Highlands Ranch Ward Podcast
The Highlands Ranch Ward is a sharing of spiritual experiences, family history and inspiring Christian principles. The goal of the podcast is to help our members get to know each other better as well as inspire people to draw closer to Jesus Christ through prayer, scripture study, family history and living the principles Jesus taught.
Highlands Ranch Ward Podcast
Grant Stucki
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Tyler Dougal interviews Bishop Grant Stucki about his spiritual journey, family history, favorite scripture story and advice for younger generations.
Welcome to the Hounds Range Board Podcast. This is Tyler, and today I'll be interviewing Bishop Stukey. So thanks for coming on today, Bishop.
SPEAKER_01My pleasure. Thanks for asking me to do this. I think it's going to be fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, of course. So some of the questions I like to ask in the beginning are more personal. So for you, when you have a day off or you just have a holiday, what do you like to do?
SPEAKER_01So I love playing tennis with my kids. We've been doing that as the weather's been getting better. Um yeah, so a lot of outdoor activities. Um, love mountain biking, been doing that more with a couple of my kids. Yeah, anything outdoors is fun.
SPEAKER_00That's good, yeah. I was gonna ask with summer break coming up, does the Stuokie family have any fun adventures planned?
SPEAKER_01You know, we we try to go to the beach, so I think we're gonna go to Florida once, um, go to Utah a couple times. Brynn's taking Claire to BYU. So usual stuff. Um, but summer is like my busiest time at work. Um, a lot of teenagers want to get wisdom teeth extracted, so I do have to be around a lot to work. Yes, how about you? When do you start the Mish?
SPEAKER_00Uh next Wednesday. Yeah, next Wednesday. So I got one week.
SPEAKER_01T minus one week, man. Exciting.
SPEAKER_00I know I'm so excited. But let's go. As it gets closer, the to-do list just gets bigger and bigger of everything I need to do. So I got a busy week, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's exciting. I'm proud of you.
SPEAKER_00It'll be great. Yeah, I'm super excited. But this is a good segue into the more spiritual side of things. How did you personally convert to the gospel?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, so I grew up in the church, you know, and so I think there's um it was a very gradual process. I think I kind of just from a young age, I don't know. You know, you hear of people having different spiritual gifts, and I feel like, you know, I probably had to some degree the the gift of faith, just kind of felt like it was right from a very young age, but that doesn't mean there was wasn't times where you know I was not sure and doubting, is God there? Is you know, is this the right path for me? Um, you know, I think it a lot of experiences, like my mission, of course, brought me closer to the Lord, but it wasn't really until later on in my life, honestly, um, just a few years ago, when I was struggling with chronic pain and in my back of my legs for many years, that I feel like I really um had to for kind of forge a relationship and and trust God more than I've ever had to before. And I think that that was probably what really boosted my relationship with God. So it's a process.
SPEAKER_00That's great. Do you have a favorite family history story?
SPEAKER_01Yes, um, a lot of good family history stories. In fact, we just went on trek, so that was awesome. And before Trek, uh, me and my son Jack were reading through a lot of journals. Um, and one in particular is my great great-great-grandfather, Jon S. Stuokie, crossed the the plains, and he was just nine, nine to ten years old. But um, you know, my the Stukey uh people came from Bern, Switzerland, very Swiss, very um, I guess you could say kind of austere, kind of um hardworking people, but not very gentle, you know. And so, like this, my great-great-grandfather, he he tells a story about crossing the plains, and so much of his energy and time as a young boy crossing the plains was was on food, so because he was so hungry, and so he was always daydreaming of food, thinking of food, dreaming of food. And he tells a story where their their company shot a buffalo, and then they like um cut pieces of the buffalo and rationed it to all the company members, and so they gave a piece to his dad. Um, and so the dad had this piece, uh, like a big piece of buffalo meat. I don't know if it was very big, probably small, but he put it on the back of their wagon. Um, and he said to the family, you know, we're not gonna eat this till Sunday. Let's have it on Sunday dinner type of a thing. And anyways, John Stukey, my great-grandma, he's following on the back. He's walking behind this wagon, it's like a 10-year-old, and he keeps smelling the meat. And he said he couldn't help himself, and he had a small pocket knife. Um, and he would just like whittle pieces of the meat off when no one was looking. He would cut a piece, and then he would chew on the meat until he said it chew on it so long it lost all its flavor and it became white, almost like just like chewing gum, you know. But he would chew on it for like hours. Um, and and then Sunday rolls around. So he did that like through the whole week. Sunday rolls around, the dad goes to like uncover the meat, and he sees like a large piece is gone, and he looks at uh you know at John and he says, Did you take some of the meat? Because it's like gone now. And is and he just and he says, Yeah, I took it. I couldn't help myself, I was too hungry, I just couldn't stop. And he says, You know, I he prepared for a severe whipping. That's what he wrote in his journal. Because his dad, unfortunately, they were tough German Swiss people, and they would beat their kids, and so he was like getting ready for a lashing. He said his dad just stood there when when he confessed and just stood there in in silence and looked at him and just like tears rolling down his dad's face. Like, and I think his dad was just so um, from what he describes in his journal, his dad was at that moment, he was just so sad, right? That like he couldn't provide as a father, that his son is so hungry, he's 10 years old, and he's he's willing to endure a beating because he can't, you know, not eat the meat. Anyhow, just like extreme hardships people went through. Um, and he didn't end up you know whipping his son, he just kind of said he was sorry that they were in this horrible situation, but extreme sacrifice and extreme faith that to do stuff like that. So it was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00That's a great story. Having just gone on Trek, what is the importance of trek to you, or what what were some of the biggest takeaways that you walked away from?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I and I I just do not like camping. I used to like it, but due to my back issues, I don't like sleeping, not in my own bed. And so honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to it that much. And it was hard to sleep, it was exhausting, the sun's beating down, the wind is like blowing, you know, 35 miles an hour, breaking all these people's tents. Um, but there is something that happens when you know one when you leave technology behind and like there's no phones, I think that like exponentially increases like your connection with other people because you're just more present. And and there was one point where all these youth were like playing games and they're circling around. There's like 200 youth, and there's like two youth in the middle doing this log saw, and everyone's cheering and chanting for these two guys. And my wife turns to me and she goes, This is what happens when you take kids' phones away, you know, like they actually like are present, they they care about each other, they connect, and they're all just pumped for each other's success. Whereas, you know, if you were to do an activity like that, but you said, Okay, you can have your phones, probably it's like most people are looking down, maybe one person looks up and goes, Oh yeah, good job, keep selling that log, but it's it's you know, kind of quiet and everyone's distracted, right? And that's I think the plague of our day. So I think that so that's one just getting rid of technology, and two, when you engage in like a an activity or like a goal that you're working towards with a huge group of people, like pushing hand carts and helping people get to a certain um place, it's um it's just magical what what it does for your relationship with those people when you're like engaged in a goal. And I think that's the pioneers experienced that they were incredibly galvanized um because they made the trek together, and I think even just three days, three or four days with us doing that was special for all the people who did it.
SPEAKER_00That's great. That sounds like it was a great time.
SPEAKER_01You went to track like four years ago, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the one before before this one.
SPEAKER_01What did you think of it?
SPEAKER_00I mean, it was kind of nothing went to plan on that track on that trek. I remember like the buses didn't show up on time, and so we were all had to take um the members' cars up there, and I was thinking like, oh sweet, I can get to ride in the car, and then I ended up getting picked up in the super old Toyota like Sequoia. The AC barely worked, and I was like squished in the back with like four people. But same with on the way back, like a milk truck crashed and spilled milk all over the highway, and so our bus got stuck behind that for like four hours. But the whole thing was kind of just nothing went to plan. But even though nothing went to plan, it was still such a great time, and I think all the craziness just made it even better. But I think one of my biggest takeaways was just not having my phone and being separated from that, and just getting put in a family with a bunch of people you don't know, like it was kind of awkward for the first day or two, or it's when you were getting getting to know people, but by the end, I just had like a really strong connection with people who I didn't even know who they were when I started. So I think that was my biggest takeaway from it. Fantastic. Uh that's so great. Yeah. Do you have a favorite scripture story?
SPEAKER_01So many. Um, so many great scripture stories. Uh, probably the one most recently on the top of my mind is Peter. I've just I just I don't know why I just love him. He's just this character in the New Testament who's so passionate and so full of faith, and he's just like, he's just this guy who like gives a hundred percent like at all times, like too much. And the Lord actually has to like tone him down and be like, you need to just stop, man. You're you're going too too much. But the there's the story where where he first meets Peter, and Peter's, you know, on the on his boat fishing all night long, and he says, Um, you know, he the the Lord kind of comes and Peter doesn't know who he is, and he says, Cast your nuts on the other side, and he says, We've we've you know been fishing all night and um haven't caught anything, you know. And this is an experienced fisherman, and I think in that moment he probably paused and was like thinking about it, and who is this guy? And then probably there was some type of spirit there that prompted him to think this isn't your ordinary guy just telling me to do random stuff, and he probably sensed uh something special, and so after a long pause, he probably said, Okay, I will try, you know, because he had said he had just they'd pulled their nets in and they'd cleaned them, and so that was like one more thing that was kind of like making it hard for him to put the nets back out. He's like, Gosh, you know, do I really want to throw my nets back out? We just cleaned them all, and so he says, Okay, I'll do it. So they throw them out, and then of course they catch these fish, and um, more than they could pull in. They had to get another boat to carry them all, but then just the reaction I love where Peter, you know, goes uh to shore, sees the Lord, kind of f it sounds like he falls on his knees and says, Um, depart from me, O Lord, I am a sinful man, you know, and like that reaction just blows me away. You know, he's like he's meeting this man, the greatest miracle he's seen in his whole life, and all he can say is I'm unworthy, and just the humility there is like, go go find someone else, Lord, that is worth doing miracles. I'm not because I'm just uh I'm a sinful guy. And I think that's who the Lord was working looking for and wanting to work with was people who were just so humble and moldable, and it just makes me want to be like Peter. Like, I hope I have that reaction when the Lord comes to me in my life. Pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a great story. Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what's one thing you do you have any stories that you've been thinking about recently?
SPEAKER_00Well, for my farewell, I did the story of um, was it I think it was Nephi building the boat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was Nephi building the boat. And one thing that kind of stuck out to me is just how he had no idea to build a boat and just the confusion and like everything how everything must have felt when he was asked to do that. It's just so insane. And how you asked the Lord to help him figure out how to build the boat, and the first thing the Lord, the Lord told him was to go build the tools to build the boat. So he went out and built the tools, and then it sounded like it was still difficult for him, he was still confused, and there was one one part in the scriptures where it kind of sounded like he was almost at his breaking point where he's like, Why? I can't figure this out, and my brothers are all all mocking me for trying to do this, and just kind of where he's at his break, his breaking point, and then later there's I think it's it's first Nephi 18, too, and it's goes on to say something about how he he could not do it when he tried to build it the way man would build it, but he had to build it the way God told him to build it. So I think that really stuck out to me over the past week.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I loved it in your talk when you were talking about this, because I just feel like the way you told that story and how kind of you I think you related it to how you know the first step is build the tools, and oftentimes that's kind of how God deals with us. And it's like, okay, you're you're gonna go on a mission and teach people, but let's step one, let's build your tools. Let's you know, let's help you fill the spirit as you're studying the scriptures, going to seminary, reading, you know, saying your prayers, like he's he's been helping you build your tools that will help you on your mission. Um and yeah, that concept of like things don't go after the manner of men, right? Like the boat wasn't built after the manner of men, it was built out of the manner of God, and how so many times things are happening, and we're like, this doesn't make sense. Like, if you know, if I was doing it, I would not do it this way. But then you see how it works out because you're kind of following the promptings of the spirit, and to me, that's the the manner of God, not not the manner of man, so that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and when I think about it like that, as I've been building my tools throughout high school, I mean I never really thought about it that way until now, and I can see how important they were. But in the moment, I heavily disliked seminar and like it felt terrible to go, it was always a pain, and things like there were so many activities that I never wanted to go to, but I now looking back, I see the impact that it had, or something like the mini NTC where I never really wanted to go, but it actually had a very large impact, and so I never really realized I was building my tools until now when I need to go use them, but it's just a great thing. Oh cool. What's one thing you one thing you love most about our board?
SPEAKER_01Oh, so many things. I the thing that comes to the top of my mind is just like the image of somebody new coming in to our sacrament meeting, and I I mean you can almost time it, and I would guarantee almost that if someone knew when they do come in, like I bet you couldn't make it to 15 seconds without somebody from our ward walking up to them and saying, How are you doing? Who are you? What's your story? Like, we we just have a very social, like outgoing ward that is welcoming, and that is special because that doesn't exist in every ward. Um, in fact, I was talking to our sister missionaries and they cover multiple wards, and I was talking to them about that aspect of our ward, and they said, Yeah, that is special. And in fact, there's another ward that we cover, and they're very introverted. And we, you know, we have a hard time getting people to walk up to our investigators, but like Highlands Ranch Ward, we have no doubt that the minute we walk in that room, they're gonna be swarmed with people, and I just love that about our ward, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's amazing. I love that about our ward as well. Um, if you want to think about your life, what's the time when you were really struggling and you felt Jesus Christ walking with you through a certain trial you've had?
SPEAKER_01Well, definitely with you know, through my health challenges with my back, but I'll because you're going on mission, I'll throw it back to uh 1999, you know, when I was a brand new missionary in in the great country of Bolivia. And when I was so I would I was in the um Provo MTC for a month and then Peru for a month, and like that whole time, I don't know why, but I just kept saying this prayer of like, God, please just give me a good trainer. You know, if I know if I have a good trainer, like an awesome guy who can just kickstart my mission off, I'll be set. And I don't know why I was praying for that. You know, I was clearly setting myself up to be doomed. So I get to do the mission. My trainer is this um Bolivian guy who didn't even look like a missionary. He wasn't he was wearing no tie when I first met him. His hair was long, he just looked like he looked like a 15-year-old kid that was just a punk, like a gang member. I'm like, is this my trainer? And the president's like, yep, this is your trainer. He's a great elder. And I'm just like, what is happening? And I mean, it was the hardest um yeah, two months start of my mission because this guy had had only been a member a year, he was from the other side of Bolivia, he really did not want to work, he wasn't engaged, he was more interested in um the women and going on dates, and I had to keep stop him from going to clubbing. I mean, you can't make up the stuff that happened. I'm just like, oh my gosh, it was so stressful. Um, and then like two months later, he got transferred, and so you you're trained for three months, and I was like, the whole time I'm with this guy, I'm like, Lord, why are you doing this? I just had one wish, it was just to have a good trainer, and you're just punishing me, probably, for for uh wishing this, and it was so hard, and I grew so much trying to live with this guy, and then my last month of being trained, the the mission president switched me and had this um American farmer guy from Idaho be my trainer for a month, and it it was one of the greatest months of my life. This guy was so awesome, he was a hard worker, you know. We became best friends for many years, and it was awesome to have him, but I also like look back and I grew so much with my other companion that was just extremely difficult and different, and that honestly is I hate to say it, but like those are the times I grew the most was with my hardest companions. You know, I don't know why, and it's just depressing that that's how you grow is with real extremely hard, hard situations. But I just pray, you know, that you, Tyler, just have horrible companions again and again. No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I hear this phrase, and it's like if you pray for strength, God will give you trials. So exactly. Oh my god, that's amazing. That's great. Yeah, if you wouldn't mind sharing maybe just a recent time where you felt the spirit.
SPEAKER_01I would say just this past Friday, uh, when we were on track, we had one of most incredible testimony meetings I've ever been in. We were, you know, we were all like it's last night of track. We're just like we all looked like sunburned, wind burned, exhausted. And it's like, you know, whatever, eight, seven or eight p.m. But we like kind of go out on this, um, I don't know if you call it a bluff, but it's like this area overlooking this valley and the sun is kind of setting and it's just this beautiful setting. And we all sat in a circle um with the youth and the leaders in our ward that were there. There's probably 30 of us or 35. And we just went around the circle and everyone kind of bore their testimony about how um God helps you with trials and like my gosh it was incredible. Some of the youth almost all the youth were saying things that were just blowing me away of how God walked with them and is walking with them in trials and I was so blessed to be there. So to me that was just power. I was loving it. That's amazing I gotta ask you the same question. Do you have you had yeah have you had any good spiritual experiences recently? Let me think your brother Owen was telling me about a dinner where you got emotional.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah that was kind of funny so yeah I mean we were having just a graduation dinner and I kind of was thinking about how you know Spencer just left the day before my other friend Porter's in college and I might see him one more time but just everything's changing you know I mean I'm gonna leave my family and stuff. And I just like my sister asked me what was wrong or like what I was thinking about and that kind of just like tripped me. And so I just started crying which is so weird because I never cried I never show any emotion in front of my family ever. Especially like Owen was like I didn't even know you cried like what but it was just such a weird like event I don't know but I think it just kind of showed my family that like even though I don't show any emotion normally I really do care about them. And I think I don't know I mean when I was when I was um doing my farewell I think it's funny how I could just look around and then Owen was just crying so much. He's so sad to see me go but I think that was important and just reminded me of how much I love my family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah Owen was recounting that experience to us in the preschool and it was oh my gosh man I we it was hilarious because he's like Tyler my two sister just said what are you thinking about that was all she asked and then Tyler just starts crying and crying and and he just like can't control himself and then he like somehow collects himself and then and then in the end he just goes I'm fine and that was it yeah we were laughing so hard but like typical man dude just like no I'm fine just wipe the tears away yeah yeah that was interesting.
SPEAKER_00Well anyway if you were gonna write a book about your life what would some of the chapter headings be called what were what what would be some of your greatest life's accomplishments that you would want to include in this book that's a great question.
SPEAKER_01I would I would say certainly I mean I don't know if you call your kids your accomplishments but certainly they would be the greatest chapters of my life is just having my kids seeing them grow going through trials with them um that yeah so so special um my wife and I have have gone through many trials you know we would we got married when I was in dental school and then had a kid just like 10 months after being married and then we had two years later another kid and then we moved like the week after we had our second child and then oral surgery residency I'm never home you know we have two more kids it was just like the amount of things the times we moved and the amount of times we did hard stuff was so hard and I was so terrible you know as a husband and father and somehow my wife hung in there and just the amount of lessons she's taught me um about how to be a a a strong man who trusts in God is just unreal man. So yeah that doesn't really answer questions what the chapter headings would be but it'd probably be like because in high school my nickname was the Stoop Dog that's when Snoop Dogg was coming out and some one of my friends thought it would be funny to call me the Stoop Dog and instead of like Snoop Dogg selling drugs on the street I was Stoop Dog selling like the test dancers because I was like the smartest kid in our in our grade yeah and so I would say my chapters would be like Stuok Pup goes to Stoop Dog and then I grow to Stuok Lion and now I'm Stuk Bishop something like that. I don't know. Wow wow that's creative how about you what what would your chapter be well I've I don't know because I'd be just in the very beginning you know be like three chapters in but yep I don't know maybe you know the big leap for me right now that would be the chapter just about me going on a mission probably and just preparing and everything along those lines but we'll finish it off with uh I was gonna say the next chapter is Tyler becomes a true Canadian in the freezing weather on Vancouver something like that.
SPEAKER_00Yes exactly exactly yeah if you could go a hundred years in the future and talk to your posterity what's one lesson or some concept you would want to explain to them um well I love brother Stephen Brown when he was on the podcast but his answer to this was it was just so classic.
SPEAKER_01He said if I go 100 years in the future and tell my posterity something I would say be glad a robot's cleaning the church because we used to do it by hand. That was hilarious.
SPEAKER_00Yeah but no I think I would I would say um you know that I would just say like what I've learned in my life is to let go of your own concerns you know your own expectations and um basically just grab hold of what God has planned for you and and look for any opportunity to learn and draw closer to God through through trials um yeah I don't know I think things like that along those lines like be present um love your family you know time goes quick so just do everything you can to to love people to teach them to learn yourself to pass on wisdom and strength and love to people before you go that's kind of all I got yeah yeah that's great that's great do you think a hundred years from now everyone do you think everyone's gonna be in like like ready player one they're just gonna be like with these you know 3D visors on living in the virtual world you think we're gonna be in like the metaverse probably I don't know I don't know how I feel about that can you imagine taking off your taking off your goggles and the whole world is just like in shambles right that's probably gonna be yeah my great great grandkids they're just gonna be drones but hopefully when I'm heaven I can see a sneak peek of like the future and the past you know just get a little glimpse of everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well I appreciate you coming on the podcast today I think I'm very glad I could interview today one of my last interviews I'm really grateful that I've been able to host this podcast and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the ward thank you so much for doing it I thought you were just an incredible host and I was so happy you embraced it and you are great at asking questions you're great at listening you're like you're very mature and curious and I love that about you. It's going to serve you well on your mission. You're gonna be a powerful missionary I just know awesome I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Thanks good talking to you too see you later