself, there's no way the church could be true. That's not you talking. That's the critic parroting. You're parroting a critic, because there's lots of reasons to believe. I try to lay it all out in the 'Light and Truth Letter.' To show all of the positive evidences that there are for the church and that it's actually really rational and reasonable to believe. There is a preponderance of evidence that is more for us than against us. And for me -- that's enough to believe. And once I made that decision, then God could do something with me."

https://www.lightandtruthletter.org/

Come Back Team:

#latterdaysaints #mormon #comeback

Jason's Business:

https://brickhouserecovery.com/

Jason's book "Unhooked"

https://a.co/d/cSqfNCI

Come Back Team:

"I kept running into all of these things that for my whole life I had read and experienced something so powerfully. I felt so bad because I had forgotten everything that was in the book. It just made me really sad. I remember thinking back to when I first read the Book of Mormon -- the first time I ever cried while reading it was when Nihor slew Gideon in Alma chapter one. It seems like a silly, stupid thing, but that was a special experience on my bed early in the morning before school. Just learning these stories and the faith of all the people in it is so inspiring. There are verses that you read that are especially for you. When you read them, you just can't deny them. That's what my experience was when I reread it. The Holy Spirit is testified to me on every single page of the truthfulness of the teachings, the prophecies, and the testimony that is in there. There is no way that Joseph Smith could have just written this up."

Come Back Team: