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If baptism is essential for salvation, why have billions of God's children lived and died without ever having the opportunity?

What if that isn't a flaw in God's plan? What if we've misunderstood the timeline?

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we explore a fascinating possibility: Maybe God's plan was never designed for everyone to enter His covenant during mortality. Maybe this life is about receiving bodies, exercising agency, and gaining experience, while God patiently establishes and gathers a covenant people to help bring His entire family home.

Using Jacob 5's allegory of the olive tree, the Abrahamic covenant, missionary work in the spirit world, temple ordinances, and the Millennium, we explore how these seemingly separate doctrines might fit into one extraordinary picture.

What if being God's chosen people isn't about being more special—but about being given a responsibility to bless everyone else?

And what if the greatest gathering of God's children is still ahead of us?

This isn't a declaration of doctrine. It's a faithful exploration of a possibility that might change the way we understand God's plan, the purpose of Israel, and the destiny of His children.

Because maybe God's plan isn't behind schedule. Maybe we're just earlier in the story than we think.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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In 1911, a young man secretly entered the Salt Lake Temple and took dozens of unauthorized photographs of its interior. Those photographs eventually ended up in the hands of a businessman who thought he had something incredibly valuable—something the Church would pay to keep hidden.

President Joseph F. Smith had a different idea.

What followed is one of the strangest episodes in Latter-day Saint history: secret photographs, an attempted payoff, a New York theater presentation, James E. Talmage, and the Church ultimately publishing its own photographs of the temple for the world to see.

But this story raises a bigger question:

Why are we sometimes embarrassed by the unusual parts of our faith?

Seer stones. Angels. Temple clothing. Baptisms for the dead. Miracles. Revelation. Prophets. Sacred ordinances. Yeah—Latter-day Saints believe some unusual things.

Maybe our response shouldn't be to hide them, sanitize them, or nervously explain them away.

Maybe sometimes the best response is simply:

“Yep. We believe that. Want to know why?”

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we explore the difference between sacred and secret, confidence and defensiveness, and faith and embarrassment—and why difficult questions about our religion don't have to frighten us.

Because you can't blackmail someone with something they're not ashamed of.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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What can Pirates of the Caribbean teach us about discipleship?

Probably more than you’d think.

The first time you ride Pirates, everything grabs your attention—the skeletons, the cannon fire, the burning town, the pirates chasing villagers. But ride it enough times, and something strange happens: it all starts to feel normal.

And that raises a much bigger question:

What have we gotten so used to that we don’t even notice it anymore?

In this episode of The Faithful Misfit, we explore the power of normalization—how repeated exposure can make the remarkable feel ordinary, the dangerous feel harmless, and even the miraculous feel mundane.

That works in both directions.

What harmful things has our culture repeated until they barely register anymore? And as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what incredible truths, blessings, ordinances, and experiences have we seen so often that we’ve forgotten how extraordinary they really are?

From Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean to scripture, modern discipleship, and everyday Latter-day Saint life, this episode is an invitation to look again at the things we’ve stopped seeing.

Because sometimes the problem isn’t that God has stopped doing remarkable things.

Sometimes we’ve just ridden the ride too many times.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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I was early.

At least, I was absolutely convinced I was.

A few years ago, I was supposed to meet a group of young men in Riggins, Idaho for the beginning of a high-adventure trip. I knew there was a time-zone change somewhere along the way. I had accounted for it. I had plenty of time. I was driving slowly, enjoying the scenery, even stopping to take pictures.

Then I saw the sign:

“You’re now in Mountain Time.”

My stomach dropped.

I wasn't early.

I was an hour late.

The rafting group was already gone. My phone had no reception. People were calling my wife and my parents because nobody knew where I was. And somewhere up a dirt road, a group of people who had been waiting for me had finally left without me.

All because I was completely confident about something that wasn't true.

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we talk about what happens when our assumptions about life, faith, God, and even ourselves turn out to be wrong.

Sometimes the problem isn't that we're lost.

It's that we're confidently driving the wrong direction.

And sometimes faith requires being willing to notice the sign on the side of the road, admit that our internal clock might be wrong, and adjust.

Because occasionally the most important words we can hear are:

“You’re now in Mountain Time.”

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Seer stones. Divining rods. Treasure seeking. Visions. Dreams. Spiritual manifestations.

The world of Joseph Smith was weird.

At least, it looks weird to us.

But what if God has always communicated with people through the cultural language they already understand?

In this episode, we explore some of the stranger beliefs and experiences surrounding the early Restoration and ask whether God sometimes uses our existing worldview as a starting point rather than requiring us to abandon it first.

From biblical prophets to Joseph Smith and the early Saints, we look at a fascinating possibility: God meets people where they are—and then leads them somewhere better.

Which raises an uncomfortable question…

What parts of our own religious culture will seem just as strange 200 years from now?

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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When was the last time you had a Sunday School lesson about demons?

Probably never. Which is a little strange, because once you start looking, demons and evil spirits show up all over the New Testament. Jesus casts them out. He gives the Apostles authority to cast them out. The Seventy come home excited that demons obey them. Paul encounters them. And when the Church is restored in 1830, Joseph Smith describes casting an evil spirit out of Newel Knight as “the first miracle which was done in the Church.”

So… why don’t we ever talk about this?

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we open the New Testament demon case files, meet Legion, revisit one of the strangest beatdowns in the book of Acts, and dig into eerie accounts from early Church history.

But underneath all the weirdness is a surprisingly hopeful message.

Maybe these stories aren't really trying to convince us how powerful darkness is.

Maybe they're trying to show us how powerful Jesus is.

Because whenever everyone else backs away from the broken, frightening, strange, or forgotten person—Jesus has a habit of walking straight toward them.

It's weird. It's scriptural. It's uncomfortable. Its perfect for out podcast.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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What if three men from the Book of Mormon are still wandering the earth more than 2,000 years later?

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we dive into one of the wonderfully weird corners of Latter-day Saint belief: the Three Nephites. We’ll look at what the Book of Mormon actually says happened to them, what their unusual calling means, and some of the folklore and stories that have grown around them—from mysterious strangers showing up at just the right moment to generations of Latter-day Saints wondering if they’ve accidentally crossed paths with one.

But underneath all the fun is a bigger question: Why are we sometimes embarrassed by the strange parts of our faith?

You don’t have to believe every Three Nephite story your grandma ever told you. But maybe there’s something beautiful about belonging to a faith that leaves a little room for mystery, miracles, and things we can’t completely explain.

Come for the Three Nephite stories. Stay for the reminder that faith doesn't always have to be tidy to be real.

Believe deeply. Be yourself.

🎙️ The Faithful Misfit

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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What do Green Day, Garth Brooks, Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Metallica, and Elton John have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Which is why they might be the perfect way to understand the people Jesus chose to follow Him.

In this episode of The Faithful Misfit, we imagine the strangest music festival lineup ever assembled—and compare it to Peter, Matthew, Simon the Zealot, Thomas, James, John, and Paul. On paper, neither lineup makes much sense. Different personalities. Different backgrounds. Different ways of seeing the world. People who probably never would have chosen each other.

But Jesus chose all of them.

Maybe Christ wasn't trying to create one "type" of disciple. Maybe Zion isn't about everyone becoming the same genre. And maybe being different from the people sitting next to you at church doesn't mean you don't belong there.

Jesus wasn't building a genre of people. He was building a kingdom.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/