Claim OwnershipCome Back Podcast
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© Ashly Stone
Description
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
for business inquiries email lauren.comebackpodcast@gmail.com
If you have a story of coming back email ashly.comebackpodcast@gmail.com
for business inquiries email lauren.comebackpodcast@gmail.com
125 Episodes
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1"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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
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.
"He was walking to his father and when he was a great way off his father saw him and he ran to meet him - he met him where he was at and and he kissed him. He said, bring the best robe that we have, bring shoes for his feet and prepare this huge feast because he's back! He was lost and now he's found! That's just been absolutely my story so many times. It doesn't matter how many times I've messed up in my life or how many times I've fallen short, the Savior is just there all the time. He's carried me and He's helped me through every single part of my life to get me to where I am now. To where I'm a wife and a mother and I'm healing and I'm happy! I gave my whole life to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I gave it all when I wasn't even sure that I wanted to, and they gave it back to me just entirely renewed."
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
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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
"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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
"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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
#latterdaysaints #mormon #comeback
"I had an experience laying in my bed where I asked God to help me to know His will for me. I then had a powerful experience where I felt water rush off my body as I was coming up out of these waters. Then I see one of my very best friends' faces pulling me up and he's in white. It was that experience where I understood that God would like me to consider being rebaptized. I had a long road until that point. I hadn't even been excommunicated yet. So when I was asked in the disciplinary council, 'what do you think, Jason?' I said, I wanted a fresh start where I could finally forgive myself for all the things that I have experienced and done. Through the ordinance of baptism -- I feel like if I can go through that experience I would be able to forgive myself. Where maybe just a disciplinary counsel and a probation, being less extreme, I would have missed going through that and burying that old guy and to symbolically start fresh. And I had some beautiful, beautiful, powerful experiences."
Jason's Business:
https://brickhouserecovery.com/
Jason's book "Unhooked"
https://a.co/d/cSqfNCI
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 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:
Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone
Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose
Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson
Editor: Michelle Berger
Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
"A lot of people hear my story and they're like, wow, you used heroin? Like what programs did you go through? And with my story, I'm not recommending this to people that have true addictions, but the gospel was my recovery. It really was. I'm not saying to just read your scriptures and you're fine. Seek professional help, go to AA, NA -- there's all these amazing programs. But for me, I didn't do that stuff. I went back to church. I engulfed myself in the gospel. There's a quote by Elder Packer, he says: studying the gospel will change behavior faster than a study of behavior can change behavior. I'm living proof of that. Again, not saying everybody should do that, but that was my recovery. God can change you. I'm a changed person because of God and Jesus Christ and the gospel. And I am so grateful."
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
"As I was going through these years of inactivity and darkness, I was making this list in my phone in my notes app of all these questions and concerns and doubts that I had. It got longer and longer -- it was a long list of things that I was upset about. The first day I went back to church and went to a class, the top question on my list was about patriarchal blessings. I had this question and for hours I had thought about it and tried to come up with an answer and I just didn't. It didn't make sense to me, and it was upsetting to me. In that first class this girl spoke about patriarchal blessings, within 10 minutes she had bore her testimony and explained it in a way that I'd never thought of. It was just this clear, simple answer for me. So I crossed that question off, and it continued that way. Every week I went to church there was another question crossed off. To me, that was just this huge testament that God knew me and He knew my concerns. He was waiting for my effort. It was like, you give me effort, I'll give you answers. I'll give you clarity, and it has continued that way."
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
"Going through years of therapy and working through adoption trauma for myself and placing my own baby for adoption has always been a very big pain point for me because I was placed for adoption and didn't have a choice. That choice was my birth mom's choice. And then I turned around and placed my baby for adoption and she didn't have that choice. Even though I felt like that was the best thing to do for us at the time, I still struggle with that. We actually have opened the adoption up more and we have had some deep discussions about what it means to be adopted, what it means to be a birth mom and how hard it can be. It's never that the baby is not wanted. They are always wanted. I always want to reiterate that with her and with all adoptees that might feel that way. That is always a bittersweet part of my story. But there is also joy, you know, what is sorrow and pain without joy and happiness? Even though I love my biological mom dearly and my half siblings, I can't imagine my life without my adopted family, who I'm sealed to. I love the life that I've created and the relationships I have with my siblings and my nieces and nephews and my sweet parents who raised me in the gospel. Who knows if I would have had that without being adopted."
@thestoryofjori
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 asked the Lord and said 'if this is your church, tell me in this general conference. I want to know if this is your church.' I had never watched general conference in my life - this was like the Super Bowl for me. So I got my popcorn. I'm over there, got my drink, and ready to watch the conference. I remember President Nelson, he says, 'as we commemorate the restoration of the gospel we revere the Prophet Joseph Smith as a prophet, but this is not his church. And this is not Mormon's church. This is the church of Jesus Christ.' Let me tell you something - that scripture in the New Testament that talks about the Pentecostal feeling of the Spirit overcoming you, man, I had never felt that before. When it came over me, when he said that, I stood up, as if we scored a touchdown. Like if my team scored a touchdown. I stood up and I said, 'hey, the prophet just said this is his church!' I heard the Lord speak to me through his prophet. He said this is his church, right? That was it for me. I got on my knees and said 'thank you Lord, thank you for answering my question. You spoke to me.' At that moment of time I told the Lord that's it - I'm all yours. I'm all yours."
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 went on a three -day fast like I did when I needed to find answers and on the third morning of the fast I woke up. It was a Sunday morning, I just told the Lord 'I'm not getting up off my knees until you give me an answer.' I asked him because my uncle Owen, he was my dad's brother, was put in charge of the group after my dad was killed. I asked Heavenly Father if he was the prophet here on the earth or if he wasn't the prophet. I was shown a vision of a field, it was dark at night and my uncle Owen was wandering through the field. He had a dark suit on and his countenance was dark and then the voice of the Lord came into my mind and He said, 'by their fruit ye shall know them.' Then I started thinking about all the things that he had done throughout his life and things that were not always the greatest or the best. He had five or six wives and he was living polygamy. He had done some things that I didn't think were very noble or right.I kind of pondered about that for a little bit. Then I prayed again and asked if President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was the LDS church president at the time in 1997, if he was the prophet here on the earth. I was shown the same field only it was noon day, it was bright and sunny and there was wheat blowing in the wind. President Hinckley walked out into the field and he had a white suit on and a white tie and shirt and his face was just glowing and I had the same voice come into my head, 'by their fruits you shall know them.' I was shown the things that President Hinckley had done and everything that I was shown was all good fruits. I just had this burning in my bosom and was on fire from the top of my head to my feet. This was right. He was the prophet here on the earth. And the Lord was giving me that answer. I'd never felt anything so wonderful in my life."
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 still have not seen the face of Christ. I still haven't had miraculous experiences, but I've made the choice to follow Him and it's changed my life. I've done counseling. I still sometimes will do meditation - even guided meditation. And those things have helped me so much with some of my mental health struggles. But without the Savior involved in the middle of it. I would still not be who I am or where I am - with the capacity to now utilize our story and our passion for safety to go and try to change some of the culture on the ski slopes. That's being welcomed across the industry in a really miraculous way. But none of that would happen if I didn't come back to the roots of my Savior."
snowangelfoundation.org
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
"One thing that I noticed when I started coming back to church was I put my focus on who I wanted to be - instead of trying to fix who I was. Instead of trying to stop doing all of these things, it was, okay, I want to be this person. I imagined myself being a mom and a wife. I wanted a family and I thought, 'who is the type of person that I need to be to have those things?' I envisioned that for myself. Then my focus just really shifted into the steps that I needed to take to be who that person was."
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
"He just went on and on about all the challenges and the different things that they had to do if they could get this aircraft past Pluto. As I was watching it, it was like a stream of revelation to me. Every single word he said was a metaphor for me and what I felt like I was doing. I realized what I was doing was trying to understand this crazy pixelated picture of what I thought God was and what religion is and I was like 'I don't understand anything, there's so many problems that I'm having on this journey of trying to figure out what this means!' He finished his story and miraculously, through so many miracles, they saw Pluto and now we have beautiful pictures of Pluto. I was so rejuvenated and impressed by that. As I was leaving, the answer was like, 'Yes Hailey, just push through. There's so many questions you have and there's so many challenges on your way to figuring out your answers.' I felt deeply that Heavenly Father wanted me to push through, find the answers, and do the work required to receive the revelation that I needed in so many different areas."
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 is no way, in mortality, to get through it by yourself. You can't push, you can't shove, you can't design, you can't do any of that. Even if you're not on drugs! You must turn yourself over to a loving Heavenly Father and then there is this capacity for the Savior to enable you - he kind of does internal work and changes you. You think 'This is different. I'm different than I was.' And I give them the credit. Luckily, they caught me before I passed away and helped me out."
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 just called out to Heavenly Father and said, help. I was very aware that there were angels all around me protecting me, I knew that Heavenly Father was rescuing me. He was hearing my prayer and That black feeling immediately was replaced with warmth, and love, and total mercy. It was like, I've been waiting for you, I got you. And I just was totally honest with Him and I told Him everything that I needed to say. I told him 'I'm so insecure. I don't know how to do this. I don't know who to be. I don't know how to commit to being a good girl. I don't know what that looks like. I'm attracted to all of these things that I don't know how to reconcile.' I just didn't know what to do next, but I knew that I couldn't continue in that life that I was in. I was so honest and submissive and just like, I'm gonna give this all to you and you help me figure out what to do next. And it was beautiful, it was amazing, it was the most sacred thing that's ever happened in my life. Then I felt like I should go see a bishop."
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
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For someone who is experiencing similar things now, do you think it would be helpful to share this podcast with them or would it be like telling them "the devil's got them"?
thank you for your story. it makes me think there may be some hope. someday. 🙏
We need more broken people that are aware they are just as broken as everyone else! Having members who have "obvious" sins are so refreshing to me. Those are my people!
Wow!! Wonderful episode! Brooke, you are amazing. Thank you so much for being honest, sincere, vulnerable. I loved your analogy of the church being a living organism, a living plant v. a fake plant. It's so nice to know that there's space in this faith for our doubts, our ups and downs. your insight and perspective and advice were spot on. Everyone should listen to this. Cheers from slovenia🇸🇮💙
Wow!! Wonderful episode! Brooke, you are amazing. Thank you so much for being honest, sincere, vulnerable. I loved your analogy of the church being a living organism, a living plant v. a fake plant. It's so nice to know that there's space in this faith for our doubts, our ups and downs. your insight and perspective and advice were spot on. Everyone should listen to this. Cheers from slovenia🇸🇮💙
my son went through this at 16 months. It was the hardest time of my life as a mom watching my baby suffer. He is now almost 12. He is almost 100% recovered but it has been a journey. Thanks for sharing 💗
I loved this episode! This will give hope and understanding to many. thanks for sharing your story, Todd.
These podcasts are pure gold!