This is Ashley Stone and you're listening to the Comeback Podcast.

I am so excited to have you on the podcast. We got introduced to you through

somebody in Lauren's Ward. I guess you shared your story at an event and

Lauren's friend came back and said hey you have to have Jen on the podcast. She is so amazing and I know that you are the founder of the Turtle Shelter Project, right?

Yes. Tell us a little bit about what that is.

Okay, so the Turtle Shelter Project is a nonprofit organization that I started about six and a half years ago. We're a service project that makes kind of like survival vests for people who are living on the streets.

Technology is really cool because it helps the person who's wearing it stay warm even if they get wet. So what we do is we make these foam insulated vests and they will keep a person warm even to zero degree weather even if they're wet. Super life saving for people that are living on the streets.

That is so cool. And I know that your purpose behind starting this is kind of tied to your own personal story.

Yes. And I'm very excited to to hear more about your story.

Tell me kind of where it all began for you.

Would love to just start at the beginning. So I grew up in

mountain green Utah, which is so beautiful. It's like the coveted place to live

these days. So beautiful. Yeah, it probably wasn't as coveted when I lived there, but no, it's actually maybe it was. It's always been a very gorgeous place to live. But I grew up there for the majority of my adolescence, I guess.

I had seven brothers and one sister, and I was the third oldest. My family was really active in the church. I struggled in school. I struggled with the

social aspect of things. I didn't have a lot of friends in school as far as like when I was younger I was

bullied a lot. Just really struggled to make friends. I felt kind of like an outsider at school, but I also kind of

felt like an outsider at home because I was the only girl, so I was super different.

So yeah, I struggled a lot. I definitely was taught the gospel. I always believed that the church was true, but I struggled having a testimony for myself. I had some things happening to me when I was younger that was kind of traumatic caused me a lot of shame and went on for several years, developed habits that caused me even more shame. I kind of believed that because of everything I knew about myself that I was not worthy of having a relationship with God. I had a warped understanding of

repentance. What I believed was that if you did something wrong and then you

repent for it and then you do it again, it's 10 times worse and the first

repentance I guess didn't count. Really early on in my life, I just believed I was buried under this mountain of sin

that I couldn't get out from under everything in my life felt really dark.

...