1040: Ana Reading: My Swiss Mormon Journey Pt. 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2019
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ana Reading is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, and inspiring Mormons I've ever met. Born to a semi-functional family in Switzerland, Ana clung to Mormonism as a source of strength and comfort. Ana served an LDS mission in Ireland, went to BYU, married a devout American Mormon in the temple (Bill Reading), had four children, sacrificed her career to live the Mormon dream, and served in high-level ward callings (while Bill served twice as branch president/bishop).
Ana's Mormon dream was disrupted when she began feeling unfulfilled and overwhelmed at church, and then ultimately learned about the church's troubling historical past. Ana's story concludes with struggles to survive a mixed faith marriage (facing Bill's sadness and disappointment), reconstruct a relationship with her faithful children, and pursue a happy, healthy life outside of the church.
“Alright to Be You” is a collaboration song by electronic musician, Milocraft, and singer-songwriter, Angela Soffe. Raised in the LDS Church, both are returned missionaries, and each chose to leave the Church when faced with a faith crisis. In 2018 they founded the “Be Moved Project” to create music that helps people feel happy and connected. To hear more music or support the project by becoming a patron, please visit: www.angelasoffe.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Mormon Stories is a production of the Open Stories Foundation and relies solely upon the support |
| 0:09.1 | of people like you, its listeners. To help keep the podcast alive or to become a member |
| 0:13.9 | of the community, please become a monthly subscriber by visiting MormonStories.org and clicking |
| 0:19.3 | on the Donate button on the right side of the page under Support. All contributions to |
| 0:24.3 | Mormon Stories are completely tax deductible in the United States and go towards producing |
| 0:28.9 | the podcast and building communities and programs of support for Mormons like you. Thanks for |
| 0:34.6 | your support. |
| 0:47.9 | Hello everyone, it is January 4th, 2019. I am Dr. John DeLin and we are so excited to welcome |
| 0:55.7 | you to another episode of Mormon Stories Podcast. Today we have as an interviewer, someone who for |
| 1:07.0 | me is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful and inspiring Mormons I've met in my, I don't know, |
| 1:14.4 | 14 years of doing Mormon Stories Podcast. We're going to be interviewing someone who has become a dear |
| 1:20.5 | friend. Her name is Anna O'Rennata, reading and she was born and raised in Switzerland as a member |
| 1:32.0 | of the Mormon Church. This episode has so much to offer. Some of you will know that recently with |
| 1:41.4 | with my wife Margie and Natasha Elfer Parker, we've launched a project called The Gift to the |
| 1:46.9 | Mormon Faith Crisis and you can find more information about that at MormonFaithCrisis.com. But this continues a |
| 1:55.2 | series that we've been doing on Mormon Stories for many years where we allow people to tell their |
| 2:02.0 | faith journeys and their journeys as devout Orthodox believing Mormons and their journeys as they begin to |
| 2:09.6 | question and doubt and eventually lose faith in at least Orthodox Mormonism and then how they deal |
| 2:16.3 | with that. This is very much going to be a part of Anna's story. We're going to be talking about her |
| 2:24.1 | life growing up as a devout member of the Mormon Church in Switzerland with I'll say semi-functional |
| 2:32.4 | family, how she clung to the church in her teen years because it provided her support and comfort |
| 2:38.9 | and solace. We'll talk about an epic boyfriend slash relationship that she had as a teenage girl in |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. John Dehlin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. John Dehlin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.