Faith & Everyday Life · Jul 23, 2026
She did everything right.
Brianna Preece grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for most of her life, she checked every box her faith required. Then her cousin died suddenly, and everything she thought she knew about God began to crack.
In Episode 29 of the Grounded Growth Podcast, Nicole and Stephanie sit down with their friend Brianna for an honest conversation about leaving Mormonism, the hard truths that made her walk away for good, and how God rebuilt her identity around grace instead of performance.
In October 2013, Brianna's cousin Shelby, who she describes as more of a little sister, died suddenly. Brianna was the one who found her.
In the aftermath, Brianna turned away from the Mormon church and from God. She was angry, and she turned to things her faith had always told her to avoid. She stayed away from church for months before returning, still angry, still unsettled.
Two years later, in 2015, Brianna had weight loss surgery. About a month after, she learned truths about the Mormon church she had never been taught: how the Book of Mormon actually came to be, and who Joseph Smith really was.
All of the beliefs she had built her life on completely crumbled. If that is God, she remembers thinking, I don't want it. She walked away from the Mormon church for good.
What was at risk was not just a set of beliefs. It was Brianna's entire identity and community. She had been the good Mormon girl who checked every box to please her family, and now she was disappointing them.
Her whole worldview, what she believed about this life, why she was here, and where she was going, was suddenly gone. She calls it a dark night of the soul, a season of not knowing what she believed, or whether she believed in God at all.
Brianna's dad had left the Mormon church years earlier and told her, you do not have to go to the Mormon church, but you need to go to a church. Months later, he invited her to a non-denominational church he liked in Utah called The Point Church.
The pastor closed his sermon that Sunday differently than usual. Instead of an invitation into the church, he said he was there to bring people into a relationship with Christ. Brianna stood up and gave her life to Jesus that day. Her dad and stepmom later gifted her the first Bible that actually counted to her.
Because Utah has such a large Mormon population, a local ministry had built an eight week transitions class for people coming out of Mormonism into Christianity. Brianna went through it with a mentor named Caroline, who had also been raised Mormon. The class helped her separate what was false from what was true, and taught her to go to the Bible itself, rather than outside sources, to learn who God really is.
One of the hardest parts of leaving her old identity behind was letting go of the belief that she had to earn her salvation. Mormonism, she says, is built on checklists. Letting go of that, and of the people pleasing that came with it, she now recognizes as a form of self idolatry, making her own goodness the point instead of Christ.
The verse she now carries with her, tattooed on her shoulder, is Galatians 2:20. Growth today does not mean striving for perfection. It means following Christ and getting back up when she stumbles.
Leaving Mormonism cost Brianna real relationships. Her mom was hurt. Her aunt told her she never thought Satan would get such a grip on her. She lost three friends, including one she had since elementary school.
But her dad and stepmom rejoiced, having prayed for her salvation for over ten years, and The Point Church welcomed her, and later her husband Brian, without any conditions. For the first time, she says, they loved me for who I was.
It took years, but her relationship with her mom has since been restored. Just a few weeks before this recording, Brianna was able to share the gospel with her family for the first time in ten years.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is the verse Brianna carries with her, tattooed on her shoulder. Her salvation, her identity, her whole life is because of Christ, not because of anything she has done.
Brianna's encouragement for anyone in a season of doubt is direct. Fear is a tool of the enemy, and God is not afraid of your questions. He welcomes them.
Her advice is to take your questions to Scripture and to a trusted, local, Bible believing church, not Google, YouTube, or AI. And if following God costs you relationships, count it all joy anyway. It may cost you for a time, but God can open doors years later that once looked permanently closed.
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