Anti-Mormon comes back to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after years of attacking

recording okay so dusty Smith I am so excited to hear your story and to share it with share it with the world um Dusty is uh managing attorney correct yes managing attorney former city councilman and former lieutenant colonel anything else you want to add do you have you know kids family uh pets I've got a beautiful wife I've got three children uh three dogs one is 210 pounds three snakes and four lizards so wow that's awesome well cool awesome well so dusty I'm just gonna kind of let you take it away I know your story is amazing and I'm I'm so excited to to hear it so go ahead start wherever you want well that's as we said The Sound of Music let's start at the very beginning perfect I was born in 1960. uh my uh my dad left when I was five before before he left he he was not a nice man when he drank and he drank a lot when I was five I told my mother she would come in and she would hold me and I told her I said I'm not going to ever drink and I never have um I I just didn't want to ever become like that you know I never wanted to become an alcoholic and and uh I was raised then by my mother my grandfather and my grandmother now my grandfather was Catholic my grandmother was Baptist and my mother was Lutheran wow and I went to all three I wasn't ever sure if I should stand sit Neil sprinkle dunk report but uh but I did learn to love the Lord and um I think that was the most important thing in my life was was the fact that I've always loved the Lord now when I was in college at the University of Texas I had it was a thing that happened that made me angry at God I uh a family friend uh she was about 13 running home from school I thought the glass doors of her house were open they were closed uh she ran through the glass door fell on a piece of glass that pierced her throat and um and was killed and I got very angry with God uh stopped going to church this is my third year of college junior year and um just had nothing to do with God the year after I graduated from University of Texas in 1982. the following year 83 I had gone home to visit my mother well uh I went home to wash my clothes uh it was free and the fridge was always full and I I went to my old bedroom I used to to collect Louis Lamour westerns and I wanted to read Louis the more Western and my mother had been to Salt Lake City on business and somebody had given her a book of Mormon and she had put on a bookshelf in my old bedroom so as I'm going through the a little bit more books to pick one to read while I'm washing clothes The Book of Mormon falls off my bookshelf and I sat down and picked it up and opened it up just opened it and it happened to open up to third Nephi and I began to read and I was very intrigued so I uh I called I went to the got the phone book and and at this point in a lot of my fire sites I have to explain that the phone book's about this big and it has names and phone numbers in it and if you're really short you use it to sit on the chair at the you know the dinner table um but this is where you know y'all are really strange because you know if I want to go to cat if I want to call a Catholic Church it says Parish if I want to call a Baptist Church it says you know church but not y'all there was Wards and there were Stakes I had no idea who to call but it was lunchtime and I was hungry so I called the stake and her story and and the uh somebody answered the phone they they had uh they said you know I'm never here during the week but I forgot something on Sunday I came by here at lunch to pick it up and it was the State president so we chatted for a few minutes and he got me in touch with the missionaries who I met at the University ward in Austin Texas um and a few short weeks after that I was baptized 1983. I was a college graduate and I had a job and immediately people would walk up they'd say you know you should serve a mission and I would say no I'm an adult now I I have a job I would agree not going to serve a mission and somebody else would walk up and they'd say you know you should serve a mission and I would say I'm adulting not going to do the mission thing uh I have a job uh somebody else would walk up and this went on for several you know I would say I'm never going to go on a mission so anyway while I was at the MTC um I was 24 when I went on my mission and I quit a job to go on my mission and of course my family uh my family thought I was crazy a lot of my family and friends turned their back on me when I got baptized well then when I quit a job making money to go on a mission where I was going to work for for 18 months and not make any money they thought I was absolutely insane um and I felt like I was babysitting at the MTC here I am 24 years old a college graduate a lot of 19 year olds who have never been away from home before and they're running up and down the Halls at the in the dorm and they're doing and I finally I thought you know what if nobody cares if I'm here I'm going home so I went to the pay phone and I called The Church headquarters in Salt Lake City and a lady answers the phone I said if nobody cares if I'm here I'm going home and she said would you hold please and I said sure and I hear I you know a few seconds passed and the voice gets on the phone and says Elder if nobody else cares if you're on a mission I do my name is l Tom Perry he and I had a chat and and he realized that I you know I didn't have a lot of family support no background in the church or anything and and so uh he asked if he could be my pen pal on my mission so Elder Perry was my pen pal on my mission wow my mission he wanted me to come up to Salt Lake and uh and give him a mission report so I did oh my gosh after my mission I went to law school and I went to law school in a foreign country uh well Michigan and um and in my third year of Law School I went to Palmyra to the pageant and this was 1989. and uh I discovered something and encountered something I had never encountered before and that was uh anti-mormance and uh I debated with them and I thought I did okay but I came back from that experience and I wanted to know more about the church because I only had about six years experience in the church you know not a lot of and some of that was on a mission so I didn't have a lot of background of history and and Doctrine other than what I had learned at the MTC and Etc and so I began to read all these old Doctrine books all these old history books trying to learn more stuff and I began to read things that I had never heard before and the more that I read um the more questions I had and back in 89 if you had questions you were kind of out of luck because you were told don't don't don't have it you know don't worry about just have faith just have faith don't worry about it and I always felt like if you're going to hide the truth from me you're gonna hide stuff you're you know then it's not true and I woke up one day in November of 89 and I realized that I no longer had a testimony and I wrote the church the stake pres the state and I said uh in Michigan and I said uh take my name off Church records and a few weeks later I got a letter from the stakes saying I've been excommunicated um and that made me very angry and I became an anti-mormon and so uh and anybody who knows my my past knows that I don't do anything halfway I was a very vocal anti-mormant I wrote articles I went to churches and taught you know taught churches about the LDS church how bad they were I would stop missionaries on the street and argue with them um and about 1999 I I discovered that I could go on the internet and and argue with people from the comfort of my own home and I found a board called what do Mormons really believe and I went to go tell them and uh I met a guy named Mike on that board and the people on the board hated me because I'm you know I'm not a nice debater I will go for the jugular I I absolutely do not I mean I I'm not nice when I debate and well I'm back then anyway and um I met a guy named Mike Mike and I had these just really bad debates and didn't like each other very much but but but we over time began to like each other and we became really good friends and I I told him that that I would never join the church again but I I liked him as you know as a friend he was my friend and I you know we could talk but he began putting my name in the temple every week and I got mad at him for that I said you know false god false Temple stop doing that but he never did he put my name in the temple every week for 20 years um in 2009 I went down to Mexico to do a deposition and I came back with a souvenir the swine flu and I mean it was bad and and I'm a disabled veteran so I get my Care at the VA and I called the VA and I said I'm dying and they said what symptoms do you have and I said the ones you get when you're dying and they said if you've been to Mexico and I said yes they said don't come here I could not get a doctor to see me they were too afraid I'd get them sick or get their patients sick so I'm laying in my deathbed in Dallas Texas um on the second floor of my home and I knew I was going to die people were dying everywhere they will never know how many died from swine flu we know it was hundreds of thousands around the world but we don't know how many because not everybody was getting tested like they did for covet we were just dying and uh I knew I was going to die I you know I was really really really really sick and uh knock on my door and it was two LDS missionaries and my youngest my sorry my oldest boy inexplicably lets them into my house worse he brings them up to my deathbed and one of them looks at me and and he says you're sick and I remember thinking to myself the spirit is really strong in that one um and one of them said can we give you a blessing and I said well to get you out of my house and they said yes and I said then give me your blessing so they laid their hands on my head and gave me a a blessing blessing of healing and I was immediately healed oh my gosh I'm not I'm not saying that I got better over the next few days I'm saying in that moment my fever broke I stopped sweating I was able to stand up for the first time in several days I was able to stand up and I walked him downstairs to the front door and said do not ever come back to my house um that's how much I hated uh the church uh and in 2014 I joined a different board to argue with Mormons and the board uh I my my screen name was Country Boy and um and I'm I'm on this board arguing with people and this girl messages me her name is Garden girl and garden girl says I feel strangely drawn to you do you mind if we communicate and I wrote her back and I said that would be fine Garden girl however I must warn you I am married and she wrote back and she said I'm 75 get over yourself and one day she said do you mind if we if we have a chat on the phone I don't want to type and I said okay I still that only knew her as Garden girl I I didn't know her name she didn't know my name and so we're talking on the phone and she says do you have any family in the church and I said I do not I said well I might I said back when I was a member in the 80s I heard of somebody that was a family member never met him never talked to him but his name is Dean Jesse and he's a big Mucky muck in the church but I've never met him if he's still alive then yes I do and there was a long pause and then by the way before I say this Dean Jesse if you don't know who he is is the church historian Emeritus the book series that Joseph Smith papers it's his baby um but anyway there's a long pause and she says Dean Jesse's your cousin and I said woofy's alive yeah and she said Dean Jessie's my cousin turns out that this woman is a cousin of mine who I never knew existed um and and she was strangely drawn to me wow also in 2014 my wife was was uh given an opportunity for uh for a promotion but it would require her moving to Baton Rouge Louisiana now I don't know about anybody else but the words promotion and Baton Rouge Louisiana do never belong in the same sentence uh but she said should I take this job and I said you know it's it's your dream to get this promotion so well we made a plan and the plan was this that she would go to Louisiana and live there and I would visit her uh once a month we'd meet in Shreveport and and because her District ran from Texas to Florida and they wanted her there and she would travel around and we would visit and then she would keep that job until the same position opened up in Texas and she moved back to Texas and I would in the meantime stay in Texas I had a good job of the law firm and I had we had a nice house and uh so she did she she went and and in January 2015 she had taken that district from in the 40s in her company up to in the top four and her reward for that was they called her and they said uh we're going to close your District we're going to send you your Severance paperwork so she called me she says what do I do I said come back home we'll figure it out but the very next day the president of the company vice president the company called her and said don't go to go go don't go home there's an opening and the same opening is open in Baltimore Maryland we're going to send your paperwork up there it's a two-week vetting process for any of these moves but stay in Shreveport I mean to stay in Baton Rouge until we get you that you know get that position for you and and uh in Baltimore so she said should I do that I said sure because we have the plan I won't visit you once a month in Baltimore but you'll do that until the position opens up in Texas and you can move back uh moved back to Texas so I called Mike my friend and I said Mike do me a favor and pray for Susan to get his position in Baltimore we'd like her to stay with the company until she's bet for at least till she's vested and Mike said I will pray for it I will pray for that now at this point in my life the smart thing would have been to say thank you Mike and hang up the phone but no I said however Mike ha ha if God really wants me to come back to the church he will send Susan to Utah now I was very comfortable with that because there were no openings in Utah I knew that but the very next day the person in the Utah position retired and the very next day Susan's paperwork was transferred from Baltimore to Utah and she was hired immediately without the two weeks vetting wow and I called Mike and I said you're not going to believe this but Susan's going to Utah and Mike said well you know what you told God and I said I was just joking and he said God wasn't so I hit my knees and I said okay if this is what you want that's great but for 26 years I've had issues and none of your apologetics work the Apologetics that I hear from people do not work I need answers and over the next several weeks I'd wake up in the middle of the night with a new answer that I'd never heard before until I woke up one day in March of 2015. and I had my testimony back and I called Mike and I wore my testimony and Mike wept uh a few weeks later I went to see Susan here in in Salt Lake she was living in an apartment it was a three-day weekend um for me it was Easter weekend and I my office had Good Friday off so I had a three-day weekend and it was our anniversary uh Susan and I were married on April Fool's Day April 1st night uh you know we thought that was appropriate um and I came to visit her now every day I can't run because of my bad knee from the Army but I walk and I walk five miles every day and I was out doing my walk and the Lord said this is home now and I said no it's not I I live in Texas and I I heard it again this is home now and I said no I have a job paying me a lot of money and I have a house you may have seen it Lord and the Lord said this is home now and I said no no it's not Susan doesn't want to live here forever we have a plan and I get back to the apartment and I said hey Sue's out of curiosity what do you think about Utah and she said I've been wondering how to bring it up to you but I don't ever want to leave so I said okay so I went home and I called the realtor to sell the house and I quit my job with no job here the Lord said move you move and um a realtor came to look at my house and he said you're never going to sell this house and I said why he says well it was built in in in 1929 it had a lot of issues and he said you if you if you fixed up all the issues you'd never get what the house is worth but you can't sell it like this it won't pass inspection I said okay uh so I I called Sues and said maybe we can just rent it out well I got re-baptized the week after I got re-baptized I got a knock on my door and I answered the door and the guy says I want to buy your house and I said my house is not for sale and he said I don't care I want to buy your house and I said sir I appreciate that more than you can possibly imagine but I can't afford to fix it up to sell it to you and he goes no no no I'm going to buy it as is and I said how much and he told me and it was a lot more than the house was worth wow and I called Susan and I told her and she said man when God wants you someplace he really wants you someplace now the rest of that story is about a year later I'm sitting in the apartment just here in Salt Lake I get a phone call and a guy says I want to buy your house in Texas I said I've already sold this house he said are you sure I said pretty sure I was there he said did you get the money I said and spent it and he shuffled some papers around he goes huh I said what he said the person that bought your house disappeared that house is abandoned and in foreclosure when I was doing a Fireside at the women's prison the oldest woman into prison sitting in the front row little short woman old she was sitting the old woman into prison she says you should have sold it again and I walked over to her and kneeled down and I said that would be against the law so anyway I I you know like I I moved to Dallas I mean to Salt Lake from Dallas and uh Susan and I go down to Moab for a she want me to show me the Arches because up until then the only arches I knew was McDonald's and um and I'm I'm waiting for her to get ready I'm in my hotel room and I get a phone call and a woman says I see you've been on the Church website and you want information on Church I said no it wasn't me she said well your name and phone number popped up on my screen when you wanted information and I said be that as it may it was not me and she said well then how do you figure I got your name and number to call I said I don't know but my computer is in Salt Lake and I'm in Moab and she said you remember the church I said let me tell you a story so I told her my story when I get done she's crying she said that she was in the MTC having a crisis of faith and going home and they put her on on these phones to call people that want information on a church and my name and number popped up and after hearing my story she wanted to go finish her mission wow a few weeks after that I get another phone call woman says um is this Dusty and I said yes it is and she said would you please hold for president uchtorf and I went yes ma'am and he gets on the phone with me and he says my understanding is that you were anti for 26 years and came back to the church and I said that's true he said would you come talk to me so I did and uh we chatted in his office and he said he wanted to use my story in general conference but he wouldn't use my real name and I said that's okay and so October uh General Conference in 2016 in the priesthood session he gives a talk on Alma and amulet and he tells my story uh in January of 2017 Susan and I go on a date well we went to a gun show and and I don't know how people in Utah date but in Texas we go to gun shows well I needed a holster because everything we owned was in storage you know big house little apartment and um so I I see a table where they're selling holsters and I go over and I'm talking to the fella and he says you're from Texas and I said yeah and he says what are you doing here I said let me tell you a story and uh and he says wait that was you then you talked about General Conference and I said yeah he goes well can we chat I said sure So he and Susan and I walk over to a quiet little spot in the Sandy Expo Center and another fella followed us over I get done telling my story and the fella that followed us over says you're from Dallas and I said yeah thanks and he said um Oak Cliff and I said yeah and he said you don't remember me but eight years ago you had to swine flu Oh my gosh I gave you a blessing oh oh my gosh that just gave me the chills all over the rest of that story is after his mission he went inactive before the 2016 priesthood session his Bishop said I've had about enough of your inactivity here's a ticket to the priesthood session he goes to the priesthood session here's the talk on Alma and amulet and it reactivates him not realizing that the story was about a person he had given a blessing to eight years earlier wow that is amazing now at this point in my firesides I typically go into Doctrine and and things to look out for and and things like that but um I'll be glad to answer any questions you have about any of this yeah yes and I I have actually a um several questions from followers on Instagram well the one question that really comes to mind is what do with those hard questions in the church I think nowadays kind of what I've seen is a lot of people they leave because of those hard questions you know and obviously you have a lot of experience with hard questions and you've been on both sides and debated those questions and what what advice would you give to people that have those hard questions that are shaking their faith typically what I tell people okay hard questions are a a funny thing when it comes to the church because so many times they deal with issues that really have no bearing on today okay let me give you an example look I've had thousands and thousands of emails and and and and messages from people who have heard the story um I did I did one video that has had a million views and uh you know tons of people have commented and talked to me and and the biggest question I get is is what are my feelings on polygamy and I always tell them I love it I got 14 wives [Laughter] now let me tell you this at the women's prison I said that and two women two of the prisoners in the front row stood up and said where do we sign up and Susan stood up in the back row and said you don't I'm sure she did um you know here's what I say about about hard questions number one and we'll use polygamy as an example there's only two options it's from God or it's not from God you know if it's from God as we said in the Army it's above my pay grade but let's say for argument's sake I'm not saying that polygamy wasn't from God but that's for argument's sake let's say it wasn't then it would be by definition a mistake now the question you have to ask is if a prophet makes a mistake is he still a prophet yes Peter denied Abraham lied Moses killed let's not even start talking about what Jonah did the the the the the job description for profit isn't perfect so what I tell people is look prophets are going to make mistakes they're people okay but if I go as an attorney and make a mistake in court tomorrow which would never happen but if I did I would still be an attorney okay if a school teacher says something wrong about a history thing he gets the date's wrong she's still the teacher if a prophet makes a mistake he's still a prophet so I tell people go back to the beat go back to the basics go back to the basics did he have the first vision yes did he translate The Book of Mormon yes and and I and I I tell people look I have a college degree my degree was in journalism my minor was in English I'm an attorney I've written briefs I'm a published author a published poet I've written songs I've written poetry I've written stories with all of my education all of my experience I could not write the Book of Mormon and yet detractors want you to believe that an uneducated kid managed to do that very thing I don't buy it it's impossible read second Nephi that rich Doctrine in second Nephi and tell me that that came from the mind of an uneducated man young man by the way no go back to the basics and if you go back to the basics what else matters after that did he make mistakes after that sure he did did that mean he wasn't a prophet no it means he was a human and you know I and I tell people I don't know if anybody that's going to hear your your your podcast really understands a doctrine that there's a Doctrine in the Protestant world called Sola scriptura and solo scriptura means if it's not in the Bible it doesn't exist you can't argue it so they will never accept the Book of Mormon and they don't believe that that that they believe that prop that that God talking to prophets seized when when the last Apostle died there was no more prophets there's you know Christ was the last you know so I had a friend ask me one time he said I can't believe that you believe in prophets and I said I can't believe that you don't he said really I said well you got three kids right he goes yeah I said here's do this when they turn 18 bring them into your office and say now that you're 18 I'm never going to talk to you again I'm going to you know you if you have questions in the future you can look back at things that I said look at your journals think about our Traditions but I'm never going to talk to you again and he said I can't do that I said so what you're saying is you're a better father and Heavenly Father you said I never said that I said sure you did because you believe that's exactly what God did he said after the after the New Testament I'm never going to talk to you again everything you need to know is in the Bible a solo scriptura that's what you believe everything it needs in the Bible you don't need anything else I'm never going to talk to you again he said I never looked at it that way I said you got some time so that's what I tell people you're going to hear negatives about the church you're going to hear things and and look the church isn't perfect I had I had a guy look at me one day he said I need your help I said okay I'll do what I can he says can you help me find the perfect Church I said sure he says really I said absolutely he says how can I find the perfect church and I said die foreign the perfect Church on this Earth it's not possible we're not perfect you don't look for the perfect Church you don't look for the church that make no mistakes in its past you look for the church that has the keys the prophet because we need a prophet you look at the church that has the Eternal Marriage the the keys to the kingdom and we're in that church doesn't mean it's perfect but it has Perfection inside it and that's what you look for you know I had another couple walk up he had a Fireside and the girl says to the to the husband he says uh she says points to her husband so we recently married he wants to leave the church because he heard some things that he never heard before can you help me and I said no I really can't but I do have a question for you she said what I said okay y'all are newly married and I said uh-huh and I said okay so you moved in together yep just moved in together I said okay and I looked at him I said okay so now you've discovered that she doesn't put the cap on the toothpaste she squeezed the toothpaste in the middle of the tube she doesn't put the toilet seat down she she doesn't cook like your mother and she's kind of a slob now I don't know which of those were true okay but she but she was doing a lot of this um when I was saying that and I said now you found these things out you don't like them these are brand new to you you didn't know this before so is the love good enough that you stay in the marriage anyway or you divorce her and he said I love her enough where I stay in the marriage anyway I said you've just described the church that was so good and he looked at her and he said we have some praying to do um but that's kind of that's kind of what I tell people you people tend to try to look at at the past using their 2022 moral goggles and and try to judge the past using their goggles of today's morality and you can't do that it's not fair to do that and the people that do that better hope that in 200 years people aren't looking through their moral goggles and judging them what they're doing today I think they're going to come short on a lot of things based on what's gonna what the but the standard may be in 200 years so you know people run into the danger of trying to judge the 1800s using 20 20 20 2022 uh ideals and morals and values and it's it's different world different you can't do that it's not right nor is it fair so question for you this is a hard question so if you feel like you want to pass no no worries but a lot of people have a really hard time with the lgbtq community and the church and where that aligns and it's it's something that shakes a lot of people's testimony and I'm curious what your thought is on that my thought is that I will follow what the prophet says you know because if you accept that he's the prophet and I do that he's getting his instructions from God now we don't always like our instructions from God we don't always like to hear what God has to say but that's what the what but what the prophet says is is what we follow and I don't expect that God's going to change because my values change I expect that I'll change my values because God has his and I don't expect that I'll change the rules because the rules I want the rules changed around me are you know because I may have family who's LGBT you know BQ uh I I may have family and and I I love that family I love them they're my they're my family but I'm not going to change the rules because I have that family okay that doesn't mean I love him any less but I'm going to follow the rules that God lays out through his prophet and the minute that I start chipping away at that and say I'm not going to follow that then I've started chipping away at the profit and then once you start tipping with the profit then you end up chipping away at God when you chip away at God you you're you're you're lost when when all the rules have gone all the rules are around you have gone and and we've changed the rules to meet our our personal needs and and there's no laws and then to protect us how do we stand against the winds that blow I love that so okay couple questions um do you have any today do you still have any doubts or concerns or things that bother you yeah cancer you mean about the church how do you mean about the church but you want to elaborate on cancer and what it's taught you we would love to hear it I'll I'll get there um no I don't because I put things in the perspective they need to be put and because I've gotten the answers that I needed and they're not answers that work for everybody I'm sure or that would work for everybody but the Lord knew what I needed as answers and thus the answers that I got and they work for me um uh let me just give you an example one of my issues was was uh archeology I would tell Mike if I can walk the streets of Jerusalem I should be able to walk the streets of Sarah hemlock and that was a big argument that he and I would have it was a big thing and I would never budge from that and I didn't like his apologetics well because the cities the cities were in the jungles in Central and South America and they no I've lived in Central America they're not going to build their cities in the jungle they're going to build them by the lakes and by the beach where they have food and there's not all the bugs and snakes everywhere they're not going to build their cities in the jungle okay didn't work for me but I had a dream and in this dream God says to me if you walk the streets of Jerusalem does that make the Bible true and I said no and he said but if someone's doing some archaeological dig and they're they they find a sign and they wipe the sign off and it says Sarah himula Hima Zara hemla population 400. what does that do to the Book of Mormon and I said it makes it unequivocally absolutely true and he said then why would you need faith now that works for me it means that we're not entitled to know everything right now maybe never because we have to take some of this on faith if there's no need for faith then there's no need for God and if if if we if we're given everything that and if we're not required to have faith then we'll never have those blessings that Faith brings us and I'll give you an example using my cancer on January 2nd I discovered the lump in my throat that turned out to be a lymph node that was infected and I went to the doctor and they said they looked at my throat they could see the tumor in my throat it had spread to my lymph nodes and they they did the test and found out it was malignant and that it had spread to my lymph nodes not once have I asked to be healed not once what I asked for and what I continue to ask for is I said Lord I know you have the power to heal but your will be done if you think my time here is done that means you've got plans for me somewhere else if you don't think my time here is not is done if you don't think it's done yet then I'll be here and when I got my blessing I said please do not ask in your blessing that I be healed ask for the Lord's will to be done as for the doctor's hands to be guided now I will tell you a little story so one of the things they did was slice my throat open and took out 20 lymph nodes and the doctor told me your nerves surround the lymph nodes so we're gonna there's it's unavoidable that we're going to be cutting nerves so when you come out of surgery it's very very very likely if not probable that for example you won't be able to raise your left arm over your shoulder you won't be able to smile there's other things because these nerves it's it we they're going to get cut and we just can't avoid it I go to surgery four hour surgery I'm in the recovery room they take me out the doctor comes out and talks to my wife and says it was incredible and she said what and she said we take a lymph node they pulled out 20 lymph nodes she said that we take a lymph node and the nerves just fell off of it and we cut it we took another lymph node the nerves just fell off of it we cut that one take another they did that 20 times and the nerves just fell off the lymph nodes wow they did not cut a single nerve now I didn't know all that all I knew is I come out of uh out of anesthesia and my first thing I did was lift my arm over my head and then try to smile and see if I could feel that I was smiling because I was still drugged up but uh but yeah you know how does that not increase your faith yeah you know and it's not the miracle that increased my faith it's the fact that you left it in the hands of the Lord and the Lord did his will and when you're doing the Lord's will and not demanding the Lord do something the blessing comes from that and look the answer may have been that I die I was ready I've lived a great life you know I've lived an amazing life and if the Lord had something planned for me somewhere else so be it wow that is so amazing thank you so much for sharing that um okay I have a couple questions that have come up where is Mike today are you still friends with him or I hate his guts no um Mike and I are very good friends he's in Springville uh where he has lived the whole time um when I when I uh well and let me tell you another little story um when I when I got baptized re-baptized my wife said the Southern Baptist said I will I will support you I'll go to church with you I'll go to functions with you but I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever get baptized and I said okay and I never pressured her well I would say you know baby my patriarchal blessing says I get sealed in the temple I'd like it to be with you um when I met with elder ruppdorf uh he spoke to her and he he had a chat with her about the church and about bringing what you know and they'll will add to it and he talked about the fact he said I know that Dusty wants to be sealed to you we'll we'll save a place for you in the temple um the next day she said I'm ready for the discussions ow and a few months a few weeks months later I was able to um have that Exquisite and very unique uh opportunity of baptizing my own wife wow then a year later we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple oh my gosh that is so cool and she you know Mike was Mike was there at my ceiling um he's been to several of my firesides I get to Point him out and say you know there's there's there's the guy put my name in the temple every week for 20 years you know who to thunk it but but think about that think about the fact that here's a guy he puts he puts my name in the temple for for every week for 20 years never gives up never stops praying despite the fact that that I was so adamant that I would never join the church the fact that I was such a vocal anti-mormon he never gave up he never ever gave up because of that think about this I don't know how many people are going to see your podcast but they're going to be a few right there's people that have seen other podcasts that I've done the one video I did with over a million views the the Saints unscripted YouTube video I did with the Saints unscripted it's had 78 000 views the over hundreds of thousands of people that saw the article online and in the hard copy of the LDS Living magazine think about how many people have been touched by the story because he never gave up think about that and think about that that the ripple effect of that I've had people contact me and tell me that they got re-baptized that they were going to get leave the church but stayed because of the story because of the fire sides because of the book because of the magazine article that they've that they've come back to the church I had one guy come to a Fireside and he said was a member not a member never be a member had faith will never have faith again and during my Fireside I opened up to questions which I don't always do but I did at this one and he said how can you have faith how could he prove Faith exists and I said I don't know but let me ask you a question do you love your wife he said yes I said how do you show her that you love her how does she know you love her he goes well I'm nice to her I said to everybody you're nice to your love he said well no I said well let me ask you this do you believe that she loves you he said yes I said sounds like Faith to me the next day he messaged me emailed me and he said that he had already contacted his wife's bishop and was coming back to the church a few weeks later I got a a message an email asking him to come speak at his baptism wow he is the great great grandson of Brigham Young oh my gosh wow so you think about how Mike doesn't give up and the things that it's done that the people that have heard the story the people that have been touched by the story in the various forms I've given it um people that have come back to the church or I I'm I'm corresponding with the missionary now he was he came to a a Fireside and he was deciding not to go on his mission and he said that that the Fireside changed his complete aspect and he went ahead and went on his mission and he and I are pen pals on his mission um he's having a great Mission and he says it was the that the the Fireside changed everything for him and it's not me it's the story and it's the story of Hope the story of love the story that God loves us so much that he brought me back to the church that the atonement works when I met with President nuke Dorff he asked me he said do you have a testimony of the atonement and I said that's a trick question he said how's that a trick question I said because I believe in it for you I'm believing it for all y'all don't believe in it for me he said why not I dropped my head and I said because I spent 26 years doing everything I could to hurt the church I don't deserve the atonement and he softly said my name Dusty and I looked up and he had that smile on his face you see a general comes kind of a half smile and he said your sins are forgiven if that atonement can work for me it works for everybody and that's how much the lord loves us it's just that amazing love he loves you Ashley as much as if you were the only person on this planet oh incredible is that that all the stuff he has going on and he loves me and he took care of my cancer well at least a surgery and and he he he caused these Miracles that happened in my life to bring me back to the church as busy as he is he took his time to do that for me and look what he did for you to bring you back yeah of all the billions of people in the world but he took you in the palm of his hand and brought you out of something bad into eternal life how amazing is that I mean you can't do anything that takes you out of the reach Heavenly father's arms you can't do it you can't do it and I'll tell you a little story I always tell them by firesides I talk about a a play I was in when I was in high school called the company of wayward Saints and it was a group of improvisationists who went around and they would act out whatever scene the audience gave them and it was one of the scenes I played an old-time Doctor Who was doing a house call to do to deliver a baby and I'm sitting on the front porch with the with the prospective father and he says shouldn't you be doing something and my response in the play was when God's ready he'll let us know and he asks me in the play you believe in God and my response in the play was this that's a difficult question for a man of science to answer but I will tell you this I know that God Believes In Me and no matter what you do to God no matter what you say to God no matter turn your back on God no matter he will never ever ever ever stop believing in you and that's kind of cool to think that the most powerful being in in in all creation our loving father believes in us whether we believe in him or not he believes in US and that kind of gives you a perspective doesn't it [Music] absolutely I love that so much um Okay so we've got about seven minutes left I have a couple more questions for you I've had um several people reached out to me and say um what can't if you have a spouse that's leaving the church or having a faith crisis what is the best way to approach your spouse or you know maybe even a family member that's having a faith crisis or maybe they're just out of the church anti-mormon like what is the best way to approach them and yeah from your from your perspective love them do what Mike did never give up call me I can't tell you how many people have called me over the last several years because I'll I'll talk to anybody who wants to talk and I've talked to spouses before and I you know sometimes you can help sometimes you can't sometimes is you know but I always believe that they're going to come back at some point they're going to come back and you just love them you don't argue with them you invite them to the functions and don't get upset if they say no you invite them to church and don't get upset if they say no be joyful and cheerful don't argue don't fight pray for them love them and again if if it helps to talk to a third party a neutral third party not a bishop who's not a bishop not their Bishop not their stake president I'm not saying ignore those people but a lot of times the last thing that a spouse leaving the church wants or questioning a church wants to do is talk to the bishop you know because they know the answers they're going to get and and and Bishops typically don't have that experience of leaving the church and coming back so find somebody like me who has left and come back make yours you know I'm available you're you have my you have my email if anybody messages you and wants to give me my you know yeah I have a Facebook public figure page that that you can contact me and and and all my this podcast will be on there and I'll link to it and all the podcasts the videos the book the magazine article Elder Ruth dorff's talk in general all linked on my on my public figure Facebook page um two I have two personal and public figure none of my personal not uh you there's more you can do both if you want to I have hundreds of prints I don't know they just printed me because they saw a Fireside or something you know yeah yeah awesome so okay one last question for you what you've had a lot of really incredible experiences in your life that have happened and what advice would you give to somebody who Maybe doesn't feel like they've had major experiences that have anchored them to the gospel or maybe they struggle to feel the spirit or to recognize those Miracles what advice would you would you give to those people I get that a lot I get people to walk up to me and say I pray for one miracle in my life and you've had so many and my answer is always the same you have them too the difference is I see them I don't believe in coincidence and I I say you know there's little miracles happen in your life every day think back to how you met your spouse if you're married and you're in love how'd you meet was it just a chance meeting do they just happen to be someplace when you were there hmm is that coincidence or is that a miracle were they put there in that in your space that moment that day you know it you know you think about it how many if you just go back 12 Generations how many hundreds of thousands of people I mean how many thousands of people had to do the right thing at the right time for you to be here today they didn't they couldn't die they couldn't get sick they couldn't they you know they they not until not until they progenerate you know to have their children to have children to have to to have you that Branch goes out it's literally thousands of thousands of people over 12 Generations that had to do the right thing at the right time at the right moment with the right person for you you to be on this Earth at this time that's a miracle [Music] you just look back at things that happened in your life and say why did I do that why'd I choose that over that because you were Guided by something what was it and if you recognize you know sometimes the Lord Parts the sea but usually he just Whispers and you have to tune your tune your spirit to hear those Whispers And to recognize and then to thank him for those Whispers thank him for those miracles you know thank him that that he that he loved you enough to grant you that little piece of of Heaven for that moment that that miracle um Susan I mean I haven't told you half the Miracles that have happened that I could point to um that have happened since 2015. but again I see them yeah and anybody can if they look hard enough but people are wanting to be oh just a coincidence coincidence is God's way of staying Anonymous yep I love that that is so beautiful well Dusty thank you so much for taking this time I am just just chills the whole the whole hour here and I'm just so so grateful that you took this time with me and I know this is going to help so many people so thank you so much you're welcome I'm a if if anybody wants to chat with me I still do Fireside um uh if anybody has a question you can they can contact you to get in touch with me I'll be glad to speak with anybody um through email through telephone whatever I'm always available or I'll make myself available because that's what we do we we help um we become that you know light is as best we can I've got a lot of making up to do for 26 years of hurting love that well thank you so much and um I will link everything uh so that people can be in touch with you I appreciate you thank you okay I'm gonna end oh wait let's see okay

Channel: Come Back Podcast

Views: 182,892

Keywords: #churchofjesuschristoflatter-daysaints, #lds, #bookofmormon, #mormon, #comeback, #podcast, youtubevideos, #newepsiode, #makekeepingcovenantscoolagain, cesletter, exmormon

Id: gYEQxrkfeQ0

Length: 60min 4sec (3604 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2022