Two Converts, Two Paths: Temple Experiences, Polygamy, and Finding Your Place as an Outsider

Mitch and Ashton are out this week, so Stevie takes the host chair alongside guest Juliet for a rare two-convert conversation.

Both joined the Church as teenagers (Stevie at 19, Juliet at 16), and both have since gone through a faith crisis, landing in very different places: Stevie is still active and reconstructing her faith, Juliet has stepped away and now identifies as deconstructing/disaffiliated.

They dig into audience-submitted questions covering:

• Why they joined despite real concerns about prophets, Joseph Smith, and family pushback
• Their first time inside a temple: the culture shock, the "unremarkable" vs. "overwhelming" range of first impressions, and Juliet's "sandbox on a beach" metaphor for how her spiritual experiences have been recontextualized rather than erased
• Serving as temple workers, including baptistry and sealing-room escort duties, and the practical advice they both got to space out receiving an endowment from getting sealed
• Polygamy: how each of them made sense of it as converts, and why treating polygamist women (past and present) as simply brainwashed misses their own agency and reasoning
• Whether converts ever feel like they've "made it," and how never quite fitting the mold shaped both of their trajectories

A candid, generous conversation between two women who joined the same church from very different directions and still found a lot of common ground.

Stevie's first interview on LDBB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRFkwwQw7U&t=274s

Stevie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.t.e.v.i.e_j/

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Abi Finny (@abi.finny) joins Juliet, Ashton, and Mitch to talk about the viral "temple to Taco Bell" video that got her labeled too crass by some and celebrated by others; and why a married Latter-day Saint talking openly about sex still makes people uncomfortable. As a nurse, Abi breaks down why comprehensive sex ed and body literacy matter regardless of your relationship status, and gets into purity culture, the pressure to be pretty but not know it, self-love vs. conceit, and the "check-mark" version of faithfulness (mission, temple marriage, etc.) that can leave you feeling disconnected from God anyway. She also talks about her "car conversations" series interviewing people across the belief spectrum, and why she'd rather build mutual respect than "flirt to convert."

Follow Abi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abi.finny🌐 More episodes & links: https://linktr.ee/latterdaybridgebuilders📸 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latterdaybridgebuilders 🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@latterdaybridgebuilders☕ Support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LDSBridgebuilders👕 Merch Store:https://ldbb-shop.fourthwall.com

What do Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals actually have in common and where do things go sideways?

In this episode, Mitch and Ashton sit down with Steven Pynakker of Mormon Book Reviews, an evangelical who has spent five years deeply immersed in the world of the Latter-day Saint Restoration. Steven shares why he considers himself pro-atheist, what he thinks drives people from Mormonism straight to atheism, and why he believes an unchallenged faith is a weak one. Ashton shares a meaningful personal experience with evangelical students at Biola University that reframed how he sees interfaith connection. And the three of them dig into the surprisingly wide and messy world of Restoration sects, from the Bickertonites to the Fundamentalists, and what it means to build bridges not just between faiths, but within the Restoration itself.

Steven's email: mormonbookreviews@gmail.com

🌐 More episodes & links: https://linktr.ee/latterdaybridgebuilders📸 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latterdaybridgebuilders 🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@latterdaybridgebuilders☕ Support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LDSBridgebuilders

👕 Merch Store:https://ldbb-shop.fourthwall.com