82. From Pastor’s Wife To Catholic Convert With Real Marriage Lessons about taking risks and a giant leap of faith to follow God's plan with Estelle Nester

This week, we are humbled and honoured to have Estelle Nester as our guest. She is a Catholic revert, a children's book author, and wife of digital disciple Keith Nester who has 100,000+ subscribers on YouTube and whose story of conversion exploded on the internet, especially during the uncertain times of the global pandemic.

A pastor’s wife turned Catholic convert shares what it costs to follow God when your family identity, finances, and friendships are on the line. We talk through conversion, marriage unity, raising kids through religious change, and building joyful Catholic community through the Rosary and practical teaching. 
• Growing up “Catholic by name” and why it felt hollow 
• Discovering Bible teaching in a non-denominational church, and the pull of community 
• Moving to Iowa, building a family, and living as a pastor’s wife in ministry leadership 
• Keith’s long journey toward Catholicism and the moment the call became unavoidable 
• The hardest fallout: confusion, lost friendships, and career uncertainty 
• Downsizing, mission trips to Haiti, and learning detachment from comfort 
• Returning to Holy Mass and wrestling honestly toward personal conviction 
• Why the Eucharist became clear through Scripture 
• Finding the Latin Mass and the gift of a unified parish community 
• Building Down to Earth Ministry, responding to conversion questions, and teaching the faith practically 
• Clearing up misunderstandings about Mother Mary, and helping Protestants see Catholic distinctions 
• Writing Catholic children’s books to explain the Holy Mass and the Holy Rosary with simple depth 
• How the daily Rosary Crew started in 2020 and became a lasting prayer family 

Keith and Estelle Nester: Down to Earth Ministry

https://www.down2earthministry.org

https://www.youtube.com/@keithnester

https://www.youtube.com/@RosaryCrewWithKeithNester

I invite you to pray for Estelle for her full and complete recovery from cancer.

A fundraiser has been generously started by Kyle Whittington, founder of the Catholic Creator Conference. Please consider helping if you can.

https://api.givesendgo.com/helping-hand-for-the-nesters

I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel, and please spread the word. Let’s Be Brave. Let’s Be Bold and Be Blessed together. 

Transcript

Leap Of Faith And Hard Choices

Estelle Nester 0:00

And he felt like: "These people were losing their lives and I don't want to lose a job. And I feel like God's calling me to do this. I need to do it." So when he did come home and and he told me I was very proud of him. I had seen him wrestle with this for uh maybe a year or so. And I I was just so proud that he was willing to take this leap of faith and leave his career. Because as much as it was my identity, it was way more keeping that. You know, he was the pastor, he's the provider of the family. So what's he gonna do? But here he is just 100% trusting God. And that was so inspirational to me.

Sheila Nonato 0:46

And I I was just reading your husband's book, "Unpacking the Mysteries of the Rosary." Yeah, and on page 100, he was just writing about how following Jesus does not mean life will be easy, but it it will be meaningful. So can you tell us about sort of the hardships and that sort of given that transition, it's such a radical transition in your life, impacting your family. Can you give us a glimpse of what was going on?

Estelle Nester 1:12

What was happening there? Man, well, there's a lot.

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Sheila Nonato 1:16

Hello and Welcome to the Veil + Armour Podcast, Sisters in Christ. This week we will switch things up a little bit because my husband is at the "Defending the Faith Conference" featuring Dr. Scott Hahn and Keith Nester, among many other wonderful speakers. And I actually today it just concluded on the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula. I'm sorry if I mispronounced that. Um, but it's related to uh St. Francis of Assisi, and there is a replica of that chapel uh at Steubenville University, a very beautiful chapel, very humble, simple, but beautiful chapel. And the episode with Peter Cooney and Acutis AI will be next after this episode. But for now, I'm excited to bring you this awesome conversation with Estelle Nester, a story of faith, reversion, and the secrets to their 30-year marriage. And here is a photo, if you're on YouTube watching this, a photo of the Eucharistic adoration at the Franciscan University of Steubenville during the conference, the "Defending the Faith" Conference. And it looks like an awesome, awesome experience. I hope you will be blessed and that you will be energized and inspired with this conversation with Estelle Nester. Thank you and God bless.

Co-Host 2:30

Hello and welcome to the Veil in Armour Podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist. Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady, I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate, and enrich the lives of Catholic women to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints. Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour Podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato 3:03

Welcome to the Veil and Armour Podcast, and I have a very special guest today, Estelle Nester. And she is such, her story is such an inspirational witness to the love of Christ and love for your family, love for your husband. And uh, why don't we start off with a prayer, Estelle? That sounds wonderful. Let's pray.

Estelle Nester 3:24

In the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us together. Please guide and bless this conversation. Let's say the Hail Mary, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Sheila Nonato 3:48

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And I just wanted to introduce our viewers and subscribers to Estelle Nester. I'm sure you know her already, but I'm just gonna sort of give you the background. Estelle Nester is a Catholic wife, mother, and if you can believe it, a grandmother. She and her husband, she and her husband Keith, have been married for nearly 30 years and have three adult children, two of whom are married, along with a grandchild. She adores her growing family, and Estelle enjoys going to the beach, carpentry projects, and home renovation. For 22 years, Keith served as a Protestant pastor, and Estelle loved raising their family and ministry life as a pastor's wife. In 2017, Keith became Catholic, leaving behind his longtime pastoral career and stepping into the unknown about how their family would move forward. While Keith embraced the Catholic faith quickly, Estelle followed more reluctantly, taking time to wrestle with a change and learn the faith for herself. Today, Estelle and Keith live in Iowa and lead down-to-earth ministry where they encourage and equip people who are considering, converting to, or growing in the Catholic faith. Wow, that is quite the story. So tell us do you want to start from the beginning? You grew up Catholic, but you went to Catholic chur uh school, but it was not that important in your

Growing Up Catholic Without Roots

Sheila Nonato 5:16

life at that point. Can you tell us sort of that story? Absolutely.

Estelle Nester 5:20

Um, yes, I grew up going to Catholic school. I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I went to Catholic school for 12 years, and I really enjoyed it for the most part. Um, basically, I feel like you went to Catholic school because that was the safer option. The other option was public school, and that was could be in Philadelphia at the time like a little dangerous in certain areas. So I didn't ever really feel like we went to Catholic school because it was important to the faith necessarily. I just feel like it was safer. Now, that being said, of course, uh my parents were Catholic. Uh we did my uh brother and I, we did all of the sacraments and all of that. We went through school, but we didn't really embrace it. We, you know, we memorized the correct answers for our religion tests, but we didn't really let the faith into our hearts. Um, we didn't really practice the faith at home. We didn't go to church every Sunday. We just went on Christmas and Easter. It was very important. Um so I feel like, yes, we were raised Catholic, but when I think about being Catholic now, I feel like I wasn't really raised Catholic. I just kind of knew of Catholic teaching. I don't know. So um that's kind of a weird answer, but that's pretty much how it was. And even up until after high school, I believed in God. I thought I was a good Catholic because I was moral. I kept the rules, I didn't struggle with any major sins or anything like that. And then I met this guy at work, and he was the nicest guy I've I've ever met in

A Church Visit That Changed Everything

Estelle Nester 7:28

my entire life. And I got to know him, and his name was Keith, and he told me he was from Iowa and that he was a Christian and asked if I was a Christian. And I said, "Yes, I'm a Christian. I I was raised Catholic. I'm a Catholic." And he said, "Oh, okay." He's he's like, that doesn't really count. And especially given the fact that I didn't even really go to church, I just was Catholic by name. So he asked if I wanted to go to his non-denominational church. And I was very excited to go. And I loved it. As soon as I walked in, people were happy to be there. They were holding Bibles. We did music and basically a big Bible study. The pastor got out and he spoke for about 45 minutes on the Bible teaching, and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was the coolest thing that he was like talking about it in a practical way that we could understand. And I thought instantly, this is what I've been missing my whole entire life. I want to come here every single day. And I loved it. Uh, Keith and I became uh excited to become a couple. However, quickly after we started, I don't know, falling in love or falling for each other, he got a job offer to move to Iowa to be a youth pastor at a church. And he moved. And this was before Facebook, this was before cell phones even. So I didn't really ever think I was gonna see him again. We exchanged numbers. What, you know, he had my landline. And when he got to work, he called my landline, he gave me his work phone number, and we kept in touch that way. Um, but I didn't know if it was gonna go anywhere. And what I should mention is when I was going to the non-denominational church, my parents were very, very skeptical of this. And I was so excited to learn the faith and read the Bible. And it was really freaking my parents out. Like I said, I mean, I was always a good kid, following the rules and all of that. But this was a different level. And I can understand that it was very different from what we were used to. Nobody that I was friends with or that we grew up with really read the Bible every day and was boldly speaking out about Jesus and his teachings. So it made my parents think that Keith was involved in a cult and that he was brainwashing me. So I think, you know, there was that little dynamic too. Well, after Keith moved to Iowa, I wanted to continue to go to this non-denominational church. And I tried, but my parents made it very difficult on me. And long story short, I decided that I was just going to move to Iowa too, to be with Keith. And he asked his senior pastor if I could move in with his family, the senior pastor and his family, and until I found a place and he was happy to accommodate that. So about a month after Keith moved to Iowa, I followed and I moved. And I mean, I hate this part of my story, but I ran away from home while my parents were on vacation. So they come home from vacation to a cleaned-out bedroom. And again, there's no cell phones, there's no nothing. They they have no idea where I'm at. So now as a mother and a grandmother, I realize just how horrible that part is. So I don't like saying it. But I also feel like it's important to say, like, yeah, I always followed the rules, but yeah, not perfectly because I did run away and I did, you know, I was a little strong-willed, you know, to um. So anyway, we I moved to the uh and I moved to Iowa and then attended the church that Keith was working at, and I helped him with the youth group, and we just kind of went from there. We got married, we had three kids quickly, and we were loving life. Things got better with my parents. When they got to know Keith, they realized that Keith was pretty amazing. And I think that they they understood that they were just freaked out by everything and the big change in my life. But when they got to know him, they instantly felt okay about him. And that part was fine. Um, so we have the kids, everything is awesome, the church is exploding, the kids are loving everything, I am loving everything, I'm learning so much. And that's how we lived for a long time.

Sheila Nonato 13:09

Wow, that's that's quite the story. Um so when you when you were living your new life now in Iowa, you were a pastor's wife. Yes. Can you tell us, um, you know, for I guess the Catholic sisters out there who, you know, what what does that look like?

Estelle Nester 13:27

Wow. I guess I've never really been asked that question. That's a great question. And basically, we were uh the second pastors down. So we were looked at as leaders of the church. I was leading women's ministries and mothers' groups and teaching Sunday school and all of that. So basically, we were trying to model the faith for our congregation and teach children, teach mothers, teach wives. We were trying to do all of that. And we were very, very excited about the church. And we absolutely loved doing what we were doing. We are my husband is a very gifted leader. I would say that I have some leadership skills. I don't know if I consider myself gifted

Running Away To Start A New Life

Estelle Nester 14:24

leadership, but I have some leadership skills too. So we led groups and just tried to lead people in the faith.

Sheila Nonato 14:36

And so you had this active ministry. Um, you were leading groups, you were leading people in their journey with Christ. And then can you tell us? So what that day your husband was he dropping hints about, you know, thinking about the Catholic Church? Like, how did you find out?

Estelle Nester 14:57

Yes. So what um was happening behind the scenes with Keith, and I will just give you the very short version. Um, he met a Catholic uh in about, I would say, the year 2000. So he met a Catholic who knew his faith inside and out. He knew why he believed what he believed and all of that. And Keith had never met a Catholic like that before. All of the Catholics that he had ever met were Catholics like me, who were like, well, yeah, I was raised in the faith, and you know, we didn't really know though. We didn't have the faith in our heart. We knew the correct answers, like I said. So our church, our Protestant church, was filled with ex-Catholics like myself. In fact, at all of our meetings, if we ever had coffee meetings, it's hey, where did you come from? Well, I was raised Catholic and I love this church, so I'm switching, you know. Um, so he meets this Catholic who knows his faith and is challenging him on the faith.

Estelle Nester 16:15

So Keith, in the year 2000, I think, he starts behind the scenes looking into all this Catholic stuff. You know, they have answers for everything, and everything has meaning, and everything is deep, and everything is scriptural. And he was trying to look into it to kind of fight the Catholic to try to defend Protestantism, but it wasn't working out so well. So this is all happening behind the scenes, and I and he doesn't tell me about this. When he finally tells me, I believe it was close to the year 2016 or so, where other things start to happen in churches and the faith and stuff like that, which is leading Keith to really look into this Catholic stuff again. And at that time, that's when he starts talking to me. And he's saying, "Okay, there's something to this. I'm really feeling drawn to learn about the Catholic faith."

Estelle Nester 17:27

And I freaked out a little bit. And I'm thinking, look, I went through a very difficult time with my family to become Protestant. Being a pastor's family right now, that's our identity. That's been my whole entire life. You know, when we moved to Iowa, um, that was the year 2000 or 1995. So since 1995 to like 2016, this is my life. And I feel like, whoa, hold on. I'm not feeling called to the Catholic Church. What is going on? So I did have hints. I did know that he was looking into this. When he finally came home and told me he had gone to a Steve Ray talk. Steve Ray is another Catholic convert and he's very bold. And he went to a talk. And in Steve's talk, Steve talks about people who were willing to die for their faith.

Estelle Nester 18:31

And Keith was scared to become Catholic because he didn't want to lose his job or his identity or his career. And he felt like these people were losing their lives. And I don't want to lose a job. And I feel like God's calling me to do this. I need to do it. So when he did come home and he told me, I was very proud of him. I had seen him wrestle with this for maybe a year or so. And I was just so proud that he was willing to take this leap of faith and leave his career. Because as much as it was my identity, it was way more Keith's thing. You know, he was the pastor. I was just the pastor's wife, you know. So I feel like this was his thing. And what was he going to do for money? He's the provider of the family. So what's he gonna do? But here he is just 100% trusting God. And that was so inspirational to me. So while I was a little freaked

Life As A Protestant Pastor’s Wife

Estelle Nester 19:44

out and nervous as to what we were going to do, I was just so inspired by his leadership and his faith. And I was so proud of him. So I was kind of excited.

Sheila Nonato 19:58

Wow, that's an incredible story. And I was just reading your husband's book, "Unpacking the Mysteries of the Rosary."

Estelle Nester 20:03

Oh, yeah.

Sheila Nonato 20:04 Sheila Nonato 20:04

And on page 100, he was writing about how following Jesus does not mean life will be easy, but it will be meaningful. So can you tell us about sort of the hardships in that sort of given that transition? It's such a radical transition in your life, impacting your family. Can you give us a glimpse? What was going on? What was happening there?

Estelle Nester 20:27

Oh man, well, there's a lot because you know, our kids are older now. They had been raised in our church in the in the Protestant faith. And we never spoke badly about Catholicism. We weren't one of those churches that, you know, spoke out against it, but they knew that, you know, we were Protestants and we didn't agree with everything in the Catholic Church. Well, now when dad wants to become Catholic, they're like, what is going on? We were taught this way. And now dad's doing this. So what are we supposed to do? I think the kids were maybe like 18, 16, and 14 or something at this point. I could be messing that up.

Estelle Nester 21:22

But they were old enough to understand their faith. So we had that dynamic. And that one was the one that was hardest for me. We also had the money dynamic. What is Keith going to do for a job? He had, you know, gone to college and it was, you know, religious studies and all of that. How is he gonna get a job? It's not like that in the Catholic Church because he can't become a priest. So what's he gonna do? So there was that dynamic. There was the dynamic of my family. Family being confused. There was a dynamics of our congregation and all of the other congregations because when you're a pastor, you kind of move around a little bit. So we moved to a couple different churches, but we stayed friends with all of our friends. Well, now they're confused. So we have challenges with them. We have some friends who were very angry at us and cut us off completely, and still to this day want nothing to do with us. And that was surprising for me. I didn't expect that to happen, but we lost a lot of friends. Um so there was, there was a lot going on that we were trying to sort through. And while all that was happening, there was still this excitement that we were both feeling about really believing that God was calling us to this. So we we did have that trust that everything was going to be okay. We just had to work through these hard times, money, and relationships.

Sheila Nonato 23:14

And so, materially speaking, you um, if I remember correctly, from it's either your talk or his talk on on YouTube that you had to downsize, you had to move to a smaller house. Is this correct?

Estelle Nester 23:27

Yes. But actually, we downsized before he made the actual jump to Catholicism. And this was in preparation. There were a couple other reasons why we were downsizing as well. And I'll just kind of give you like a tiny other part of it. One of the things we were doing in our church is we were leading mission groups to Haiti, where we would take groups of people to Haiti and we would build churches and we would build schools and we would provide meals for the kids and teach them Bible lessons and all of that. Well, we had gone, I believe, a total of seven times. And going back and forth and coming home to this huge house was kind of eye-opening for us. So we started to feel like we don't, we don't need this house. Like this is this is too much. So there was that as well. In addition to that, Keith said, yeah, and if I become Catholic, we need to lower a monthly payments. We need to get into a smaller house. So for those two reasons, and I would say it was probably more of the financial preparation of, you know, if he was going to convert. It was more

Keith’s Quiet Pull Toward Catholicism

Estelle Nester 24:56

us trying to be very responsible just in case. And we did, we downsized into a small house. Um, our daughter didn't even have a bedroom. So we set her up in like a storage room in the basement. We put a mattress on the floor, and that was her bedroom. And the cool thing that I do want to say about that is because we had taken our kids to Haiti with us a couple of times, our daughter had also seen what was going on in Haiti, where the kids don't have bedrooms. They, they, they're lucky to have a roof over their head with their whole entire family, and they sleep on a dirt floor, maybe with a blanket. So when we said to our daughter, you're not gonna have a bedroom in this house, she was fine, which was incredible to us. And that, like it just showed her heart and it was so sweet. And I'm so proud of her for that. But that is to to kind of talk about the size of the house. Like she didn't even have a bedroom. Eventually, we turned the storage room into a bedroom for her, and it looked really nice, but it took about six months.

Sheila Nonato 26:16

Wow. So it was it was a complete really transformation, conversion that you were you were almost, yeah, you were you're embracing really the spirit of the poverty of Christ. Yeah. That you you were going back to the basics that what is the most important is your faith. And to take that leap of faith, uh, it must have taken tremendous courage, tremendous love for God, love for your husband, love for your family. Um, and trust, again, going back to that trust. What convinced you to go back to the Catholic Church?

Estelle Nester 26:51

So really, when I left the church, it wasn't because I hated the church. It was because I didn't understand the church. So while Keith was wrestling with what to do, he was teaching me the faith. And when he decided to convert, he told me I am not telling you what you have to do, this needs to be your own decision. And to be honest, it was an easy decision for me. I okay, it was easy on one hand. Um I started to learn the faith through Keith. So there was that, but I also wanted to show the kids that when when the the husband or the dad is doing his best to follow God, our role is to follow his lead. So I didn't do a great job explaining it to the kids, but this I was trying to lead by example and just follow my husband. I did, I trusted that Keith had prayed about this and I watched him wrestle. I so I I absolutely trusted Keith and I was learning about the faith myself. It was a little more of a struggle than I thought it was going to be for me. Once we started going to mass regularly, I really started feeling like, ooh, okay, I need to wrestle through this and I need to work through this. There were a lot of things that I was uncertain about, but I wanted to follow my husband mostly as an example for the kids.

Sheila Nonato 28:45

And um, wow, and in terms of, I guess, so the Catholic doctrine of Jesus and the Eucharist, was that hard for you to accept, to sort of understand? Did you have any? I know some people, some Protestants have, I mean, have a problem with that. So how did you sort of come around to embracing that?

Estelle Nester 29:07

You know, I didn't really struggle with that. And that is one of the things that Keith and I talked about a lot before he made the decision. Um, and really, when you read the Bible and you read what it says, I mean that that's all we really needed. So I saw it with with the new eyes, with really trying to learn what the Bible was teaching in that. And when you hear how Jesus, like, because the disciples are a little freaked out when he starts talking about that. And when he like doubles down and he's like, Yep, this is

The Cost Of Radical Conversion

Estelle Nester 29:54

what it is. And he wasn't like, no, no, no, no, wait, hold on. That was symbolism. He didn't do that. He said, Yeah, this is a hard teaching. Are you gonna leave? And I I don't know. I feel like when we really looked at it that way, we looked at the scriptures and it was just easy to understand. Okay.

Sheila Nonato 30:17

Well, yeah, it's um beautiful. That's just beautiful. Just the first time I realized Jesus is in the Eucharist, I think when I was reading your husband's book, like there were certain certain moments he was saying that he got emotional, he he got teary-eyed, thinking about just the beauty of of um tradition of of the truth of the Bible and Jesus. And um, and yeah, so how how is it going in terms of um, I think the last time I spoke with you at the Catholic Creator conference? Uh you had mentioned you were going to Latin Mass. Are you still doing that? Oh, yes.

Estelle Nester 30:53

So we've been going to Latin Mass for a little while. And it was really cool because Keith was actually out of town. He speaks all over the place. So he's gone a lot, and he was gone this particular weekend, and I had to go to Mass by myself that week without Keith. And it was really, really awesome because I also had a busy schedule. I looked at the the Mass times and I thought, oh, okay, you know, this seven o'clock mass fits with my schedule the best. It's a Latin Mass. I don't know what that means, but I'm gonna try that one. And it was awesome because my kids said that they would go with me, which was completely crazy because they were not excited about the Catholic Church.

Estelle Nester 31:46

But they said they would go because Keith wasn't there, which was so nice. So we all go into Latin mass. I thought it was gonna follow everything in the English math. I just thought it was gonna be in Latin, but I would be able to follow along easily. And I was wrong about that. It was completely different, and it was it was very interesting. I went home from that and I thought, well, that was different. But in my heart, there was something that was making me want to go back. So when Keith got back into town, I said, Hey, um, one Sunday, I want you to go to this Latin mass with me. I said, I didn't understand it, but I'm really feeling like I want to try it again. And he went and he loved it. And then we started learning about the Mass.

Estelle Nester 32:46

And we absolutely love the Latin Mass. So that's our regular mass that we attend. Um, sometimes we'll go to the later English Mass, but um most of the time, I would say 90% of the time, we're in the Latin Mass and we just love it. Our congregation, our parish, they are amazing people. We don't have the, because I think sometimes there can be a little bit of separation or division between the masses, and our parish is not like that at all, which I am so thankful for. And everybody is amazing. So the community there is wonderful, the mass is wonderful, and and we just love it.

Sheila Nonato 33:38

That's awesome. Yeah, our parish too has the two masses, masses, and we do come together for socials. And yeah, there is no there's not this divide, it's kind of like a harmony, really. I love that. It's so much better. Yeah, we are all united in Jesus. So you're we're there to worship, and then afterwards we um we have community and um we get to know each other. So yeah, so that's awesome. That so is there like a vibrant uh Latin Mass community where you are? Oh, yeah.

Estelle Nester 34:08

At our parish, yes. I don't know where the next closest one is, but I think it's hours away from us. So there are some people who drive hours to come. Wow. And our community is amazing. Yeah.

Sheila Nonato 34:24

That's that's uh like just yeah. I just I'm thinking about your story and I'm like getting really emotional because I I also I also left. I almost left actually the church. I didn't, I didn't leave, but I loved the Protestant spirit. I love their um their love for the Bible and wanting to, you know, crack it open and delve into the scripture. How does that apply? What does that mean? Um and just their uh their heart to share what they have received from Christ. Um, that's that's just what sort of drew me to Protestantism. But what brought me back was yeah, the Eucharist as well. Um yeah. So I'm curious also about your ministry, down to earth ministry. Yes. Helping Catholics, new Catholics or Catholics or people who are thinking about becoming Catholic. How do you help them in this journey?

Estelle Nester 35:18

Well, I should say that my husband is the one who, you know, started this. And recently I've come on to help him. I've always helped him a little bit behind the scenes, but it's kind of official now that I'm like, you know, also a part of it. But what he does is really, he gave a talk at our church and or at our parish. And I feel like I can't remember what year it was. It was many years ago, maybe six years ago, and maybe even more. He posted it on YouTube. He didn't have a YouTube channel. He just put the talk on YouTube so he could keep it. And he didn't make a thumbnail, he didn't make a description, he didn't do anything.

Downsizing And Learning Detachment

Estelle Nester 36:08

He just put it on YouTube. And what started happening was in the middle of the night, we we would hear his phone start going off, and he was getting all these notifications that people were watching this video where he was talking about his conversion story. So they're watching this video, we're watching the video. Oh my gosh, a thousand people watched this, 7,000 people watched this, 10,000 people watch this. And it instantly made, or not instantly, over time, it started to make us think maybe maybe Keith's story can help some people. Maybe there are other pastors out there that are struggling with can they leave their career? Maybe there are other, you know, families out there that need this help. So he started making a couple other videos, and we would make a video a week, and we would start posting it on YouTube. We didn't know what we were doing, but we were just trying to help people and trying to respond to the comments where people were asking questions. Well, what were your thoughts on this? How did you get past the Mary stuff? All of that. So he would make videos on that to try to help people. And that's how the ministry started to grow. So since then, he's he's uh written the rosary book. We started a rosary crew where we do a live prayer, a live rosary every single day. And we've been doing that for six years, uh, just a couple days over six years so far. Every single day, Keith prays the rosary on YouTube, and it's amazing. And that's its own little community. He responds to messages all the time. He'll get messages from pastors or people who are feeling called to the faith or drawn to learn about the faith, maybe. And they ask him questions and he does his best to help them. I try to help some of the ladies. I try to help people ask about like marriage stuff. How did you work through, you know, any marriage issues that could have come up with the differences and the change in the life and the stress of the change? You know, how did you work through that? What about kids? How did you help your kids through the process and stuff? So I kind of help with that. I do a little bit of the behind the scenes stuff with posting on social media and helping people behind the scenes as well. But really, our hearts are just to help people. It's people who were race in the faith who have questions, people who are drawn to the faith, who aren't currently Catholic, people who are new Catholics. We're we're called and we want to help everybody, really. We want to teach the faith in a practical way. Because, like you were saying, I feel like sometimes it seems like Protestants, like they have that down, like in practical terms. Like, hey, here's what, here's what the Bible says, and here's how you can practically apply it to your life. And I feel like they talk about that during their services. And the Mass is different. The point of the Mass is not teaching time for your everyday life. I mean, there is that in the homily. Sometimes the priest will talk about practical things or teach you the scriptures, of course, that little time. But in our Protestant uh life, it felt like that was majority of the service where we were really trying to teach the people. And so I feel like there's still that in Keith. He's still a teacher and he's still a great leader. Now he's trying to teach Catholics the Catholic faith, and the depth of the Catholic faith is so amazing that the way he's able to bring the depth of it into a practical teaching is amazing to me. And he's so good at it, and I think he helps so many people, and and that's where his heart's at.

Sheila Nonato 40:36

Yes. And um, and his style is very relatable. Yes. Uh, not casual, but practical, I would say. But yeah, like you were saying, there's a depth to it, depth of the knowledge of the Bible. Um, yeah, I just love learning new things when I'm reading his book and listening to uh when he's unpacking the mass. Um it's yeah, there's depth there. It's really refreshing. Um, no shade to anyone. Just saying that, you know, if you want depth and um practicality, Keith Nestor, um, yeah, he delivers on that. So, and of course, his wife will uh will be part of that as well. And I just wanted to get to your book, actually, Little Lucy and you have other books, but Little Lucy Phrase the Rosary. And, you know, the I guess you were talking about how you you did. Did you have sort of any qualms about Mary that some Protestants do? Or was it just, you know, no?

Estelle Nester 41:38

Here's a qualm. I think that I understand why Protestants think that Catholics

Returning To the Catholic Church And Following His Lead

Estelle Nester 41:52

worship Mary because sometimes it seems like they do focus more on Mary than they do on Jesus. And I feel like the the the rub is you know, the Catholic Church teaches of course you worship God. You don't you don't worship Mary. Of course, that's the teaching, but it appears sometimes to people, if they're just watching you, it appears sometimes that there is that worship. So I wish that Catholics who love Mary, which is great and amazing, but I wish that they were able to explain it in a different way or show it in a different way where it wouldn't be confusing to Protestants. Um, but that's kind of like a side issue because in and of itself, I I love everything about Mary and I understand the Catholic view on her and that we're not to worship her, but we do, you know, uh adore her and and look at her and we're inspired by her. Like, so I have three books. And in one, the first one I wrote, uh, Faith Like a Child, this is like little devotionals. I don't know if it's clear, but little devotionals. And one, it talks about Mary. And the kids in the story, they're asking their parents questions about Mary, and they say, "Wow, out of all the humans in the world, she was picked to be Jesus' mommy. That's so cool. "Like, so just when you think of little things like that from a child's perspective, like with a childlike heart and a childlike faith, like, I don't know. It's all the stuff about Mary. Is I don't know. It's it's amazing. So I didn't have an issue with it because I knew we weren't to worship her. I knew the teaching was we we don't worship her. So I did not have a problem with it.

Sheila Nonato 44:16

Yes, and yeah, we she brings us to Jesus. To Jesus through Mary. Yeah.

Estelle Nester 44:22

Exactly. Like that's her role. And she did that physically. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. She brought us Jesus.

Sheila Nonato 44:31

And tell me more about these books. Um, I have another one. My son has it, I think, in his bag. But um, yeah, like these, these are just delightful. Like, I I my son actually likes to likes me to do to read to him and he's learning to read. So um yeah, how did this come about? Perfect. Yeah.

Estelle Nester 44:50

So really, my heart is uh for children. I feel like if we teach the kids early the faith, they would have a harder time walking into another church or another faith and walking away if they understood their faith and why we do what we do. So I wrote a little book called Little Joey Goes to Mass, where basically what he does, and I just want to say it's also I also did this one in Spanish. He goes to Mass, but he asks his parents, why do we dip our hand in the water? Why do we genuflect? Why do we do this? Why do we say that? And they give answers because I feel like sometimes when we're raised in the faith, like I was, and you just go through the motions and you kneel down if you feel like it, or you kind of do this real quick, you don't know what you're doing, but you're just following, you're you're just doing what you're supposed to do, or at least that's what you feel like you're supposed to do, but you don't know why. I feel like, well, then it's going to be easy for you to kind of fall away. But if you understand again, like the depth and the reason why we do the things in the Mass and what's happening at the Mass with the Eucharist, and it's taught in a very simple childlike way that a little child would understand. And then, of course, as they get older, they would ask more in-depth questions, hopefully, and and learn even more in-depth answers to some of the stuff in here too, but like incense and and all of that. So I wrote this because I feel like if the children learned this, and if I had learned this, maybe I wouldn't have walked away so easily when, you know, the cute

Scripture And The Eucharist Made Clear

Estelle Nester 47:02

guy that I met asked me to go to his church. And I was like, wow, this is amazing. I feel like, ah, I wish I could have been like, this was awesome. But let me take you to my church and let me show you over here what's happening and let me tell you why. Like, oh gosh, I wish that could have been the thing. But so that's why I wrote this one. And then Little Lucy, I wrote mostly because we we are very committed to the rosary. We've been praying the rosary online, like I said, every day for the past six years. It's been a life-changing experience. Uh it's it's been, you know, it's just part of our daily routine now, and it's and it's awesome. And again, I wanted to do the same exact thing, teach a child why, because I also feel like sometimes the children can have their little rosary beads and they'll do the stuff, but they don't understand maybe the meditations or the reason behind certain things. So I wrote Little Lucy as a kind of like a part two to this. And then the other book that I already mentioned, Faith Like a Child, this one is more like uh bedtime stories. And this one has the little story, and then it has uh a prayer, questions about the story, and then like a little reflection on like a little Bible lesson about the story. And it's really cute. This was written based on real events in our kids' lives. So this was our daughter and our two sons, and I used real examples. I just brainstormed all the little questions they ever asked me and all the little fun memories. And what I did was I took those experiences and then tied them into a Bible lesson. Some of the stories are a Bible lesson in and of themselves because they were asking questions about Jesus or the Bible. But there were some, some of the stories are just real life events. Like the first one is we're like at a little carnival and one of our kids wanders off and we can't find him. So we're running around looking for him, looking for him, and we can't find him. Well, you know, we found him, which was wonderful. But I then in the Bible study part of the time talk about when Jesus was missing and Joseph and Mary had to look for Jesus and they found them in the temple. But I kind of relate that. How were they feeling? What, you know, what were they going through? And I kind of tie in the Bible lesson that way. And they're really cute. The whole thing takes about five to seven minutes each night, and people really seem to like those too.

Sheila Nonato 50:09

Wow, that's yeah, that's beautiful. Um, I I love that you can maybe you can take these books for parents who want to take their kids to mass, you know, maybe the kids might need to do something. So maybe have these books um around to, you know, they can look at the pictures. Um and, you know, and yeah, just uh while everyone else, you know, there's there's a lot of sometimes a lot of chaos in the back of the church, you know, where all the kids are. So, but if you have something to do, you know, if the kids have something to do, maybe they they'll be a little more calm and yeah.

Estelle Nester 50:42

Yeah, and that's actually one of the reasons with the little Joey Goes to Mass. Yeah, I left the pictures uh black and white because I thought maybe

Discovering The Latin Mass Community

Estelle Nester 50:52

they would colour in the pictures if they wanted. And then also I thought it would be cute, like if they wanted to like follow along where they're looking at, you know, they're crossing their head and and stuff, so then they could see the pictures and then go, oh, okay. Oh, yeah, they just did it here, you know, and then kind of read, you know, what's going on. So beautiful. Um, are you working on a new book? Not yet. I am going to take a little tiny break, but I do have an idea for a third um sear of the little little Joey, little Lucy. And this one's gonna be little Agnes. And um I'm gonna keep it a little quiet right now because it's not a hundred percent, but that's um the the next idea. But I'm gonna take a little bit of a break before I actually start doing it. I just have some things jotted down so far. That's it.

Sheila Nonato 51:51

Okay.

Estelle Nester 51:52

And where can we find when where can the listeners and subscribers find these books? Yeah, you can find them on Amazon. If you just type in the name of the book and then my name, Estelle Nestor. Or I think even if you just type in Estelle Nestor, all three books should pop up.

Sheila Nonato 52:11

And the website for Down to Earth Ministry and the how do people get in touch with the Rosary Crew?

Estelle Nester 52:16

Yeah, that's great. So the Rosary Crew has its own site. They do kind of connect, but www.RosaryCrew.com Super easy. You can also find that on YouTube. That's where I would say most people pray along with us. We do have it on uh Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. But if you go to YouTube and type in Rosary Crew with Keith Nester, you'll find it there as well. You'll find his regular YouTube channel, Keith. It's just called "Keith Nester" on YouTube. And that's where he'll put like those teachings that I was telling you about, where he answers questions about the Catholic faith. He does "Unpacking the Mass," which is a weekly Bible study where he goes through the masses readings and he teaches them in a practical, you know, down-to-earth way, which is really awesome. So that one is on the regular YouTube channel, Keith Nester. And then our website is down 2 earth ministry.org. And the two is a number two. So it's down the number two earthministry.org. And you'll find the information for everything there: the rosary crew, unpacking the mass, all the YouTubes, how to get Keith or I to come and speak at the at a parish mission. There's information about the books. There's there's information about everything on the website.

Sheila Nonato 53:49

And did you say the sixth anniversary is coming up of the Rosary Crew, or has it already happened? It just happened two days ago. Oh my goodness. Wow.

Estelle Nester 53:59

So we started the Rosary Crew on March 18th, 2020, because the whole world was shut down. And he had this very small YouTube channel, and he was on there one day doing a live stream, basically just saying, How's everybody doing? What's going on? Where you're from? What are what's happening? What shut down? You know, everybody was so confused at that time. So people were talking back with him, sharing what was going on in their communities or their churches. And somebody said, Hey, would you mind leading the rosary for us tomorrow? And he was like, I've never led the rosary before, but yes, I will do that. So on March 18th, he led the rosary and he said, I'll tell you what, everybody, this was amazing. I'm gonna do it for the whole entire two weeks that this pandemic's gonna last. He said, Since the whole world is shutting down for 14 days, I'm gonna lead the rosary

Building Down To Earth Ministry Online

Estelle Nester 55:12

for 14 days for everybody. And he led the rosary for 14 days and we never have stopped because it just became this beautiful community. We love the people. It's amazing because we'll travel to parish missions or something, and we'll meet people that have been praying along. We've never seen their face before. We're praying, they've been praying along with us on the rosary for three, four, five years, however long they've been. And we even feel like they're our family. So, and they're like, Oh my gosh, I know you don't know me. But just the fact that they have been praying along with us, we have this instant connection, and it's absolutely amazing. And we really feel like that was a God thing because Keith would have never done that on his own because he was intimidated to lead the rosary. He's never done it. He was scared and he made some mistakes, but people helped him and were patient with him because he was a new Catholic, too. So it it was just awesome how that all started. And we are just thrilled to see it continue. And we're gonna do it as long as we can.

Sheila Nonato 56:29

Well, thanks be to God, to you and your husband. And um, speaking of sort of that consistency and also the inspiration that he provides to people and also yourself providing inspiration to women to um think about how I can dedicate my life to Christ, even if it might cost me something, might be a little bit of a cross. Um so your husband is going to be a speaker again at the Catholic Ready Conference. And yes, okay, and I I don't know if I hope I don't mean any disrespect by this. I'm just curious because he was introduced by somebody, or was it a post on X last year as the Catholic John Wick. Now, does that bother you?

Estelle Nester 57:13

Does that what it doesn't because I can see the similarities why people would would say that, but I've never seen the movie, so I don't know if it should bother me.

Sheila Nonato 57:24

Oh no, I mean like just Keanu Reeves. Uh well, I think everyone loves Keanu Reeves. Like just everybody in person, he seems like a decent guy. He's, you know, I he's he's Canadian, so we we we kind of love Keanu Reeves. Anyway, he seems great. So and will you be there as well? Are you gonna be doing anything with the conference at all?

Estelle Nester 57:45

I am not able to attend this one this year because that one, um, the the first one where you and I met, that was in the summer. But this one is a little bit earlier, I think, in the year. And I'm not able to be there at that time. So I have commitments during the school year. So I I can't do it. Okay, oh I'm gonna be so sad to miss it. But um yeah, just just the timing of it didn't work out for me this year. But yeah.

Sheila Nonato 58:22

Oh, okay. Well, maybe next year. But um, and finally, so would you be able to offer maybe a note of a word of encouragement or a prayer for um those who are listening who might be, who might know somebody who's considering the Catholic Church or or who might have questions themselves, um, yeah, what what kind of advice can you offer them?

Estelle Nester 58:44

Well, that is a big question because everybody will have a different experience and uh will be on different levels of that. So I feel like a universal answer that I could give is the best thing you can do for people who are interested in learning about the Catholic Church, or even people who are hostile to the Catholic Church. I would say the best thing you can do is live your faith boldly and live your faith joyfully. I think that sometimes Catholics get like a bad rap a little bit, where we're not as joyful about our faith. And I understand why we're not gonna walk into mass and high-five people and jump up and down when we see them because of them, the mass is different. I get that. But I feel like for somebody who's interested in the Catholic faith, they need to see that people are excited and and are joyful about their faith, live it boldly. And I would also say, learn the reasons why we do what we do.

Estelle Nester 1:00:08

So that way, when anybody either challenges you or asks you because they're genuinely or or want to know that we have answers. Why do you do this? Why do you do that? And I feel like if we learn all those answers, just like that guy back in 2000 when Keith was asking questions and he met this Catholic who knew the reasons why and he knew the scriptures and he knew the Bible backward and forward. That led Keith on this journey to learn more about the Catholic faith. So if we could even do half of what that guy did, where we we know answers. And if we don't know the answers, we learn them and then get back to our friends to tell them. I feel like we could help so many people. But

Mary Misunderstandings And Clear Explanations

Estelle Nester 1:01:05

encouragement for the people who maybe they don't have people asking them about the faith, but they're just watching from a distance. If you live your faith boldly and joyfully, people are gonna start to wonder, like, what's going on there? I I want a little bit of that. I see them filled with joy. And this world sometimes seems scary. And it's hard to be joyful sometimes in this world where there's, you know, things happening that are difficult. I feel like that might draw some people to wonder what's going on with that Catholic stuff. I want a piece of that. And so I kind of feel like maybe those answers will help a variety of uh different circumstances. Oh, thank you for that. Did you want to close with a prayer? Of course. Yes, okay, all right, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time. And I pray that um this conversation was helpful and meaningful and brought you joy, God. I pray that uh if anybody is listening and wants to learn more about the faith, that they will do that. I pray that people will live their Catholic faith with joy and with love and with your guidance always. And we pray all these things in your name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit.

Sheila Nonato 1:02:50

Amen. Well, thank you so much. And just when you were praying that, I um just remembering from your husband's book also that he was talking, he was, I think he asked a priest, can Jesus be comfort, can we comfort Jesus um in it when he was in the garden um before the Crucifixion? Um, and I just I just thought, wow, that's such a profound question that I never thought of as a lifelong Catholic. And like I was saying, um, I just encourage viewers, um, listeners, if you are thinking about it or if you want to delve deeper into your Catholic faith, um, check out Keith Nestor's YouTube. There's so much information. Check out the website and Estelle's books. They they really provide a joyful witness of what it is to be a Christian. So even following the cross, it's difficult. Um, and you have to be bold. But I I'm again just honored, humbled, and honored to have spoken with you again and hopefully meet you sometime in another conference, God willing. And thank you again. So many blessings to you and your family. You give so much. You give so much, and may God continue to bless you.

Estelle Nester 1:03:57

Oh, well, thank you so much for having me. Um, this was an honour and a joy. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Sheila Nonato 1:04:04

Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye.

Closing remarks and upcoming guest: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence with Gen Xer Peter Cooney of co-creator of Acutis AI

Sheila Nonato 1:04:08

Thank you for joining us, Sisters in Christ. This interview was conducted in March before Estelle Nestor's cancer diagnosis. We will be praying for Estelle, and I ask you to join me in Storming Heaven for her complete and full recovery. There is also a fundraiser if you feel called to help, and I will include that in the link in the show notes. And she did not ask me to include this, but I just feel called to, in some way, in whatever way I can, to help, to encourage for prayers, to ask for prayers for those who need it the most. And if you're feeling called uh in your generosity to please consider um helping out the nesters who have done so much for the Catholic world in their online evangelization and their daily, his her husband's daily rosary crew, a daily rosary online that is totally free. Um, and they have an awesome ministry called Down to Earth Ministry. And again, I will put links in the show notes. And coming up next time, we decided to bring you Peter Cooney, a young Catholic who is taking the AI world by storm with his brother Thomas, co-creating Acutis AI, a Catholic AI app, integrating morals and ethics into the conversation about artificial intelligence. Thank you so much and looking forward to seeing you next time.

Co-Host 1:05:35

Thank you for listening to the Veil in Armour Podcast. I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel, and please spread the word. Let's Be Brave. Let's Be Bold and Be Blessed together.