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
Kristina Atkins
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Claire Stucki interviews Kristina Atkins about her spiritual journey.
Hi everyone, welcome to the Highlands Ranch Ward Podcast. Thanks for taking the time to tune in and listen. This is Claire. I'm your host today. Today I'll be interviewing Christina Atkins. She's an amazing member of our ward. Christina, thank you so much for joining the podcast today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. I'm happy to be here. Surprised. I'm not the conventional choice, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're excited. Okay, so with that, um, my first question for you is how did you convert to the gospel? What's your personal conversion story?
SPEAKER_01Um I mean, I grew up in the church for sure. And uh so that was always like a deep part of who I am, but I have like different moments that I can think of that were like kind of like conversion moments, you know. Like one like in high school, I think. I was reading the Book of Mormon, and for the first time I was able to like imagine them as like real people, you know, and that was pretty cool. Um, I know it seems like a simple thing, but you know, it kind of feels like sometimes when you read history stuff, it feels like they're more like characters, right? Um, so that was a neat moment. Um, I'm like, I can think of moments. I'm like, huh, can I? My memory is not great from growing up. Um but definitely different times when I've like felt the spirit really strongly, and um just felt like this feels real, you know. Um, and like in college, I had a lot of um moments that just hit calm on a deeper level than just your normal growing up, you know. Um, like I had so my sophomore year I was had my first depressive episode. So I don't know if you know, but I have bipolar disorder. And it set it onset in senior year of high school, um, but I didn't know it was until I was 24. But my sophomore year, I knew it was depressed. And I missed a lot of class and slept during the day a lot. But I had this awesome um DNC teacher. I don't remember how I took first or second half of DNC, like literally don't remember, but I remember certain things he said. And one day I would always sit in the front on the very right side because no one would sit by me. It was great. And I was leaving, so I was walking by him leaving, and he's like, and I didn't really talk in class a whole lot. Um, I was if ever. Um, but he was like, Sister Cooper, that's my maiden name. He's like, I just want you to know that the Lord loves you and is aware of who you are. And that was one of those moments that's just like I keep I'm sure he did know all of our names. It wasn't a very big class, but it's like I wasn't like a memorable member of the class because I didn't comment, you know. Um so I just that was another one of those moments that was just like, what are the odds, you know? And that was what I needed to hear at the time.
SPEAKER_00So wow, that's amazing. I love kind of how you said you had like multiple moments, they just kind of stacked on top of each other. And moments like that were like from you feel like another person kind of was prompted or sent to you, like you know, like ministering angels, and just like you can tell that was just they were a messenger for you, and that's it's just that's a really powerful thing, and it's hard to forget. That's really great. Yeah. Okay, for our next question is um, what is your fan favorite family history story that inspires you?
SPEAKER_01Um, I don't know that they're really so inspiring. Like, I can't like I had ancestors um on my mom's side who you know joined the church in Sweden and England and and came over on the plains, and just ones that joined in America and came on the plains. Um well, there's one actually kind of I was trying to think earlier, I just thought of like fun family history stories. Um but one I've always thought was really interesting. So my mom is a hatch, and hatches are like there was one guy who had like 20 kids. So like all hatches in the church are related, and they're not the names you think of a lot, but then when you notice it, you're like, wow, they're you start meeting a lot of hatches. But um so um discovered when I was Kurt and I drove before we got married, we drove from what uh Utah to South Carolina, and on the way we stayed with different people. And one night we stayed with Kurt's, one of Kurt's mission presidents, and somehow discovered that we were related, that he, his mom was a hatch, and my mom was a hatch. And he really, yeah, isn't that crazy? And um, he told me this story about Iris Stearns Hatch, who was the first guy to join the first hatch to join the church, and he read he read the Book of Mormon, and then he, I don't remember where he lived, but this was when the Saints were in Kirtland, and he didn't live in Kirtland. I don't even think he lived in Ohio, and he traveled to Ohio and he saw some people like chopping wood, uh chopping wood and like a field or something, and he just like walked over. He's just gonna be like, hey, you know, like, hey, I just got here. But the one of the guys like turned around and said, Oh, brother Hatch, um, I'm Joseph Smith and the money, oh yeah, and he had money in his pocket, like he had like $200 or something, which you know was back then. And he said, The money that you have with you is going to um pay for the altar of the temple. Um so that's one of those cool stories um that I never heard growing up. Um in fact, I'm pretty sure I told my mom that, but I don't know if she remembers it.
SPEAKER_00Um but yeah. Wow, that's so cool. I love that story. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a fun one. Dang, okay. Um, all right. For our next uh question is what is a favorite scripture story of yours and why?
SPEAKER_01Oh, so many. Um I should have like narrowed it down this morning. I was thinking so much about the family history one and calling my mom. Um scripture story. Which one? I love the story of Adam and Eve. Um because I love, in fact, somebody where did I see this recently? Oh, just some uh podcaster, but she uh also does you know social media. She like randomly popped on my thing, and um, she's LDS podcaster, and she had read some book, like a psychology book. And oh what's it talking about? It was saying that men it's basically like men make decisions a certain way and women make decisions another way, and of course, as a generalization, of course, you're gonna see men make the same use the same way as men do, and vice versa. But it said one thing is that men think of like the facts and then women like here and now, and women will think of like how does this impact people in the future. And um, like one thing I've always loved is that we don't vilify Eve, you know, like um other Christian traditions do. And um, you know, she so this woman was like, you know, Adam, you know, when he was come, you know, Satan came and was like, hey, eat the eat the fruit. And he was like, no, I'm not going to. Like the fact is, like, I'm not supposed to. But then he, when he appeared to Eve, and she like considered, you know, like they were supposed to multiply and punish the earth, but they couldn't while they're in when they were um in Eden and they couldn't really progress spiritually, and you know, they were never gonna have kids, and how could people come into the world? And so she she considered all of that before making this really hard decision. And um I just I've always thought um I just love that we give this, you know, they both had important roles, and we talk about how important um Eve's role is, which I've always really appreciated.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's amazing. I love that you brought that up because um just like recently going like I've just recently gone through the temple like a couple weeks ago, and um it's just so interesting how like the plan of salvation is so I didn't realize how like heavily it's worn into like woven into the temple and like the endowment and all of those things, and um it's just so cool to like re- kind of relearn about all the details of the plan of salvation and what Adam and Eve's role was in that, and you know, like like you said, like in most other religions, people will uh like look down on Eve and look down on her decision and um think she made a wrong decision and she condemned us, and um, but I just think that's so untrue. I think she she was so brave for her decision, and like you said, she really just I think she um she was more thinking of like what her decision would mean to us and less of like oh like I might get thrown out of the garden. It was more like how will this impact future generations? How can um I help future people? And I think that's so cool that she had that mentality. So yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no problem. You know, one thing I love is like Adam calls her Eve because she's the mother of all living, and she not only is literally the mother of all living, but she also is the reason it was possible um just from a uh logistics standpoint, just to even get people into the world, you know, totally literal mother.
SPEAKER_00Totally. It's so cool. I love that she's called that, it's amazing. Um, all right. Um, for our next question is what was a time you struggled with something in your life and you felt Christ walking with you in that trial.
SPEAKER_01Um, so this one I was able to narrow down pretty quickly. Um my last semester at BYU was also like the only semester when I was married, and it was my ninth semester because I switched my major like four times. Um and I foolishly saved physical science 100 for my last final.
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I was like so over those big lecture classes because I'd been in all these like small, um, you know, more intimate classes with my major. And um uh I had like no desire to go. And um I got a job working about 15 hours a week um as a secretary, and that made it so I missed my um my lab. So we had like two or three lectures a week, and then a lab, which was smaller, and the lecture was like 100 kids or something like that. And um, and my lecture was at eight in the morning, so I never went. He took role, and but the point was your final grade was either your cumulative grade or your final, which was higher. So like everything was banking on my higher, on my exam. And I I took all the like all the tests up to that point, and I'd go to the TA lab to like help understand, and I read my clo my books and stuff like that, and I sometimes made it to lecture. Um, and then I also was president of uh improv club at BYU at that time and um and then married, um, you know, freshly married. Um so I was really, really busy. And I also I think that was my largest credit uh load of college. Like I had like to 16 credits, it was big. So it was like it was all or nothing, you know. Like if I failed any of those classes, I would not have graduated. Um and so I definitely felt and I did this thing where I was just like talking to God all the time. I don't know if you've ever seen the 80s movie um Ladyhawk. I don't know. It's it's fun, it's definitely one worth going back and uh watching. But Matthew McConaughey is in there and he talks to God like out loud. But I would just like during the day, um, like in my mind, you know, I'd be like, oh, please help me, you know, like get this, you know, this thing right at work or whatever. And sometimes I'm just like, oh, you know, this is how I'm feeling anyway, it's just like this ongoing, I guess, monologue uh with the Lord. And um, I ended up getting my best grades that semester. Um I like under prepared for my I had three finals on the last day of finals and um including my physical science one that I'd saved because it was like at the testing center. Um try and and Kurt and I went snowboarding the day before, and then I stayed up all night and still was able to get um like I got my grade immediately on my final for physical science. It was like 89 or something like that. And I just like um I could just I I always felt really close to spirit during that time. Um, and it was hard, it was really hard. Um, but uh looking back, I look back on it really fondly. You know, I don't think about how hard it was, um, the feelings of hardness. So definitely one of the biggest times of my life of that.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. It sounds like um, like especially by like talking to God and strengthening that connection with him, he was, I mean, he's always gonna be walking with you, but I'm sure you felt that a little bit stronger, especially as you were keeping that connection and really relying on him. Like it sounds like you just had a lot on your plate, and it was just something that at the time I'm true, like, I don't know how I'm gonna do this by myself. Like, it's just one of those things where it's like it's like you have to, like, you're kind of forced to like ask for help, and that's so cool that it all turned out, and it's just like looking back, I'm sure it's like, wow, like there's literally no way I could have done that by myself. Like, I feel like there's things we look back and you're like, like God was with me that whole time, like I didn't do that by myself, and that's amazing. I love that, so cool. Okay, our next question is um, what do you love most about our ward?
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh, where do I begin? I our ward is amazing. Um people in the ward kind of call it a uh what do we call it? A unicorn. Um particular for the area we live in. Um, everybody's just so welcoming and non-judgmental. Um totally, you know, I've always kept it really real at church, and people have always accepted that, you know. No one's like been like, oh my gosh, like she's a hot mess. Let's just not talk to her. Um but everybody is just loving and um just want to meet you where you are. So that's that's my favorite thing about the ward. Totally.
SPEAKER_00I love our ward. It feels as though like the more real and open and honest you are, the more we're gonna love you. Like it doesn't mean we love you less if you're more like you don't want to share personal things, but we like our ward just loves it when we're all like vulnerable and we're okay with being open. And when you come down from that stand, we're all gonna like welcome you with open arms, not you know, like throw tomatoes at you because we're like you're weird and we don't want to hear that about your life. Like our ward is so good at just about like loving everyone, like no matter what you've been through, no matter who you are, what you wear, like our ward just like loves everyone, and it's just so such a special thing that we can all feel so like comfortable sharing like personal things, like up on a stand in front of like like like tons of people. It's just such a it really is a special thing that I haven't seen anywhere else. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Super cool. Uh one time this was so when Diana Wilson still lived in the wards, so I don't know, like four years ago. Yeah, I don't even know what time is anymore. Um I have like such a bad concept. Uh uh a young man got up there who wasn't like active in the church, like he was like high school, and he got up and he talked about how he's an atheist, and it wasn't uh hateful. It was you know, during fast and testimony meeting, um, was just kind of like, you know, this is this is what I believe, you know. And just because he's like, you know, we get up and talk about what we believe, and and then sat down, and I was like, okay, what do you how do you follow that up? You know, I was just like, and Diana Wilson got up and she's like, Thank you so much for sharing that. Like it was exactly the perfect, absolutely right thing to say, and I was just like, That's cool.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's awesome. That's so cool. That just like anyone's beliefs are just accepted, and it's just it's so welcome just to like share anything. I love that, that's so great. Um, all right, our next question is when is the time a recent time that you felt the spirit, and how did you recognize that the spirit was with you?
SPEAKER_01Um so this might not be super recent.
SPEAKER_00That's okay.
SPEAKER_01This is shortly after moved into this house. It was 2022. I think. Yeah, it was summer of 2022. Um, so about four years ago, I was outside um weeding. It was just like twilight, and I was outside weeding and deadheading flowers. And I've always really struggled with self-esteem. And it's like, where is the proper level of self-esteem? Because it's like, well, who am I to shine, you know? Um and just this idea of self-worth and stuff like that. Um and I was just sitting in the grass after finishing and just kind of enjoying the evening. And this moth came up and I've looked it up, and it's a it's a um pink zebra hawk moth or zebra or lined, lined zebra hawk moth. And it was particular because it it didn't um it didn't land on the on the flowers, it hovered like a butterfly. And um, and I was just like watching this moth do its thing that it's you know, like instinct is to do, is pollinate, you know. And I was like, I just had this thought that was definitely the spirit, like that moth has um divine worth. Like that moth matters to God. And it was just kind of like you matter to God, and you matter even outside, because you know, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, you know, like just and just like if that moth has so much worth doing what seems like not a big deal, you know, what if that moth and it was that moth in, you know, like then like how much more is the worth of of a soul, right? Um so that I felt the spirit really close to me, and I'd kind of been on this journey for a few weeks, um, with wrestling with this idea. Um and I'd felt the spirit definitely during that whole time, but that was the time that was like the lightning, you know, the lightning strike that really just drove it home, and yeah, it felt very sacred.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. I love the way that God speaks to us individually, and he takes the things that we love and we cherish, and he takes all of that into account, and he notices the way that you feel the spirit and the way that you notice things, and he'll put that in your path, and that's so cool that you saw it that way, and um, that's just so unique to you, and that's like something that's so special, and something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is um I don't remember the scripture, it's just like we love God because He loved us first, like something along those lines, and um it's just like so interesting to think about that. Like us as humans, we like if we really think about it, we quite literally do nothing to deserve like Christ's love. Like to compare to what he's done for us, we have done, we can't ever do anything to repay like the sacrifice and how much he's loved us, but still, like somehow his love is so perfect, he just loves us no matter what. And he we can't do anything wrong in his eyes. He all he wants is for us to just come back to him and choose him every time, and that's just like such a special thing, is he just knows us so well, and he loves everything about us, and he just wants us to grow to become like him so we can return to him. That's really all he asks of us, and it's so cool. I love that. Thank you. Um, all right, uh, with our last question here. It's if you could go 100 years in the future and talk to posterity, what advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_01Recycle. Great one, yes. I totally forgot. This question was on there was seen by other ones. It would be to remember that you know, their divine nature and individual worth, you know, to quote uh young men, young women's uh values. Um, I think that's huge when you know who you are. Like I genuinely believe that part of our purpose on life um or one of our goals is to discover who we are, not just as children of God, but like, who am I, Christina Atkins? You know, like understand myself. Um, I I I believe and through experiences have I had that the more I understand a person or the more I learn about them, the more I love them. Um, even if I don't still particularly like there's this one gal in the writing world I don't particularly like. But I was at a writing retreat with her and she helped out so much. And I was like, I love her. Like I was like, I don't necessarily want to hang out with her, you know, I don't enjoy her company. I guess that's more, I guess that's more than don't like her. I just don't enjoy her company. Um, she's done some things that hurt some friends of mine, but I loved her, you know, for I love her for for what seeing that. And I think it's the same for us. Um there's this journey as you get older where you just start real kind of peeling away the layers of who you're not, and you start seeing like and things might change, but at your core who you are. And I just feel like the more I do, the more grace I give myself. Not that I like I still have so much room for change, you know. But then it's also part of that love for yourself is you know your potential and you want yourself to reach that potential, just kind of like we do with our kids and friends and stuff like that. Um, but I think, you know, we we always talk about how it is important how important it is to know that we're children of God. And I think it's important to know who we are as well. And that, and that who we are matters to our heavenly parents, you know, like they care about the things we care about for us. And they they I think they, you know, they cheer on all of our goals, not just spiritual goals. And um, and I think they want the us to like know who we are and be um unapologetic, you know, like with ourselves and not and not um not get on ourselves. Like I recently, my parents just moved from my childhood home and they found my journal from senior year high school to freshman through freshman year college. And I was reading it and I had all these kind of emotions that I was not expecting to have, but I felt this just immense love for senior, you know, like for 18 and 19-year-old Christina. Just like I was just like, I was trying, I was doing the best I could, and like I really loved people fiercely, and I was very loyal sometimes to people I shouldn't have been. Um that's okay, you know, like I was doing the best I could, and it was just like I understood myself from that time that in a way that I never really had, or at least haven't since I was probably didn't when I was that age either. And um it was just it was really, it was really interesting experience. I highly recommend, like, I wished. So they always say, keep a journal, you know, keep a record for your posterity and really what would have worked for me and why I was most grateful when I was reading, because there were times I was like, I don't want my posterity reading this, you know? But uh I wish they'd been like, and for yourself, because when you are 40, you will read through this journal and be like, I forgot this happened, I forgot that happened, and I forgot that happened, things that were really important that you never thought would you would forget. And I just think that is, you know, I I was not the best journal keeper, but I'm so grateful I did during that period of time because it was a really hard period of time for me. Um, really wonderful in some ways, but also really hard. And it was just so fun to like see these things like, oh yeah, oh yeah, like I'd forgotten. And sometimes it makes you question your sanity. We're like, how can I not remember? Um but um so yeah, I I I would tell them like just learn who you are, learn your worth, you know, like who you are in relation to heavenly parents, but also who you are just as a person. Um, and keep a journal for when you're 40.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. I love that. I love like just kind of what you said about just like remember who you are, and like while I've been here at BYU and kind of this is my first time I've like been away from home for like longer than like two weeks, and it's when you're on your own and when you're without your family and without like the comforts of your home that you kind of like rediscover who you are, or you kind of like forget sometimes who you are, and that made me think a lot about um kind of just like how the veil works, and like especially going through the temple and like seeing all of this like symbolism with um the plan of salvation, just like the fact that we like can't remember who we are before this life is such an interesting thing to me. Like the fact that God loves agency so much that he wants us to figure it out for ourselves, he really wants us to remember who we are for ourselves, and like if you think about it, missionary work is it's really just reminding people who they are and like where they came from. And yes, it's a lot of teaching, but you'll see like you're here of so many moments where missionaries will be like you can just like tell when you're teaching someone, and you can just tell they know it's true. And I feel like to me, that's just like you can tell they're remembering, like the spirit is telling them like you already know this is true. You hear that all the time. People like saying, like, you already know this is true, and like I think that's such an amazing thing is we come to earth to make our own choices and to remember who we are for ourselves, and it can be hard sometimes. We get lost and we get caught up in the ways of the world and what the world thinks of us, and Satan loves to distract us, but it is really such a powerful thing to remember where we came from and who we are, and that's what God loves is when we just get a glimpse of how special we are. So that's great. I love that.
SPEAKER_01I love when you say visionary work is reminding people who they are. That's a great, a great way to look at it. I love that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally, and that's another thing too. I really I really wish I was better at journaling. Like it would be such a cool thing to be able to like show that to your kids or let your you know your like yourself read it in the next few years, because it's really an awesome thing to be able to rem remember things like that. So that's awesome. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us today. This is awesome. This was great, thank you. Yes, thank you so much. I hope you have a great rest of your day, Christina. You too. Are you in Helaman Halls? I am, can you tell?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that looks like just like my room did.
SPEAKER_00Yep, it's a little prison cell. I love it.
SPEAKER_01That's so fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's great. Yes, well, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for talking.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, yeah. You too. Have a good one. Good luck with school and everything. Thank you coming up, so yeah. Good luck with those.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I know it's gonna be a lot, but I love it. It's been great. Yes, all right. I'll see you later. Bye bye.