Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.

Before I introduce my guests as I do sometimes, I invite you the thing that you can do to help this podcast reach other people is to rate the podcast and give a written review of the podcast. I also appreciate

all that you're doing to share my book with others and leave a review. The book is Listen, Learn,

and Love, Embracing LGBTQ Latter-day Saints. It's at Amazon and Desert Book, and I appreciate

you if you have time to leave a review there of the book. My guest on

today's podcast is my friend Jeffrey Scott Parsons. Welcome to the podcast, Jeff. Thank you, Richard.

This podcast has been brewing since September of 2019, and that's pre-COVID. That seems like a

lifetime ago, Jeff. And it was our mutual friend Jeff Wise in

September of 2019 that I talked about you and the idea of doing this podcast together. And so I'm

glad we're finally doing it. Me too. Jeff, by way of introduction, is in his late 30s. He's single. He's a Latter-day Saint. He's gay. He grew up in Willard, Utah. He went to BYU, got a degree in music, dance and theater. And really ever since then, has been using those talents professionally and living in the L.A. area for over 10 years, currently on an assignment

here in Salt Lake City, served a Spanish-speaking mission. Most of that was in the Fort Worth

and also the West Texas area. And Jeff, hope for the future for him is to find a husband,

to have kids, and be able to participate

as much as possible in the church. And this platform is just a chance for people to share

their stories and to honor everybody's story. And I do like Elder Cook's quote that I use a lot recently.

It's finding unity and diversity.

And we're all the same human family.

And this is an attempt to try to create unity in all of our differences.

So I honor Jeff's hopes.

I don't invite people to go down certain paths. I always invite people

to follow church teachings. But if someone feels their path is like Jeff's path, who's been on this

road for a long time, he would like to have a husband, like to have his kids, share his life

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