Healing from Spiritual Betrayal and Finding Love Again with Sarah Bingham

What happens when you do everything "right", you pray, you wait for a "yes" from the Lord, you marry in the temple, and it still ends in divorce?

In this moving episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys sits down with Sarah Bingham to discuss the raw and often unspoken reality of temple marriages that fail. Sarah shares her journey from "journaling to her future husband" at age eight to the devastating fallout of an eight-year marriage that left her shaking her fist at God.

Sarah opens up about the "Prodigal Son's Brother Syndrome", the pain of watching those who made poor choices seemingly get "celebrated" while you struggle to survive. She discusses how she reconciled the concept of eternal agency with temple covenants and how a literal hike toward forgiveness led to a miraculous softening of hearts.

Whether you are currently navigating a divorce, struggling with "cloudy days" of trauma, or trying to rebuild your trust in God’s plan, Sarah’s story is a powerful testament that through Christ, what is broken can indeed be mended.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The Conflict of the "Yes": How to handle the confusion when a marriage you felt prompted by God to enter doesn’t last.
• Agency vs. Covenants: Why God respects the agency of individuals even within the bounds of a temple sealing.
• The Healing Power of Nature: Sarah’s unique "forgiveness hikes" and finding God on the mountaintops when the temple felt too painful.
• The Miracle of Co-Parenting: How Sarah went from years of "ugly" legal battles to a peaceful, blended family dynamic that includes her ex-husband.
• Mish Mo Creations: Sarah’s new mission to start "missionary moments" through scripture-inspired apparel.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Shack (Movie/Book): A resource Sarah used to understand the forgiveness process.
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk: A discussion on healing from trauma and how the body remembers the past.
• Mish Mo Creations: Check out Sarah’s line of intentional, scripture-based clothing https://bodysoulmaintenance.com/products/short-sleeve-unisex-t-shirt-1?
• Quotes by: President Russell M. Nelson, Elder Dale G. Renlund, and Sister Kristin M. Yee.

Transcript

Sarah’s Early Faith And Courtship

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome back to Temple Bound. In today's episode, we explore the question: what happens when things don't go to planned? Sarah Bingham, a member of the church, was married in the temple and had all the hopes and expectations of an eternal marriage, only to find herself divorced years later. We're going to share with you her story of how she was able to reconcile that and what her journey was like when things don't go as expected, even when she went to the house of the Lord. It's a tender episode that I'm excited to share with you. Enjoy the show. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for being on the show today.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Yeah, super excited.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, I love your story because it's one that needs to be told. I think, you know, when it comes to temple marriage in particular, there's an expectation of perfection to some degree, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

So why don't you share, why don't you share a little bit of your story?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Oh man, where's the best place to start? So when I was young, I was eight years old when I started writing in my journal to my future husband because I knew there was one for me. Yeah. And through the years, even as I dated um other boys, you know, men as I grew up and everything, I would ask, like I'd start dating them for a little bit, and then I would pray to God and I'd be like, Is this the one for me? And he would give me the comment, like, you could make it work, and this is a good guy. It just takes a good guy and a good girl. And it was very loose, and I was like, Nope, I want a yes. I want the one that you made for me. Yeah. And so, anyways, through the years, I kept getting no, kept getting yes, kept getting maybe not yes, but um bees, yes. So, anyways, I was selling Kirby vacuums and I knocked on the door of this gentleman, and um I don't I don't even know how it happened. I walked in and he was like getting something so I could get contact for him for my boss or something. He's like, Oh, we bought one of those Kirby vacuums, and you know, anyways, so I noticed the temple pictures on his wall of his family and stuff. I was like, Oh, you're LDS, and he's like, Yes, I am. And I was like, that's cool, me too. He's like, awesome. Wanna go on a date? I was like, What?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Wow, that's a pretty that was a bold. So who who was selling who at one point? I mean, that's amazing.

Miracles, Marriage, And A Shocking Divorce

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So, anyways, a couple days later, needless to say, we connected, and within a couple of weeks, we knew I I actually got the yes. We had prayed about it. You had a strong. So, um years in, in the beginning, it was amazing. Like he was so spiritual. I remember one night where I was having a lot of pain in my abdomen, and he like prayed over me, and come to find out he had prayed that God would give him the pain and take it away from me. And it that's how it went. And I was like, whoa, spiritual master. That's what I wanted. I wanted a man that loved God as much as I did.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yes. And um which was something that you had a natural like inclination. This was a spiritual gift that you always had was this love of God. And so when you found this, there was no doubting that God was saying this is the man for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yes. There was like when I say there was multiple miracles, we can't we just won't even get into how many. It was un undeniable.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yes, you knew like the way you knew the church was true, or the way you knew the sky was blue, this was the man for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

The Heavenly Father was my father. Like that's a that's been a root in my life since very, very young. I had interactions with God, and I actually went to Him more than my own dad.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So it's an amazing thing because you know, you have this knowledge, and then you're married for how many years before you guys get divorced?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Um, we ended up being together for about eight years before the divorce was finalized.

Anger At God And A Quiet Fall

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, definitely there's some there's a lot of story between this and there, but I think for the stake of this show, things go to divorce. Yeah. And and that, what was that like for you when you had that knowledge that he was the one for you? What what how did you reconcile that previous understanding with this this thing that didn't work out?

Forgiveness On The Mountain Trails

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So towards the end of the marriage, my ex would stay up late with the baby and give him the last bottle, and then I would be up at the four or five o'clock feeding. Well, while the baby slept, I would be reading scriptures or a conference talk or whatever, just kind of dedicating that time to the Lord. And I was getting really frustrated because things were shredding so fastly, and I was so surprised. This was my yes guy, like I didn't understand. And um I told God that I had always wanted to be a missionary, and there was so many things I wanted to accomplish and do. And uh God was like, you know, what do you think you're doing for me? And I had the opportunity to be that missionary in my home at that time, even though it feels insignificant. But so I was frustrated, but um I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna do it because I know that the church is true, I know the doctrine is true, and so I want to stay faithful. And anyways, so divorce hit, and it I was just like so angry. I was almost like spiritually a teenager shaking my fist at God. Like, I was like, you took me through this whole road, and if you already know what's gonna happen, then you already knew this was gonna happen. I don't understand why you would tell me yes. Like, I was so mad, and I fell away for a while. Um, not from God, just from the disciplines of religion. Yes. So I wasn't active at the time, and and through the years, I did things very intentionally. I knew I needed to heal. And so, for example, one of the things that I would do was when I would hike, I love trail running and I love like things like that. And so when I would hike, um, I don't know if you guys have ever seen the movie called The Shack, but if you haven't, I highly recommend it. It basically walks you through the forgiveness process. Okay. And um, so I would go on this hike and I would out loud say, um, Lord, that I dedicate every step on this hike to the energy of forgiveness and to trusting you with your plan. And so it was crazy because one time I had already moved back to Arizona because I was in Utah at the time, and I had moved back to Arizona to be with my kids because the judge ruled that I couldn't relocate them. And it was still really, really rough interaction at the time. And I was working to take him back to court, and um, I just remember God telling me, no, you're not taking him to court. Things are the way I need them to be, you know, type of thing. And I was so devastated. And I got up through the hike, I said all the forgiveness stuff, and I was like, hey, I'm just gonna trust you. I'm not supposed to take him to court, I'm just gonna trust you. And I got to the top of that hill and back to my vehicle, and there was a text message from my ex that said, like, sorry, or some type of forgiveness thing about what had happened, and like, we need to learn to work together. I'm sorry, like da-da-da-da.

A Softened Heart And A Text

SPEAKER_00 6:45

This is a big deal. Huge deal. Like, this is a huge deal because during the fallout, you know, things are being broken. And, you know, I appreciate the the sincerity and the intentionality that you approached the marriage in the first place. You know, you saw the temple in the room when you were selling the vacuum and you were sealed in the temple, and you know, as we know, President Nelson says that the highest and most important privilege of mortality is to enter into a covenant relationship with God and Jesus Christ. And it feels like, you know, we're promising it forever. We're promising eternity to each other. Yeah. And so I can only imagine, you know, when that ends, how much hurt there is and how hard it is to connect over that. So it's powerful to me that even during this time where, like, like you said, you weren't doing things from a religious perspective, but you were very spiritual still and you were praying in the hike, that in that moment the Lord softened his heart to text you. And and so, what was that like for you to receive that text?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

I just started crying. Like it had been so many years that we had fought and things were just so ugly. And so to receive that was like the biggest answer to prayer I could have gotten. That was like the step, like, just keep trusting me, trust me, trust me.

Temples, Mountains, And Meeting God

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Like a miracle. Yeah. I mean, and so I love this idea, just as a side note, I'm I'm very fascinated by the parallels between temples and mountains. How even during this time when you weren't going to the physical building temple of the Lord, you were still talking to the Lord in his earthly temples, these natural areas where you could go be close to your father.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yes, I do believe that the temple is really important. I had an experience while I was in the temple one time because I was kind of frustrated. I kind of felt like, Lord, I'm closer to you on a mountaintop than I am coming here. I don't understand. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

You were telling me before we hit record that when you first started going to the temple, you were so excited to go. And when you went, you're like, I feel closer to your actual mountains than I do here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yes. And so I asked the Lord, I'm like, why do why do we have to come here? Like, why can't I be out in the trees and on the mountains? And and he said, Well, that's not fair. I go to your house. Why can't you come to mine?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Oh, that's nice. So he was in that way communicating to you, this is my house.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yes. Come, spend time with me where I am. Don't make me always come to you.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Interesting. Yeah. It's it's a it's amazing too how the Lord um can't force us to do those things, but he wants us there. Like he's just wanting us, like any parent would be, to have us come visit and spend time. Not just because he wants to be close to us, because like you said, he can come to us, but there's something about the effort of going to him that makes our hearts open to receive what he can give us.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

It shows him that we're willing and that we're hungry. Uh curiosity and hunger. I feel like there are a couple of things that are really missing out of this world anymore.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah. And so you're in this place, going back to your story where you have been devastated around these things.

Wrestling With Agency And Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 9:32

I actually really love that you touched on agency because that's one thing that I really learned through this marriage is as I was healing and asking God, like, why, why, and he says, agency. And it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Why didn't it work out, you're saying? Like, why didn't the temple work out for us if it's supposed to be forever? And his answer was agency.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yes, I feel like I learned through this marriage that though promises can be made or commitments or you know, whatever, that we still have our agency. And that really was proven in each of our aspects, you know, my ex choosing the choices that he made. And I honestly had warned him during this time, like, hey, the choices that you're making could cause our family. Like, are you willing to risk our family? Yeah. And um, the heed wasn't there, and so as he used his agency, I used mine as well. Right. And that I had to set some boundaries for myself that would, you know, mm not make me go all the way under. I don't know how to better say that.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Right. You had to choose your agency in order to for survival and protection.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

I had to, yeah. And so um, I really love that. And that's a huge thing. Like when we judge and force and push and try to control, that loses the essence of God. Like, agency is God. And so I think that's one thing that helped me heal too is I was like, okay, he can be a human, and I can be a human.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

And so it seems like that's how I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that's how you reconciled this thing about hey, we're doing the right thing the right way. We're getting married in the temple, we're sealing our hearts to each other and to Christ, but it didn't work out.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

And for many, I have a very close friend of mine who's left the church who he told me, I said, I was I just told him like when we got close enough, why did you leave? And he goes, I did exactly what I was supposed to do, and it didn't work. I checked the boxes. I wasn't just a good kid, I was the best kid. I served a mission, I was the AP, I found that this wonderful girl from a great family, and then we get divorced. He's like, I I can't make sense of it. And so I think there's many people listening who can relate to that feeling of confusion, of hey, I'm doing the right thing, why does this happen? And sometimes it's divorce, but other times it can be sickness, it can be trials and those types of elements.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

It's the brother. Um the prodigal son brother. That's what I learned. I felt like the prodigal son's brother.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

How so?

Trauma, Triggers, And Honest Healing

SPEAKER_01 11:56

The prodigal son's brother sat outside while his brother was celebrating with his father because he felt, I did everything right. Why am I not celebrated?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Like you're left out of blessings.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Well, why does everybody get all this stuff? Because I watched my ex grow into his family. He got remarried very quickly after our divorce. He is still married to that woman. He has the kids, he got the retirement money, he got it all. What about me?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah. What happens to you? And in your case, you're making decisions in order to protect yourself and stay healthy.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

And you feel like you're not you're sitting on the porch watching everyone else celebrate and have fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah. And my father, my heavenly father, celebrating with him and rejoicing with him and gr glad he came back and you know, all the things. So it's I call it the prodigal son's brother syndrome.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

How long did that take you in general? Like from the beginning, like since the time of the divorce, the time where you got clear, where would you sit? How long of a period of time was that for you?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Um, to be honest with you, I I still deal. I was listening to the book called The Body Keep Score, and one of the things that I've done. I love that book, by the way. It's amazing. I was I was driving down the road, listening to it one minute, fascinated because I love psychology. Next thing I know, I am blubbering down the road. I can't tell you what triggered it. I don't know, but I was just like, I'm so broken. Like, I don't even know if I can ever heal because I still have episodes of nightmares or I call it reels, like just this one thing will hook into my brain and just spin a million times and it throws me into like adrenaline and like frustration and just I call it cloudy days.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Wow. Thank you for being so authentic, by the way, Sarah. I think people listening really relate to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

A lot of people deal with it, but it won't they won't talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

No. So why are you so confident in being able to talk about it?

A Blended Family And New Love

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Because I feel the blessings of the Lord because I've worked to heal. Um, the Lord has given me so many things. So, for example, there's a story. I I was with my new husband already. Um, it's a blended family. He brought four, I brought three into the marriage, and and he is the one. He makes me so happy. And I he was the one I've been waiting for. But that doesn't come with no struggles. As we've blended the family, the kids have worked to, you know, work together and love together and be together. And my two youngest, they were probably like five and six at the time, and they come running up to me. Sure. And um, one of them says, Mom, you need to spank him. He was being mean to me, and was like so mad. And I was in this moment of my life, I was just frustrated out back anyway, right? So it just caught me in the moment. But I was like, Oh yeah? Well, would that make you happy? Yeah. And he was like, Yeah. And I was like, What the heck? And I just spanked him, and I spanked the other one. I was like, now everyone can be happy. Like, why do you have to be mean to each other? Why can't you just love each other? And in that moment, I heard God telling me the same thing. Um you feel betrayed, you feel hurt, and you want me to hurt him, but I love him, and he isn't he's broken too.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Like He needs me as much as you need me. Exactly. You know what? You you kind of just got right to this really cool reveal is that you end up getting remarried. Yeah. So if I can summarize the journey, marriage, hopes of perfection, or at least happily ever after after, and then it doesn't work out, then there's this huge confusion and separation from at least activity in the church, but questioning God as to why this happened, and then you realize that agency plays into this, yeah, and then you start working on forgiveness. And through that forgiveness, the the savior's atonement plays in, he touches his heart, he reaches out to you, and you start reconnecting. So let's let's go back to that story of like how does it go from that to being married again? And and like, because like there was a reactivation involved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

There's because that I attribute to my my current husband. I don't know that I would be active without him.

Reactivating Faith And Returning

SPEAKER_00 15:59

What was life right before you met him? It was like right before you met him, what was life like for you?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

It was openness. I I had fallen from the church, I had you know shifted my life, I joined the military, and I was in Utah at the base, and I was looking to relocate my kids. And I had just gotten started boyfriend, girlfriend, with my boyfriend before my current husband. There's a guy you're dating, yeah. Yes. And anyway, so my husband and I connected off of Facebook. Our birthdays are like two days apart, and so he got notified and he was like, Hey, I saw that you've been divorced. Can I ask you what the process was like? And we started talking.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Because he was going through a similar process.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

So there was like this fire that started between us and our conversation alone. We hadn't seen each other in 15, 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Because well, history here, the audience doesn't know is that you knew each other as primary children.

Second Sealing And Trusting The Plan

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yes. Our moms were in uh the state primary presidency together as we were kids, and I would go over to his house and play all the time. We were both raised in Idaho, and I moved to Arizona when I was about 10 years old. And so, um, anyways, so we re-sparked, and all of a sudden, there's like this fire going between us. That's the best way I know how to describe it. It was like I just wanted to talk to him all the time. We we talked about similar things and like we felt really uh similar because of what we had been through um with our spouses. Ex-spouses. Yeah, yeah. She wasn't an ex per se, but they were on that road. He was trying to decide if that's what he wanted to do, anyways. So um, anyways, he I was like, hey, I just got with this guy, and I don't know what this fire is, but you need to figure out what you're doing with your wife, and I'm gonna be doing my thing. I need you to stop talking to me because I I can't like I don't know what the fire is, but it's it needs to stop. And so a year went by, and it was just about to the date where I had gone to court to see if I could relocate my kids. And um, things were falling apart. My current boyfriend, I was breaking up with him because he got orders to move to England, and I was like, I'm not going there. Yeah, and so everything was just like falling apart around me, and apparently it was for him too. He had just told his wife that he was ready for a divorce and that they were done and they were working on separating and and all this stuff, and um and and she's and she's you got they were married in the temple as well. Oh yes, oh yes, absolutely. Um, and he too had been years of trying to figure out like what the heck, like I thought I was supposed to keep at this because temple is forever. So how how deep do you go? How to the darks do you go with a person before you put the boundaries on and go, I don't want to go down that road? Like I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

And you related to that because eventually their marriage ends, yep, and then you're you're there together. So so once that that marriage ended, and and uh gratefully you reconnect after that marriage is over. So then what happened?

SPEAKER_01 18:55

So we got together and he basically told me, like, hey, I want you to be mine forever, so you better figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Because he's active at the church at the time.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yes, at the time. And uh so he just told me he was like, I just I know that I want to be with you together forever. And so I want you to try to come towards going to church and getting your temple recommend, like, like let's go, basically. And so I did, and honestly, like probably the first several months of going back to church, I cried every Sunday. Why? It was just hard. It was like hard to hear some of the things it was healing, honestly. I just I remember sitting in sacrament just crying for a reason I didn't even know. And this image came to my mind of like body and soul coming back together almost.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Okay, so there was some tender reuniting of these things and healing, yeah, and maybe some re stimulation. I don't know, of of like you last time you had been there was during that time of difficulty with your previous foul. So I can I can see a lot of things happening for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Asked me to do wouldn't lead me down a road of like heartache and hard things. Because sometimes God doesn't ask easy things of us. It's not as easy as go take a meal to this person, you know, go, you know, go minister or go da-da-da-da. It's hard things he asks. And that's scary to retrust. I was like, I don't want to trust you right now. Like you asked me to do a really hard thing. What are you gonna ask me to do next? You know?

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I understand.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

And he said, Sarah, where is my servant? That when I say jump, she says how hi.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

That's amazing. And so you you you get active again.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And so what was what was that like to be sealed a second time?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

I feel blessed. I have a s a patriarchal blessing blurb about my marriage, and it was that. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

There was some connection there that felt like in the end there was some some plan to this, this chaotic experience.

Creating Life After Loss

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Absolutely. God has so much beautiful plans, and it's all taken care of because even when you go through divorce, I it for me, I was like, what about my kids? Like, what about covenants? What about like, are they gonna be sealed to me and my current husband? Or what if they're not, or like, yeah, um, you know, just so many questions about things like that. And I'm very much a person that's like, God'll sort it out, and I I kind of trust that, and we don't know in the moment God has a picture this big and we have one this big, you know? Sure. And so that's He'll sort it.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

He'll sort it.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

So um looking back on this whole journey from beginning to end, because like you said, you're in this place of imperfect perfection now where you have your you've been married now for how many years?

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, almost five years.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Five years. You're super in love with your husband. It's it's a perfect, imperfect situation again, where like you're two imperfect people, there's still challenges, but it's it's it's it's the happiness that you'd always wanted.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

What would you say to somebody who's maybe where you were right after a divorce? What would you want them to know? Especially a temple, a temple wedding marriage that ended up in divorce.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

That there's hope and a plan. You have to trust that there's a plan. Um and be clear about what you want. I feel like God um turns it back on us more than we think, like the brother of Jared. He was like, Well, how are you gonna light the boats? You know, he kind of left it to him. And you really gotta work to create what you want. We are we are God's in the making. We he wants to give us everything he has, including creation power. And I feel like, you know, so many people limit that to having babies, but creation is everything. Creation is everything.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

It's interesting to think about the Lord who has the ultimate creative power. And yes, he created offspring, spiritual offspring, but he also created the planets and he created the trees and the sky and all these elements. And we are the literal gravity, you know, we are the literal spiritual descendants. We have the DNA. Yes. So when you say creation is everything, I think there's something empowering for me to hear. And I hope people who are hearing who relate to you can feel this is that we have the power to create. And the Lord is always gonna respect our agency in that process, just like he has to respect others. And he'll inspire us to do things that don't always like we we think of things as like linear, you know, cause and effect. I do a good thing, I get blessed.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Sometimes those things he wants us to do are the right things. And unfortunately, agency can't be removed and it results in some painful circumstances.

Co‑Parenting Peace And Real Reconciliation

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I remember when I was selling Kirby Vacuums, I actually went through this stent where I pretended every day was my last and I lived expecting miracles. Wow. And I feel like there's a power that comes, though we need to go to God with gratitude and humility, we need not forget that we are his child and we have power. And when we are stepping in the footprints of God and and moving in life, we can expect that he'll have us have our back. When we are working to create holiness and and light, he will make up the difference.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I love that. Um, there's this quote from Elder Renland that we pulled up before we started talking, I think is just so powerful. Through the power of Jesus Christ, what is broken can be mended. What is old can become new.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Oh, that's so perfect because though life hasn't been perfect, I would like to say that the ending of the story is not only did I get my current husband and I'm so happy, but the relationship with my ex has healed so much to the point where it's give and take. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Tell me about that, because that's surprising.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah, our the four children that that my husband brought to the marriage have actually stayed the night at my ex's house with the other three because they wanted to hang out.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

So he there's so much connection and support and and and love that like co-parenting that like you've now developed a a very friendly relationship with the co-parent.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yes, it like it literally can take a 180. Like all this was happening while I was relief society president, and and it was crazy, but the small steps that it took as we've shifted, and is it perfect? No, but it is amazing. Like we serve each other, we talk, we've actually sat down over food together so we could discuss different topics, like as couples, and it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Oh my word. When you were first divorced, could you ever have imagined that to be possible?

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Never ever in my life.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Amazing. Um, this reminds me of another quote we discussed before we hit record from Sister Kristen Em Lee, who ye, who I have just the greatest admiration of. She says, his healing can come to you in your time and in his way as you trust him.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

It's true.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah.

Wearable Scripture And Missionary Moments

SPEAKER_01 25:50

It's true. It's hard. It's so hard in the moments to trust it sometimes. I uh I actually ended up getting a tattoo right here on my wrist of the word trust so that I could look at it often and remind myself like, trust him, trust. I feel like it's a hard thing for me and my husband, and so we got matching tattoos, but we're learning to rely on the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

That's wonderful. Well, I can't thank you enough for this wonderful story of hope, of transformation, of miracles, of testimony, of trust. Um, you know, I I know that right now you have been dedicating your life newly to God as you've as you've been active for years now, and you've been stepping into leadership roles. And one of the cool things that you've been doing most recently is that you're finding creative ways to put the word of God literally on people's backs. Talk to me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, it was actually an idea that I had while I was still married to my ex-husband. Um, and so it's been a long time coming, but just this huge push, God's been like, here, do it, do it, do it. So uh he just gave me, I was looking around for t-shirts for my little boys one day because I was so sick of the t-shirts, like I'll sell my sister for a piece of pizza and like ultimate gamer, like all these wind shirts. I want something that matters. And so I had this idea of a t-shirt with a whale on it and a man kneeling inside of it and it saying, Don't become whale bait. And it just cracked me up. And it's the story of Jonah. The scriptures uh go on the sleeve of reference. And so, as you wear these t-shirts, my hope and dream, and I feel like what God's putting onto my heart is we need to talk about God more. We need to know the stories, we need to remember the miracles because we're gonna need that remembering as crazy things happen in our lives. Like, oh, you know what? He he saved Esther as she saved her people. And he, you know, even though Jonah fought it for a while, like I did for a while, he still got to serve, and those people of Nineveh repented and they changed their ways. The whole town. And Baniah, like there's some that I hadn't even heard of till I started doing this. Beneah is a man that chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed it and became a king's guard to uh King David.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Interesting. So you're finding popular and lesser-known stories, yes, and you're illustrating them in a fun way to where it sends a message that matters that reminds people of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

And conversation starters, you know, someone who doesn't study the Bible, because I also have Book of Mormon ones, and I would love to make a parable line and a Doctrine and Covenants line or a general conference quote line. Like it would be so fun. But people who don't believe as we do or that don't know the story, they're gonna ask you, what does that mean? What is that about? And then you get the opportunity. I call them Mishmo creations, missionary moments.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Oh, Mishmo is the name of the company?

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Uh doing business as, yes. Doing business as.

A Message To Posterity And Closing

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Well, I am so excited. We'll have links to all of those uh store shirts in the in the show notes. And I I can't thank you enough for being on the show. My final question is always the same one for everybody. Okay. Um, you know, right now this is one part temple, one part connecting to Christ through temple, but it's a one-part family history. We're recording this for your descendants. The most important people listening to this show will be your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids and so on. What would you want them to know about the temple?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

The temple is the highest frequency that you can attain on this earth. And the more time you spend there, the higher you become. And that would lead us to the city of Enoch, where we can all live in the highest frequency possible. And the more you can get around it, the better.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Sarah, thank you. I sure appreciate you being on the show.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Thank you for listening to today's episode of Temple Bound. If you enjoyed today's content, please leave a review and share the episode with others so that people who are looking for this information can find it. Thank you again for listening. Until next time.