Utah Valley Institute of Religion
100 episodes listed below
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The Preach My Gospel Podcast is hosted by Sean Dixon, Brian Patterson, and John Gonzalez. They are each former mission presidents. Brian and Sean are teachers at the Utah Valley Institute of Religion and John is a former Area Mission Specialist with the Missionary Department. Using principles found in PMG and the Scriptures, the hosts and their guests will help you to become life-long disciples of Jesus Christ. Season one is focused on missionary preparation (MP). Season two is designed to help the returned missionary successfully transition home (RM).
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns Latter-day Saint doctrine into candid, practical counsel for missionary life, homecoming, worship, relationships, and suffering.
Sean Dixon and Brian Patterson turn Latter-day Saint discipleship into a sustained conversation about choices made after missionary service. Their interviews move from Sabbath observance and sharing faith to chastity, suffering, doctrinal change, and the difficult return home…
A Sunday work schedule becomes a faith decision when you're learning to live beyond the mission.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, practical reflection on life after the mission.
The episode treats missionary service as something that does not end neatly when the assignment does. Brian and John Gonzalez return to continuing conversion, saying a mission can leave a person more fully turned toward the Lord and still keep bearing fruit long after the…
A steady talk on consecration, living faith, and what lasts when the forms change.
This episode keeps its focus on a simple idea: consecration is bound up with character, not with a calling. Anthony Sweat and the hosts move from doctrine and policy into the practical work of offering time, talents, and means to God, while keeping the tone grounded in plain…
A steady, compassionate conversation about early mission returns, healing, and the kind of welcome that actually helps.
The episode handles early missionary homecoming with uncommon care, treating it as a lived reality instead of a problem to fix. Brian's memory of standing at the airport as missionaries returned for mental, physical, and medical reasons gives the discussion weight, and the…
A patient chastity lesson that treats growth as discipleship, not scorekeeping.
This episode treats chastity as a path into divine likeness, not a demand for instant perfection. Sean Dixon, Brian Patterson, and T.J. Moore make that case with steady, patient language, using Adam Miller, childlike growth, and the plain difficulty of learning to live well in a…
A plain way to shape sacrament speaking around a question and the gospel's answer.
This conversation treats sacrament speaking as a reply, not just a set of tips. Disciples are urged to point questions toward what the Savior has done, then let the gospel carry the answer. Stephan Tager keeps the method plain: name the problem, then state the answer.
A plain Sabbath story centered on one Sunday work decision and the choice to put God first.
This episode keeps its focus on Sabbath keeping as a choice made for God, then shows how that choice reaches into work, school, and Sunday plans.
Pain and discipleship are handled with plainspoken, devotional honesty.
Ron Squire speaks plainly about injury, surgery, and the long stretch of pain that shook his faith. The episode does not smooth over the hard parts. He names anger at God, the pull toward darkness, and a belief in Christ that had to be tested before it could feel steady.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
Sean Dixon and Brian Patterson welcome Ron Squire.
Jared Halverson, associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU, tells hosts Sean and Brian that returned missionaries often struggle because they went from the "isolate and concentrate" focus of a two-year mission to the "reintegration" of normal life.
Returned missionaries often lose the energy of mission-field study once bedtimes slip from 10:30 to 12:30 and "I have to do my Scriptures" replaces desire.
Brian Patterson contrasts camouflage, which hides a hunter, with blaze orange, which makes a hunter visible and safe, as a metaphor for discipleship in Matthew 5:14-16.
Guy Johnson, an Institute teacher of 23 years, describes growing up in Albuquerque amid gang activity and crime, reading the Book of Mormon at 17, and being baptized at 18.
Ben Lomu, host of BYUtv's 'Come Follow Up' and an actor in the Book of Mormon videos, says 'God is mindful of you, even in your failure.' He describes his difficult mission in Rome, Italy, and two broken engagements before he married Michelle 23 years ago.
Jared Halverson says that stage models of faith development, and the Dunning-Kruger curve, all map onto the simple arc of "creation, fall, atonement." He describes the creation stage as a protective "Eden" for children and new missionaries, and the fall as the stage where returned missionaries meet complexity, nostalgia and sometimes bitterness.
Logan Freeman, a Utah Valley Institute teacher and former Lagoon roller coaster draftsman, joins Brian on the Preach My Gospel Podcast to discuss President Nelson's talk "The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again." Freeman compares temple counts by church president, from Joseph Smith's 5 announced temples to President Hinckley's 79 and President Nelson's 185 announced in six years and nine months.
Mark Minor, a former San Bernardino mission president and 17-year addiction recovery missionary, tells Sean Dixon and Brian Patterson how a 1972 beer from a barracks machine at age 16 began an addiction that led to prison in Arizona.
This episode features T.J.
This episode features guest Jared Danis discussing the challenges return missionaries face, especially in balancing spiritual life with work and school.
Stephan Tager, a BYU religion professor with a PhD in instructional psychology, joins the hosts to discuss how to give powerful sacrament meeting talks.
Sean and Brian center the conversation on missionaries who come home earlier than expected.
Brian welcomes John Gonzalez back and reflects on the surprise of getting to episode 100.
Sean Dixon and Brian Patterson welcome Anthony Sweat for a conversation about consecration and lifelong discipleship.
Preach My Gospel Podcast's `RM E43 Love, Share, and Invite` follows Matt Conway and Kaya Murimoto as they talk about post-mission gospel sharing.
TJ Faamausili, a seminary teacher at Orem High School, tells hosts Sean Dixon and Brian Patterson that coming home from the Redlands California Mission in September left him without a companion, a bedtime, or rules, and that he slid back toward old high-school habits.
Juliana Jenkins left the Texas Dallas East Mission on July 6th after exactly 10 months, following anxiety and depression episodes that began the week of Christmas.
Dallas Pruitt, founder of the Live Life Mission, joins the Preach My Gospel Podcast for its roughly 90th episode to argue that growth comes from agency, citing Elder Bednar's line "we have the power in us to act, not simply to be acted upon." He frames adversity as God's way of strengthening people who pray to improve, and contrasts "consistency" with "intensity" using the January gym crowd.
Host Brian Patterson convenes Reina Aborto, Catherine Davis and Stephanie Kelly of the Utah Valley Institute faculty to address misunderstandings about women and the priesthood.
Mark Ogletree describes marriage as a continuation of missionary discipleship, covenant keeping, and teamwork with a companion.
President Russell M.