Temple Bound

At 18 years old, Seth Christensen ran an experiment on his own high school. He wanted to know if five minutes of family history work a day could move the needle on anxiety and depression in his generation. The results surprised even him.

Seth served as his ward's Temple and Family History Leader starting at age 13. He spoke on the RootsTech main stage last year. Now he's headed to Jakarta, Indonesia on a mission, carrying the same message with him.

This episode covers his 21-Day Challenge, the survey data behind it, and why five minutes a day did what hour-long lectures never could.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The pre- and post-survey results from Seth's 21-Day Challenge, including mood scores that jumped from a 2-4 range to 8-10
• Why starting with "four generations" on FamilySearch is the single most effective first step for a beginner
• The specific FamilySearch activities that got high schoolers hooked (Where Am I From, Surname Origins, Compare-a-Face, and more)
• Why five minutes works better than a full hour, and what habit science has to do with it
• How to reframe social media as a family history tool instead of writing it off as the enemy
• The story of Thomas Reese, a scythe, and a deathbed promise that changed a family line forever
• What Elder Holland's six words ("ask for angels to help you") mean for anyone doing family history work today
• Seth's advice for parents on the single biggest mistake families make when introducing kids to their ancestors

If you know a teenager who's struggling, or you're looking for a way back into your own family history, this episode gives you a place to start today.

Explore BYU Family History Lab: https://fhtl.org/

Send us Fan Mail

Forgiveness gets called a miracle for a reason. It asks us to do something that feels outside our own capability, and then it delivers peace that only the Savior can provide.

In this episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with Katie, an institute teacher who has spent years teaching The Divine Gift of Forgiveness by Elder Neil L. Andersen. Katie walks through what repentance actually means in its original Hebrew and Greek roots, why the Latin translation buried it in shame, and how two of the hardest experiences of her life, her father's arrest and her husband's addiction, taught her that forgiveness was never about the other person. It was about her own peace.

Katie also shares how she and her late husband Brandon rebuilt trust after his struggle with pornography came to light, why she believes the real opposite of trauma is trust rather than peace, and how she found joy even in planning his funeral after he died unexpectedly of a stroke. She closes with practical guidance for anyone who feels too far gone for the Atonement, and for any parent, spouse, or bishop who wants to be a safe place when someone finally works up the courage to confess.

Key takeaways:

• Repentance means to turn to God. The shame around it came from a Latin mistranslation, not from the original meaning of the word.
• Fear and pride are the Twin Bullies that stop repentance before it starts, even when they disguise themselves as humility.
• No one has sinned beyond the reach of the Atonement, no matter how far gone it feels.
• Forgiveness is not for the person who hurt you. It is for you, and it lifts a weight you may not realize you are carrying.
• The real opposite of trauma is trust, not peace. Peace follows once trust is in place.
• Saying "thank you for telling me" first can make all the difference when someone confesses something hard.
• Healing and joy can exist in the same moment, even in the middle of grief.

If this episode means something to you, follow Temple Bound and leave a comment on the app you're listening from. It helps this reach the people who need it.

Featured book: The Divine Gift of Forgiveness by Elder Neil L. Andersen

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with Mike King, a longtime Old Testament and temple symbolism teacher, to trace this pattern from the Exodus of the children of Israel all the way to the ministry of Jesus Christ among the Nephites and the temples built in Kirtland and Nauvoo.

Mike King walks through the symbolism of the blood on the doorposts, the crossing of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire, manna and water in the wilderness, and the mountain of the Lord, showing how each step points toward faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the sacrament, and the temple.

Topics covered in this episode includes: 

• The temple pattern in the Old Testament. 
• The symbolism of the Exodus.
• Baptism for the dead.
• The meaning of the baptismal font.
• Isaiah and the temple.
• Hebrews as a temple text.
• The Kirtland Temple and the Nauvoo Temple.
• The doctrine of celestial glory.
• The difference between going through the temple and letting the temple work on us.

If this episode helps you see scripture differently, please follow Temple Bound and leave a comment on the app you are listening from. It helps this podcast reach more people who are trying to learn, grow, and come closer to the teachings of the temple. 

Send us Fan Mail

Will Humphreys sits down with Jennie Dildine, a certified life coach and host of the LDS Mission Podcast, to talk about what actually helps missionaries before they leave, while they are serving, and after they come home. Jennie has spent seven years coaching missionaries and their parents through anxiety, burnout, identity struggles, and the transition home, and in this episode she breaks down what she has learned.

The conversation is rooted in Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk Forget Me Not from October 2011. Jennie read the talk, replaced every mention of sisters with missionaries and elders and sisters, and found something she now teaches nearly everyone she works with: five things missionaries, and the people who love them, are not supposed to forget.

In This Episode, Will and Jennie Discuss:

• Why Jennie became a certified life coach for missionaries and their parents, and the moment that convinced her this was her calling
• Elder Uchtdorf's Forget Me Not talk and the five things it teaches missionaries never to forget
• Why worth was never tied to goals met, lessons taught, or how a mission looks from the outside
• The normalize, validate, and repeat method for what to say when a missionary wants to come home
• The missionary spiral, and how a single hard moment turns into guilt, shame, and frustration
• Support versus challenge, and how parents can find the right balance for their missionary
• How to prepare a missionary before they leave, including five things to teach before departure
• Navigating romantic relationships before and during a mission
• The biggest myth about returned missionaries, and what actually helps them transition home

Preparing Missionary Cheat Sheet: https://www.subscribepage.com/preparingmissionarycheatsheetmissionariesww

Connect with Jenny

Website: https://jenniedildine.com/

Instagram: @jennie.theldsmissioncoach

Podcast: LDS Mission Podcast 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MnlUX55Lnvo66Ti13yYhk?si=03786b400bd74285

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lds-mission-podcast/id1573286056

Send us Fan Mail

Denny Barney recently completed his service as a mission president in the Iowa Iowa City Mission alongside his wife Nichole. In this episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with Denny during Missionary Month to talk about what it actually takes to endure a mission, and what enduring is supposed to mean in the first place.

What you will learn in this episode: 

• Why "show up, choose faith, trust the process" works as a daily framework for hard things, not just missionary work. 
• The difference between acting charitable and becoming charitable, and why that distinction changes everything about spiritual growth. 
• Why missionary purpose has to become personal, not just memorized. 
• How ancient temple worship in places like Egypt and Guatemala connects to the pattern used in temples today. 
• What Elder Bednar means when he says charity should possess us. 
• How to talk with a missionary preparing to leave, or a child who has chosen a different path, without losing connection. 
• Why the atonement of Jesus Christ is bigger than fixing sin, and how it applies to everything that feels unfair in life. 

Denny also shares a personal story from a recent family trip to Egypt, where standing at the base of the pyramids and inside the Karnak temple gave him a new appreciation for how deeply rooted temple worship is in human history, long before the Restoration.

This episode is built for anyone connected to missionary service right now: a missionary in the field, a missionary preparing to leave, a missionary just home and figuring out life, or a parent walking alongside any of them.

Send us Fan Mail

JD and Kendra Dockstader have taught temple prep for three years, and they've watched the class change right along with the kids sitting in it. This episode is for parents, temple prep teachers, and anyone trying to figure out how to talk about the temple with a generation that gets most of its information from TikTok before it ever gets to church.

JD and Kendra walk through what they actually teach: the five covenants, the difference between worthiness and perfection, and why leaning into symbolism works better than starting with Solomon's Temple. They talk about covenant path versus life plan, why comparison is the real threat to these kids, and what it means that the temple manual most wards are using was written in 1978.

Will, JD, and Kendra also get into something bigger than curriculum. Kids are being trained to see the temple through influencer content whether their parents opt in or not. The conversation covers what that training looks like, how to counter it without being combative, and why moral authority (living it, not just explaining it) is the most convincing lesson a parent gives.

Topics covered:

• Why the standard temple prep manual hasn't kept up with how youth learn
• Teaching the five covenants without making them feel like a surprise
• Worthiness versus perfection, and why kids confuse the two
• Covenant path versus life plan, and the pressure of doing things in a certain order
• Symbolism as a teaching tool, from the altar to the clothing to the building itself
• How proximity to a temple (or distance from one) shapes a family's relationship with it
• Advice for anyone newly called as a temple prep teacher

If you're a parent wondering when to start these conversations, or a teacher trying to figure out how to reach kids who already think they know what's inside, this one gives you a real starting point.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Temple Bound, Will Humphreys sits down with Sadie to talk about what changed. She walks through the five elements of the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and teaches it live, the way she would teach a friend on her mission.

Sadie also opens up about growing up with OCD and perfectionism, the health crisis that nearly kept her from serving, and why her transition home has felt different than most returned missionaries describe. She shares the rocks, pebbles, and sand framework she now uses to prioritize temple attendance, and the simple daily habit any member, missionary or not, can start today to build real conviction in the doctrine of Christ.

Topics covered: 

• Doctrine of Christ
• LDS mission baptisms
• Returned missionary transition
• Temple attendance, faith and repentance
• Overcoming the adversary, OCD and faith
• Book of Mormon study
• Her Journey from Jacksonville Florida mission.

If you're preparing for a mission, supporting someone who is, or you're newly home and trying to keep your fire burning, this one is for you.

Subscribe to Temple Bound for more conversations on faith, family history, and the temple.

Send us Fan Mail

What does it mean to grow up in a country where faith is forbidden, where your father could go to jail for painting the Beatles on the kitchen wall, and where your hunger for God has nowhere to go?

For Eva Timothy, that was not a metaphor. That was childhood in communist Bulgaria.

In this episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with fine art photographer and founder of the Enlighten podcast, Eva Timothy, whose story stretches from the cement rooftops of Sofia to the altars of the Salt Lake Temple. Eva shares how the fall of the Berlin Wall opened Bulgaria to missionaries, how a picture of the Savior on a street board stopped her mid-walk and changed her life forever, and why she believes that every person on earth has been given a creative gift from God.

Eva is known for her award-winning series The Lord Is My Light, a photo-painting collection displayed in institutions including the Smithsonian. Her work uniquely omits the face of the Savior in every piece, a prompting she received when the series began, so that every viewer can place themselves into the moment with Christ.

This conversation covers:

• The reality of growing up under communism with no religious freedom and no First Amendment
• How Eva found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through a chance encounter with missionaries in a park
• Her first prayer ever, offered during sacrament meeting in a rented room above a soccer stadium in Bulgaria
• Why photography literally means to write with light, and how that shaped her entire artistic vision
• The concept of chiaroscuro, the Renaissance technique of using darkness to make light more brilliant
• Her mission president's challenge to create something for Jesus, and the seven years it took for that prompting to become The Lord Is My Light
• Why she never shows the Savior's face in her art, and what that invites the viewer to do
• The painting Lord Save Me, depicting Christ pulling Peter from the water, and what it means to be held with both hands
• The temple as a masterclass on creation, and how going to the house of the Lord empowers our creative gifts
• Doctrine and Covenants 109:22 and the promises given to those who come forth from the temple armed with God's power
• How repentance and the Spirit are essential ingredients in the creative process
• Advice for people who believe they have no creative gifts, and why that belief is a lie from the adversary
• How to seek your gifts through prayer, patriarchal blessings, and the things that make you lose track of time

If this episode touched something in you, please follow Temple Bound and leave a comment on the platform you are listening on. Every follow and review helps this podcast reach more people who are searching for light. 

Follow Eva on her podcast:

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7rNGJgBEbSNED6lefM7p7Q?si=7bf720f254174a27
• Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enlighten/id1770341207
• YouTube - https://youtube.com/@eva_timothy?si=5yxoxihNx9CveDO-

Connect with Eva:

• Website - www.evatimothy.art 
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eva_timothy/

Send us Fan Mail

What do you do when a temple marriage ends in divorce and you wonder if God still has something beautiful ahead for you? Scott and Lori answer that question with their lives. Both in their mid-60s, both previously married in the temple, both carrying the kind of heartbreak that makes starting over feel impossible, they met on a dating app, and six months later they were sealed in the Draper Utah Temple.

In this episode of Temple Bound with Will Humphreys, Scott and Lori share the full journey: the pain of divorce after a temple sealing, the years of single life and faithful temple attendance that sustained them, the divine promptings that led Lori back to Salt Lake City, and the miraculous week in which Scott received confirmation through prayer, fasting, priesthood blessing, and temple worship that Lori was the companion he had prayed for.

If you are navigating divorce, dating again after heartbreak, or wondering whether God still has a plan for your eternal family, this episode is for you.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• How regular temple attendance became the spiritual foundation that carried Scott and Lori through years of painful marriages and difficult divorces
• Why Lori moved back to Salt Lake City on faith even though she did not want to leave Florida
• How Scott received divine confirmation about Lori within six days of meeting her through prayer, fasting, priesthood blessing, and a prompting from a trusted friend
• What Lori heard in the celestial room of the Orlando Temple that changed everything: "You are mine"
• The role the word "bridegroom" played in helping Lori anchor her identity to the Savior rather than to her marital status
• Why Scott calls Heavenly Father "a great matchmaker"
• Practical advice for couples in difficult marriages and individuals who are rebuilding after divorce
• How spending 20 minutes daily on your knees can transform your testimony and your sense of personal worth
• What President Holland said about bringing the temple out into the world and into your marriage

Scripture and Conference Talk References:

• President Russell M. Nelson on temple covenants as protection during life's storms
• President Jeffrey R. Holland on bringing the temple into your daily life
• Elder Neil L. Andersen, "Eternal Marriage Is an Eternal Joy," April 2026 General Conference
• The Family: A Proclamation to the World

SUBSCRIBE to Temple Bound for new episodes every week featuring real people whose lives have been transformed by temple covenants.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

Send us Fan Mail

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your children, your faith, and your own mental health was simply to tell your story?

In this deeply moving episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with Rachel Trotter, a professional storyteller, family history educator, newspaper reporter turned author, and longtime RootsTech speaker. Rachel brings over 15 years of storytelling experience to a conversation that will change how you think about your family, your past, and your future.

Rachel is the coauthor of the upcoming book Changing the Ending: Writing Your Life Story, and a longtime contributor to Evalog.life, a service helping individuals and families document their stories through oral histories and life story books.

This episode is a must listen for anyone who has ever thought their story is not interesting enough to tell. 

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• Why writing your life story changes your future Rachel explains the central idea behind her new book: when we give voice to our experiences, we start to see ourselves as people who have triumphed, grown, and endured. 
• How family stories create belonging for youth In a world of social media noise and comparison, this kind of grounded identity is a gift.
• The spirit of Elijah and the power of connection This is not just a conversation about preserving history. It is a conversation about eternal belonging.
• How to start telling your story today Rachel gives practical, guilt free advice for beginning your storytelling journey. 
• Tips from a professional: how to tell an effective story That emotional truth is what people remember, what invites the Spirit, and what connects us across generations.
• What Elder Mark Bragg told Rachel the day before she spoke at RootsTech In a simple yet profound exchange, the General Authority overseeing FamilySearch gave Rachel a reminder that stopped her in her tracks: this work begins and ends with the Savior.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Evalogue Life (https://evalogue.life/) — Oral histories, life story books, and storytelling services 
• FamilySearch Memories App — Record voice stories, tag family members, and preserve your history directly on FamilySearch 
  • Download via https://apps.apple.com/us/app/familysearch-memories/id885970971
• FamilySearch Family History Centers (https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/) — Interactive spaces to explore your family history with guided tools and booths 
• RootsTech Event (https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/rootstech-2026) — The world's largest family history conference held in Salt Lake City each year
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl — Referenced by Will in connection with meaning, purpose, and suffering 
• Changing the Ending: Writing Your Life Story — Upcoming book by Rachel Trotter and Rhonda Lauritsen, releasing this December

Connect with Rachel: 

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://evalogue.life/
• Evalogue.Life Social Media Accounts

Instagram: @evalogue.life

Facebook: Evalogue.life 

• Rachel's Personal Social Media Accounts

Instagram: @racheljtrotter

Facebook: Rachel Jackson Trotter 

X: @racheljtrotter 

LinkedIn: @racheltrotter

Send us Fan Mail