#043 -- Two LDS Converts: Why We Joined (And Why One of Us Left) w/ Stevie Johnson

Two Converts, Two Paths: Temple Experiences, Polygamy, and Finding Your Place as an OutsiderMitch 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 pushbackTheir 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 erasedServing 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 sealedPolygamy: 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 reasoningWhether converts ever feel like they've "made it," and how never quite fitting the mold shaped both of their trajectoriesA 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=274sStevie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.t.e.v.i.e_j/ 🌐 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