The Faith-Building Power of Church History - Sandra Meaders' Story - Latter-Day Lights

Can the stories of the Restoration inspire your own story of faith?

In this inspiring episode, Sandra Meaders shares how a lifelong love of books and a growing fascination with Church history led her on a journey that deepened her own faith in unexpected ways. Through countless visits to historic Church sites, studying the lives of early Saints, and immersing herself in the stories of the Restoration, Sandra discovered that the more she learned, the stronger her testimony became.

That journey eventually inspired her to write a series of children's books designed to help young readers discover the scriptures, Church history, and the people and places that shaped the restored gospel. Sandra shares the experiences that influenced her writing, the miracles and tender moments that strengthened her faith, and why she believes sharing even a simple testimony can bless generations to come.

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To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/zBCP727--Tk

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To READ Sandra's books, like "Lehi, Lehi, What Do You See?" or "Joseph, Where Are You?", visit:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sandra-Meaders/author/B07CQRM8YH

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To READ Scott’s new book “Faith to Stay” for free, visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Transcript

Why Stories Build Faith

Scott Brandley 0:00

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite hope, and inspire others. On today's episode, we're going to hear how one woman increased her faith and testimony by writing books about church history for children. Welcome to Latter Day Lights.

Meet Sandra Meters

Scott Brandley 0:30

We're so glad you're here with us today, and we're really excited to introduce our special guest, Sandra Meters, to the show. Welcome, Sandra.

Speaker 0:38

Thank you for having me.

Scott Brandley 0:40

Yeah. Glad you're here. Um, so we were chatting a little bit before the show, and you told me that you're from Boise. So that's kind of fun, not too far away from me. So tell tell everyone a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 0:56

Um, so I my name is Sandra Meters, and my dad was in the Coast Guard. So growing up, we lived in a lot of different places. Like I was born in New Jersey, um, got baptized in North Carolina, um, spent my young adult and teenage years in Ohio and went to college in Virginia. And then um I got met my husband in Ohio, and we lived in Austin, Texas for a little bit, and then moved up to Boise.

Scott Brandley 1:25

Wow, you can't do it. We have three children.

Speaker 1:29

Yeah.

Scott Brandley 1:29

Yeah. Wow, that's awesome. Cool. Um, so what's your favorite place? You've lived in a lot of different places. What's your favorite?

Speaker 1:40

Um, I don't know. I have a lot of favorites. Like I there's parts of Ohio that I really miss, and there's parts of New Jersey I miss, and but I also really love Boise. It's a feels like home.

Scott Brandley 1:53

Yeah. Awesome. Well, we're really excited to hear your story, so why don't we jump in and kind of tell us where your story begins?

From Bookworm To Writer

Speaker 2:03

Um, so I guess growing up I really loved reading and I love books. Um and I always thought I kind of love editing also as well. And I thought growing up I'd be either like a um a doctor or chemist or be an editor or proofreader. Um, so I in college when I was trying to figure out what to study, I uh decided that I didn't really like math, so I didn't want to do science, and so I started um taking English classes. And for my degree, I had to write like a kind of like a big large paper to graduate for um literary analysis, and I decided that I could opt out of it if I took creative writing classes. So I started taking creative writing classes in college and minor didn't because I just loved it so much. And um so I started writing more, right? I took like a screenwriting class and some short writing, short, short story writing class, and took a bunch of different writing classes. Um and then I tried to find something to do with it after school and or after graduating from college, and there wasn't a lot of opportunity, but I eventually ended up at a marketing agency.

Editing Skills From Marketing Work

Speaker 3:27

Um, and although like my role as a project manager, I got to write sometimes copy for websites or um help them with I would proofread a catalog for a major lighting company, and sometimes I'd get to write little descriptions for the catalog. And um I learned a lot about editing from that process and how to manage different projects. It was a great experience.

Creating LDS Picture Books

Speaker 3:56

Um, and then when I started having kids, I started looking at the children's picture books and for LDS kids, and I was like, I kind of wanted to write something that um was fun and a little bit um something that they would want to reread over and over again. And so that's when I wrote Lee Hi, Lee High, What Do You See, um, which talks about uh the Book of Mormon. It has a Book of Mormon figure, and then um it teaches the kids colors and an object that goes along with the story. Um and then I really like the format of that story um and wanted to do something with church history.

Church History Sites That Shaped Her

Speaker 4:40

So that's when I wrote uh Joseph, Where Are You? Um and that one talks about a historical figure and then a place. And growing up in Ohio, I just had so many cool opportunities as a youth and young single adult. Like I had opportunities where I had fast and testimony meeting in the Kirtland Temple, and that was before the church even owned it. The church would rent it out for things. Um we got to pick strawberries at the Hiram farm, um, and we just got to really interact with the church historical sites, and it was just such a cool experience. And then as I um got older, I started gravitating more towards church history and learning more about it. From reading I started as a teenager reading The Work and the Glory and then took institute classes, um, I minored in history, um, and then there was a professor there that was a modern history scholar at Southern Virginia University, and he incorporated church history into his lessons, and I and then as a and I just loved it. It was so interesting. And then as I went back to Ohio, I was able to see more of the sites or kept going back. I mean, we young adults, they still have fast and testimony. We had sacred meeting in the Kirtland Temple. Um you get to, I don't know, as you get to know more of the Kirtland young single adults, they tell you more things like, hey, come to this park because there's you can see the where the stone was chiseled out for the Kirtland temple. And just really cool things like that, and just had some cool experiences. And then we even went, I would go to Pine Myra a couple times like once or twice in the summer just to visit with friends and to go see those sites, and just it's just a great experience. And so that was part of reasoning, part of writing Joseph Where Are You is just showing my love of church history and some of the sites. And so I just wanted to share that love with kids and get them the opportunity to kind of visit with the church, visit, get a sampling of church history and uh kind of fall in love with the sites too.

Scott Brandley 7:12

So um So what's the how does the book flow? Like what's how do you introduce different church?

Speaker 7:23

Um so usually I would it would trying to explain. Uh it would show like a picture of Joseph and say a little bit about like Joseph Smith, and then it would say, Joseph, where are you? And then it introduces like a church site. So I think the first one he's in Palmyra, and then I did Elijah Abel for another one, and he's in Kirtland. Um, he helped build the Kirtland Temple. He went on three missions. He's a black member, but he had the Milkesick priesthood, he got his initiatories out at the Kirtland Temple, and um, and then I continued that all the way. And Brigham Young was the last character or per historical figure I introduced and had him going to the great Salt Lake V Valley. And so I just wanted like brief intros of the of the history, yeah.

Scott Brandley 8:18

Okay, so you introduced different figures. And then I haven't and differ different figures along the way and then and where they were along kind of the historical trail on the way to Salt Lake. Okay.

Speaker 8:32

That's cool. And I also wanted to introduce kids to the church history sites because they're so amazing. And I being out in Idaho, it's kind of hard because you don't have a I mean, I think there's one like in the board by the border, but there isn't like you you can't go to Pimyra for like a youth trip or anything like that, but you can take do watch it virtually through the virtual tours, which is neat. So now I've done that with uh youth groups and stuff like that. We've seen like the virtual tours and it's fun. Um, one of my favorite church sites um that isn't in the book is the John Johnson Farm in Hiram.

A Prayer And A Lost Ring

Speaker 9:15

Um I only had so many pages, and it was either Kirtlin or John Johnson farm. Like, well, people would know the Kirtlin more than the John Johnson farm, but the John Johnson farm is so special. Like one time I took my little church group of kids that were getting ready to get baptized up to see the site, and they had the on the steps is where Joseph Smith like actually stood. And so you can stand there and we took a picture. And then um another reason why it's special is I lost my engagement ring on a hayride um at the farm. Um, and if you ever go there, it's the farm is like massive. They have like a camping site in the back part of the property, and so I lost it in the dusk, in the dark. And um I had a bunch of my friends helping me look for it. My husband's like, or fiance then, but husband now, he's like, Don't worry, I'll get you another ring, but I'm like, we can't afford it. And I it was like one of the first presents he gave me. And so I was sitting there praying, and I'm like, Heavenly Father, help me find this ring. Like, I know you can, I'm not gonna leave this spa until you help me find it, find it. And I had this feeling to go back and look in this puddle uh of water, and I found it. And and so I feel like if you go to those church sites, you get um and you have those moments of faith-building moments that it really helps you connect with that part of history.

Scott Brandley 10:52

So that's that's a cool story. What are the odds of you finding the ring?

Speaker 10:57

Yeah. I know, right? But a part of it, I just love church history, and I think it's important that kids learn about church history. It's just a short sampling to help out.

Scott Brandley 11:09

When I went to the Kirtland Temple, uh we did go to the John Johnson Forum too, and that was that's a really cool thing. Like I love going to those church history sites, and I agree with you, they are amazing. Like the church has done a great job at you know just restoring them and just making them so pretty, and you just feel the spirit so strongly with all the different places that you can go along the way.

Speaker 11:35

There's just yeah, it really is. And I feel like the saints that are there are so lucky because they get their youth conferences and their camps, and they can go so often that it's just lucky. And Kirtland's only a six-hour drive from Palmyra, so that it's pretty easy to hop on the highway and go up there for a weekend too and see all the church sites here, so see all the church sites there. So it's neat.

A New Picture Book About The Bible

Speaker 12:02

Um, and then I have one more book um that came out in March. It's called The Bible, um, which talks about um kind of the background, a little bit about the background of the uh Bible and a little bit about the societal impact of the Bible. So um, and it's a children's book. It's it sounds like it's not a picture book, but it is. So and that one I kind of wrote So what's the flow of that one? Um it kind of it kind of goes over like the background of the like this Bible was written in this language, um, it was published this many times. It um kind of goes into the different languages and how much it was published, and then it kind of breaks in and tells little bit, little snippets of stories of the Bible from the Old Testament and New Testament. And then the last page is kind of like how um who the Bible is inspired. So it tells a little bit about um, it shows pictures of different people that inspired because like the Bible, like Shakespeare, he had in was influenced by the Bible, and some of his plays has biblical influences, and um there's a couple other poetry poets and there's artists that were inspired by the Bible, like Michelangelo, and they have all these pieces, and I don't think kids, and then at the end it says, let it inspire you. Um, just because I remember I was trying to think of something different that hasn't been done with the Bible. And I remember sitting in a Sunday school class, and I had this thought come to my head, like they don't really understand like how much the Bible has culturally or impacted our society. And so I mentioned something to kids and they all just looked at me like, what are you talking about? And so um, but I remember like studying in college, and I was like, I was amazed how much literature, how much authors use the Bible, and even modern times, you have like Heather Moore who writes about like different Bible characters, and I mean it, and you have movies and veggie tale, you have all these things that inspired so many different religions, and we don't always think about that, we just think about the stories or the principles. But I feel like if you look at the impact, it it's really significant, and it kind of share builds up my testimony that the Bible has impacted so many different people, and it can influence us too as we read it and study it. So um it's just amazing. Their church is amazing, so yeah.

Why She Writes For Children

Scott Brandley 14:56

Yeah. So why children's books? What what in why why did you feel inspired to go down that road? And then how do you think of your ideas for a book?

Speaker 15:12

So I I'm I I'm kind of a short story slash flash fiction kind of girl. That's kind of the classes I took in college. I took did take one novel writing class um in college, and that was kind of overwhelming. But I think a lot of it is inspired by my children, is as usually I'll say, why isn't there a book like this for them? And then I'll just start writing it for writing it for them. Um and I don't know if other kids love my books, but my kids do, and they'll reread them and pick them up, and they each have a copy of the book and they'll pull it out. And so it's kind of like me sharing my testimony to them in a different way. Um and so that's kind of how I got started with children's books. Um what was the other question?

Scott Brandley 16:09

How do you come up with new ideas? Oh, so I you kind of answered both those questions.

Speaker 16:15

So it's usually just my kids. Sometimes the publisher will send out a list of ideas, like the Bible one, they wanted something on the Bible, and I was like, there's everything's been written on the Bible. And so I was trying to kind of praying and think about it, and then I just remembered this talking to the Sunday school kids, and I was like, I want to do something a little bit different. Um, and then the Joseph, where are you? That idea came from um just kind of I wanted to do after I wrote Lee High Lee, hi, what do you see? I wanted to do something with church history. Um, but it took me a while to figure out what and how to do it because the Book of Mormon, um there's that story, it kind of is like a prophet and then an object, like Lee High Lee, hi, what do you see? I see an orange tent waiting for me. Or I don't think that's exactly what, but it's something like that. And so I didn't know there's no there's not a lot of objects within old Doctrine Covenants, and so I wanted to tie it with something, and then I was thinking about church history sites because that impacted my life so much. So it just kind of depends. Sometimes I'll just get an idea or something will pop into my head, or um, talking to my kids, and I'm like, why isn't there a book for this? And then I'll just start writing.

Publishing And Illustration Process

Scott Brandley 17:34

Okay. And then how how do you do the illustrations? Do you have have you found people that work with you on those along the way, or how does that typically work?

Speaker 17:44

Um, so usually my what I do is my um everything's written in a Word document for me, and then I send it to a publisher and they'll either say yes or no. Um and my publisher is Cedar Fort, and so if they say yes, then they send the we'll work on with them a little bit on the text, and then they send it to an illustrator. So I don't pick the illustrator, it's they have a list of illustrators that they work with, and I have no idea how they choose who, but I've been pretty happy with the illustrators that they've chosen. They do a really nice job of picking that, and um they're amazing, they really bring a lot of color to the text, and sometimes they see the text in a different way than I would have seen it. Like Joseph, where are you? They added kind of like a intro where the kids are in a primary class, and that was a different visual than I had in my head as I was writing it, but I was like, it kind of works, it works for that, but it's um and then the Bible they illustrated that, and that was very vivid, colorful illustrations that I really enjoy. So okay, cool.

Writing As Testimony Sharing

Scott Brandley 19:03

So um as you as you've gone down this journey, um, how has it helped, how has it impacted your testimony of the gospel?

Speaker 19:12

I think I'm usually a quiet introvert. I don't like it's hard for me to share my testimony. A lot of times I kind of sit back instead of getting up on testimony, meaning I like have to be filling the spirit really strongly, or sometimes I'll be I don't know. But writing is an easier way for me to share my testimony. And even if I can write out a talk and just read it, then I feel a little bit more comfortable. And so writing it just kind of gets some of my feelings out and some of my ideas out, and um, and it's you can't always my like my testimony isn't always explicitly said, but you kind of get the feeling like I love the Bible and I love the Book of Mormon and love the church history, and so you kind of get that indirectly, my testimony and my feelings about those things.

Scott Brandley 20:11

Well, it's gotta be um uh make you feel good having your kids read your books, right? And and see how their testimonies are developing through your experience.

Speaker 20:23

Well, and I think it kinda and they kind of get curio more curious and they start reading other books. Like uh my daughter picks up like the illustrated doctrine and covenants and will read that. And um, and I think it somehow has impacted their little little testimonies too, because they are kind of they kind of will my oldest will read his scriptures on his own, and I think they kind of see me writing and talking about it and or writing about it, and they kind of get curious and want to read and learn more for themselves. So that's good. Even if nobody else reads the books, at least it's helping somebody, right?

unknown 21:08

Yeah.

Scott Brandley 21:10

So I wrote a book too about faith, and that's what I that's like how I I thought about it too. I'm like, if this only helps me, it was still worth it, right?

Speaker 21:22

Well, and I had a friend who sent me her um, it was a copy of a book that she had written. It was just to go over the it was an idea that she had, and I was like kind of editing it and um and I don't it hasn't been published yet, but like the words that she wrote really helped me to think a little bit differently about like um and it helped me to come to some realization. So even if it doesn't go anywhere from there, you know what it's impacted me. And so sometimes the idea might not go out to like thousands, but you never know if it it's impacting the person. That's writing it and it's acting might impact like the person you share it with. And so that's the cool thing about writing is and sharing your testimony and your ideas, it you never know what's going to happen with it.

Scott Brandley 22:13

Right. Yeah. Well, awesome. So um you've written what four three uh children's books, and then um I have one flash fiction that's floating around on the internet, too.

Speaker 22:26

So um yeah.

Scott Brandley 22:28

Okay.

Future Projects And Writing Advice

Scott Brandley 22:31

So what it what are you do you have anything else in the works or what are your what are your future plans?

Speaker 22:36

I have a novel that I started a young adult one. I don't know if I like the novel writing, it's just so long. It's I I don't know if I'll finish it. We'll see. Um, and then I have like a general children's book that's floating out in the publishing world, but um it'll either get accepted or denied. Uh and then so every once in a while I'll come up with an idea and I'll send it out and see if a publisher will pick it up, and you just never, you just never know. Like the odds with publishing is really small. I think it's a little bit better with the LDS market, but you only have two publishers to send it to, like Desert Book and Cedar Fort. So we'll see. I'll just keep writing.

Scott Brandley 23:20

Right. Awesome. Yeah, it is kind of a little bit of a smaller market.

Speaker 23:28

Yeah, and you never know what it'll take you. You never know what will happen. So yeah.

Scott Brandley 23:34

Yeah, yeah, you gotta try. If you had any advice for you know, for writers that are maybe put maybe thinking about writing a book or trying to maybe get get their first book published. What do you have any advice for them or anything that you're doing?

Speaker 23:53

Oh, there's a lot. I think for me, writing classes really impacted me. Um, and a lot of the writing classes in college, and I did take some of master's class. I took a um when I was getting master's in literature, I took a flash fiction writing and a memoir writing and like a grant writing class. And um a lot of that is like studying how studying the work, like if it's memoir or if it's flash or if it's picture book, just study what's on the market. Um, and then there's different formats for writing. Um, so like picture book is a little bit different than middle grade or young adult. So like do your research and how that works and um just start writing, get involved with writing groups, go to writing conferences. There's a lot in Utah where you can learn about how to write. Um, there's a lot of seminaries and workshops. Um and there's a lot of books on it. And so you can do your research. Um, for me, I really enjoy like taking a class on it. And because then you could for that I could write and then get feedback on it. And so that was grateful. That was helpful. So, and even if you can get like a writing partner or somebody who exchanged writing pieces with you, that helps too.

Scott Brandley 25:16

Yeah. Yeah, getting feedback is super valuable. Unless it's negative feedback, then it's not a good idea. Negative feedback is still good.

Speaker 25:23

It helps you like with then you know what to correct and things like that. Everybody always hates editing and editors, and I always when I edit, um, there's an author I would edit with, and I always felt like it was uh like a puzzle finding mission, like finding all the errors so she can make her writing stronger. Um, and then I want to help companies with their editing. It's that's just making everything a little bit stronger. And so even if it's negative feedback, don't take it as that. It's just helps you make things a little bit stronger and finding the weaknesses.

Scott Brandley 25:57

So it's good. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of tongue in cheek, right? Like you you want to get the honest feedback. So you're grateful when somebody is actually, you know, give even if it's negative, if they're telling you what you might not want to hear, but will help make it better, right? So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.

Where To Find The Books

Scott Brandley 26:23

Well, um, if people want to find your books, where do they go? How do they find them?

Speaker 26:30

Well, they're on Amazon. If you look up my name, Sandra Meters, you'll find it that way. Um I think Lehi, Lehigh, what do you see is out of print. So that's if you're gonna find it, it's gonna be hard to find. Um, the other ones you can find at Amazon or Desert Book online. And then they're both at Select Desert bookstores, but I don't know which, because I know the Bible is only at the Boise Deseret book. I don't know why the other one isn't. Um, Joseph, where are you? I saw that one um at the Desert Book by City Creek. Is that downtown? I saw that one there, but I haven't checked. I haven't been to Utah to check to see if the other one's there. But it's it's online. Oh, and it's on the Cedar 4 website too, if you go to their website. And they're sometimes they run sales during different times, during conference time. And so if you're on their email, I would suggest being on their email list because sometimes you can find some really great deals on um church books or books on church topics.

Scott Brandley 27:39

Yeah. Okay, awesome. Well, we'll definitely put some links in the footnotes for people to go check them out. Um, I looked at I looked at some of your covers on Amazon.

Speaker 27:50

They look like that. Yeah. Cedar Fort does a good job with their illustrators. So yeah.

Scott Brandley 28:00

Yeah. Well, this has been lots of fun, Sandra. Um, usually when we kind of wrap things up, I ask people if they have anything they'd like to share. Any any closing thoughts.

Speaker 28:15

I guess the closing thought is if you want to write, if you have want to share your testimony in writing or any other way, just don't be afraid to try it. I mean, there's no harm in trying.

Scott Brandley 28:31

Yeah. Well I mean, like you said earlier, you never know whose life you're gonna impact.

Speaker 28:38

Yeah, it's like that quote in Doctrine Covenant. It's like one uh remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, and then it talks about like just even the one soul, if you can help them in some small way, it doesn't have to be significant, then you're doing you're sharing God's light with others.

Scott Brandley 28:58

Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on and telling us your story and and sharing your amazing children's books with us. So thank you. Yeah, you bet.

Final Encouragement And Listener Invite

Scott Brandley 29:13

Anyone watching, go support Sandra, help her with uh getting the word out on her amazing books. Um and if you guys have a story that you'd like to share, um, like Sandra, go to latterdaylights.com and tell us about it. Or email us at latterdaylights at gmail and we can have you on the show. And thanks again, Sandra, for coming on.

Speaker 29:39

Thank you for having me.

Scott Brandley 29:41

Yeah, thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll see you next week with another episode of Latterday Lights. Till then, take care. Bye bye.