“That is when my healthy world came crashing down”

By: RandyLynn Barron

All my life I have been the beneficiary of what I thought was good health, which I promptly and consistently took for granted. I was not raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That enormous blessed rescue came to me when I was 37 and in the U.S. Navy. I have always had a “feeling” about what was good for my body to do, eat and drink and what was not good for it. Let’s call it what it is, personal revelation, even for a not yet member! I have experienced these “feelings” even as a little person three years young.

As a young person, I trained for the Olympics as a sprinter (100m, 220m and 440m relay) for about 8 years, played women’s professional football in the 1970s, and generally stayed very athletic all my life. I bore and raised two children and have two grandchildren. Even as I aged, I was not experiencing the same illnesses of my age peers. I entered my 72-year on August 22, 2020.

In my youth, I wanted healthy options at the meal table, but that was very seldom granted, except from my mother who was British. She believed in a little fresh veggies and fruits, and cooked them too. My father, a Cajun, influenced those choices of preparation by cheering Mum when she cooked things like Roast Beef, Pork Roast, Lemon Meringue Pie, and Dirty Rice (a dish with one or more meats—chicken, pork and beef, a few veggies like onion, green pepper and celery, and of course pepper and other Cajun seasonings).

Once I left home at age 19, I started to get that “feeling” to experiment with not eating meat, drinking more water and green drinks, and I felt better. I was still eating overly processed sweets and pastry (gobs of butter, dairy, salt and sugar), and when the fast food market was spreading like wild fire I jumped right into it. Even so, I still enjoyed basically good health. However, I was anxious a lot of the time and had lots of problems focusing my attention for more than a few seconds or minutes.

One day, I injured my back on the track. I lost my timing of 11.0 seconds for the 100m and still kept training. I could not get my time past 11.3, which for a sprinter is like minutes for a long-distance runner. My body forced me to stop training, and my coach agreed. Fortunately, I never took any of the drugs doctors wanted me to take and never accepted the “exploratory surgery” they strongly advised. As the years passed, I still worked out for my health because it just made sense to me, and it made me feel better.

Everything in the area of my health was going peachy, or so I thought, until in the summer of 2015 when I purchased some meat from a local butcher, cooked it and ate it. That is when my healthy world came crashing down. I got a nasty case of pinworms. I mean nasty. I tried some natural type remedies that did not fully kill them, so I took myself to a doctor. He gave me a drug, which I took for two weeks. I was told to come back after that time. I did. He told me, “The worms are no longer a problem for you.” I said, “I think they are.” He said, “Well, you are fine now.” I did not feel fine.

For the next four and half years, I experienced getting weaker and sicker. My intestines and bowels were painful almost all the time. I had an intense itching, which started in my abdomen and eventually included my back, legs, arms, brain, head, neck and the bones in my rib cage. My brain was really foggy. I had almost no energy. My weight climbed to 178 lbs (I am 5’8”).

On October 12, 2019, my massage therapist, Robin Dull, told me about a YouTube video by Barbara O’Neill (an Australian gal) and lovingly recommended I look at it. I did. Robin was truly inspired, and I am so happy she was brave, and loves me enough to share her personal revelation! After watching two of Barb’s presentations, I got a “feeling” and pulled out my scriptures to D&C 89, where the Word of Wisdom lives. The question in my mind was, “How does what Barb is teaching coincide with the Word of Wisdom?” As I read, the words on the pages penetrated very deeply into my being. I told Heavenly Father that so much of my understanding of the W.o.W. (Word of Wisdom, how appropriate an acronym is that?) was expanding while I listened to and watched Barbara. Barbara is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and she talked about how to naturally heal the body. Barb said that Heavenly Father placed a divine plan in our bodies whereby if we create “…the right conditions for it, our bodies will heal themselves over time and even faster than we think.”

I remembered that my Patriarchal Blessing states, “I bless you with continuing good health and strength.” Two things rang pure and true in me. One thing was, I needed to learn how to create the right conditions in my body to assist Heavenly Father to keep His promise to me. And the second thing was that He was preparing me for something, as a matter of fact, several things. In so doing I will be blessed to be one of the tools He will use to assist others who are ready, or almost ready, so we can prolong our service to Him and feel great while doing it, as directed by personal revelation.

That very day, eating of animal-based products stopped cold. Barbara is Bible-based only and believes in added salt, coconut and olive oil, and a little added sugar especially honey, and maple syrup, stevia, coconut and palm sugars. So I stayed with these type of foods for four and a half months. I found out about Living Springs Health Retreat in Alabama from Barbara’s website. She comes to the United States twice a year to visit her children and grandchildren and consult with patients. I filled out their detailed application and went to the retreat on February 23-March 1, 2020. While there, Barb told us about COVID-19. She explained that because we were building up our immune systems, and plan to stick with it, we need not worry about dying from this virus. She always says, “We never make decisions based on fear, do we?”

Once home I received personal revelation again that He had more for me to do. First, I had to read again The China Study by Drs. T. Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell. I was directed to learn more about Dr. Colin Campbell’s work and found the eCornell’s Plant Based Nutrition Certificate Program, so I enrolled and completed this program on June 12, 2020. Next, I enrolled in Rouxbe’s Forks Over Knives Professional Cooking School (I have half way completed that six-month program). Next, I looked for a POD (Nelson and Kim Campbell’s PlantPure Communities) to join. The ones nearest me are about 85 miles away in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and one in Spokane, Washington. There was an option to apply to start a POD in my area. I applied and was accepted as a group leader to start a POD. We call ourselves “POD on the Palouse” on Facebook and are just getting started.

I dropped to 118 lbs. within four weeks, and my energy was soaring. My skin was sagging, which gave me a bit of a concern for a while. Yet, I innately knew that over time it would repair. About 75% of my body’s skin area is tighter. The itching stopped when we did two days of fasting at Living Springs, but it comes and goes now.

My health is not perfect yet, but I am amazed and grateful for the natural repair work Heavenly Father is doing inside of me. I continue to heal from the worm infestation and injury they caused, enjoy the energy of a 20-year-old, and feel fantastic. People think I am about 50-55 years young when we first meet. Those who have known me for 20 years are astounded at what they currently see, and all of this in just 11 months!

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I hope to inspire them to look more deeply into the W.o.W. and have a conversation with Heavenly Father about their own health.

Now, something I waited until now to tell you is that I am blessed to live with an angel. His name is Vincent and he is 32. He is my precious son. It is a long story and if you want to know more just contact me, but he came into this world dead. What I want you to know in this article is that he and I have shared an amazing journey of spirits and bodies. Yep, he got the worms too and believe me they almost killed us both. Yet, since we started following the W.o.W. by eating a whole food, plant-based diet and continuing the other recommendations in the W.o.W., not only is he showing numerous physical signs of healing, Vincent is exhibiting positive cognitive changes that I never expected to witness in this lifetime.

RandyLynn A. Barron (72) lives in Pullman, Washington with her son Vince. She also has one daughter and two grandchildren. RandyLynn has several business administration college degrees and has served in the US Navy for 8.5 years as a cook for two Captains (on a Destroyer Tender) and four Admirals (land-based assignments). She and is now a personal whole food, plant-based cook. RandyLynn and Vince are dedicated to sharing Heavenly Father and Jesus’ recommendations in the W.o.W. They love water, dolphins, boating, cooking, and sharing Their Gospel.