Interviews

Taylor Christensen was raised in an adoptive family. She has always known that she is loved and that she belongs. Taylor was also curious about her birth parents. In the 1990s, when Taylor was born and placed for adoption, it was common for adoptions to be closed. After taking a DNA test through Ancestry.com as […]

Marina Neto is a Portuguese woman of African ancestry. She was born in Portugal to immigrant parents from Sao Tome, and their family lived in Angola while she was a teenager. After returning to Portugal, she served a full-time mission for the Church in Cape Verde. She shares her perspective of racial injustice and micro-aggressions […]

Alyson Deussen is the mother of a gay son, Stockton, who came out at age 13 and died by suicide in 2016 at age 17. Alyson serves her community by supporting LGBT teens and young adults coming out, who may be estranged from their family, as well as focusing on suicide prevention. She and her […]

Following a spiritual prompting that came from the clear blue sky, Emily Farmer walked into a senior care facility in her neighborhood to play the piano. She became instant friends with one of the residents, a 99-year-old man called Mac, and discovered he played the harmonica. They played music together for the residents and were […]

While in a stressful life situation, Jocelyn Pedersen was prescribed a category of antianxiety drugs called benzodiazepines. She was severely injured by trying to withdraw too rapidly from the medication and now works to educate patients and doctors about the effects of these drugs and how to heal from the trauma. What was the beginning […]

Tandi Bronston was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor at the end of 2013, with only a 50% survival rate past the first 18 months. Seven years later, after multiple surgeries, she maintains a positive attitude despite her continuing battle with brain cancer. Sections of this interview are from her blog. Tell me about your […]

Sara Walker is working toward becoming a therapist to help women going through their own recovery process from their husbands’ addiction to pornography. Please introduce yourself and your situation. My husband and I had been married for three months when he told me he’d been looking at porn. We’ve now been married for almost twenty […]

Miyamoto Jensen came home from her mission depressed and anxious. She found healing and purpose in doing her family genealogy. Her work as a professional genealogist has informed how she thinks about the gospel, family, race, and trauma.  You are a family historian and genealogist. How did you get started in that field of work? […]

Robyn Burkinshaw is the secretary of her stake Relief Society, and a gay woman. She was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has always had a love of the Gospel. When she left the Church as a young adult and struggled deeply with depression, she felt a devastating distance between […]

On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down over Kigali. That moment was like “oil on fire,” setting off the devastating Rwandan Genocide. Yvonne Baraketse’s father, Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army, was also on the airplane and killed in the attack. Yvonne was 14 years […]