Hosting a panel at a conference for young single adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the last place Ashly Stone imagined finding herself.
Amid the art gallery, dating sessions, service projects and devotionals at the Utah Area’s YSA gathering at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City, Stone staged a live podcast Friday.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) An art gallery welcomes attendees to the YSA Conference.
She is the founder, director and host of the “Come Back” podcast, whose central purpose is telling the stories of Latter-day Saints who left the church and then returned to the faith.
For the live episode, Stone brought guest speaker Emma Heiner, her good friend and nanny, to advise the audience about the stigmas of faith crises, abuse and divorce.
Heiner recounted how she swiftly exited the faith after her first marriage. During this period of her life, Heiner distanced herself from the church and members of her family.
“It felt like the future,” Heiner said, “was closing in on me.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ashly Stone, right, host of the “Come Back" podcast, interviews her friend and nanny Emma Heiner about returning to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heiner said her life changed at, of all places, a Taylor Swift concert.
During the song “Tolerate It,” Heiner told her friends about the intolerable difficulties happening in her marriage and ultimately decided to leave. Even after her divorce, Heiner said it took a year before she felt ready to immerse herself in her faith again.
Now Heiner is a devout Latter-day Saint, an employee for Stone and happily married to her second husband.
While the podcast hosts a wide array of Latter-day Saints who have returned to the religion, Stone was the first to tell her story on the show’s opening episode.
After growing up in a Latter-day Saint family in St. George, Stone found herself getting wrapped up in drugs and alcohol at a young age. At one point during her heroin years, she said, it was all she thought about.
“My whole life revolved around getting drugs and finding ways to get money for drugs,” Stone said. “I lived in a drug house in Arizona. … My life was in shambles."
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ashly Stone, host of the “Come Back" podcast, talks about her path back from addiction and to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She had never been, Stone said, further from her family or her faith.
But all hope wasn’t lost.
Stone decided to change the trajectory of her life and revitalized her faith. She said that the church quite literally “saved my life.” Because of this miraculous metamorphosis, Stone wanted to share the wealth and help others make religious comebacks of their own.
“I love the term ‘come back,’” Stone said. “It has a double meaning because it’s a comeback story.”
But Stone didn’t just want Latter-day Saints to return to the faith. She said she hoped their stories would inspire people in their most challenging circumstances. ‘
Stone saw it as important for her to attend the YSA conference because younger generations are experiencing new challenges.
“Our challenges can have meaning,” Stone said. “And we will get out the other side.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People participate in the “Dating Zone” activity as part of the Together in Christ YSA Conference.
Stone was also scheduled to appear at the Saturday session of the three-day YSA conference, which drew thousands of young single Latter-day Saints to hear speakers, enjoy concerts, participate in dating sessions and attend sessions on a range of topics.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Mutual app, a dating app for single Latter-day Saints, offers dating coaching during the YSA Conference.
Note to readers • Dylan Eubank is a Report for America corps member covering faith in Utah County for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories.