Brett Sampson Carried Rocks in His Pockets Until the Savior Helped Him Let Go

That young missionary is now Brett Sampson, the Managing Director of University Relations at Brigham Young University, Idaho. He has served for 26 years on campus, given keynote addresses, served five and a half years as a stake president, and helped tell the story of the Ricks College to BYU-Idaho transformation. Ask him how he got here, and he will trace it back to a mother singing hymns in sacrament meeting, a tiny water closet in Rochester, and a scripture reference he did not even recognize when it came to mind.

In a recent episode of Why We Believe with host Nathan Gwilliam, Brett shares how Jesus Christ has shaped his life from his earliest years to this very day. His story is a reminder that the Lord meets us exactly where we are, no matter how lonely or uncertain that place feels.

The Boy Who Moved 14 Times

Brett moved 14 times before he ever left home. Some of those moves came before he finished kindergarten. New schools, new neighborhoods, new wards. He was always the new kid. By the time his family settled in Fresno on his 16th birthday, the weekend before his junior year of high school, he had been the new face in more wards than most people visit in a lifetime.

What carried him was sitting beside his mother in sacrament meeting and hearing her sing the hymns. He still texts her sometimes during sacrament meeting today. The lessons he heard in primary in Chicago were the same lessons he heard in Seattle. The same teachings, the same truth, the same friendly faces who already believed in Jesus Christ. The Church gave him a sense of belonging that no school could.

That last move to Fresno gave him more than a high school. A young man named Eric Muirbrook befriended him on his first Sunday in the ward and offered him rides to school. Eric's younger sister rode along in the truck. Years later, after Brett returned from his mission, that younger sister became his wife.

A Water Closet in Upstate New York

The mission was in Rochester, New York, the cradle of the restoration. Brett's first day, the mission president drove the new arrivals straight to the Sacred Grove and invited them to find a quiet place to kneel and pray. Brett loved the history of his assignment and the chance to teach people about Jesus Christ. He also struggled. For a stretch of time, he and his companion could not get along, and Brett found himself feeling the loneliest he had ever felt in his life.

The only place he could go for a moment of silence was the tiny basement apartment bathroom up the steps. He started going there to pray. He remembered the scriptures that invite us to cry unto the Lord and pray in our closets, and he realized the old name for a small bathroom was a water closet. So that became his closet.

In that water closet, the atonement of Jesus Christ became real to him in a way it never had been before. Christ does not only heal sin. Christ heals actual hurt. The hurt people inflict on us. The hurt we cause ourselves. The hurt we carry for someone we love. Years later, on a long drive to his mother's 80th birthday with three different hard things weighing on him, Brett would remember that bathroom and intentionally invite the Savior in again.

A Scripture He Did Not Yet Know

About five and a half years ago, Brett was called into a meeting with his stake president, Timothy Dykes, who extended him the call to be the next stake president himself. As the words were spoken, a scripture reference came to Brett's mind. Mark 10:27. Brett does not consider himself a scriptorian and could not place that reference. The thought came again. He sat through the rest of the meeting telling Heavenly Father that as soon as he could, he would look it up, and if there was meaning there, he would know it was from God.

When he opened the verse later, he read seven words that have carried him every day since. With God, all things are possible.

A few weeks later, late on a Sunday night, Brett sat alone in the church parking lot and wept. He asked Heavenly Father how he was supposed to care for 3,500 people for a decade. Then, as he started the car, the Spirit returned the same lesson. It is not up to you. It is not about you with me. You can do this. He realized God assigns angels to sustain those He calls.

Putting Down the Rocks

Years before any of that, after returning home from his mission, Brett was assigned to teach a Sunday school lesson on forgiveness. He filled his suit pockets with river rocks from the church landscaping. Partway through the lesson, he started pulling them out one by one and lining them up on the chalkboard tray. Why would we carry more burden than we have to, he asked the class.

Forgiveness, Brett later taught in a 2014 BYU-Idaho devotional titled "Ye Ought to Forgive," is not a single moment. It is a process. There are people we may need to keep at a distance to protect ourselves. There are some things we should not forget. But the bitterness, the anger, the festering, the rocks we carry in our own pockets, those we can give to the Lord. Not forgiving, Brett often quotes, is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

Why Brett Believes

On September 27, 2025, President Russell M. Nelson passed away. The next day, Brett was sitting on a stand in a ward meeting when a member of the bishopric leaned over and showed him a phone screen with news of a tragedy at a chapel in Michigan. Brett's instinct was to do what he had always done in moments of shock. Check his footing on the rock of his Redeemer. Look to the prophet. Then he remembered the prophet was gone. For another second he had to shift, to look to President Dallin H. Oaks, a man with a different personality but the same firm conviction that God is real.

Brett told Nathan that faith in Jesus Christ is a combination of hope, optimism, and trust. It is what carries him through every hard moment, from being the new kid at church to being a stake president weeping alone in a parking lot. We can either try to fix everything ourselves or we can yoke ourselves to Jesus Christ and let Him carry the weight. Brett has tried both. He recommends the second one.

Key Takeaways

The Atonement heals more than sin. It heals the actual hurt we carry. When everything in life changes, one constant can become the foundation of unshakeable faith. God speaks before we are ready to listen. Trust what comes. Do all you can, then trust God with the rest. That is where faith begins. Real faith shows up strongest in the hardest seasons, when the Lord carries us through what we cannot do alone.

Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com.

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Follow Brett Sampson: LinkedIn: @brett-sampson-1288149 | Facebook: @brett.sampson.10 | BYU-Idaho: byui.edu profile