The Long Road Back After a 30-Year Absence Away from the Church: Melanie’s Story - Latter-Day Lights

Have you ever felt like no matter how far you drift, something keeps pulling you back? 

In today’s episode we hear the story of Melanie, who grew up without religion, found the Church, and then walked away from it for nearly 30 years.  But fortunately, through a series of miracles, she found her way back.

From surviving a turbulent and abusive past to experiencing moments of profound revelation and protection, Melanie's journey is one of angels, divine interventions, and unwavering spiritual confirmations that remind us that God never gives up on us, even when we feel far from Him.

Whether you've ever struggled with faith, felt distant from God, or simply need a reminder that miracles are real, this episode will touch your heart in ways you won’t expect.

*** Please SHARE Melanie's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/9dfB20d2iAM

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Chapters

• 0:12 Introduction of Hosts
• 3:35 Importance of Personal Stories
• 3:47 Melanie’s Journey Towards Faith
• 5:50 Confronting Domestic Abuse
• 6:15 Miraculous Experiences and Spiritual Awareness
• 6:40 Returning to Faith: Difficulties and Growth
• 8:00 Healing and New Beginnings
• 10:00 Closing Thoughts and Invitation for Listener Engagement
• 10:09 Guest Introduction: Melanie's Background

Transcript

Scott Brandley: 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley: 0:02

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley: 0:10

On today's episode, we're going to hear how one woman's experience finding, leaving and returning to the church has shown her that our lives are filled with angels and miracles. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad that you're here with us today. We're really excited to introduce our special guest, melanie, today. Welcome to the show.

Melanie: 0:43

Hi, it's great to be with you both. Thank you for having me.

Alisha Coakley: 0:46

Yes, of course, and if anyone's listening right now, they hear a little bit of an accent. Melanie is coming to us all the way from the future. She is tomorrow for many of us listeners here from Melbourne, australia. Correct, melanie, that's correct. Yes, awesome, I get so excited when we have listeners from, like, outside of the US. It's just, it's so like I don't know. It's just amazing to me the way that the world is and with technology, and how far reaching, you know, our show has grown over the last couple of years and wait, is it?

Alisha Coakley: 1:25

three years now. Yeah, we're coming over a third year. Holy moly. It's just crazy to me that you know that we're like just getting people from all over the place now and I'm I love it because accents are like my favorite thing. I am terrible at understanding them most of the time, but like I had no problem with yours and I, it's just just, it just draws me in, so I'm so excited to oh, that's good, thank you, thank you yeah, for a long time I had uh siri, be an english woman when I talk to siri from australia I I sometimes have to change my accent to get her to understand what I'm saying.

Melanie: 2:12

Oh, really yes, yes, I have to try and sound a bit more australian because I was born in new zealand, so sometimes I have to alter it a wee bit to you know, get the name, places and things correct to get to know where I'm going.

Alisha Coakley: 2:24

So yeah, oh man, that's so funny. Yeah, yeah, accents are are such a cool thing there it's. It's amazing how, even like even the same state or the same country, you can have so many different like little tweaks. You know, like here in texas, like we know, we know if you're from dallas, we know if you're from you know, like here in Texas, like we know, we know if you're from Dallas, we know if you're from you know, way down south on the border and wherever else, just just based on how how much of a draw you have yes, yes, I noticed that Americans tend to not pronounce t's like yeah, it would be Sutton sort of thing.

Melanie: 3:01

I listen to that quite often. I think where did the T go?

Alisha Coakley: 3:05

Yeah, in Utah they kind of do. They go mountain, mountain and I'm like Mountain mountain. Mountain, mountain, mountain, or maybe that's the opposite. Maybe they do less, I can't remember Mountain mountain. Anyway, utah's weird Utah doesn't know how to pronounce hurricane either, so they say hurkin Hurricane, hurricane, okay, I'll say hurkin, hurricane, hurricane.

Melanie: 3:26

Okay, I'm going to test you on that later, scott.

Scott Brandley: 3:30

I'm not actually from Utah, I'm from Canada, so I get an exception to that.

Melanie: 3:35

You do, you do.

Scott Brandley: 3:35

Yes, yes.

Alisha Coakley: 3:36

No, this is kind of fun. Canadian, Australian and American walk on a show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, All right. Well, tell us a little bit more about yourself, Melanie.

Melanie: 3:52

Okay, so I grew up as an only child in New Zealand in a really small town called Waihi, and I sort of grew up, you know, swimming in the ocean from a really, really young age you live on an island, so you have to know how to swim from a really young age Biking around with my friends living on farms just a very basic life where we ate all our vegetables out of our garden, and we had a simplistic lifestyle, which was really nice. I'm really happy to have grown up in that sort of environment. I, unfortunately, have been married twice. I've got two beautiful children my beautiful son, who's turning 29 shortly and he lives here in Melbourne, and my daughter lives in Southeast Asia. They're both married and I've got a beautiful grandchild.

Melanie: 4:41

I immigrated to Australia sort of 14 to 15 years ago, which was an amazing, amazing move. I never wanted to leave New Zealand. However, you know, I love Melbourne. Melbourne is an amazing city I don't know if you know, many listeners have been here, but it's amazing and when I came here it felt like home to me. You know, I really loved it so much and I will spend the rest of my life here. So, yeah, that's the very, very short version of my life.

Alisha Coakley: 5:08

Nice. What do you do as far as like career?

Melanie: 5:13

hobbies. So I worked in dental for most of my life. I have worked in lots of different fields. I did work at the Justice Department when I was young. I worked in dental for many, many years. Hobbies are interior design. I've got a diploma in interior design and I love decorating things like that. I had a small interior design business with a friend. I'm now just doing a bit of agency dental work, but I've kind of taken a bit of time out in the last 12 months to just work on different things I needed to do. I wrote a book on surviving domestic violence because that ended up happening to me in my last marriage. And yeah, I've just been trying to heal and go through a healing process. Gotcha, yeah, wow. So yeah, that's about it really. Very short nutshell.

Alisha Coakley: 6:04

Yeah, yeah, great. It really very short nutshell. Yeah, yeah, great. Well, we would love to go ahead and turn the time over to you and just kind of let you tell us where your uh story begins.

Melanie: 6:16

Yeah, sure. So when I grew up in a small town in new zealand, we sort of grew up really without any religion. So my mother taught me two things in life and one was to always pray. The other was to never take the Lord's name in vain, which you know I'm very thankful to her for. But it was kind of unusual to have religion. We lived in a town where we didn't really know people that were religious and if they were religious they kind of stood out. It was sort of like more the abnormal than the normal. Um, it was a very much. My parents were much at a party lifestyle. You go to each other's houses and drink and play guitars and you know that was kind of the that got to the beach. That was sort of the lifestyle.

Melanie: 6:57

Um, my auntie is a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day Saints and she lived in Calgary in Alberta and so every birthday and Christmas she would send me church magazines, church books and, you know, chocolates and things which I thought were pretty sensational because we didn't have things like that in New Zealand. It was a treat. But at one point I remember thinking what am I getting this sort of just stuff, thinking, ah, what, what am I getting this bit of just stuff for? Like what, what do I have this for? And I flicked through uh, I think it was a hymn book. I can't be 100 sure, but I think it was a hymn book and I saw Christ and I saw him with his arms wide open to me.

Melanie: 7:46

Well, that's what it felt like to me and my entire body I felt, you know, this immense sense of guilt for having that thought. You know, it really pierced me through my body and I looked back through that hymn book, you know, a thousand times to try to find this image of Christ again. And it was never, ever there. So it sort of started my spiritual experience. I recognized in that moment that, you know, christ was real and even though I never really knew about him, my parents, my mother, wanted me to be baptized in the church and she had me baptized, but I never had lessons or anything. I I never knew, why, you know, and as a child that lived in the water and all I wanted to do was swim, um, getting into a font and being in the warm water. To me it was like, oh yay, I, you know, and I just remember looking at my mother and she was giving me a dirty look like no, you're not there to swim, you're there to be baptized.

Melanie: 8:44

Yeah, so but I never, you know, honestly, didn't understand it. Um, really had no idea so, but there were some weird things that happened to me as a child. I, um my mother, loved me to bits and looked after me really, really well, but she was very narcissistic and very emotionally abusive. Life with her was, you know, very difficult, and I think that because I believe, looking back, that Heavenly Father knew this was going to be my situation. It was like he gave me this gift and I wondered why I lived in my body. It never made sense to me, I couldn't understand it and I never really felt like I was at home. I felt like an outsider in this life.

Melanie: 9:33

And you know, it always seemed very strange to me. I couldn't figure it out and I almost and I feel looking back, that I sort of craved my heavenly parents, without realizing that. That's the emotions that I was having at the time that I craved this other mother. It was like I craved heavenly mother before I even knew that I had one. You know, I had this huge craving for her and the years went by. The years went by and I grew up and I wanted to go and see the world, like most New Zealanders. You get a passport. Young, you travel. Young, everyone wants to go to Europe. We all do the OE thing go and live abroad, see as many countries as you can. You do this, this is what you do. So I did all of that. I traveled. I came home and I started working at the Justice Department and in the witness stand one day was my husband. He was giving evidence for a car crash that he had witnessed. So we were very young, but we got married quite quickly.

Melanie: 10:38

After we were married, different things started happening. I had a friend that was killed in a car accident. My grandparents started to die and I really, really, really wanted to know who I was. I wanted to understand, you know, life, what had happened, what's happening. So we started meeting with the missionaries.

Melanie: 10:58

No intention for my husband at the time to be involved in the church, it was just really me wanting to know. But when he listened to the lessons, the Spirit was very strong to him and he decided to join the church. When the missionaries taught me the lessons, I absolutely knew and it was like I had always known that everything they were telling me was true and that, you know, I, I loved it. I felt the spirit, I felt peace that I'd never, ever, experienced in my life. It was enormous peace. Um, when I went to church, when I went, sorry, when I went to work and I would talk to my friends at work who were members of the Baptist church, evangelistic Christians or non-religious, they just, you know, I got a really hard time a really hard time and I got hounded over Trinity and I just remember saying to them like I don't even remotely understand you know that I mean no disrespect, but I don't believe that Jesus was praying to himself when he's calling out to his father.

Melanie: 12:10

That doesn't make sense to me at all and I just I don't believe it. I know that they're separate. I know that he is the son of God, that Heavenly Father, jesus Christ is two separate beings and I have always known that. I can't say how I've always known it, I just know it. And I have always known that. I can't say how I've always known it, I just know it. And the other thing that I would say to them is that when I talk to them, as much as I love them and as much as their friendship is very important to me, I say to them you know, I see darkness when you talk about the subject, but when I'm with the missionaries, I see and I feel peace.

Melanie: 12:45

And back in those days, you know, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have, you know, the opportunity to learn a whole lot more and I really knew nothing. I read the Book of Mormon. I didn't understand it but I liked it. But my testimony has and has always been not sourally based, but from just knowing inside. I know it inside and I sort of somehow always know it inside. It very much comes from the Holy Ghost and from that sense of peace. And back then the missionaries gave me some talk tapes and I listened to the prophet and apostles on talk tapes. And gosh, you really show your age sometimes, don't you say these things? You know, um, so, um, but when and when I would listen to these things, you know, I just felt the spirit and I felt this peace that I'd never known in my life. It was amazing and um, so my husband got baptized and that was in itself, you know, this huge testimony building experience. The spirit was so strong, everybody was crying. He said, when he got out of the water that he literally felt all his sins wash away. You know, it was a literal. He said, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, he the physical, you know, removal from his body of all his sins. And it was, you know, really amazing.

Melanie: 14:09

Um, we sort of went through some years where all these things happened to us. Like I started, um, dreaming about everything that was going to happen to us in advance so I would go to sleep, to sleep at night, and we were going to go ten pin bowling the next day and I knew that our car was going to break down and we were going to have a flat tyre. It was like my mind expanded and I just had all these visions and all these things happened. My grandmother had passed away and my grandmother started coming back and visiting me. She'd come to me when I was upset about things. Um, I I never I couldn't see her. But it was exactly the same as seeing her. I felt her, I could smell her, I could literally put my hand out and touch her. It was this incredible spiritual experience. We would walk under lights together in the street and they would go off.

Melanie: 15:12

It was very strange, very strange things happened when I got pregnant. I couldn't touch a supermarket trolley because I would get electric shocks. I had no problem. I was very blessed in getting pregnant twice very easily and no problem during my pregnancy. But giving birth was difficult.

Melanie: 15:34

Before I had my first child, I was almost killed in an accident. A drunk driver came towards me and I saw it like sort of like in a slow motion movie, and so he came to sort of drive into the side of my car and he and I remember seeing his face and I could tell that he was drunk, that something was really wrong and it was frozen in the moment. But it was like his car was shifted away from us and that I was protected and I believe angels shifted his car and protected us During my birth. It was very well, you know, alisha, it was very painful. I was induced and the pain was just. You know it was, and in new zealand there's not great antenatal uh, yeah, it's not great and um, I was just screaming in pain the whole time, um, but I was praying at the same time and, and at one point I I honestly felt like I was going to die. I really felt like my life was leaving my body. I couldn't push my baby out. I felt like I was dying but miraculously they got my daughter out and she was amazing. And once again I felt this incredible blessing as my little girl grew and she talked from a very young age. She had an amazing vocabulary from a very, very young age and I would have her in a car seat and I would think about something and she would answer me. We had this strange telepathic connection between us. It was all these things that happened.

Melanie: 17:19

But during this time too, you know, we had two children. We faced constant opposition, you know, not just from friends but from our families, who did not want us to belong to the church. We didn't really have friends at church. It was very different in New Zealand. We just culturally different and we never entirely felt like we could fit in, so much um. So we made the decision to move away from the church. Um, but I did have my children baptized, you know, when they were old enough, and I wanted to come back to church at that point and I talked to my husband about that and said I want to go back to my faith. But he was like no way, no, it's not happening. We're not. I'm not staying married to you if you go back to your faith.

Melanie: 18:10

So you know that was not. It wasn't even a thing. So so I didn't. I never stopped mourning it, you know. I knew that it was wrong. I knew that leaving was wrong and I mourned it constantly, constantly. And I? Um woke up one morning and I saw this evil spirit standing beside my bed and I knew you know, obviously straight away that that me leaving my faith was wrong. It was wrong. So our marriage broke up and we both three married different people. My husband married a Canadian woman and I married a boy that I'd been to school with. Unfortunately, I made a really bad choice.

Melanie: 18:57

Um, on one hand, he was, you know, he loved my children and he was a. He was a very good stepfather. He had many, many great qualities and I did really love him, but he was very much a telestial being, um, very much so. So the years went by, the children sort of became teenagers. We moved around a lot because of his job, um, he got offered a job in australia. We decided to take it. We came here. We then got offered a job. We were living in alban, where he got offered a job in queensland.

Melanie: 19:34

We moved to queensland and, unbeknownst to me, he started living this double life. There were years of trauma. He became this completely different person and I was extremely confused. I felt trapped, I didn't know what to do and, because I had been married before, I desperately wanted this to work. I didn't want to give up. So, yeah, so I didn't know. He was working all the time, travelling all the time, unbeknownst to me. He had become a cocaine addict, and I never in my wildest dreams I mean, we were, you know, a pretty normal family, anti-drugs. You know, um, that you know my husband would drink heavily, but I never, ever, dreamed that he would do anything like that ever. It took me years to find out.

Melanie: 20:41

So, as the years are going by and he started becoming extremely abusive and life became, you know, it was living in a torture chamber I started. Heavenly Father started giving me personal revelation, this personal revelation that would come to me in dreams. So I started dreaming that, um, that he was up to no good, and I genuinely it wasn't like that came from a place in my brain where, deep down, I knew it, because I didn't, I absolutely didn't know it. It came to me in my dreams and I could see that he was up to no good, but with no specifics. I also dreamed that I was going to go to the temple. And this went on for a really long time.

Melanie: 21:33

These dreams, this went on for a a really, really long time and I it became louder and louder. It started off soft and it became louder and louder and then to the point that, you know, sometimes I would wake up and I would not know what was real and what wasn't. I felt like I was living in some sort of bizarre twilight zone and very confused, very confused that as I look back at that now, I think if I had been shown the truth, the extent of the truth of all the evil things that he was doing behind my back and I don't hide my feelings very well, so he would have known that. I knew that I think that I probably would have lost my life. So Heavenly Father gave me enough to give me some warning, but not enough that I would have been killed. So he gave me the perfect balance. So life went on and things became more terrifying and I knew that my life was at risk.

Melanie: 22:39

In the last weekend I was with him. You know he almost killed me and I was beyond traumatized. He was taken away. I phoned, I escaped my daughter and I escaped and we packed our dogs in the car. We pretended we were going to the beach. We had hidden an overnight bag and as soon as we got around the corner we phoned my GP and she called an ambulance and the police, who went to our home and basically arrested him. He ended up getting put in a mental health facility for three months and during this time I had no idea whether they would just lead him out, because this had happened once before, about a year previously, and he told me he would kill me if it happened again. So I was so scared.

Melanie: 23:34

I was so scared and my son came to Queensland, hired a twin cab ute and we put as many belongings as we could in the back and he drove for 24 hours straight and we stopped at one point to have a little sleep but my children literally lifted me into the vehicle and put my seatbelt on me because I couldn't function. I just I had absolutely nothing left, nothing. I was just completely, completely traumatized and I first came back. I couldn't eat. The only thing that made me feel better was drinking wine, I'm ashamed to say, but I lived on it because it, because, you know, I couldn't. I was just so traumatized.

Melanie: 24:21

Um, quite a lot of time went by and I was not in a I was not in a good place. I I couldn't, I didn't know how to function, didn't know how to get myself through the trauma of it all and to finalize divorce proceedings, to go through all this while he's suffering with mental health, and there's just a lot. There wasn't one thing there was a mountain of things. There was a mountain to climb and a mountain of obstacles. And my son said to me Mom, why don't you look at going to church? Why don't you listen to podcasts? So I started listening to podcasts, initially about nature, bees, things like that.

Melanie: 25:01

And then I came across this podcast which was what's it like to be or in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I started listening to it. And as soon as I started listening to it, all of my feelings, about my faith, everything came back. It was like a fire underneath me. That just was like yes, this is really amazing, but I was very scared to walk back in the door. I thought, you know, I just can't go back and have something happen, or if I go back, I need to know that it's forever and I've never, ever once questioned my testimony. I've never once questioned the truth. I have always known it. I don't need to pray and ask if it's true because I know that it is. I feel like heavenly father has blessed me with that gift of knowing that it is. You know, just, it's a huge blessing. So I really worked on myself before I walked in the door and I spent a lot of time praying about it, getting that feeling from the Holy Spirit.

Melanie: 26:10

So I walked into the Caulfield Ward here in Melbourne and it was a fasting testimony meeting and I am not someone who's ever wanted to talk in public. I, you know, when I was younger and joined, I wouldn't even get up and say a prayer, like I wouldn't do it. And I yeah, it was just like no, no, no, no, um, but I literally felt the spirit lift me off the chair, I felt myself get lifted up and I got up and I introduced myself to everybody, gave a blurb about myself. I can't remember but, um, and I just felt the spirit so strongly it was, it was just, you know, it was absolutely amazing.

Melanie: 26:54

And I'm I'd phoned an old neighbor who was a Latter-day Saint in Brisbane. I said, look, I am thinking about, you know, going back to church. However, I love coffee and I love wine and none of my friends are members. What do you think? And she said who cares? Just go, don't even worry about it. She said everything else will come in time and it was the best if she'd been critical, um, or judgmental. You know, it might have been a little bit different, but I think it's really important for people who are coming back or looking at the church that it's not. You know, it's a process, it's the process and you know you improve and you improve yourself along the way.

Melanie: 27:39

So I started doing that and my first thing was I said to Heavenly Father, look at the moment. I cannot stop drinking with my friends. However, I will not open a glass of wine in my house and this is what I'm going to do, and you know, I felt the spirit and I just went through a process, and it was another two years of a lot of trauma. My ex-husband would not settle with me. He almost left me homeless and when I had gone into his bank accounts, when he was in the mental health ward, I had discovered that he had withdrawn over half a million dollars of our savings to spend on his illicit lifestyle without me having any idea. Yeah, and and and you know, look, there's a whole lot more. That's the. It's like the tip of the iceberg.

Melanie: 28:31

Um, so I was trying to save myself and what I had left, and save myself at this age, and it was really, really difficult, and so I felt like the only way I got through it was prayer. And I came to a bit of a pivotal moment that I can't kind of get into in a public forum, but I was at a point that I desperately needed Heavenly Father's help. I needed a miracle, I needed to be saved and I needed this so badly. And I got the phone call from some lawyers and it just crushed me and I cried, I screamed out to Heavenly Father. And I'm not a screamer, I'm a suffering, silent person. If I've got huge emotions, I hold them in myself, but I'm just crying. And I said to him I don't understand. I'm doing everything I can to be the best person I can be. I don't want more I can do, but I need this. I need this to happen for me, for my future, otherwise I have no future and I really need you.

Melanie: 29:40

And and I instantly had all these angels gather around me and, just like with the experience with my grandmother, I never saw them, but I felt them and I knew that they were there and it was like I could see them and I felt them completely gather around me and just the love. You know the love and the and the spirit said to me it's going to be fine, it's going to be so much better than you can ever imagine, the lord is on thy side and I knew in that moment that everything was going to work out really, really well and I didn't honestly know how it seemed like this impossible thing, task, like how can this be okay, how can it work out? And um, for the, for the week that went by, where all this trauma was still going on, with lawyers and everything else, every time I would wake up and feel panicked. The same thing happened. I felt the angels, I felt the spirit, the feel panicked. The same thing happened. I felt the angels, I felt the spirit. The spirit said fear not, the Lord is on thy side, it's all going to turn out so much better than you've ever imagined. And I kept getting told this over and over again and it did. I can't tell you the miracle because I just can't from a legal perspective, but I received this enormous amount of miracles. I was saved. Things did turn out a thousand times better than I could ever have imagined. I had so many miracles come to me that were staggering, you know like, some of them immediately and some of them that took around 12 months some of them immediately and some of them that took around 12 months. So that was that part of the divorce and everything else that then ended up being so much better than I could ever have imagined and I ended up in a really good place and, you know, really, really happy and everything.

Melanie: 31:32

During this process, I was preparing to go to the temple and praying about it, trying to get myself, you know, in the right place. And when I went to bed one evening you know how sometimes you're just half asleep, you know you're lying there and you're, you know, half asleep, half awake, half awake, and I sleep on my stomach and I felt my body getting pushed into the mattress. I had my head to the side and I was attacked by this evil spirit. And you know, look, this is not a story that you tell people because they'll think you're crazy, but this happened to me and I felt this evil entity push me into the mattress. I couldn't breathe, all of the oxygen sort of went from my lungs and this evil spirit was right beside me saying the most vile things and I immediately said you know, heavenly Father, and I didn't even have to get to those words, I didn't even have to get the words out and this evil entity was just whisked away like it was nothing.

Melanie: 32:49

And immediately taken from my mind were the words that the evil entity said to me.

Melanie: 32:57

That was immediately erased. All I know what it was. It was extremely vile, but I don't know what it was. I couldn't even remember one thing, I don't know. But I lay there and I was scared to go to sleep and I just kept praying. I said please, heavenly Father, don't let any evil spirits be in my room. Um, I I've wondered honestly over a long period of time, like why that would be allowed to happen, and I the only thing I've kind of come up with is that it really showed me the difference between good and evil. It was like, um, like the strongest example you could ever have, where, you know, satan is pathetic and means nothing and our father in heaven is the king of the universe and is all loving, and the contrast was, you know, enormous. Then, for the first four times that I went to the temple, the contrast was, you know, enormous.

Melanie: 34:00

Then, for the first four times that I went to the temple, you know, melbourne is a really big city and I had no idea how to get there. I sort of knew the general direction, but without Navman, you know, it's almost impossible. And I'd get in my car. My Navman wouldn't work, and it always works. My iPhone't work and it always works. My iPhone wouldn't work and it always works.

Melanie: 34:21

You know, when it comes to navigation, and it was like Satan was just like I'm going to interfere with this and I was, you know, getting upset because I really, really wanted to get there. So I just would pull over and pray, and then I would get a bit further down the road. I'd pull over and pray and you know what I found it. I found it the first four times without any navigation, and that in itself is a miracle, because this is a very big place and I these are all suburbs in the suburb that the temple's in I am not familiar with, I don't know them at all, but I found it. And then after that it's like he gave up. He didn't try.

Melanie: 35:05

He didn't try after that. One other thing I forgot to mention is that during the period that I was away from church I, you know, because I mourned the loss of it so much, you know, and I felt such immense guilt. And I, you know, because I mourned the loss of it so much, you know, and I felt such immense guilt and I, you know, tend to beat myself up over things I prayed constantly for forgiveness for not being there, for not living, you know, a gospel style lifestyle, everything else not being who I really should be. I, you know, prayed constantly about this and I went to the bathroom at work one day I was working in a dental practice, went off to the bathroom and I'm saying this little prayer and I heard this voice and it was so loud but it was, um, and it was kind of forceful but kind, and I knew at that moment that the Lord was kind of maybe understood my situation and that had that I had repented enough and I didn't need to keep going on. And, quite frankly, he's probably I was sick of myself and I'm sure that he was sick of me as well by that point.

Melanie: 36:24

So, you know, it kind of made a lot of sense, um, each morning I would take my dog and do this. You know, now I've got a little English bulldog and I take her to the park for a play with her tennis balls. And it's a time where, you know, I just enjoy nature, the birds, the trees, you know, being outdoors and I pray and I hear the spirit talk to me and tell me things, and it's just a very revelatory sort of experience, you know, moment for me. And recently I was there and I said to Heavenly Father, I just don't quite understand why. You know, I feel like I'm the the one in 99 and I don't kind of understand why, why, when I moved away from the church, why would you bother to, you know, work so hard to get me back?

Melanie: 37:25

Because he did, and, um, and you know, I heard, I heard Jesus say to me um, I've always been with you and you are mine, and you know just, you know, I have um such a lot of love for the Savior and and his atonement and everything he did for us and continues to do each and every day. And it just kills me that we live in a world where, you know, everybody takes his name in vain and speaks about him like that and he, you know, does nothing else but love us and come for us when we do things that are wrong and we turn against him and we do things that we shouldn't do, yet he just forgives us and he just wants us to try. He just wants us to try and try to find our way back to him. And, heavenly Father, try to find our way back to him. And, heavenly father, and um, you know, I, I, you know, I've been to the temple, gone into the celestial room and I've heard, you know, the voice of um, family members, things like that that have passed away, um, speak to me. My dad died about two years ago and I've heard him speak to me. I heard him say to me one morning I was up really, really early in the freezing cold going to work and, um, I heard him say I'm really proud of you. Um, you know I've got a lot of Scottish ancestors and, um, you know I've got a lot of Scottish ancestors and I heard one of them say to me are we male? You know, which was always our thing growing up? You know, that's how they would talk. You know, I didn't even know what you're talking about. And, yeah, and I just think that, you know, the veil is, um, a lot thinner than we think. And when I hear about, you know, president nelson, when he said, um, that we would be, you know I'm not saying it verbatim, but you know, um, that we would receive countless miracles and privileges in these last days, and you know I can really testify to the truth of that.

Melanie: 39:58

Another thing that has happened is I had a like once again, I know I'm being a little bit nonspecific, only to protect other people, but I have a family, a very dear family member, who is sick and desperately needed a blessing. I knew that that was not going to be logistically possible, so I prayed to Heavenly Father and I asked for angels to minister a blessing. The next day I get a phone call and this dear, dear family member was healed. And this sort of thing has actually happened twice through this prayer and through this request, and I know that Heavenly Father is not a slot machine that we don't just, you know, obviously get. Sometimes we're not meant to be healed, sometimes we're not meant to get what we're asking for, but this was just like an instant miracle and a huge blessing, and I know that everything is possible with the lord and I have.

Melanie: 41:03

I've really, really realized one of my biggest lessons in all of this is that you know, we, we go on directions in our life and we think that we know what's best for us and we try and I guess we're human beings, that's normal.

Melanie: 41:17

However, you know, when Heavenly Father puts roadblocks in our way and this certainly happened to me when I first came back I was going some directions that I shouldn't have gone and I kept getting roadblocks. I think we have to look and go. Okay, we're not meant to do that. We are not meant to do that and we need to have faith that the lord will guide us and listen to the spirit and our lives become so much better for it. I have really learned to do that in the last two years, to really really listen to the spirit, to seek prayerful guidance in everything that I do, and, even though you're not going far from perfect and I know all the things of myself that I have to work on, um that when we try, akia just wants to give us these blessings. He wants to enrich our lives and show us the right way and wants us to come home to live with him right, and I am so thankful for that. What an amazing gift it is to know who we are, you know yeah, so can I ask how?

Alisha Coakley: 42:22

how long was it that you were like away from the church?

Melanie: 42:28

oh, um well, I'm 59, I'm almost 60 in and so I joined the church when I was 21. Oh no, I was older than that, sorry, I was about 25. I think I was in the church until I was about 30. So yeah, almost 30 years, 30 years away, yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 42:50

Wow, and you never really lost your testimony, never Kept praying.

Melanie: 42:55

Yes, yes, yes, yes, I've always known that it's true, always, never, never. Like when I first learned about it it was like, yeah, I already know this, even though I'd never been shown it, never been brought up with religion. I mean, I did go to an Anglican, um sort of Sunday school, which is a little girl, which was really about coloring and you know, and things like that. It wasn't. We didn't really learn anything, so I really didn't know religion.

Melanie: 43:23

And but when I was around Latter-day Saints and I was certainly exposed in New Zealand, you know, you have a big exposure to Latter-day Saints I certainly always felt well, not with everybody, but, you know, with a lot of people, felt that spirit, felt the difference, um, and yeah, so most of my life, I mean, and I've never because my son at one point said to me oh mom, why don't you go to? He had a friend that was going to this particular church and we're quite a few New Zealanders there and he said, oh, why don't you go to that church? And I said, well, no, because what would be the point? You know, like I, I know what I know is true and other religions might be easier.

Melanie: 44:05

Yeah, it might be easier. You know, um, from a perspective of, well, you know me and no offense to other people, you know I might go to church at Christmas and Easter. I don't really have to, you know, serve and do things and all these things. So it's not, you know, in that regard, I mean, when you don't grow up with it and you don't have friends in the church and you are very alone in it it is a bit confronting. Um, I have found, though, that in my ward that I have joined, I have made some great friends and I love my ward. Um, sorry, I'm sweating and carrying on. I should have got the tissues that you mentioned, alisha. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think I would need them. Honestly, um, uh, and yeah, I've met some, just some beautiful people, absolutely beautiful people, and you know, and there's this genuine love. You know we have it's a very diverse group of people. I think we have, like people who speak like 16 languages in our ward, but everybody's just fabulous and together as one and very connected, and you know that. Know, if you need help, everybody's there to help each other and love each other.

Melanie: 45:17

And you know, I think, too non-judgmental, which I think we had a little meeting on Sunday about. You know, what can we do to make sacrament more inviting for new people and these things? And I just said well, one of the things I think is when people give talks is that you know they are Christ-focused. And I just said, well, one of the things I think is when people give talks is that you know they are Christ-focused. And I know everyone tries to do that, but without judgment, because I think if you bring along people, people who don't understand the gospel, who are learning the gospel and we have a lot of new people coming in and learning it's really important that nothing's said that can kind of offend people, because I think it wouldn't. It doesn't take much, does it, you know, to one person to say something and then they think, oh no, this isn't for me or you know things like that yeah

Scott Brandley: 46:07

so yeah, yeah, 30 30 years of wandering in the wilderness.

Melanie: 46:10

Sorry, sorry scott what are you?

Scott Brandley: 46:13

what's your? What have your kids journeys been? Because you've kind of been out of the church a lot of their lives right, yes, yeah, yeah, no.

Melanie: 46:21

Well, um, unfortunately, my daughter, um, who's this beautiful girl and she's a huge humanitarian, um, gives to charity constantly. She's this beautiful mother of a gorgeous eight-month-old little girl. She's just wonderful and she's married to a beautiful catholic husband, um, and. But she has listened to a lot of podcasts, a lot of, uh, ex-members of the church, and she's listened to these things and thinks that it's a bit culty and um, so, you know, I mean, she's 32 and I have never been able to talk her into anything. So, um, that's, you know, that's kind of her journey, unfortunately, um. However, you know, I hope that and pray about this, that you know that you know, one day, when our lives are all over, that she gets a second chance, because you know she has missed out on the opportunity to really know the truth and has been, you know, influenced, um by outside people. Um, unfortunately, that do put these things out there.

Melanie: 47:29

Um, my son, he he's not in the least bit interested in religion, but, once again, he's a beautiful boy with a big heart, and he had the missionaries walk up to see him recently and he said to me oh, mom, you sent the missionaries to my house and I said I didn't and I didn't send them there. I think I had put his name down for family history so that he could log on, you know, to get his church member number for family history site. And I think they must have sort of seen his address and gone round. And they were these great boys who, um, one of them was from Hamilton in New Zealand, which is where we spent the last seven years of our life in New Zealand. Um and Harrison got on really, really, really well with them, loved them. Harrison was like oh, they're great guys. I wanted to invite them in for a beer, harrison.

Alisha Coakley: 48:21

I go A root beer.

Melanie: 48:24

No.

Melanie: 48:26

But you know, I mean, all you can do really at the end of the day is pray. They have their own agency and I just try to be an example and hope that, you know, one day they feel the spirit. Um, you know, I feel a little bit guilty because I did have them baptized, like my parents did with me, but without them really knowing why, and I did get my children have, my children did have lessons, but it's not. It's not enough at that age to just learn a couple of things and then somehow be expected to understand the gospel. So I feel that that sin's kind of on me, not on them. So I'm hoping that you know that's just for the circumstances that we had at the time. Like I said, my husband just wouldn't. It wasn't. He was okay with the kids to get baptized, but nothing else.

Alisha Coakley: 49:20

Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't think that it was a sin or anything like that. Like I know there's kind of like that, that thought of, oh well, if you're baptized and you're held to a higher standard, and so then you know, if you, if you're baptized, then you're held to a higher standard. And so then you know, if you, if you do sin or whatever, then because you made these covenants, you're going to have a greater um you know consequence on you. But also heavenly father takes takes into consideration, like what you knew. And if you're, I feel like back then that was something that just a lot of people did.

Alisha Coakley: 49:54

Like I feel like a lot of people just baptized their kids just for the heck of it. And, and over the last decade it's really changed to where the kids, they want them to understand more. You know, like they they don't just want to hurry up and get them baptized, they really want them to like have more of those basic fundamental beliefs in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I think you know I wouldn't, I, I wouldn't worry about that at all yeah, things will work out as they meet you in the end, hopefully.

Melanie: 50:25

You know that's all you can do. It's all you can do. And I think I had a talk to my son, um, last year we we went on a road trip together and I had took the opportunity. You know that they say that the best thing if you want to have a conversation with your adult child is to get them alone in the car for a period of time, because they can't escape. You know, they're sort of stuck with you in that moment. And so we had a little bit of a talk about life and he loves, you know, the planets and he's a this massive telescope and he goes out stargazing and all these things, and I had a little chat with him about that and about, you know, the fact that heavenly father created this. You know this planet and others, and this was created from other planets and all these things.

Melanie: 51:08

And you know, and I talked to him too about the tribulation period a bit, because I do very much feel with every fibre of my being that we have entered it, that we are in the last days and that you've just got to see the craziness in the world. The world's gone mad. I mean, it's just everywhere. And I just said to him you know, there's just. If you don't want to join a religion, you don't want to join my faith or whatever that's. You know that's up to you. But I said, you know, just, please learn to pray and recognize that Christ is real and that he loves you. And I really want you to try with that, because I said there is going to come a point where you are going to need him, you're going to need the saviour, we all will. And as things get worse and you just have to look and see what's happening and you can see it ramping up, probably faster than we even anticipated, you know. So we kind of had that moment to have that discussion. And it's a hard discussion to have, especially with someone who doesn't have a lot of you know well really much in the way of faith.

Melanie: 52:24

Yeah, I think if things were different, I think if Harrison had been brought up in the church, I honestly think that he would be an active member. I sort of see it in him. Him and I are very much alike, but I am super proud of my kids. You know they're really great human beings. Yeah, and both of them. You know, they're both just well. My son got married a few months ago. My daughter got married a year and a half ago. They've both got, you know, lovely partners and they're just you know, lovely partners and, um, they're just, you know, amazing human beings.

Scott Brandley: 52:56

So I guess that's what you can ask, most you can ask for in life, really for sure, yeah well, and I I think we're all on our own spiritual journey in life, right, and we each have our own circumstances. I mean, if, if they part of their lives was growing up in a difficult time, if there was abuse and things in your relationship, I'm sure that affected them too, and you know so.

Scott Brandley: 53:23

there's probably things that they've got to work through on their side as far as faith. Yes, yes, you know so, but your example now, I think, can make a huge difference in their lives. I think I hope so yeah, and you never know.

Melanie: 53:37

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Melanie: 53:39

And I think, too, you know the power of prayer.

Melanie: 53:41

You know I just, I have always taken comfort, you know, ever since I had my children, that I, you know the power of prayer, like praying for protection of our children and praying for these things, and having that is so important and I can't, you know, even imagine life without having that, because at the end of the day, it doesn't mean that bad things are not going to happen.

Melanie: 54:05

But I do believe we are given levels of protection and I think that, you know, being a mother is a sacred thing. You know it's a sacred honor that we have to be a mother and I think that you know, as such, our prayers for our children are answered. And it's not being anti-fathers in any way, scott, but I think there is a thing with mothers. You know you give birth, you have this child inside your body, you give birth to them and you know I feel like we have you. You know this special connection with heavenly father from the fact that we are able to, you know, give birth to his children and and raise them and love them, and yeah, yeah that's awesome.

Scott Brandley: 54:46

Well, from what I can tell from our, from knowing you for an hour, it really feels like you have a gift where you're close to the spirit right and close to the veil, and that's very unique. I mean I don't have those kind of experiences, but I mean we've had other people on the show that have had those kind of things happen to them and you know, I think that's a wonderful thing that that god's given you and it's special and I really appreciate you being willing to share it thank you.

Melanie: 55:24

Thank you, scott. Yes, I think so too. I think that I think that heavenly father knows our situations you know obviously, um and I think he gives us the gifts that we're meant to have yeah, you know that we're meant to have, and and I, you know, and this is gonna I've got to try and get this across correctly um, I sort of I've never, ever, ever had a fear of dying, apart from when my children were little.

Melanie: 55:48

I had a fear of dying then because I didn't want them to be motherless, um, but I've never had it, and I think it's because I just know that this is not my home and and and I know that you know, and I want to live with my heavenly father and heavenly mother and Jesus, and you know I want to go home and I don't mean that to sound ungrateful about life, but I, um, I kind of, you know, I miss, I miss home and sort of always have.

Melanie: 56:16

And, as bizarre as that sounds, it's not something I could say to many people, but in this podcast, in this audience, I think it's okay to admit to that, you know. Yeah, but I'm thankful for what you do too because, honestly, it's things, programs like this, that can change a person's life. You know, you, you hear people's stories, you, it resonates so much more with you and I think what you're doing is invaluable, it's so important and I I really thank you and um for what you're doing because I think it's, you know, really, really important well, we couldn't do it without guests like you.

Alisha Coakley: 56:53

So, thank you, we would have nothing to share if you guys didn't come on here, so we really appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Wow, so you had mentioned, um earlier at the beginning of the show, that that you did write a book about your experience with domestic abuse and everything like that is that, something that like is it out there where people are able to find it and, and you know, grab a copy if they're interested?

Alisha Coakley: 57:14

or is it something that like is it out there where people are able to find it and, and you know, grab a copy if they're interested? Or is it something that you, you just kind of have yourself off to?

Melanie: 57:20

the side. I'm going to get it published, but I just I haven't finished it yet. I, I, I know, I know there's something missing and I just haven't been able to. Well, up until about a month ago I just I didn't know what the missing piece was because I didn't want to rave on too long in each chapter. But the spirit's kind of been saying to me that whilst it really focuses around you know how you find yourself in a situation of abuse and the different forms of abuse and these things. What I missed out was the spiritual element, which actually is the biggest part, because to me, for me, it's the thing that has healed me the most. Without the spiritual element, I would not be healed and.

Melanie: 58:07

I would still be in a state of trauma. So I feel like I need to write that in and acknowledge that that's the message that I've been getting, so once. I finish doing that, then I'm going to you know, attempt to have it published, because I just really wanted to help other women recognize that it's. You know, if you're in it you're not alone and it's okay and you can get through it.

Alisha Coakley: 58:30

Well, keep us updated for sure, and you know when that time time comes. If you want to let us know, um, we can always share a link and update the, the comments and and descriptions and stuff like that, so people can can access that if they want, thank you, thank you, I really appreciate that.

Melanie: 58:47

Thank you so much yeah of course yeah, thank you so much. If you're ever in australia, I can be your tour guide in Melbourne.

Scott Brandley: 58:57

Deal. So do you have any last thoughts that you'd like to share before we wrap things up?

Melanie: 59:04

I guess I just want to bear my testimony. You know that this church is true and I have heard, you know, plenty of people out there putting things out, saying we're a cult and we're this and we're that, and you know, and I can 100% say that you know, nobody has taught me the gospel. I have never been talked in or talked into doing things or anything else like that. 100% comes from the spirit and the spirit is there for each and every one of us and it's just a matter of really wanting it in your heart. And and if you want it in your heart, then heavenly father will speak to you but hear it and you will know it and that our love of our heavenly father and Jesus Christ are real and they're there for us and I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Alisha Coakley: 59:49

Amen.

Melanie: 59:50

That's so. Yeah, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed talking to you both, yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 59:57

Thank you too, and and a big thank you to our listeners, um, for tuning in. We, you know, just ask you guys to do your five second missionary work. Make sure that you um like and share this episode with others. Go ahead and leave a comment, let Melanie know what part of her story just touched you or resonated with you, and if you yourself, of course, have a story that you'd like to share as a listener. We're always looking for more guests all over the world. Maybe one day, even outside of the world. Maybe one day we'll get like some alien planet guests. Wow, yeah, one day, even outside of the world. Maybe one day we'll get like some alien planet guest wow, yeah, alisha we're done edit no, I'm just kidding.

Scott Brandley: 1:00:45

Thank you, yeah, thanks everyone for tuning in. Thanks, melanie, for being on the show and for sharing your story, and it's been great. Thank you so much we'll see you guys next week with another episode of latter-day lights thank you, thank you, thank you.