Live with Author BarbieVan Cott

Barbie Van Cott’s Miraculous Journey: From Jewish Upbringing to Faith, Service, and a New Book

Live on Facebook and Zoom, Roundy interviews newly published author Barbie Van Cott, who shares her Jewish upbringing in California, lifelong questions about God and purpose, and a commitment to service. She recounts painful bullying in high school, her search for belonging, and a pivotal prayer that led to a prompted trip to Hawaii, where she learned about the LDS gospel, friendship, and conversion. Barbie explains how her memoir includes candid, humorous, and difficult experiences, plus Jewish traditions, scripture connections, and recipes, and how she wrote it over 16 years with spiritual guidance. She describes miracles leading her to BYU, meeting her first husband, raising six children, later remarrying, and preparing for a mission, and invites viewers to seek Christ through prayer, temple worship, service, and faith.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:37 Roots and Big Questions
02:56 Service Driven Childhood
03:51 High School Outsider
06:33 College Shift and Dating
07:24 Prayer and Hawaii Prompting
10:04 Mormon Roommates Life Change
10:56 Book Themes and Heart Talent
14:03 Service Stories and Judaism
20:19 Why She Wrote the Book
23:49 Seminary Mission and Writing
24:42 Fruit Business and Publishing Help
28:08 Amazon Reformatting Fixes
29:42 Reading Influences and Favorites
31:51 Raw Stories and Bullying Lessons
35:30 Miracle Path to BYU
42:08 Marriage and Next Book Plans
43:04 Mission Call Hopes
45:05 Where to Follow and Articles
47:54 Painful High School Memories
49:46 Final Message and Sendoff

In a world full of uncertainty, how does one cope with unbearable loss and pain? A Christmas tragedy finds Steve and Maria struggling to find hope. With the love and support of family and friends, will they find peace as they walk through the fire of Uncertainty?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:39

All right, everyone. Welcome, welcome to Roundy's Rants Raves and Reviews. Today we are live here on Facebook and on Zoom with Barbie Van Cot, who has just recently published her book, and I am so excited to share her story with you. I've been getting to know her, and she is a beautiful soul with a beautiful story to tell for us also. So, first, Barbie, will you tell us about yourself and what you do or what you've been doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Okay. I'm Barbie Van Cott. My maiden name is Lavik. I am a 96% Eastern European Jew, according to my DNA. And it's I'm my ancestors come from Russia, Romania, Hungaria, Hungary, and Poland. The part of Russia that they come from is actually now Ukraine. And I am super excited to share with you my journey. I was born and raised in California. I was born in Hollywood. And when I was born, I'm very petite. And when I was when I came out, the doctor said she'll never reach five feet. But I did exactly. And I also my mother said she she's perfect, but I can tell she has a mind of her own. And I do, and I did then. And I was a kid who pondered everything. I was raised Jewish. I received a Hebrew name. I went to the synagogue religious school every Saturday morning from kindergarten through high school. I totally was immersed in Judaism. And it was a part of my life. I wasn't really ever looking for another religion. I just had lots of questions and I pondered all kinds of things. And I wondered was is there a plan, a master plan? Is there life after death? Are we born again to just die? Where's why is there prejudice? Where did we come from? I had all these questions and I'd ask kids on the playground, and they thought I was weird. And now I'm in school because I had all these deep questions and nobody can answer them. So I play handball and ask questions and stuff. And I just was different. And so in the fifth grade, since there may not be a perfect purpose to life, I wrote in uh my notebook my purpose to make the world the kinder, gentler place. And so I did as many service projects as I could possibly could, and I helped people and got involved that way. And sometimes I did crazy things like marching in a parade for equal rights for blacks when I was 13 in the night and apart. And other I was very bold and very, you know, I thought I love conquers all, I can do all things. And but my parents and I was very different than my mother, and we couldn't relate, and so it was a struggle in that way. But when I finished junior high, I won Miss Madison for all the service projects and the good things I did. And then my mother told me she was pregnant and having a baby, so we moved and I went to a brand new fast high school, and that was so hard. I was called Geek to the core because I had leadership ability. They called me Captain of the Geek Squad. I sat with the losers at lunch. I it was so hard. The populists would throw fruit at me, they'd block me in the hallway, the kids were mean to me. All of that helped build my character though to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It wasn't easy at at all. And I just think it wasn't easy at all. So I let me just throw this in the hollow.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

You're good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Hey Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, your phone is ringing, so I wouldn't have okay. My husband's phone was ringing. I'm sorry. So okay, so in high school, I just was such a loser and I hated being on the top of the loser list. And and to give you an example, I didn't date till I was a senior in high school. So I went up to a boy that I thought was cute, and I thought, you know, I need to grow up, I need to do something. So I said, Hi, you're in my last class. If you noticed me, I've noticed you. And he said, like I'd ever notice you, freakazoid. And then, yeah, it was so hard. And then one one thing they did in my high school is that they go like this on your shoulder, and that meant you're a speck of dust.

unknown 6:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But they pour penny at your feet and say, chop, cut wool, and those, so those type of things didn't. So in my senior year of high school, I decided that I was gonna be popular, so populars, and I dressed in like they did, and I talked like they did, and I totally imitated, but I never got accepted because I was still who I was, and it wasn't till college that I blossomed and had I totally had this wonderful experience with kids and friendships, and I even made it to the top sorority, but it wasn't I had to bury myself of who I really was. I had all these burning questions and ponderings, and and I dated a Christian boy and broke up with him because he wasn't Jewish, and I was just very confused, and then finally, when I was 20, I met this Jewish boy that wanted to marry me, and I just didn't feel right about it. There was something missing, and so I, for the first time in my life, had a personal prayer at 20. Jews pray, but it's Remorized prayers, Hebrew prayers, and I said, God is his name was Ron Silver. Is Ron Silver my destiny? Am I supposed to marry Ron Silver? If not, please intervene. And it was New Year's Eve. I was supposed to get my ring, there was no knock on the door, no jingle of the telephone. He was a complete no-show, and he was very reliable. So I took that as an answer to prayer. And three days later, I heard this inner voice that said, if you go to Hawaii, all your dreams will come true. I had no idea what that meant. Nothing. So I said to my parents, I'm going to Hawaii. All my dreams will come true. And they go, What are you gonna do there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

What better place to just go? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

So they said, When you figure that out, so I had I took a tennis class and I had a gym locker partner who I just didn't even know we were in the back of a line together and you had to share a locker, and so I thought, you know, here I get this prompting. I don't believe in the Holy Ghost because I don't even know what it is, right? But I knew it came from God, I knew it came from God, so I had that class, and it was almost the end of the semester, and she had PE a different period than I did in college, and I heard her tell somebody she was going to Hawaii, so I perked right up and I said, You're going to Hawaii? And she said, Yes. And I said, Who are you going with? She said, I don't know. I don't, I haven't figured it out yet. And I said, Why are you going to Hawaii? She said, I know this sounds crazy, but I feel prompted to go. And I said, It doesn't sound crazy at all. And miracle miracles, we went to Hawaii together, and I passed her off as my good friend Janice to my parents, even though she was a complete stranger. This is my really good friend Janice. We've been besties forever. I said she's my bestie. I don't lie. But she went and she got on a plane, and she got a job and got off at the wrong bus stop the same time as this other girl who was LDS. And they were going to the same place and ended up going to the police station to get a clearance for this for a job. And she mentioned she needed a roommate, and they moved in, and they were three Mormon girls and my friend Janice. And then I came three days later, and my life changed forever. I learned all about the gospel. I learned what true friendship is, love, and as far as friendship and love and all the principles of the gospel. It was the neatest summer ever. But I'm very quirky and I'm very naive. And my book is like I had a friend laugh and laugh today that called me that knew me from college on, and he was reading after I graduated from high school. He said, I could so relate to your book. He was from the same area. He said it's so you. It's a super fun, fun read. I mean, it's a really fun read. It's very real. I use the words and how I talk then. And it's just, it's even reading it now myself, it's just quite entertaining. Everybody that's read it has said that it's both it's very miraculous. I mean, it shows how God had placed a hand in each of our lives, and we just have to look and we have to move forward with faith. And a few times I had to have put myself in complete submission to the Lord to have my prayers answered. But that's okay because that's when they are answered, is when we put ourselves in the hands of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

It's very true, it's very true. It is amazing how there were no coincidences in anything that you just described there. The Lord was like setting you in certain places, certain times. And I love that spirit of Christ, that light of Christ. You recognized it when you felt it and heard it, even when you didn't know what to call it. You just you Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

And I have things about my childhood, you know, like I wasn't very talented in the arts, and I kind of make fun of myself. I mean, I I keep it real, and it's laughable, it's really laughable. And I found out why what my talent was. I took art, I took singing, I took dancing, but we were at a baseball game, and the bases were loaded, and Sandy Koufax was pitching, and he walked a player, and the bases were loaded, and everybody was going boo. And I stood up on the bleachers and I said, Can't you see? He's doing the best he can. And my dad said, That's Barbie's talent. She has a heart.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

I think that's the best talent anyone can have. Yeah, I love all that service you were doing. What were some of the projects that you were doing at that time? I mean, what were what were some examples of the service projects that you would find for yourself to do and get involved?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Well, I I was I was in junior high just a second.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

You're fine, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I get this. I was in junior high and they told us to read a book that would touch our lives and change our lives. I'm sorry when I did that with ninth year old.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

You're good. I get tickles all the time too, so I get it.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Okay. We had to have a book report, something that would touch our lives. And so I got Helen Keller's book on being blind and what it was like. And I read several of her books. And I was so deeply touched that I ended up my bro, oh, I had an older brother, and my mother didn't even know, and he drived me to the foundation of the blind. And I would help teach them Braille and read them stories. And then in the sixth grade, this new girl moved into our elementary school, and she was from Europe and she didn't know anything, and so I totally helped her adapt to her new surroundings, and I had the most incredible experience because there was somebody having in the party having a birthday party, and everybody was invited, and she was poor, and her clothes were tattered, and she had a hard time adapting to this area without having any money and being new and just learning a new language. So we were at the birthday party, and my mother bought my gift, my present, and I all the girls came dressed so nice. And when we were kids, we wore dresses to birthday parties. I know that sounds weird, but they just she came in a tattered dress with a hole in the suite, and she had it, and her gift was in a brown paper sack with a rumpled, in a rumpled brown paper sack with the tongue twisted, and all the presents were opened, and hers was the last one sitting on the table, and it sat alone, and she just sat there, and then Marsha, the girl who had the party, opened the gift, and inside were broken crayons and a half-used coloring book, and all the kids were laughing. I stood up on my chair and I said, This is the best gift of all because she gave of herself. She will no longer be able to use those crayons and coloring books, so it's a sacrifice for her to give that. And I said, Hers is the best gift of all because she gave of herself. And it was then that was the a stepping stone for me to realize that the savior's gift stood alone and only he could give it, and he gave up his life for us. So I come I put things in the book that compare that then lead me to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the savior. And I have a lot about Judaism and what the religion means and how they celebrate. And in the book are recipes like Matabal soup and all kinds of Passover dishes that my grandparents made that are traditional. And it's just, you know, like the Passover, every year the Jews wait for Elijah's return, and that's part of the Passover, is the promise of the return of Elisha. And in 1834, Elijah came to Joseph Smith on the Passover, and he restored the keys. And I learned about that and I lied by my roommates that it was on the Passover. So it, you know, you'll you if you read, you'll understand Judaism. It'll help you understand because I have scriptures in there of the holidays besides my story, and what where the Jews get the scriptures from the Old Testament for what they do, and then how it's been fulfilled through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

That is beautiful, that it's part of your story too, because you found that restoration and that fulfillment as you went. Yes, beautiful parallel.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

So I'm a deep thinker, I'm funny and quirky, but I'm also extremely sensitive and naive. And I have I have in there all my dating, and I have an example of four of the boys I dated, and where my parents get gave me a talk, a serious talk about the birds and the bees. And I had that talk in there where they say, We're old fashioned, we believe in the that it's okay for boys, but not for girls. So I said in there what I said. So who do they do it with? Loose girls, my dad said, not good girls like you. So I'm really honest, and it's it's it is quite comical.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

I love that you're honest and real because it's hard to be vulnerable and it's hard to put yourselves out there. We were talking before this, but would you share what led you to share this? I mean, you've got very sensitive stories, you've got your life. What prompted you to have to tell this story, to share this with the world?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Well, like my husband said, I'm very brave because I have very personal things that some people would just keep under wraps. But I'm I've been prompted to write the book to help people come under Christ. And in the beginning of my book, I have I have my I have my dad's story as a opening of the book. And my dad shared this to me after I had six kids, just had my last baby, and he said, he told me when he was a kid he was on the playground, and this is a sacred story, and it's the in the introduction. He was on the playground in Duluth, Minnesota, and he snuck out, and it was a cold wintry day, but the snow had lit up, so he went on the slides and he went on the swings, and then he got hungry, so he thought, my mother's gonna worry, so I better run home. So he ran through an abandoned snowy field, and his foot got caught in a rock, and he couldn't loosen it, and there was no one around. And he said, God, am I gonna die here? Will you save me? Can you help me? And a man appeared out of nowhere and just came and loosened his foot out of the snow and said, You will have a great posterity. And then he looked at me and he said, You are my posterity. And so that was so meaningful to me because it shows that from beyond the veil, There are people that can help us. And I've done a lot of temple work for my family. And I have two brothers. One never married, so he won't have any posterity. The other married, but he doesn't have any children. I am the posterity. And I want people to come into Christ and be converted. And I said, if something's holding you back on my intro, overcome it and drink of his living water. I have life can be tough. And there's people out there that think, oh, God doesn't love me because I've had hard times, but he does. And you have to look for the good. And I've been prompted and led to write this book in so many different ways. And I know the Lord speaks to us through the Holy Ghost. He genuinely cares for each and every one of us. You have to put yourself in complete submission and pray about it. And you have to look for the good and be led. I know the more service you give, the more blessed you, the more blessings you can receive by giving of yourself. And I'm hoping that people that are trying to be something they're not can read this and realize that it's okay to be yourself and that there's people that will love and accept you. And those that don't, you just move on and you pray for them. I've been a seminary teacher, release time seminary teacher for 11 years at Mountain View High School in Mace, Arizona. I went on a mission with my husband to Florida, and it was a prostlighting mission. Loved it. And I currently write a monthly article for the Beehive magazine in Mesa. Well, in Arizona. It's a LDS publication. And it's things that happen in Arizona.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Wow. So you just felt the prompting to share and bring all this to us.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

I have I had a fruit business too in and it was in Mesa, but people from all over Arizona came. And it started as a ward calling, it really did. And I was in charge, I was in charge of getting people to work at the cannery and to have one thing a month that they could buy for food storage. And so I did weed and powdered milk and honey and all of that, and chocolate from Hershey, Pennsylvania. And then there was a farmer that had an apple orchard, so I brought in like 20 boxes of apples, and the fruit just kind of stuck long after I was released. The farmer didn't want me to quit. And so I went from a handful of people to 5,000 people.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Oh my goodness gracious!

SPEAKER_00 26:49

But I don't, I know, I don't do it anymore. I sold the business, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Wow, you probably met a lot of people that way.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

I have, and they're amazing people, and I'm so grateful.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Stories to from them to share as well. That is so beautiful that you just followed the Lord's Spirit through all this. And then what was it like to try and write your story down? What was what was it difficult? Was it hard? What came to you? How did what was that like for you?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Um, it took me, in all honesty, I started it 16 years ago. And anybody that knows me, I'm a little bit ADD in that I jump from project to project, thing to thing, my mind's racing, it's always thinking of this and that. And so I'd write a little and then I'd go do something else, and then a few days would go by and I'd write a little and do something else, and I put it off and put it off. But then I would wake up in the night in dreams, and the words would come to me what to write and what to change and what to add and whatnot. And then I realized that, like I said, this isn't my book, it's my story, but it's the Lord's book, and I don't know who it's gonna reach or who it's gonna touch. It's been out a little less than two weeks, and I've sold 62 copies so far, which isn't a lot, but more than mine, so you're really done good. Well, I but my grandson lived with us and he did the front and back cover, and we worked on it together until it was perfect, and then he did the whole manuscript formatting himself, and the words are there, the story's there, but the formatting is off. And I have a dear friend that read the book and was in my writing group and absolutely loves my story, and she read it and she called me and she said, Barbie, I love the story, I love the book, but the formatting is off. Can I do the formatting for you as a gift? And she's a publisher, a published author, and publisher and a publisher, and so she redid the formatting, and then she told me to go through the whole book and make sure everything is just the way I want it, and so I'm almost done doing that, and I'm gonna resubmit it, and it takes 72 hours for Amazon to res to do the resubmitting. So in 72 hours, it will have the new format, and the format is basically the paragraphing and the line, how it's written, not the words, but how it's organized, and so I'm working on that, and I realized that I use the word sew a lot, so this, so that so I took some of the sews out, and and and there's a couple quotation marks that were missing, and a few commas that I took out, a few that I added, so that type of stuff, but the meat is there, important part.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah, yes, I love that your friend is giving you that gift.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

I know she is so sweet, she is so sweet. I love her.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

There's a good group of authors down there by you. There are several of them in my author group, are also down there. My editor actually lives down there in that area too. So, yeah, that's crazy. There's a bunch of us. I love what they say, even though it's hot. Yeah, it is quite warm. It is there. So I always ask this just because I want to know as an English teacher and a reader myself, what are the things you liked to read and what inspired you when you were growing up or currently? What are the things that you love to read and that you're inspired by?

SPEAKER_00 31:10

I love all of Richard Paul Evans' books. I read the scriptures, I like a lot of self-help books. I'm not into fantasy or any violence. My husband could tell you that he loves space, like space movies or books, and he loves cowboy books. I'm not into that either.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Yeah, he likes the good old Louis Lemoirs then and stuff, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

That's it, exactly. Louis Lemoire, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Yeah. I try to have those on my shelf because I've got I live in an area where that's it, but even those kids aren't aren't into those anymore. They're all into stuff. Okay, so you're a Rich Paul Evans fan and stuff too. So I'm just gonna ask if you have a favorite of his because he's witness written such a wide variety and so many kinds of caused, and they're downstairs in the basement.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

I can't remember. You're fine, you're fine. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

No, you're good. I was just curious because say there's so many, and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

But there's books that can change your life, like the five love languages that that that's can change your life, it can help you to understand things. There people have already written me or called or text, or some people have actually written how they felt about the book on Amazon. And some of my experiences have helped people already. And that's my goal, that's my hope and dream.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

And isn't that the hope of most authors, especially when we're sharing our personal stories? You know, is that we reach someone and to know that we've helped someone just is like, okay, this is worth it. All this pain and anguish going through our stories. I know you've said that your story is comedy and and light and things like this, but you also mentioned to me earlier that it you're honest and raw about some of those harder times, too. And you talked a little bit about how kids made fun of you and through this. What other things that are maybe harder for people to read in this book that you know maybe will be more difficult for us?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

My home life was far from perfect, and I had a mother that couldn't relate to me, and in looking back in retrospect, now that I know she was very narcissistic, and I was always wanting to help people and make a difference in the world, and I didn't care what people thought. And there's a quote that somebody in our state who had seminars, and it would it was whether rather look good or be good. And my mother was a good person, but she spent her whole life trying to impress other people, and it so much mattered what other people thought, and she tried so hard to keep up. I called it with the Schwartzes, because not the Joneses, because the Jones is not a Jewish last name. This is very Jewish. So I have in my book, Keeping Up with the Schwartzes, but and she'd worry about how I looked and what people would think, and I'm like, who cares? And I tell her, You're headed into geezerhood with you and your friends. Why do you care what people think? It doesn't really matter, and they're and my friends, I had friends that really held me in college, and they and they when I was I was senior in high school, and these were my brother's friends, girlfriends that were in college, and they became my friends, and they taught me something. They said, people that want to elevate themselves, that are actually not happy, people or insecure, do it by belittling others, and they make fun of those that are they feel are less so that they can feel confident and think they're better. But it's the thing is it's not lasting, so they have to do it over and over again. So there's things in my book that really are self-help, and that you can look and analyze a situation you're in and say, Oh, well, then I'm gonna look at this with a different perspective or a different view.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

It's interesting how maybe times have changed, the technology has changed, but people really have it. The bullying online and the way that the world is, we're still human beings and we're still going through those things so exactly right. I mean, people are still bullying for the same reasons, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Right, right. How we get through that. And it will help somebody that's in that situation that I was to reevaluate things. And I even talked about two teachers in high school that were very rude to me and very hurtful, and I talk about that experience and what I learned from it.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Something for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

That's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

What where do you write up to in your book? I know you've lived for quite a while here. You're you've had a beautiful life with lots of grandchildren and everything. What point do you stop your book? And are you working on something more?

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Okay. So I stopped the book, I went to BYU, and that was miraculous too. And all of that, it's just amazing. I mean, I it's just amazing. I look at my life and I just I'm in awe. But I went to BYU and only I joined the church in order to join the church. My mother said, if you go to a Jewish psychiatrist and he tells you you're normal, then you can be baptized. And I'm like, oh yeah, right. Like, I'm gonna go to a Jewish psychiatrist and he's gonna tell me I'm normal. But I get this woman who's and there's only men's name on the door. She's endearing and loving and sweet. And she said, Why are you here, sweetie? And I told her about my conversion story that happened in Hawaii, and then she paused and she said, I want, sweetie, I want to tell you that I'm a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ. Tell me more of your miracle summer, and so I I wonder if she was an angel. I really do. And and so I told her the rest of my summer, and she said, There's four things I want you to do. And this is not like what a psychiatrist would talk and say. She said, I want you to quit college. I'm like, I paid for college. Said, I want you to quit college with the sorority, get a full-time job, and move out. And I want you to do it in two weeks. Oh my left office crying, and everything fell into place since I did one thing after another, miracles fell into place. It was amazing. Yeah, it just is incredible. Do you ended up at BYU bed? So I moved out and I lived with Chris, my roommate Chris. I found, oh, I found this was a miracle. I went to church, snuck out, and I didn't, my parents didn't know. So I sat with the missionaries, and I was gonna run back home right after. And this girl comes up to me from my high school. I did not know her. She just recognized my face and she said, Why are you here? And I said, I'm looking into your church. And then she said, You want to go to an institute dance with me? She was a total stranger, so I said, Okay, and she picked me up and I walked into the dance and I felt like a fish out of water.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

But I walked clear across the room and I felt prompted to do that. And I stood in front of this girl and I waited till she was done talking to several guys. And then when she was done, I noticed she had Daisy's shoes on. They had plastic daisies, and I said, I love your shoes. Daisies are my favorite flower. And then I looked at her, and it was my voice, but not my words. I said, You need a roommate, don't you? And she looked at me and she said, You know, my roommate moved out, and I was gonna have a friend move in, but I had a prayer last night that someone needed me and it was you. And I just was like shocked. And so I moved in with Chris and miracle of miracles, she was a Jewish convert too.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Oh my heavens! I know the Lord has just He is so in the details, and it just always amazes me if we look and we recognize it how often he is just putting everything together for us. He does, and oh my goodness, that's so incredible.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

So six months later, after I lived with Chris for six months and everything was on my job, everything was great. He my bishop calls me and he says, Your husband's waiting for your BYU. And I said, I just quit school where I lived, I changed my whole life for this church, and you're asking me to change it again, and but and so I didn't because I was scared and everything was good, and then I get this call, and Chris, I didn't have a phone, and my roommate Chris answered it, and they asked for me, and they said, This is BYU admissions, and Chris is like, What? So she hands me the phone and they said this is BYU admissions office. We have not received your application yet, and you are supposed to be here. And Chris said, I went to BYU, they never call. You've got to go. Oh my heaven, I know. I'm telling you that this book, I had to write it because there are miracles in my life, and if you you know it, but I put myself, like I said, in complete submission and changed my whole life, and I was willing to do that because I knew the gospel was true. So I went to BYU and I lived with one of my one of my roommates in Hawaii, lived with the Mormon family, and she got married, and then so I moved in. So I lived with this Mormon family, and he was Dean of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and his wife, and and so I learned how by watching them a functional family should be. And I met my husband at BYU, and so the bishop came in and said, Your husband's waiting. And I'm like, how am I gonna know in a giant university who that is? And so the Mormon family I lived with said that they would she would meet every guy I dated and tell me yes or no, and so she'd go like this every woman home. And then when Bobby came, she went, we got married, and we were really happy and had six kids together and a wonderful life, and he passed. And now I'm married to a great guy named Dennis from Idaho.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Beautiful. Where in all that did you did so? Did you write your whole story up till now then?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

No, um no, I stopped it when I met my husband and we got married, and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Okay, so now you got the rest of your life story to write.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

Well, I want to write a book called A Breast A Best Friend Mommy. Oh, so yeah, I have quotes that I quotable quotes that I said to my kids and what I did, and just what I didn't have, and just kind of put it out there.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

I I think everyone could use that best friend mommy for sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

That's that's but right now I'm trying to promote this book and finish the manuscript so I can resubmit it and and oh, and my current new husband, we're going on a mission in February. You're going on a mission in February? Well, where are you guys gonna go? Well, he served in the military for 20 years in the air force, so he wants to go and uh to a military mission on a base, and our first choice is Hawaii, choice is South Carolina, and our third choice is Florida.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

Well, there you go. And I can't wait to have you guys put in your papers and you're just writing.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

And we did the bishop on this Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 46:31

Oh, wow. That's so exciting. More news coming our way. Yes. That's so incredible. And my parents met at BYU as well. My mom coming from California as it's not really a convert because she did not born into church, but she they weren't active and she converted as a teenager. And so she came to BYU, the only member in her family and everything. And she was dating someone else. My dad had just got home off his mission, and how they just met. I mean, I that your story sounds very familiar to you. Like things happen, right? That's and yeah, and they've now my dad had served in Brazil, and so my parents now have served two other missions in Brazil. They got sent home early into their second one there from COVID, but then then they served another one in Colorado. But oh my goodness, I love seeing my parents be able to serve together and how I watched them growing up and I watched them with all of us, but to see them be able to become partners that way has just been so wonderful. So I am so happy for you to be able to have that experience. You've already been doing a great mission, though, it looks like your whole life's been missionary work and all of this. As we get ready here to close up, where we can find your book on Amazon, but don't get it for 72 hours. Right. Where else can we follow you? Are you on? Instagram, Facebook, you have a web page, what works for I'm on Facebook, Barbie Lavick Vancott.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

I don't have Instagram. You can read my articles in the Beehive magazine. In it's called the Arizona Beehive magazine. I'm my article in the Ensign magazine is in the April 2018 edition. And it is on the sacrament. That's another miracle. Is they I felt prompted, even though I was in the middle of writing this book, to write this article about the sacrament. And we lived in Vermont for four years, and it was called a white hand-tatted tablecloth, and that was given to us at our wedding by somebody in Oram. And when my husband was called as branch president shortly after he graduated from BYU in Vermont, and we got this beautiful hand-tatted tablecloth from somebody in his ward in Oram. And it takes forever to make it. Oh, yeah. It was exquisite. And my husband took it out when we were there. They had an old tattered sheet and he took it out of the drawer, and I knew he was asking. He was asking if we could use that for the sacrament table. And so we did. And when we moved back four years later, we didn't feel like we could take it back because it wasn't ours anymore. And so the that's the article is about the White Hand Tabitated and how we gave that and what it meant and stuff like that. And when I called the the ensign, they said we have a two and a half year backlog. And the chances of it getting published are very slim. And then four months later, it was in the it was in the it was in the magazine. Now I did submit my book to Deseret Book, and they replied saying, I we read the whole manuscript. It's an amazing story, but we don't take memoirs. I hope you have the opportunity to publish it, is what they said. But it is real, and so maybe not. I mean, like for instance, one of my teachers, my PE teacher, I tried out for drill team in high school so I could become popular. And it took all the courage in the world for me to do this. Let me tell you being a total geek watt. So I was, and I have kind of what they call sway back. It doesn't hurt my back or anything, it's just the way I'm shaped or whatever. And so I have this in my book. Like I'm watching, I'm jumping around, and I'm walking in a circle with all these other students, and they go lavic. And I thought, oh, they chose me. And she said, get out of line, they'll be able to see your big butt from the bleachers.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

But that's in my book because it's real.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

And so I wanted them to see that high school was painful for me, not only from the kids, but from some of the teachers. Now they'd get in big trouble. But in the 70s, not so much.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Yeah. Anything could go back then, that's for sure. I mean, my mother talks about well, some of the people, I don't know if my mother no, it wasn't my mother. It was someone else. Like the oh, it was someone I one of my teachers I knew that he went to a Catholic school and they used the rulers and modeling and all of that stuff. So yeah, absolutely. Well, I am so excited for your book and your story and for your mission and thank you. Is there any last message that you feel that we need to hear and that needs to be shared to our audience today?

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Yes. If you think that you're not loved, cared about, and watched over both here and on the other side of the veil, you are for sure on the other side of the veil. There are people rooting for you. I have friends that are struggling, and I put their name on the temple prayer roll, and I call them and ask how they're doing, and I listen. Be the person, if you're struggling, to go to the temple, to put your name on the prayer roll, to listen to others, to serve, to give, to love, to sacrifice. The more you do that, the closer you'll be to the Lord. And when you serve his children, blessings come.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

Thank you for your beautiful life, your beautiful book, and your beautiful message with us here today. Everyone, go check out her book on Amazon. Wait 72 hours to buy it, though, so you can get the updated version.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Like on Monday.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Yeah, let's go Monday next week. Yeah, let's do that and just flood her Amazon orders. That would be so wonderful. And we look forward to your continuing story and your continuing miracles. Thank you so much, Barbie. We love you and appreciate you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

Thank you. Take care.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

Next time on Rambi's Rants Waves and Reviews.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

Bye. Bye.