Leading Saints Podcast

Tithing settlement is, no doubt, a busy time of year for not only the bishop but for the bishopric. Thousands of wards and branches around the world will all make it happen starting October 15 and so it would be helpful to share notes and find the best approach to tithing settlement. In this episode 5 bishops or bishopric members share how their ward approaches tithing settlement. They each share...

Most bishoprics that have been set-apart longer than a few weeks will know the feeling of trying to read the mind of the speaker at the lectern that has gone over their allotted speaking time by a few minutes. "Do they realize their time is up? It sort of sounds like they are concluding their remarks. But he said he would be sharing a list of 7 analogies and I think he is only on number 4. But loo...

David Deford has an amazing story. Born and raised in Indiana David became involved with various drugs that contributed to his leaving home during college (without telling his parents). He experienced glimmers of God’s love during this time and ultimately met his wife, Kathy, when he picked her up as she was hitchhiking. They were introduced to the Church while hitchhiking cross-country and throug...

Manoel Bezerra is a Brazilian cab driver who makes a habit of handing out copies of the Book of Mormon; especially when the Rio Summer Olympics were in town. He is passionate about missionary work because he remembers fondly his own conversion to the LDS Church in New York after honest prayer and meeting the missionaries. He now serves as a member of his stake’s high council.

Samuel Bradshaw is a Church employee and a part-time student. His interest in music and statistic led him to creating a project called SingPraises.net where he analyses how the hymns are sung in the LDS Church. He gathers hundreds of data points from wards around the world and then organizes the data to see which hymns are being sung the most and which hymns are being neglected. A bishopric or war...

Wendy Ulrich, Ph. D., M.B.A., was a psychologist in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan for almost fifteen years before moving with her husband to Montreal (where he presided over the Canada Montreal Mission), then Alpine, Utah. She founded Sixteen Stones Center for Growth, which offers seminar-retreats for LDS women (sixteenstones.net). She is a mother and grandmother, a columnist for Deseret...

Mark & Lacie Sieverkropp live in Ephrata, Washington where they both grew up as non-members. Examples of LDS friends started their interest in the gospel which led to their conversion. Mark helped fellowship Lacie and they later got married after her baptism. They have now been married 9 years and have two children.

Yohan Delton received his PHD in Applied Social Psychology with an emphasis in industrial organizational psychology. He was born in France and served a mission in Louisiana. He has spent a lot of time teaching, he taught at BYU as a graduate student, at the MTC teaching French, and has been teaching at BYU Idaho for 9 years. He currently teaches the History of Psychology and Organizational Psychol...

President Bob Cowan served as a counselor in the Australia Brisbane Mission. He has also served as an Area Seventy, president of the New Zealand Wellington Mission, stake president, bishop, and temple ordinance worker. Sister Jenny Cowan has served as a multi-stake young single adult adviser, stake and ward Relief Society presidents’ counselor, stake Young Women president and stake seminary superv...

Imagine walking into your parents' attics after years of living away. You hope to find the box full of your childhood toys so you can share with your own children. You approach a shelf full of cardboard boxes. Some are old, beat up, and most are dusty. Each box is labeled with a piece of tape describing in a few words the contents of the box: Christmas, Grandma's China, Winter Clothes. Finally, yo...

Wayne Brockbank was a mission president in the Nigeria Uyo and the Ghana Accra missions from 2006-2009. He has lived and worked as a consultant and professor in Abu Dhabi for the past 7 years and experiences the unique culture of the LDS church in a Muslim country. He was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Petaluma, California. As a young man, Wayne along with his wife served missions in the So...

I live in a very transient ward. Some month we get up to 30 new members moving in and roughly the same amount moving out; most of these we never see in church. It's the nature of our ward and it has its pros and cons. This results in the fact that we have a significant number of members on our rolls that we don't know. They are just a name with few facts. About a year ago I went through the ward r...

Today we head down to Friendswood, Texas to visit with Beth Young. Prior to becoming a Texan Sister Young was raised in Arizona in a family without the blessings of the Gospel. In this episode Beth shares what it was like to be raised in a home without the restored gospel by a father and mother who loved her but struggled with alcoholism. Sister Young was introduced to the Gospel in high school wh...

Jason Lyle Black is an award-winning concert pianist, composer and stage performer from Salt Lake City. He is also know as “The Backwards Piano Man,” who’s music videos have over 30 million views. In this interview Jason tells the story of how he went from an EFY performer to performing on the Ellen Show. He gives great advise to parents on how to support your musically-inclined child as well as h...

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t. He has also dedicated himself to the gospel of Jesus Christ and currently serves as a bishop in Menlo Park, California. From Greg's online bio: "He has authored a remarkable book which was an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined...

David Terry is a former Bishop and Stake President in Washington State. David and his wife answered an advertisement in a newspaper to teach English in China. After this experience, they were able to serve in the temple presidency in the Kiev Ukraine Temple. This interview follows the life and service of David Terry, in and out of the church. He shares stories of successful missionary work and tou...

Jerry Smith is the author of Schooling the Prophet: How the Book of Mormon Influenced Joseph Smith and the Early Restoration. He is originally from Salt Lake City and served his mission in the Boston Massachusettes area and later returned there to continue his college education. He now teaches in the School of Management at Boston College and also teaches LDS institute classes. He has served as bi...

Geoff Thatcher grew up in Farmington, Utah in an LDS home. He is a descendant of the apostle, Moses Thatcher. He served his mission in the Kentucky Louisville Mission. He graduated from BYU in Journalism and now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio where he works with large corporations to help them create attractions and museums to advertise their brands. Geoff Thatcher's calling involves working with all s...

When someone dies in a local ward many families turn to the bishop and or Relief Society president for direction and organization. In this episode I interview Greg Ballard, who is a former bishop and has had 20+ years of experience as a funeral director in Salt Lake City, Utah. We discuss some best practices of conducting and facilitating funerals.

In this episode I interview Scott Newman who has had over 25 years of leadership experience in Corporate American and now shares of that experience by teaching business courses at LDS Business College. One class inparticular that he teaches is called Leadership for Life where he focuses on 5 pillars of leadership. We take time to discuss some of these principles and how they relate to leadership i...

Thanks Bishop, but now what? As a newly called bishop in the inner city of Salt Lake, there were a lot of things I didn’t know, but this was one of the questions that worried me the most. I felt that if I gave a member a Bishop’s Order for Commodities (food and supplies, clothing, household goods or an authorization for services) that I should be able to let them know what happens when they go to...

In this episode I am pleased to introduce you to the voice of LeadingLDS Italia, Marco Ferrini. Marco is a bishop in Florence, Italy and got turned on to the LeadingLDS podcast last year by another bishop who recommended it to him. He loved the resource so much that he contacted me about doing a similar podcast in Italian. I am excited to extend the LeadingLDS brand over to Italy and continue the...

Blake Dalton is a full-time teacher from West Valley City, Utah. He served a full-time mission in Eugene, Oregon. He has served as an elder’s quorum president, a high councilman, executive secretary, and currently serves as the bishop of his ward. Also, be sure to listen to Blake's How I Lead interview. Enter Blake… In April and May of 2016, Freakanomics Radio did a series of episodes on self-impr...

Christine Shaw is no doubt an individual on a mission of service. Though she has completed a formal mission with her late husband in Malaysia, she has been on a mission all her life. In this episode she tells of her experience as a Relief Society president and Primary president in a branch that was started with the help of herself and her husband. She tells interesting stories of helping invite Au...

One of my favorite gospel stories is about the father who brings his possessed son unto the Savior to be healed (Mark 9). After pleading with the Savior's disciples "that they should cast him out; and they could not," the Savior quickly rebuked His disciples. He then turns to the father and says, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father's response has lead...