Welcome to our fourth bonus episode where you all called in to answer the question,

what triggered your faith journey? We have so appreciated everyone sending in their voicemails this

season. Thank you so much for your vulnerability and for being part of this important community

of women who at last are saying it.

Hi, my name is Zina. I just wanted to share some of the little seeds that got planted in my brain over the years that have contributed to my faith journey.

The first one is shortly after I got married, my sister invited me to join a

Facebook group for LDS wives. And this was the first time that I have ever encountered the struggles

that some women had with garments. The second one as a close friend who is a faithful member of the

church came out as gay. And as I listened to his story and many others like his, I began to see how the

church wasn't working perfectly for everyone and was in fact harming some people.

A big one was in 2021 while I was working on finishing my degree at BYU, Idaho. I took this child

and family advocacy class, which was almost entirely about how gay marriage is a threat to the family.

We were required to read

outdated and flawed studies, and much of our course material was sourced from organizations

that are designated hate groups. Having my own children shifted a lot of my thinking as well,

we tried to follow the council to read the Book of Mormon Daily, but as we tried to read it to

our young children, we felt so uncomfortable with the intense violence on every page.

It felt so inappropriate, and we ended up focusing on the stories of Jesus from the New Testament instead.

Also, I read all the parenting books to make sure I wasn't going to mess this up, and the more I learned about the characteristics of a good parent,

the more I realized that the God I had been raised to believe in, who is supposedly the perfect parent, does not match the research-backed qualities of a good parent, the more I realized that the God I had been raised to believe in, who is supposedly

the perfect parent, does not match the research-backed qualities of a good parent. When I realized that I

would never treat my children the way God supposedly does, that was a big shock to the system.

...