LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Vinney's Back! Answering Personal Questions About His NDE: Vinney Tolman's Story - Latter-Day Lights
When Vinney was 25 he died in a Dairy Queen bathroom.
His original episode was so incredible that we invited him back for a in-depth Q&A session to answer some of the pressing questions about his Near-Death Experience that our viewers have had since being on the show.
This episode explores how Vinney's NDE has impacted his career path, and the emotional, spiritual, and financial challenges that have come along with it.
He also shares valuable lessons on maintaining personal integrity and overcoming negativity through purpose. And finally, he touches on spiritual healing, authenticity, and the joy found in service and love.
*** Please SHARE Vinney's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/bBHa1PJjBdk
-----
To BUY Vinney's book "The Light After Death", go to (direct link): https://www.amazon.com/Light-After-Death-Journey-Experience/dp/B0BD3YV9M5
To LEARN more about Vinney's podcast and coaching, visit: https://livinggodslight.com/
To WATCH the original podcast where Vinney tells about his entire Near Death Experience, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML2wSU6EgVo&t=1556s
-----
Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
Hey everyone. I'm Scott Brantley and I'm Alicia Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.
Scott Brandley:On today's episode, we're welcoming Vinnie Tolman back to share more about his near-death experience and lessons he's learned from dying, and to answer some questions that listeners have had for him. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey, vinny, welcome to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today.
Vinney Tolman:It's great to be here. I'm just really grateful and feel blessed to be here with you today.
Alisha Coakley:We feel the same way and just for just for a little funny for our listeners here, we've already done this intro. We just forgot to hit record we meaning Scott, so we're re recording. We're all back, it's all great and we just had a practice run.
Vinney Tolman:We got a good practice.
Alisha Coakley:We did. We did, but we're super excited to have Vinny back. I I have well, just to let you guys know, vinny and I have been in contact. We've done some coaching and stuff since his last time here on the show and during one of those times I had texted him and I was like I don't really know why I'm texting you, but I feel like maybe I need to work something out or, I don't know, discuss something in our session, whatever. So like, let's book a session. And during that session Vinny told me. He said, anytime you feel like that, just text me and say hey, vinny, why am I texting you?
Alisha Coakley:And so months have gone by and all of a sudden I woke up one morning, two and, and so I texted him. I said, vinny, why am I texting you? So I kind of gave some suggestions, like maybe it's this, maybe that, I don't know, maybe it's the show, maybe maybe, vinny, you come back on the show again. And and it just worked out so well. Normally we take a while to book guests and it, you know, takes a little like figuring out the schedules and which slots are available and of course, especially because we've got three time zones on here right now we've got Pacific Mountain Time and Central Time, so trying to coordinate all those schedules can get really tricky. And Vinny just happened to be available right away, you know, like within days, and it was. It worked out awesome. And what did you? And I just found this out.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, it's synchronistic, I do. I call it my tithing sessions. I do some some uh sessions here and there on Sundays as a service to people and, um, I had a tithing session that ended up um shifting right before uh, you had texted me, so it was I. I felt it was, um, our creator, just kind of showing me that there was an open spot for a reason.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I love it. We're going to take it. We are so excited. So thank you. Thank you for coming on, for being available.
Vinney Tolman:It's great to be here. I love this.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, yeah Well. Why, yeah Well? Why don't you give?
Vinney Tolman:people a little recap of your story and a little bit about you as a person. Vinny, absolutely I'm Vinny Tolman. I live in Las Vegas. I've been in Nevada for 20 years now. Essentially ever since I had my near-death experience, I moved out here. Of my my near death experience, I moved out here and, um, so yeah, I've uh got two kids, two amazing kids. Uh, I've got a three-year-old and a 14-year-old. So a little bit of a stance there makes for great life adventures, and and why I'm here is is because of an experience I had in 2003,. Where I was, I was found dead in a bathroom and and revived out of a body bag.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, that's pretty much what that's. What makes my my story a little interesting is is because of the experience I had.
Alisha Coakley:A little, just a little. I mean, come on, no, it's, it's an amazing story and for anyone who hasn't heard it yet, I mean you can find Vinny's story all over the place, but of course, you're just going to want to go watch it on our platform. Go look up Vinny Tolman's part one, his, his story. Um, you know, wherever you're listening, wherever you're watching, go check it out. It is incredible. I mean, grab the whole family. Seriously, it it's one of our favorites. It's one of our listeners favorites. It's actually the most um viewed episode that we have. Um of everyone.
Alisha Coakley:Tons of people commented. They had questions, Um, just I, you know it really touched so many people. I loved reading the comments from it and I can't remember like all of them, but I do remember um, so so many people just felt um this affirmation in their own testimony because of the things that you shared. You know, and how cool is that? Right, like, if nothing else, even if you're not, if you're not building a testimony, just being able to strengthen a testimony could be the difference between having someone stay close to Christ and stay on that path that Heavenly Father has for them and completely deserting it.
Alisha Coakley:So amazing episode we're not going to get into all of the details of that today because we're going to have you guys go listen, but we are going to kind of do a little, a little recap some Q and a. We're going to hear from some uh some guests who are sorry, some listeners who had questions, and we're just going to see where the conversation conversation takes us. We're just winging it and we're excited. Two of the three of us are excited to wing it. Scott is not, but he's ready for fun though he's ready for the fun.
Alisha Coakley:right, scott is ready for fun, though he's ready for the fun, right, he's ready for fun so I have to tell you, vinnie.
Scott Brandley:So when we launched our when, when we launched the your podcast a year ago actually, um, we had a family event in invo and so we drove. It was about an hour there and an hour back and your podcast was two hours long. So I had my kids in the car so we listened to it there and back and they were just all in. Nobody talked the whole car ride in that. Nobody talked the whole the whole car ride. And when we got back home, we had a three hour discussion about your podcast with my kids and my kids did most of the talking. It was so awesome, it was like one of the best moments.
Vinney Tolman:I feel like a lot of the kids nowadays are are more ready for this kind of information than even we were and I. I know that as I was a kid I was very interested in this kind of stuff, but I didn't necessarily seek it out. But when I found it from through my parents I was excited about it.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, yeah, yeah, I know my husband. He was in Alaska and he was, uh, up in the mines and stuff like that when it came out and he ended up sharing your your episode with a bunch of the people who are not members of the church. Miners don't have a reputation for being like the most Christ-like atmosphere, you know, like there's a lot of a lot of language and a lot of actions and and even the people there that he worked with were like just so, just so, just sucked in to the story and the lessons and I mean I don't think anyone in my family could get enough of it. So we did start calling you body bag, vinny. I mean that happened.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, they call me that. At two conventions I go to that's what they call me too. So, at two conventions I go to that's what they call me too, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:But you know it, it's, it's, it was just, it's just. I can't say enough about the episode. It's been amazing.
Alisha Coakley:We actually had one one of the listeners comment and they had said that they'd heard your story before, but this, the one that you told on our show, was like the best telling that they had ever heard. And I don't know, maybe it's, maybe it's because you, like, I think about Joseph Smith, right, and, depending on the audience, like he sometimes had to like pull back a little bit on his retelling of the first vision, right, I kind of think sometimes it's the same, right, Like sometimes we have these spiritual experiences but, depending on the person that we're talking to, they're not quite ready to hear it or to understand it, or maybe they're not going to be respectful of it, and so we're not really allowed to be as open. And so I don't know. I mean, I've heard your story in other podcasts too and I agree, like biasly maybe I don't know, but there were so many other little things, other other little nuggets that you gave us and I just, I mean just blew our mind. Look at it.
Scott Brandley:We're just like oh, Vinny, that's like that actually brings up a good first question is what's been your experience Like telling the story to different types of audiences, and how do you decide what you're going to talk about?
Vinney Tolman:um, that's actually a really good question. Um, I would love to just sit down and share the whole experience, um, but it just to get it out in english words, I'd be there for six to eight hours minimum, just to just to explain the whole thing. So I do, I have to kind of synopsize it, really bring it down to an hour or two hours, depending on how much time I have on any type of interview. But I I very much so, have a prayer before any interview and I I ask, hey, please guide me on what should be shared, what shouldn't be shared, because there is, you know, that scripture don't cast your pearls before swines comes in front of me a lot.
Scott Brandley:Yeah.
Vinney Tolman:And I just want to make sure that I'm honoring this story. And that was a big hurdle for me just to even write my book because I felt like just writing it. I was downgrading it so much that I was not doing it enough justice. So I kept delaying being able to get this right and I tried more than 20 times, writing it by myself. And that's where Lynn Taylor came in.
Vinney Tolman:He was my godsend, my angel. He was able to actually help me honor the actual story. And so for about two years of interviews and meetings and writing together and doing writing retreats together. Even we got it done in a matter of two years and it might not seem like that because it's such a short book, but we get so much across in such a quick delivery way. It took a lot of work behind the scenes to make that happen.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, and for those who maybe are just tuning in, that book is called Light After Death. You will have Lynn Taylor and Vinnie Tolman's name as authors. You know, on that book, amazing book. I think I read it in just a few short hours Like I literally could not put it down. So it was um, it is available everywhere, pretty much Right, like it's all over the place.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, amazon and audible. Um, if you don't see that, your bookstore, they can request it through the publisher. Yeah.
Alisha Coakley:And, uh, and, and we happen to know that is not the only book is there. There's going to be another one coming out. You want to tell us a little bit about that?
Vinney Tolman:Well, it's funny. The whole reason we have the first book is, every time I shared my experience with a group even whether it was at church or at a fireside or anywhere every time I shared it I would get a group of people coming up to me afterwards saying, hey, where's your book? I want to buy your book, I want to learn about it, I want to, I want a copy of this that I can take and share with my friends, and so that was the motivation to get the book. It took us the you know quite a few years to get it out there. Once it was out.
Vinney Tolman:Now the question is as soon as people get done, is they well, what's, what do I do now?
Vinney Tolman:They, they love the story, they love, um, the connection, the activation of their own, um, inner light kind of coming about because of the book, and they want to know what's the next step. And you know I am a coach by a living. That's what I do for a living is I coach people. I coach people who don't think they need coaches, which is perfect. You know everybody who thinks they need a coach, they're probably doing pretty good. But those who don't think they need a coach, that's my primary client and when working with people, I always want to know what's next for them, like what's the next step to help them to get to a better place and be the best version of themselves, and part of that process for us was to come out with a workbook, a workbook that helps someone embody what I learned in my experience. I learned 10 very important principles. For me, they were life changing, completely life changing, and so we are on the tail end of writing a book that is a workbook about those 10 principles and how to embody them in your life.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, oh, that's so exciting. I think that's awesome and I, I love that because I there really are. I mean, I remember like reading your book the first time around and I thought, oh, I just need to write all these down. But I didn't want to stop reading either. I was like, no, I don't want to take notes on my own head and my own thoughts, because I just want to keep going through. And so, um, you know, first of all, congratulations on doing that. It's super hard to get one out, but to be in the process of getting a second one out, that's just amazing, so yay.
Vinney Tolman:I feel like it's not even us really trying to do it. I really feel um my heavenly father behind this work. Completely. I feel like the only obstacles are us, though, like uh you know, us the, the human in front of the work is the only obstacle, but yeah, right, I feel a definite um heaven behind this making it happen.
Scott Brandley:Well no, you got two.
Alisha Coakley:You got two sales already yeah absolutely um, well, I've got questions, but I know scott has questions too, so I'm gonna let scott take the next round here and I'm gonna put okay, so one of the.
Scott Brandley:there was a lot of comments on the podcast, but one thing that really stood out to me there were people that would wholeheartedly just accept your experience, and then there were skeptics, right. So, even though they didn't have a specific question, my thought was how do you handle the skeptics?
Vinney Tolman:Swipe up go to the next one. That's the way it, because I I've never shared my story, ever saying this is something that everyone should believe, implement, or any of that. I've always shared it for those who it resonated to and it isn't going to resonate to everybody. I've actually had someone that was one of my worst what would you call it? Somebody who doesn't really like you.
Alisha Coakley:Your nemesis, nemesis.
Vinney Tolman:Almost a nemesis. He was kind of my nemesis in the beginning when I first shared it with him, and this was about six years ago in Reno and at a little church thing. Shared it with him and he pretty much painted a target on me and he full on wanted to do things, and every time he'd come up for a conflict I would just say hey, brother, you know it's not for you. Then Then move on, go find something else. I'm not trying to say it's for everybody ever, and in fact to me it was only my experience.
Alisha Coakley:And.
Vinney Tolman:I share it because it was life changing for me. It was completely life changing and that's why I share it. Because it was life-changing for me. It was completely life-changing and that's why I share it. It really helped me get a different perspective on life. Well, fast forward a couple of years.
Vinney Tolman:He ended up losing his wife and he took that book and read it time and time again. After he lost his wife and I got a chance to see him in Salt Lake. I live in Las Vegas so I don't get to get up in Salt Lake very often. But I got to see him in Salt Lake at a convention for dead people, which is kind of a funny convention, and he knew I was going to be there. So he met me there, he gave me a huge hug and he said hey, you know, I had different ideas in my head. I felt like life was one way and your experience didn't match what my belief paradigm was, and so he wanted to reject it. But ever since his wife's passing, that was his tendril of hope. His wife's passing, that was his tendril of hope. That was his little connection to our Heavenly Father and to her and to what he can expect. So for him. That was really, really life-changing For me.
Vinney Tolman:It was also very eye-opening that I need to treat everyone with kindness and love, whether they love me or they hate me. And so I do. I try to always treat everybody with kindness and love, whether they love me or they hate me. And so I do. I try to always treat everybody with kindness and love, and everything that I do. I feel that's the best way that we can emulate Yeshua. You know who we call Jesus, but I do like to use his real name, yeshua, and I feel that's the best way that we can emulate his legacy is to love and to serve even those who may hate us or or or scorn us. So I mean, as he hung on the cross, he he begs for their forgiveness. I feel that's the kind of love that I want to have in my life, so that's what I shoot for every single day.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, oh man, that is, uh, it is. It is really hard. I'm. I feel like the older I get, the easier it's getting now.
Alisha Coakley:But it is really really hard sometimes just to like one, not take those things personal right, like to have the negativity come back and then to feel like I mean, I don't know, I can only imagine, maybe from your point of view, that there's probably people who think that you're lying or think that, um, maybe maybe you're not even like lying, but you're embellishing the truth so that you can get more, um, sales of a book or more you know, clients to coach or whatever, whatever right, like that you're chasing the money and you're just using the spiritual experience to get gain and um, and it's like, oh, like I've had little moments like that in the past where I've shared something really vulnerable and people have straight up called me a liar or have have questioned my integrity and I'm like, are you kidding me?
Alisha Coakley:Like integrity is the thing that, like I shoot for the most, like I'm not, I'm not dang person who will literally tell you that I accidentally just lied. I mean because I don't want to be a liar ever Like, oh wait, no, that was a lie, hold on. Let me wait, let's get the story.
Vinney Tolman:This is what actually happened, so I do you feel like that was something that you had to learn how to do at how to do like, or do you just think the biggest thing for me is nowadays, with technology, it is so easy to make a negative comment, even though you might be a positive person, and you're catching a story or you're catching a message when you're in a negative place, and so you just react negatively to it later. You would feel bad about it, maybe, but you're not going to go back to that video or back to that message. It maybe, but you're not going to go back to that video or back to that message board and take it back. You're just going to leave those negative comments out there. Once in a while you'll have somebody delete them, but one thing that I've found is just to continue to do the work that I know is right.
Vinney Tolman:I stepped away from a very successful career, earning about two and a half times more than what I do now as coach, and and I did that because I was prompted to it was answers to my prayers that I was able to get this story out there, and I can truly say, without any doubt in my mind, that the work I do every single day is changing lives, and I didn't.
Vinney Tolman:I wasn't able to do that before, even though I was extremely successful. I was at the very top of my industry before of my old career, I couldn't say that I felt happy. Bank account was always full and always had plenty to do whatever we wanted to do. Bank account was always full and always had plenty to do whatever we wanted to do, but yet I wasn't able to feel like I was changing lives or making a difference. This I do, I know I do, and it is a lot harder, though, because I take on a lot of the issues that other people are living through and I kind of ride those issues with them and you know, we get through the valleys of life so we can get back to the peaks. Yeah, that's.
Scott Brandley:That's interesting, so I hadn't thought about that. As a coach, you carrying people's burdens does your experience what you've gone through is your near-death experience help you to carry those burdens in a different way? It?
Vinney Tolman:It does. Part of one of the things that I do is I help people release and heal themselves. A lot of us we're not just a flesh body or flesh temple with a soul inside, a spirit inside. We've got a lot of emotions in there as well, and a lot of times those emotions show up as adult allergies, you know, allergies that we never had before, that we now have. Or they show up as phantom pains, pains that doctors can't tell you why they're there. Or they show up as traditional maladies or diseases and you can release these emotions and actually gets rid of the problem.
Vinney Tolman:It's not 100% of the time, but I go after with the trapped emotion. We help you release it and once it's gone, the body turns around and it's absolutely amazing to watch that happen in people's lives. But yeah, as I'm carrying the weight of the problem with the client, I have my own team that I work with in my my personal life. My wife is my primary with that. She helps release those problems off of me as, as I go through the day to day, kind of being the somewhat energetic garbage man you know, and and definitely way less glamorous than my old job, but I love it, I really love it I make. I make a difference in people's lives, and that's what counts.
Alisha Coakley:Oh, I love that I had this image of the, the yoke right, like, just kind of like putting that yoke on you and putting your, your yoke on, like your client, and then just being like, okay, like, let's just like walk together, just the way that Christ teaches us to do where. Okay, I've got it now. Okay, now, I'm going to take some of this, let's, let's give you something a little lighter, you know, like let's put something a little little less heavy on you. And then your wife comes and she says here, honey, let me take a little bit for you. You know, and speaking of imagery, I know a lot of people.
Alisha Coakley:This is probably, maybe it's one of the most asked questions. I, I would assume, like in your, in your experience, when you came back, you, um, you're able to actually kind of connect with those on the other side and in a spiritual realm, right, and so I'm sure a lot of people have always asked like, well, what is it Like? Do you just see spirits? Is it like a thought, Is it a feeling? You know like, how's that work? I know I've asked my husband that question in regards to like giving priesthood blessings, like, do you hear voices that tell you what to say? Is it just like, do you just say whatever you know, just comes out of your mouth, like how does, how does your, how does your gift work? I guess, if you don't mind the best example to show you is.
Vinney Tolman:You know, I feel probably most of your audience, most of your audience is more of a tapped in and connected to their spiritual side type person. And I'll bet you anything, almost everybody in this audience has at one point either thought of a friend or couldn't get a friend their face or their name out of their mind, and out of nowhere that person walks into their life or that person calls or texts them. So that's that same muscle that we're using. It's that intuition it is. And for me, when I first came back, that thing my intuition was turned on too strong, it was vividly too strong. It took me years to downgrade it so that I could feel somewhat normal and not not flinching because I see this or flinch because I see that I'm. I can feel like I live in this world, even though I'm not of this world like we're supposed to. But, um, but yeah, it was. It took quite a lot of training and it was training that nobody knew to give me, so I had to learn it on my own and, and so that's the way I live now.
Vinney Tolman:I, I tone it up and I tone it down. If it gets a little out of hand, I I can tone it down, and if I need to tone it up, I know what I can do to tone it up too, but you know it. What's really neat, though, is, physiologically, there's a process to that. There's actually a gland inside of our body that, when we are closing our eyes and we're sleeping and we're vividly dreaming, we're using that gland. That's what's allowing us to see things while we're sleeping, and that that gland, it activates, um, it activates, and there's ways to clean that gland, and to um, you know, following the word of wisdom is one of the best ways to clean that gland actually.
Alisha Coakley:Really yeah.
Vinney Tolman:But the actual word of wisdom, like go read it, the actual word of wisdom, go follow that and that helps you clean that gland and that gets you a closer and stronger connection to that higher aspect of yourself.
Alisha Coakley:Almost like Heavenly Father had some plan or something.
Vinney Tolman:It's weird, it's weird.
Alisha Coakley:It's like he knew scientifically and spiritually that there were going to be benefits to the Word of Wisdom.
Vinney Tolman:But you have to go read the original not the one on the interviews, the actual original in DNC. Go read it and you'll be very surprised. It's very different. What most of us have been raised to know is the word of wisdom, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I remember we had uh, we had a guest on her name's Allie. Um, it's her last name, I'm drawing a blank. Anyway, go check out Allie. Allie spoke about the word of wisdom and she talked about how everybody is so concentrated on the don'ts that they just skim over all the dues, like there's a lot of there's some really good dues.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, and um, and she, I mean, her episode was just so inspiring and so like eye opening to me. Um, I love that she kind of. She connected heavenly mother with the word of wisdom and I. It was just done so beautifully I'm not going to ruin it, so that's another episode you listeners can go go check out.
Vinney Tolman:Um, but yeah, that's that's really interesting Cause I know that that was one of your, that was one of your lessons, that that you kind of brought back, that was one of my, that was one of the things that I took away from my experience is that, you know, if we leave, if we live the traditional Western lifestyle and diet, we are essentially poisoning our spiritual connection um, both energetically with our technology and our entertainment and physiologically with the food that we're eating. There's a reason why 91% of the food in your grocery store right now is banned in other countries. Think about that in the united states. And it's all of these little chemicals that nobody knows what they do. That's what it is. You go, you go. Look um, a perfect example one of the biggest fast food chains in the world.
Vinney Tolman:Their french fries have 19 ingredients 19 and we're, and we're just fishing, you know, shuffling those fries out for our kids left and right and and one of them is aluminum yeah, oh, and aluminum is not good for that gland, it's horrible for that gland, yeah, so it's just.
Vinney Tolman:It's just a matter of being aware of what is out there, and I don't want to call out anybody. I just want people to wake up and realize that there is I would feel that that Lucifer never gave up, that he's been fighting that fight right in front of us and we had no idea.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, wow All right, so I got another question for you. Um, and this one, I wondered myself too, but did you ever get a chance to talk to the paramedic about your? I did maybe you should give a little bit of background there, because for people I haven't watched, yeah, give a little background.
Vinney Tolman:So I was found dead in a public bathroom, put in a body bag. 47 minutes later I was revived out of that body bag by a rookie medic because he felt a prompting, or he felt a message deliver that I wasn't all the way dead, even though all the signs and the science said I was dead. Well, he was able to get me back. I was brain dead for three days, but yet I came back after those three days completely fine, other than a few physiological problems afterwards I ended up dealing with, but very, very few compared to what I should have been dealing with, but very, very few compared to what I should have been dealing with with. You know the experience. Well, I did get a chance to connect with him. After the fact Number one, I felt right when it first happened. I felt like he was my savior. I felt like, hey, the whole reason I'm alive is because of you, and I was kind of mad at him too. I, I didn't actually didn't want to come back, and so in a way he was my greatest blessing. But he was also a little bit of a curse for following his intuition. But I'm going to say in the long run, of course he's a blessing and not a curse at all. But if you were in my shoes, you'd understand why I say he was a little bit of a curse, because going there is so much better than anything we can experience in this life. There is nothing in this life that's even close to what it's like there Nothing. Take your best moments, add them up, times them by a billion, and it's still nothing compared to just the grass there. I mean, it's just completely different place. Well, I got to seek him out. So my, I had a very expensive ride in the ambulance and a very expensive bill at the hospital. And so, for all those naysayers who say it didn't happen, I'm like I got the proof on that and you know, in doing so I was able to to find him and he was on probation. He was. He was put on on probation because he broke protocol and they have a very specific protocol. Once someone's pronounced dead, you're not allowed to do anything. You're essentially allowed to um, identify them or put identification on them and zip them up, and then you turn them into a medical examiner. Well, he broke that very specific protocol. So he was in a lot of trouble because of it. I feel that Heavenly Father was even working his own life path for him as well, because he had just recently tested to be a fireman and had passed right when he got put on probation. So he was doing a lateral move right. When I met him, he was doing a lateral move from emergency services over to fire, which for him, I feel that was his best route to go anyway and I feel probably that's what God was planning on for him.
Vinney Tolman:Well, we went to a sandwich place. He wouldn't let me even buy his sandwich. I asked him hey, you know, this is really a big deal to me. Can I do something like a kind gesture for you? Can I help you Like? Can I give you some money? Can I, you know, help you pay for your car, or is there something I can do? And he wouldn't take it.
Vinney Tolman:He said he just shook his head and said I was just doing what I felt I was supposed to do, and and he didn't want any extra, you know, credit or or kudos or praise about it. He wouldn't even talk to me about how he received the message because from my, from my, perspective, it sounded like God speaking really loud to him, saying this one's not dead, and he was glowing, like light was glowing from his chest area when that happened, and I told him all this and I was excited about it, and he just sat there and shook his head and he goes I don't know about all that, I just knew you weren't dead. That's all he would tell me. He was not a man of many words, and I only got to see him that one time.
Vinney Tolman:I tried to look him up years later, because I had moved right to Vegas shortly after my experience well, to Wyoming and then Vegas, and, um, in those moves I didn't get a chance to even get back to Utah for quite a while, and when I did, though, um, I went to the fire station that he was supposed to be in. He had already transferred to another one, but they had transferred in a promotion, so in a matter of just two years, he was already promoted. So he was. He was on his own, uh, trajectory of being a hero. I feel he was probably saving lots of lives in between.
Alisha Coakley:That is so cool. I wow. Yeah, I'd be like what do you mean? You know I'm that person. I like to know all the details, I want to know everyone's perspective and where they were at. And so whenever I get that you know that that extra person to fill in, I it just makes me happy. I'm like yeah with him.
Vinney Tolman:He's, he's kind of a. He was raised originally on a farm, I feel. But he, when we would talk anything about spiritual, he would just go real silent and not say anything. He wouldn't even chew his sandwich, he just like freeze, and then he'd wait a while and then he'd just go go back to eating. He wouldn't talk about it.
Vinney Tolman:He like would not talk about it, and then finally, he just goes I don't know about all that, but what a what a good guy, though, to to follow that prompting. We wouldn't be here having this conversation.
Vinney Tolman:I know for a fact, we wouldn't um that, you know, had he not followed that that prompting. But in a neat turn of events, right after I had this happen, I was in Wyoming and I was building some homes and then one of my workers it came up in our conversation that I had died and was dead for brain, dead for three days. He, one of my workers, was actually revived in the mortuary, uh, when they when they began his autopsy. So so there's some pretty crazy cases out there. His was that his heart started while he was open and they were performing autopsy. So, um, yeah, there's there's a few of those.
Vinney Tolman:A few of those. Yeah, there was a lady, uh, last year no, two years ago at her funeral. She woke up at her funeral, so she had some type of something going on that everybody thought she was past. Oh my gosh, this finite relationship between consciousness and life, and death itself is somewhat malleable. We do know where the line is drawn scientifically, but I'll tell you, I was aware of everything going on around my body the entire time. The entire time. What was said, what wasn't said, everything, yeah do you so?
Alisha Coakley:do you feel like? Do you feel like? You know? You said when you came back that it was just all kind of like on, your senses were heightened, right, like you just?
Alisha Coakley:there was like so much spiritual intuition and and promptings, you know, and maybe gifts, things like that, and that you've learned kind of how to, how to control that a little bit better. So my question is when you're working with other people, do a lot of people want to know how to increase their own spiritual gifts, or is that something like a like a natural thing that just sort of happens as you're coaching with them?
Vinney Tolman:Cause I know it's it's both, it's for sure Both. Yeah, it's for sure Both.
Alisha Coakley:And maybe I need to have Lynn like join us again too to kind of tell us a little bit about his, Because I caught something. You guys have a podcast that you just started.
Vinney Tolman:Yes, we did.
Alisha Coakley:And what's the name of this podcast? Is it just Light After Death?
Vinney Tolman:No Living God's Light. So we have a nonprofit we formed. All of the book proceeds go into the Living God's Light, which is our nonprofit, and so we um, yeah, we, we run that. It's a it's kind of like a spiritual education, um activation type organization so that anybody, no matter your religion, you, can go and and learn a little bit about your own spirituality and how to become a better tapped in in tune um person of your own faith. So it is multi-faith, so it allows anybody from any faith to go in there and be a better version of themselves.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, that's awesome. So do you feel like, have you seen that when you're working with people, whether it's friends and family, or whether do you see these like little changes? And I guess. I don't know. Do you want to tell me about it? I?
Vinney Tolman:feel like I actually feel that, that I actually feel that Heavenly Father helps me see them, he gives me this ability to see the growth, because so many people don't even recognize when they are growing, as they're doing it. And so I'm a big fan of doing a little profile with someone of where they are spiritually Doing, a little profile with someone of where they are spiritually. How much do they feel connected to heaven, to God, to their own higher team, which I would say that's your angels, your ancestors, your loved ones. And we kind of start there, goal, fast forward some time. We're getting some big progresses there just by by taking care of the soul, just by helping you honor the holiest temples in the world, which are these temples right here, teaching you, teaching you how to hope, you know, um, put holiness in here. Then we're able to kind of activate that connection. You, you vividly see it.
Vinney Tolman:In fact Lynn talks about it. He's, you know, in his own words. He says, while he was working on the book the Berkow was working on him and you know he started out thinking he didn't have necessarily a spirit connection where he was feeling the spirit or feeling the communication of spirit. But after a while of little confirmations. He was able to even go back and look at things that happened many years ago and realize, oh yeah, I was listening to the spirit when that happened and that happened and that happened. So it's neat, it even works in our own history. It helps us kind of reprocess our own, our own experiences from a spiritual perspective. And now you see where God's getting involved here and there.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I really like how you said that, like, I guess in my mind it's almost like literally changing the past. Right, it's almost. Oh, that's I don't like that.
Vinney Tolman:There's no debating it, because when you allow your mind to even go back to these precious moments where just ultimate truth came to you out of nowhere, for no reason whatsoever, I mean, I had so many experiences of that on my mission, so many, and yet we just kind of take it for granted and brush it off because we're not, we're not stopping right there and saying, oh, that was the spirit, that was the spirit speaking, I received a message. Because we're not going through that process of giving that credit. Then we keep moving on, thinking we're alone and we're not connected. But we're not. Not for a single moment have we ever been alone. The only time we're alone is when we put the umbrella of sadness on top of us, or pain, or or unforgiveness. Those are the umbrellas that we put over us, that prevent us from receiving. But the but, the love, the messages, the connection is always pouring upon us. The only way we don't receive it is by blocking it. That's it.
Alisha Coakley:I love that visual. It reminds me of that video that the church came out with a little while ago. Have you guys seen that yet? Where it's like it's like one of those like cartoon videos. I'm going to have to see if I can find it and we can link it, but it's really. It's just, it's like one of those profound things where it's like here's rain and it's pouring down and there's all these people and they put their umbrellas up and they're like, you know, just kind of like all on this sidewalk with all these umbrellas. Have you guys not seen that?
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, I don't think so. Okay, I'm going to have it is so good.
Alisha Coakley:I mean when you post this.
Vinney Tolman:I'll check it out. I'll hit the link.
Alisha Coakley:I will. I'll see if I can even find it sooner and maybe post it on my social're. The ones, like you said, we open up that umbrella and we're like, nope, we're just going to stop this rain from coming down on us because we assume that it's whatever too much or not real or not good enough, or it's going to create stress.
Vinney Tolman:Or, worse yet, we're distracted. We're distracted with our devices, and so we're so distracted that we're looking for all of our answers there. The answers that are coming here we're not able to receive because we were so focused outward, and what we didn't realize, that is the universe itself, is the you inversed, it's the you inside out. That's what the universe is, and we have all the answers that we need for anything If we follow that simple scripture knock and it shall be opened unto you. Ask and ye shall be given.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, I really love that. The universe is you inversed. I wrote that down in my pen.
Vinney Tolman:Just don't reject the answer when it comes. I wrote that down in my pen Just don't. Just don't reject the answer when it comes. That's the hard part. Yeah a lot of us are pulling up to the drive through window, we order our food and then just drive straight home and then we look at our empty hands and we're like why don't we have what we ordered?
Vinney Tolman:And it's because we didn't stop and give it a moment to receive right. And so prayers like that we've got to with our prayers. We've got to ask and set goals and work with Heavenly Father, ask and then give a moment to receive, like give some time of silence and quietness for God to show up, allow that presence to show up and answers come, not always the way we expect. Expect but they will always come.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting. Um, so we had another guest on that had a near-death experience. His name was jerry pascott and I went to lunch with him a couple weeks ago and we talked about getting answers and and he said one of the things he does since his experience was to try to clear his mind, yes, to be open to, to receive the answers. I thought that was really interesting there's been many times.
Vinney Tolman:I will say a prayer, um, you know, in the church we call it prayer, outside the church you can call it meditation. To me they're one in the same. To me I will sit quietly, I will, I will converse with my creator and as I sit there I will just focus on my breath, bring my breath in deep and exhale deep and do some long holds in between both the exhale long holds and the inhale lung holds. As I'm doing that it's just allowing me to drop away all these worries, all these simple thoughts that we all have, and it just cleans the stage. It cleans the stage for heaven to show up and that's the way it was always meant to be.
Vinney Tolman:We've just really convoluted it and congested it with so much of the little things in our life and I know, as a happy parent, you know the house sometimes is a bit noisy. So you've got to pick your quiet time. You've got to pick your time where you can ask and get those answers, and for me it's either late at night or really early in the morning. I know that, you know, middle of lunchtime with the kids is not going to happen necessarily, unless I can go on a good walk or something.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah I think sometimes it's not even the noise, it's the busyness, right, like that's one thing that I've been really feeling lately, that my heavenly father's trying to tell me to slow down, like stop taking on everything. You don't have to work 50, 60 hour work weeks and then do all this other stuff. Like you can just go to the pool in the middle of the day with the kids because it's summertime and that's okay. You know, like the world isn't going to fall apart just because you didn't get all of that work done. And it might be a little inconvenient for some people, but it's not the end and that's okay and that's going to give other people an opportunity to step in and help them out if you're not there. And you know just, I'm not even going to say this is women, it's literally maybe it's our generation.
Vinney Tolman:It's our generation.
Alisha Coakley:You know, I know Scott doesn't know how to not do things either. Scott has always got 50 things going on, but you do make time for golf. I will give Scott that.
Vinney Tolman:You know what, though? I've actually talked to a lot of people that golf is their meditation, that is their place where they can go and converse with God. It doesn't work for me I'm better sitting in a quiet place, but, but I'll tell you, you got to find what, whatever works for you. And and also on top of that, you know, we know about fasting once a month that it helps the body, um, or or, more often, would even help the body more, but we could fast from technology too, and that that helps you so much. Yeah, go somewhere that phones don't work, so that you can you can lovingly put on your voicemail Sorry I'm camping, or sorry I'm out of reception at this place, this place, and I'll see you when I get back. Um, that is such a fun unplugging. Uh, yeah, there's. There's been a place I've gone to regularly, year after year, and now you get reception there, and I'm like I got to find a carrier, find a carrier that doesn't have reception here, and I'm switching.
Alisha Coakley:That's so funny. Well, I have one question, oh sorry, on here from one of the listeners. They wanted to know how does one find their core, authentic, self?
Vinney Tolman:So think of who you were back when you were five years old. Think of who you are when you go and visit mom and dad. Think of who you are when you go visit friends. Think of who you are when you go to church. Think of who you are when you go visit friends. Think of who you are when you go to church. Think of who you are when you're at work.
Vinney Tolman:You know, think of the different aspects of who you are at all these different places and take the commonalities that you're finding at all these different places and take that person out and make you make yourself be just that person from now on. Stop being even the slightest little different person for different people. We need to reel that back and allow yourself to be the same wherever you go and speak the same, have the same cadence, the same jokes. Allow yourself to be that authentic being and now you'll realize that you're your number one. Your psychology is going to love you. Your, your own inner psychology, is just going to really blossom and allow you to come into a sharper form of existence, because the you know, in rating all the different emotions of the human body, the highest rateable emotion as far as frequency, the highest that they can even put on scale, the top of the human scale, is authenticity. So when you're being authentic, you are at your peak frequency. Your highest megahertz for your body is when you're being authentic.
Vinney Tolman:And when you can do that, you you realize that most of the time when you're not being authentic, it's because you're afraid of some type of vulnerability. So to take away that feeling of feeling vulnerable and only being the authentic person you know and if people don't like you, they don't like you being the authentic person you know, and if people don't like you, they don't like you that's okay. We're not supposed to be liked by everybody. We're not here for it to be to be liked, but we are here to love. We can love you and those who don't like us, and in that way you can be more authentic and more vulnerable. Because where you are vulnerable, you are growable. Where you're not vulnerable, you cannot grow.
Alisha Coakley:I like that. We're just going to make a whole bunch of bumper stickers.
Vinney Tolman:Sweet.
Alisha Coakley:From here. I know last time it was. Life is a classroom, not a courtroom.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah, life is a classroom, not a courtroom. That was one of our favorites that you brought up.
Alisha Coakley:We loved that one so much. Now we've got the universe, is you Inverse and this new one here, so I love that. I love that. That is awesome. What do you got Scott?
Scott Brandley:So this wasn't a direct question, but I felt like people wanted to know this. So what can we do to have a closer relationship to God?
Vinney Tolman:number one have the intention. It starts there, number one state the intention. And when I say state it, I mean you say it out loud, you write it down and you read it on a regular basis. And here's what's neat If I'm in the biggest ship in the world and I put the target London, okay, I put London as my destination. As long as I keep taking the smallest adjustments my atomic habits, by the way, great book my smallest of adjustments are going to keep me on the right track to get to London eventually. Right, no matter how big this ship is and how hard it is to move it, as long as I keep doing those fine adjustments, I end up in London. Now, take that big ship, keep, put some mega force behind it, point it towards London, but don't make these finite movements to keep you realigned, and you'll end up in, who knows, like Poland or Norway or Finland or one of these seas, maybe even Russia seas, maybe even Russia. So it's like you know, you you've got to, no matter the engine or or the force that moves, you keep doing the finite movements, but it all starts with setting a destination. So set, be intentional about setting your destination.
Vinney Tolman:So for something like this you would. You would speak out loud. You would say Heavenly Father, I want to have a stronger connection with you. And that's where it begins and that's where we get to fill in all the fun stuff. And the funnest thing is you start visualizing what it's like to have that stronger connection with Heavenly Father and you start living and being grateful for having that and eventually, very quickly, with a couple of fine-tuned movements, you are experiencing that. But you do want to gauge where you are in the beginning and gauge where you are after a couple of milestones and then gauge where you are once you've achieved the goal, so you can see the progress happening, and once you convince your brain that things are changing and they're getting better and you're getting more connected. It keeps you motivated to keep doing those finite movements to adjust your trajectory and get you on target.
Vinney Tolman:But, that's what it's all about. Is speaking the intention number one writing it down, reading it daily, keeping yourself on target and finite movements by keeping that as your target. Yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, and I imagine it can. It can work in reverse too, right, like if you are speaking negatively you're speaking about all the things you don't want. Guess what? You're just adjusting your sales so you can get exactly to where you don't want to go.
Vinney Tolman:I've been. I've been working with somebody that has had every conceivable bad thing happen to them. Every conceivable, I mean every think of something they've had it happen to them. And you know you work with this person. You think, well, they're positive as I'm speaking to them, yet 91% or nine out of 10 things that comes out of their mouth, they're speaking it from a negative perspective, like I don't know why I was, I didn't get this, I don't know.
Vinney Tolman:And and here's the thing, we we can live our life consistently always seeing the glass half full, or we can always see it half or sorry, half empty or half full. That's up to us to choose. And and here's the weird thing, if we always see it as a half empty, it just evaporates and gets smaller and smaller and smaller. If we see it as half full, we get life's deposits in there constantly and eventually it gets overfilling. So we get that decision every single day.
Vinney Tolman:Pick out the things that make you grateful and if you can't find anything grateful, look harder. I wake up every day and I look down and I see I have two hands. I know a lot of people that I know that I work with that don't have two hands. I'm grateful to have two hands, two arms, a heart that works on its own, doesn't need any assistance. Two legs, a job, car, house, all these things that I know, people that don't have these things that I work with, and and so you know anybody who says they have nothing to be grateful for. They're not looking hard enough.
Vinney Tolman:Yeah we all have something to be grateful for. Even the guy with no legs and no arms by the way, he's an amazing motivational speaker is is a perfect example that if he can find positive things to see, then all of us can.
Alisha Coakley:All of us can yeah, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna invite you, unless scott has something else real quick no, that was my last official okay, uh, I'm gonna invite you to tell us. What do our listeners need to hear? I?
Vinney Tolman:feel like the biggest thing that's coming to me right now and it's actually pretty dominant across the United States right now is how do you find purpose? And, as an added layer to that, how do I find happiness in my purpose once I have found it, or as I'm trying to discover it? And my answer to that would be the you in verse the universe Look outside yourself and go give to others that that you want. So, if you want happiness, go give happiness to others and you will go home with happiness inside you. And it's an amazing thing that we learn from our Savior, that we learn from Yeshua ben Joseph, who we call Jesus Christ, that as he would give and serve to others, he would gain inside himself. And we all have that. That's why he's the way shower. He is the one that shows us the way, he's the one that gives us the ultimate example. And as we can embody that, that as we give and serve others, or as we take whatever we're doing, you know, I don't care what job you're in. Take whatever job you're doing and say, how can I take this work that I'm doing and affect service for others with it? And as you do that, even if you're serving your coworkers or serving your underlings, whoever's working under you, but serve those around you, whether at work or at home, and you are going to embody that Christ consciousness, the love of Christ, the pure love of Christ, and that's an answer for so many of us.
Vinney Tolman:We weren't built to be consumers, but yet that's what most of us have become, and we're consuming food, we're consuming entertainment, consuming water, consuming air. We're consuming, consuming, consuming. Our souls were not built to consume. Our souls were built to create. So one way we can shift out of consuming is we can create relationships by sharing our love and service with others. And that's kind of like the kindergarten class of where you find your purpose personally, because as you serve this world, as you work and and do things for others, whether it's your own family or for co-workers or whoever, or the homeless, as you're doing this, certain things will really resonate with your heart, and that is where you start getting your finite movements in finding out your purpose, your true purpose in this life.
Vinney Tolman:And I promise you we were not, we are not sent to this classroom just to consume. Never Consuming is putting off your purpose, but yet we all have to do it because we're also in these human bodies that consume right, but we don't have to consume near as much as we do for everything. So there's some great lessons with that and understanding that, as we allow our soul to do what it was meant to do, and that's build and create, we find our purpose. And in that purpose we find happiness we didn't know existed, bliss that we didn't know was possible in this life. That is in front of you, if you can align yourself with your purpose, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Well, that's just the best bumper sticker right there.
Alisha Coakley:I love it it is so, so good, oh my gosh, that our souls were meant more, weren't meant to consume, they were meant to create. I just, I think that's so beautiful and I love, I love that you just talked about that and about the the need for our souls to build right. Like, like that really just resonated so much with me. I'm like, heavenly Father, yes, like we're literally told to build the kingdom right, like we're told to get in there and to work and to give and to serve, and so it just it, it, it's just perfect.
Vinney Tolman:Well, that's also why a lot of seniors are so happy on missions because they're building relationships, or they're building faith, or building belief in our Heavenly Father right. Or people that are just so passionate about sports. They're not out there consuming. They're consuming oxygen, obviously, but they're building fun, they're building rapport, they're building relationships with whoever they're playing. They're consuming oxygen, obviously, but they're building fun, they're building rapport, they're building relationships with whoever they're playing sports with. So, you know, it's where we build and where we create.
Vinney Tolman:That's where we find our happiest places, and for some of us it may be art, it may be a conversation, it might be just a kind gesture. And here's a little promise I have for you Anybody who's listening, tomorrow, or if you listen to this in the morning today um, go out there and do three very kind gestures to random strangers. You know, um, pay for somebody's uh food at the drive-thru. If you're doing drive-thru, um, you know, randomly, open doors for people and and just keep opening doors for them. Or or just say something really kind about what someone's wearing, and you'll be, you'll be very impressed that, going outside of your story and and giving a kind energy deposit into someone else's story, you realize that's what your story always needed.
Alisha Coakley:I love that.
Scott Brandley:Oh, Mr.
Vinney Tolman:Vinny, you're just my favorite.
Scott Brandley:Alicia and Scott you guys are my favorites. I do have to say, vinny, like I really appreciate everything you've done. I mean just being on these podcasts and having it impact my kids and my family. I mean it's rare when you meet somebody that can do that in two hours and just have such a positive, positive impact on on the trajectory of a family.
Vinney Tolman:Like honestly, thank you well, thank you both, because you know what I wouldn't have been on your podcast if you didn't have your podcast. So you know in, in a way, you both are builders. You're building this ministry of your podcast and to call it anything other than ministry is really to to call it not what it is. It's a ministry it is, and you're out there spreading the good word and and giving people at least, if they're going to consume, allow them to consume something positive that will uplift them and maybe even plant a seed for them to grow something else in their life and and to me that's such a that's that's just sanctifying. It is for us in this life. And so thank you to both of you for the show, for for this venue, for being one of those options that actually builds the light in others.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, Vinny, I almost made it through the whole show and didn't tear up. He just got me, though he got me a little bit there. You know, I, um, I woke up this morning and I was all excited because at the time of this recording guys, uh, it is fast Sunday, it is testimony Sunday, and so, um, I, uh, I and I, I did share this in church. I woke up and I love sharing my testimony. I love, I don't know, I just I've made it a point to try to do it.
Alisha Coakley:There is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that talks about how anytime we share a testimony, that it's recorded in heaven and the angels rejoice over it, right. And when I read that as a teenager, it just ignited something within me that I was like, anytime I have a chance to bear my testimony, I want to. I like I don't want to shy away from that. And so I've kind of become repetitious and always getting up. I never say the same thing, but I always get up and I always bear my testimony. And this morning I woke up and I thought, oh, it's testimony, I mean, I'm going to bear my testimony. And immediately I had this thought like nobody wants to hear from you, alicia. I'm sure that there's people who roll their eyes when they see you, know you getting up and walking towards the the front of the chapel or whatever, and and it was just this like really negative, icky feeling and I thought, oh man, and then instantly I thought that's not from the spirit, that's, that is that's ego.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I was like that's not edging.
Vinney Tolman:Edging God, over that's ego.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I was like that's not from the spirit, that's not something that does any good for anyone, you know, like me being scared or me being um, giving into these insecurities or whatever else like that. That does nothing. And um, and so I I did, I shared my testimony and, uh, the girls had just gotten back from girls camp and we had a couple of girls that shared first and then, while I was standing up there, I thought I really love hearing more from the youth. Like it was just this overwhelming feeling that I had of love for the youth, especially for the teenagers in the church. You, it was just this overwhelming feeling that I had of love for the youth, especially for the teenagers in the church. You know, I think they have so many things that they are fighting against, so many challenges, so many temptations, but they also have so much potential with, with, you know, getting closer to the second coming and and having all of this, um, good and bad at our fingertips. And I just thought I just want to hear more from the youth.
Alisha Coakley:I'm going on this tangent and I'm and I apologize, but there's there's a point to it.
Alisha Coakley:My point is, when they got up there, vinnie right, like I swear to goodness, every single one of those youth spoke about love that they felt from Heavenly Father when they were at girls camp.
Alisha Coakley:They spoke about just how that feeling of being loved and of being worth it and not having to do anything at all to be worthy of that love was the thing that was building their testimony.
Alisha Coakley:And I remember you, on your first show, on your first podcast with us, you talked so heavily about that love and about how that love was something that was so strong when you were having your your near death experience, when you were on that that other side, um, that when you came back it was almost impossible not to love, right, like like you just didn't know how not to to love anymore because you were in that presence and you sharing that with us just now made me feel that love. So that's where I'm going with this long, tangent, right Like I have just felt this immense love coming from you, coming from Scott I I pick on Scott all the time, but he, he is such a great person and and just the guests that we've had on the show, the listeners that we've had there, I just I feel like there has just been so much love given and so if the world can if the world can just keep creating love and creating purpose and just building on that, like how awesome would this world be?
Vinney Tolman:Well, here's what's amazing is, if you look at this world, it's full of bad news. What would happen if we started creating our own news by the good works that we do, and in such a way that we don't need anybody publishing it or recording it? It just becomes commonplace to have really good things, loving things, being done everywhere, and when we can do that, we're inviting that love in the physical manifestation here on this earth. We will be helping this whole world, the earth itself, get to a whole new higher place, which it's already on its way. So you know it, it it's such a beautiful thing. I love the youth. I've been teaching the youth for nine years now and, uh, some people, they, they see me at church and they're like are you inactive?
Vinney Tolman:I'm like no, I'm just, I'm always with the teenagers, but I'll tell you, working with the kids, that's our future. They are up against enemies that we didn't have. You know, some darkness as I was a teenage boy that I had around me. People would have to go to places to find that darkness, so they'd have to drive across state lines to find that darkness, but now it's right at their fingertips that they are going to have to either sink or swim in this world and have to learn very quickly to discern what is good for them and what is not. And so I think the greatest thing that we can help our youth with is help them have that discernment to know to know unequivocally when something is good for them or when they're not sure which that means it's bad.
Alisha Coakley:I agree.
Scott Brandley:Awesome.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, well, got another one down for the books. What are? We going to talk about on our third go round.
Vinney Tolman:Maybe by then our workbook is finally out.
Alisha Coakley:Maybe that'll be cool. That would be so cool. Maybe Scott and I can go through that workbook ourselves first.
Vinney Tolman:That'd be awesome.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, we'll go through it and then we'll quiz you on it. I was thinking more, we will make sure you did a good job we'll elevate ourselves, you know it's the.
Vinney Tolman:You know it's the hardest part about writing a workbook I have to follow it.
Scott Brandley:That's the hardest part about writing a workbook.
Vinney Tolman:You're like wait, I have to, I have to practice what I'm preaching. So, yeah, that's, that's the fun part of writing a workbook. You're like, oh okay, I'm going to change, I'm going to do better with this, better with that, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, oh well, vinny, you are just a joy. We have had so much fun today and and you know both both times we've just had so much fun and have learned so much and it felt so much, and definitely I don't know for me personally, I feel like I've been super edified through this. I I do feel like I have a lot more questions, but we really will save that for another time.
Vinney Tolman:Um, I'll come back as often as you guys like. I love speaking with you and and not just that I love your audience, your audience. You know your audience is very different than even a lot of church podcasts. It's very different, or very different in a good way. It seems like um people really on the soulful journey, even in the church and out of the church, that listen to your podcast and to me that's. That's a sacred audience. I love it.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, we have some pretty good listeners out there. I have to say it's, it's interesting. We've even had, we've had comments from people who I know one person I believe. He said he was from maybe Norway and he's like I'm not a member of your church, but I've listened to over half of your episodes so far and I just love what you're doing and it's like wow, you know, like just to just to know that there are people out there who are searching like they're hungry for good, they're hungry for something that can be spiritually uplifting, and I love that we have guests like you that are able to come on here and give us something for those people to listen to.
Vinney Tolman:I have a couple of clients in Australia, and one of them was I have actually a few down there and one of them was like me. He was like what's the church? You guys? I was watching your podcast. He kept saying the church, and, and I'm like the church is whatever you know is working for you. But but really, you know, I explained what, what we mean when we say the church, and it was cool, though, that he just random upon us through your podcast, even though he was already working with me, so it wasn't even that he was searching out my name. He probably had done a while back, but it came up in his feed and so you know. It's awesome, it's really cool. The algorithm is getting your footprint far and wide. That's really neat.
Alisha Coakley:I love that makes me excited very cool.
Scott Brandley:Well, thanks, vinny, for being on man. We we really appreciate it. And for everybody that watched, thanks for tuning in for for episode two of uh, our podcast with vinny, and hopefully you'll turn tune in for the third one when we have that.
Vinney Tolman:So sounds like a plan. I'm excited for it.
Alisha Coakley:Thanks for having me on Love you guys, thank you, love you guys.
Vinney Tolman:Love the work that you're doing.
Alisha Coakley:Awesome. Well, and to all of our listeners, thank you guys for tuning in and for sharing these experiences with us. We definitely couldn't do it without you, and we know that there are people who are listening to the show right now who have a story that they need to share, and if that spirit is beating down on you and is saying, hey, reach out, then do it.
Alisha Coakley:Follow that prompting? We would love to hear from you guys. So if you have a story that you'd like to share, something that can, you know, instill faith, invite growth and inspire others, definitely comment or email us or go to latterdaylightscom and you can fill a form out at the bottom of the page, um, and just kind of, you know, let us know what it is that you have that you need to share with the world. What kind of bumper sticker do we need to make for you?
Vinney Tolman:What's going to inspire the world with your story?
Scott Brandley:You know what?
Vinney Tolman:though I have, I'm a strong believer that you take anyone's life and you look at it from heavenly father's perspective, you will see tons of episodes of of a of a podcast like this that you could create with everyone's life. If you look at the real miracles, the stuff that we take for granted every day, um, there's plenty of material out there, even for your average person, you know.
Alisha Coakley:I love that and really that's. That's what you know, the inspiration that Scott had for this podcast really was was for every member of the church, not just the ones who are doing all the things and who are, you know, spiritually just big, huge giants of no doubt anywhere and whatever else it's, it's for everyone, it's wherever you're at on your journey, wherever your testimony is at, we know that there has been light that has been shown in your life and if you can shine that light into other people's lives, I just think it helps everybody resonate, one one with another, but it also helps to illuminate the whole world, and so we definitely, we know you're out there, we know you're out there and there's so many podcasts in in all the different faiths there really is.
Vinney Tolman:But what I love about this is it's it's multi faith, even for a lot of people, but it's also really attached to the principles of the gospel and attached to the, the ministry of Christ, whereas there's others that are really attached to the culture of the faith right, and that's a very different angle. It's not one that I actually like to be and I actually like to be where the ministry is, where you know the imperfect people are trying to grow and be better every day yeah, that's where the fun ones are.
Alisha Coakley:I like it.
Vinney Tolman:I like it when we stop focusing on the appearance of evil and actually focus on, um uh, getting rid of evil or avoiding actual evil.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, I love that, that's cool.
Scott Brandley:Well, everybody go and comment on this podcast so Vinny can read your comments, and so if you have any more questions, put them in there so we can ask them on the next one.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, absolutely, and go do your five-second missionary work. Hit that share button. Get this episode out for everybody share it.
Vinney Tolman:There's a lot of people that'll get inspired by even the simplest of messages yep, absolutely, yeah, all right, well, anything else, mr vinny? Nope, if, uh, if anybody wants to, um, find me, they can go to my non-profit and find me there at livinggodslightcom.
Alisha Coakley:Awesome, yeah, go check out Vinny's, go check out his book, go check out his nonprofit, go check out his podcast and stay tuned for when the workbook comes out. We will, we will definitely, latter-day Lights will put an announcement out too. I'll ping that, scott, remember. We'll do that. We'll put it out out too. I'll ping that, scott, remember, we'll do that. We'll put it out for everyone. So all right.
Scott Brandley:Well, thank you so much again for joining us.
Alisha Coakley:We had a great time and to all of our listeners we love you guys. Make sure you tune in next week for another episode of Latter-day Lights. See you later, Thank you.
