Our Story to Tell

hen we moved to Germany five years ago, we knew we would be raising our daughter (and any future kids) away from the comfortable life we knew in the US and close to friends and family. What we didn't expect was the amount of changes and growth that would come as we have experienced multiple countries, cultures and approaches to parenting along the way. In today's episode we share a bit abo...

In today’s episode, we dive into the complex reality of beauty culture. In today’s digital world, it’s easy to be caught up in the trends, the fads, and time-consuming effort to look flawless and perfect. We share how living across different countries and continents has changed our perspective on beauty culture. Welcome to Our Story to Tell. We’re so glad you’re here. *WE NEED YOUR HELP* For our u...

Can you believe it's been 5 years since we left the USA to move to Germany? Since then, we've also lived in Japan and now Italy, which really puts into perspective all the things we've accomplished and experienced in the last 5 years. But, what if we hadn't left Utah? What if we'd stayed in the comfortable bubble we had created? In this episode, we explore a few of those what i...

As many of you know, we've just completed a year in Italy and the transition has been great for us. In today's episode, we recap much of what we experienced in that first year and touch on a few aspects that were a bit surprising about the Italian education system and life in general as we've seen up to this point. Here's to another year! Welcome to Our Story to Tell. We’re so glad...

Over the past few episodes, we've broken down many points in our time abroad where we were faced with the decision to reflect and dive into what we truly believed. With time, we came to the painful realization that our religious views and beliefs held as Mormons had changed and we needed to intentionally reassess where we wanted to be spiritually without the structure of organized religion. So...

If you’ve been following along with us, you know how long this journey has been unfolding. Faith was deeply personal for us, and stepping away from Mormonism wasn’t something we took lightly. While living abroad, new perspectives — including learning church history we hadn’t been taught — led us to begin re-examining what we believed and why. Over more than three and a half years, we slowly assess...

Today's episode continues our international journey to the Far East just south of Tokyo. We took a leap of faith and hope that a move to a new job for Tanner would be a great move and would allow us to experience another culture and lifestyle while our time overseas was limited. Little did we know that move would only last 12 months before we were turning around to return to Europe. We dive into w...

If you've been following us along for some time, you'll understand how long it's taken us to open up about our religious beliefs and journey. Faith and religion for our entire lives has been incredibly personal and not taken lightly. So, when we moved to Europe and began to experience shifts in perspective, to include hidden history from the Mormon church, we began inspecting our internal beliefs....

This episode covers the second half of our time living in Germany—the deeper cultural integration, the friendships that shaped us, the uncomfortable moments that stretched us, and the experiences that changed our family forever. We talk about hosting our Ukrainian friends during the war, exploring Europe with family, navigating German food culture, road trips and camping in Switzerland on a budget...

In this episode, we take you back to March 2021—moving to Germany in the middle of a pandemic with a toddler, zero idea what to expect, and our entire world about to shift in ways we didn’t see coming. We talk about the culture shocks that hit us right away (grocery stores, recycling, Sundays, parks, friendships), the parts of German life we instantly fell in love with, and the moments that quietl...

From backpacking to having a baby and full time careers! This emotion filled episode covers many life milestones in a short span and we share our insights on how that impacted us. Thanks for the love and support! Welcome to Our Story to Tell . We’re so glad you’re here. FOLLOW US // YOUTUBE - http://youtube.com/ourstorytotell INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/ourstory2tell WEBSITE - https://ou...

At the end of Tanner's final internship and college courses, we took off to India to lead our humanitarian trip with 18 volunteers and so much excitement and hope to make an positive impact. Following the volunteer work, we spent the next five months traveling Southeast Asia and the Pacifica, growing and learning with every country and day spent being with each other and the many different cul...

After thriving in our adolescence in our small Mormon-community, both Tanner and Risa continued down the path that was expected of them. Less than one month after graduating high school, Tanner set off to Central America to serve an incredibly impactful LDS mission in El Salvador and Belize. Risa finished her senior year of high school and then completed her freshman year of university at Utah Sta...

In this episode, we’re going back to where it all began — our small-town Utah roots. Before the passports, before living abroad, before the deconstruction… there was the life we thought we’d always live. We talk about what it was like growing up in a close-knit Mormon community — the safety, the structure, the expectations — and how that shaped who we were long before we ever set foot on a plane....

We’re sharing the backstory—how a few small choices (and a willingness to take a risk) led us to move our family across the world... not once, but THREE times. From growing up in a close-knit, faith-centered community in Utah to navigating daily life in Germany, Japan, and now Italy, this episode dives into the personal shifts that came with each international move. We talk about the culture shock...