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[00:00:00] Morgan Jones Pearson: Morgan Choi's husband's job has taken her family all over the world. First as a young married couple and now as a couple with two children. They have navigated difficult things including infertility along the way and in the process they've grown more and more confident. of God's love for all of his children.

Morgan Choi is a wife and mother who currently lives in Harare, Zimbabwe. While teaching Sunday school, she had an idea to create a Book of Mormon timeline. She noticed history books depicting history visually, spread by spread, and thoughts So, I from many that she knew while visiting a museum with a friend, she mentioned her idea for the timeline.

And in that moment, felt what can only be described as a burning in her bosom, that this was something she both needed to do for herself and

for others.

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'm Morgan Pearson, and I am so honored to have Morgan Choi on the line with me today. Morgan, welcome.

[00:01:22] Morgan Choi: Thanks, Morgan. It's great to be here.

[00:01:24] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I think this is the first time I've interviewed somebody named Morgan, so this is really exciting.

We've never had two Morgans on the same episode, and I'm excited because we figured out as I was prepping for this interview that we have mutual friends and they speak so highly of you. And so I'm excited to get to know you better. But from the, from the time you were first married, Morgan, you and your husband have lived all around the world.

I went way back into your Instagram. I, I stalked your Instagram very far back. And I assume you probably knew that would be the case that you would live all over the world when you married your husband. Um, but did you have any hesitations about that? Or is that one of the things that drew you to one another?

Tell me a little bit about you and your husband.

[00:02:10] Morgan Choi: Yeah, the answers are yes to all those questions. I'll give you a little bit of a background. So when I met my husband, well, I had graduated from BYU and then moved to Washington DC, where I went to study, uh, to be a physician assistant at George Washington University.

So that's why I was in DC. And my husband He was in DC for different reasons. So he is a political officer in the foreign service, and he had just finished two years in Afghanistan, and he was currently in Washington DC to study Russian. His next post was going to be outside of the United States again, and he was 39.

He was single, and he was only in DC for a year. And I didn't know this about him, but his dad was actually praying every day and even fasting multiple times a month that my husband Jacob would be able to find a spouse. And after our first date, things went pretty quickly. I think It was two weeks after our first date that my husband told me that I was the one for him and that he would wait as long as I needed him to, to figure out how I felt.

Um, but I knew he would be moving to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in September. And this was July when he was telling me that he wanted to marry me. So we only had like three months to figure it out. So when you ask if there was hesitation, absolutely. And I actually. I didn't know this at the time, but he had actually made an appointment at the Salt Lake City Temple for a sealing for us, for us to be married before he went to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

He didn't tell me this until later, but I was feeling hesitant and, um, I went and talked to my bishop and he was so helpful. So he told me that someone doesn't have to read the entire book of Mormon to know it's true. They could just read a few verses or a page. Or someone doesn't know, have to know that a certain principle is true to, they don't have to sit through a whole lesson to know a principle is true.

They could walk into a room and feel the spirit and hear just a few minutes of the lesson. And he told me we don't have to date someone for a whole year to know if they're the right one. We could just go on a couple dates with them and we could know. And so that was really helpful to me. So my husband and I got engaged pretty quickly.

And that was my compromise. So when I found out that he had scheduled an appointment for us to get married at the Salt Lake City Temple, I said, that's a little too soon, but I did compromise with him. And we got engaged before he left to go work in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. And then we were engaged the long distance for three months and we married.

And then I joined him in January of 2018. in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and I do think his job did draw me to him a little. It has, it did, it did sound exciting to me to live in other countries and it absolutely has been and I have loved it.

[00:05:10] Morgan Jones Pearson: I feel like it's definitely probably for the best that he didn't tell you that he had already reserved a temple slot.

[00:05:18] Morgan Choi: So his dad who had fasted and prayed for him, he actually passed away shortly before our wedding. So we were married in December of 2017. His dad passed away in August of 2017. And before he passed away, he wrote down his last testimony and he had had a stroke, so it was hard for him to do so. But In his, in the best writing he could, it was so sweet.

He wrote down that he knew that our Heavenly Father loves his children and that he knew that our Heavenly Father loved him because he answered his prayers and that his son had found his spouse. So that was really sweet that before he passed away, he knew that Jacob had found me.

[00:06:01] Morgan Jones Pearson: That is so sweet.

That's awesome. So, okay, so you lived, I, I am not even going to attempt to say the name because I will end up sounding like an idiot. Tell me again the first place that you lived.

[00:06:16] Morgan Choi: Yeah, the first place was Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

[00:06:20] Morgan Jones Pearson: So from there, you all have lived, you lived in Moscow, you currently live in Africa.

Can you tell listeners briefly a bit about each of the places you've lived? It seems like all have been pretty different.

[00:06:35] Morgan Choi: Yeah, Ashgabat has been the most different and I don't know if you've ever heard of that place. I certainly didn't know where it was when Jacob told me that we were going to move there or that he was going to move there.

So Turkmenistan used to be a part of the Soviet Union like the other Stan countries and it's located north of Iran and Afghanistan and it is quite a different country. Ashgabat is a beautiful capital city of the country. They have this authoritarian president who has a lot of control over the country.

You cannot find like unrestricted internet, like free internet. Anywhere in the country other than at the American Center for locals, at least, well, yeah, the whole country. Well, I used to say the capital is beautiful. It has like white marble buildings and everything kind of matches. They have like white buildings and they have like stars everywhere and they have green is like the accent color.

I guess green roofs, green doors and there are a lot of rules and regulations. You can't meet in groups of people over. I can't remember the number. It was like over like. eight people, and you, let's see, what other rules did they have? You weren't allowed to take pictures, although I was always secretly taking pictures because it was so fascinating, but the city looked like it was out of a Star Wars movie, to be honest, except it was a bit empty.

But that was, that was Oshkobot, Turkmenistan. It was an adventure, for sure, to live there.

[00:08:05] Morgan Jones Pearson: Yeah, those pictures, I looked on your Instagram, those pictures are wild. Yeah. And so, okay, so you go there, you're newly married, and you experience this place that feels like it's out of a movie. So I'm sure that was an experience.

And then from there, you end up going to Moscow, is that right?

[00:08:23] Morgan Choi: Yeah, we moved to Moscow, Russia, in October of 2018. And it was cold, and it was dark. I, I actually think Moscow is really, it's really beautiful, but I think the coldness and the darkness affected my opinion of it. We had a dark apartment. We lived on the embassy compound.

The great things about Moscow is that the ruble was very weak and the dollar very strong. And so Jacob and I were able to go to like all these fancy restaurants and eat fairly inexpensively there. That was very fun. They also had like a market called Ismailova that I loved going to. And buying Matryoshka dolls and just seeing all the creative things that the Russians were making.

Yeah, Russia was fun that way.

[00:09:06] Morgan Jones Pearson: Okay, and then you came back to the U. S. for a period of time, but now you live in Africa. Is that right?

[00:09:15] Morgan Choi: Right. We are currently in Harare, Zimbabwe. And Harare, we arrived last October and we are loving it so far. Africa was never on our list of places we wanted to go, but Harare is, uh, really nice weather wise.

It's lovely. It's between 60 and 80 degrees all year. And right now we're in the rainy season. So it's very green. If you look at our yard, you'd think we were like in California. Maybe there's just so many plants. We have plum trees and we have a mango tree and a banana tree and we have two guava trees.

And it has been so fun for our children to be here. It is like heaven. They are outside a lot. They're getting dirty. They're getting scraped up, bruised, and they come home just so happy.

[00:10:02] Morgan Jones Pearson: So, yeah. That's awesome. Okay, I'm curious. So talking about as members of the church, obviously you have attended church or worship in some way in all the places that you've lived.

But I'd imagine that that has also been pretty varied across these different places. What has your worship experience looked like?

[00:10:26] Morgan Choi: Yeah, they've been very different. So in Ashgabat, the church is not recognized by the government and there were only nine members of the church in the country when we were there.

We met, yeah, including my husband and including me. We met in an apartment below us. There's a family from northern Utah, actually. We were so lucky that the Salisbury family was there in Ashgabat. Tyler was working in management and they had three boys, a 12 year old at the time, a 10 year old, and an eight year old.

And then there was another couple that sometimes joined us. The wife would come more often than the husband, but we were very small and our group was so small that it wasn't even considered a branch. And Tyler was asked to be the group. It was, it was considered a group and Tyler was asked to be the group leader.

And so he would, he would kind of put the meetings together. We would have like the first hour would be sacrament meeting. And this was before Come Follow Me, by the way, in 2019. So we'd have sacrament meeting and people would just take turns giving talks. They were asked to give talks. And we, as you can imagine, with only like eight members.

We gave talks frequently. And then sometimes he would put on like a conference talk from a previous conference. And then the second hour was either we switched, well, we split up into primary and priesthood for their 12 year old son and then for their 10 year old and eight year old sons. So that's what church was like in Ashgabat.

Very small, but really like a special experience. And In Moscow, it was quite different because there are a lot of members, well, there are more members of the church in Moscow, Russia. We didn't have the opportunity to meet with the Russian locals. They had their own wards. There were so many English speakers in Moscow that we had our own English ward.

And that ward was interesting because it just had so many nationalities. There were people from Nigeria and Rwanda and Syria, Ukraine, a lot of women from the Philippines who are working and sending money back home. And so that was neat. We met in an office building and it was. Above a gym. So sometimes when we were at church, you could hear like music below you.

Yeah, but it was, it was a nice experience. Definitely different than Ashgabat, but it was nice to have meetings with people from all over the world. And then Harare is, is different. And I actually love Harare because we get to go to church every week with locals and I don't know if people know this, but there are actually a lot of members of the church here in Harare, and maybe that should not be surprising because we're getting a temple here.

It's actually under construction now. We're hoping it will be done in 2025 so that we can go to the open house, but it is so exciting. Yeah. I was a bit surprised that there are so many members of the church here, but we meet in a house. It's in a neighborhood when the gate opens, you can see this two story house and then behind it, there's a one room building and that's where we meet for the first hour for sacrament meeting.

There's no AC, but we meet at 8 a. m. so it's not too hot. And then for the second hour, We go into the house and there's different classrooms for nursery or primary or priesthood or Sunday School Relief Society. Um, so that's our church experience here. We have loved. This, this church experience, because we have been able to, to meet with the members here.

So I know,

[00:13:57] Morgan Jones Pearson: yeah, well, I know that that, that is a unique experience because I feel like a lot of times you end up in an expat ward or situation like that, where you're not being able to worship with the people that are from that area. And I think that has to be a super rewarding thing to be able to feel the spirit of the people there.

I wondered, what would you say has inspired you about the ways that people serve in the church worldwide?

[00:14:27] Morgan Choi: That's a great question, and I have thought about how I've seen service worldwide. The examples that have come to my mind, um, when I've thought about service in the church worldwide, it is interesting because so many are actually from the United States.

I spent so much time in the United States. When I was 10 years old, my father passed away from liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and we were living in Denver, Colorado. And my family moved to Utah to live in Provo, so that my mom could go back to BYU to school and finish. But shortly after we moved to Provo, we had this home teacher who was assigned to our family, and his name was Evan Ivey.

And I think that That connection and that meeting him and having him become our home teacher, and he was later called to be bishop, but he continued to be our home teacher, it's just changed my life and, and just seeing his service in the church and his service to us as well. So he would do things like.

Well, of course, he would come over once a month and have like a spiritual message and he'd either bring his wife or another priestholder or his son who is in high school, but he would also let us borrow his car if our car broke down, or he and his wife would have us over for dinner. I remember him coming to one of my soccer games in high school, and I just remember.

He was such a great example to me. There was one story in particular when there was this young women's activity and my sister and I went, but she was a beehive. I was in my maid. I know those are old names. She was like, around 12. I was around 14 and we went to this activity and. We found out that it was a daddy daughter surprise dinner and having lost our father and just feeling a little bit uncomfortable, both of us left at separate times because they were in, the activities were in different places and we walked home and our bishop noticed that we were missing and he came to our house and he knocked on our door And he asked my mom if he could take us out to dinner and something we will never forget.

Yeah, we felt so cared for and loved by him. So yeah, when you ask about worldwide service, I actually think that's like, I think about Bishop Ivy and that, that happened in Provo, Utah. And we actually named our daughter Ivy after him. He passed away shortly before she was born. But another example of like church service is an example from Ashkabad.

We met with the Salisbury family every week and they're from northern Utah. And they were just such great examples of following our savior and just trying to serve in his church. So I'll give you some examples. So when Jacob and I would go to church at the apartment below us, they would be in their Sunday dress.

And of course, Jacob and I would wear our Sunday Sunday close as well. But, um, they would have their 12 year old playing prelude music on the piano. And then their 10 year old would be leading the music. And they even asked their 8 year old if he could be in charge of attendance, which is of course easy for them to do.

But it was just so cute that they had these assignments for their kids and their 8 year old was also in charge of the program. So they always had like a program printed out, even though our little congregation was only like eight people most of the time or even seven. So. They were wonderful examples to us of, I just think, just serving in the church and doing a good job and doing their best, uh, because they were trying to follow their Savior.

[00:17:55] Morgan Jones Pearson: Absolutely. Well, I, so I grew up in a really small ward. I always say, if you could be demoted back from a branch, once you've become a ward, we would have been demoted. But because of that. I have always appreciated the fact that, like, if you didn't show up to church on Sunday, that meant, like, multiple things probably wouldn't get done.

And That, like, learning to serve in the church in that way, I think, at a young age has such, it, it, like, kind of prepares you for the rest of your life in church service, so I'm sure those boys are well prepared. Morgan, how have you seen in your travels that the gospel really is for all people?

[00:18:41] Morgan Choi: When we lived in Moscow, Russia, we didn't have an opportunity to go to church with Russians, but there was one opportunity that I had to hear a sister bear her testimony.

I was in Relief Society that day and a sister who was just called to be the Stake Relief Society president came to our Relief Society class and she introduced herself and then she shared a testimony with us of the Savior and I actually don't remember What she said I she spoke in English, of course but I just remember that the room fell silent and I felt the Spirit so powerfully and I It was really neat, um, because I hadn't had an opportunity to worship with Russians before, and just to hear her and just to feel how powerful her testimony of our Savior was, was really neat.

And it just reminded me that her Redeemer was my Redeemer, that this gospel of Jesus Christ is absolutely and truly for everybody.

[00:19:44] Morgan Jones Pearson: I think it's so cool, like, and maybe this is, this is like a dumb thing to say, but I feel like sometimes church is a lot like going to the temple where most of the time there's not anything like super revolutionary or something that like sticks with you forever.

But every now and then there are these like little nuggets that can be shared in a Relief Society class or shared in or like experienced in primary that then stick with you long term. And so it's almost like that's the reason we keep showing up, you know, is because you never know when those things are going to happen.

[00:20:25] Morgan Choi: Yeah, I had an experience like that when I was a young woman and you know going to did you have like young women activities on Tuesday? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And sometimes I'd wonder why am I here, but there was one moment when I was like singing with a group of young women and I just felt the spirit so strongly and I remember thinking, oh, yeah, that's why I come to young women activities because you you can get those little nuggets.

You don't expect them sometimes, but they you have those opportunities to feel the spirit and to have your testimony strengthened for sure.

[00:20:58] Morgan Jones Pearson: Morgan, I want to ask you about something that's pretty personal, and I got your, your go ahead before asking, but I, I know in, in my life personally right now, I know a handful of people that are currently going through IVF treatment, and that's something that you and your husband have been working have been familiar with and have experience and in fact that made it so from what I understand you had to live apart for a while so that you could undergo IVF treatment so that you all could start your family.

Tell me a little bit about that experience.

[00:21:35] Morgan Choi: Yeah, sure. I'm, I'm like you Morgan. I have a lot of friends who are actually going through Infertility and doing IVF right now and it's a, it's a struggle just to give you a little bit of a background. When I married my husband, we wanted 5 kids and I was 35 and he was 39, but I think we just, we just wanted to have as many kids as we could.

And we thought, okay, maybe it's possible to have 5. But we definitely wanted kids right away and I quit my job and of course I, you know, I was in a different country in Ashgabat with him. There was no infertility specialist in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. So we waited until kind of passing through Washington DC and then going to Russia.

We saw an infertility specialist and had to kind of go ahead like you probably need to You know, do IVF as soon as you get to Russia. So we arrived in Russia knowing that we needed to do that. And it was cold and dark and we, I was away from a lot of family and friends. So I think even if I hadn't have done IVF there, it would have been a challenging place.

But on, on top of all of that, and when you add IVF, it was even more challenging, but I, I, I failed for IVF retrievals in Moscow, Russia, and I can talk about that easily now at the time. Of course, it was heartbreaking. And I know a lot of people are going through through this. And I should say that in Moscow, Russia, the cost to do an IVF cycle is a quarter of the cost it is to do in the state of Utah, for example.

Wow. Yeah. So we were able to do more, which was a blessing that we lived in Moscow and we could, you know, try so many times. But somewhere in the middle of trying all of those cycles, my mom called me, and she told me about this woman who had at least two daughters, and one of her daughters could not have kids, and so the other daughter donated eggs so that this daughter could have kids.

Children of her own. And my mom was telling me how beautiful the story was and how it worked out so wonderfully. And when I first heard the story, I thought, Oh, that is beautiful, but that's not what I want for me. And I like wanted to keep trying and have my own, you know, eggs work out, I guess to say it.

But after doing IVF. Maybe it was a couple more times. My heart started changing and I reached out to my younger sister, Ashton, who was living in Utah, and I just told her kind of what I had been thinking and just said, you know, as a backup plan, we're, we're still going to try. We were planning to go to Utah and to try a couple of times in Utah.

But I asked her, would you donate eggs to me if this doesn't work and, and she was so quick to reply. Yes, absolutely. And her husband had recently said something like, Ashton, you should donate to Morgan so she can have a baby. Um, but that was such an answer to my prayer. It was obviously hard to ask. It's hard to ask someone to donate eggs to you.

And I'm so grateful that my sister was willing to do that. And after going to Utah. We failed two more times, but I would just love to share a story. When we were going, when we were about to do our fifth IVF retrieval in Utah, so it was the first time we were trying in Utah, the evening before the retrieval, my doctor called me and she wanted to let me know that the numbers weren't looking as good as she wanted them to look, which was basically kind of just like softly letting me know that it might not work and it might fail again.

So after that phone call, my husband and I, with my mother, we went to the Salt Lake City Temple to do a session, and during that temple session, I guess at the end of the temple session, there was a prayer circle, and a brother was giving the prayer. And he talked in the prayer about how normal failure is in this life and how it's a part of this life and we're going to fail again and again and it's just, I just felt like he emphasized it, that it's just so normal and it's, you know, for our learning experience and I just started crying and it was one of those moments where I felt like My heavenly father was kind of like speaking to me through that prayer.

And I continued to cry in the ceiling room. I felt his love and I knew he was aware of me, but it was also hard to know that I was probably going to fail again. And I did fail another couple of times, actually, after the sixth IVF failure. We asked my sister and our heart, my heart was totally changed going from, Oh, I, I want my own eggs to work out or like, I hope I don't have to use that backup plan.

My heart was like, I am so, so grateful for having a sister who's 3 years younger than me, who is willing to donate eggs to us so that we can have our own children. And so, so that was our experience with IVF and that's how we have our 2 beautiful daughters now.

[00:26:33] Morgan Jones Pearson: That is so awesome. It's so interesting to me the way that everybody has your own journey.

I, I just think you never know what people are going through to have kids and the sacrifices that are made to bring kids into the world. And, um, I know the IVF from what I understand is just like so brutal on a woman's body. And so to go through that experience and to make so many Physical sacrifices in addition to the emotional toll that that has to take in order to bring your girls into the world.

And then to have that not seem like it's not working, you know, that would be so heart wrenching. But then the gift of your sister, I just, I think that that is such a, such a powerful experience. And I am so grateful that you were willing to share it. I'm curious what your advice would be to others who are going through that IVF journey currently.

[00:27:32] Morgan Choi: That's a great question. It's so hard. Every, every case is different. I feel like I have friends that do IVF one time, one retrieval, and they get enough embryos to just have their whole family work out. And then others are like me where they're doing multiple retrievals. It's just so individual, but I think in every case it's, it can be difficult.

The negative pregnancy tests or The decisions that you have to make can be overwhelming and also just the financial aspect of it can be so stressful on top of that. There's like this emotional roller coaster that you go through. I would like to kind of step back. Something that helped me is I would step back and just.

Kind of remind myself of the eternal perspective that this was a moment in time that would pass and that I would not always feel that way. It felt very heavy at the time. And I think that it was my wilderness. Like I, I really felt that was a big trial for us. I think in Nephi, the Lord tells Nephi's family, I will be your light in the wilderness.

But sometimes when you're going through those trials, It can be really hard to feel the direction that you need, and I know, I certainly know Jacob and I felt that way, even though we were praying, and we were fasting, sometimes it felt like we weren't getting the guidance that we wanted. We kind of just wanted it to be clear, and we didn't know what was the right thing to do.

So for anyone who's in, I guess, that situation, My advice and what has helped me is sometimes you just go forward with the best decision that you can make, even if you haven't felt like you had any guidance, and then sometimes I know in cases for me, once I walk forward and have made the decision, I will get confirmation that sometimes what has to be done.

But there's a really great talk that I recommend by Elder Hales. It's called waiting upon the Lord. They will be done. And I love that talk. That might be helpful to anyone going through IVF right now.

[00:29:28] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, we love, we love a good talk recommendation. So, um, I appreciate you sharing that. And I think that that's such good advice.

Okay. So you, you went through that experience. Initially you were together, but then you ended up going back to Utah. Is that right?

[00:29:47] Morgan Choi: I want to make sure I get the timeline right. Yeah, for the first four retrievals, we were in Moscow together. And after we failed the fourth, I flew to Utah and I did two retrievals that failed there.

And at some point, Jacob was in Utah with me. Once I had a positive pregnancy test, they had me stay in Utah for almost like the first trimester, I want to say. And then they gave me the go ahead to fly back to Moscow to be with Jacob.

[00:30:15] Morgan Jones Pearson: Okay, so what was it like going through because I feel like IVF is something and I actually was just talking to a friend about this the other day that it seems like something where it can actually like really draw people closer together or it could tear you apart.

Um, so I'm curious, how did you, how did you strengthen your marriage? from a distance or as you were going through that experience?

[00:30:41] Morgan Choi: Yeah, that's, yeah, fair. Yeah, good question, Morgan. So my husband and I have had a lot of trials. I feel like since we've been married, we've had three different times. We've been long distance when we were engaged and then for this IVF experience.

And then he actually worked in Pakistan for two years and my daughters and I were in Salt Lake City. So we've, and we've also gone through infertility and, and, you know, we've had our fair share of trials and I do think that they, they help you grow closer together, things that we would do when we were apart, we would do, and Morgan, I'm thinking of specifically like when he went to Pakistan, things that we would do to strengthen our marriage when he was in Pakistan, we would have prayers together in the morning and in the evening, um, We would study Come Follow Me together, really it was actually like he would turn it on and listen to it, we would listen to it together while he got ready for work.

Those are the types of things that we would do, but going back to like, I do think our trials have strengthened our marriage. I feel like earlier on in our marriage, I would find it easier to kind of, I don't know, like compare, um, our loads and especially after the birth of our first child, I felt, I felt like, oh, is he doing enough?

I feel like, is he not pulling his weight? I feel like it's very common in marriage to kind of like think those things, but after being married for a little bit longer, I don't know what has, what has changed, but maybe conversations with him and maybe him And I assuring each other that we are doing the best that we can and having the benefit over the doubt that our spouse is really just doing the best that they can.

So I did notice after we moved to Harare when we were unpacking everything and when it was so chaotic, I felt like, oh, you know, at the beginning, at the beginning of our marriage, I might have been like, more, I don't know, quick to like. You know, tell him he should be helping out more or maybe complaining about something more.

But I think, um, maybe it's the trials that have helped strengthen me. I don't know, but I feel like we worked great as a team and I felt like I saw progress in our marriage there.

[00:32:49] Morgan Jones Pearson: Which is so interesting that, like, you learn almost to give more grace as you go through hard things and likely are, like, falling short more often.

But I think going through those hard things, like, is refining. Okay, you said that this experience with IVF is one of the things that led to this Book of Mormon timeline book. I'm curious how that is.

[00:33:15] Morgan Choi: Yeah, when we moved to Moscow, Russia, we started IVF pretty quickly, and it felt so isolating to be away from family and friends.

And around the time, I think President Nelson gave a challenge to the whole church to have a social media fast for seven days. Do you remember that, Morgan? I do. Yep. Okay. It was around that time in Moscow that I was in this cold, dark country, um, and I was away from family and friends, and I was going through IVF.

And it was so hard. And then President Nelson asked us to like stop social media, like my only connection to like my world back home. And that's when I started to pray and and ask my Heavenly Father for guidance. What should I be doing with my life? And That's when I started having this book idea come back to me again and again, and that's around the time I met with my friend at the museum, and I told her about my book idea, and she grabbed my arm and said, you have to do this, and we both were feeling the spirit, so around that time, um, um, I think I, I had the trials to be humble enough to like ask my heavenly father for guidance.

And then, but I also had the time because our family was not growing and we kept failing. So I had all of this time on my hands to work on the Book of Mormon timeline. Um, something that I find, um, interesting for which I'm grateful is that the Book of Mormon timeline. Making that, um, required, like, hours of study of the Book of Mormon.

So I was studying the Book of Mormon and, like, working on it for hours in a day. And I love the quote by President Nelson. He says that, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions every day. And then he goes on to say, I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open and you will receive answers to your own questions and directions for your own life.

And I feel such gratitude that during that time when we had so many questions about what to do to grow our family, that that was a time I was actually dedicating to studying the Book of Mormon. And I have no doubt that it helped us in our journey through infertility. And I look back at that time and I have so much confidence because I was studying the Book of Mormon every day.

And I, and I believe President Nelson's words.

[00:35:37] Morgan Jones Pearson: That is such a cool experience. Thank you so much. So you ended up, both of your girls have been born in the United States, is that right?

[00:35:47] Morgan Choi: That's right, D. C. and Salt Lake City.

[00:35:50] Morgan Jones Pearson: Okay, but now they are clearly international travelers, they live internationally. How did, I'm curious, having traveled, and this is probably like a selfish question as a mom that's still trying to figure out travel with a baby, but I'm curious, how did having kids change the international living and travel experience for you and your husband, and do you enjoy it more or less?

I would imagine probably a combination.

[00:36:19] Morgan Choi: Yeah, it's probably a combination. But if I had to answer and choose one, I would say more. I've loved having kids, um, here in Zimbabwe with us, but there are pros and cons. So the travel part is brutal, Morgan. I don't know if you've tried to travel with your little one, but we had a 26 hour, Journey from Washington, D. C. to Harare and I think by the end of it, we were just so humble. Oh my gosh. Yes. It was just such a humbling experience. Like we, can we do this? Like, I don't know that we can do this again. It was very difficult. And when you have, so my kids are three and one and there were meltdowns and they weren't getting the sleep that they needed and we weren't getting the sleep that we needed.

So travel was, is brutal. Also when you're unpacking a house, like this was our first experience where we We're trying to unpack our house and put things away and the kids were just like opening up the Play Doh and like nothing was childproof because our movers had, you know, unloaded all the boxes and opened them.

So our kids were getting into everything. It was just so chaotic. So that was, that was hard. They also don't care about the cool things in travel that adults care about. like, like we passed through Barcelona on our way here for multiple reasons. But we loved Barcelona and Jacob, and I wanted to see like the Gowdy architecture and try the paella, the rice dish that's so popular in Spain.

And our kids just were not, um, they not, they were not impressed. Yeah, they were not impressed. Um, but it was fun to have everyone together and it's a great memory for us. Yeah, everyday life here in Africa is so fun, even if it's just to like, show the kids the toads outside or the geckos, or yesterday they saw a praying mantis and they were like, Ah, mom, what's that?

It looked like a stick, but it started moving and yeah, it's really fun to be abroad with children and we did a safari on Thanksgiving Day and Just Jacob and I would have been so excited to do that to see giraffes and zebra and elephants like outside of a zoo like that was pretty fun for us, but it added so much joy to have our daughters there are like one year old like gasping and pointing at a giraffe like it was just so such joy to see that.

So I love having our kids abroad with us. It's been so fun.

[00:38:38] Morgan Jones Pearson: I admire you so much for that 26 hour travel We moved cross country with a two month old and I don't recommend that to anyone. Um, but but I also I totally get like Despite the fact that our our baby. She's eight months old now despite the fact that she doesn't really seem interested in a lot of the stuff that I take her to do, she, it does, it brings so much joy to like, even just point out the stuff and be like, Hey, like, look at that, or take a picture of her in this cool place.

So I can only imagine if you're, if you're in somewhere that is totally different than what they would normally be able to experience. I'm wondering, Morgan, for you, having had this experience in these different countries, What is one thing you'll always do as a member of the church and one thing that you will not do having had that experience?

[00:39:37] Morgan Choi: Yeah, I think living in different countries has given me this. I just, I guess I see that there's so many differences everywhere. People with different backgrounds and just the way we do things. And even in the church, we can live the gospel of Jesus Christ a bit differently. We don't always have to do it the same way.

So I have seen I've seen those differences, I guess. And so something I've wanted to start doing and I appreciate this question more into so something I think is important for me to start doing is to be curious about people and not judgmental about them because I have seen just the different ways people live and being curious is like such a positive thing.

Like you're asking questions about someone you're wanting to maybe get to know them more and understand them and it can lead to friendship and growth and Being judgmental is just like having this fixed idea and it's negative and it's it's not allowing you to grow and and to love a person as well. So I think, um, yeah, that's that's a good question.

But yeah, for me, I want to try to be more curious and less judgmental.

[00:40:43] Morgan Jones Pearson: Okay, so I have to tell you, I can't actually take credit for that question. Um, Raina, uh, our mutual friend, as we were preparing, as I was preparing questions for this interview, I was like, do you have any ideas of things that I should ask Morgan?

And she told me that her parents, who you know well, when they were mission presidents, that that was the question that they would always ask their missionaries at the end of their mission. They'd say, because of your experience as a missionary, what is one thing that you will do? and one thing you won't do as a, as a member of the church for the rest of your life? And I love that question. I thought it was so good.

[00:41:19] Morgan Choi: It's a question we won't ask ourselves. So yeah, I would have never thought to ask myself that.

[00:41:24] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I so like I said, I can't take credit for it, but I might steal it more frequently now What what my last question for you Morgan is what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

[00:41:38] Morgan Choi: I think that question can sound so overwhelming all in can sound kind of overwhelming to people. I know to me I feel like it just basically means to genuinely strive to follow and grow closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and be like Him.

[00:41:58] Morgan Jones Pearson: I think that that is perfect. And so, so perfectly put. Morgan, thank you so much.

It has been such a pleasure to talk to you and I appreciate your time.

[00:42:08] Morgan Choi: Thanks, Morgan.

[00:42:11] Morgan Jones Pearson: We are so grateful to Morgan Choi for joining us on today's episode. You can find her new book, The Book of Mormon Timeline, in Deseret Bookstores now. Big thanks to Derek Campbell of Mixit Six Studios for his help with this and every episode of this podcast.

And thank you, as always, for listening. We'll look forward to being with you again next week.