Lisa, the youngest of six children, was raised in Novato, California, and New Canaan, Connecticut. Lisa and her husband, Josh, have spent the past 17 years in Ladera Ranch, California, raising their five children (their oldest just started her first year at BYU). Lisa, a credentialed elementary school teacher, left teaching to join her husband in opening a residential real estate company servicing Orange County, California. But life has seemed to tell her "not so fast" this year, causing Lisa to go back to her roots and deciding to homeschool her remaining four children at home, all while continuing to sell homes. She lives a crazy life but loves the gospel, which is sustaining her during these unusual times.

Ruth was born and raised in Arizona before heading to college at BYU. She graduated with a journalism degree before starting on an unexpected career path that has taken her through decades of television news across the country, teaching communications at BYU, a stint in Church Public Affairs as a spokesperson, and to her current position as SVP of Global Public Affairs for a multi-national health and beauty company. She and her husband Bryan are the parents of five terrific children, and the grandparents of six grandchildren who both delight them and crack them up on the regular. Ruth recently earned an MBA from BYU. She is currently serving as a member of the YW General Board for the Church.

Robert is the seventh child out of eight and grew up in Dallas, Texas, and then the Bay Area in California. Though having pioneer heritage on all sides of his family, Robert felt detached from his roots until attending BYU and being surrounded by others of his faith. He really got to feel his roots when he was called to the Idaho Pocatello Mission (The Lord really knows what we need). With a new found love for eastern Idaho, Robert returned to Provo, Utah, and met his wife and worked toward becoming a dentist. Life happened, and bills for babies were due, and Robert took a role in sales thinking the dream to work in peoples' mouths would always be there. Twenty-five years, five children, two dogs, and lots of backyard chickens later, Robert is loving his life with all the twists and turns and working as the Chief Revenue Officer for Tech9 in Salt Lake City, Utah. When not in a Zoom meeting, Robert loves to ride his bikes (both road and mountain), eat breakfast cereal, and play keeper for the family co-ed indoor soccer team.

Marcos Orozcos is Chicano, an American of Mexican descent, and was born in Santa Monica, California, and raised in west Los Angeles near the ocean. Marcos is an “ex-gang-banger” and lived what he would describe as a very difficult life that included death, abuse, and poverty. Growing up, Marcos believed in prayer and always prayed for others but never for himself. Born and raised Catholic, Marcos never had any intentions of every leaving his faith, but God had other plans that steered his life in a completely different direction.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was born in 1938 in Sugar City, Idaho. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1960 with a BA in English. That fall she moved with her husband, Gael Ulrich, to Boston, Massachusetts so he could begin graduate work at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). During the next ten years, while engaged with her growing family, she worked with a dynamic group of Mormon women to produce a popular guidebook to Boston (a fund-raising project for their local congregation) and helped to found a Mormon feminist newspaper. Exponent II (now a magazine available in print or on-line). Taking one course a semester, she completed an MA in English at Simmons College in 1971.

Matthew J. Grow is Managing Director of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In that capacity, he leads a team of history professionals who collect documents and artifacts, preserve them, and promote understanding of the Church’s past through a publishing program, a research library, a museum, and many historic sites. Grow also serves as a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers and Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. He has published widely on Latter-day Saint history and American religious history. Grow received his PhD in American history from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife Alyssa live with their four children in Sandy, Utah.

Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife is a Latter-day Saint relationship and sexuality coach as well as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in the state of Illinois. She has a PhD in Counseling Psychology. Her teaching and coaching focus on helping Latter-day Saint individuals and couples achieve greater satisfaction and passion in their emotional and sexual relationships.

Sunday on Monday guest

Suzanna Erickson is from Utah but has lived outside the state. She longed for a mountain view and, luckily, her family found a house with a mountain in their back yard. They have become quite the redneck farmers from the chickens to the dogs to the cows and horses and the goats next door, and husband and sons honking train horns they installed on their trucks. Thankfully, they are blessed with kind patient neighbors! Suzanna has learned to embrace it and wouldn’t change a thing. She has six of the best kids and a husband who tries to desensitize them every once in a while, but they don’t budge.

Lee Benson has written slice-of-life columns for the Deseret News since 1998. Prior to that he was a sports columnist. His subjects have ranged from the Olympic Games (10 of them) to the arrival of the Jazz to the origin of fry sauce. A native Utahn, he grew up in Sandy and lives in the mountains with his family.