How He Wrote Vinney Tolman's Story "The Light After Death": Lynn Taylor - Latter-Day Lights

After his near death experience, Vinnie Tolman searched for 15 years to find just the right person to write about his near death experience - then he met Lynn Taylor. 

This is the story behind the story.

 Have you ever wondered how embracing spiritual awareness and love can transform your life?

Join us as we sit down with Lynn Taylor, co-author of The Light After Death, and discuss the personal, spiritual journey that led him to write about Vinney Tolman's remarkable after-death experience.

During our heartfelt conversation, we delve into the power of love and vulnerability in healing and growth. Lynn shares his profound experience with his son, and the pure love he felt for him, which he believes reflects how Heavenly Father sees each of us.

We also hear from Scott, a former bishop, about the unexpected feeling of love he felt when people shared their struggles with him. Additionally, Alisha opens up about her son's journey and how leaning on someone has helped him grow stronger.

Lastly, we discuss the importance of recognizing spiritual impressions in our lives. Lynn reveals his journey of learning to recognize these moments and how it has influenced his writing and decision-making process. Through his work on Light After Death, Lynn has witnessed the power of love in writing and the importance of trusting in God's plan.

So, tune in to uncover the transformative nature of understanding spiritual awareness and embracing love in our lives.

*** Please SHARE Lynn's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

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To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/e7N8tsBnPDQ

To WATCH Vinney Tolman's episode, on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/ML2wSU6EgVo

To BUY the book "The Light After Death", go to (direct link): https://www.amazon.com/Light-After-Death-Journey-Experience/dp/B0BD3YV9M5

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Transcript

Scott Brandley: 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley: 0:02

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley: 0:10

On today's episode, we're going to hear how one author, writing the story of a friend's spiritual journey, unlocked a deeper understanding of his own spiritual awareness. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Latter-day Lights. Glad that you can be here with us today And we're really excited to introduce our guest with you today, Lynn Taylor. Lynn, how are you doing?

Lynn Taylor: 0:43

Doing wonderful. Thank you very much for inviting me. This is a real pleasure and an honor.

Alisha Coakley: 0:48

Thanks so much. We're excited to have you.

Alisha Coakley: 0:52

Yeah, it was funny, Lynn. I actually I'll tell our listeners real quick. I met you at the Kaliope Pitch Conference a few months back And you were there. You had a book that you wrote called Light After Death right, Light After Death, and that was a story of Vinney Tolman who we just had on last week as our guest. Incredible story And it was so cute because you and your wife, when I was talking to you and I was inviting you on to be a guest at that point in time I was still making plans to move to Alaska, to North Pole Alaska, and when you had asked I had just mentioned Alaska or whatever.

Alisha Coakley: 1:31

And when you guys had asked, go which part? And I said, well, it's like this town outside of Fairbanks called North Pole, you and your wife both looked at each other and like high fived each other. You guys are so excited. You're like we lived there forever or something, and I was like wait, what It was? so it was totally random And it's like one of those like moments where I just feel like Heavenly Father likes just sprinkling little, you know little fun things in our, in our path to let us know like we're on the right path, you know. So to me it was like affirmation of like yes, we're totally supposed to invite Lynn to come be on the show. So, other than the fact that you lived in Alaska, oh, i guess maybe even that too Why don't you tell the listeners just a little bit about yourself?

Lynn Taylor: 2:11

Okay, and I'll get to Alaska. We loved Alaska, never left So whirlwind tour of my life. I was born in the, the colonies down in Mexico. My dad's side of the families lived down there for more than 100 years And that's where I was when I was born. And there's a whole other story there. Really quick side note My great, great great grandfather was driving the second wagon that came into the Salt Lake Valley on July 22nd. Yeah, so Pioneer Day and our family is the 22nd instead of the 24th. So yeah, it goes way back that way. So anyway, dad's side of the family was down in Mexico And that's where my, my parents were when I was born.

Lynn Taylor: 2:59

And when I was two we moved up to Mesa, arizona. That's pretty much where I grew up, was in Mesa, went to college, went on a mission for a couple years to England, london South, which was fantastic. Got back and was in the aerospace engineering program And math was not my strong suit, so I got a calculus tutor and she got me through math so well. We got married and got me through a lot of things since then, including going to Alaska. So I went into the Air Force, had a wonderful time there, flew fighters for a while A-10 Warthog flew that for a vet.

Lynn Taylor: 3:43

And then kids were getting older. We've got four boys. So while we were, while we were in North Pole in the Air Force, i was deployed in the Middle East and we got delayed on coming back And so we were going to miss Christmas And the boys were really worried about that. And, donna, she said, well, let's, let's go tell Santa. So she loaded the boys up in the car and drove down to Santa Claus house at North Pole and let me go talk to Santa. And Santa said, well, i'll tell you what for you guys, just wait and put your stockings out the night you want me to come and I'll come that night.

Alisha Coakley: 4:20

There, you go.

Lynn Taylor: 4:23

Santa sorted this out for us. he's the coolest, And so that's just been our family tradition ever since. That's awesome, and so that's why we love.

Lynn Taylor: 4:30

North Pole is experiences like that, And it's an example of somebody else who touched our lives for good. It was, it was wonderful, But after about 10 years in the Air Force we got out And I've just been working in the civilian side ever since And it's given me a chance to do more of what I really love to do, which is write, which is how I ended up writing Vinney's story. I met him probably two, two and a half years ago, heard his story of this near death experience he had or, as you know from the other episode, it's really more of an after death experience.

Alisha Coakley: 5:03

I was going to say it was, he was pretty dead.

Lynn Taylor: 5:06

Yeah, when the paramedics put you in a body bag and lodged in the back of an ambulance.

Alisha Coakley: 5:11

Yeah, it's not near your cross that line. Yeah, yeah.

Lynn Taylor: 5:15

And then be on a coma for three days. It was a fascinating story And when he asked to write it, so little blown away how that happened. He told me afterwards that for 15 years he had been looking for guidance on who would help him write his book And Spirit just kept saying no every time he asked about somebody. Until I came along And some still a bit humbled by that. But when he asked me if I'd help write the story, the answer did. The right answer felt like yes, which, as we'll talk about here in a little bit, it was. I didn't recognize that that was a spiritual nudge at the time because I think I really had. I didn't think I received a lot of spiritual nudges very often Wow Well, we are very excited to hear the story.

Scott Brandley: 6:06

One thing I really like is this is kind of the story behind the story, but it just shows like everybody's got a story and you might not even realize that it's actually a story about a story And that can lead to another story. So yeah, this is, this is going to be really cool, so why don't you go ahead, Lynn, and tell us your story?

Lynn Taylor: 6:28

All right. Well, the story that I really, really want to share I love sharing this one. This is the story of what I thought spiritual impressions usually were, and the reason I like to tell this one is it's one of those things that transformed me, and I've only had two experiences that really were a felt like a dramatic transformation that kind of changed the DNA of who I am. And with this one I, my boys, are very open with me. All four of them We have a really good relationship And I know that because they've talked about some pretty dramatic things, very personal things, but the code that whenever I know if I'm wanted to speak to me, like we finish family scriptures and prayer for the evening, and they'd say, hey, can we go in your office and talk? And this one boy in particular, he had been struggling with some, some things for a while and then helping him through it and trying to help him deal with it, and he kind of got me on a bad night And he says, hey, we could go in your office and talk. And I knew what he wanted to talk about And I was disappointed And I was a bit angry And what I wanted to say was are you kidding me, what is wrong with you? But I knew that was the wrong answer And I knew that if that was my response it would damage the relationship. But it was all I had. So it was from the front room to my office is about 15 steps And so outwardly I say, yeah, sure, let's, let's go to my office. And so I stand up and I start praying Because I didn't want to damage your relationship, and I just say, heavenly Father, i don't know what the right answer is And if I go with what's in my heart right now, I'm going to mess this up. And then I ask the question please show me how you would handle this? And he did.

Lynn Taylor: 8:35

In that moment, as we're walking, my son's walking ahead of me All of those bad emotions, all of the angst and the anger just washed out of me. And I know it wasn't me because I did not have the capability to let that go, but it all washed out. What replaced it, as I was looking at my son, was just the purest love that I have ever felt, and just looking at him was that's all I felt. For him was love. And this was in the first five steps And the next five steps, it hit me that, oh my goodness, this is how you've seen me my whole life, with all of the mistakes I made and everything that I've screwed up and all of those things. You've had nothing but this love for me. And then, in the last five steps, i realized, oh my goodness, this is how you see everybody, absolutely everybody that's ever walked the face of the earth, no matter what they've done. You love them all this way. I just knew that.

Lynn Taylor: 9:41

And so by the time we got to my office, i sat down and I was in a totally different place And I just listened and just let him unload all of the guilt and the pain and the struggles that he had going on And I just kept asking okay, what else, what else? I just got it all out And the message that I had in my heart for him when it was all done is it's okay, you are okay, just don't quit, just keep going. And that's a message. Whenever I start feeling like I'm not enough or I'm messing up, that comes back to me and I feel Heavenly Father telling me it's okay, you're going to be okay, just don't quit.

Alisha Coakley: 10:35

We're like five minutes in the show and I'm already in tears.

Scott Brandley: 10:38

You know what? So I used to be a bishop and I remember people would come into my office and they would unload struggles that they were going through.

Lynn Taylor: 10:50

And.

Scott Brandley: 10:50

I always thought that I would be more critical because I have been with my own kids and things. But every time that ever happened I always felt more love for them after they told me what they were going through And it gave me a little bit of what Christ must feel the love that he has for us. But I just remember always feeling more love when somebody would do that And I'm sure that's not how they felt going into the office, but I love that you shared that.

Lynn Taylor: 11:33

And it was go ahead.

Alisha Coakley: 11:35

I was just going to say I love that both of you guys kind of mentioned how the other person opened up Your son opened up and he just unloaded on you To the point where you didn't be like okay, that's enough information here. Let me tell you everything that I have in my mind. It was like okay, and then what? And what else? There were like I love that. That was kind of your reaction to that, Lynn. And then I know Scott as a bishop like I've unloaded on you. There have been times where I've come in there and Scott's probably like oh, I'm not going to have dinner tonight. Here's Lisa again.

Alisha Coakley: 12:16

But I think that I definitely think that there is like a power in connecting with one another. when one person opens up and shares what they're going through, You know, and it can be so scary because we are not sure if that other person is going to judge us or love us or do both Maybe they'll do both right. But I do think that there's something really, really powerful that happens when someone is able to vocalize their story right, Like their situation, their experience, and to do so in just a really open, honest, raw kind of way. I think it gives us that glimpse into more of how our Heavenly Father can look at them, right? So I just I think that is really awesome.

Lynn Taylor: 13:06

Yeah, i agree There is a a healing power when you can share that burden and know that you'll be in a space where the person will still love you unconditionally, and that this is, if anything, sharing this burden. That is only going to strengthen the relationship. When you've got a relationship with somebody where you can have that level of trust, that it helps get rid of the fear. And it's amazing when, when the fear isn't there, there's a strength and a power that helps to heal and to change, and that's what helps people to grow. I think, yeah, is is creating that space for them to to be open and be vulnerable and to lean on you, without you kind of shaking them to stand on their own, because something is we all need to lean on somebody at some point.

Alisha Coakley: 14:00

Yeah yeah, I think it definitely can, can tell someone That that they're not by themselves, right, that like, yeah, there are a lot of things that we do have to do on our own, like we can't be forced to do it, and we have to be strong enough. But it's nice to know that someone else can be there with you when you're doing that, like when you're making those changes for yourself And when you're trying to to get better. I know I have a son too that has had some struggles with Just kind of repetitive, really harmful behavior, right, and, and he'll go through these stints where he just does amazing and then something will happen and he'll crash down again. And you know, years ago, when this first started, he would always Resort to kind of lying and hiding whenever something like that happened and we would know, and then we would bring it up to him And he would just like we, like you, we would get so frustrated and we would just be like seriously, like oh my gosh, like what? why can't you just figure this out? right?

Alisha Coakley: 15:01

But then is it, is it kind of evolved? We've had these moments where we've had to just be like Thank you so much for telling us. You know, I'm really sorry that you had to struggle with that again. I'm really sorry that that came up out of nowhere. Once again, that's what Satan's gonna keep doing. You know, and we've kind of put that in his, into his perspective of like You may not ever fully get over this, but don't ever stop trying to get over it. You know, like just keep going.

Alisha Coakley: 15:29

Just like how you were telling your son like just keep going, just keep doing what you can do to draw closer to the spirit And when you do have these moments where you feel that weakness falling down on you, Have people that you can talk to, whether it's us or whether it's, you know, another leader in church or another. I never say to go to their friends. Honestly, like for me I feel like they need to go to an adult just because I think they're There are issues that are light enough for a friend to handle.

Alisha Coakley: 16:00

You know, like oh, you know I broke my heart and I don't know if I should place you know, football or soccer or what you know, like things like that. But when they get into the heavier, deeper issues, i definitely think that That anyone who's not already an adult needs to go to another adult, you know, and so, and so. It's been a really humbling experience as a mom Watching him go through this and seeing how, the more that I tell him Thank you for sharing this with me Not only is it easier for him to come to me the next time that that happens, but I've noticed that the span stretches so much further. It's almost like he has more strength to get through longer stints of Where he's able to get over those those challenges quicker or easier or stay away from them. So I don't know, i just think it's, it's very neat that you're, that you've built that relationship with your boys.

Lynn Taylor: 16:54

So I think that I'll go ahead, so I'll just say the, the approach you describe, i think, is key. And the one last piece that that I thought of is as you were talking about. That is, we often refer to the Savior's atonement as infinite and eternal And our moral brains cannot comprehend the concept of infinite and eternal. And, like you said, just don't quit. That's all we can do. And then we have to trust that infinite and eternal will make up the rest, even though we don't really understand it.

Lynn Taylor: 17:31

And And that love that we have and that love that I felt for my son was Deeper and wider than anything I had experienced before. But I felt like I had a little bit of a peek And what you know how, how massive that is, and that really enhanced my trust. And because many times when we're, when we're getting frustrated, it's because we think they should be different than they are or we're afraid of what'll happen, and Neither one of those things are a very Christ centered attitude. So when we do everything we can and then trust that Christ will make up the difference.

Scott Brandley: 18:19

It transforms relationships, it transforms lives and that's yeah, well, and I remember from Vinney, from Vinney's Um Episode, one of the things that really struck out to me that goes right along with this, one of the things he realized his life is a classroom, not a courtroom, right, and we're here to. We're here to continually learn and continue to progress, um, to keep going and keep Keep doing a little better, and if we fall we get back up and we've we learned from that and continue to progress. So, so very true.

Alisha Coakley: 18:56

So when did this happen with your son? Was it while you were writing Vinney's book? Was it before or after?

Lynn Taylor: 19:03

It was before. It was before I started writing Vinney's book. I think it might not long before I met Vinney. Actually I honestly don't remember exactly when. Like You know, the big events in life just kind of hang in there and kind of lose a sense of time.

Lynn Taylor: 19:22

Yeah yeah, and this was definitely one of those, but it was before I met Vinney and started working on the book and so the book So that event, as I mentioned, was like one of two major spiritual experiences and I just kind of assumed that's what spiritual experiences were, and through most of my life I was pretty sure that I didn't really Get very many spiritual impressions, and the ones that I did get, i wasn't very sure that I was interpreting them right. 30 years ago I had some experiences where I thought I had misread something or misinterpreted And that was my excuse for doubting everything that came after. Now, in retrospect, i see that I was still fairly young and not very experienced, and it's okay to make mistakes in the way that you read, interpret things Right. But as long as your point of the right direction and still try to do things out of godly love, you're going to be okay. But I understand that now.

Lynn Taylor: 20:24

I didn't really understand that then and I just discounted my ability to to receive spiritual impressions until, which was so when Vinney asked me to help him with his book, i was a little surprised. I believed something about what he said rang true to me and I knew that he needed certain things. I've been writing stories and writing books for a while, but this was unlike anything I'd done before, so I was a little surprised that he asked me to do it. He told me later that it was Spiritual guidance That he receives, that told him that I was going to be the guy to help write the book. And He asked me And I just went with the answer that came to mind, which was yes. Now in retrospect, i understand that was me listening to spiritual guidance, but I just didn't know it at the time right.

Lynn Taylor: 21:22

So we started on this, on this journey of writing the book. Vinney had had pretty much dictated the experience. He tried to Write it over like 15 years and it just wasn't coming together. So he pretty much spoke his story and then another friend took that and put it into a transcript and the transcript, honestly, there was some story at the beginning and some story at the end, but most of the middle read kind of like a textbook and You know about the principles and things.

Lynn Taylor: 21:54

And as I was going through this, scenes started coming to my mind and ideas came to my mind and I knew that for people to really understand what had happened, they should go on that journey with him and they should experience what he experienced. And That involved Taking that spiritual side of things and trying to put it in our mortal frame of reference, with conversations and all that. But I really wanted to be true to the essence of what happened and So that's the frame of mind and I prayed every time I sat down to work on it And some parts came really it just started to form And this went on for a year and a half. I would talk with Vinney and spend hours at night just thinking over everything that happened and what it would look like, and We got done with the first draft of the book and we handed it off to get some Some editing and some other eyes on it. And that's what my wife said I can always tell when you're working on Vinney's book. And I said, well, how do you know when I'm working on the book? because I've got several projects I'm working on. So there, there are other people there helping you with it when you're working on it. And she's always been sensitive to that sort of a thing and I just I never thought that I was, and so I was like, well, that's interesting, um, and a couple months later I hadn't touched the book in a while.

Lynn Taylor: 23:21

I was in a conversation with some people talking about the book and we started talking about The guide that teaches Vinney many of these things. The guy's name is Drake And as we're talking about Drake, i felt Drake come into the circle where we were talking And it was like if you had a friend or family member who goes away. Maybe they go on a mission for a couple of years. They come back and it's a familiar presence. You're back, kind of where you were. It's a little strange to describe, but I recognized, i felt that presence and it was like a friendly, familiar presence. And in that moment I realized what had happened. Drake had been involved in helping with this the entire entire time, but it took him going away for a little bit and then coming back.

Lynn Taylor: 24:17

In that moment I all of a sudden realized wait a minute, this is how I recognize spiritual impressions. And then I started remembering things that have been happening and I remembered something Vinney said early on we just barely got to know each other very, very. We started this whole book writing journey And and he said, i don't know why, i feel like I need to tell you that you've been listening to spiritual impressions your whole life and just didn't recognize it. It's kind of an odd thing to say. But okay, and now I understand now I understand why that I had been receiving spiritual impressions. It was just below my awareness. And now I also realized that I discounted them because I discounted my own, i didn't believe my own ability to do it, and so anytime that I could have recognized it, i just shut off the possibility.

Scott Brandley: 25:16

I think a lot of people do that. I know I do it.

Lynn Taylor: 25:22

It's easy to do. Edgerton's recently watched a talk an older talk by Elor Bednar, where he talks about how many times people are wondering is this me or is this the spirit? And what he pretty much says in the talk is stop worrying about it. If it's a good thing and it's done out of love and it's all in accordance with what we know is right, it doesn't matter because really, if you are connected with our heavenly father, you shouldn't need I mean, when the scriptures don't be commanded in all things, i mean be proactive, go out and do things. But whether it's you with the idea or spirit with the idea, it all comes from the same source. And then, as you do that, and if you don't question all the time where this is coming from, but you try to open your awareness up, you'll start to notice nudges and suggestions as the spirit communicates with you And sometimes you're gonna be a team in sync and you don't really know where the idea originates. And it doesn't matter because it all comes from God.

Alisha Coakley: 26:40

I remember that talk it's actually one of my favorites and it's called quit worrying about it, Very quit worrying about it. I was like, oh okay, It's a really, really great talk. I highly recommend any of our listeners to go listen to it. Even if you've already listened to it, go listen to it again, because you can always learn more and more. But yeah, that honestly, was like such a life changing talk for me at the time that I first stumbled across it because I had that same thing like, oh, like, is this just me or is this the Holy Ghost? I don't think it was in that talk, but I think there was. Oh, who was it? I think it was one of the women in the church. She gave a talk about this impression that she had to. Was it buy a tie for the prophet or make a tie for the prophet? Do you guys remember this one?

Lynn Taylor: 27:32

Yes.

Alisha Coakley: 27:35

And she was like, oh, he's got plenty of ties. And then the thought kind of came to her, like if it's something good, it's gonna come from the Holy Ghost. So it's okay. You know what I mean. Like, if you just follow those promptings of good, like good will come from them and it's okay.

Alisha Coakley: 27:50

Like, even if it's not directly from the Holy Ghost, if it's something from you, then that means that you're at this place where Heavenly Father can trust you even more. Right, like he can trust you to make those decisions, like you were saying, like to take the initiative, because our Heavenly Father loves effort. Right, like he loves effort. He loves when we can just put one foot in front of the other, move forward and know that, okay, we're just gonna do as much good as we can, because we've had all of this learning and this experience. And I think it's neat that you know you obviously had already been doing good things up until this point, and so it's not that you weren't privy to those spiritual impressions, it's just that your perception of them wasn't quite where it needed to be at the time for you to recognize all of it. But isn't hindsight always 2020?

Alisha Coakley: 28:43

You know like I mean I can look back and I can just see how many things turned out so perfectly. You know what I mean. Even the imperfect things. I can see just how. Yeah, you know, I see so many lessons. I see so many obstacles that weren't in my way, because, thankfully, I didn't get what I prayed for back then, or you know, whatever it is. So that's certainly neat.

Lynn Taylor: 29:08

And I can understand wanting to know sometimes, you know, is this me or is this? because it's comforting to know that you've got another opinion And another one of my boys, who's also fairly spiritually sensitive, likes to be aware of. Yeah, because he also is very creative and sometimes comes up with ideas that may not be in his best interest.

Scott Brandley: 29:34

Yeah, And so what I?

Lynn Taylor: 29:36

tell him is if you're ever not sure if a spiritual impression is good or coming from God. I remind him back in his scouting days with Orientering if you want to get from where you are to another place, you've got a map, you've got a compass and what you do is you triangulate, you look at landmarks and you figure out where you are in relation to those landmarks And so great landmarks and that sort of thing is the scriptures, the prophet and the relationship you have with your parents. And if you've got those three landmarks, you can triangulate where you are and where you want to go to make sure you're not going to go off course. Wow, and so we. That's why, again, we've maintained that relationship with our boys. We're one of their landmarks And in the two of us together, don and I, we check with each other sometimes before we go back and give advice to our boys, because we want to make sure that we're in sync and we're aligned to help them out as much as possible.

Alisha Coakley: 30:35

That is so. I've never heard that before. That is really really, really interesting, so okay. So let me ask you about this landmarks thing, because I think that maybe some listeners are probably going to be like me and they're going to be like we need a little more information. So so say, for instance, someone's going to make a decision, and maybe it's not even like a like a bad decision. Maybe it's just like oh, do I go to school here or here, or do I, you know, stay with this person who I'm in a good relationship with but I'm not really feeling you know all of the things? or do I break up with them and take my chances on meeting someone? Right, and how would they? how would they look at that? like, how would they triangulate and map out a good course? like, what would you recommend?

Lynn Taylor: 31:19

So the way that I would recommend have those exact conversations with with people before. If it's a like, the profit isn't necessarily going to tell you which school to go to or whether to break up with somebody And look at the reasons why you're thinking about breaking up with somebody. Are they about influence? Do they treat you poorly? Do you have different priorities, either financial or family or spiritual? Those sorts of things you can look at prophetic guidance on what are good priorities, that's. That's a point. That's like a mountain peak over to the east And then you can talk to Bishop or parents or other trusted advisors who have been farther down the road than you and have demonstrated they figured some things out. That's a mountain peak off to the west. And so now you in orienteering, you've got your map and sometimes you don't know where you are on the map. So you identify the landmarks and then you find the landmarks on the map and then use the compass to figure out the degrees to those two things and you draw the lines or those lines intersect. That's where you are, and then you on the map where you want to go to, and now you know which heading to take. So if, like with relationship, if you want a loving, eternal family with somebody who has the same financial goals, the same family goals, that's where you want to get to. And then you look at where you are worth. Same thing with college if you want this kind of a career.

Lynn Taylor: 33:03

And then you look at where you are And then you talk to guides. I mean it's great if you're on that, in addition to landmarks, if you can call a friend or somebody who's walked that path, or maybe somebody who's up on top of a mountain peak and can see farther than you can Ask him hey, i want to get here, what direction should I go? And of course you still have control of your feet. You can walk whichever direction you want, but they can guide you on the journey. They can be the experienced trail boss that can imagine I shouldn't say trail boss but they're the experienced guide that can tell you whether you should take the left branch or the right branch to get where you want to go And realize that decisions ultimately yours.

Lynn Taylor: 33:54

But then you can also ask for spiritual guidance as well, kind of that confirmation. Something that I found is that many times, even with this greater awareness that I have a spiritual impressions, and that's the story that just came to mind. There was a several years ago. I was looking at starting a business huge financial investment and talk to her over with my wife and we could do it. It would be risky, kind of made the decision. We decided to pray about it, and so we prayed about it, and the answer that we got was doesn't matter Why, it kind of does, because this is right, don't you hate that?

Lynn Taylor: 34:42

you're like yeah, but as I, as I explored that a little deeper, more clarity came that you can do this or not do this, and it's not going to impact the big things that you need to do in life. So you can start this business or not start this business. You're essentially going to end up in the same place either way. So do what you want, right? So we ended up starting the business and it was a great learning experience And after two years we decided to change course and, sure enough, we ended up in the same place either way.

Alisha Coakley: 35:31

That's awesome.

Scott Brandley: 35:32

Yeah, I think when God wants to tell us, you know, wants us to do something very specific, he'll make it happen The bit, regardless of what path we choose. You know he's going to. He's going to make sure we learn that lesson at some point.

Alisha Coakley: 35:46

Yeah.

Lynn Taylor: 35:47

Yeah, and I like that you said learn that lesson, because I'm also I found as many times at least, growing up where I did and the way that I did I have for many years was under the impression that life was, was like a script and that there were certain like there was a specific plan and things you're supposed to do. But the problem is you weren't given the script, you just got to figure out what the director wants you to do, and part of what you got to do is kind of figure out what's in the script. But I've come to conclusion now that really life is just improv.

Lynn Taylor: 36:21

Yeah you've got. You've got a few specific things and you've got to play your part well And the big picture things matter And if there's something specific that you're supposed to do, god will find a way to put that in your path. But in the meantime, if you want to be a writer, right, if you want to be a doctor, go be a doctor. Those those sorts of things really don't matter as much. And then we get told this in conference and lessons at church that when you get to the other side you're not going to get asked well, what career did you pick? It's going to be how well did you love God and love your neighbor?

Scott Brandley: 37:00

Yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 37:02

Yeah, i love that And my husband and I had that conversation when we, when we, when we, when we, when we, when we change directions from Alaska to Texas. it's a very, very night and day difference.

Lynn Taylor: 37:14

Yes, you're right Yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 37:17

And I think, you know, we kind of went back and forth and I was like, wait, but are we doing the right thing? Like because I felt like we were supposed to go to Alaska and you know, we I don't know like we didn't have anything in our way to stop us from going to Alaska When we first started making the moves. It wasn't until we got really deep into the process and we were like, like going through an inspection on a house that we found a North Pole and all of these things, that everything kind of started, like you know. But I remember telling him I said I know that we need to move Right, But I honestly don't know where our Heavenly Father wants us to be. And we kind of both had prayed about it and we both figured we felt the same way Like Heavenly Father is like wherever you want to go, I guess, like you tell me, we'll make it work. And so we just kind of thought, okay, well, what do we genuinely want, Right, What do we genuinely want? And we had a few things on our list and we were like, so let's look at the places that have those very key items. And one of the big things for us was a temple and an international air for it, because my husband does fly from Alaska back and forth And so we're like those are the two things that we really, really want. We'd been in Elko, which had been three hours from any temple, and that it was very hard for us, you know And I mean Elko's getting a temple. We would have had one built five minutes down the road, but Elko still didn't have an international airport. So we knew we needed to move still, But it was so freeing in a sense, knowing that we didn't have to figure out, you know, an exact town that our Heavenly Father needed us in, because we trust that he would make it work.

Alisha Coakley: 38:55

You know, like if we like he knew that we were going to show up, We were going to do church, We were going to do our callings, We were going to keep our family on the path to hopefully gaining closer to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, And so we could trust that it's okay if we don't pick the most ideal town or if we don't end up in Alaska and now we're going to Texas instead. You know, I think it really it almost gives you more opportunities right To see the Lord's hand in your life. When you make those decisions and you know that 99% of them probably really don't matter, like in the grand scheme of things, So long as you're on that path to becoming more of who you're supposed to be, and constantly wanting to draw closer to our Heavenly Father, you know like he'll just make it all work out, It'll be fine.

Lynn Taylor: 39:49

Yeah, i think it's less what you do and more how you do it, kind of with a prayerful attitude and loving God and loving your neighbors really what it all comes down to. Yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 40:03

So I know that that loving, or like being loved and having love for others, was definitely a big part in Vinney's book and his experience and the lessons that he learned. How did that affect you as you were writing his story? you know, and you had already had this experience with your son Do you kind of feel like like Heavenly Father had given you that that experience prior to, so that when you were able to write Vinney's story you had a better understanding of what that felt like? Cause that when I read the book, that was the part that just I mean it literally brought me to tears, like, like in the way that you had described his experience with feeling that that amount of love come through. And it's funny because since reading that book I'm going to get a little teary-eyed.

Alisha Coakley: 40:55

I have been able to have so many more experiences with feeling that love for other people and and I just experienced it the other day I'm like driving on the freeway. We have this loop that goes around town here and it's like 75 miles per hour and you have to merge with these people who don't want to merge. You know they don't want to get out of your lane and it usually stresses me out driving on that, that section, but for some reason I got on there and I'm with my kid, I'm with one of my boys and we're listening to the new NF you know album or whatever, and and there's a song and it just I just had this overwhelming feeling of love for like my life and myself and my son and my kids, and like the chance that I had to be here. And and even just for the people like I just kind of like glanced around and all these people on this freeway And I just thought like I literally can love every single one of these people, like I can really really love them. And it was so. It was such an amazing experience that I dwelt on that for like 15 minutes on the way home.

Alisha Coakley: 42:05

I just kept thinking about that love and I was like, if this is anything at all close to what he felt, i don't know how, how he managed to be okay coming back, you know, like being separate from that feeling. But so how did that? how did that affect you as a writer, you know?

Lynn Taylor: 42:26

Oh, it had a major impact Because sometimes, when the writing got hard or I was having a hard time connecting with something, i could remember that that experience, that connection And remembering that kind of helped me re-center, really, what the core theme through the whole book.

Lynn Taylor: 42:46

I mean, Vinney's taught 10 principles in the book and every single one of those principles help you get closer to feeling God's love. Every single one of them, whether it's through getting rid of distractions or helping to release prejudice that we may not even be aware that we have, you know, all of these things help us to feel that love for ourselves and for other people. And it helped me one of the big things that helped me to realize that God loves all of us as we are. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us any more or any less than he does, because God's love is perfect. Not that God wants us to stay as we are, but God loves us as we are And we never have to worry about oh no, god's not going to love me, not possible. There's nothing we can do.

Lynn Taylor: 43:38

And then also, the second big piece is many times we forget, you need to treat yourself like someone you love. We're so hard on ourselves sometimes, so often. But if you could treat yourself like somebody you love, because nobody knows all your failings like no mortal person knows your feelings better than you do. And if you can love yourself with all those failings, it makes it that much easier to love other people Like God loves, so like, so love yourself and and also work on loving others. And But all of that helped me get, help me understand and help to convey those lessons. They helped me be open to those impressions on how to put the words to the page, to get that emotion through. And that that's really the main story of the whole thing is just God's love.

Alisha Coakley: 44:39

Yeah, wow.

Scott Brandley: 44:42

Yeah, what an incredible opportunity that you had to to be part of that story.

Lynn Taylor: 44:52

It's changed me. One of the things that I like to say as well While I was working on the book, the book was working on me and it And it hasn't stopped. It's changed the course of my life and my interactions with people. I thought I was just gonna help with any, write a book and Send them on his way, but now we're part, we've created a nonprofit that, yeah, so it's so. It's called living God's light And we're working on a workbook. One of the biggest things, as people were reading the book, they're like okay, these principles are great but not super easy to implement.

Lynn Taylor: 45:29

So we're creating a workbook to help people implement these principles in their lives and and the nonprofit is based on a. It's a Non-nominational international. We've already been communicating with people in Ecuador and Thailand who have gotten a hold of the book and it's changed their lives where, regardless of their religious background, we've had people who weren't brought up with any religious experience at all That now have a connection with God and they're looking to expand that connection and want to strengthen it, and so we're just looking for ways to Help spread that worldwide, regardless of what anybody's experiences before that point.

Alisha Coakley: 46:15

So it's, is it living gods light dot com.

Lynn Taylor: 46:19

Yeah, so just living gods, light dot com, no punctuation, just Just like it sounds. And that's also where you can find links to the book. The book has its own webpage, but we just tell people living guys, light, calm, and that's. You'll find it there. The books on Hardcover or sorry, it's paperback, but a hard copy and audible and Kindle also It's well, three of those ways.

Alisha Coakley: 46:46

Perfect, that's awesome.

Alisha Coakley: 46:48

Well, i want to highly encourage our listeners to go out and to grab that book and then to go visit the website as well and just Learn a little bit more about you guys as nonprofit.

Alisha Coakley: 46:57

I think that if there's ways that they can get involved in and helping out or whatever, i think that would be, that would be incredible, because we definitely need it.

Alisha Coakley: 47:05

You know, this world is as experience and some of the darkest things throughout history and And we need to share the light. You know we need to share that that light with others and and show people that there is a better way, that there is a happier way to live. And You know our Heavenly Father really does love us wherever we're at, and sometimes we're. You know we may not be able to get all away as far as what we would like to get in this life, but as long as we're continually making progress and we're continually trying to To fill our hearts and our minds and our souls with the light of Christ, i Feel like it's it's a way that we can Really combat the darkness that is surrounding us, and so I love that you guys are doing that and that you took the initiative to, to follow the promptings of the Spirit, to say yes, to sit down and to write this book with him, because it definitely was a story that needed to be shared.

Alisha Coakley: 48:01

You know, it's absolutely incredible and And kudos to you for just being that person who you know. One is Making it possible for other people to be able to open up right like in sharing your story today. I think that it's gonna help specifically a lot of parents with children.

Alisha Coakley: 48:23

That in those stages of, like the kids are trying to figure out for themselves what to do. And just I, just I love that example of how to parent with love that you shared and and and I love that you, that you weren't afraid to take the steps to do something that maybe you hadn't done before. You know, you said you'd never written a story like this. That wasn't really like your thing, and it's all working out and it's all. It's all for the good. So thank you so much for that and for coming on and for being our guest today. It's, it's been awesome.

Lynn Taylor: 48:55

Well, thank you both.

Scott Brandley: 48:56

It's been an absolute pleasure, Yeah really, we really appreciate it and Thank you. Everyone that's, you know, tuned in to watch this. Hopefully this has helped you guys in your lives too. You know the whole purpose of Latter-day Lights is to share light, and Lynn is doing that with you today. So Hopefully you can take some of those lessons and, you know, continue to share light in your life, yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 49:26

So, lynn, is there, are there any last little tidbits of you know, of goodness that you, you, would like to share with others before we go? Oh, goodness, just.

Lynn Taylor: 49:37

Just remember, and whatever you have to do to remind yourself in those those dark times, that the God loves you unconditionally And once you, to love yourself unconditionally and and And reach out, build relationships of people that will help you remember that, but relationships of trust with folks that you can be completely open and honest with and it can be open and honest with you, and as we do that, we'll help each other through this really challenging thing called life, make it just a little bit easier, a little more enjoyable, and that Love is the foundation of it all.

Scott Brandley: 50:22

Amen.

Alisha Coakley: 50:24

Yep for sure. All right, guys. Well, that's all we have for you guys today. Remember, if you have a story that you'd like to share, head over to Latter-day Lights, calm and Fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page or you can message us on Facebook and, guys, be sure to drop a comment, tell Lynn what his story meant to you, what you were able to take out of it, and be sure to head over to their website as well and grab yourself a copy of Life after death.

Alisha Coakley: 50:52

It is, it is seriously such a phenomenal book. It is so, so good. It's a very easy read, to the way that the Lynn sat down and wrote it out. It's just, it's so easy to follow all along. Heck, I'm gonna say go get two copies and give one to someone. That's how much I love that book. So make sure you guys do that. And, yeah, just participate in your five-second missionary work, hit that share button, make sure that this episode gets out to those that are around you, and We would love to hear hear from you guys. And you know, just tell us how we're doing and how Lynn's story affected you today. So with that, Scott, is there anything else?

Scott Brandley: 51:31

No thanks again, Lynn, for being on the show.

Lynn Taylor: 51:34

Thanks Scott, thanks Alisha, appreciate it.

Alisha Coakley: 51:37

Okay guys, we will talk to you next week. Have a great one.

Scott Brandley: 51:42

See ya, bye.