Angie Young is a mother of 3 young girls and serves as a Young Women President, just outside of Ogden in Clinton, Utah. She was married in the Salt Lake Temple to her husband that she met online. When asked what makes her a unique Mormon, she says, “Her time away from the church in her early youth, gives her a unique perspective on the gospel.” She currently works from home in addition to being a mom, and has makeup line called, “Younique.”
David Deford has an amazing story. Born and raised in Indiana David became involved with various drugs that contributed to his leaving home during college (without telling his parents). He experienced glimmers of God’s love during this time and ultimately met his wife, Kathy, when he picked her up as she was hitchhiking. They were introduced to the Church while hitchhiking cross-country and through God’s grace received answers to their prayers and they chose to be baptized. After several months, they did exactly that.
Manoel Bezerra is a Brazilian cab driver who makes a habit of handing out copies of the Book of Mormon; especially when the Rio Summer Olympics were in town. He is passionate about missionary work because he remembers fondly his own conversion to the LDS Church in New York after honest prayer and meeting the missionaries. He now serves as a member of his stake’s high council.
Samuel Bradshaw is a Church employee and a part-time student. His interest in music and statistic led him to creating a project called SingPraises.net where he analyses how the hymns are sung in the LDS Church. He gathers hundreds of data points from wards around the world and then organizes the data to see which hymns are being sung the most and which hymns are being neglected.
A bishopric or ward music chair would find this interview helpful as you seek to better use all the hymns in some way to invite the spirit into your meetings.
Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., M.B.A., was a psychologist in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan for almost fifteen years before moving with her husband to Montreal (where he presided over the Canada Montreal Mission), then Alpine, Utah. She founded Sixteen Stones Center for Growth, which offers seminar-retreats for LDS women (sixteenstones.net). She is a mother and grandmother, a columnist for Deseret News, a former president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapist, and a business consultant with The RBL Group. Her books include Forgiving Ourselves, Weakness Is Not Sin, and national best seller The Why of Work, co-authored with her husband, Dave Ulrich.
Mark & Lacie Sieverkropp live in Ephrata, Washington where they both grew up as non-members. Examples of LDS friends started their interest in the gospel which led to their conversion. Mark helped fellowship Lacie and they later got married after her baptism. They have now been married 9 years and have two children.
Yohan Delton received his PHD in Applied Social Psychology with an emphasis in industrial organizational psychology. He was born in France and served a mission in Louisiana. He has spent a lot of time teaching, he taught at BYU as a graduate student, at the MTC teaching French, and has been teaching at BYU Idaho for 9 years. He currently teaches the History of Psychology and Organizational Psychology.
President Bob Cowan served as a counselor in the Australia Brisbane Mission. He has also served as an Area Seventy, president of the New Zealand Wellington Mission, stake president, bishop, and temple ordinance worker. Sister Jenny Cowan has served as a multi-stake young single adult adviser, stake and ward Relief Society presidents’ counselor, stake Young Women president and stake seminary supervisor.
Wayne Brockbank was a mission president in the Nigeria Uyo and the Ghana Accra missions from 2006-2009. He has lived and worked as a consultant and professor in Abu Dhabi for the past 7 years and experiences the unique culture of the LDS church in a Muslim country. He was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Petaluma, California. As a young man, Wayne along with his wife served missions in the South German mission. He has degrees from BYU and UCLA and has taught at the University of Michigan where he also served as a bishop for 9 years. He also was recently released as a bishop in Abu Dhabi.
Today we head down to Friendswood, Texas to visit with Beth Young. Prior to becoming a Texan Sister Young was raised in Arizona in a family without the blessings of the Gospel. In this episode Beth shares what it was like to be raised in a home without the restored gospel by a father and mother who loved her but struggled with alcoholism. Sister Young was introduced to the Gospel in high school which ultimately led to her being baptized, serving a full-time mission, being sealed in the temple and holding leadership callings such as ward and stake relief society president.
Beth discusses how her leadership and experience in her own home prepared her to be a leader in the church as she shares how she navigated the waters of motherhood when her children experienced the struggles of mortality. She is very candid in discussing her experiences with one child who battled drug addiction and another who experiences same gender attraction and the heartache of his excommunication. Sister Young teaches us how to show tough yet unconditional love to our children.
