Hello everyone and welcome to part three of my Mormon Stories podcast interview with Mark Oziland. I'm a John DeLin and I am just loving. We're about four and a half. I'm sorry eight and a half.

I don't know nine hours into this epic interview with Mark. For those who have not listened to parts one and two, you will want to listen to parts one and two.

In part one, we talk about Mark growing up in LA becoming an all-star, you know, all American athlete and baseball and football.

And then how he gives up a major league baseball contract three different times to both convert to the Mormon Church and go on a mission and attend BYU.

And we answer the question of how and why would a smart, successful kid join Mormonism in the modern era.

So it's a fascinating interview. We talk about what it did to his family relationships. We talk about what it did to his mental health.

Put him on this hamster wheel of worthiness that was not good for him and of course without informed consent without him being told a lot of things caused him to make a lot of life altering decisions that he definitely would not have made probably without all the information.

Although love can make people do really strange things.

Anyway, part one was super epic. Part two was kind of post baseball career after he had gotten injured and stopped playing baseball and gave up his ambitions to become a major league baseball player.

And by the way, he played against many of the greats who are known and super famous today in the California area.

Part two was all about his decision to become a seminary teacher. How he went to work for CES full time. How he did that as a convert as someone who didn't grow up going to seminary.

How it really was challenging for him to fit into the culture, but how he became a great teacher. But how he had many culture clashes with kind of the passive aggressive Mormon slash CES culture that can be fatal for so many.

And metaphorically fatal at least I'm saying we talked about him serving as a seminary teacher in Utah County in American fork and in pleasant grove and one of their middle school.

And how he started becoming a progressive seminary teacher and so you know with all the K Kelly Jeremy Rundles John to Lynn gospel topics S a stuff.

What it was like to be a seminary teacher during that time how the church did not and did try and train and prepare their seminary teachers and then as he was going through a metamorphosis of his own faith he becomes kind of a terrible and Fiona given Mormon.

As a seminary teacher which culminates in him showing queer eye for the straight guy to some of his seminary students and getting a warning for that he actually got two warnings one was for trumped up charges by jealous peers.

According to the story that we heard and it seems pretty credible.

And then the second one was for being a little bit edgy which I think is kind of gangster it's a little bit that's probably not the right word let me track that cool that's kind of cool to think about a Mormon seminary teacher in Utah County showing queer eye for the straight guy to his seminary students at which high school was it was that tip and Augusta tip and I guess I anyway.

So we've done eight or nine hours so far what we have left is one final segment where we're going to talk about kind of the unraveling of his faith as a Mormon seminary teacher in Utah County what that's like how it was handled how he handled it what that's like on his mental health on his family on his relationships and then we're going to talk about what it's like for a seminary teacher who loses their faith to try and figure out what they're going to do given all the risks and

the problems associated with giving your life to a career that kind of leaves you without many options afterwards and then we're going to talk about what that's been like and then we're here his wife and his son are now in their life so with that any further do Mark Oslin welcome back to Mormon stories.

Thanks for having me and yeah I'm so grateful that this part like yesterday what we were talking about and then right today these are like the key for me like so much changes right around between you know late 2017 to 2019 I mean I'm go from I feels like I do a 180 you know and showing queer eye was a part of that and and just reflecting you know I went home yesterday and I was reflecting on like I want to convey clearly where I was you mentioned like being a terrible if you want to give inform that's exactly who I'm going to be.

I was I believe like I was not I was still having the questions the doubts but to be honest like I was I was keeping them inside so what I'm sharing especially last episode was more that internal voice that I silenced and I had to keep down the voice that I was perpetuating to students was yeah it was one of I don't

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