James Lost Everything… Until He Finally Learned to Listen to God
“ God changed me. Life brought me to my knees, humbled me enough to just hand it all to Him. It is the greatest decision I ever made in my life.” – 00:00 Shower Wake Up Call 05:10 Family Crisis and Porn 09:13 Sent Home From Mission 11:31 Drift after Marriage 14:04 Divorce Sparks Daily Prayer 21:03 Repentance And Membership Loss 24:05 Faith Questions And Return 32:37 Rebaptism and New Marriage– Mike’s Auto Shackhttps://mikesautoshack.com/ Serve Clothing code COMEBACK for 15% off https://serveclothing.com/ – If you have a story to share please submit here: https://comebackpodcast.org/submissions/ For inquiries contact info.comebackpodcast@gmail.com – Come Back Team: Director, Founder, & Host: Ashly Stone Editor: Cara Reed Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Assistant Editor: Britt Smallze Art Director: Jeremy Garcia Production Director: Trent Wardwell
Sam Left the LDS Church and Battled Addiction…then God Called Her on a Mission
“ But it has come to the point where I know who God is, and I know what He feels like, and I know that I feel Him in the places that I go regarding the church. I know that what I have found is true because of that, and I will continue to have questions the rest of my life, and that’s okay.” – 00:00 Faith Questions Begin 00:40 Foundation Updates Overview 04:45 Come Back To Christ Event 07:04 Meet Sam And Her Background 09:01 Doubts Addiction And Turning Point 23:02 Mission Temptations 28:51 Studying Hard Questions 32:32 Faith Amid Social Media – Serve Clothing code COMEBACK for 15% off https://serveclothing.com/ If you have a story to share please submit here: https://comebackpodcast.org/submissions/ For inquiries contact info.comebackpodcast@gmail.com – Come Back Team: Director, Founder, & Host: Ashly Stone Editor: Cara Reed Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Assistant Editor: Britt Smallze Art Director: Jeremy Garcia Production Director: Trent Wardwell
After years away from the church, Marcy has a near death experience that taught her the truth of temple covenants.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains sensitive content that may be triggering or offensive to some audiences. Parental discretion is advised. “One thing I had never shared with anyone about my near death experience, but now I do is, my brother said to me, ‘see, Marcy, it’s real.’ And I knew he wasn’t talking about heaven. He was talking about our temple covenants and I knew it. I just knew that is what he was talking about! And I had not told anyone this. Then my mother was in the temple on a separate occasion, and she saw my brother and he said the same thing to her. ‘See, that it’s real.’ She told me this and I said, mom, that’s one of the things that he said to me. It made me realize I need to speak to that. I need to tell people this. He wasn’t talking about heaven. He wasn’t talking about the spirit world. He was talking about our temple covenants.” Come Back Team: Director, Founder & Host: Ashly Stone Producer and Senior Editor: Lauren Rose Outreach Manager: Jenna Carlson Editor: Cara Reed Assistant Editor: Michelle Berger Art Director: Jeremy Garcia
True Millennial’s Parker Walbeck sits down with Ashly Stone to talk about her story and the blessings of sharing the gospel.
“Let’s look at the fruits of the Spirit. Look at my life pre-coming back and my life now; how much joy and love and beautiful things that are in my life today! The fruits of the Spirit are so evident. So when you run into hard questions online or somewhere else about the church – you have the choice. Do I want to believe, do I choose this path for myself? Am I going to put in the effort to find answers for myself or will I choose not to believe?” 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
Rob was raised in a polygamist group. As he got older he inquired of God what the right thing to do was, and he was led to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“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
Hailey lost her faith while on her mission. As she reached out to Heavenly Father she began seeing small miracles in her life.
“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
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.
“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’s book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245708745-get-it?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=aBWAw8p5y6&rank=1 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
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.
“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.” 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
Joanne’s marriage was failing, turning back to Jesus Christ gave her strength and the enlightenment she needed to change her life.
“I would tell my mom, it’s just so enlightening. That’s the only word I could think of when I would talk to her, that it’s so enlightening. So I’m doing all these things, and everything at home is a big fat mess. But everything I was learning at church just all made sense. And it’s funny because I had learned those things before, but now it was different because I was trying to gain my own testimony. Everything just clicked for me, the restoration made sense and I wanted to learn more. I really wanted the husband to go on this journey with me, but he just wasn’t really having it. So things got pretty bad where I felt like he needed to move out. I remember every step I would take, I would pray like, ‘Okay, Heavenly Father, I think this is the right thing. I’m going to do it unless you tell me not to,’ is usually how I would approach it. And every time I did that, it was almost right afterwards I would get some kind of confirmation blessing that told me yes.” https://www.plantwhys.com/free-1-week-meal-guide 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
Scott and Melissa got married with the intent to never be active members in the LDS church – until they began drawing closer to their Savior and were led back.
I started to get promptings and I was like, ‘I’m going to go read the Bible at the temple.’ I still had no inclination of going back to the church. Zero. So why did that make sense to me? I don’t know. But I went to the temple and parked in the parking lot and just read my Bible at five in the morning. There was one morning when I was just reading the Bible in the temple parking lot and had words in my mind that I knew weren’t mine. It just said, ‘you need to go to the temple.’ And I was like, ‘God, I hear you, but what other churches have temples? Because that’s not the one that I want to go to.’ But I was like, message received. Then it took some time, and I started to feel promptings that I should open the Book of Mormon. This was all in secret because I knew that Melissa wouldn’t approve or that it would upset her. So I was reading the Book of Mormon and then at some point this really strong witness came that this was the church that I needed to be going to.” https://www.plantwhys.com/free-1-week-meal-guide 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