Ashlyn Pells: Wilford Woodruff Brings the Restoration to Life

Videographer: James Dalrymple

Speaker: Ashlyn Pells

Young Adult Interviews

Transcript

I'm Ashlyn Pells and I was in the institute singers choir at Utah State, which is where I met my husband, Keith, and we are expecting a baby boy in February, so we're really excited about that. For the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project, I am the Manager and Editor of the histories and autobiographies teams. I've noticed that a lot of people today, that they struggle with different events that happened in church history, and we often hear about stories from church history and it's easy to just think of them as just stories. But, when we actually go into these accounts, and realize that Wilford Woodruff is a real person, just like us, who had real difficulties and real problems and questions and concerns, then we can find someone that we can actually relate to. Reading his accounts really does help to strengthen faith and strengthen our understanding of the reality of Jesus Christ and His saving and healing power. I really do believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The same gospel that I believe and love is the one that Wilford Woodruff and all of those early saints also believed and loved and that gave them the strength that they needed and the hope that they needed to keep going even when it was so bleak at times. It might be really scary to follow what God is asking us to do, and it might bring us into uncharted territory, but I know that if we just take that leap of faith, then it will always be better than what we could have planned for ourselves.