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[00:00:00] Morgan Jones Pearson: At the end of the interview you're about to hear, Natalie Hill Jensen told me more about a talk she references in our conversation. The talk, given by our prophet's wife, Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, is titled, My Soul Delighteth in the Covenants of the Lord. In it, she recalled receiving an email from a friend who was asking to speak at a Relief Society activity.

The topic was stress. Her friend sent a survey out to 75 of the women in her BYU married student group. Housing ward to find out what was stressing them out. The survey responses range from school, finances, lack of sleep, housework, homework, feelings of failing everything, and an inability to balance all of their responsibilities.

Sister Nelson says that, as counterintuitive as it may seem, she responded back and encouraged her friend to. offer a 21 day experiment to her Relief Society sisters. Invite the sisters to make a sacrifice of time to the Lord by increasing their time in family history and in temple work for the next 21 days.

Sister Nelson went on to read some of the women who accepted the invitation's experiences and then said, sisters, my suggestion to a group of Overtaxed, exhausted young mothers may seem counterintuitive and the results highly improbable. It may even seem cruel to ask a woman who feels as though she's barely surviving to make a sacrifice of time to the Lord.

But these young mothers proved that it works. It works for women who have made covenants with God. Why? Because when covenant women keep their covenants. They have greater access to the power of God. Natalie Hill Jensen is one of the many women who have taken Sister Nelson's challenge and who have seen results.

You may remember Natalie Hill Jensen from her days as the Mormon in Manhattan, a popular blog during the heyday of Latter day Saints. Saint Mommy bloggers in the early two thousands. Then Natalie Hill was not a mommy at the time, but she was a latter day saint, and she detailed her dating experiences while living in the city and chasing her dreams as a Broadway actress, she is a singer and actress, and her husband, Alex Jensen, is an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks.

They are the proud parents. of three little girls.

This is All In, an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I am Morgan Pearson, and I am so honored to have my friend, Natalie Hill Jensen on the line with me today. Natalie, welcome.

[00:02:46] Natalie Hill Jensen: Oh, I'm so happy to be here. Thanks.

[00:02:49] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I wanted to start.

Start out and tell people why I love Natalie so much. And so you'll have to indulge me for just a second, but we met years ago at a conference. And at the time, I'll be honest, like I didn't have any business being invited to the conference to begin with. It was not true. No, it is not true. It is true. And there were a bunch of women and they all had done like these really incredible things.

And I was just a writer for the desert news at the time. And honestly, Natalie, like most of the women there acted like they did not care at all about. Me at all, but you were so you were so nice and I have never forgotten that You're the best. It's easy. No, but that's that's one thing then the other thing is that I You got up to lead the music and I was like, oh my gosh, I know her From the primary video when I was a little girl and sure enough, it was you and Natalie and I go way back way further than she has any idea and I am just, I'm, I'm grateful.

I'm grateful for the chance to, to catch up with you. And I wanted to start, you were raised in a family full of girls. Your daughter, your dad has six girls. Is that right? Yeah. Five i'm the oldest of five girls. Okay, and you are now raising three girls Yeah. I'm curious, what did you feel like you learned from your parents about being a parent of girls that you'd like to apply?

And is there anything that you feel like, Oh, like my parents did this, but like, I'll try to do this differently. Obviously not trying to like rag on anybody here.

[00:04:34] Natalie Hill Jensen: I don't know, you know, I think my parents were especially gifted at figuring out our individual talents and passions and then fostering and supporting that.

I think we're in the stage right now with my little girls. They're seven, six, and two. And we're just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall right now. Like they're in tennis, they're in art, they're in basketball, they're in soccer, they're in dance. They're doing, they're literally doing everything. Yeah, no, like, like it's kind of crazy because you just don't really know what they're going to be drawn toward.

And so I, like, I feel like I pray a lot that I can. understand their specific gifts and talents and help them foster them in a, in a way that will benefit their entire life. And I feel like my parents did that beautifully with all of my sisters. The other great thing that they did was they made womanhood, a very non competitive environment.

I feel like I am probably the least competitive with other women because of the way I was raised, where it was just like. I just, we're just so happy for the success of other people. And I think that that kind of came from both of my parents and, you know, I, I don't really have a lot of like gender feminism issues because maybe because I didn't have brothers, so I didn't see that there was a disparity, but I was always raised in this very, very.

Empowered female dominated world with a very strong mother and grandmother on both sides and a very liberal father who was like, you can be anything you can do anything. So I feel like I, I just had this, like, completely open canvas to create this beautiful life in whatever way I wanted to do it. And my parents were always there to support emotionally, financially, spiritually.

And I, and I, I hope that I can do that for my girls. I hope I can pinpoint. Where their talents lie and foster that, but I think it's kind of tricky to figure out right because you're like, do you say you don't like ballet because you don't like this teacher or because you don't like ballet and you're, you're supposed to be a dancer or like, you know what I mean?

You're like, I just want them to just figure out what they love. And then like, I just want to go all in on it.

[00:06:46] Morgan Jones Pearson: Okay. I want to touch on really quickly. The, the creating an environment that doesn't feel competitive. What do you think your parents, because I guess as a mom of a girl now, I'm curious, how do you feel like they did that?

[00:07:00] Natalie Hill Jensen: I don't know. I wonder if it was just by example. Like, my mom is really, she's lovely and she's amazing, but she's not competitive. She doesn't compare herself to anybody. She's doing her own thing. And maybe it's just me watching her interactions and her support of other women growing up. And she's a woman who does a lot of charity for other people that nobody knows about, but we saw it, you know, and I wonder if it was that she doesn't speak poorly about anybody.

She's not a gossiper. And I think that that, that was really, really. Helpful to see, you know what I mean? She's also a gatherer. So I think that I became a gatherer by nature I love to just have more and more and more friends and you know, I just think it just enhances my life in every way She's not very exclusive She's very inclusive with other people and and I I watched you know And they've been in the same home for what like 36 years and i've seen her friend groups like shift and ebb and and the kindness that she's extended to people who have been unkind to her and the Just the forgiveness she's given to people who have wronged her in those years and then see those relationships repair or, you know, it's just been a very good example of like kindness and support to other women, especially in my eyes.

[00:08:17] Morgan Jones Pearson: I think that what you said about not talking bad about others is so important. We just moved from Northern California and in our ward, I noticed that all the women, anytime you were in a gathering of women, no one talked bad about anyone. And I thought that was like pretty remarkable, pretty rare. And I do think that that helps create an environment where you can be happy for the successes of others, and you can cheer one another on, and you can be there when somebody's going through something hard.

I love all of those things. So, Natalie, you mentioned that they kind of encourage your particular passions and talents. Uh, one of those things was that you were involved in theater and singing from a very young age. What do you think it was that drew you to those things?

[00:09:10] Natalie Hill Jensen: My mom's a singer, she has a gorgeous voice, and my dad is an attorney who's like a frustrated actor in his being.

So he founded Provo Theater Company and Payson Community Theater. So, I was exposed to seeing him performing. Like, I think he played P. T. Barnum in Barnum when I was little, and I remember him doing John Adams in 1776. And so, singing in church, I think I sang my first solo at two and a half. Like, it was just something that I just saw, you know, oh, my mom and my dad do it, I do that too.

And, um, they kind of ushered me into it. And then once the bug hit me, it was all driven by me. And the other thing is like, I think people think you have to be a real stage parent to get your child to a professional level of anything. And my parents couldn't have been further from that. I was driving that ship.

My mom wasn't watching in the window at dance. She'd like come and pick me up, but you know, she would. She would facilitate me getting there, but she wasn't like involved in like the, Oh, well, she's auditioning and he's auditioning. She just was like, go out and do your best and have a good time. If it works out great.

You know, they were never stage parents. And I think that that also made it so that I wasn't competitive about jobs or other people getting jobs that I wanted. Cause I'm in a highly competitive business. But it's never felt like that to me. And I think it's because of the way they fostered. It was like the right thing is not going to pass you by and the job that you're supposed to do is going to be there and everyone has an opportunity and everyone's talented and you can see why some people get things over others because they're just a better fit and it's not really about you.

And so I feel like they kind of created a really healthy environment around a very unhealthy business.

[00:10:50] Morgan Jones Pearson: Yeah, well, I think that what you just said is so important regardless of the industry that you're pursuing, whether it's something within the arts or whether it is a job within finance. So you went to NYU and eventually you made it on Broadway.

And I think that this is pretty, pretty spectacular because there are thousands of people all over the world who Broadway is their goal. Who would love to do the things that you were able to do? I wondered if you could give people just like a glimpse into the work that goes into achieving That goal because I can I honestly can't even imagine

[00:11:30] Natalie Hill Jensen: Well for me it was bananas. I think everybody has a different path I mean sometimes you'll see these people that just like They're on a reality show and then suddenly they're popping on broadway and you're like, wait a minute I've been training my whole life I mean, the path for everybody is different, but for me, it looked like, you know, I was in college at NYU and taking additional classes and auditioning separately while I was in school and I would keep leaving school to do little jobs here and there.

I got, it's called my equity card of me during the professional actors union while I was in college. And so I would, I was growing and networking there. And then, you know, so much about Broadway is who, you know, so like, once you're kind of in the club, it's easier to get your second and third Broadway shows because you just know people and, and at a certain level, it's just kind of like, you get hired because you're a good time.

I think there were some jobs. I mean, the Broadway shows I was in, like, I feel like it was truly right for those, but there were some jobs that I'm like, I think they hired me because they just wanted to hang out. And I don't even know if I'm really right for this, but. It, you know, it took a lot of training and I, I was in weekly voice lessons my whole life and, you know, speech therapy and I'm, I just am getting back to some of that like artist training cause my, I need to get my voice back in shape.

So I'm starting it again, but it, it doesn't, it's a really tough career because it involves so much of you. It's just, it's you physically, you wake up going like, where's my voice today? How does my back feel? So you spend most of your day in physical therapy, in vocal therapy, or being silent, um, eating specifically for your day so that you can perform a show in a corset and be flipped upside down.

Like it's, there's a lot of negotiating and then on the way, you know, you go home and you ice. It's not a very glamorous lifestyle. By the end of a Broadway eight show week, our feet will swell up an entire size and then you can barely squeeze them into the heels you're dancing in your hair. You lose your hairline from the wigs.

Your eyelashes fall out from the lashes. I have scars in the back of my hair head from wig pins. Like it's just not, it's not glamorous and the backstage isn't fabulous and glamorous, but it is the greatest. And it's. Oh, it's like a drug. It's so wonderful to be with a group of weirdos, figuring stuff out in a rehearsal room.

And just the community is so magical, but it's, it's also like really not very sexy.

[00:13:51] Morgan Jones Pearson: Yeah. Well, I, I listened to another interview that you did where you talked about movie and film stuff is so much of a less intensive gig, which I had never even thought about.

[00:14:02] Natalie Hill Jensen: Oh yeah. In fact, it's like you could be sitting in your trailer for like the entire day and they'll bring you on set for 15 minutes to work because the lighting's not right.

I like, I like doing those like little lifetime and Hallmark movies because they work more like theater. It's like we'll rehearse it once and we'll throw it up and we'll shoot like 15 pages in a day. It's like so much faster and that's really sad. It's just like a totally different gig. Like Film and TV and Broadway.

It's like a totally different side of your brain. It's really hard in a lot of ways to do eight shows a week for a year and a half and keep it fresh, especially if you're in a dramatic role. So sometimes I got to the end of my career where I was like, I don't want to die eight times a week, or I don't want to have to cry my eyes out eight times a week.

Like I'm too old for this. And then it'd be like, how much time can I spend offstage reading? Well, yeah, I'll take that job. Like, you get to a point where you just kind of have to like, manage your body and what world sounds fun to live in. Because, you know, when I was doing West Side Story, playing Anita, it's a really heavy show.

And I would get nightmares after that. Like, because Anita really, in the end, never really gets any. Closure, like everything she has is gone and her whole life is ruined and she's assaulted. So it doesn't end in a happy area, whereas playing Daniela and in the heights, I loved it because she was just like a real good time, right?

And you know, she just kept it happy. And so you kind of start thinking like, what space do I want to live in for the next couple months? And you start getting choosier and choosier about your projects because of where you are emotionally and what you think you can handle.

[00:15:35] Morgan Jones Pearson: Yeah. Along those lines, how hard was it to be on Broadway and uphold your standards?

[00:15:42] Natalie Hill Jensen: You know, I'm asked that question a lot and it's, it's, it's really hard and it's not hard at all. And, and here's, and I'll explain that to you because I think that when you decide who you are and you're comfortable with who you are, no matter who that is, and you're just like, yeah, this is who I am, like, take it or leave it.

Like people really do respect that. And. I even had like a college professor who was very abusive to a lot of women come to me later and say, you know, I could never abuse you. And I was like, that's weird. Why? Like sick that you wanted to with these other girls. Um, not, not sexually, obviously like emotionally.

And he was like, you always knew who you were and I could never crack you. And I thought that was really telling. Like, I feel like. For whatever reason, I have a spiritual gift of believing I'm a believer and I know that I'm a daughter of God. And there were times, I'm not gonna say it hasn't been rough, where I wouldn't literally go into a bathroom stall and close it and repeat the young women theme to myself.

I'm a daughter of my heaven, my father over my, my parents, Emily parents now who loves me and I love him. And you know, I mean, and I would comfort myself in these ways and I was grateful I had the tools to do so. But also like I felt like it got to a point where it was like, yeah, let's go out for drinks.

And everyone knew I had a diet Coke. And I was more fun than most people who were drinking and they never worried about it. It was never an issue. Once I decided I was all in. But if I was, I see people that are like, yeah, I mean, I'm I kind of don't drink and then they're wishy about it. That's where the conflict comes I think when you're truly converted to something you're just like hey here I am like i've i'd roll in and be like The first day of rehearsal i'd be like, hey ladies I I was in doubt at 21.

So I was like these are called garments. I wear them under my clothes. They're super sacred to me They remind me to take upon the covenants that I made, and they remind me of Jesus Christ, and I feel like they're like a protection to me, and they're really special, and I love wearing them. But you're going to see them a lot, and there are a lot of different religions that have religious clothing, like you've seen, you know, and people are familiar with the Jewish culture, and we see like traditional Jewish religious dress.

Very openly, right? So I'm like, you know, like how the Jews have the prayers and this is kind of how it is. And, and literally everyone was always like, that's cool. That's cool. But I think the more open you are about these things and the less weird it becomes, you know what I mean? Because there are so many different people that have religious clothing.

[00:18:16] Morgan Jones Pearson: Totally. And I, and I think one thing that came to my mind as you were describing what you would say to people is that some of your castmates may have better understood temple garments than some of the people that have covenanted to wear them. I think that I think that's part of the issue is like, we don't actually think about what they are or why we wear them.

And then when somebody says, well, why do you wear those? Like, do we even have a good answer for why?

[00:18:50] Natalie Hill Jensen: You know, there's a, I feel like there was like a generation where it was like taboo to talk about it. And I don't think that that was doctrinal. I've tried to look into it and I don't think at all. It's doctrine.

I think it's just like these weird trends that people follow. And I wish we talked about it more. I love wearing my garments. I. I absolutely love the way they feel. I love the way I feel when I'm wearing them. I feel like I will look back on my life in the movie of my life and I'll see where angels literally took my shoulders and moved me out of harm because I covenanted to wear the garments at a young age.

And you know, when I was on stage, it was a tricky situation. Like when I was on stage, I wore whatever the costume designer asked me to wear because I was an actor and that was my part. But when I was on a red carpet or appearing as myself in any sort of capacity, I always wore the garment. And I, you know, it was a chore to find dresses that work and it's always like a little bit more obnoxious, but you know what, it was totally worth it because I was more comfortable.

And I feel like we take these covenants upon ourselves in the temple and it's not just for us. It's hard to remember that when you're single. But it's for your generations, for your posterity. These are Abrahamic covenants that we are covenanting for our lineage. And I feel like when I wear the garment, it blesses me immediately in such beautiful ways, but it's also blessing my children.

And that's something that we, you know, you, it comes more important to you as you're become a mother and they're struggling with things. But I feel like I, I just, I feel bummed out when people don't totally understand. But it's not about a hemline. It's not about, you know, the modesty thing is not, it's not about where the clothes fit.

It's more of a how you live your life, you know, and, and I feel bummed when people who could have more. Blessings and have the fullness of this experience don't understand it or don't get it because they don't choose to go all in on it. And I, and I, and I just feel bummed out because I think that, you know, I think there's a, what is it?

I'm going to butcher this, but President Nelson has a really great. Oh, look at my friend, Mary Eyring always reminds me of it. It's something like, it's, it's like obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience, miracles or something like that. And I'm totally butchering it, but I think about that a lot. And I feel like when you do things with exactness, like the windows of heaven are open to you and the blessings are physical, they're spiritual, they're emotional.

I can see. Things that, like, where I have been calm in situations I shouldn't have been calm in, and I, and I can tie it back to wearing the garment, knowing who I am, and, and I think that, you know, you just, I, I just feel like I have extra help from heaven. When I am all in line, you know, and, and part of that is honoring the garment and honoring my body and I, and I love my body and I don't feel like it at all is a way to aimed or less sexual.

I feel like a more fullness of myself when I am wearing the garment. I really do. And, and, and I, and I know that not everybody feels that same way, but I think that like. Through lots of wearing them and praying about it. Like I think you can kind of come to an area and listen, I lived, I moved to Texas. It was 109 degrees the day I moved here.

So I get why it's challenging. And I lived in the New York was hard too, but I think that the benefits really outweigh the challenges for me. And I just, I love them and I wish we talked about more about just what a blessing it is to have them.

[00:22:42] Morgan Jones Pearson: I, I completely agree. I want to dig into this a little bit more.

You mentioned that you were 21 when you were endowed. Around that time, I listened to something where you talked about how you kind of reached this point where you felt like you needed to decide whether or not the church was true. For other young women who may be listening, who are kind of in that same boat.

Who are questioning whether or not like living the gospel is even worth it I wondered if you could share a little bit about that time in your life And then also any advice that you might have for young women that are kind of at that kind of crossroads

[00:23:22] Natalie Hill Jensen: Yeah, happy to so I was 21 And I had been the cover of Utah bride.

I married a great guy and our marriage did not work out. And he's awesome. I have nothing bad to say about him. He's amazing. But we were annulled, and for the full year after we were annulled, I was like the cover of Utah bride and there were billboards. It's like very Carrie Bradshaw. Um, it was bananas. And it was one of those moments where I was like, I did everything right.

I did everything right. And this didn't work out. And. I was kind of blaming God in a way for certain things not working out when I really needed to look back on it and be like, actually, there were certain things that I ignored along the way that if had I been more cognizant of what was going on, I could have, you know, maybe chosen different things or whatever, or maybe I needed to go through this because it was a really beautiful experience going through it.

I can say that, you know, 20 years later, right? Um, but the growth was. immeasurable from going through this. And one of the things I was like, well, maybe I just don't need to be LDS anymore. And I didn't wear the garment for, we're talking, we're talking like three to six weeks. That's how long my rum spring lasted .

And I remember thinking like, You know, I don't need this and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I, I feel, I felt like what I, I, what I had, how do I articulate this in a more thoughtful way? I just, I felt like maybe it wasn't for me and that I knew more and I was having an enlightening, right? Which is a lot of times people feel that way.

And I, and I was like, no, I don't need this. I'm just gonna like Coast for a minute and not wear my garments and not really go to church and see what I wanted to do And I can't tell you like the um, I just felt empty about something, but I wouldn't think it was the church, right? I was like, well, I just need something and I love the Jews.

So maybe I'll just become a Jew Maybe I'll just be like whatever whatever and so I started writing down all the major world religions and I literally made a spreadsheet and this is not like me. I'm an artist. I don't do spreadsheets. But I was like, what are the things that I really, truly believe? Cause I was unhappy.

Like I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I was actually unhappy. And I went through it and I was like, well, I believe in personal revelation. I believe that God and Jesus Christ and the Holy ghost are three separate beings. I believe that. I believe that people have eternal families. I believe that we live forever.

I believe in angels. I believe in, you know, all these things. And then I was like, all right, well, then I marked what all the world religions believe in. Right. And I literally was like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Oh, dang it. I'm a Mormon. I was like, no, I was like, I was sort of bummed about it. And I was like, no, dang it.

And so I literally got on my knees. This happened. And I, and I'm not recommending you do this, but this is how it worked for me. And I was like, listen, Heavenly Father, I think this is how my prayer went. But listen, I will, I will live. Like an actual Mormon. I'll put my garments back on. I'll go back to church.

I'll talk to my bishop. I'll figure these things out for the next couple months. And like six months, I'll do it for six months. And if I don't feel actual joy, I'm going to start drinking. Cause that sounds really fun. I was really committed to that. I was like, I'll give it six months. And so I did it all with his exactness.

And I had this awesome bishop, president Buckner, who's in the 70 now, and he's just the best. And You know, I kind of worked through the disappointment that I had and that Taking responsibility for a lot of it and not blaming god for letting me go through this hard thing But instead thanking god for this beautiful awakening And um, I remember I was frankie's patina in brooklyn with my best friend worth and her husband just having dinner outside in like I don't know, like probably six weeks after this gross prayer to Heavenly Father where I'm giving him ultimatums about drinking.

And I was doing, I was on the program, I did it all. And I'm sitting there drinking my water in my garments in a garden in Brooklyn. And I remember I just had this immense joy, like this joy just had so many words for it. It was just, it filled, it filled my whole spirit. It felt like my lungs were full all of a sudden, felt like my belly was full of like my head was clear.

And I remember just like that moment was so defining and I was like, I can breathe again. It was like breath was back in my lungs and it wasn't that I wasn't going through hard stuff. I was in the middle of like an annulment and drama and trying to pick up my life. And, you know, I was going through really hard identity stuff.

That's really hard in your twenties to figure out. But I had this peace and this joy and I was like, well, dang it no drinking for me. That seems fun So I never got to really do that darn it But um, it ended up being like a really great thing and then as I went forward I started having these wild dating experiences being LDS, right?

And so literally I was stalked by a guy in a hot air balloon who later became a murderer, which is a wild story, true story. And I was like, the world needs to know this. So I was like, I'm going to start a blog because it was at the very beginning of it all. And when I came up with the name for the blog, ultimately was Mormon in Manhattan, no sex in the city.

I was like, this is the moment where I go all in. Or, because I, once I say that I'm Mormon in Manhattan, I can't be like messing around. Right. There can be no shenanigans. I have to live like a Mormon in Manhattan, right? And I remember that being another turning point where I was like, okay, Heavenly Father, I'm going to do this.

And it was scary because then it also added a lot of unnecessary attention and um, a lot of criticism in so many different ways about how a Mormon woman should be and da, da, da, da, da. But then it also opened up a beautiful dialogue with a lot of women that I met that were like, Oh, I didn't know that we, we could do that.

And we can be professionals in a big city. I mean, I had never seen that. I had never seen that modeled. So I was, I felt like it was really important to show other LDS women that you can do whatever you want to do and you can be in whatever. You know, I think that like the whole like in the world but not of the world thing is a hard phrase for me because I think we should be all in the world and all in in our spirit so that we just fill the world with us.

[00:29:48] Morgan Jones Pearson: I want to come back to the temple. When you were single, you set a goal to go to the temple every week. Um, tell me about how that goal came to be and then how you saw it make a difference in your life.

[00:30:06] Natalie Hill Jensen: That's such a good question. When I was, well, when I was, gosh, I was doing I was, must have been like 27.

I was doing Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway and my bishop called me to be an ordinance worker. And I was like, I think you've got the wrong gal. Like I am dating. I am not like some old woman. Like I have, like I just thought that that was something that old ladies do, you know, that are like Elderly. And he was like, no, no, no, no, no, you need to go.

And it was the greatest blessing in my life. And I learned so much from serving in the temple. And I made so many friends by serving in the temple. And I absolutely loved, grew to love the temple. But I went through a really brutal breakup with a complete crazy person as most of us do at some point. And I was devastated.

I was completely gutted and I went to go see my aunt Donna in Newport Beach. And she was like, you know, Natalie, she said when I want to call down the powers of heaven. I go to the temple every week and I was like, well, I'm already like doing an issue. I'm like already a temple where it's like, no, you need to go to the temple.

And that could be baptism, initiatory endowment there. You just need to get your body to the temple every week and you will literally pull down the powers of heaven. And I was like, okay. And so I kind of started it. And at the time my sister Nina was getting married and elder Anderson, who's a friend of my dad's married them.

And he was like, well, Natalie, you're next. And I was like, oh, heaven help me. And he looked at me and he goes, Heaven will help you. And it was such a moment, I was like, oh. And I started going every week, and literally, it's like you literally pull down Heaven's help. You have these scores of angels who are here to help fight your battles, who are here to move things for you.

And I met my husband within like six months of that. And she had met her husband within six months of doing that too. And I, um. It was just such a beautiful and meaningful experience to me that I, I, I have tried to go for a long time every week. I feel like I go to the temple, I don't have some like amazing spiritual experience.

Sometimes I go and I'm just like, okay, I'm here, I'm showing up. But when I pray to see the blessings of the temple outside of that. I'll have these whisperings of the spirit that feel like, Oh, that job you just got, that's a blessing of your faithfulness. That's a blessing of this temple. And the blessings have been not only for me, for my children, for my husband, but they have been for me personally, for stupid stuff that I care about, like getting another voiceover job and doing this or going to have this fun moment out.

And I like the Lord knows what I want and what would be exciting to me. And I feel like he has blessed me with these little nuggets. Because I go to the temple and I think just getting your body in there, it's almost like you put a key in to unlock heaven and it's just like heaven comes down. And I say that in a very literal way.

My, my mom taught me when I was little, when I was little, when I first going through the temple to write down, if you're doing an endowment session, the name of the person, the date you went, the temple you're in and who was with you in that temple. And now we have that all kind of digitized. Right. But I still have a stack of these ladies that I have.

Done work for and it sits in my temple bag this and I just take the prayer roll slip and just write their name Before I walk out and I have these stacks of angels that I feel like I can call on when things are rough But I'm like I need help I need you to help fight this battle for me and they have shown up for me in ways They're like I can't even express and it's the more you the more you tap into that Other side of the veil and the more you see it The more experiences you'll have with it.

And there's a really beautiful, I love sister Nelson's BYU speech. What's it called? The covenant women. Oh, golly. It's BYU speeches. I'll find it and I'll link it. It is the greatest. And the way she talks about these angels and the people, cause they are not dead. They're not dead. They're here with us. And she's, I mean, it is, it gives us license to open that door further, in my opinion, and I feel like exploring that and exploring the literal help from these amazing women on the other side.

And I'm sure there are men helping me too, but I just love feeling the women. They, I mean, it has been. Remarkable. I've had peace when I should never have peace. I have had my personality enhanced to make new friends. Like, I feel like every blessing that I have in this new phase of my life has been a direct blessing of weekly temple attendance.

[00:34:38] Morgan Jones Pearson: I cannot tell you how much I love that. I also worked in the temple when I was single and I had this experience one day where, and I probably talked about part of this before on the show, but one day I had this feeling that my grandparents were trying to speak to me and I am not somebody who like thinks like I commune with the dead, you know, but my grandma and I were super close when she was alive and, um, Part of what I felt that day in the temple was that she was trying to say to me that she had seen my future husband and that he was every bit as good as I hoped he would be.

Oh my gosh. And so in my, in my dating after that, like anytime I'd have the thought like, should I just like settle on this one thing? It'd be like, no, I can't settle. Because she said that she saw him. You know what a yes. And it really, it really did make a big difference. And so I am a believer in that.

And I think that we need, we need that help from the other side, from those that can see more than we can see.

[00:35:44] Natalie Hill Jensen: You know how I met Shima Baradaran Baughman? Did you know that we met in the temple? . Yeah, this was wild. I was an ordinance worker and I remember this woman coming in and she was the most beautiful person.

[00:35:54] Morgan Jones Pearson: And that is what Shima is. Yes.

[00:35:56] Natalie Hill Jensen: Drop dead. And I remember being like, this, this is what mother Mary looks like. This is like Jesus's mom who is in here. Just this beautiful, tiny. Petite little persian Beautiful woman doll. Yes doll. She's like a little princess She walks in and she and I looked at each other and we both just started crying And she was going through something.

I didn't know her. I'd never met her. I did the initiatory We didn't see anything, but I was like, can I give you a hug and I hugged her and then 10 years later We met at a party in Salt Lake and she goes, I know you, you used to do initiatory in the temple. And immediately I was like, Oh, I know you like we've known each other for all these years and probably before this earth, but it was such a cool way to be like, Oh my gosh, like that's, that's how we met.

That's wild crazy.

[00:36:42] Morgan Jones Pearson: That's so cool. Um, okay, quickly. How did you meet Alex?

[00:36:48] Natalie Hill Jensen: Oh, God. Um, long story short. I, he, what he was, my sister, Nicole was on a plane with a guy named Ryan Lambert, who was the manager on Alex's basketball team when they went to the national championship for the Nicole, for the youths, played basketball for the youths.

And Nicole and Ryan talked. She was like, I have this crazy sister in New York. And I dated some of his friends and it's weird because Nicole, you met Nicole, she's the best, but she's not the girl that's like sitting there chatting up her seatmate. She's just not. But the fact that they even connected is miracle number one.

And then she said, if you have anybody who's LDS and not a weirdo, set him up with my sister. He sent me up on one date. It was not a fit. And then four years later, I had just broken up with a guy who I had met outside of a Chinese dumpling house in Chinatown, who was Dutch. And it was to the point where it was like, he was amazing.

If I was going to marry him, I'd have to move to the Netherlands. I just, I kept praying about it because he was such a good dude. And I, the answer was sometimes you have to say no to something good to say yes to something great. And it was a very clear answer. And that's another thing I always recommend is like figuring out how the spirit speaks to you.

Cause it's hard to figure that out. Is it my thoughts? Is that the spirit? And I'm, it's still a process, but I feel like I really concentrated my efforts at that time to realize like, You know, I really want the spirit to speak to me and I want to understand God's words and know that they're not coming from me.

But I knew that this was clear direction and it was hard and I broke up with him. And Ryan Lambert sent me a text and I was like, hey, do you know who Alex Jensen is? I was like, no, does he know who I am? He said, I want to set you up with him. And I was like, okay, well. There's all these people that want to send me a thankfully for my blog.

A lot of people thought that I should date their brothers, cousins, whatever, which is so nice.

[00:38:31] Morgan Jones Pearson: I don't know anything about that, Natalie.

[00:38:33] Natalie Hill Jensen: Uh, yeah, yeah. Just set up McGee, right? It's like, oh, you're single. He's single. Let's go. So I had my apartment was on fire. There were Three Broadway shows I was supposed to go to ended up closing.

I had two TV shows that were an option, but I put on hold. I had zero dollars and I needed money to pay for Diet Coke. So I flew to Utah and taught a masterclass. And that weekend I was like, I'm just going to go out with all these idiots. Like I went out on like six or seven dates in two days. It was so stupid.

And Alex was my last date. And he was like, why don't you just come to a game? So I was like, I'm going to bring my parents. I don't want to sit there by myself. So I brought my parents to a game, and then they left. And I went downstairs, and he introduced me to somebody as Melissa. He was like, this is Melissa.

And I was like, my name is Natalie. And he goes, Oh, well, that's either going to define us or be a great story in five years. And it turns out it's a great story in five years. It's like the dog's middle names are Melissa. And anytime we get takeout, it's always from Melissa. Um, and we were kind of just like, I couldn't, it was kind of weird, you know, when you're older and you're dating, you're kind of figuring out like, why is this person single?

Yeah. Is, are they broken in some sort of way? And I had honestly held hands with so many men, walked them through the fire, but I was like, I just want somebody who's on the other side of the fire. I don't want to have to do the work to get you through this life right now. You know, you're like, what, at what level of righteousness are you like, do we match up spiritually?

Like, do we see the church the same way? Like, there's just a lot when you're dating as an older. Single adult. And so our first date, I probably talked way too much and he was probably like, she is a crazy, but, um, my friend, Mary Martha was like, Hey, I don't know if he knew that you were interested in him.

You should message him again. And I really needed a free meal. And I knew he was coming to the, to play the next. And so I was like, Hey, am I going to see you when you're in town? And he was like, I didn't think I made the cut. And I was like, Oh, all right. And long story short, we went out. We had a great date.

We fell in love that night. He was like, I fight flew me to Utah two days later. We were inseparable and we got engaged like shortly thereafter.

[00:40:40] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, that's a great story. I'm glad that Melissa turned it out, turned out to be a good story rather than, than a bad experience. But Alex is an assistant coach in the NBA.

He worked for the Utah jazz now works for the Dallas Mavericks. And I'm curious how the two of you, what you do to strengthen your marriage and to create a deliberate home when you have. A demanding lifestyle.

[00:41:09] Natalie Hill Jensen: Well, that's, I mean, that's the ongoing question and something that we're always trying to figure out and work toward.

I think, I think it's really hard to be in this industry because He's gone so much. I'm really a single mom most of the time, right? So, you know, I learned from my friend Michelle Obama. I loved her. I loved her autobiography. It's so good But you know, she basically was like I create the home culture and when he comes home, we welcome him But we don't wait for him And so that's kind of hard for him But I've had to with the kids just be like when we have dinner and if he's here great, you know What I mean, we've had to like Create a normal space for their lives and then when he's there, he's actually incredibly hands on.

As far as like for us, it's hard. It's hard to connect for us because we're both really demanding phases of my home life with them. It's really hard and taxing and his life is really hard. He's never home. And then when he gets home, he gets home at like 3 in the morning and then he's up early for practice.

And so we're trying to do like a weekly date. We're trying to do that. I find that he started this when we were dating. He'd be like, I just need five minutes and we would just lay down and talk to each other for five minutes. We had to be like laying down and just talking. And I, and I, that's one more thing that I've been like, we need to really make sure we get our five minutes in every day because it's just so easy to just go in separate directions completely when.

You're not being incredibly intentional about it. The other thing we try and do is we did a lot more in Utah. We're new here, so we're still trying to get the lay of the land. But like we included the players in a lot of our like Sunday dinners and a lot of our holidays. And so we kind of brought work home in certain ways and have these beautiful relationships with these men.

Um, and our families are very close because of You know, including them and, and gathering at the house a lot more. And we want to do a lot more of that here in Dallas, where we just, I feel like it's a really hard place for the wives, um, the wives of players, the way it's just, we are on an island and I feel like I need to be a better about gathering them, but there's, you know, there's politics involved in that.

But I, I feel like we have to create this community for our kids and for this organization. And then that's kind of how we share, that's how we share what's good in our life.

[00:43:25] Morgan Jones Pearson: Right. That makes complete sense. Natalie, thank you so much. My last question for you is what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

[00:43:36] Natalie Hill Jensen: Well, it's funny because I, I've been always thinking like, what is our family motto? What is our family motto? And it's funny that you asked me to do this because this year I was like, our family motto is all in. We are all in. We're all in wherever we are. We're all in in our communities. We're in our sports.

We're in our school. We're all in at the Mavericks. We're all in in the city of Dallas. We are all in in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is something that isn't separate from all those other worlds. It's all. We're all in wherever we are, and I feel like that means doing the little things to stay all in.

It's very easy to, I always say it's like, it's like plugging something into an outlet. It's easy to let that plug fall out. And it's the little things that we have to do to stay all in. And that really is, I mean, it's, it's this Sunday school answers. It's scripture, prayer, temple attendance. The second you do it.

Like your life just changes in such a really remarkable and exceptional way that when you feel the sweetness of all in, you don't want to feel it any other way.

[00:44:43] Morgan Jones Pearson: I am so grateful for this conversation on a personal level because I feel like I will walk away with a renewed. Desire to be better with attending the temple.

And so thank you so much for taking the time and Just for being you I I appreciate you very much.

[00:45:02] Natalie Hill Jensen: I love you Morgan. You're the best.

[00:45:05] Morgan Jones Pearson: I love you, too We are so grateful to Natalie Hill Jensen for joining us On this week's episode, we've linked Sister Nelson's talk for easy reading or watching if you'd rather in our show notes, which you can access by visiting ldsliving.

com slash all in. As always, we're so grateful to Derek Campbell for his help with this episode and we're grateful to you for listening. We'll look forward to being with you again next week.

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