As Becca reflects on her family life and the uncertainty of her developmental experiences, she contemplates how patience and careful introspection helped her to weigh and analyze her doubts in constructive, spiritually strengthening ways.

Scott shares his experiences as the child of an alcoholic father to illustrate how even difficult experiences can be used to foster a personal relationship with God. As an artist and an English Professor, Scott also discusses how beauty can be found in uncertainty.

Sara’s story highlights the fact that our faith doesn’t necessarily require a breaking point in order to consistently transform and develop. She shares an important lesson she learned when her oldest child was diagnosed with cancer when he was only five. For Sara, complex faith comes from attempting to nurture continual awareness and trying to recognize and consistently deal with ambiguity in small doses as it comes.

When Nita grappled with the tensions that surfaced when her family life and faith were different than she expected, she realized how this introspective process actually strengthened her loyalty to God. She discusses how this loyalty helps to strengthen her relationships with friends and family members who may see faith differently than she does.

Losing a daughter to cancer was the most difficult experience of Kevin’s life, but he shares how learning to deal with difficult questions about the church as an adolescent prepared him to cope with this tragedy as an adult. Kevin also talks about how his love of music and art helped him to create a nuanced, complex relationship with God.

Terryl Givens continues his story about what he does in his own life to foster a meditative approach to his faith. He explores his fascination with the aesthetic beauty of the unique doctrines of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Zac was raised by believing parents in the UK, but didn’t discover his own testimony until much later in life. His story is one that highlights the importance of deliberately choosing one’s own faith.

Cherie’s painful struggle to maintain her faith is authentic and instructive. The beauty of music inspired the simple faith of her childhood, but also inspires her more nuanced belief system as an adult.

Allyson decided to leave the Church after her mission and her experience caused her to choose to come to back to the Church with her whole heart. She discovered that she was the one who needed to choose a life of faith and that she needed to stop allowing any expectations to dictate how she felt about herself or her relationship with God.

Part One: Sam’s mission was cut short because of an unexpected diagnosis with mental illness. He talks about learning to cope with his mental illness as well as changing the way he viewed what missionary service can look like. (Please see part two of this series where Sam’s mother, Stephanie, shares her perspective on Sam’s mission and how she coped with his unanticipated release.)