Kesley LeRoy walked through the Salt Lake City airport gates and straight into her mother’s arms — an emotional reunion after 18 months of being apart while she served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Sporting a pair of cowgirl boots, a nod to Billings, Montana — the area where she served — LeRoy made her way down a line of family and friends holding signs and flowers to welcome her home.
The special moment was captured on camera and posted to LeRoy’s YouTube account, ‘Kesley Jade,’ on June 23, garnering more than 300,000 views.
In 2017, the content creator branched off from her YouTube family channel ‘The LeRoys,’ launching her own account. Since then, her channel has amassed more than 1 million subscribers.
When LeRoy decided to serve a mission in 2023, she shared the news on her YouTube channel. Though she acknowledged the risk of being judged or losing followers, she was not deterred by her decision.
“I knew that whatever happened, this was God’s plan, and who knew who I would’ve been able to impact with my decision of going on a mission?” LeRoy said in a FaceTime interview.
She continued to post mission-related content on her channel before leaving — including videos titled, “Mission Q&A,” “Missionary Haul / What I’m Bringing On My Mission” and “My First Day As A Missionary.” She also appeared as a featured guest on the Good Things Spotlight podcast, where host Christina Lewis Clark asked her what she was going to do on her mission.
“I know I’m going to be, just serving others,” LeRoy said, “I can teach them about the gospel if they’re wanting to hear it.”
The impact of sharing
LeRoy explained that her commitment to sharing her decision was driven by knowing how many people she could reach across the internet. With religion being brought into light on her channel, LeRoy said she didn’t think people would be interested in her mission journey. However, the outcome was something she didn’t expect.
She noted that some viewers found her videos intriguing enough to explore the church further. While in Montana, fellow missionaries and friends informed her that several of those individuals chose to get baptized after learning more about the church.
“It did something. Whether I lost followers or whether people were mean to me, I impacted a lot more than those comments that were mean to me.” LeRoy said.
Bailey Wells, a former mission companion of LeRoy’s, shared that while serving ranching and farming families, they learned to combine branding — the practice of permanently marking livestock — with sharing the gospel.
“People were always shocked when they learned what her job back home was (social media), because they had only known her as the hardworking missionary cowgirl that helped them on their ranch each week,” Wells said in a comment response.
Cory LeRoy, Kesley’s father, said he gets to see the ‘behind-the-scenes’ moments of his daughter’s media presence, including how she engages people of various faiths.
“We get so many people that reach out to us and express how interested they are in Kesley’s story,” Cory LeRoy said.
For as long as he can remember, Cory LeRoy said his daughter’s transparency about her faith has always come naturally.
“She’s just open about it. She loves talking about the gospel,” he said, “I would say she loves being an example but I don’t think she realizes how awesome of an example she is.”
Kesley LeRoy echoed her father’s sentiment, and shared that a key component of engagement on her platform is reflecting the joy she finds in her faith in a genuine way.
“I’m not going to hide the fact that I’m going on a mission because I’m too scared to show that I follow Jesus Christ,” LeRoy said.
How people have responded
Many have flooded LeRoy’s comment sections with encouraging words, and some who are unfamiliar with aspects of a mission have used the space to ask questions — often receiving answers from other users. Instagram user cara8lawson commented, “You’re making me so excited to get there in November!!! I’m serving in the same mission as you.”
However, among the praise, some critical remarks have also surfaced.
Instagram user sadie4me commented, “Do they make you dress like little house on the prairie? Just be you!”
LeRoy responded, “this is me! I even sell this dress in my store at kesleyjade.com.”
Moving forward
LeRoy’s advice for individuals who also want to share their faith on social media is to “go for it”, sharing that despite the judgment that may ensue, the positive outcomes outweigh the negative.
“The more you post about it, the more you’ll feel joy because you’re spreading the gospel,” LeRoy said. “Its so cool to be able to see someone’s life change because you decided to share that scripture one day.”
LeRoy said there are ways to share the gospel through the internet, and she plans to continue being transparent about her religious identity online.
“I’m definitely going to share scriptures and continue to answer people’s questions,” she said.