1723: Converting to Mormonism in High School | Liz Lambson Pt. 1

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2023

⏱️ 150 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Liz Lambson is a Korean/African American artist, musician, and writer, and - along with her spouse Sam - is a parent to five boys residing in Salt Lake City. Liz performs as a string bassist with the Ballet West Orchestra as well as the children’s singer-songwriter Lizzy Luna, the creator of the music-and-movement program Yoga Storytime & Songs. Liz performed for and toured with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square for several years. She released her first album of original children’s yoga music, Reach to the Sky, in 2018. Her writing has been featured in publications including the New Era and the New York Times.

As an active member of Utah’s arts and culture community, Liz formerly served as the Executive Director of the Utah Black History Museum. Her artwork is featured on Salt Lake City’s Black Lives Matter mural at City Hall. Liz is also an aspiring film actress.

In her spare time she enjoys needlework, gardening, road trips, and Scrabble.

Liz's Instagram: @lizzylambson

We begin Liz’s story with her family and growing up years as a biracial Korean/African American struggling to assimilate into white culture. Her mother converted to Christianity and became a religious fanatic, leading to her eventual abandonment of her husband & children. Liz is introduced to Mormonism shortly after and finds Joseph Smith’s early religious confusion relatable. With continued exposure to LDS peers, including a boy who particularly holds her interest, Liz gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon and falls in love with Mormon culture.

Liz also shares her struggles with academic, artistic and spiritual perfectionism in high school. We learn ways Liz gives up pieces of herself as she tries harder to assimilate into Mormon culture and eventually makes the decision to attend BYU.

Episode Show Notes

Mormon Stories Thanks Our Generous Donors!

Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today:

One-time or recurring donation through Donorbox
Support us on Patreon
Pick “Mormon Stories” as your charity on Amazon Smile or through the Amazon App

Our Platforms:

Contact us:

[email protected]

PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Social Media:

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I am your host John DeLin. It is January 9th
0:06.4	2023 happy new year and
0:08.9	We are so excited to be in studio. I'm here with my wife Margie. Hey Margie. Hey babe
0:14.2	We are really excited for today's interview today. We are interviewing Liz Lampson. Hey Liz. Hi
0:20.5	Welcome. Thank you. We always try really hard to make sure our interviews on Mormon Stories are with people who are wise and thoughtful and
0:28.3	talented and smart and today is no exception.
0:32.7	Liz Lampson is a Korean African-American artist, musician and writer and along with her spouse Sam is
0:41.4	a parent to five boys residing in Salt Lake City. She performs as a string bassist with the ballet West Orchestra that's
0:50.0	conducted by Jared Oaks. Is that right? Yeah, he's a director and we're good friends and he's down at jokes is
0:55.9	grandson. Yeah, yeah, as well as the children's singer-songwriter Lizie Luna the creator of the music and movement program yoga story time and songs.
1:06.3	Liz has performed four and toured with the Mormon Tabernacle choir and the orchestra at Temple Square for many years.
1:14.6	She released her first album of original children's yoga music reached to the sky in 2018.
1:20.6	Her writing has been featured in publications including the new era and the New York Times. Well, those are two different.
1:29.2	Yeah, there were many years that passed between those two publications. Yeah.
1:35.5	Some of you may be familiar with her. She's not just a musician as we mentioned before. She's also a painter.
1:43.6	Yes.
1:44.6	And she is an active member of the Utah Arts and Culture community formerly served as the executive director of the Utah Black History Museum.
1:53.6	I'm sure that will come up in our story with her. Her artwork is featured on Salt Lake City's Black Lives Matter mural at City Hall.
2:02.0	She is also an aspiring film actress. And in her spare time she enjoys needlework gardening road trips and scrabble. Yes.
2:10.4	That's an intro. And I think if I'm going to just sort of give just another kind of preview of what we're going to be covering today.
2:19.6	This is going to be one of our traditional long form interviews. It's going to be in multiple parts over multiple hours.
2:25.4	It's going to be worth every minute of your time. But we're going to talk about her conversion to Mormonism as a biracial young woman trying her best to be a really good Mormon.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.