My Spiritual Journey Since Leaving the FLDS Church: And What We Believe Now

hey everyone welcome back my name is sam and i'm melissa and today uh we just want to start off by saying thank you all so much yeah seriously it has been amazing to see um how many subscribers we've gotten recently and we just want to say a huge thank you to all of you who've been there for us from the beginning for those of you that just barely found us we're so happy that you're all here and wanting to learn more about sam's experience growing up in polygamy and our life after and it's been like super awesome to see the amount of comments um we've been trying to answer as many as we can yeah and trying to stay on top of it there's been a lot of them yes a lot of great questions comments thank you all so much for your love and support throughout this all um it's been a great experience for me to be able to share my experiences and to see the feedback that i've got has just been mind-blowing i honestly i thought there would be more negative uh comments and and that type of thing but it's all been very good and i appreciate that so thank you all yes and we love love love how many questions we've been getting i always say it at the beginning of every video but we'll say it again that um we love to make videos based on the questions that people want answered so continue to leave those comments um questions in the comment section and let us know what you want to hear about and if you like what you're hearing then please like and subscribe and we just wanted to say thank you yes and speaking of questions speaking of questions we have got we uh this question is one that so many people have asked and uh it's just it's been one of those things that we've been trying to answer uh but this was a big topic that we felt needed a video not just a response in the comments yeah a lot of people so so many people and it totally makes sense have been asking about um sam's spiritual journey since leaving the flds church um what his journey has been like if he did join a lot of people are guessing the lds religion and um what religion if any we are now so that is what we're going to talk about for this video good no you're fine so a piece of that is what we're going to talk about it's a lot it's a lot of information to cover so we're going to start at least and get as much as we as much information as we can to you during this video here yeah i know we normally like you know try to give like 10 minute videos and just kind of summaries um this video will probably be a little bit longer because we want to be able to give you more information but we know that in order to tackle a subject like this like we could be here for four hours so this is not going to be a four hour video but we are going to try to answer the main questions and then we'll also kind of tell you some some subjects that we know um we're gonna just do separate videos on so that you can get more details and more information on so as we go through we'll kind of hit like this is gonna be a topic we'll go deep in another video on um so that you're not having to watch a four-hour video exactly so this one's more going to be an overall general experience and then we'll get into more details with certain in certain areas here uh in other videos so yep okay so in the beginning from the beginning okay so when sam first left for those of you who are new to our channel um he left the polygamous um flds group or fundamentalist church of jesus christ of latter-day saints is how he grew up and he left when he was 18 years old and obviously that is a huge religion if you've watched any of our other videos um the it's a very unique religion to have grown up in and so i guess the first question when you're talking about your spiritual journey would be when you left um how did you feel about the flds church was like did you not believe is that why you left or kind of what were your where were you spiritually when you left yeah that's a great ques a great question and it is uh oh well it i i guess my spiritual belief at that time was still that that church was the true church uh that's where that's the way i was raised and it's just what i still believed uh when i moved out it wasn't necessarily because i felt that church was the wrong or that that it wasn't true but more because i wanted to there were certain things that were going on in within the religion and certain things we weren't allowed to do that i wanted to experience and and so that was more the reason to move out i i felt i felt that i needed to go out and and i guess get a better understanding of what the big wide world is all about and and just gain more understanding and knowledge so it wasn't necessarily because i felt that it wasn't true at the time okay and so believing that it was still true what did you think the consequences spiritually for you leaving would be well uh the the consequences in the end if i if i didn't return and repent was going to be that eventually i would be i would end up in hell that was that was the consequence uh for for leaving the only for leaving the truth uh so you know but so in my mind i thought i'm going to leave i'm going to experience the world i'm going to learn and then in the end i will return and do whatever i need to do to repent so that when i die i can you know i can go to where i want to go on the other side no not the other place so that religion is kind of like an insurance policy like yeah it's okay but i can always go back but truthfully i i thought in my at that time i thought that i would return eventually gotcha how long after leaving was it before you kind of realized that you didn't want to return you know that's it's uh that's a tough question i don't know exactly i would say within the first couple of months i realized uh that well i learned a lot more about my religion because out out there we we didn't have uh we didn't have news or or social media any of that and so i realized and was was taught things that was that were going on out there that i wasn't aware of and and so some of some things like that you know made me realize that i wasn't going to return what was the first and i think this was a question that someone had asked was what is the first like lie i guess like the first thing that you found out that wasn't true about the religion that you'd learned your whole life because i feel like that'd be like a hard shock to be told something you know when we're i mean everybody has those things that when you grow up you you believe in and maybe you find out later that not everything's true that's true yeah what was the first thing for you my the biggest thing and this was one of the reasons i moved out in the first place is realizing how many people there are in this world that are happy and that are living great lives with great families and just wonderful wonderful people and out there we were taught that to be truly happy you needed to belong to that religion because it was it was god's true religion so i i assumed that everyone outside of that religion you know in a way were unhappy and when i started meeting people and and meeting families i realized wow that that that is not true there's a lot of really good people and a lot of happy people out here and and so that was i would say the number one and the biggest the biggest uh i guess you could call lie that i realized right away so yeah that would be a lot to take in yeah yeah a lot to take in so when you um when you first left and you're realizing that these things that you've been taught weren't true and you're learning this new information did you feel like um that there must be some other kind of truth out there or like a church that was true or did it make you want to shy away from religion all together uh well i had uh pieces of me that that wanted to believe that there was another religion out there because i you know that was my whole life growing up the i was so sure of it that that that there was a church on the earth that god established and that we needed to belong to to return to him that's that's the mindset i had and so that was a piece of me wanted to believe there was another true church out there another piece of me was afraid afraid of the religion in general because i was i was i felt that i was taught one thing and then i didn't believe that anymore so it was to me it was earth shattering it was it was you know it was it was just uh i didn't know if there could be anything else out there or if i if or if i was just being uh i guess lied to my whole life i it was it was a tough it was a tough moment to try to figure out what i believed some of you had kind of caught on because he had mentioned before in a different video um that he served an lds mission so we'll kind of get to that part how long after having left and before the lds missionaries started talking to you so the the flds and the lds church uh they they originated in the same place and and by the same leaders and so there are a lot of similarities as far as the the scriptures and and things that they are taught so to me it well i guess i'll just start from the beginning i uh soon after i moved out i met a family uh that were members of the lds church and they were this was uh when i talked about people that seemed happy and had great lives this was one of those families yeah and and so when i met this family i was i i was i was intrigued i thought man these people seem really happy and and it was uh it was it was very nice to spend time with them and be around them and and anyway so they are the ones that kind of brought me in took me in when i when i moved out and and started teaching me some of the things about the lds church and you know i was surprised how much how many similarities and how similar the doctrine was uh because you know where when i was raised i had heard about the lds church but i i thought that they were way way different um so anyway so that's where i started learning about the church and and so they invited the missionaries to meet with uh to meet with me and and just talking you know started talking about all of the the different things and coming to find out that i i had i already believed in in most of the things that most of the big things uh that that uh that the church teaches the lds church teaches as well yeah so for those of you who don't know are familiar with the lds or the flds church um they were both founded by joseph smith and they both believe in the book of mormon and so a lot of those things i know you told me before you know when you have missionaries a lot of the things you know they're starting to they start with the beginning so their missionaries tend to start teaching with joseph smith and his first vision and the book of mormon and those type of things and sam said it was kind of funny because you know he would they would kind of ask him like oh have you heard of joseph smith before expecting to be teaching him about it and what was your response to that does it well and later serving a mission myself which we'll get into later uh i i really i now realize how big of a deal it was for those missionaries when they were asking me well do you believe in in god yeah do you believe in in in jesus christ and he was our savior and do you believe in the book of mormon and i believed in all of these things already because that's what i was taught growing up and so i yeah yeah anyway so they they just felt like they had the easiest easiest convert ever yeah easiest discussion so anyway so that's uh one thing led to another uh after about oh man it was about a year after i had moved out that both myself and one of my brothers were baptized to the church of jesus of jesus christ of latter-day saints the lds church and how long after being baptized did you decide to serve a mission or did you know that you wanted to serve a mission right away because at that point so um lds men normally serve missions it used to be when they were 19 years old now it's 18. but when sam would have gone it was at 19 years old and so um at the time i did not know when i when i was back i was unsure about it the whole thing to begin with it was uh it took it took some it wasn't just uh just to be just to clarify when the missionaries met with us it wasn't just automatically yeah sure let's let's join another church it took it took some some studying and some some anyway some time to wrap my head around wanting to join another religion um oh sorry yeah so but uh after i after after we i got through all that and decided to join um no i i wasn't planning on serving a mission in fact when i joined the church i didn't really know what a mission was a lot of people that are raised in the lds church there they're taught about this mission their entire lives especially the man yeah and uh but i i wasn't and so i didn't really know what a mission even was at the time that i was baptized to the church taking one quick step back because i just thought of another question um is what was the biggest you know there were obviously a lot of similarities especially when it comes to church history and the founding of the church um that you're already familiar with with the um missionaries but what was the biggest difference that was hard to like what was the biggest hurdle of joining the lds church from the flds church well easy it was uh the the current prophet okay you know uh at that point i i fully believe that that warren jeffs was a prophet of god uh well i was beginning to have some doubts at that point and so when they asked me the question do you believe that it was it was president monson at the time they they asked one of their one of their questions was before getting baptized do you believe that president monson is a prophet of god and that one was that was difficult that was difficult i i had i had been as a little boy growing up i had spent many sundays burying my testimony and testifying that i knew that ruling jeffs and then war and jeffs were men of god and they were the only true prophets on the earth so so to all of a sudden you know flip that that that was that was a very difficult thing to wrap my head around that would be that would be a big a big step sorry so i just wanted to ask that question real quick before we moved on so then um oh okay no you're fine so i so when after we joined my brother and i after we joined the the lds church we uh we had an opportunity to meet with one of the the apostles of the church and it was at that point that he said to both of us you would both make great missionaries and and so that was sort of the first time that i ever even considered or wanted to learn more about what a mission was and and uh you know and what it took to serve one so and for those of you who aren't familiar with the church getting to meet an apostle is a very large deal where it's a the lds church is a worldwide church and there is millions of members so it is very rare and a very special opportunity to be able to have a one-on-one meeting with an apostle it's a very big deal and also it's something that doesn't anybody who goes from the flds church to the lds church they have there's a special process basically because the believing in the current prophet is such a big deal um i believe i'll let you speak on this but everybody who leaves the flds church if they are going to join the lds church they have to go through a special interview process yes so uh and that was basically it was basically my baptismal interview was by an apostle so uh at the time that i moved out you did you you did you did have to meet with an apostle before you could join the church and i don't know for sure if that's still the case i had heard that there were some changes made to that rule after but at the time that i at the time that i joined the church it was it was a requirement yeah so uh both my brother and i had a had a great opportunity and were able to go up and meet with with uh him and uh anyway which apostle did yeah elder holland yeah very cool so it was really it was really cool really awesome really awesome guy it was a at the time that we met him we we uh i had no idea how big of a deal it was uh you know being so new to everything i thought well maybe everyone gets to meet these people on on a yearly basis or whatever but uh but no it was it was a very rare and uh special experience so awesome so after he said you guys would make some great missionaries about how long after that was it that well it was a year and if i'm not mistaken we we had to wait a year before because after you join you have to wait a year before you can join it or serve a mission anyway so it was one year for me and then uh both my brother and i we uh we both put in our mission papers and served missions and uh both actually got to serve in chile so in different different parts of chile he was in the northern part of chile onto augusta and i was mid-ish in uh bina del mar and well i was all over the place in there but uh that i guess right just right north of uh santiago awesome and this is one example of we will do a whole other video about sam's mission and the awesome experience that it was for him um so cool fact he does speak spanish fluently and at least that word right no he uses it in his work all the time he gets to speak spanish all the time and he's been able to keep it up and actually got his degree in spanish yeah when he came back so a spanish in marketing so it's kind of cool that well like i said we'll go into that more in another video because that's just a cool topic on its own and we want to give it like the attention that it deserves i feel like your mission deserves its own right its own attention but you know and a lot of people probably don't a lot of our viewers you may not know what a mission and what a mission entails even um here in where where we grew up there were so many members of the church that it's just everyone seems to know what it is but that's ask questions if you have questions about anything specific about the lds mission and we can we can answer that for you as well so yeah the gist of it is that um they leave for two years away from their family they don't get paid and it's completely service um all about preaching the gospel and so he was gone for two years and i will say this too that that um if you watched our how we met video um speaking spanish like made a big impact on you in a lot of ways too he kind of lost a little bit of your accent his accent from being out there i i'm totally i'm told i still have a little bit of something uh proof that i'm from there but uh i guess i guess i've lost a lot of it so yeah so when you got back from your mission again that was two years later um what kind of plans did you have from there i guess we'll go life plans and then we'll go into more of like how you felt spiritually but let's start with right right so life plans you know it's a good question i i felt that i uh before i'm before i left on a mission i had no intention of ever uh getting a degree or going to college i didn't i didn't think that i would ever be able to because of the lack of education that i had growing up i didn't feel smart enough and i didn't feel that it would be something that i would ever be able to accomplish so coming back and after serving two years and going through the experiences i went through i gained a lot of self-confidence and you know one of the one of the reasons for that was learning a new language and i came back and i was like i can i can do anything so so uh so that's when i got back my goal was to you know get an education and that i did and and you know and another big goal was to start a family and uh and that that worked out too so those were those are my two main goals coming back coming back yeah and then spiritually very active in the church oh yes yeah very very much so and and uh i would say you know when you can when you come back from a mission and you and you spend two years of your time reading scripture uh teaching people about the the teachings of christ and and just fully focused on that i mean you you come back and that's to say spiritual would be an understatement that i mean it was it was my life and so um coming back how long was it you had been home how long until we met ooh let's see what did it i believe hmm two years was it two years it was like i i i okay a year and a half because we met in you know i think yeah and right yeah it would have been a year and a half then yep okay yeah so then we met if you haven't seen our video on um how we met and we met then click on the link above um but we yeah so we met and we actually met in church so i was raised lds and um yeah had been lds my whole life and then i had just recently moved back from northern utah so i had moved to northern utah a couple years before for a career opportunity and um i was up there and i just really felt like i needed to move back home and i literally called my divisional manager like crying because i was like i feel like i need to move back and i kind of didn't want to i felt like i had met every guy down there and if i moved back down i was gonna die an old maid which is hilarious at 23 but in in um just the culture in utah that's like a big culture right so um living in northern utah and not being married yet at 23 and then moving back to my hometown i was like i don't stand a chance but i feel like i was supposed to move back and i moved back on a thursday and i um that sunday i looked up to try to see where i was supposed to go to church because there's church there's specific boundaries and there's what's called young single adult awards where um from 18 to 29 is the age group and you go to church together and so i had looked up on the church app and it said this place at this time and i went and i showed up and i walked in and realized that was not the like my boundary it's not where i was supposed to be and i just sat in the back like really frustrated that i was like why am i in the wrong one and then i saw sam and i went up and awkwardly tapped him on the shoulder and was like is your name sam yeah and he couldn't remember my name but he did remember me in general yeah and so we actually met at church so that'll give you a little bit insight and continue to go to church together and we got married in the um saint george utah temple yeah so our i mean our whole beginning of our marriage was very much uh related or very much involved with the church yeah absolutely and it was for years um sam always had like higher like i don't know if higher is the right word but like i always had leadership calling leadership callings there you go i always had leadership callings and i was in primary and loved it and did singing time with the little kids and it was like a really good experience for us we i feel like as far as our little family went um we had our little girl and life was good yeah like life is good but yeah life was good at that point and um i guess i don't know if i should be asking you this or if i should keep talking either way either way uh what's the what's the question i guess the question is what everybody's been waiting to hear and that is what we what we believe now and again this is well you can you can start okay and then i will i will pick up so this is a big topic to unravel and we seriously for weeks have been trying to think of the best way to convey it to everyone um but we are no longer active members of the lds church i guess that's the we'll just say that to begin with and then we'll kind of give a little bit of our story from there so um i was actually asked to give a talk in steak conference and so for those of you who aren't familiar um people the congregations they're called wards and there's about 300 people to award and then there's multiple awards in what's called a stake and twice a year there's what's called state conference where it's just a bigger meeting where all of the awards come together for big um meetings to hear from upper leadership and i was actually asked to speak which is a huge like honor and a little bit nerve-wracking that they like um you know i'm like oh my gosh i'm getting picked out of all of these people thousands of people and um super big honor and as i was preparing for that talk um i just started having some questions um about you know the gospel of jesus christ and how it related to the elias church and i came to sam and you know of course my missionary husband who always had the answers for me so he was my go-to and and i went and said honey have you ever thought of you know these things and kind of wondered about this with the church and it basically just opened up a huge open discussion discussion yeah very open and uh honest and uh you know i felt like we were just willing to to well at first not so much but we got to the point where we were willing to accept uh what whatever we felt was true yeah when we first started i was like oh my gosh babe this is going to give us an opportunity to be stronger in the church you know and we had been told that like if you're asking questions and we're going to the right sources and we did we were studying scriptures together we were praying together every single day um we were you know only reading church content and really searching for answers to these questions and we just continued to feel as a family as we were praying um we just kept feeling more and more that it wasn't the full truth that we had been told and that's the best way that i can word it because the same way that we completely respect and um respect the flds church we have those same feelings of respect and love for the lds church um we did not have any intentions of no longer being active in the church i have lots of journal entries to prove that um but it was just something that we decided was best for our family was to no longer um be active in that church yeah a lot of a lot of our decisions were based on uh now that we have kids of our own you know what's what's the best not only for us now now it's all about them so it was a lot of a lot of uh praying and pondering and thinking of what's best for our family now and uh not only that but what's what's the truth what's the truth and and what what does that mean for us and uh so you know a lot of people wonder now well i guess first of all i went from one church to a another church and now i'm saying that it's kind of the same thing is happening all over again where i believe something so fully which i did i i wouldn't have i wouldn't have spent two years of my time preaching it if i didn't believe it one hundred percent but it's just uh you know uh we we keep learning more i keep learning more i keep uh i keep searching and and uh understanding i say i would say a little bit more and then make those decisions on what i feel is is true and and best for me and my family and did you have anything to add before we move on to what we now believe i would just say that um i guess the best way to just say is like this is a conversation that we just again we really want to make sure that it's clear and understanding that we have respect and love for not only the church but the people in it and we love them and we would never want to cause them any pain or harm or anything like that we know that our decision and what we've decided to believe has you know it's been hard for those of us who are for those who know us that are still in the church and that was really hard that was really hard um because obviously our intentions are never to make any people sad or hurt and um like sam said i guess i'll just reiterate that for us we just wanted to continue to find truth and be open to that and to do what was what we felt like was right in our hearts and that's um all we've continued to do and to try to be the best people we can be and being open to change is something that um you know we're like striving for we want to be able to be open and always try to be the best people that we can be the best um spouses to one another that we can be and the best parents that we can be and that's our motivation um behind everything that we do especially when it comes to spirituality yeah um so i hope that yeah we're not we're not the kind of people that like to just uh i guess go with the flow or or or or do something just because everyone else is doing it or or do it something because that's what the popular thing and that's what will make people happy uh we really we really feel it's important to be true to ourselves and uh and you know and and not to live in a way that we're that we're that we don't believe in you know and so it's really important that we uh continue to evolve and learn and and be open-minded yeah so i guess i mean like i said that kind of lets the cat out of the bag i don't know if that's even how to word it because you guys are all so loving and supportive and so um we weren't really like nervous to say this for any of our friends or family that are watching this and that didn't know that we're no longer active in the church um i kind of actually would like to say this kind of probably a testament that we are still the same people and we still love and respect you and would never want our relationships with anybody in the church to be any different than what it is and that's been super important to us and this isn't a topic that you normally um just start out sharing oh hey by the way guys i decided that i don't believe in in the the church that i grew up in so it's just always been kind of a personal thing but we did as always want to be honest and transparent with you guys and all of our subscribers and anybody that's watching and also let anybody that um maybe having not doubts but different thoughts or on their own faith journey that we're big supporters of doing what is best for you and your family and um i'd say over the last couple years we've grown more and more accepting and loving of people everyone yeah of everyone and their own spiritual experiences and we don't want anybody to try to um believe what we believe or to try to claim that one belief is better than another or i don't know yeah yeah and that's that's we yeah that that's our main thing now is uh we we believe that everyone has a right to to choose what is best for them and and if that's what they believe in and that's what and that's what you truly believe in is what's best for you and your family we love that that's what that's what that's what uh you should do um you know and and so uh it's it's kind of helped us just like you said respect everyone and and and their feelings and their beliefs a little bit a little bit more yeah and everyone's spiritual journey is so personal and it is meant to be that way and it's something that you know no one else can take your spiritual experiences away from you and we've had questions before too where it's like okay you've had these spiritual experiences within the church like how can you forget those um and we don't forget them yeah and that's something that i know that's kind of hard um to hear for some people who may still be in the church and they're like well how can you forget i'm like i promise we're not forgetting we still hold dearly those spiritual experiences and just as sam has mentioned before about having some of his most powerful spiritual experiences were experiences he had in the flds church and we believe that you can have powerful spiritual experiences um in lots of different places and lots of different religions and honestly in most religions you're going to be able to have those awesome spiritual experiences but for us the choice to stay with the lds church or to choose to walk away from it um had to do with truth not with spiritual experiences so we still love and cherish the spiritual experiences that we had in the church we have not forgotten them and yeah back back to where i came from the flds religion uh you know i still i i was told and and experienced with my parents uh and was told by my parents of a lot of amazing uh experiences and spiritual experiences that they've had and and i respect those i still respect those and and uh and think that they you know they really did have these wonderful experiences and and that's and that's what i believe now i believe now that you know everyone on this earth is entitled to great spiritual experiences um and and if and if someone is is having those who am i to say who am i to disagree or who am i to say well it's impossible for you to have spiritual experiences because you don't belong to this religion and only this religion can have these spiritual experiences so you know i believe we all have purpose on this earth i believe we're all loved and have purpose and and there's meaning to life as far as far as religion goes what you know some of the questions we've got what religion do you believe in what do i think about religion and and which religions is this the true religion that answer is i don't know i don't know uh what as far as religion and organized churches and that goes i don't know the answer to that as of right now we personally um don't believe that there's any one one and only true religion um and so we have not um chosen another religion to go to or anything like that um so i think as right now we're not members of any religion which is a a big shift for us when you um have a religion that's so all-encompassing in your life in every aspect of your life and i'd say like even just hearing you say it every time we say the words like i don't know um i'm just like proud of us i know that may sound super weird but that was something that was really hard um when you come from religion that um has what seems to be all the answers i would say um i remember at first telling sam and being like i used to be able to say like what do i think about this and i could go to the church website and i could look up that topic and i mean any type of topic and be able to get a foundation for what i was going to believe from that and then when we started having to make those decisions on our own it's been such a good learning experience and we've gotten a lot more comfortable learning how to say the words i don't know and i feel like i feel like the more we learn the less we know that's a good way to put it and uh and that's fine you know it allows us to to admit that we don't know something and continue to try to build on that and learn more about that and feel like it keeps it and yeah and instead of just assuming that we have all the answers now we say well i'm not sure let's go figure it out let's learn more so it's been good it's been good i feel like it's it's helped like i feel like i strengthened our marriage a lot yeah i agree we've talked about so many topics that um were just not topics of conversation a lot of times i mean we got married very quickly which is you know kind of common in the lds church um we re-met when on our first date we were engaged six weeks later and we were married three months after that so it's very when you say it like that we're crazy crazy people and yes we still love each other and we like each other which is even i think sometimes more important but yeah um so but so many things when you both believe in the lds faith you know when you start dating it's like you already have all these checklists uh marked off like okay so we believe the same thing about alcohol we believe the same thing about coffee just by being members of the church you kind of have all these things that you already like have established that okay because we believe in the same faith here's all the things that i know we're going to be on the same page for and um as we've started being more comfortable with i don't know and in our marriages strengthen us that now you know we'll there'll be a topic in the news or a topic just in general and we'll just discuss it and figure out how we feel about it and what we believe about it and um you know we've gotten comments and and questions about different things that we believe whether it's about race or whether it's about homosexuality or those different type of um heart not hard topics but just those big topics and the chance to be able to decide for ourselves how we feel without an outside influence has really i feel like strengthened us a ton i agree i agree and it's it's allowed us to i guess feel closer because we're we're going through this together you know and we're very lucky a lot of people that uh you know a lot of people if they're in a religion and one decides to you know believe something different we've seen marriages and families ripped apart because of different beliefs and uh we're very lucky that we're both the open-minded kind of people and and we were doing this together so anyway that's been awesome and i agree it's strengthened us as we've done this and gone on this journey together as as husband and wife and yeah and uh yeah and and you know it's just it's just overall been such a good experience to to to go through this yeah i think even in the beginning of this when where sam was saying the first biggest thing when you left was finding out that other people could be happy and i'd say that there's a little bit of that in the lds church maybe not not to the same extreme but um you know i always believed and was told that you know that's part of why there was missionary work is because everyone would be happier in the church than out of it and i think since leaving that's been one of the biggest things for us is learning how much joy we can have outside of the church and yeah yeah i don't know it's like it's been super a super good super powerful experience for me and for our family and rather than just assuming that other people are unhappy because they don't believe the way we believe uh it's been it's been eye-opening to see that once again there are so many people that are that are happy and they're living wonderful lives and happy lives and uh and and they don't some of them don't belong to religion others do that doesn't matter uh but but there are people from all walks of life that uh that are just as happy as the other other other person even though they don't believe the same thing so uh that's that's what it comes down to at this point is uh you know a lot of people claim a lot of people claim to have the truth and it's not just the religion i was raised in or or the lds religion there are religions across the world that that uh would give their own life because they they they are so sure that what they have is the only truth and uh and so for us it's more of uh we just accept everyone as they are and and and and that's fine that's that's if you know whatever whatever makes you happy that's what we want whatever is going to help you be the best version of yourself and i think that there's definitely people out there that you know different religions help bring out the best in them and so we're not like i know i've said it before but we're not against religion we're not against any religion that is helping people um be the best versions of themselves and to help them feel their purpose in life and if it's doing that for you whatever religion you are then we support you and we love you in that yep so i know this was a long video for those of you who stuck it out with us we've been talking for a long time if you're on double speed it's only been a half hour though so but we want to thank all of you again from the bottom of our hearts um for subscribing for liking this channel for sticking with us yeah and it's been great it's been great it's been a great evening i i love sharing my experiences and and so thank you again for all of your questions comments and just your support overall thank you for your support um love you guys yes we love you guys and we'll talk to y'all soon talk to you soon

Channel: Growing Up in Polygamy

Views: 126,091

Keywords: polygamy, polygamist, flds, lds, mormon, sister wives, growing up in polygamy, escaping polygamy, warren jeffs, hildale, colorado city, leaving polygamy, leaving mormonism, leaving the church, leaving, religion, leaving the lds, new faith, spiritual journey, our spiritual journey

Id: x6BNTYpghb4

Length: 45min 15sec (2715 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021