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Hello and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host, John DeLin. It's December 8th, 2016. As you can see, we're in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah with a very special guest.

I am super excited to have with us today. Steve Urquhart. Steve has done a lot of really cool things, but just to give you a really quick preview,

Steve not only worked as an attorney many years in St. George's, right? Right. So the new Utah, but eventually he became a member of the Utah State Legislature. Both as a member of the House and the Senate.

Yeah, eight years in the House, eight in the Senate. And so 16 years experience working with the Utah State Legislature. And then that building right behind us.

And that building right there. And right there, yep, there it is. And what we're going to be talking about today, the theme, it's going to be about Steve's life.

But it's also going to be about that other tall building right there, poking up above the US Bank and the Zion's Bank Building, which is the corporation of the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Letters.

So, notice the Mormon Church. We're going to be talking about the influence of the LDS Church in Utah State Politics.

As many of you will know, over the past several years, there have been many bills that have come up for in front of the Utah legislature.

Specifically, some of the ones we've covered on more stories would be the cannabis medical marijuana bill.

There's been the anti-bullying legislation around LGBT people in Utah. And there was sort of what many refer to as the landmark legislation that was passed regarding religious freedom and anti-discrimination against LGBT people.

And Steve was sort of in the thick of all that. So, we're going to be just talking about not only those bills specifically, but even just broadly what it's like to be a member of the Utah legislature and what it's like to interact with the LDS Church when all that's going on.

So, Steve, welcome to Mormon Stories Podcast. Thank you. But none are good to be with you.

Yeah. So, tell us, let's just start where we all start. Let's establish your Mormon cred. Tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what role the Church played in your life in those early years.

Okay. So, grew up in Houston, just down the road from you. And...

Were we there at the same time? Yeah, we were. Did we talk about this?

So, I graduated spring branch high school in 1983. Okay. So, you were my brother's age. All right. Cool. Yeah. We had the same stake. Yeah. So, we were in the common strength. Yeah. Roses, Jesperson's. You knew the roses.

Oh, yeah. Same work. So, the guy who's the B.W.U. coach right now, right? He was his younger brother Justin with kind of my age. So, his big brother Scott was my...

So, David Rose, B.W.U. Coach, his mom claims that I gave her her gray hair and I know her boys. So, that's I know who gave her her gray hair. But so, we joined...

So, you know, I grew up in... I mean, my parents didn't get along too terribly well. Let's put it that way. So, I had a brother who he killed himself when he was 19.

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