Why Are We Called "Our Turtle House"?

You know us by our app.

Perhaps you’ve attended one of our live events.

It’s even possible that you’ve heard a bunch of our special guests say the name “Our Turtle House” on their social media platforms.

But, what does that even mean? Better yet, where in the world did that name even come from!?!

The “Back” Story

The story stems back to 2004 when one of our founders, Meg Johnson was hiking in Southern Utah on a red rock trail near what is called Turtle Rock. She began exploring the boulders along the trail, leaping from one to the next to the next.

As she leapt to the last red boulder in her view, she discovered that there actually wasn’t a boulder there to catch her after all! Instead, she had just leapt off a 40-foot cliff.

Meg landed on her hands and knees, the impact of the fall breaking both femurs, both wrists and 3 bones in her neck. She was life-flighted to Salt Lake City where Meg was pronounced a quadriplegic (paralyzed from the chest down without the use of her hands).

The road to recovery was long and difficult; Meg was often plagued with discouragement, but never defeat. Throughout it all, Meg made a conscious effort to focus solely on optimism and gratitude. She wanted to turn what most people would consider a “devastating accident” into a sacred spiritual experience.

The App Is Born

Ten years after the accident, Meg wanted to do something fun and inspirational to celebrate. She had been doing a lot of motivational speaking and thought it would be fun to do something for an audience. She contacted fellow inspirational speakers Hank Smith and John Bytheway and together they presented a “When Life Gets Hard” Conference.

Then they did another.

And another.

Audiences loved the conferences so much that Meg, Hank, and John decided it would be fun to create a way that audiences all over the world could access these talks, so the idea of forming a membership site evolved. The site would need to be:

All-inclusive
Family-friendly
Both fun AND inspirational
Filled with a wide variety of content
Something even the youth would enjoy
And, finally, easily accessible.

Once they had a vision in they built that site, which then turned into an app: Our Turtle House…a family-friendly app filled with gospel-centered fun!

The “House” Tour

Filled with thousands of hours of exclusive podcasts, talks, firesides, and devotionals, The Our Turtle House App is home to unlimited entertainment from Hank, Meg, and John as well as hundreds of popular guest speakers like Al Carraway, John Hilton III, Jody Moore, Anthony Sweat and more.

The Our Turtle House App also has loads of resources for your weekly “Come, Follow Me” gospel studies. Download or print weekly lesson plans and stream podcasts centered around the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Plus, watch or listen to over a dozen new releases each week.

Here’s what you’ll get with a full Our Turtle House App membership:

TURTLE TALKS: Remember talks on CDs? Yeah they’re like that. We’re home to dozens of hilarious full-length talks filmed in front of a live studio audience.
COME, FOLLOW ME LESSON PLANS: Lessons designed with your family in mind. Conveniently customized for families, teens, and children alike.
BYTHEWAY PODCAST: Join John Bytheway as he gives additional insight into this week’s “Come, Follow Me” curriculum the “Bytheway” way.
DIGITAL FIRESIDES: Weekly firesides from a panel of special guests. Originally airs every Sunday night at 6pm MT.
HANK HELPS PODCAST: A powerful Q&A podcast where Hank Smith gives in-depth answers to questions submitted by listeners.
DOING GOOD PODCAST: Stories of people who change the world every day in their own way. Host Carmen Rasmusen Herbert interviews guests from across the United States that are doing good things with their lives.
MEG’S TRIAL TIPS: Quadriplegic Meg Johnson is no stranger to trying times. Still, she’s discovered hundreds of tips to help her get through life with an optimistic attitude and now she wants to share them with you.
ARMOR UP: DAILY DEVOTIONALS: Start your day the Armor Up way with short morning devotionals geared towards teens and young adults!
MARK MY WORDS: Read or listen to weekly short inspirational stories written and narrated by Mark Williams.
SCRIPTURE POWER: The entire household will love learning scripture stories and learning to implement their modern-day applications.
FOLLOW HIM PODCAST: Quickly becoming one of the most popular LDS-based podcasts, Hank and John host guests who specialize in different aspects of church history and scriptural curriculum.
TEACHING HELPS: A Vlog miniseries by Hank Smith to help the teacher/instructor in all of us with classroom management skills.
HAPPINESS 101 COURSE: Your six-week course to a happier life!
PLUS…members get exclusive ticket discounts to all our live events!
And more coming soon!!!