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Segment 1

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Today's episode is for everybody living in the mission field. Now, fun fact, the word field in scripture is often symbolic for the word world. So now today's episode is for everyone living in the mission world or any place in the world that the Lord has a work for you to do, which is all of us. So this episode is for every member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and this week we get to study doctrine and covenants, sections 71 through 75, and my guests are going to tell us about their experience living in the mission field and what God had and has called them to do.

Welcome to the Sundown Monday Study Group, a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original, brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the Come Follow Me lesson for the week, and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall. If you're new to our study group, please follow the link in our description and it's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your come Follow Me study, just like my longtime listening friend, Tiffany Turley, Bo Cutt.

Hi, Tiffany. Okay. Now another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, and it's always a little bit different. And today we have two old timers back. We just did the math. They have not been on for about five years together. Right. You were with me early on when we first started, and now you're back and I cannot wait.

I wanna introduce you to Hollee and Brady McKay. Hello, you two. Hey there. Happy to be back. Great to be with you again, Tammy. Oh, this makes me so happy. I'm I kind of fan girl over these two. Just fun fact about them. Anytime I have the chance to hear Brady and Hollee speak and they do, I'm there. I'm like, I gotta hear.

I love their story. I love their stories. 'cause you have a lot. And this is really amazing because again, I love how your name just popped into my head. I put it for these sections and then I go read the sections and my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe how applicable it was to your stories. It's so cool.

What'd you guys think when you were reading these? Brought back a lot of memories of our [00:02:00] travels and our work overseas. Hmm. Well, and I loved it 'cause it put it in perspective again. I mean, we know why we were sent overseas. Mm-hmm. And these scriptures just fit perfectly into that. We didn't know that until we got there and got involved in, in the work.

But we know, and it was quite a journey and it was all orchestrated by the Lord himself. I know. I'm so excited. What a great way to set this up. 'cause it's gonna be really fun. Best story time ever. And we're gonna read scriptures. Oh, really quick. How do you two know each other? Tell everybody a little bit about you two.

Well, there's Hollee's version and there's my version. So I'll tell mine. It's probably the truer one. Yes. I was, uh, 29 years old when I met Hollee. I'd, uh, given up on dating almost. And he robbed the cradle. Yeah. She's eight years younger than me. But, um, we met through my brother who introduced us. Uh, he was, uh, a young adult leader in her ward.

And we hit it off immediately. I mean, within days I knew I was gonna. Marry this woman, but like all cowardly men, I waited a year and a half before I did it, even though I knew it was supposed to happen. But she had to gimme an ultimatum. It was called ultimatum night. Really? Yeah. And what was it? You either go forward or backward and we were just like treading water and it was like, either we move forward on this or I cried all night long, leaning my head on his red polo shirt when I sat up.

He had black mascara all down the front of his shirt. That was ultimatum night. We got married shortly thereafter. Well done Brady. Good choice. It worked. It worked. And how long have you been married? 34 years. How long? Oh, he got it right. 34 years. 34 years. How many kids? Five kids. Wow. I love it. Yep. They're kind of all over doing everything and it's great.

It's been, it's been a good life. I'm glad I picked him. Yes. Well, and I think after today's stories, we're just gonna go, wow, we're [00:04:00] glad you picked each other again, orchestrated by God, no doubt. So true. Yep. Oh, this will be fun. Okay, well if you wanna see what my friends look like and read about their information, you can check out their bios and you're gonna find those in our show notes, which are at lds living.com/sunday on Monday.

So everyone grab your scriptures and something to mark them with. And let's dig into doctrine and covenants sections 71 through 75. Okay, you two tell me, what did the Holy Ghost teach you as you were reading these sections? We were supposed to go serve the Lord wherever we are called and whenever we were called.

And those callings will come in various ways. But the thing that struck me so much here is this first nine in the 71st section. This, as you'll see, uh, summed up my life and my professional life. And it says this, there is no weapon that is formed against you, shall prosper. And it reminded me of my patriarchal blessing where it said.

There will be no force of nature which will have power over you. And that is so true. There's nothing that can, can defeat us when we're doing the Lord's work. And it brings me great comfort to know that no matter what state and tries he pales in comparison when it comes to the glory of God. Can you give us a little story?

Gimme an example. What do you, how, how has nothing prospered against you? Well, I spent, for the audience, I spent 25 years chasing, investigating, uh, arresting and prosecuting, uh, drug traffickers, organized crime individuals, gang leaders, some of the most violent people on the face of the earth. And I chased them all over the world.

I conducted operations in 40 countries and, uh, I've arrested some of the most vicious and largest criminals that were on the earth at the time and put 'em away. And so it was a very violent business that I was involved in Where, um. I was tasked to arrest the worst criminals that I could, the most violent career criminals [00:06:00] that I could.

And so the propensity for violence was so high, and it occurred quite often, but it was, it was present at all times in all of our operations, whether undercover surveillance, arrests, investigations of all types, the possibility of violence was there. And in many cases, the probability of lethal violence was there.

And so I was involved in many critical incidences, is the term we used. Uh, and arrested hundreds of people that resisted and fought and, and just, uh, here's the, about 80% of 'em were armed at the time we arrested them. Now, think about that. Mm. A house to grab five criminals. Four of 'em were armed at the time.

You go through the door. Wow. Or you grab 'em out of a car, or there's four in the car, there's a good chance they're all carrying guns or some type of weapon. And so the, when I say propensity for violence, it was high. So when I read in verse nine here, where the Lord says, there's nothing, no weapon that is formed against you, that will prosper.

I mean, that just gives me great hope. And I bear testimony is the truth. I I will tell you, and I've told everybody else, I would not be alive today if it wasn't for the Lord's hand preserving my life through his power and his grace and his glory. And that's not hyperbole, that's not, uh, exaggeration. Uh, when I came back from overseas, and we'll talk some about that, after six years of operations in the golden Triangle of Burman la of Time, I bent down and kiss the ground and then prayed and thank the Lord.

Because as I wrote in my journal, there was no way, no way I would've survived to this point without the Lord. And so I and I bear testimony that these verses are true. When we're called to go to do the war, the Lord's work, he will protect us. And so if I may, I've got, uh. If I could, I, I, Hollee and I were taken to many places around the world, but we as a family moved to Thailand for six [00:08:00] years in China for three years, the, the People's Republic of China.

So I was a US agent operating in communist China. And you think about that dynamic. Wow. And so I was the, uh, country attache for the United States government. I worked in, uh, with most legal and criminal issues involving the two countries, which is the largest diplomatic military and political relationship on the face of the earth.

Mm-hmm. When I, when I arrived the, I had to work with the Ministry of Public Security, which is the iron fist of the Chinese regime. And they're the ones that regulate religion and, uh, have, have closed thousands of churches and many people have been arrested it, that have been conducting what they termed as illegal religious activities.

And so when I arrived, they had a banquet in my honor. The Ministry of Public Security Leadership. Now this is the people who have power of life and death over 1.4 billion people. Yeah. They had a dinner for me and they knew who I was before I arrived. They had done their homework on me. They knew I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and they tried to throw some obstacles in front of me, um, tempting me with, uh, people that I shouldn't associate with on my off hours that would approach me.

But the most amazing thing was during this banquet, if you could imagine a room with two large lazy Susan tables that would have probably 15 people around each table. So the deputy, uh, director of the Ministry of Public Security was hosting it. And he had a lot of his people. There were State Department people, and there was people from my agency that were there.

And during the, this dinner, the, the beginning of it, he stood up and lifted his glass of. Bajo, which is aircraft fuel. It's, uh, white alcohol. It's very potent. And, uh, he wanted to toast me. And so I stood up and grabbed my little glass of soda and he [00:10:00] stopped and he says, remember, this man is the one of the most powerful in the world.

He said, no, no, no, no, you're gonna drink your alcohol, which was next to I said, no, I, I won't drink that. And he goes, yes, you will, you'll drink. And I said, no, I don't drink alcohol. And, and he knew that, but by this time, the room is silent. You can feel the tension very clearly. And I said, I'm not gonna drink the alcohol.

And so he stood there for a minute, mad and embarrassed. Then he turned to his deputy and said, okay, well I'm gonna toast him. And he toasted his deputy. We sat down in silence. And that was the start of my relationship with the Ministry of Public Security in, in China. As we're leaving that room, several people from the embassy and.

From my agency came up to me and said, you might as well pack your bags and go home. They, they will never work with you because you won't drink with them. I said, we'll see. So two days later I went on a trip to, uh, the Middle East with this same director, deputy director of public security. And after we conducted our business there for a few days, we were at the airport getting ready to return to China and our flight flight was delayed.

And so we had a conversation in the tar, in the, uh, in the, uh, airport there. That was amazing. He surrounded by a half a dozen of his men. Now remember, these are the people who make sure that people do not practice religion openly in that country. Mm-hmm. And they control religion with an iron fist. 'cause they fear religion more than they do anything because the party is their religion.

The dogma of the communist party. Yeah. Religion. So, uh, he started asking me, so it's against a lot of talk about religion or pus light in China. He started asking me about the word of wisdom. He started asking about the plan of salvation, hiding priesthood. You know, he went through the whole thing, temples, and he is asking me these questions, which would've gotten anybody else arrested.

And his men are around him hearing this, and they're [00:12:00] stunned. Okay. And then the, the flight, our flight was called and we went to board. And as we got up, he turned to his men and said, these Mormons are good people. And that was one of the greatest victories I ever had in China, because regardless of what I was sent to do there by my government, that was, was a, um, in my mind, one of the most amazing things.

And, and I hope people can understand how incredible that was. Now even said, it's not Mormons Church, the church of Jesus Christ, the Latter Day Saints. No, I didn't say that, but yeah. You know, you correct them. I created out, but it was amazing. And after that. Most of the banquets I went to, including with several other senior officers, they would remove alcohol from the banquet, which was unheard of, uh, in their culture, to not have alcohol at these banquets.

Wow. But they would not have alcohol around when I was there. And so, you know, I don't know what good it did in the future, Tammy, but at least that time, those men who enforced the laws in that country, including religious, uh, worship laws, yeah. At least had a positive experience with, with somebody from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Brady.

I wrote your name next to verse nine. I think everybody should everybody write Brady McKay then the date? Because that is awesome. And we'll talk, we're gonna get more into it. And I'm gonna ask Hollee about her experience too, and her thoughts. 'cause Oh my gosh, so good. I just wanna add one thing too, in, in his whole explanation, um.

There was no force of nature that that got to him. And it's because he had dedicated his life to the Lord. Yeah. And I really believe that. I really believe that he kept that first and foremost, and everything else was secondary to the things that he was doing. And that's why he was protected. And we'll get more into that.

Yeah. And I do believe in that. And then people will say, well, there's plenty of [00:14:00] good people who die, which is true. But I also believe that when you're good and when you dedicate yourself to the Lord, you, it's not, it's not a mistake when you die. The Lord's like, oh, I wasn't watching. Sorry, redo. You know, like, yes, people die and, and I love the scripture in the doctrine in cabinet, section 42 verse 48.

You can pray and do all the good you can to live, but people are appointed unto death. But I do believe that when you're doing what's right and and serving the Lord, I think Brady, you were protected. Absolutely. I can't imagine how it would've turned out if you weren't serving the Lord. And we'll get into more stories.

'cause when we talk about serving the Lord, Brady and Hollee really serve the Lord in Asia and I can't wait for those stories, it could be awesome. So thank you to both of you. Okay, Hollee, now your turn. What did the spirit teach you? What the Holy Ghost teach you? Um, starting right from the beginning, there's so many labor ye in my vineyard in verse four verse one, even open your mouth in proclaiming Michael Gospel and, and then in verse three of 71, barely.

This is a mission for a season which I've given to you. And all these verses kind of dovetail into one another, but its sort of sums up my whole journey. We were selected to go to Thailand and when I first went. I thought I'd move to Mars. I was entirely miserable. I literally, I didn't know the language.

I didn't, I was far away from home. I, I was, I felt like I was ripped away from everything I knew and loved. And Brady got to go there and he knew the language. He had served a mission there. He was very fluent in the language and he just went to work the next day and life went on for him. And I was, I was just, I had two little kids and I was miserable.

I was so into my own pain and my own misery. I called my mom all the time. Our phone will was phone bill was the, the size of a small mortgage for the first couple months. [00:16:00] Nobody can understand long distance phone call prices anymore like we do back in the eighties. So I get it in the nineties. Sure. But I was absolutely miserable and I just.

I just was stuck in my own thing. And finally one day, and this is months and months later, my mom's like, Hollee, I'm tired of listening to you. It is time to lose yourself in service. Go figure it out. Wow. And I'll never forget that day, she really called me on it. She said, you need to lose yourself in service to others.

Forget about you and go to work. And she wasn't nice about it. And that's why these, these chapters actually meant a lot to me because I really thought about, okay, so what am I supposed to do? Go to work? How do I don't even speak this language? What am I supposed to do? And so I really prayed about it. And as we get into some of these sections where the Lord's calling all these elders to their missions, they desired to know what the Lord wanted of them.

And that was a turning point for me when I actually desired. I actually started praying and searching and as soon as I opened myself up to that, all kinds of opportunities flooded my way and I was, I realized, oh wait, I have a car. I can drive the sister missionaries around. And I had incredible experiences with them.

And then the mission president called me and we'd been there well over a year by this point, and he wanted me to be the public relations person for half the country that opened many doors. And it just was incredible. But I had to open myself up to. Wanting to serve, having that desire and then letting the Holy Ghost in, because I think I was keeping him out.

Mm-hmm. Because I was so caught up in my own stuff and once I opened myself up, it came flooding in. And truly, that's why all these chapters meant something to me because I had that desire. And it truly is where I found my happiness to the point that we [00:18:00] lived there for six years and it was the best six years of our married lives because it turned out to not be about us.

It was about the, it was about laboring in the Lord's Vineyard. And that's really where I think I found my testimony and really where I discovered who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. 'cause I found what true happiness was. Oh, holy wow. I'm sorry. I'm writing down so fast everything you said. So my one favorite scripture in 71 though is, is verse six.

For unto himn that receive it, it shall be given more abundantly even power. And truly, I testified that because I was willing to receive what the Lord wanted me to do and I was given so many means and ways to do it that I never knew possible. I really was given power to a awful lot of things that I didn't know I could, not speaking the language that was beautiful.

I just wrote your name next to verse six. I love how you said I finally was letting the Holy Ghost in because I had been keeping him out with my selfishness. That was Oh, I was, I was brat about that. I, I truly, I love you taught us that. Wow. So cool. Oh my goodness. That's just one segment you guys. We're gonna have so many good stories.

I dunno if we even can do this in the amount of time we've been allotted. We're gonna, this could take hours. Okay. Here's what we're gonna do in the next segment, then we're gonna dive into Doctrine and Covenant section 71, and we're just gonna do verses two through four, three verses. That's it. And then I have some questions for these two and I'm sure they have more stories.

So that's coming up. Next.

Segment 2

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Let's get into doctrine and Covenant. Section 71, highlight verses two, three, and four. And Hollee, will you read those for us please? Verily I say unto you, proclaim unto the world in the region's roundabout and in the church also for the space of a season, even until it shall be made known unto you. [00:20:00] Verily, this is a mission for a season which I give unto you.

Wherefore, labor ye in my vineyard. Call upon the inhabitants of the earth and bear record and prepare the way for the commandments and revelations, which are to come. Thank you. Now, both of you have mentioned this in verse four, though highlight the word vineyard. This is a symbolic word in our scriptures, and I think it's awesome.

Whenever you see the word vineyard, it means a specific place in the world that you are assigned to labor in your own way. So when it says labor, ye in my vineyard for these people, the vineyard's going to be right here where they're receiving this revelation. And so we are in Ohio. So that's their vineyard.

And when my family moved to Missouri, Missouri was our vineyard. Right now, Utah is my vineyard. Wherever it is, wherever in the world you are assigned to, labor is your vineyard and you're gonna do it in your very own way. And so with this idea, then I think it's brilliant because you're assigned to labor in your vineyard.

And I love the part in verse three, it's a mission for a season. Aren't we all doing little mini missions for a season, A calling for a season? You serve a mission for a season in your own specific vineyard. And so I want you two to talk to me about a time, and we already know that your family, you were asked to go to a very distant part of God's vineyard, your own little vineyard.

So tell us exactly where you were and what that experience was like for your family to serve what callings you had and all of that when you were in Thailand. Okay, well, Hal, I can start if you want. Um, I think it's worth mentioning Joseph Smith and Sidney Rham and all the others in these sections of the doctor encounters that were called to serve missions.

It was a great sacrifice. And any of us that are called to serve in his venue, wherever it is, there will be sacrifice. When I was overseas, my oldest brother had cancer and suffered through that and passed away while he was overseas. My father, in his last few years of his life, when he was so sick, I was gone for most of it.

So you pay a [00:22:00] price to serve the Lord. But I can promise you, in the case of my brother, my father, they both would've said and did say, go serve, go do it. And so there is a cost to be paid. I think it's worth mentioning Tammy and I, we can talk about this more, but we, I was, when I served my mission to Thailand, I knew I'd be going back there and working.

You did. When I was there, there was a, another agent like me, a DE, a agent whose wife was murdered by drug traffickers when I was on my mission in Chiang. Oh my goodness. And that event was what got me interested in working for DEA. Just side note, 17 years. Tell what is, what is DEA Brady, the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Okay. We're tasked with taking down drug trafficking organizations around the world. And so, uh, when I did that, well, I, just to finish that story, I, 17 years later when I was back there as an agent, we hunted down and arrested the two people that killed that woman when I was a missionary 17 years earlier.

Oh, wow. It had gone full circle, but it's just you, you pay a price. But it's well worth it when I, when, when I put in for Thailand, people need to understand the Lord's hand in this. There was 106 other agents that put in from around the world, many of whom spoke Thai also. And I got it and I was the most junior agent on that list, and I was selected.

And the same happened when we went to China. But when we arrived. I thought I was there to be a great hero and fight the war on drugs, which, yeah, that was my secular duty. But like Hollee said, we learned very quickly that there was a, even a greater calling and a cause than that, and that was to serve the Lord in his vineyard.

So I showed up and I, you know, I'm not proud of this. When I went overseas as a young married agent, I, my, I had a testimony, [00:24:00] I went to church, but I would consider myself, and this is my term, functionally inactive, I went to church, but I didn't do any more than what I had to. I didn't sign up for any service list.

I didn't sign up to, to do anything I didn't have to do. And I got outta church as soon it was over. Mm-hmm. And I didn't real, I wasn't throwing in my sickle with all my mind. Okay. And so when I arrived, I showed up. I told Hollee on the plane ride over. I said, well, I remember on my mission it was so hot.

I'm never wearing a tie to church. That's where my little mind was at. And so my first week there, there was a poor Latian member in the ward had, or in the branch, no money. You could see his skin through his shirt. It was so worn and thin. When he saw I didn't have a tie, he went home and got his second tie.

The only other tie he has and quarterback surgeon gave it to me. Oh wow. I'll tell you, I've never felt so low in my life that this poor man sacrificed his second tie, and I can see it right now. It's hanging in my office here, hanging on a picture frame. The tie that Brother C gave me, and it reminded me, get outta yourself.

Mm-hmm. Humble yourself and, and serve. And so I had no idea that I would be called to serve. When I got there, I was ready to go take on organized crime. And within two weeks I was in the branch presidency. A month later, I'm the district president for Northern Thailand. Not because I was the greatest guy.

No way far from it. It's because I was it. Mm-hmm. The Lord called me and told me to step up the plate, step into the arena, it's your turn. And so I had to step up my game. I had to gird up my loins, as it says several times in these scriptures. And so it was a phenomenal thing that happened to me. Can I just interject one thing real fast?

Well, yes, please, Hollee. 'cause I wanna know what you thought when he got that calling. So say what you're [00:26:00] gonna say and then answer that. Well, just to put it in perspective, when we showed up, um, the leadership, they were just, they were just, there was no priesthood leadership. It was, it was really suffering.

And the, it was small number. Yeah. And our branch, our branch consisted of Brady and I. Our little family, the missionaries and the members. That was it. And he ended up being district president. His one counselor didn't even own a phone, and his other counselor didn't own a car. It was hard to communicate with anybody.

And it was, it was just, they were just really, really, um, lacking. And it was made clear to us very quickly why we were there. There were 700 members spread out over the area, the size of, of the state of Colorado in four different branches. Just so people understand the geographical area. So when Brady got this calling, Hollee, what did you think when he was called as the district leader?

Well, again, okay, that's great. But we lived, we, we realized very quickly we lived the, it was this dichotomy of a life. Brady literally would spend his Monday through Friday in the jungles. Of Southeast Asia chasing down drug traffickers and finding heroin labs. That's where most of the world's heroin came from at that point.

And it was a very intense, very violent work that he did. Mm-hmm. And then he would literally come home on Saturdays. A lot of times he would have to travel Saturday night to another branch so he could conduct branch business that Sunday. And it was just this dichotomy of good and evil. That would be great.

Right. And so he was never around. Church was difficult for me because I didn't even, the missionaries would sit behind me and my kids and try and whisper the translations in our ears [00:28:00] and the members would fight over who got to sit by my children. They were, they, 'cause they wanted to play with them during church and mm-hmm.

Primary, they would, they'd have the kids in there and, but 10 minutes later the kids would be out running in the courtyard. I mean, it was hard. There was no air conditioning. And I decided. Brady was never around. And I was, I, I mean, I was, I was committed, but I just decided there may be one thing we get outta church and that is that my kids know that we go to church every Sunday.

That's all I got out of it. Yeah. And so that, that part was hard. And then the other interesting thing was because we were from Utah, not even that we were Americans or whatever, just because we were from Utah, the members thought we knew all the answers to everything they wanted. They would, and they would defer to us.

They wanted us to answer every single question. Mm-hmm. And these wonderful members, they truly were pioneers of their own right. And they gave up so much. To join the church. Hmm. Their, their culture is Buddhism, and it, it, it is their, their family, their government, their school. It is everything. And to give that up to be a member of the church is, was hard for them.

So they were very elementary in their knowledge of the gospel and the doctrine. And, but what I real, what I realized was I was too, I had never been challenged with that. Mm-hmm. And so it was an incredible learning experience. But once again, what am I supposed to do? I don't speak the language Until Brady came home for the first district conference, they were preparing, apparently all the members came into Chang Mai, our city for district conference.

So he came home after his meeting, he goes, okay, well I invited 40 people to stay at our house over the weekend. What am I supposed to do about that? I don't cook Thai food. And I thought, well, all right. I will give them an American experience. They're coming to my house. We're gonna have eggs and hot [00:30:00] dogs and cakes for breakfast.

Did you have hot dogs? Actually, I didn't, but I had ham and potato salad. There you go. Fantastic. But it was just an amazing experience. I literally had 40 people come stay at my house. Wow. And these are poor, poor members. Yeah. They stayed up the entire night and watched my satellite TV and took turns taking a shower in our hot shower because they didn't have any hot water and they didn't have satellite tv and they literally laid on our hard teakwood floors.

That's how they slept. It was such a wonderful experience. But all the members in our city heard that we had food at our house too, so they all showed up. You bet. We were pulling out every piece of meat in our freezer, throwing it on the grill. We just, it was incredible. And it turned out to be a six, a six year tradition twice a year.

And all the branches would take turns at who got to stay at our house. It just, it just was a wonderful highlight of our whole six years. Oh my. And by the time that first year we had 40 people at our house. By the end we ended up feeding about 250 people. Not at our house. We had to move it to a another area, but it was incredible.

You asked earlier about Hollee and what it was like to Hollee. Um, served through three mission presidents, six to 700 missionaries in our home, and she fed hundreds and hundreds of members, plus all the other philanthropic work that she did with the AIDS orphans, with the, uh, HIV groups, with the, uh, blind school.

Wow. With all kinds of other things that she did work with. She put herself to work, but I consider her a mission mom for 600 missionaries and 700 time members. Well, the missionaries, because I had access to the embassy. I had access to the makings for tacos and you can't get cheese and [00:32:00] things like that.

And missionaries, once they learned that we were the McKays and Chang Mai that did Taco Night, it was quite the thing. I would meet missionaries all over the country. Wait, you do Taco Night? And the APS would literally schedule their district conference, their zone conferences around. They call me first to see when we could do taco night.

Oh my gosh. It's so wonderful to hear these stories about how you guys are, are laboring in your vineyard, in your part of the world where the Lord has called you. And going back to how you started Brady, I mean for you to beat out that many people to be sent to Thailand, no doubt God has a hand in where we end up.

When, when we're willing to do the work. And I love how you said, you know, you're like, I'm not gonna wear a tie, but God knew your heart and he knew what you were going to be capable of when he got you there and, and you did it. I mean, that is what's so amazing. No matter where we're called, no matter where we end up in the, in the whatever vineyard we end up in, as long as we're willing to do the work, so many blessings will come.

And, and, and I love Hollee how you said the best thing that came outta going to church every Sunday was just my kids knew we go to church on Sunday. And it's not how it is for everybody, almost with little kids. I feel like that was it for me with little kids. Like if that's one thing my kids know, this is what we do on a Sunday.

Good job. Well, and one thing I realized from these chapters too is I think missions, mission callings come in all different shapes and sizes. Yeah. And my patriarchal blessing said I would be called on a mission to serve. I mean, it was pretty precise language. And then I would meet my husband. That threw me for a long time because that I met him first and that was going not in the order of my blessing, and I really was thrown with that.

But then we get to Thailand and as the more I got into this six years, that was my mission, I was called on to do. Mm-hmm. And I just learned to realize that, I mean, everything we do is, is a calling. Uh, they're all callings, but they're missions in their own ways. Ministering is a mission. Absolutely. It is.

[00:34:00] You know? Yep. Perfect example. Okay. Well then I have this other question for you then. 'cause I wanna know, did you ever experience opposition when you were living in Thailand? And if you did, did you feel like you were protected? And I know Brady's already shared a story with us about it, but in the next segment, I want more stories.

So we'll do that coming up next.

Segment 3

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Okay, Brady and Hollee, we're still in section 71. We're gonna read verses seven through 10 and I wanna know how these verses applied to your experience in Thailand. So Brady, will you please read seven through 10 since you included this in your favorite and what the spirit taught you. Wherefore confound your enemies.

Call upon them to meet you both in public and in private. And in so much as you're faithful, their shame shall be made manifest. Therefore, let them bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord fairly thus sayeth the Lord unto you. There is no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper. And if any man lift his voice against you, he shall be confounded in my own due time.

Actually, well we need verse 11 too. Hit verse 11. Okay. 'cause it ties it together nicely Where For Keep my commandments. They are true and faithful. Even so. Amen. Okay, hit it. You two were people against you. Did you ever have opposition and were you protected? We, we both did. And Hollee's tell 'em the one story about, um, how the, um, the Christmas program, oh well we had a lot of opposition, but it won't be what you think.

So in Thailand, there are second, third generation American family missionaries from lots of Protestant churches that have lived there for decades. And they did not like us. We got so much opposition. In fact, for years and years, I'm not exactly sure what the status is today, but for [00:36:00] decades, those other Protestant churches were the biggest hindrance to Thailand, officially recognizing the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

And they were very threatened by us and in the city we lived in, there were. A few hundred of these Christian missionaries that would, and and mind you, they did good work. They would go out into villages in hill tribes and, you know, translate the Bible into the hill tribe language. And, and they did do good things, but they really didn't like us.

And, and they even built a school because all the embassy, all the consulate kids had to go to their school. They didn't like that our children were with their children because our children weren't saved like theirs were. Mm-hmm. So they built their own exclusive school. I mean, we hit this stuff all the time.

And so the mission president asked me to put together a non-denominational Christmas program. Live. Live nativity. We build an old, we were gonna build an old, you know, Bethlehem Village have performances. He wanted, he gave me a huge budget and it was to develop relationships with other Christians.

Because remember, we're in a Buddhist country. Yeah. And I'm thinking, oh, this is our end. Who would not want to do this? They don't celebrate the ties. Don't celebrate Christmas. This is awesome. He gave me this huge budget and you would not believe the opposition to it. I had people calling me, how dare you try to put a Christmas program on when you're not even Christian?

And I was on the phone and I started shaking. This lady was just, just lambasting me. And I said a, I was saying a prayer in my head while I was trying to talk to her. And I, I was able to tell her, I'm standing in my dining room right now looking at a picture of Christ on my wall. I am Christian. And her credit, she listened to me, but she just, she was so disgusted.

She goes, you, you have no [00:38:00] right doing this. And I went to the pastor of the community church, an American man, and I said, why? Why am I, why are you guys so opposed to this? He goes, because of Joseph Smith. And then he just came back at me and finally he said, if you have this on your church grounds, none of us will come.

Nor will will we participate. And I was devastated because I didn't, our, our little branch could pull off music. We didn't even have a piano player. Well. The Lord has, the Lord has other ways and means to accomplish his work. It was amazing. I started praying. I had no idea what we were gonna do, and little by little things started to come together.

I had a, I had a friend who was a very influ influential person in the community, a tie, and I was telling her about it. She goes, oh, I love to sing. She goes, I could get people together. She brought in agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, wow. All these people that love to sing. She opened up her house. She would have a meal for us every week.

And it was all these people, a lot of foreigners that lived there that just wanted to sing and, and at that time, two. Two women from Northern Utah moved into our branch and she was a choir director. I mean, it just, oh my word. And then, well, so what do we do about a program? Oh, somebody said The blind school Girls sing.

These are blind girls, Thai girls that Buddhist, um, monks that were women took care of. So I went to the boot to the blind school. They're like, well, sure, they like to sing but they don't know Christmas songs. I said, well, could we teach them? So the sister missionaries started teaching them three Christmas songs.

And then I went to these tiny little, these tiny little Christian churches that are Hill Tribe, very poor people that nobody gives attention to, nobody cares about, but they were God-fearing, Bible reading Little Hill Tribe churches. And for them to be invited to this was the biggest deal to [00:40:00] them. And it just, it turned out to be an absolutely incredible experience.

We had 1500 people come, which was phenomenal. Holy cow. But the Lord just put it all together and it wasn't, I thought, I thought I knew how it was supposed to be and I thought it was, you know, the high profile other Christians, no, it was the least among, among us that, that the Lord wanted involved in this and it went on.

They did it every year for about five years, even after we left. And it was phenomenal. But the opposition was incredible just to have a Christmas program. Oh, what a great example and story that is. For those verses, I mean, those verses ev seven through 11 applied perfectly to your storyline. I mean, you, you met up face to face against people who were against you.

You had reason with them, and then no weapon formed against you prospered like you had such success. Oh, that is so cool, Hollee. You know what, back in verse one, it said, open your mouth. Mm-hmm. To proclaim my gospel and open your mouth is a phrase that's been all through D and C. Right. And, and yet I was terrified to do that.

These, with these people. But I mean, really the Lord expects us to stand tall and proclaim these things and open our mouths to the truth and who we are and not be ashamed of it. Wow. That's awesome. Awesome story. Thank you for sharing that. What about you, Brady? Got another story about time you're protected.

Well, I got about 10,000, but let me, if I may, Tammy, I, I, I will share. Stuff that I've never spoken about in public, uh, certainly on the airwaves, and that for 10 years I never talked about. And that was my work in Southeast Asia. So I was a US agent, and I was assigned to work with Thai special operation forces to go into the jungles of Southeast Asia, the golden triangle, and find heroin labs and destroy 'em, heroin storage sites, destroy 'em [00:42:00] and interdict drug trafficking caravans to keep the drugs from going on to international markets and ending up in the veins and of junkies in Russia, Europe, and the United States primarily.

So that was my job, and it was a quiet job. We did it secretly, and, and nobody knew we couldn't be filmed. We couldn't talk about it. And so, um, with that in mind, I, I would go out in the jungle usually three to 10 days at a time, and we would conduct these operations. And so the, the level of violence is, is difficult to explain.

Um, let me just put it this way. The 65 men at my special unit, by the time I was done, they had suffered nearly 270% casualties. That's something they'd been replaced three times. Oh wow. Okay. And, um, there was a time, uh, a few years after we returned, I went back and saw the survivors of this unit. There was 18 of us that went to dinner.

And I'm sitting around looking at these men, and I'd seen all these men and fought with them for six years. And of the 18 with me, I'd seen all 18 of 'em shot at least once. So I'm, I'm telling you that this was the war on drugs. And so when I went out, I knew that every time there wasn't just a possibility, there was a high probability that not all of us were coming back because we usually lost.

Somebody about every third operation in our unit was killed. And so it was when you went to work and every third time somebody's losing their life. It's, it's, it's a, I lived a dichotomy of fighting this war and then fighting Satan's war against him. And so I would go out on these operations and kiss my wife and children goodbye.

Then it may be for the rest of its mortality and I'm not being melodramatic. It [00:44:00] was, I said goodbye, loaded up my equipment and my gear, and drove out to the base and picked up my in. We briefed the operation and we'd go, and I didn't know when I was coming back or if I was, and after, after the first year, and I never told my wife this until we'd come home years later.

I said I was convinced after that first year I was going home. A bag or a box. And, um, so when I went out, I was prepared to not come back and, um, these operations were so, uh, intense. But I would, uh, I, I'll share one story. We went out on an operation to find a heroin lab, and in the midst of it, we ran into a very large force of enemy soldiers and they, they slaughtered us.

And, um,

many were killed and wounded. So about three days of fighting and getting them out of the jungle or dead and wounded, I came home and went behind my house and, and hosed,

closed my clothing off to get all the stuff off of me. I went in and showered, changed, and after being up for four days and experiencing that I had run over the church 'cause I was a district president, if I was sitting around with the youth teaching and principles of the gospel, you can imagine living that, living that way for six years.

And that happened all the time. And so, yeah, I faced opposition and there was no weapon formed against me that prevailed. And um, I can tell you my patriarchal blessing came true, as did these verses in the doctrine covenants. The Lord protected me against opposition that is, was so strong. I mean, the evil I've, I've felt and [00:46:00] seen evil up close and personal.

And it is so, uh, strengthening to me the promise that he may have power to bruise our heel, but we have the power to crush his head. Oh. And so that power got me through. Not only those six years in the jungle, but the 25 years of operations against drug traffickers around the world. So yeah, we are faced with opposition, but the Lord is with us.

And I, I can, I can bear testimony to you of that. Um, the men I worked with, just to finish this story, we're almost, we're all Buddhist and they were good men, but they were tough men, hard men, hardened men. And uh, for some of them it was eat, drink, and be married for tomorrow we die. 'cause that was in fact their future.

And so I remember one operation, one of my close tie friends was shot and killed and carried his body outta the jungle. And when we got a chance, the shooting had died down. His, his brother soldiers tie soldiers went over and opened up his shirt. What penance he wore around his neck. 'cause they believed those penance would protect him.

But I'll tell you one thing, they knew that my Christian God protected them and they told me so, and I think the Lord every day for those, the days since then that I've had, Hollee did, you know it was this dire when he would leave and go to work? You know, it's interesting. I get asked that question a lot and the most amazing thing is I was, I never was nervous for six years in Thailand.

I knew what he was dealing with and, and when things were really intense, I mean, he would come home and he'd have to have a lot of days sitting in corners processing the heavy duty stuff he was dealing with. Yeah. So I, I, I kind of knew, [00:48:00] but it, this was amazing. I was so blessed in not being nervous because I knew.

Lord needed us there. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Brady was gonna be fine because the Lord needed his priesthood leadership in his vineyard right there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I never was nervous the whole time I've been, I, I've had way more nervous moments when, you know, when he was an active agent here in the United States than I ever did in Thailand.

And I just have to chalk it up to just being very blessed with a lot of peace knowing that we were doing the Lord's work there. And I'll never forget. And it was hard. I mean, it was not easy. It was hard. But I'll never forget leaving Thailand on the airplane after six years of hard. And Brady literally never told me he thought he was gonna die.

'cause I don't know if I would've stayed six years had I known that. Right. It's probably good. But we were flying away. It was pretty emotional. And I remember looking out the window and I just was completely overwhelmed with this feeling from the Lord of Job well done. And I will never forget how overwhelming of a feeling that was, that I knew he approved of how hard it was and, and how much I tried.

And that has, that's been very sustaining to me for the, all the years since. Wow. Well, I, I think of verse 11 and the two of you and I, I love that we included it this in Reddit, andfor Keep My Commandments for they are true and faithful. And I go back to that because you were keeping the commandments. And when we keep the commandments, what were the 10 Commandments?

If we just start with the 10, they are true to us. And faithful to us. Like there are promises associated with every one of those commandments that we keep. And you both [00:50:00] obeying the first and second commandment beautifully. No other gods before me, no engraving images. You knew who you worshiped, you followed and worshiped the Lord, and you kept your commandments and covenants that you made.

And I've heard Brady share some really incredible stories about how he believes his garments have saved him on several occasions. And I love that idea of, of, because you're keeping your covenants, you keep the first two commandments. You, you worship the Lord. And I think that's part of the reason, Hollee, that you've had that peace the whole time you were there because you were keeping the commandments.

They are true and they're faithful. I, I love that. Well, can I just add too that, because it was so hard. That's the only way we grow. We grow through the difficult times. Yeah. But that it being so hard is I, it challenged me more with my testimony, who is Hollee McKay. Mm-hmm. More than I'd ever been challenged in my life.

Because of that opposition, because of how hard it was. I really had to dial in on who I was and where my testimony was at. And I, I, I always say I grew up in Thailand. I really did. And it That's cool. It's because it was hard. I know that. Mm-hmm. Wow. So cool. Well, thank you. Thank you both of you for your stories.

That was awesome. We're only halfway through. So in the next segment we're gonna dive into section 72 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and we have more stories from Brady and Hollee, so we'll do that next.

Segment 4

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We are Doctrine and Covenants section 72, and we're just gonna read the section heading right now. I'm gonna go through it and have us highlight some things. So let's start out. It starts with Revelation given through Joseph Smith, the prophet at Kirtland, Ohio, December 4th, 1831. Now highlight this. Several elders and members have assembled to learn their duty and to be further edified in the teachings of [00:52:00] Christ.

So that's what's going on with this section. Then it tells us that this section is a compilation of three revelations that were received on the same day. We're gonna bracket this off. Here you go, verses one through eight, make known the calling of Newell Kay Whitney as a bishop. He was then called and ordained after which verses nine through 23.

So bracket those off. Those were received and nine through 23 are going to be the duties of a bishop. So just bracket nine through 23 off and write to the outside duties of a bishop. And it says, giving additional information to a bishop's duties thereafter, verses 24 through 26. So bracket those off and write Zion.

Those verses provide instruction concerning the gathering of Zion. Now, this was interesting to me because I looked up Newell k Whitney, and here's some information I found out about him. He was born in Vermont. He actually opened a store in Kirtland and was partners with Sidney Gilbert. He was married to Elizabeth Ann Smith.

They married in 1822. He was reformed Baptist. He joined the church in November of 1830, and then he was made Bishop in December of 1831. So a member for about a year. And now he's a bishop and he's going to be bishop for pretty much throughout his entire life as a member of this church, including when he arrives to Salt Lake, he's going to die in Salt Lake.

And I thought this was interesting because he had only been married to his wife for eight years before they joined the church and he was made Bishop. So these people are young now when this revelation is given. Newell k Whitney is only 36 years old and he's going to live until he is 55. That's it. He will die at 55.

You guys, 55 yet? Don't say it. You don't have to say, I can barely remember 55, Jeremy. There you go. So this guy doesn't have a lot of time left on the earth from when this revelation was received until he'll pass away. Now I wanna show you something kind of cool about how I learned all of this information.

So go with me if you have the Gospel Library app, everyone listening, get your phone or get your iPad, whatever you have. 'cause I wanna show you something really, really cool. So go to the Gospel Library app. I just learned about this and it's changing [00:54:00] forever the way I study the doctrine and Covenants.

Okay, click on the gospel library tool and go to the library page where it has Jesus, the Christ Scriptures General Conference, all of the tabs. You can click and go to the scripture tab, and then go to the doctrine and covenants tab and click on that. And then let's just go to section 72 so you can see how I found out all this cool information.

Click section 72. Okay, at the top of your page, do you see those three little dots over on the right hand side? Do you guys see those three little dots? Yep. Yep. See 'em? Okay. Hit the three little dots, and then you have a whole list of things you can do, like you can share, you can print, you can get settings, help, whatever.

But you are gonna wanna tap the very first thing that says related content. Hit that, and then you have a square, a box at the top that says historical resources. Do you see that? Yep. Yep. That now scroll. It's gonna give you all the information about this section as well as biographical information on every person who's related to these sections.

So you can click on their name and read their biographies. It is the greatest resource I've ever seen. It's gonna take you to Joseph Smith papers. If you wanna read more articles or essays about these specific sections, it's going to take you to the book Saints. There's a link for that. I mean, this is everything you'll ever wanna know about, and so every section of the doctrine covenants has those three dots and has the related content.

Is that so cool? That's great. I did not know that. I've never known that. I didn't. I've actually, I've liked him. Come follow me where it has, there's a little section at the end of the each come follow me lesson where it'll list names and you can read a little bit more. But this is, this is a much more extensive than that.

This is what it is. Those three little dots. It's a game changer you guys. So for every section from here on out, use the three little dots. Read about every person that's involved with these revelations. You get to read stories and essays about why the revelation was given and it's, it's so powerful. So that helped me as I was [00:56:00] studying for these sections.

So I get to 72 and I wanted to know more about New K Whitney. That's how I found out he dies when he is 55. He's a bishop from this point on until he passes away. So forget the five year calling is a bishop. This guy will be a bishop from age 36 to 55. Somebody do the math on that. What is it? 19 years?

Yeah. Oh, look at me. Yeah. 19 years. Look at me doing public math. Impressive. So that's a long time to be a bishop. Now as we dive into these verses, let's go to verse two. And Hollee, can you read that for us please? For verily. Thus say the Lord, is that it? It is expedient in me for a bishop to be appointed unto you or of you unto the church in this part of the Lord's vineyard.

And then look at verse five. We have vineyard again, highlight and re please read verse five. Polly verily I santo you. The elders of the church in this part of my vineyard shall render an account of their stewardship unto the bishop who shall be appointed of me in this part of my vineyard. You two. So in your part of the vineyard where you were serving Brady, you were a district president, and the way I'm understanding this is, so we have wards and stakes, but where you were living at the time, they have branches and districts, and so you were kind of the same as like a stake president or a branch president.

Like you had the responsibility and duty over all of those people in that area. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. Tell me what that was like. Did you read any, were any of these verses striking to you as the duties of a bishop or anything? Any stories you've got about being a bishop in Thailand and Hollee being a bishop's wife?

My first thought is, is was new. Okay. Whitney is surprised as I was when I was called because I didn't think that I was that great of a church guy. You know? I didn't think that that was my role in life at the time. But once I was called, it became very clear to me why we, the Lord had directed us to Thailand and later.

China, China so that we could serve him his kingdom in that, in [00:58:00] the vineyard there. But the calling was, so I had 700 saints that I was responsible for at one time there, and I would venture to say that 695 of 'em were poor or beyond what? And we had to pay our tithing and cash there. So we'd show up with a big, thick envelope because their, the, the, the way their bill is valued to the dollar.

Oh my God. You're right. We were embarrassed. We were so embarrassed to show up with our tithing. Yeah. The largest bill was $5. So anyway, um, we, they, they were poor. Mm-hmm. And so you have all the problems that come along with that. But you know what, they were loving, kind, caring people, simple testimonies.

Tammy, there was no discussions at church about the color of the carpet, the celestial kingdom or anything like that. It was the fourth article of faith. Mm-hmm. You know. Repentance, baptism, um, you know, gift the Holy Ghost and all the things, faith in Jesus Christ. That's what they focused on. They had simple testimonies, but they were pure in their testimonies.

And, you know, they had to learn the gospel from scratch. They were pioneers. Just like any pioneer anywhere in the world that accepts the gospel, it has to go forward in life. Forging a new path. So, do you miss that? Mm-hmm. I do. I do. It was so, I mean, they didn't ask me to prove something when I said it, they accepted it.

Can you imagine if we were all that way, like a little child? Yeah. And just to give you an idea, one day I was visiting a branch and um, I was giving a talk on the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. And it's a hot small room. It's not a church. We would rent buildings or rooms and apartment complexes for church.

And it's hot and sweaty and there's no air conditioning. Plastic chairs making noise and the little kids. And finally I saw a mother down in front of me send her kids out, thought, well, they're gonna [01:00:00] go outside and play. Well, they came back a few minutes later with bags from the store full of potato chips and they passed them all out to all the members and handed me a bag while I'm talking to them about keeping the Sabbath day holy.

And it was just the sweetest little thing, you know? It was just, you know, they didn't know. And there's just so many things that they, they had to learn like anybody that comes into the church. But you know, it's interesting, some of the kids that are in that audience now, in those little branches that we taught in, many of them have gone on missions, married in the temple.

Uh, I remember specifically the district president, now member of the mission presidency. There was a young man that I interviewed and called on a mission from. One of those small branches, one of the young girls that was in there, now she's the wife of the new mission president in that country. And you know, so you see the Lord's hand moving the gospel for that stone cut out without hands and rolling forth and filling the whole earth.

This is where it happens in these small little branches. And they were just such wonderful people. Simple faith. And you know, a guy like me, I would try to visit them whenever I could, but sometime that meant on the way to or from operations. So if you can imagine your district president showing up with trucks full of armed men and camouflage with machine guns, mortars, and rocket launchers, I'd take off my weapons and put 'em in the truck and I'd go in and they'd wait in the parking lot while I conducted district business, interviewing people, setting people apart, you know, oh my word.

And then I'd go back and get in the truck and we'd go to war. And that was, that was what was so interesting for the members. They never asked a thing about me, they just accepted it. That's our district president. And they were such wonderful people. And I, I, uh, you know, I, we can talk about this later, but Hollee and I accepted a calling to be service [01:02:00] missionaries in the timely Ocean, ocean branch here in Salt Lake now.

And it's just fun to be back with these people that I've been associated with and been blessed to be, uh, present with them for 46 years now. Mm-hmm. So it's wonderful. The first Sunday that we, uh, started our service mission here in Salt Lake, Brady was bearing his testimony in this sister was out in the congregation, and she was just giddy.

She just was. And he, he, he, he thought she looked familiar, but he just couldn't. She was so excited to see him and she ran up to him after, and it turns out. She was his first baptism from 45 years ago. Oh my goodness. And she, he lost track of her, but she had since moved here. She's raised a family strong in the gospel and then the next week she was giving a talk at a baptism about covenants.

And Brady was a bawling mess. I mean, that just came full circle of, you know, it started and, and this last Sunday, all the primary kids in our Thai LA Ocean ward got up and sang or Easter. And I was so overwhelmed with thinking about their parents or grandparents who took a chance, who were the pioneers in their family for the gospel.

And it made it possible for a lot of those kids to be standing here in America with all these possibilities and all because their parents joined the church. And we've seen that so many times. Mm-hmm. And, but you know, it was hard because they're very. They were so elementary, just like, just like these original members of the church.

And there's a lot of the verses in this section. Talk about an accounting where you have to give an accounting, you know, to your bishop. We had to teach them how to be accountable in little simple things. Like if you accept, you know, um, when you're asked to give a talk and you [01:04:00] accept that and say that you're gonna do it, well, then you need to show up and give the talk.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. There were so many simple things that, and countless times people wouldn't come and give their talk. Just we had to start from scratch with everything. Okay. That brings up this question, 'cause I'm thinking this right now and, and you've already sort of answered it, but if you go back to this verse, verse two, that it says, it's expedient in me.

For a bishop to be appointed unto you in this part of the Lord's vineyard, why, why is it necessary then to have bishops in all over the world? In all the different vineyards. I mean could, because is there, I mean I know there is 'cause you just explained it, but talk to me about the difference between being a bishop in Thailand versus a bishop in Utah where we live.

Well, one thing I wanna say is that, I mean, we know the Lord loves order. His church is, there is a specific precise way the Lord wants everything done. Yeah. And that's what makes our church so amazing because what's done here in America is the same thing that's being done in Thailand or anywhere else around the world.

The Lord has a system in place and the priesthood is the same all around the world. And that is, that is what runs the Lord's church. And so it is very important to keep it consistent. Great answer. And the, the priesthood was the key thing there. The keys, the authority to conduct God's work. In that part of his vineyard.

It's not the district president, it's the keys they hold or the authority they've been given by those in authority to conduct God's work. The ties and, and the American Saints or wherever you go in the world, they're all the same. And I bet you many of the events that happened to a bishop or state president in this country were the same that I experienced along with other [01:06:00] leaders in Thailand.

People have their own idiosyncrasies in our wards. They do. Mm-hmm. In the Thai branches they did. And so it's people dealing with people with the same issues. They still had to get a testimony of Jesus Christ and prove themselves herewith, whether they would follow the gospel of Jesus Christ and live up to their covenants.

In that regard, we're all the same. Yeah. And we'll be judged based upon that. And so I would say a lot of what was the same. Even though there was a different backdrop, it may have been the culture and land of Southeast Asia, but in reality when I was in a bishop brick here, we're dealing with people who are going through life trying to solve all the problems thrown before 'em, just like they were.

And also back to, back to the accounting part of it. Yeah. Look at the, you connected it to that, look at the accountability of us in a temple recommend interview. Mm-hmm. We are being accountable and we are declaring to the Lord's chosen leader who has those priesthood keys that we are worthy. And there is something that's pretty powerful.

You think about it, that you are declaring yourself worthy and that, and that the bishop is declaring you worthy as well. How important was it for the tie in Laotian members to have a temple recommend when a temple wasn't even close to them? Was that hard? Yes. And even the ti. I mean, they had to travel 2,500 miles to Manila or Hong Kong to go to the temple.

And I know Hollee's told the story, but people would save for two years. So they could go to the temple one time in their life. But the important thing is, is they were worthy to hold a temple. Recommend. Yeah. And so matter whether they could or couldn't go, how often they went. They could stand before the Lord and be judged of him because they were worthy of a temple recommended.

Well, and that was a big deal to them. The temple, when you're living in a place like [01:08:00] that, the tis always talked about when we get a temple, when we get a temple, it was a very big deal to them. And many of them lived their whole lives without, you know, maybe going to the temple one time in their life. So now, fast forward 20 years, the Bangkok Thailand temple opened a year and a half ago, and.

I cannot even begin to put into words the thrill it is to see that those ties have their own temple now. They, and then, and, and they had to, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of markers you have to meet to be able to qualify for a temple. But this is never before had a temple been in the country of Thailand.

They waited, what, 50 years to get a temple. And I will never forget when we were there for the open house, uh, we were up in the celestial room and they allowed us to as return, you know, we were, there were lots of return missionaries there, and they allowed us to help host for the open house. Yeah. We were standing up in the celestial room and these two little old ladies see Brady and walk up to him and they start bowing in the tie way.

The one, the one sister said, elder McKay. Elder McKay, because of you, I'm here at the temple. And he had taught her, he didn't baptize her, but he was his, her first introduction to the church. Wow. And the woman standing next to her said, because of missionaries, we have a temple. And it was just electric, how excited they were.

And, um, we were talking to the temple president who he had known years before, and he said the members there, he had, he, to get members to work in the temple, um, was really difficult challenge because a lot of the workers he was gonna have were just barely taking out their own endowments. And some of them, he told me he had members that would travel 12 hours on a train and work in the temple for a whole day and then travel [01:10:00] 12 hours back.

Wow. And, but that they were so excited to have their temple and I just thought it was just such a thrill after the, the hard things that we'd gone through with these pioneers from 20 years before and how strong they were, how many of them were in the temple when we were there. And, um, I just kept thinking, isn't that amazing?

'cause when they dedicate this temple, they are gonna do the hosanna shout. They are welcoming the savior into their country, never to leave again. That's just phenomenal for the growth of that country. And their entire country is being strengthened by that. 99% of the ties don't even know what that means.

Oh my gosh, my gosh. This is incredible. Yep. And so it's, it's taken two or three generations to get to this point that they are strong and they're amazing and the church is growing there. It's just incredible to watch it. I love your witness. I wish you could see Hollee's face. It lights up as she was just testifying of all of that.

That was awesome. Well, I'm gonna piggyback on what you just said then, Hollee, because you said when you said 99% of the people don't even know what that means. And so in the next segment we're gonna talk about maybe an aspect of sharing the gospel in Asia that might've made it difficult and the reason why 99% of the people don't really know what that means.

We'll do it next.

Segment 5

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We're just gonna read the section heading to Doctrine Covenant section 74, and then I wanna know something about what's going on. Okay, here we go. We're gonna connect it all together. So Brady, will you read section 74, just the section heading? Yes. Revelation given to Joseph Smith, the prophet at Wayne County New York in 1830, even before the organization of the church questions had arisen about the proper mode of baptism.

Leading the prophet to seek answers on the [01:12:00] subject. Joseph Smith's history states that this revelation is an explanation of one Corinthians chapter seven, verse 14, a scripture that had often been used to justify infant baptism. Okay, now go to verse four because here's the answer. And this is what the Lord says to Joseph to say to the people because they wanna know, alright, they have this tradition of baptizing little children.

And then we have verse four. Hollee, can you read verse four? And it came to pass that the children being brought up in subjection to the law of Moses, gave he to the traditions of their fathers and believe not the gospel of Christ, where they became unholy. And I immediately thought of you too with verse four, gave heed to the traditions of their fathers.

And I wanted to know, did that have a, and you kind of told us earlier about how many, so many people are Buddhist, what effect did the traditions of the fathers have on sharing the gospel in that part of the vineyard? Well, there's, there's a lot to that question. First of all, just to give you an idea, the language doesn't even have most of the vocabulary that is unique to Christianity.

Baptism. They say bap, it's a word they copied. The savior though is the royal one who brings salvation. It's a word that had to be created. Priesthood. They combined it with some Buddhist terminology, akhi, to be the royal bloodline. Hold on. Okay, go back to it again. So the name for Jesus is what? The savior.

It means the royal one who brings salvation. That's what they say to say the savior. Yeah. Oh, hold on, hold on. I wanna write this down. The royal one. The royal one, who brings salvation And that's the royal higher language, right? Yeah. Is that royal words? They have four levels of, of language. So when, when you teach the gospel in a non-Christian land, like Thailand, many of the people I met [01:14:00] on my mission maybe have heard the name of Jesus Christ, but have virtually no idea who he was.

And so in the language, when you would teach discussions or talk to them, you had to explain words to them and what they meant and the terminology and, you know, uh, revelation. Anything that had to do the almighty, any of these principles we're talking about, were difficult for them to grasp because culturally they had no Christian background or the terminology involved.

As far as the culture though, we have to remember too that in Thailand, like maybe in other countries, culture, government, and religion are one in the same. They're not three separate ideals like they are in our language, in our culture. Okay? In other words, if you're Thai, you're Buddhist. If you're in the government, you're Buddhist.

And if, and the, the traditions of your fathers, what do they call it? What it's the cult, the traditions of your fathers were so much different and so to, for some of them, to leave Buddhism and become a Christian was almost turning your back on your fathers, your ancestors and your traditions and culture.

So I have an incredible amount of respect for anybody, anywhere that has the, the fortitude to do that. I was born in a church. I didn't have to take such a hard test. Mm-hmm. They did. And so culturally it was so different. And we have to remember the culture of whatever land we're talking about. In this case, Thailand or Laos has to be brought in to conformity with the culture of Christ and his church.

Mm-hmm. I'll give you an example. So I am, uh, a church leader and I'm counseling a friend of mine who I served on a mission with who was Thai and his wife who are having [01:16:00] marital problems. And the statement is made by the male. Well, she's not nice enough to me. And he says, she says, well, he yells at me and he threatens to hit me.

And then one of the other Thai leaders there, church leader, says Well to her, obviously you're not being nice enough to him if he wants to hit you. Okay? Now that may sound shocking, but in a society that is patriarchal and male dominated and women are subservient, that is fine. And okay, so I had to call time out.

Literally, I went time out and I said, you will not ever say that to her. That is wrong. You will not do that. That is not the way of Christ. That is not the way disciples of Christ behave. So culturally, it was okay. When we taught the law of chastity as missionaries, many the men and their wives sitting next to them say, well, what about his minor wives?

Which was the term for girlfriend, which was really acceptable. Acceptable. Culturally. Even their wives would say, yeah, he's got other minor wives. When we're teaching the lof chastity. Culturally, that was okay, but we had to teach something differently. And is this blowing your mind, Hollee, when you're seeing all of this?

Yeah, I mean there were a lot of hard things to stomach. I was just gonna say really fast, we're talking about baptism. One of the funny things was at church, they'd always have baptisms after the three hour block. Mm-hmm. But they had to start filling the fond about two hours earlier, and they would always forget to turn off the water.

So more than once we'd be sitting there during the sacrament. The whole entire tile floor of the, where we met, it wasn't really a chapel, it was just this big room. The water would overflow happened all the time. Yeah. We, we had, uh, some of the furniture looked like Noah's [01:18:00] Ark and it happened often when it finally floated.

But no, I mean, no, there were things that were shocking, like Buddhism is their government, their family, their school, like we've said. Yeah. But we had a very close friend who was, he was a member of Parliament and he owned about half of northern Thailand. Very wealthy, self-made man, which was very unusual, but very good, honest man.

He did so much for the church. He opened up, he helped us open up all the senior missionary programs in the northern part of the country. He, he would get up in, in different events that we were at and tell everybody how good the Mormons were and, and. I didn't correct him and tell him it's the members of the church, Jesus Christ, Latterday Saint.

Sure. But he was amazing. And we, we host BYU, hosted them here in Utah. Temple Square hosted them. I mean, they were, they were what we would consider VIPs. And people would ask me all the time, do you think you can get 'em baptized? Will they get baptized? And I had the mission president and some of the area missionaries tell me, no, we don't want a guy like that to be baptized.

If he gives that, if he, if he does, he will lose his status and his position in the government. He will lose all the influence, all the good things that he's doing for the church will be gone. And I just, I, I remember I was struck by that. So it's, again, the Lord's purposes. He knows what he's doing, and these are good people, and they will have their opportunity, but he needed them not to be a member and to be in that high status as a Buddhist to accomplish his purposes.

Interesting They have, they have a Christus in their home that they put up in a place of prominence next to their Buddha. Next to their Buddha. But they believe in Christ. Well, what I love about the stories you're telling is how the gospel of Jesus Christ can change traditions and the gospel of Jesus Christ and what you've done [01:20:00] and your story.

Just teaching in that moment, doing a timeout, and then teaching people who have culturally been taught that that's that's okay behavior, and then here comes Christ. And he's like, no, that's not how we're gonna act. And your experience with your members must have been so incredible. Like you said, it's grassroots.

It's section four. We're teaching them basic doctrinal principles. We have to reframe the way they think about things and the way they live their lives. And so, isn't that incredible how you can see this change? Is there a specific story where you saw someone really change after, or because of baptism and accepting Christ?

There was many that were. Alcoholic drug addicts been in prison. Uh, many former prostitutes that we, we baptized, it became phenomenal members and they were phenomenal people. They just made some errors in their life and there were so many that it, it'd be hard to they out and Tammy, but I can tell you that just like all people around the world, the atonement of Jesus Christ was applied to their lives, and it had that effect that changed their lives to where you could truly see that it had a mighty change of heart.

And you could see it in their countenance is just as it says in Alma. Well, and the amazing thing is, is, you know, it talks about it in this section. It's spiritual and temporal needs. Mm-hmm. The bishop attends to and temporally the gospel, blessed lives. It just. Countless ways. These, these sisters that, um, moved from Logan, Utah, they have a, they have a fly tying business and they, they decided to set up a factory in northern Thailand.

They've employed hundreds of people and brought dozens into the church. And some of their managers now, um, through the years have become, they're running their business and, and they joined the church. And, and it [01:22:00] is, it changes lives. I mean, we see this with, um, perpetual education and you know, everything else.

Mm-hmm. But what the church does temporally to the point where, in our branch today, I mean in, I'm sorry, in our T Ocean ward here in Salt Lake, one of the brothers, there was a little boy in our branch who's family joined the church. He grew up in the church. All six of their children have served missions in the United States.

He's now living here. He owns a restaurant. I mean, it's just so amazing to see how these people flourished. And it all started with them listening to the gospel and, and gaining a testimony joining the church. Oh, that's so cool. There are many members over there, Tammy and I could just make a list. But yeah.

Came from very poor backgrounds. Many of them. I remember teaching ties on my mission, how to read Thai. Hmm. Think about that. And now today, they are successful business people, heads of families, households, they run, organizations, they run the church, they run, it's a fully functional church that is mature and that they are moving.

The kingdom forward in the, in Thailand, but there are so many I could name who came from very poor backgrounds now that run their own businesses or are senior officers and other corporations. And the, the church not only taught 'em about Jesus Christ and made covenant and he had the opportunity to make covenants, but it helped him, as Hollee said, to grow and develop temporally as well.

Yeah, I like that, that connection, Hollee, the temporally and spiritually. So thank you both of you. Okay, well, we're not done. We still have a couple of more stories. I feel like God's stretching time. I can't believe how much we've been able to get in this episode. So in our last segment, we are going to go into a segment that is actually two revelations given on the same day, at the same conference that they then put into one [01:24:00] section of the doctrine covenants, and we'll show you what that is in the next segment.

Segment 6

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Alright, we are in section 75 of the doctrine and Covenants. And like I said, there are two revelations in this section that were given at the same conference on the same day and they could put them into the same section. So you wanna bracket off, go verses one all the way through verse 22. And at the end of verse 22, I just drew a big fat line separating 22 from 23 Revel.

And then I label it revelation number one. So that's the first revelation. And then the second revelation begins in verse 23 until verse 36. And I wanted you two to come with to us because if we read this, this is where Joseph Smith is ordained president of the high priesthood. He's ordained a prophet.

Basically everyone's like, this is it. They all come to an agreeance on this. He's going to lead the people. And I wanted to know what verses specifically in these sections stood out to you when you read this, because we've got two revelations here and we could have spent the whole hour and a half just on section 75, but we're not going to because I wanna know more stories.

So tell me what verses stood out to you and what story came to mind. Verse 22, this the, the last half of it. Okay. Gird up your loins and be faithful and you shall overcome all things and be lifted up at the last day. And that just really hit me because, like I said before, um, geared up your loins. I actually looked it up on the church website and it's Prepare yourself, work hard, give service in the kingdom.

So to me that's just get to work. Yeah. And I learned that in such a profound way, gear geared up your loins. It is time to make this work. Not about you, but about others. And that, that really resonated with me. 'cause that's where Hollee [01:26:00] grew up learning that. And it, it, it truly is the way to happiness and joy.

How has it helped you now as an older, mature woman, no longer with little kids at home? Well, I think, um, I've actually thought a lot about this. Gird up your loins means that you're ready to go to work, but that also means that you're ready to do the Lord's will. And we've been through a little bit of a challenging time the last year and a half.

And about a year and a half ago, I remember I woke up one night and the spirit said to me, this is your opportunity and Brady's opportunity to rely wHollee on me. And I, I feel compelled to share that because it was just so profound to me that I'm giving you this challenge and I'm giving you this trial, so you learn to rely on me and through it all.

Um, you know, verse 10, it talks about the comforter, verse 11. It talks about praying always. And I really have worked on that. And, and truly, if, if it's one thing to say and to pray that you can do, the Lord's will, but do you really mean it in your heart? Do you really mean that you're willing to accept whatever that is?

But I've learned through this last little while that if we can do, if, if I can truly humble myself and submit to that, and this is what I learned in Thailand, when I submitted myself to his will, I found joy and happiness. And one day, one of my friends, I, I was kind of pouring my heart out about how did this.

You know, trial, we were going through how difficult it was and he said, wow, I can, I just see that you have a lot of joy. And I walked away. I'm like, that is the greatest compliment anyone's ever given me. Here I am in the depths of a trial, and yet someone's telling me I have joy. [01:28:00] It, it made me so happy. I thought that, but it's, but then I really analyzed it.

It's true. Yeah. Because I learned to give my will to him. And if you can give all the pain and the hard stuff to Christ and accept whatever the Lord's will is, there is joy and happiness in that. I can't imagine not having that in my life. And I've had to learn it through the hard knocks. Yeah. But there is true joy in submitting to his will, in serving and doing whatever he wants his way.

And I can testify that the Lord compensates you. He brings it back tenfold. The things that you need and, and the things that you know, we've been through, we've been compensated in ways I couldn't have ever imagined. And there's just some, there's just some real power in that. And, and for that, I'm grateful for the experience.

I'm grateful for the six years. I'm grateful in Thailand. I'm grateful that we get to go through that stuff. Mm-hmm. Easier said than done, right? Absolutely. Watch out what you pray for. Well, I, and you're verse 16 to me, you're absolutely verse 16. And he who is faithful and she who is faithful, shall overcome all things and shall be lifted up at the last day.

I like the, and right there because it's not, she who is faithful shall overcome all things being lifted up or something like that. And allows there to be, you can overcome all things in this life. And by the way, you'll also be lifted up at the last day. Because you did overcome, you've overcome all the hardships you've experienced in your life in this last year and a half.

It's been so difficult. Did you truly learn how to rely on the Lord? Oh yeah. And it's the only way, and Brady can testify this too. It is the only way. I can't imagine not turning to the Lord. And we've been able to be, we've been blessed with the honor and opportunity to be ordinance workers. And the [01:30:00] interesting thing was when I had that impression that we needed to rely on the Lord, um, Brady actually, you know, started working in the temple at that time and we were able to do that together and it blessed our lives in ways I cannot even explain.

And also we started getting stirrings that we needed to do more in serving. And once again, it, we, we just decided in this trial it needed to not be about us. Yeah, because it's real easy to get swallowed up in your own stuff. And believe me, I had days when I was, sometimes I'm a brat, but overall, we had these love, these stirrings that we needed to be, we needed to do more.

So again, if we're obedient, you, we, if we could submit his will, I am, I am. I bear testimony today that the Lord's way, the what the Lord has at the end of whatever we're going through is far better than anything we could imagine. And that sounds very idealistic, but, um, it's true. We have been so blessed.

We've been so blessed and that our calling is as the service missionaries. Um, we're supposed to be there and we know that these, these members are wonderful people and to be back with them, they have, they have a huge part of our hearts and it's just blessed our lives in unbelievable ways yet again because we've really tried hard to make it not about us and wallowing in our own pain.

Serving the Lord and doing his will. Fantastic, Hollee. Phenomenal. Thank you. Thank you. Felt the spirit on that so strong and I, I'll just back it up. What Hollee said is true. It's absolutely true. All right, Brady, what about you? What do you got? Well, she took my verse, but fortunately It's okay. Almost the identical thing in verse uh, verse 22, there, gird up your loins and be faithful.

It's interesting, in the 73rd section it says, gird up your loins and be sober. Mm-hmm. So the, [01:32:00] the gird up your loins part like Hollee's talking about when the problem we had this past year in our personal lives would've very easily led us to have pity parties for ourselves. But instead the spirit told us, start working on the temple, and then it said, volunteer to be service missionaries.

And it was totally counterintuitive. To what we thought we should be doing at that time in our lives to solve our problems. But it turned out that the Lord asked me to gird up my loins, be faithful, be sober, and do these things in the midst of other trials that I was having. And it turned out to be the biggest blessing.

And Tammy, I'm convinced that by just exercising a little faith and, and relying wHollee on the Lord, we have been blessed. Manyfold, cast your bread upon the water and we'll return un to you. It is returned unto us, manyfold, and we've been blessed greatly. But grow up your loins. And this is maybe my takeaway from, from this time together is we're all gonna be asked to gird up our loins, raise our game, step in the arena, step up to the plate.

It's our turn to do our part in the Lord's kingdom. And that's what I interpret. Git up your loins to mean, step in and get it done. Spirit up your loins and to the brothers, be men. Go out and serve and do what you need to do to the sisters. Be wonderful women of God. Uh, it just, it's, it's gonna be asked of all of us, and I think we prove ourselves to the Lord that, that during our probationary period, that's what we did.

We stood up as disciples of Christ and followed him. Amen. Oh, Brady. So good. Well, and then I turned the page in section 75 and I noticed I had highlighted 27, 28, and 29. And now as I read those, [01:34:00] I'm thinking this is the three of you now in your life. Like right now, you're living this verse or the past year and a half.

You have let them ask and they shall receive, knock, and it shall be open unto them. And be made known from on high, even by the comforter. Whether they shall go, which is what you've talked about. And again, verily, I stand to you that every man who is obliged to provide for his own family, let him provide.

And he shall in no wise, lose his crown and let him labor in the church, which is what you did. Let every man be diligent in all things and the idler shall not have place in the church except he repent and mend his ways. Like there it is, you guys get to work. Do what the spirit asks. Step up to the plate, all those things.

And the Lord will absolutely bless you. And I find it interesting 'cause Idle was in these sections more than once. Yep. That's the, that's the opposite of what we're talking about. Totally. Well thank you for pointing that out. It's funny 'cause I've read this section several times in preparation, but I miss the, the analogy in our own lives there in those verses.

Yeah. And it's very clearly now seeing it now, this is exactly what we've learned. In our lives and can take away from these verses in the doctrine covenants. Yeah. Like I wanna make it, put it on, you know, vinyl lettering and put it somewhere on your wall in your house. Yeah. Those three, like you've summed this up perfectly.

I mean, you've been able to provide for your family, but you've also followed the comforter and you've labored in his church and you haven't been idle, and you have just over and over again today, you have bore witness of the truthfulness of these verses of scripture. And so anyone who's struggling, anyone who's in any situation lean on this episode and know that Brady and Hollee just spoke an hour and a half of truth.

So thank you. You two. That was good. We're done. That's end. Thank you. It was our pleasure. Thank you. Oh, okay. So really quickly, just take a minute then and gather your thoughts and from our discussion today, is there anything new [01:36:00] that you learned or anything that the Holy Ghost taught you again, that you're like, oh, that's cool, an eternal truth.

I've really enjoyed studying these chapters because once again, it's, it's motivated, motivated me all over again. I I, I ran across a talk I had to give a year ago about the Holy Ghost and I was giving it to Stake Youth Conference, and I was reading about, I, I was talking to them about how exciting it is to be part of the gathering of Israel.

You were sent here for this important work to be done and what President Nelson's been talking about, and it's such an exciting time to see the gathering of Israel happen and all the temples and, and I, it just kind of has re-inspired me, but I was, I was reading this, my talk thinking, Harry, I'm trying to be all motivating to these youth, and yet I'm part of it too.

Yeah. And it made just, kind of made me remember again that this is, we're all involved in this and we need to. Get to work and stay at work because truly that's where joy is. Joy is in the Lord's work. Joy is in Christ. And being part of this incredible time and the history of the earth is, is really exciting.

And I'm just so grateful that I get to be part of it. But this was all a reminder to me of, yeah, we, the Lord has purpose for each and every one of us in different ways. Mm-hmm. They don't, it doesn't look the same, but we all get to labor in the vineyard and as long as we let be attuned with him and let him guide however we're supposed to do that, we're a part of this incredible work.

And it's exciting and it feels good. And once again, that's where I find my joy. It really is so good. Hollee. So good. Tammy, those verses you just point out to me, you're hitting me a little harder than I thought. I [01:38:00] appreciate 'em. Verse 27, there. It talks about asking you shall receive, knock should be open unto you.

During the last year and a half, I've been on my knees praying to the Lord that he would open doors up for me and my family that we can accomplish and solve our problems. And I can bear testimony to you that the comforter did show us which way to go and things did fall into place and we are provided for and for my family.

And so my last thoughts are is the gospel is true. This is his kingdom on earth. His power and glory is omnipresent in our lives. If we'll just allow his kingdom is moving forward, this is his kingdom on earth, the Savior will return. And Jesus is the Christ in the name of His holy name Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Wow. Thank you. And, and for me, I, I love the both of you taught me. And I hope I never forget this experience with the two of you because Hollee, I loved when you said, I, I, you know, I finally was letting the Holy Ghost in because I was keeping him out because I was a brat. And I love how you said that.

You're like, it was all about me and I wasn't letting the Holy Ghost in. And I think that is so true for so many of us. And, and then Brady, I love that you were like, we have to pay a price to serve the Lord, which I think is so true. And then when you taught us what the word for the savior means in T, the royal one, who brings salvation.

Wow. That was cool. You guys did a great job. I love you both so much. We love you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks for this opportunity. Oh my goodness, that was such a good discussion. I love those two so much. Okay, I wanna know, tell me, please, what is your takeaway? What eternal truth did you learn?

What's something from this episode that you can apply to your life that's going to make a difference? Join our group on Facebook or follow us on Instagram to share what you have learned. And [01:40:00] you can even ask questions. That is so much fun. We love to answer them. And at the end of the week, on a Saturday, we're gonna post a question from this discussion.

So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and share your thoughts. You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode at ldsliving.com slash Sunday on Monday. And it's not a bad idea to go there anyway, because that's where we have links to all the references and a transcript of this whole discussion.

So go check it out. The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Deseret Bookshelf plus original, brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall. And today our incredible study group participants were Brady and Hollee McKay. And you can find more information about my friends at ldsliving.com slash Sunday on Monday.

Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger, and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week, and please remember that you are God's favorite.