Invitation to a Primary Presentation Brings a Father Back to Church and a Family Sealed Together

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Mary Richards, Church News

Josh Brown, of the Oak Grove Ward, in the Liberty Missouri Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent years away from Church activity.

“I was inactive from 1997 to 2018,” Brown said. “That entire time I knew the Church was true, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t come back.”

His journey back started when a friend invited his wife and children to come to a Primary presentation in sacrament meeting.

That experience led to them talking to the missionaries, to him baptizing his family and all being sealed in the Kansas City Missouri Temple. Now Brown serves in the bishopric of his ward.

“Just looking back, it’s absolutely amazing that Heavenly Father was extremely aware of me all the time,” he said. “Throughout the whole time I was inactive, he was blessing me left and right. Having experiences that weren’t fun at the time, I look back at them as blessings.”

Knowing He Would Return

After Brown’s parents divorced when he was 11, he struggled and fell into a bad crowd. He moved back and forth between the two states where his parents lived and described himself as being an insecure teenager.

He had experiences where he felt the Holy Ghost and knew that the Church was true. But his life was not easy, and he stopped going.

After high school, Brown joined the Marines and was trained as an air traffic controller. He married a friend from Kansas City named Christina, and they moved back to Kansas City to be closer to her family. Months of job searching and interviews followed until, finally, he was hired by the FAA.

Five years later, Josh and Christina Brown had two young boys. Christina Brown did not grow up with any religion and had questions about God and the gospel. The Browns were growing concerned about what their children were being subjected to in the world and at school, and Christina Brown wondered how to protect them.

Josh Brown said he told her in jest that it was easy, they should just raise their children in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had always believed he would return one day, but he didn’t know when or how that would come about. But he encouraged his wife to investigate the Church if she wanted.

Loving Invitations and Meeting the Missionaries

During story time at the local library, Christina Brown met two Latter-day Saint mothers, and they became fast friends. A few years later, the bishop’s wife invited her to help with the Cub Scout program.

In November of 2017, one of those loving friends — Katie Stokes — invited Christina Brown and the children to the Primary presentation at her ward. They went and stayed through every meeting, and their daughter Mya, then age 3, started singing the Primary songs at home.

Christina Brown and the children continued to go back every Sunday. The Browns then bought a new house within the boundaries of that ward, which Josh Brown now knows was not a coincidence.

“We hadn’t even moved in, I’m over in the new house, painting in the basement, and I hear the doorbell ring,” he said. “I go upstairs, and there are two missionaries standing there.”

Josh Brown said the missionaries — Elder Blake Robinson and Elder Zach Parker — “were perfect for us.” They helped the family paint and move, went bowling, played soccer, went with them to the Liberty Jail Church Historic Site, and taught Christina Brown and the children about the gospel.

‘I Knew the Church Was True’

In May 2018, Christina Brown and Ayden, then almost 12 years old, decided they wanted to be baptized. Ayden told his mother, “I look forward to going to church on Sunday, because I feel broken, and church puts me back together again.’”

Those words impacted Josh Brown. “‘I knew the Church was true. What was I doing at home when my family is at church every Sunday?”

That next Sunday, Christina Brown found her husband ironing his clothes to go to sacrament meeting. A few weeks later, the bishop pulled Josh Brown aside and told him because he was an ordained priest, he could baptize his wife and son.

They were baptized in June 2018. In October 2021, the whole family was sealed in the house of the Lord. In March 2022, Josh Brown was called to be in the bishopric of the Oak Grove Ward.

Now Ayden is 18 and preparing to submit his papers to serve a full-time mission. Their second son, Reece, is now 14, serves as the teachers’ quorum president and reverently prepares the sacrament. Mya, 10, is in Primary and loves to dance. The family has stayed in contact with the missionaries who taught them, Josh Brown said.

“It started with an invitation to come to a Primary presentation.”

— Norma King, director of media in the Liberty Missouri Stake, contributed to this article.

Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.