Mission Stories
Get insights on having a powerful and successful full-time LDS mission. This podcast shares inspiring stories and practical principles for embracing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, overcoming challenges, and building a strong foundation for lifelong discipleship. Faith-promoting stories and lessons from real full-time LDS mission experiences to inspire and teach. Based on The Mission Prep Series by Shawn Record.
Mission Stories
How To Serve (And Crush) A Covid Mission - Elder Ryan Mcdowell
This episode we talk with Elder Ryan McDowell, a returned missionary who served an "unconventional" mission during the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode delves into the principle of choosing to be "hot" (committed and active) over "cold" (rejecting the spirit) or "lukewarm" (indifferent and passive), a central theme highlighted by scriptures from Revelation and First Kings.
The episode traces Ryan's journey and the pivotal choices he made:
• Foundation in Tragedy: Ryan's initial "hot" choice stemmed from a personal tragedy: his mother's ten-year battle with stage four metastatic breast cancer, which she succumbed to when he was about to turn 19. This profound sadness challenged his passive faith and led him to consciously and deliberately feast upon the words of Christ, especially the Book of Mormon, often reading until 3:00 AM. This experience replaced his sadness with joy, peace, and the Holy Ghost, lighting a spiritual fire within him.
• Embracing an Unconventional Assignment: Called originally to Spain, Ryan was reassigned to the Minnesota Minneapolis mission for 18 months due to COVID-19. Despite the disappointment and the challenging circumstances (no in-person proselyting, not entering homes for 11 months), Ryan chose to serve with an enthusiastic, faithful attitude, determined to make his time in Minnesota "worth it" and "build his mission out of bricks," leaving nothing "on the table".
• Overcoming Lukewarmness in the Field: Initially, Ryan admits he slipped into a "passive lukewarm state" for about 12 weeks due to the lack of traditional proselyting methods and his trainer's indifference. However, witnessing another elder's diligent work ethic helped him snap out of it, realizing he "had tasted the bitter and wanted the sweet". He then creatively adapted by utilizing social media and paid advertising to identify and reach people genuinely interested in the gospel, even leading to a baptism.
• Deepening Relationships in Spain: For the last six months of his mission, Ryan finally served in Spain. Here, he made another crucial "hot" choice: investing significant time in building deep, loving relationships with members, not just using them as tools. This deliberate focus on nurturing connections with "lukewarm" youth and members led to a "perfect victory": a photo showing 17 people, including a family of nine, being baptized or reactivated, all supported by the strong network of members Ryan had loved and served.
The episode concludes by emphasizing that Ryan's ability to consistently make "faithful choices" at every crossroads was founded on his initial decision to "feast upon the words of Christ," which ignited his spiritual momentum and allowed him to serve with "no regrets," bringing immense joy.
Bye.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I actually finished my mission, and I get a message from our ward mission leader in Spain, and he sends me this picture. I'm looking at it now, dude. This is absolutely awesome. I don't even want to count how many people were in
SPEAKER_00:this. How many of these guys, you told me before, were the guys that you built these relationships?
SPEAKER_02:There were five people, five members in the photo who were maybe lukewarm. They were definitely lukewarm, who now have callings and are in white baptizing this family of nine.
SPEAKER_00:There are nine people in this photo, dude.
SPEAKER_02:There are way more than
SPEAKER_00:nine. 17. All
SPEAKER_02:of them are
SPEAKER_00:wearing white. They're all in front of the temple. We had nine people getting
SPEAKER_02:baptized and eight people doing the baptism.
SPEAKER_00:All right, welcome back to the Mission Stories podcast. Hey, Lauren, what are you laughing at? That was a good intro.
SPEAKER_01:That was good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was good. Welcome back. We're excited because I've been, for a long time, wanting to take this kid. There was this kid, Lauren, who was in my priest quorum. And this kid was kind of wild, a little crazy. No, he wasn't wild. How do I describe this kid? I would call him enthusiastic, and every time we'd talk about crazy stories in the gospel or teach a lesson, he was always the contrarian a little bit, but in a really authentic way. He was always, why are you shaking your head? You don't think you're a contrarian? You love to debate. You love ideas. We are joined today by... Ryan McDowell, how are you?
SPEAKER_02:How's it going? Thank you. I'm good. I'm doing great. This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for having me. Do you try and, I mean... I
SPEAKER_02:mean, yeah, I agree. I think definitely when I was younger, I liked to play that. But I like to think that I've grown up a little bit and maybe don't push buttons as much as you
SPEAKER_00:do. There's no negative in what I was saying. I love that you had this incredibly interested mind and questioned things because you wanted to get to the bottom of them. I never once questioned your, like, motive. I felt like you really did seek truth. You loved it. This is true. Right?
SPEAKER_02:I did. I mean, I like ideas still to this
SPEAKER_00:day. And we can call out your mom and dad because you would always come to me and be like, dude, I love that we're debating stuff in here. My mom and dad don't do that. Like I try and like push their buttons at dinnertime and they just won't debate.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we got to go tell them that this Sunday
SPEAKER_00:at church. We'll all tell them that. We'll all remind them. Yeah. Okay. So today we're going to dive right in because there's so many stories. Lauren, we are in good company, right? We are because we both loved our mission so much. I mean, come on. Scale from 1 to 10, Ryan. How much did you love here? And I would sit in our little desk downstairs and I would read my
SPEAKER_02:scriptures until 3 in the morning from like 12 until 3. I like that you picked 11 because mine was a 3,000 and Lauren's was a 10. I would hold on to that and I would just want more and more and more and I would read until I fell asleep. I mean, more of what? I should have gone higher. Yeah, you should have gone higher. Go ahead. Like joy. Yep, I know. But we're in good company because I felt joy in a time that felt so dark and knew that that lasting joy would only come from Christ.
SPEAKER_00:If you look at all the people in the history of the world who get to, for a limited time, for a time, be a full-time authorized servant of Jesus Christ to go out and lead souls to him, what percentage of the entire world do you think gets to do that?
SPEAKER_02:Very little. It's less than one.
SPEAKER_00:We are part of that group. Like, how lucky and blessed are we to be a part of that? Right? To live in the restoration, the time of restoration, the fullness of times. Incredible. Incredible. So good on you, Ryan, for serving the way you did, and we're going to talk about it a lot. Okay, so we're going to focus today on principle number one. And just as a background and premise, let's read the two scriptures that kind of are dissonant but challenge. You want to read these, Lauren? Yeah. Okay, read Revelation first, and then the first Kings one.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I know thy works that thou art... Neither cold nor hot, I was thou'rt cold or hot. So then because thou'rt lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will speed ye out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, let's define those. Ryan, what do you think? You said a good word, what you think lukewarm means. What did you say earlier?
SPEAKER_02:Indifferent.
SPEAKER_00:Indifferent. And then you had another word that I liked later on. Do you remember what it was? Passive.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, passive. Passive. That was a good hint.
SPEAKER_00:And we're going to come back to that. So you believe that lukewarm means indifferent or passive? Passive.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So then what does cold mean, do you think? Well, hey, what does hot mean?
SPEAKER_02:I think hot is choosing according to the spirit. Nice. And I think cold would be denying the spirit.
SPEAKER_00:Ooh. Or not feeling it, right? Or in other words, hot would be choosing to follow the will of God, which is confirmed by the spirit. Cold would be choosing your own will or against the will of God, which again would be rejecting the spirit.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_00:I like it. I like it. And then later on or earlier, Elijah comes to the children of Israel and says what?
SPEAKER_01:And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
SPEAKER_00:So this second scripture that confirms this idea, what do you think God is saying here, Ryan? And just your opinion, because I know you're a good debater. What do you think? Is it really saying, and I think it is, that God values agency so much that he would prefer that we were not lukewarm, passive, or halted more than he would prefer that we make sometimes bad choices. He really prefers that we choose the good, right? That's
SPEAKER_02:absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00:Right. I mean, there's no commandment in Scripture that says, yeah, agency is so important, but I command you to choose the bad. Never. But there's 10 million times where he says, I command you to follow me and choose the good. So we clearly know his will, but... What do you think, Ryan? These are a little dissonant, these verses.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think so. I think on one hand, it's, you know, we want to choose between good and bad, and then the other hand is we can't not choose. We can't be indifferent. So, and I think they both can be true. I think... just because we choose cold once doesn't mean we can't choose hot later. And I think as missionaries and as disciples of Christ, you really can help people choose hot to continue on with this analogy and go from cold to hot or maybe from lukewarm to hot and stay trending in that direction.
SPEAKER_00:Just to kind of, good point, kind of speed through this. Here's a verse in Ephesians 4 that kind of, to me, gives clarity on why being lukewarm, passive, or halted is even more dangerous sometimes than Choosing to making choices that lead us down the wrong path, right? There's a scripture that says sometimes we need to taste the bitter in order to prize the sweet, right? But I like this one in Ephesians 4. It says that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. I love this visual of being tossed to and fro, right? It's almost like, let's pretend this scenario, right? You go out on your mission. Ryan, let's pretend. We'll make this up. This is totally fake, not real. Ryan gets his mission call, goes out to the field. It's during COVID. You can't proselyte. He gets with a trainer. Imagine how tough it would be if that trainer's kind of a snapper head, not really a hard worker. And Ryan is lukewarm, passive. Imagine how tough that would be, right? That would be so tough. Fake story, right? I can't
SPEAKER_02:imagine doing that. That would be really hard.
SPEAKER_00:That's a teaser. Lauren, that was a teaser about what's coming up. We're going to talk about that story and how gratefully you admit that even though going out, you were on fire, you were hot, you'd owned your choice, you were converted. Sometimes, same in my mission, sometimes you get stuck in a position where you turn passive and look warm a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:And did you?
SPEAKER_02:I think so. I think...
SPEAKER_00:No, the answer is?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Right? I think we all have moments where we falter, but I think the whole point is you get back up and you keep going, right? It's... I
SPEAKER_00:don't know. Yeah, it's called the second principle of the gospel, right? It's repentance, right? But I tease that because that's going to go—this is a fun episode because we're going to go along your story. But before we get into that, we're going to tell three stories where you were a good example of being faced with hot, cold, and lukewarm, where you, my man, you— chose the right choices. And I love this because this principle is so important for those of you out there who are listening and preparing for your mission. You have to understand that you have the power to, you have the power of the gods to own your decision and to choose to serve with all your heart, mind, and strength. You really do. Okay, so, but before we get into these three stories, let's get the foundation laid. You've got kind of a sad and tragic background. I mean, I was part of this, we watched this, we were part of this, and it was just so sad. But This tragedy in your life led to the first decision that you made that, would you say, fairly changed the rest of your life? Absolutely. Not even fairly, totally. Okay, so we're all in the same ward. And how long did this beautiful, amazing Jenna, how long did your mom have battle cancer?
SPEAKER_02:So my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was probably in fourth grade. I think I was like 10 or 11 years old. And yeah, she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer, which is if, I don't know, if you don't speak cancer talk, that's like the worst you can get. It means it's spread to other parts of your body and that the end date of when you're not going to have cancer is usually when you're going to pass away. So from the beginning, it was a little grim, but I don't know, we chose to be positive through it all. And the gospel ended up being a rock that we chose to stand on as a family and Um, but yeah, she struggled with it for, for 10 years and fought and 10 years and, and really killed it. I mean, you would never have known that she was going through something so hard. I mean, she was the kind of person that she's having a bad day with chemo and she made dinner for someone else in the ward
SPEAKER_00:and never, no one, we never knew. Like you always, you always just thought, Oh, she beat cancer.
SPEAKER_02:That's exactly
SPEAKER_00:right. When behind the scenes, she's fighting and fighting and fighting. Okay. So the sad, obviously part of the story is she eventually succumbed and returned to our heavenly father. And that was Gosh, how old are you?
SPEAKER_02:I was about to turn 19. So I was finishing my freshman year of college at BYU. It was February. So it was right before COVID happened.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, your story is interesting, man. It was like three
SPEAKER_02:weeks before COVID.
SPEAKER_00:You got hit with a lot at the same time. So explain to me what you told us before about your first and initial reaction to this tragedy. As it relates to religion, God, and the church. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:absolutely. I think... I think when my mom passed away, the natural knee-jerk reaction for anyone is to ask why. You see people around you who have awesome relationships with their family. Maybe their parents don't have cancer or they didn't have a parent that passed away, and you start to wonder how a loving God could allow something that difficult to happen. And I think a lot of people, when faced with those types of questions, you have to choose whether you're going to fight to keep your belief or if you're going to abandon your belief and just say that it was never true. So I think growing up in the church, I've always believed in the plan of salvation and always had faith in those things, but I had never really been tested with something like that. excuse me, where I had to choose that that was what I was going to believe in. So I guess this situation really like threw me into the fire and I was like, okay, what do I believe?
SPEAKER_00:So it is interesting, right? Those of us who have wonderful parents and everyone in this room does, we do by default, by nature, come to faith a little passively, right? We're little kids and Everything that's happening in our religion and our families, we love. It brings us joy. And so naturally we like it, right? But that's a passive reaction. And when you said I had faith in these things, I believed in these things, it's kind of a passive
SPEAKER_02:faith. It's totally passive. It is, right? You're just following
SPEAKER_00:along. And that's why the message of the scriptures throughout is really, really, really abundant that says you must choose faith. Use your agency, and you must do this. Everyone has to go through and do this. I don't care if you're a member your whole life or not. You have to do the same things that everyone is required to do, any convert is required to do. You have to feast upon the words of Christ. You have to pray with the passions of your heart to ask God questions. You have to receive the Holy Ghost, and this process starts the growth of faith, which leads to repentance and then covenants, right? So you... as we all did, we're passively going through this and then tragedy hits. And for the first time you were faced with, well, misery and sadness. Like, do I really truly believe all this stuff that I've passively accepted all these years?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I think, I guess what I did after that, right. It's like, I'm stuck in this sadness. It's like, you can either choose to be sad and let it hurt, or you can go with what you've grown up believing your whole life, which is okay. Well, if I'm sad, I need to turn in prayer and I need to find Christ in the situation and see if he really is the source of, of, um, comfort and joy in times of sadness.
SPEAKER_00:So that's what you thought process was. Now, Lauren, I love that the decision you made, like, how do I do that then? How do I truly go from a passive believer now facing the fire, this pain, now I really have a desire in my soul, right? Enoch, or Enos, his soul hungered. Enos? Enos. Enos. your soul started to hunger a bit. Absolutely. Which drives you to make a decision. Now let's pinpoint decision number one that you made. You could have remained lukewarm in that situation and been like, look, I'm just going to passively see it. I'll see how this goes. I'll just passively believe in all this. But now the passiveness isn't good enough, right? In this time of need and stress and sadness. Right. You could have made the cold choice. Like, screw this. Like, eternal families, really? Like, my family's gone, right? You easily could have gone that way. But you chose to try out the experiment and there's one specific way. Here's the choice you made. Tell us what the choice literally and specifically that you made.
SPEAKER_02:The word. I started reading my scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon and like feasting upon the words of Christ.
SPEAKER_00:And did you at the time like make a decision? You know what? I'm going to like read the whole thing before my mission or I'm going to like what specifically drove you? Because at some point you said that your daily routine was I wake up, I read a little bit, I go to work, I come back and I read till 3 a.m.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, it was at the point where we were during COVID and fortunately my job stayed open during COVID. So I would get home from a late closing shift and I would sit in our little desk downstairs and I would read my scriptures until three in the morning from like 12 until three. Cause I just like, couldn't get enough. I was reading it. You'd feel the spirit and you're just like, you want more, especially in times of sadness. Like I would hold onto that and I would just want more and more and more. And I would read until I fell asleep.
SPEAKER_00:More of what? Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Like joy, joy. peace, any of the fruits of the spirit that you can think of. Like I felt joy in a time that felt so dark and knew that that lasting joy would only come from Christ.
SPEAKER_00:What do you think of that, Lauren? This guy, this kid who is suffering and miserable, he's just lost his mom and he's just feeling these feelings of sadness and misery. And he turns to the words of Christ and can't put them down because those feelings of sadness are replaced with joy and peace, which is the Holy Ghost. What do you think of that?
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Isn't it amazing?
SPEAKER_01:I think oftentimes, like as humans, like the majority of us, right, when tragedy hits and we're going through a time where we're grieving, we tend to stay in that lukewarm position because it's comfortable, right? And we don't want to choose one way or the other because we're stuck. It's like our world just got flipped upside down, right? So the fact that you're able to, in such a difficult time in your life, choose to be like, okay, I'm getting out of this one way or the other is insane. Like, that's awesome. And I think, too, The way that it prepared you to be able to serve, right? Because, I mean, like that quote that they always say, oh, your biggest convert on your mission is you, but you have to be prepared to be converted. You have to be prepared to convert other people. That's wise. That's good. And so, you know, you have to put in the work to be converted. And there's a quote that I wanted to share from a conference given way back when, 1996. That's
SPEAKER_00:not that long ago.
SPEAKER_01:Jeez. That's a long time. Back when the dinosaurs roamed. Okay. But it talks about, the title of the talk is Conversion and Commitment. And it talks about the definition of a truly converted follower of Christ. It says, Now as missionaries, right, our duty is to help others come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. And so when we act in diligence, doing things like Ryan was doing, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, testing, taking Taking Moroni's promise and acting on it and figuring out, okay, how can I come closer to Christ to then help others? When you act in diligence, then you're setting for success for yourself as a convert, but also for others while you're a missionary.
SPEAKER_00:What were the two C's? Casual and complacent? Is that
SPEAKER_01:what it said? Yeah, casual or
SPEAKER_00:complacent. So Ryan, would you fairly say that, you know, as all of us, we get to a point where we're just living life happy, were you casual and complacent in your scripture studying before this decision? Oh, absolutely. Like we all have been, right? Yeah, I
SPEAKER_02:mean, it was also COVID during the time, too. So, like, we were home. I was sent home from school. Like, I don't know. You have to make a choice.
SPEAKER_00:So you made a choice. This is you. You, Ryan, you weren't influenced by anyone else. It wasn't this lukewarm kid whose dad came in there and says, dude, you need to start reading until 3 a.m. today. And you were like, yeah, I do. I will. You made... you got off of the casual, complacent, passive, indifferent stage. And you made this very conscious and powerful decision. I will feast upon the words of Christ. I will read the entire book of Mormon. And I'm going to read it all the way through to test it, to make sure that I really believe in what I believe in. And the magic that happened was your feelings of sadness were replaced with feelings of peace and joy.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Man. And so by the end, like how were, like, were you, I mean, you said, like, is conversion the right word? Is change of heart? Like, what happened at the end?
SPEAKER_02:I think for me, I would say conversion is definitely a process. I don't think I can point to one specific moment where I can say I was converted, right? Because that process continued throughout my whole mission and still is continuing today. But I feel like that was the moment where I like lit the fire underneath of me for the rest of my mission. There we go. I lit the fire before I got there, before I started the MTC, before I got my mission call. There was something I could have done before to like give me the momentum, the spiritual momentum I needed going into my mission.
SPEAKER_00:Now these next three stories we're going to bring up, would you say that it played a role? That decision and you feasting upon the words of Christ and feeling the Holy Ghost and bringing this powerful joy this this change of heart this would you say that influenced these other decisions you made
SPEAKER_02:i think it was the foundation of the other decisions
SPEAKER_00:oh then let's talk about them
SPEAKER_01:wait before we go on i just want to say not to like hype you up well yes to hype you up yeah hype them up i think like so personally i didn't know the book of mormon is true until like halfway through my mission so it took me a long time to get there but the fact that you chose to have these experiences, you could already go into the field and when you're like extending these invitations to your friends and be like, oh, I promise you that if you read this, you will find feelings of joy, of peace, of comfort, whatever it is. And you have like a personal experience to back that up before you even get into the field is so cool. Like that is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00:And that is, wouldn't you say, Lauren, that is one of our messages. I mean, I love your story and your path. I love everyone's stories and paths. But yeah, like the earlier we can get these principles applied and the better, because then you hit the ground running, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And this is one of the reasons why I'm so grateful just for this podcast, the idea of it, catering it towards those who are preparing to go on missions. Because I thought when I got my call, I'm like, okay, well, now I feel a little extra motivated. Maybe I'll read like each chapter a day of the Book of Mormon or whatever. But To really take advantage of this time that you have to prepare to serve the Lord is so crucial. A lot of times all of our friends are getting our calls and we're waiting for our calls and then we get in and we kind of just are lukewarm until we get into the MTC and then we choose to go. But I wish that I would have taken a greater advantage of the time that I had before I started the MTC to... gain a testimony in the Book of Mormon, to learn more about the restoration, to learn more about the plan of salvation. And that's why I love doing this is because I get to help other people do what I wish I did.
SPEAKER_00:And I love your story because you did make the choice. Sure, it happened a little later on your mission, but you owned that choice. You feasted upon the words, right? Yeah. So it's just as powerful and it applied. I mean, it was your path. Lauren, I know you have to go when you have to go. So just stand up and leave us, which is make me cry. I will cry. But you just go when you need to go. But let me share a quick story, okay, along these lines. So I've got this group of kids right now who I've known for a long time that's going through my mission prep series, and they come over every Sunday, and we're doing the mission prep series. Let's just say I think they've all admitted and raised their hands that they're all lukewarm. They have their calls. They're not fighting hard to get to the temple. They're just passive. They're just like, eh, eh. At the beginning, they were all excited, and then they got the call, and then that kind of wore off, and they're just... Passive. So this last Sunday, we were there meeting, and I just kind of went off preaching, just pounding the podium, spitting a little.
SPEAKER_01:Pounding the podium.
SPEAKER_00:Pounding it like this. Yeah, I got it. And so I committed them and says, guys, if you go your entire life and never once just try to feast upon the words of Christ like hours and hours in a day and ask God questions and listen to the Spirit, if you never do that, just try it once your whole life. I said the word shame on you. I don't know, that's judgmental. I apologize, but I shamed him.
SPEAKER_01:Comes from a place of
SPEAKER_00:love. Thank you. And they decided, yeah, let's try this. And so for the past four days, three days, we've been having this group chat and just going back and forth. Well, here's, I'll just read you what happened yesterday. I'm sure she'd give me permission to this. I followed up and I said, I won't say who it is. I followed up and I says, hey man, how is it going today? Here's what I studied today. Here's what I tagged today. And I get an all bold, it's going so good. All caps. Prayers are being answered. It's like I thought she was my grandma for a minute. I don't know why it's all caps. She's yelling this, right? She's yelling this. And I says, no way, dude. Like, share. Share. Like, what's up? And then she says this. Both days I have read has been the best part of my day. I don't want to stop. I genuinely believe it's because I prayed that I would have a desire to read and a desire to feel the joy that comes when going further into the gospel, even if I feel like I'm already happy enough. Like, that was her big thing is, I'm good where I'm at. This passive security, this, what's it called? The And she goes on and on and on to talk about how I'm feeling so much joy that I never even knew I could feel. And it's just awesome to see these kids diving in and doing what Ryan did, which was feast upon the words of Christ. I love your story that you're up till 3 a.m. Just I can't put it down. It's like when I read Harry Potter. Just kidding.
SPEAKER_02:I never read that. Is that a bad thing? Yeah, neither
SPEAKER_00:have I. You guys watch the movies. That was a bad analogy, man. I'm sorry I ruined it. I'll cut that part out. Yeah, yeah. All right, so this foundational decision you made to feast upon the words of Christ, read the Book of Mormon, brought the Holy Ghost and the peace and joy into your life so foundationally. It caught that fire. Okay, let's fast forward now. You get your mission call, and I won't go into the details. Some other day we'll have you back, but this was kind of miraculous. You got called to the same mission your dad got called. You guys know the apostle Elder Anderson, and he played a role in that. So you get called to Spain, and COVID hit, and you don't go to Spain. Where do you go?
SPEAKER_02:I was reassigned to the Minnesota-Minneapolis mission.
SPEAKER_00:Please say Minnesota the right way. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Minnesota.
SPEAKER_00:Please say it the right way. Try again.
SPEAKER_02:I spoke Spanish there. I don't
SPEAKER_00:know what you're talking about. Minnesota, isn't it? Isn't that the right way? Tell me. That's not how the Hispanics say it. Oh. You don't watch Fargo? Fargo is all about... Anyway, okay. So, listen. There were two elders in my mission. My favorite one and then this guy that hated me. Oh, gosh. Now, when they got... They were called the Ukraine, right? And when they were in the MTC, neither of them got their visas. And they went to, like, Tennessee or Texas or someplace for, like, three or four months. Now, one elder decided... I'm here. Let's go. God wants me to be here. There's a purpose. I'm going to work like crazy and I'm going to find and fulfill my purpose. I'm going to lead souls to Christ. He
SPEAKER_02:built his mission out of bricks there.
SPEAKER_00:There you go. And the other guy said, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life. This isn't my mission. I just had this terrible attitude. And both of them throughout their mission lived that way. And it was shocking to see the success, the joy, the happiness of the one compared to the other. So, They were faced with a decision, right? There was hot, cold, and there's hot, cold, and lukewarm. Ryan, why, when you're faced with this, how hard was that to be like, I'm going to Spain where my dad served? No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02:I think, I think it was very different. I think we learned that the mission call was more important than the mission assignment. The call being your call as a disciple of Christ to preach the gospel full time, to bring others unto
SPEAKER_00:him. You didn't have to make that decision, dude.
SPEAKER_02:No, but I think, I mean, was the choice going to be I'm miserable and all I want to do is talk about where I'm supposed to go? Some people do that. Or am I doubting God that that's where I'm supposed to be for the time that I'm supposed to be there?
SPEAKER_00:But you made a choice to have this enthusiastic, faithful attitude.
SPEAKER_02:I wanted my time in Minnesota to be worth it. I didn't want to short the people there of opportunities to hear The word of God.
SPEAKER_00:And how many months did you end up being there?
SPEAKER_02:I was there for 18 months. Yeah. For quite a long time.
SPEAKER_00:And the words that I often hear you say. I didn't think I was
SPEAKER_02:going to leave.
SPEAKER_00:And the words I often hear you say, I gave it my all. What are the words you often say about how you served?
SPEAKER_02:I didn't leave anything on the table. Even
SPEAKER_00:in Minnesota?
SPEAKER_02:Especially in Minnesota. Because I didn't think I was ever going to go to Spain. I didn't. built my mission out of bricks. That was something we would talk about a lot. We had lots of reassigned missionaries in, in Minnesota and we wanted it to be a place where you were going to give it your all. You were going to make a home there that you could visit, not a house out of straw, like the three little piggy story, whatever, whatever the story is. You want to build something you can come back to and revisit, not something that's going to get blown away when you leave. Nice. And I think I chose, well, I know that I chose to build a house out of bricks and I made it something worthwhile because there were people there that needed my testimony needed the opportunity to choose for themselves.
SPEAKER_00:I like the analogy. I mean, you guys could have used a different scriptural analogy about the wise man who built his house on the sand and the foundation of the rock. Oh, I got in a finger wave. Judging? Am I judging again? This is my bad, Lauren. We could have. You're right. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, it's great. I'm just totally joking. Lauren, I'm just kidding. It's awesome. Okay, so how much of a role... So I honestly think Ryan, that it's really unique that when you were faced with this decision, again, you've got a hot choice, a cold choice, and a lukewarm choice. I think the numbers are probably 50-50, that half the people choose to be lukewarm and are cold or more, and then fewer choose to be cold. What do you think was the foundational reason that you had the integrity, the faith, to choose to view this as your mission and to serve with all your heart, mind, and strength? Did it have anything to do with another decision you made?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it goes back to what we were talking about before. I chose, after my mom died, I chose that I was either going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ or that I wasn't, right? I was going to choose one or the other. And when I read the scriptures, I knew, I felt it, I wanted it, and I had that truth and I wanted to share it with others.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, I love it. The converting power that comes when we feast upon the words of Christ is it really does change our hearts and it lays a foundation for future decisions. Okay. So good on you, dude. So you worked hard in Minnesota, owned that as your mission, and then eventually went back out to Spain.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
UNKNOWN:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So a couple of questions. Okay. I say you served an unconventional mission because when Lauren and I teach these principles and we yell about things like, for example, open your mouth and talk to everyone, right? That's a principle that will make you give you a good, a really good mission experience. You couldn't.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, not in the same way you could. That's for sure. Okay,
SPEAKER_00:let's debate this. We're going to argue that, okay, one side is you didn't open your mouth and talk to everyone. Yeah. And you're going to say, yes, I did, just differently.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Let's debate this. Let's debate this.
SPEAKER_02:I got to Minnesota. We weren't allowed to go into anyone's homes. I didn't go into a home for the first 11 months of my mission. I was in my apartment. I was in family history centers and church buildings for the first 11 months of my mission.
SPEAKER_00:So how could you possibly not be lukewarm in that situation and be like, Or even be cold in that situation and be like, I'm out of here. This is terrible.
SPEAKER_02:I think the main thing for me was that we had social media and I was like, well, if we're going to have this be an option, I'm going to take it. I'm going to run with it. And I'm going to kill it. So it was kind of like an unsolved problem. We had this big goal, which was bringing others to come unto Christ and the traditional ways of doing it. were no longer available to us. So we had to come together and figure out how are we going to do this? How are we going to bring others to Christ? And we used Facebook. We used members as much as we could. It was a struggle getting to know them.
SPEAKER_00:Before you tell us what you did, let's go back a little bit, Mr. Ryan, because when you got out there, You were gung-ho, right? You've had this experience with the Book of Mormon, feasting on the words of Christ. You are converted. You've got the Spirit. You're gung-ho. Then you get out, and then your mission changes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you're right. I knew what I wanted. I knew my why, and I had motivation behind me, but I didn't know the how because I get there, and everything was different, and I didn't know how I was going to manifest what I thought was my purpose and my drive.
SPEAKER_00:So would you say with this lack of how, this lack of knowledge—you had your why, but this lack of how, this lack of knowledge— Would you say, like most of us, you slipped into a little bit of a passive, lukewarm state?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I get to my first area, and my trainer had come from a mission in South America where it was very traditional, knocking on doors, being in the street. And he got there and was so sad that it wasn't what he had, the joy that he felt. And he fell into indifference. So we fell into indifference because I didn't know any better. I thought that's just what we were going to do. I was pessimistic. I didn't think that it was going to work out. So for 12 weeks... I was cold and sad.
SPEAKER_00:You stole my thunder, dude. I was going to ask you, how long halt ye between two opinions? Serving and knocking on doors, which you cannot do, or serving in a different way and finding out, figuring out a better way to open your mouth. You stole my thunder, dude. So it was 12 weeks?
SPEAKER_02:It was 12 weeks. We taught two lessons, three lessons, to someone who wasn't a member the whole time in 12 weeks. Which, not that it's a numbers game, but that means that for... I don't know, let's do 12 weeks. For 84 days, there were three days where I taught lessons.
SPEAKER_00:So the scripture in Ephesians, it talks about how when we're lukewarm, the potential of being tossed to and fro is a very real thing. Like I had your exact same experience. I was on absolute fire when I got, like all the prep I was doing before my mission, when I got in the field, my mission companion was fantastic, but had different work ethic.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:And I didn't know the how. And so I just kind of went along with it. until I saw Elder Matthew Miles, who was also a Greenie, who also had kind of a companion that was doing it differently, and he deliberately made a choice to go outside and just work like crazy. And I watched that, and he talked to everyone, and it changed my life because I was like, oh, he's not passively following anybody. He made a decision on how he's going to serve. I need to do that. I need to do that. And from that moment on, everything changed, and I was absolutely in charge of and in control of my faithful service in leading souls to Christ. How did it change for you? Because you were passive. His
SPEAKER_02:name was Kyle Ludlow. He was the same thing, the same as your elder in your mission. Shout out, Kyle. I saw what work looked like, and I saw how it could be done, and that's all I needed. Once I saw that, we started working, and for the six weeks we were together, we got a lot done, and it was fun. We had joy. We helped other people in our district and around us to find that same joy that we were seeing, and it only started to go up from there.
SPEAKER_00:That's amazing. So you just made a choice after seeing that. You found yourself in that lukewarm passive and says no longer am I going to be halted here
SPEAKER_02:I
SPEAKER_00:choose
SPEAKER_02:to be I'm grateful for it too because I saw the sadness of doing nothing and being indifferent and I'm like I don't want that so I learned by anti example I'm like I don't ever want to see that again so I knew from then on that I would never do that and I would be only devoted only working as hard as I could from sun up to sundown every single day because I had tasted the bitter and I wanted the sweet
SPEAKER_00:beautiful I love it that's so awesome is that a
SPEAKER_02:better analogy than my three little piggies
SPEAKER_00:no the piggies is a good one okay Okay, so this leads to the second choice you made. So one of the principles we preach and yell about here is open your mouth and talk to everyone. That's a way to be a happy missionary. That's a way to be a successful missionary. Don't let anyone go by. You open your mouth and talk to everyone. You couldn't do that. So I'm going to accuse you and say, you didn't do that. Do you disagree? I
SPEAKER_02:would disagree with you. Good,
SPEAKER_00:good. Fight back.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we had unconventional ways. We had... Facebook and maybe other online ways of meeting people and trying to invite people to come unto Christ.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, now you're making it soft. Before the podcast, you explained some real direct stories. You want to share that?
SPEAKER_02:So one thing we would do is we would message lots of people in groups on Facebook and see if we could serve them and make a connection with them, whether it was raking leaves or shoveling snow or moving things, not in their house because we couldn't go in their house, but maybe yard work or other things like that. But then, you know, Facebook started to think that we were all bots because we were sending so many messages every day so we had to come up with something else and our mission and all the missions at the time were experimenting with paid advertising. So you'd put money into an account and it would show a sponsored ad to people. And we came up with some pretty creative ways of how we could separate the people that were ready to hear the gospel and the people that maybe weren't ready to hear the gospel and make it so the people we were showing our ads to were people that had a fighting chance of wanting to find more joy in their
SPEAKER_00:lives. You're trying to softball what you actually did? Maybe a little bit, yeah. Okay, well, I'll try and summarize in a softball way. So basically you had this idea that, you know, when you put these young kids up there, you get a lot of weird, creepy people on social media just reaching out for wrong reasons. And you're like...
SPEAKER_02:They're more interested in the sisters than the message.
SPEAKER_00:So you had this idea like, well, wait a minute. We're in control of the audience that we're serving these ads to. Why don't we... put some bait out there, and put these good videos together of these sisters. And what happens is you get all these comments from all these creepos, and now you can block them from your ads. That's right. So now you're just targeting people who are genuinely interested in gospel.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:And how did that
SPEAKER_02:work? We're trying to get closer and closer to targeting people that we thought were most likely to be elect. And how did it work? It worked out great. It's funny, actually. I was in downtown Minneapolis and we had put an ad out that was basically two sister missionaries saying, hey, do you want to get baptized? And then they would promise something. I forget what the promise was. Something about feeling the spirit and feeling clean and feeling loved again. And we had this guy from Honduras. His name was Josue. And he clicked on the ad and said, yes, I want to go on Sunday I want to go to church and I want to learn more about baptism. And 12 weeks later, Josue was baptized, which was crazy. And it's like, would we have ever found him before? Maybe not. Maybe because he worked 14 hour days roofing and lived in a house with 15 other guys. Maybe he would have never opened the door for us. Maybe he, I don't know. I don't know what his situation would have been. I found us reaching people that maybe we'd never would have reached. Maybe you weren't the one talking to everybody because we were able to use a tool that got behind doors that you could never open.
SPEAKER_00:There's the 16-year-old Ryan, I remember. Finger pointed at me, challenging my thoughts. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:So now let's compromise. What if we combine those two? We combine the talking to everyone on the street with also
SPEAKER_00:using social media. I am absolutely willing to concede because you took a harder situation, again, where you could have chose to be passive and you could have chosen to be cold and just said, this is not right. I'm going home. I'm useless. And instead, you made a hot choice to compromise open your mouth and talk to people in a different way. Same concept, same exact concept, right? You worked with all your heart, mind, mind, and strength creatively to find the right people to talk to. Same thing. I think it was the exact same thing. The concept is the exact same. And you didn't have to do that. I didn't have to go out and talk to everyone, literally 4,000 people every single day. I could have chilled, backed off, been a little lukewarm. I didn't.
SPEAKER_02:But do you regret it?
SPEAKER_00:Dude, it's the greatest.
SPEAKER_02:That's the thing. It's like, yeah, you didn't have to, but you look back and you wouldn't have it any other way.
SPEAKER_00:It's the right thing to do. It's the right way to... Because that urgency to lead souls to Christ is nothing but joy. It just brings...
SPEAKER_02:Do you think you could have done more? Do you think you could have talked to more people? Maybe a little bit, but not really.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe 10 days of the mission.
SPEAKER_02:And it's like, I look at my mission the same way. It's like, I gave it my all, so I look back and don't have regrets. I think if you could give one piece of advice to missionaries, live your mission the way you just don't have any regrets.
SPEAKER_00:But I think that the most important... Yeah, to the listeners, that's the message. But really the lesson in your story is you made the first choice to feast upon the words of Christ. That's right. Because of that, the fire was lit. And then you were able to serve in a way that you would have no regrets. So to the listeners, really what I want to push here is start now. Do not put off the day. The scriptures say don't procrastinate the day of your repentance. What I would say is that, yes, but don't procrastinate the day of you starting to feast. Not just nibble. Not just read a little bit. Not passively read. Consciously, deliberately feast upon the words of Christ. Read the Book of Mormon. Read the Bible. Read the D&C and the Pearl of Great Price. This will catch the fire underneath you. That's a decision you need to make, listeners. Choose it now. That's absolutely right. Okay, so we've gone through three choices you've made where you could have been lukewarm and you could have been cold. Instead, you chose hot. Let's go to the last one. So 18 months after your call, your mission president calls you and says, hey, guess what? You're going to Spain.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's like, I had two days. Pack your bags. You're going to Spain. I was like, wow, this is crazy because there had been rumors that if you don't hear by the time you hit 18 months, you've crossed a threshold where you're not going to go. So on the month where I would have been 18 months into my mission, that's the day I was going to leave to go to Spain. So literally the very last possible day that I could have gone to Spain was the day I got to
SPEAKER_00:go. Now what's fascinating about that is often I hear, you know, missionaries who learn a language, it takes six months to come fluent in a language. Well, you've got six months to your mission. Like that's months and months where you don't understand what people are saying. So you made another choice here, which is fascinating. First of all, for 18 months, you were used to not going out, knocking on doors and talking to people. Now you could, right? Yeah. But you made a deliberate choice, and it was based on, it sounds like, what your mission president taught you, and you believed him. What was it? What was the choice you made here?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, my mission president, his name was President Hamilton. He always told us that members were super important, and not in the way that maybe you're thinking, not just as a tool to be used, but as a person to be loved more. We would go into members' homes for a couple hours and watch soccer games with them on TV and play soccer with their kids and just get to know them and love them and share meals with them and be their friends.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, now my first reaction to that would be like, what are you doing,
SPEAKER_02:dude? I'm wasting time.
SPEAKER_00:Why are you out talking to people, knocking on doors? Okay, but my judgmental ignorance... Tell me how it turned out. You showed me a picture right before this. I did show you
SPEAKER_02:a picture. I'll give you a little bit of a backstory. So there were a couple kids in our ward who were 16 years old and similar to people you can think of in your own lives that maybe were lukewarm and were there but maybe didn't want to be there at church or would leave, maybe a little rough around the edges. They just needed a good example. They needed someone to push them. And we started playing soccer with them and their friends, and they started to like us, and we'd start inviting them to teach in our lessons. And our whole goal was like, we want to help these kids have missionary experiences before they leave to go to college or before they leave to go on a mission themselves.
SPEAKER_00:Let me interrupt just real quick because I think I understand the choice you made was not we're going to find through missionaries or through members or the choice you made was we're not going to go knock on doors. The choice you made was we are going to love these people so much and build such strong relationships that they will feel like the light of Christ. They will feel the atonement as it changes our hearts.
SPEAKER_02:Hopefully we can light the fire under them that I had under me, right? That's the whole goal.
SPEAKER_00:And you can't do that when you're just over and you're going to have dinner one day with the members And then you're in and you're out
SPEAKER_02:and you share a quick message and you exchange pleasantries and then you're gone,
SPEAKER_00:right? So your deliberate choice was we are going to invest time to fall in love with these people so that they can fall in love with us and that relationship is what's going to matter.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly right.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So
SPEAKER_02:we keep going. And then these kids, you know, I actually finished my mission and I get a message from our ward mission leader in Spain. And he sends me this picture. I'm
SPEAKER_00:looking at it now, dude. This is absolutely awesome. I don't even want to count how many people are in this photo. I just did. How many people are in the photo? Well, first, first, before I count and tell you that. How many of these guys, you told me before, were the guys that you built these relationships with?
SPEAKER_02:There were five people, five members in the photo who were maybe lukewarm. They were definitely lukewarm, who now have callings and are in white baptizing this family of nine.
SPEAKER_00:There are nine people in this photo, dude.
SPEAKER_02:There are way more than
SPEAKER_00:nine.
SPEAKER_02:17. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:All of them are wearing white. They're all in front of the temple. We had nine people getting
SPEAKER_02:baptized and eight people doing the baptisms. And those were members, the members that you were... All of them were members. I think one of them was a recent convert from a couple months before. The rest were reactivated youth. A couple were reactivated adults. And some were just solid members, right? So it's a fun experience for me to look at this picture from a couple years ago and see... One of my good friends, his name's Orlean. He's about to finish his mission in Ecuador. Jorge just finished a mission in Spain. A couple other youth, I can't remember their names, but they're also in the photo. You have Eugenio, who was less active. You have Reinaldo and you have Pablo, who were also kind of on the fringes, who then ended up being able to baptize this family. And from what I know and from what I followed up, this family is super solid and active because look at the web of people that they have stuck to them, right? They're not following a way because it's not like they have missionaries that are moving. They have eight other people in this photo who are in their ward to this day that love them.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely awesome. So cool.
SPEAKER_02:It's so cool. Nothing better.
SPEAKER_00:And so throughout all of these challenges, you served an unconventional mission, man. Yep. Super unconventional. And at every crossroads, you made the faithful, I want to follow Jesus Christ choice. And that that choice was based in you making a singular choice to study the words of Christ through the Book of Mormon and read the whole thing with real intent, and you caught on fire. And all these choices you made, and these are really challenging, unconventional, hard choices. You made the faithful choice, and it leads to a picture of 17 people in white. This is such a beautiful photo, man. It's so cool.
SPEAKER_02:I just want to add, too, I think you're giving me a lot of credit for choosing the right, and I will say that I did, at Crossroads, end up choosing the right, but it wasn't easy. And I think sometimes we look at people who we think are choosing the right and doing a great job, and oftentimes they are. Oftentimes it's the product of choosing the wrong and realizing they have to get back on the right path. Right. So I look at my mission and there are times where it's easy to be lukewarm for 10 seconds. Maybe you have a companion who's being negative, or maybe you have, you know, family members at home that are, you know, giving you pressure or stress. And then all of a sudden you feel complacent, but then you have to snap back into it and be like, look, why am I here? What am I doing? And choose the right path.
SPEAKER_00:You kidding me, dude, you just took revelation three and first Kings 18. And you just buy at the end here. gave clarity to what they meant. There's a reason God says it's worse to be indifferent and passive. It's worse to be lukewarm than it is to make a choice one way or the other. Because oftentimes when we make those bad choices, we don't want that. It's not joy. It's not happiness. And it pushes us the other way. Awesome. And let's end with this. 1 Nephi 11, 21 to 23. And an angel said unto Nephi, behold the Lamb of God. So this angel shows Nephi the Lamb of God. the son of the eternal father. Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? I love this man. Lehi sees this tree and Nephi wants to know what it means and he shows him the tree and he says, do you know what it is? And he says, yeah, it's the love of God which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men. Wherefore it is the most desirable of all things. And he spake unto me saying, yea, the most joyous to the soul. I look at this picture, Ryan, of 17 people how much joy do you feel when you see, based on, A, you starting to read the scriptures and feast upon the words of Christ, and then all these other decisions, and then you get to the point where you make a decision, you know what, I'm just going to spend time with these members, love them, not just get food from them, not just get a break during the day, I'm going to love them to death. And now you see these 17 people in white getting baptized. How much joy do you feel?
SPEAKER_02:So much joy. I mean, I almost, I view it as if it were your own family of 17. joining the church, right? There's a scripture in Mosiah about the sons of Mosiah that are wanting to preach so bad to the wicked Lamanites, and they have to get permission from the king. And all they want to do is preach to people that hate them. And the king asks them, you know, why do you want to do this? And he goes, because they're our brethren. And I think that scripture changed the way I viewed everything. I think if you start viewing them as your sister, as your brother, as your father, as your mother, you start to care more, and it becomes real to you. Awesome. There's no greater joy. I can't describe. Yeah, I can't describe it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thanks for sharing, Ryan. And just for the listeners, just to reemphasize, the most important choice I would suggest that Ryan made was to feast upon the words of our Savior. Guys, you've got to start it. Start it now. This will change your whole life. Do it. Do it. Thanks for joining. We'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_02:See you. Thank you for having me.
