BIO AND CONTACT

Where to find me: Latter-day Woman Magazine, Facebook.

Bethany Tolley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1978, the youngest of her parent’s four biological daughters. Prior to the age of six her family moved to Idaho, Texas, and then settled in Moberly, Missouri in 1986. In the small mid-west town of Moberly, which at the time was home to a small branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a tiny Wal-mart, Bethany attended first through twelfth grade. During those growing-up years Bethany had various experiences that contributed to an early, and very strong, conviction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bethany, at the age of eighteen, had already developed a keen sensitivity to good lesson development and teaching skills. She credits much of this to her mother’s teaching gifts and example. Along with a seed of teaching knowledge, Bethany sang, played the piano, and treasured a profound love and loyalty for her family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After graduating high school in 1997, Bethany attended Moberly Area Community College on a choir scholarship. While attending her freshman year, she worked part-time at the newly opened Scholastic Books, Inc. call center. While taking book club orders from school teachers over the phone, Bethany immersed herself in the vast and enjoyable world of fiction. Having before always read only for school work, she learned that reading could transport her to new worlds and provide a needed, as well as entertaining, escape for her from everyday life.

In the year, 2000, a combination of books read, life struggles, and book movies contributed to a sudden desire within Bethany to begin writing fiction. “It was no passing fancy,” she said. “I’ve felt deeply compelled to write since that time, as if an internal part of me that’s always been there got woken up. I didn’t know it was there until it woke up inside me. Since then, it’s never gone back to sleep.”

Reacting to this prompting, Bethany began pondering, creating, writing, and learning how to become an inspired writer. She wanted to create an uplifting and exciting escape for others as she had discovered in her years at Scholastic Books. She prayed for the spiritual gift to write and confided her new mission to her family. But, that was only the beginning. Bethany threw herself into the craft of writing, attending writer’s conferences, entering contests, and seeking feedback from friends and acquaintances. She started a writing group at a local bookstore, and continued to hone her craft. Lots of failures and feedback over the years felt like insurmountable setbacks at the time, but Bethany persevered writing more than 16 fiction books and religious commentary books for herself and family.

While Bethany wasn’t born knowing exactly what her mission in life was, the Lord has led her to it through her many and varied experiences. After getting a BA in Business Administration from Columbia College and spending years in the business world, Bethany bumped into Corporate Training and found that she loved the challenge of teaching difficult concepts, and often boring topics, in an intense and exciting way. She enjoyed the science behind learning styles and memory retention, and finding ways to reach people of all kinds of learning styles in one presentation. She has devoted time and practice to learning how to create retention of Gospel principles and doctrines. She took easily to Instructional Design and went back to school to get an MA in Education: Curriculum and Instructional Design from the University of Phoenix.

It was in the mix of all these learned skills, innate gifts, and beloved talents, that Bethany found that her greatest passion in life was teaching the Gospel and helping others to understand it on a deep doctrinal level. Find her on Instagram @thedoctrinelady_BethanyTolley or her FB page @thedoctrineladyblog.

After a difficult divorce, in 2009, Bethany came back home to Moberly, Missouri from Arizona, where she was living at the time, to rebuild her life and pursue her love of teaching. Within months she was called to teach early morning Seminary again, in the Moberly Ward, and did so for four and a half years. These critical years sharpened her Gospel Teaching experience and brought out her natural knack for boiling the Gospel down to the critical doctrinal truths and whys.

In 2013, four years after her divorce, Bethany was approached by a missionary serving in her ward for her email address. Only, it wasn’t for him. It was for a man in another ward. Loathe to be set up, Bethany rebuffed the request, but with some perseverance the missionary succeeded. Two months later she was contacted by her current husband, Luke Tolley (noted scientist and inventor of protein-based food products). Taking nothing for granted, she ended up being a difficult catch for the recently divorced former bishop and early morning Seminary teacher. She tested and tried him severely, confident that she wanted a spiritual and intellectual equal as her eternal companion. After several months and two very spiritual experiences, Bethany married Luke in May of 2014. Having never had children in her first marriage, Bethany was overjoyed to get pregnant and bring her first, and only, biological child into the world in January 2015. Her daughter, Anna, along with her seven step-children are the greatest joys of her life.

Bethany began her Doctrine Lady Blog after attending the October General Women’s Conference in 2016 where President Nelson’s quote of Spencer W. Kimball was reiterated, “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world will be drawn to the Church in large numbers…to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.”

She had been approached before about blogging and had immediately refused for various reasons. But, sitting in that session she felt strongly impressed to do exactly that. Since then, the promptings have continued as she has prayed for opportunities to share the Gospel and to be one of those women that stands apart from the women of the world as “distinct and different in happy ways.”

If you prefer listening to reading, then follow Bethany’s “The Doctrine Lady” blog via Apple or Google. Click here to listen to an episode.

In 2021, Bethany began writing online magazine articles for Latter-day Woman Magazine. Click here to read one of her favorite articles. To visit the magazine’s homepage, click here.

Speaking and Presentation Requests

Bethany enjoys teaching and presenting on all topics to all age groups. True to her moniker, all her speeches and presentations, no matter the topic, focus on THE DOCTRINE: the fundamental unchanging truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loves taking difficult topics and “getting to the truth of things as they really are”. Bethany speaks for FREE.

Bethany currently resides in the Provo, UT area.

Please contact Bethany via her facebook page or this link for speaking/presentation requests.

Copyright Information

All music, text, art, video, and other proprietary content on this site is copyrighted by Bethany Tolley but may be copied, shared, used, and performed for personal, church, or other non-profit incidental use. Any other personal or commercial reproduction for profit is prohibited. To use any content for personal or commercial reproduction for profit, please contact Bethany via her Facebook page to request licensing information.