I’m on a kick, bingeing on this YouTube influencer named Jacob Hansen of @thoughtfulfaith2020. (It’s coincidental, one of my sons grew up with a best friend named of the same name. This is a different Jacob Hansen.) It all started at a girlfriends’ lunch a week ago. My friend Aneladee was in town. Years ago she moved to Kentucky right after I had moved back to UT from AZ. With her in town, a bunch of us homeschooling mom girlfriends gathered for a potluck breakfast so we could catch up. It’s been five years since I’ve seen her in person. It was so wonderful! I loved basking in each other’s company and rejoicing that we are still faithful in the faith and sisters in the Lord, just like when the sons of Mosiah met up with each other after their missions, in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. “Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord” (Alma 17:2)

Aneladee said she had recently gone on a cruise with her husband where they got to hear from a bunch of YT influencers/podcasters who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so envious! Thankfully, the presentations from the cruise are on YouTube! Praise Jesus! It will take me six months to go through all these along with my other stuff. A joyful burden, yay!

So I came home and started watching them. I had listened to this guy, Jacob Hansen, before. It was fun to hear his backstory by watching this video below, from the cruise.

My son who is serving a mission for The Church had told me about Jacob before he left to serve. I had already watched something by him before my son told me about him, but knowing that my missionary had listened to him motivated me to keep watching stuff by Jacob.

Jacob recently debated a Catholic man Joe Heschmeyer from @shamelesspopery about whether or not there was a Great Apostasy. Here it is below.

I love that Jacob ends with a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley:

“This [divine authority] must be our great and singular message to the world. We do not offer it with boasting. We testify in humility but with gravity and absolute sincerity. We invite all, the whole earth, to listen to this account [the first vision] and take measure of its truth. God bless us as those who believe in His divine manifestations and help us to extend knowledge of these great and marvelous occurrences to all who will listen. To these we say in a spirit of love, bring with you all that you have of good and truth which you have received from whatever source, and come and let us see if we may add to it. This invitation I extend to men and women everywhere with my solemn testimony that this work is true, for I know the truth of it by the power of the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” (the quote comes from this talk here and below)

Here is Jacob’s initial debrief of the debate.

It’s so interesting that he shares a ChatGPT analysis of the debate. Watch at about the 4 minute mark. It shows that Jacob held a stronger position in the debate.

Below is a debrief with Joe and the moderator, Cameron.

Then here is reaction to the debate with Jacob and his friends from Ward Radio, who were also on the cruise.

Here is the talk referred to in the image above at the very top of this post, with the picture of Elder LeGrand Richards. I had actually thought of that quote from Elder LeGrand Richards, it’s also in his book The Marvelous Work and a Wonder. I remember hearing a teenage boy tell that story with the quote in a sacrament meeting talk years ago.