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
Earn Your Pillow, Be all in - Birmingham England - Elder Brayden Hendricks
This episode features a candid conversation with Elder Brayden Hendricks, who has just returned from his mission in England, Birmingham. Shawn, who has known Brayden and his "triplet" sister, Lauren, since high school, explores the pivotal choices that transformed Brayden from a "lukewarm" teenager into an "on fire" missionary.
The central theme revolves around Principle 1: the choice to be "hot" or "cold" rather than "lukewarm," drawing heavily on Revelation 3:15-17. Brayden openly shares his journey, admitting he was lukewarm in high school, even turning "cold" in his junior and senior years. He continued in a "very lukewarm" state through BYU and even into the MTC and his first mission transfer.
A significant turning point occurred during an exchange with a zone leader in Birmingham City. This elder, through "high love and high expectation," prompted Brayden to confront his own lack of commitment without direct accusation. Seeing his pirated music and texts, and being asked "Who do you want to be on your mission?" led Brayden to a personal "call to repentance". This resonated with the scripture in 1 Kings 18:21, which speaks of being "halted between two opinions".
Key motivations for Brayden's transformation included:
• An "ownership mentality" and the desire to make his parents and mission president proud.
• An admiration for dedicated missionaries, including one who had personally paid for his mission.
• His self-created "Parable of the Dishes," where he recounts a moment from his youth watching his tired mother do dishes while he played video games. This experience, akin to Elder James Faust's story of his grandmother gathering wood, taught Brayden about moving beyond selfishness to thinking of and loving others. This newfound love for others became a driving force for his dedication.
The episode emphasizes that the "field is white" not just for baptisms, but for "reaping" conversions—which includes people feeling the Spirit, making commitments, and growing their faith through the process of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Brayden shares a story of teaching a new Christian named Manoj about loving God and neighbors as the first step to building a relationship with God, illustrating this principle.
The discussion also highlights the cost of being "all in," requiring the sacrifice of fears, pride, laziness, and disobedience, as discussed in a quote by Tad R. Callister. This commitment leads to missionaries becoming "instruments in the hands of God" and experiencing a "rebirth" in Christ, learning to apply their hard work to something bigger than themselves.
Brayden's main advice for future missionaries is to "be 1% better every day" and to "be all in," echoing Elder Holland's counsel to "work so hard that you have to be brought home on a stretcher". This dedication results in knowing you "earned your pillow" at the end of the day, feeling happy and exhausted from diligent effort.
In that moment, it was a chance to bear my testimony and say, you know what? I don't know a lot, but I've seen people change.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right. Here we are. Welcome back. Mission Stories podcast. And we've got the cheekiest bloke today as our guest.
SPEAKER_01:From the motherland.
SPEAKER_02:He's a cheeky bloke because he literally, like yesterday, got off the plane from? England, Birmingham, Mission. And what's your name?
SPEAKER_01:My name's Otto Hendricks, but now Brayden Hendricks.
SPEAKER_02:Related to whom? Another cheeky bloke. Lauren, this is your... How would you even... What do you say when there's only two of you and not three of you in a room? Do you say, this is my triplet or this is my twin?
SPEAKER_01:What do you normally say? Triplet.
SPEAKER_02:You don't say, this is my twin?
SPEAKER_01:It's cooler because if you say triplet, like, hey, this is my twin, it'll be like... Okay, twin, but triplet.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, so to the normal hordes of us who are just Stoney and I, we were just singly born. You guys like leveled up to, you skipped past the twin status to triplet. So you can think even the twin status is a little
SPEAKER_03:hand. Leveling
SPEAKER_02:up. Way leveling up. All right, so you guys were, who's actually older?
SPEAKER_00:Me.
SPEAKER_02:Bye.
SPEAKER_00:One
SPEAKER_02:minute. One minute.
SPEAKER_01:Very gentleman-like of me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Last one out. Very gentleman-like. That was kind. Yeah. Very well. So you got home yesterday. How are you feeling? Jet
SPEAKER_01:lagged. Yeah. Big time jet lag.
SPEAKER_02:What time is it right now in your mission?
SPEAKER_01:It is 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_02:5 a.m. So you're a little sleepy right
SPEAKER_01:now. Just a bit. But this is good. Yeah. This
SPEAKER_02:is good. You have great energy. We're so excited for you to come back. So today, guys, we're going to have some great stories, but we're going to talk about really principles one, three, and four. One being really what we're going to start with because this bloke here has some great background and context and stories. Let me start off like this, asking this, Elder Hendricks. Three years ago, oh, wait, we sat down before we started and I said to you, hey, man, sum up your mission. Like, give me, like, what was it like? And you immediately came back and said what? What sums up your mission? Being all in. No, you didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01:What scripture? You quoted a scripture. Oh, true. Good scripture. Now, to be honest, before I even say the scripture, if you wanted me to recite a scripture before my mission, I will go and do. Maybe. You could not even. 1 Nephi 4.6 and 1 Nephi 3.7. That might have been it. This one, Revelation chapter 3 verses, actually the whole chapter, but 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I think start with 15, 16, and 17 maybe. Do you have that, Lauren? Yeah. Okay, read it.
SPEAKER_00:I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold. I would that thou wert hot or cold. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so this is one of the main scriptures we use in our principle one that we teach because it is all about a choice you make. And I think most of us as teenagers find ourselves in that lukewarm position, kind of halted position. Kind of like not doing anything maybe crazy bad, but definitely not doing anything good. We're just kind of floating there. Mom and dad think it's a good idea to go on a mission. And I'm at BYU and all my roommates are going on a mission. I mean, let's ask you that. Why did you go on a mission? What was it? Because where were you in the Revelation 3, 15, 16, 17 fork in the road?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So... I think fresh, to be honest.
SPEAKER_02:No, go back more. Let's go back to high school because I met you all guys in high school.
SPEAKER_01:Freshman and sophomore year of high school.
SPEAKER_02:Cold, lukewarm, or hot?
SPEAKER_01:I'm going to be honest. I think I was more lukewarm freshman, sophomore year of high school. Okay. Junior year, senior year? Cold. That's what you and your sister said. I didn't get it. That's not a good thing. Don't write it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so you were lukewarm as a younger kid. Then you got a little bit knowledgeable and found yourself in the world, and you went cold. You started walking down that path, making some choices.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think you just find your group. It happens. Yeah, I think you just find your group. You kind of run with them. You're in the fish pod. You go with the group you love.
SPEAKER_02:But those choices you make, I mean, we've really studied these verses, and the Lord is saying here, he isn't saying, I would that you were hot and don't be lukewarm or cold. He doesn't say that. He says, I would that you were cold or hot. And there's a deep kind of dissonant doctrine there. But I think it's founded in the other scripture that says, sometimes when you taste the bitter, you learn to desire or want the sweet. And so you bounce back off of that cold. It's okay. So high school, you went cold. Then after high school, you went to BYU. And then where'd you get?
SPEAKER_01:BYU was a really good experience. I... So I maybe read a couple of scriptures. I maybe went from zero scriptures to one scripture a month. Coolest thing was before I got endowed, a lot of temple trips. I would say that was probably the biggest thing for me. It was spiritual momentum going to the mission, but I would still say very lukewarm. Okay. Because I had a couple of buddies, like my roommate, he's serving in Chile right now, but a lot of... A couple other of my friends didn't do missions. Yeah. Just chilling.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so at BYU, you're lukewarm. Then I remember, and I can attest to the lukewarm status because I had, you kids are all kids with my son, and you guys were over at my house a lot, and we would do these mission prep courses, these classes, because you all wanted to do it together. And I can attest to some of them, these kids being hot, some of them being cold. I can definitely attest to you being lukewarm because as Lauren was there taking notes and taking notes, you were lukewarm.
SPEAKER_01:Sleep in. I was like, I'm going to sleep now. I was sleeping then. Or watching the Los Angeles Lakers game. On your phone. That's right.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. That's right. I was like, dude, is this kid getting anything from this? We'll see. We'll find out. We'll see. So the fact that you were lukewarm then, but then I haven't seen you for two years. The first thing you say to me when I say, how was your mission? And you said, Revelation 315. I'm like, dude, that's the first scripture I introduced in our principle one. He listened to something. Okay. So you get your call. Yeah. What's the mission called? England, Birmingham. Now you go out there and did this magic thing happen that you, being lukewarm, were you lukewarm as you left? Absolutely. In an MTC
SPEAKER_01:as well? MTC and first transfer.
SPEAKER_02:And so the scriptures teach us that you don't have to make any choices. God doesn't like giving us agency. So instead, you just go out on a mission and magically you will have a burning desire to be hot and go down that road. Yeah? Yeah? No. I wish. Yeah, it doesn't happen that way.
SPEAKER_03:I wish
SPEAKER_02:that was that easy. So... Tell us a little bit about how you, because if I were to just reading your emails and talking to your family, if I were to sum up one thing about your mission, and I don't know if this is accurate or not, you were freaking on fire. You worked crazy hard. You were diligent. You were all in. You were DNC4, serve with all your heart, mind, and strength. You had energy. You had passion. So to learn that even in MTC and then in the beginning of the field, you were lukewarm. You're this like wet noodle. What happened? So you told me a little bit about, I don't know, your first companion and some exchanges that kind of helped you start changing this. Tell me about it.
SPEAKER_01:I think something you said about DNC4, I think about the field white being ready to harvest. Now, I think when you think about the field being white, it's not necessarily baptisms, but it's planting even like, because I think about reaping is not just a baptism, right? It's a commitment they follow.
SPEAKER_02:Just real quick, it's beautiful what you said, but you guys just got mad at me when I called out how he says the word baptisms. And Lauren, you're like, no, he didn't. Don't think it. Say baptism again.
SPEAKER_01:Baptism?
SPEAKER_02:No, see, he's thinking it about now. Baptisms. Baptisms. Baptisms? Okay, sorry. I took it off course. I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Keep going. So I think about the field being white. It's not a baptism. I don't think that's... Because if you think about that reaping, it's not just a baptism. It's them coming to church, them feeling the Spirit, them doing a commitment, them reading a chapter and getting something from it. That's the fruit.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I love that so much for two reasons. One, because the second principle we teach is all about conversion. How does someone get converted? And it's not just one thing. You mentioned one thing, right? Baptism or baptism. That's what you mentioned. But the gospel of Jesus Christ, the doctrine that Christ teaches, is not baptism. It is faith, then it is repentance, then it is baptism, and then it is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is worth nothing if we don't repent. And repentance, we'll never do unless we have faith. Those things, so I love what you say, that white field is us being missionaries, our one purpose is to lead souls to Christ. Well, if we're leading anyone to repentance or to faith... That's the process of leading souls to Christ. It's not just baptism.
SPEAKER_01:And there's definitely other bits and bobs. There's different things you could be doing to lead to that conversion. So it's not just, hey, if you read this one chapter, you'll be converted, but it's whatever the Spirit will tell you to do. So there's different ways to lead to that faith. It's not just a one puzzle piece for everyone. Obviously, the puzzle piece will get you there, but... There's different ways leading to that conversion.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and I think, super wise, I think those four puzzle pieces that the Lord says is the gospel, faith, repentance, and baptism, I think, I personally think they are Like you said, they do go in order, right? I do have to start with, I'm never, if I don't start with faith, I'm never gonna get baptized because I'm never gonna
SPEAKER_01:repent. That's a forced conversion.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then they'll just leave.
SPEAKER_02:That's right, and they'll just leave. So I love that you started with, look, if the day-to-day grind is just helping people feel and recognize the Holy Ghost, that more than anything is gonna lead their, grow their faith. Yeah. And then their faith will turn into repentance. And then that'll ultimately lead into a staying baptism, right?
SPEAKER_00:I think something, too, that's important to remember, kind of like what Brandon's been saying, You know, when you're placing this intention behind choosing to be all in, you're not inviting people to come and partake of the tree and just stick around forever. a day, a week, a month. You're inviting people to come and stay at the tree so then they themselves can be converted and help others come to the tree as well. And I think that's something that goes over our heads a lot as missionaries, especially when we're kind of in the mode of, okay, I want to be good at this. I want to get my numbers good, like anything like that, where you kind of miss the mark on, okay, I'm here to invite people to be converted. Like DNC talks about all the time, you know, if you have a desire, you're called. What are you desiring? Are you desiring to bring souls unto Christ? Are you desiring to look good in front of other people? And yes, you want to be an example to other people. You want to be able to be a leader. But it's all about desiring the welfare of your fellow brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_02:Brayden,
SPEAKER_01:you ever
SPEAKER_02:think you'd be sitting here listening to your triplet sister preaching the gospel?
SPEAKER_01:Not really, to be fair.
SPEAKER_02:Because two years ago, you guys were both lukewarm. Yeah, this is beautiful. Just basketball players. Yeah, lukewarm basketball players. But it's so much joy hearing you talk. Okay, so you, Braden, shared an experience. When I asked you, okay, you were lukewarm, lukewarm, a little cold, then you went lukewarm, then lukewarm. Now you're in the mission field, still kind of lukewarm. You gave me a story about an exchange you went on where someone basically called you to repentance. Let's hear it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so context, this is my second, I think it was my second transfer, maybe first. My first companion, money. Did everything he did. I love him. Yeah, I saw him last week, actually, in the mission he came to visit. Just a super good, did everything. My second companion, he would agree we did not get along well. It was tough. It was tough, and I was like, oh, man, this is a little bit of adjustment. But I'm just going to do my thing. He'll do his thing. We don't really talk about it. We won't really change each other, you could say. It's just like, just stay in your lane kind of type thing. Uh, I go on this exchange with another and we go to, I was in a little suburb village, a bunch of older, uh, very not wanting to talk people. So that's all I knew of England was just older people that didn't want to talk. You go to Birmingham city, Birmingham city, uh, one of the most diverse cities in England, second biggest city in the, in England, uh, I go there and I'm with the zone leader at the time. On an exchange. On an exchange. The exchange was great. Double-decker bus for the first time. That was lovely. Fish and chips for the first time. I was like, this is a dream. This is lit. And I'm taking photos in front of all these buildings and stuff. I was like, this is great. I want to be here every day.
SPEAKER_02:During the workday? Oh,
SPEAKER_01:of course. Of course. I was in the moment. I was like, this is great. I love it. And I was, to be honest, he was a cool elder as well. So the whole time I'm like, we're getting on. This is great. No problems. We're not even arguing about anything. The night we go to bed, Great. Next morning, we wake up to change, and he's like, oh, Elder, before we go, we're doing an exchange
SPEAKER_02:review. Nice. I go, what is that? Yeah, I don't know what that is
SPEAKER_01:either. Well, I mean, it makes sense. Self-explanatory. And two things for missionaries, if they don't have ever heard of this, after an exchange, you'll do a device audit. That's one thing we did on our mission. Oh, that's good to know. Maybe that's unique for our mission.
SPEAKER_02:I've heard a lot of them do. And who performs that device audit? So both companionships. You would swap phones and do a device
SPEAKER_01:audit. Okay. That was the first thing. And then the second thing was just talk about how the exchange went. So maybe that's unique to us. Lauren, did you have that?
SPEAKER_00:We didn't have any device audit, but we had exchange reviews.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So on this exchange review, first off, when he's like, hey, give me your phone. If I were to say, oh, wait, give me a second. That'd be too suspicious. Yeah. So I said, okay, here, here, here. And so he saw all my texter people during the week. He saw all my parody music on my phone. And I was like, oh, this is not good. Like this is the zone leader. I got to look good in front of him. So I give him my phone and we talk about some stuff. He's like, Elder, like who do you want to be on your mission? He's like, you're great. You speak a lot. You're loud. You're energetic. Yeah, you're super charismatic. You're personable. You're a cheeky bloke. Yeah. What you said earlier. But I think the coolest thing for him is he first, before correcting me, he said, you are such a good missionary. He showed that high love. And then he said, who do you want to be? That's the high expectation. And for me, he didn't even need to say what I needed to work on. I knew. And I think a lot of the time, there's missionaries that... Sometimes we'll say, oh, maybe they don't know they're doing something wrong. But I'm going to be honest. I think a lot of missionaries know what they want to do, but it's just too hard. Yeah. or it's just too difficult to change, or I'm just stuck in a certain way.
SPEAKER_02:So the style of this guy was lead with love, and then he started asking you questions that he didn't even– because I got the impression when he first told the story is he literally called you to repentance. It was like, dude, you need to– but he didn't even do that. He just was such a good example and led with love that you in your heart knew, wow, was there any part of you that like, okay, I kind of want to be like this dude,
SPEAKER_01:and I'm not being like this dude? Absolutely. Absolutely. When I say call to repentance, that's what I got from it. Now, if you were a third companion there or if you're a third missionary there, you would say, oh, this elder just told Elder Hendricks, hey, just do a little bit better. Like, I still love you. You're still doing good. Just do a bit better. But in my eyes and my ears, I heard you need to be better because you know you can.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I love about that? Just to insert something real quick. Like I did see you kids being lukewarm before, right? I knew that. And when you're lukewarm, you go one of two ways, right? You have to make a choice and you'll go one of two ways. Lauren coming home with the greatest, just such joy to see how on fire she was and how converted she was. And so I wondered about you. I really did. And to hear you talk about being in this room, it speaks volumes about the choice that you made, right? You didn't have to get called to repentance by this guy in his subtle way, right? You didn't have to react to that with humility and desire to be good. That speaks to what's deep down inside in your soul and what your faith in Christ is. The fact that you took that and you decided, well, did you? Did you decide to repent in your own way? Yeah, I did. Okay, what
SPEAKER_01:happened?
SPEAKER_02:What
SPEAKER_01:happened? Okay, so what happened on that exchange, yeah?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I went home with my companion, and I get home, and I think that night I said my prayer, and let's be fair, my first— Uh, transfer my closing prayer with my companion. It was fine. I'd be like, Hey, you said the prayer. That's fine. You got it. And I'd say a personal prayer. But this, after that moment, I, it was kind of just like a re, um, confirmation that like, Hey, this, what he said today was true. You're good. You can be great.
SPEAKER_02:Lord, do you have the first King scripture up?
SPEAKER_00:Give me a second.
SPEAKER_02:This is awesome, dude. Because do you remember, so the children of Israel were, they started to enjoy this other religion called the religion of Baal. And the society was very prosperous at the time. And so they all started to kind of go after this secular religion. And the Lord said to Elijah, get down off the mountain, go down and bring my people back. And so he gathered them all together. Do you have it, Lauren?
SPEAKER_00:21.
SPEAKER_02:I think so.
SPEAKER_00: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_02:You were halted between two opinions. And when you face this companion who in a loving way called you to repentance and you saw that he was good, you admired him, you wanted to be like him, you stopped being halted at that point. This is the moment where you started to make a decision to follow God, to be hot.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I think in the beginning of your mission, you could, our mission president, one of the biggest things he would talk about every single transfer was ownership mentality. Don't be a victim, be an owner. And so when I served in the office, there was a lot of, like I would tell people, hey, who do you want to become? A question I would ask a couple of times to every missionary was like, Okay, let's say Lauren. If Lauren was on her mission right now, if I was on exchange with her, I would say, Lauren, what does mom think you're doing right now? What does mom think about you? What do you think she's telling everyone back home? Is she saying, yeah, but, you know, to be honest, I don't really have high expectations about Lauren. She's probably just chilling. Or is she saying she's the best worker? I love my daughter, Lauren. She's going to work.
SPEAKER_02:And that view of what your mom sees of you, that motivated you.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:That's beautiful. I think about that. And then also some kids are fortunate to maybe get help from family members or friends or church leaders to go on their mission. I had a couple of companions that paid for it themselves. Wow. And seeing the difference between a companion that paid for it and was all in, because that was his time. He worked two, three years to pay for a mission. Even if I... Didn't really help much to go. I wanted to make sure whoever paid for my mission, I was, I was paying them back.
SPEAKER_02:Good for you. I mean, that speaks to how honest you are. Now you brought in, you brought in a thing, a famous thing called the parable of the dishes about, you know, when we started talking about this.
SPEAKER_01:Go on a story rant.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Can you teach us about the parable of the dishes? Cause I asked you. This is your parable. You created the parable of the dishes. Crack
SPEAKER_01:on, then
SPEAKER_02:I'll say the parable. Because I'd asked you, like, okay, so at this point you start to make a change, right? You were lukewarm. You were halted. I was asking, well, what was the motivation? Like, what? And you've... given us a few things, right? You had a desire to make your mom and dad proud. You saw a missionary that you really admired and you're like, I want to be like that. You'd mentioned that you really liked your mission president. You're like, I don't want that dude to talk about me as if he's proud of me. Like I trust that guy. So those are all good motivations, right? But I wanted to dig deeper at some of the other motivations and you mentioned one and told us the story of the parable of the dishes. Tell us that because that teaches us, teaches me a lot about your motivation a little bit. Do you remember the parable? Go on. You're playing video games. And your mom. Yeah. I don't know if this really
SPEAKER_01:happened. We'll do the parable of the dishes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, do it then.
SPEAKER_01:Now, COVID era. Oh, this really happened? Video games. Yeah. All video games. All day. Mario
SPEAKER_02:Kart.
SPEAKER_01:Fortnite. Fall Guys.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I was going to start naming off 90s games, but I won't even try. 2K. Okay, 2K.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm playing with my buddies. I don't know if Abby and Lauren were home, but probably like 9 p.m. My mom and our living room is you could see the kitchen from the living room and I'm playing. I'm like, I'm like two inches away from the TV. I don't know how I don't have glasses right now. My eyesight's probably so bad, but I'll play my games and every often I would like go in and get chocolate milk because chocolate looks so nice. So underrated chocolate milk in it.
SPEAKER_02:Wait, were you three years old when this is all happening?
SPEAKER_01:17.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm here and I'm playing my video games. And I look over, and my mom's doing the dishes, and she's cleaning up the kitchen. And I can see she's a little bit, like, she's wiping her head, and she's maybe having a hard day. You could leave it at that, having a hard day. And I have my headphones in, and I hear a, hey, buddy, hey, buddy. I take off one headphone. I say, hello, what's up, mom? Hey, is it okay if you just do the rest of the dishes? Like, I'm just going to go. I don't really feel that well. Let me go sit down. Can you just finish the dishes? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. After the game. After the game. I got you. 30 minutes playing my game. An hour playing my game. Probably an hour and a half. I get the remembrance. Oh, the dishes. Help mom. I look over. Mom's not there. Dishes aren't there either. The dishes are put away. And for me, I get up. I look at the dishes. I was too almost embarrassed. I just felt like, oh, my mom did so much. And for me, I didn't even do a little thing. I didn't give up five minutes for someone else. It was very selfish.
SPEAKER_02:Do you know who James E. Faust is? He was an apostle in the 90s. I showed you, Lauren, this. There's one video where he's up preaching just in conference. Remember this? And he starts telling this story, very similar to your parable of the dishes, about his grandma and they were in their little house and the fire was dying and grandma was like, hey, can anyone please go get some wood? And they were just having so much fun and he kind of ignored her. And then he watched her go out and get the wood and this old lady and bring it back in and do all this manual labor and put it in. And Elder Faust, who's 80 at this time, is on the podium, starts quivering, like crying. And he says, the greatest sin and omission in my life is that I let my poor grandma, who served her whole life, and instead of loving her and giving her thanks, I just selfishly just did my own thing. I love this concept because... we all have to come to a point where we start thinking of other people instead of just ourselves, right? So I love in your mind, you're like, one of the motivations that helped you become on fire was this consideration of, am I just going to go my whole life just being selfish and thinking of me? Or am I going to do what Jesus Christ did and think of everyone before myself?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. And it reminds me, so about a week ago, actually, it was on Saturday. So just under a week ago, we were door knocking because a lesson fell through. Three doors in, no, no, no. We're like, let me just say a prayer. Me and the Tejo Munoz from Spain, we knock on this door. Two or three guys, they're all from India. A bunch of these kids, they open the door and we're like, hey, we're teaching people about Jesus. He says, oh, no, no, no. I'm Buddhist, but my friend in here is a Christian. I said, bring out your friend. Actually, do you want us to come in? He's like, no, that's fine. But we'll get our friend. His friend comes out a little bit like shocked, like, oh, what are these white shirt and tie guys wanting from me? And we say, you're a Christian, yeah? He's like, yeah, I'm a Christian. We're like, give him a fist bump. That's good, man. That's good. Do you ever go to a church? Do you have a church around here? He's like, oh, no, I just moved in. I was like, well, you're in good luck. Five minutes away, if you walk, do, do, do, do, do. Five minutes away, you'll be at the church. He's like, really? What's your church called? Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And he looks at me. He's like, yeah, but I'm busy. I'm busy. I'm busy. I'm saying, okay, we'll come back tomorrow night. We'll come back tomorrow night. If you're home, we'll meet you. If not, no worries. Next night we come. We knock on his door. His friend answers again. Hey, I'm Buddhist. I told you. Why are you coming back? I say, oh, your friend, Manos. Or Manos. Manos. That was his name. Manos is my companion. So Manos, he doesn't answer. We call him. Hey, what's up, man? No response. Doesn't answer the phone. The next day, the next morning, he calls us and says, I'm so sorry. I was working. I got the late shift. Let's meet tonight. This was a Saturday night. We meet him at the chapel with one of the service missionaries, and I love service missionaries. They are so underrated. Nice. If you feel like prostrating is not for you, pray about it. Ask God, but just go on a service mission. Nice. Okay, I'm going to ask you about that later. It's so money. It's so good. So helpful. One of my best friends was a service missionary because he struggled. He had some difficulty in the beginning of his mission going proselyting, so he did service. I still talk to him today. Awesome. I'm teaching this guy, Manoj, and he's like, okay, to be honest, I'm a Christian, but I kind of just chose it a week ago. And I'm like, nah, fair enough. I chose it like a year and a half ago. That's just me. And he's like, okay, where do I start? I want to meet with you. I think this feels good. And I was thinking about it, and my companion, he kind of gives me like the nod, like the, okay, what do you think? Because he knew this was my last lesson in the mission field. And I'm with this guy, and I'm thinking, okay, what would be the first thing I would teach someone who wants to learn about Christianity? And you would think, ah, baptism or faith or repentance. And I was like, who do you love? Manoj, who do you love in your family or in the world? He's like, what? I was like, who do you love? He's like, you guys. I'm like, nah, that's fine. We just met like two days ago. Who do you actually love, though? He's like, I love my mom and my dad. And I say, why do you love your mom and your dad? He's like, what do you mean? I was like, they could say they love you. My mom could say to me, hey, son, I love you. Hey, Lauren, I love you. But why would I believe them? And I think I would believe them is because they did the dishes for me when I said I wouldn't. They take me to church. They take me to school. They take me to my sports games. They do it with an act. The faith leads to action. The love leads to action. So the first thing we taught this guy was, hey, love God and love your parents or your neighbors or your friends. And for him, it was kind of a click where it's like, I've heard of this God, but how do I connect? I said, okay, well, what do you think you should do? How do you build a relationship with your mom? He's like, I talked to her. Perfect. You can talk to God. That's called prayer. He talks to you through scriptures. Um, And I think if we, I love to use analogies when I talk. That's great. So every time I would just teach in analogies because it helps someone just understand a lot easier. So I was talking to this guy and we talk about loving God, loving our neighbors. And at the end, he's like, you know, this feels really good. I want to be here. I feel comfortable. I look at something online. It said baptism. Is that something you do in your church? I say yes. Four weeks. Let's get you baptized in four weeks. Now he was like, yeah, let me think about it. And he has difficulty with work, but I'm so sure that he will get baptized soon.
SPEAKER_02:What a fun story to follow up on. But it's a perfect story to bring in here because there's no way that someone... I watched how hard you worked and I just don't think that the motivation of, I want to look good in the eyes of my parent. I know I want to look good in the eyes of my mission companion or the mission president, or I don't want to waste my parents' money. There's no way those motivations are sufficient for you to work as hard as you did to be all in as you did. I got to believe that this parable of the dishes that you thinking of your mom, I got to think that's the true motivation that drove you to work as hard as you did. Yeah. You somewhere along the line learned to love other people more than you love yourself. Somewhere.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. There was an experience I had. It was probably a month or two after the exchange with this really, really good elder. And I'm walking through this really old city center of my first day. It was in Litchfield, England. I'm walking through. And usually when you straight contact there, All old people. Like, you won't see a single young person unless it's right after school and you're by school. And I'm walking through, and I see this group of, like, they look like they could be my friends back home. Like, they think they're really cool. They're not that cool. They're not that humble. They have, like, basketball clothes on. Like, I was like, ah, these kids are tough. And I'm walking with my companion. We're going to a dinner appointment, and all I hear is, hey, yo, yo, yo, y'all Mormons. And I go... Is he talking to me or you? Do you want to answer? He's like, no, no, no, you answer. And I was like, oh, yeah, we're missionaries for our church. And he's like, come over here, come over here. I was like, okay. So I was like, these five kids, they talk to me, and they say, why are you here? Like, you're American. Why did you leave America to come here? And in that moment, I was like, why am I here? Nice.
SPEAKER_02:What am I doing with this time I have? This is the fourth time in this whole episode that you've kind of brought in this concept of why. Why am I here? Why is this? What do I want to be and why?
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. And so in this moment, it kind of opened to me like it can be very easy for me like, yeah, it's just I got forced to or try and play it off cool. But in that moment, it was a chance to bear my testimony and say, you know what? I don't know a lot, but I've seen people change. I've seen myself change in a month. Um, so I remember speaking to these kids and one of them was like, okay, like where's your church actually? Like, is it around here? I was like, yeah, Priscilla Avenue up the road, 10 minute walk. Um, he never came, but just like I was talking to DNC for the field is white. He, he listened. Wow. He listens to a, a pure testimony. Not that I knew everything, but it was a pure
SPEAKER_02:testimony. Cause you were really at this point making this transition. I mean, this is what is called, uh, being born again right this is what that process is this is what i love so much about missions you guys we're so blessed to live in a day where we get to serve these full-time missions you get to go through a converting process that leads to a rebirth right you you are nothing like you were two years ago i mean the personality is there it's you but you like lauren same with you you guys are reborn in christ right You spent all this time serving other people, learning to love other people, learning to forget yourself, learning to apply. I mean, you were both athletes, so you knew how to work hard. But now you've learned how to apply it towards something that is above you and bigger than you. Just a beautiful, amazing thing.
SPEAKER_01:It reminds me of a scripture. Yeah, read it. 2 Nephi 25. Now, when we would go straight contacting and someone's like, Book of Mormon, what is that? I would just show them this scripture because it was the one that summarizes what the Book of Mormon is. Okay. It says, 2 Nephi 25, 26. There you go. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know what source they may look for a remission of their sins. And I love that because I say, hey, have you seen this book? No, let me read you a scripture about it.
SPEAKER_02:And that's the one you'd read?
SPEAKER_01:And I'd read
SPEAKER_02:that.
SPEAKER_01:And I'd say... Do you talk about Christ much? They say, yeah, I love him. You see my chain? It's a cross. Do you rejoice in Christ saving you? Yeah, I love it. Do you preach of him? Maybe not straight preach, but I talk to my family about it. Okay, do you? And you kind of go down the list, and then the bottom part about our children, I'll ask them, do you believe you're a child of God? They say, of course I am. You're that child then. That context can relate to you, and it says that we can find a remission of our sins. Okay. And so if you read the book, if you don't any wrong, I'll say, I'll pretty, be pretty blunt with people. And I'll say, have you made a mistake? They go, stupid question. Of course I have. And, and we'll go on and I'll say, Jesus already paid the price. You can join his team. It's team Jesus. Sometimes I would ask people, we would be street contacting and everyone there, big footy fans, soccer, football. Now my team is Wolf Hampton football. Cheeky team. Not that good, but that's my team. And so I'd ask people, hey, who's your football team? Just get some common ground. The high love. We'll talk about that in a second. But with the high love, I would always say, okay, who's your team? And they'd be like, oh, whatever. And I'd say, you know my favorite team? And they'd be like, well, what? I'd be like, Team Jesus. Join Team Jesus. We're looking for recruits.
SPEAKER_00:Did you want
SPEAKER_01:to say something?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there's a... Just like being able, I mean, Brayden's been home for all of what, 24 hours, maybe 30. And so I haven't actually had the chance to really talk to him about this. So this is like my first time hearing all these stories. And in chapter six of PMG, it basically sums up how. we become this servant of the Lord that he wants us to become. And there's a quote in it, and it says, just as vital as what you do is who you are and who you are becoming. Brayden's always been great, but the person that he's become is even greater. And there's a quote from Elder Bednar, and he says, what you are brings tremendous power into the lives of those who you teach. And I think about that. I know that as missionaries, we all have a deep understanding that deep down, okay, I can become something great. The Lord has entrusted me to be on his team and now I'm going to go help others. Like I know I can be great. So it kind of just depends on, you know, what you choose, like how we're talking about action and faith, where you, like what you do with that. And it's more of a changing your nature instead of just your behavior. But that's hard. And so the lukewarm missionaries, I think, I mean, there's multiple reasons for why someone would be lukewarm while they're serving. But I think one of the main things is fear. And there is an incredible BYU speech by Todd R. Callister. It's called Becoming a Consecrated Missionary. And I found this when I was about a year in the mission. So I was a little late, but better late than never. And there's a part in it that I shared during a training I gave once during a district council meeting. And it's perfect. Like just the perfect thing to get missionary is to make that choice. And I want to share, it says, um, So somebody poses this question. You wanted me to change the world. Did you think there would be no cost? And then Tadar Callister goes to respond and he says, You young missionaries came out here to change the world, to change lives, but there is a cost. It costs everything that you have on the altar of sacrifice. Your fears, your pride, your laziness, your disobedience, your weakness. We cannot hold anything back. When you came to the mission field, you burned the bridges behind you. You burned the ships in the harbor. There was no retreat to your former life. you cannot have one foot at home and one foot in the mission field and then it goes on to that is a certain formula for frustration the Lord demands our whole soul on the sacrificial altar that is the price we must pay and when we do we become the instruments in the hands of God The natural result of our presence has such a big impact on the lives of those we teach. And not even the lives of those we teach, but also everyone that we come in contact with, companions, mission presidents, random people on the street, people that get baptized, members, just anyone. But it all starts with choosing to become.
SPEAKER_02:It all starts with choosing. And I'm so thrilled, dude. You could have gone either way. You could have. I guess we all could have.
SPEAKER_01:It was actually pretty crazy. There was a missionary. I was probably a year into my mission. a year and a month. And he's given his departing. Did you have that in your mission? Departing testimonies? Yeah. So during our zone conference, everyone that was leaving gives their testimony one last time. And there was an elder and very, just very bluntly. He says to me, Hey, no, to be honest, I didn't do enough. I think I should have done more. I regret it. And everyone was like looking at you like, did he really just say that? He really said he should have done more. And for me, I was doing pretty well at that time. I was pretty solid, but I was like, I can always be doing more. And I think it was very humble for him to say that, but there was a couple of missionaries. There was one missionary in my mission that came out because he's like, hey, and I thought this never really happened, but he's like, hey, my girlfriend told me to come. I'm here. That's what he said to everyone. It's like on a, on a, on a zoom call with the whole mission. Hey, my, my girlfriend told me to come. I don't really know why I'm going to stay, but I'm here.
SPEAKER_02:That's a Luke. That's a very lukewarm reason to go, which again, there's good, better, best. That's a good, okay. Go. Sure. Girlfriend. Good for you. But yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And, and something Lauren said is, I think it's, you just got to try and be all in every day and be 1% better every day. There was something I was reading a couple of days ago. It's in Matthew chapter five at the very end. It says, be therefore perfect. Now, Does Jesus think we'll do that on the mission? No. Do we think it's going to do this in this life? No. But it is attainable through his mercy. Through him. Through him. So it's not just like it's some crazy like, hey, you'll never actually do this, but be perfect. It's like, no, no, no. You can be perfect through... Jesus Christ sacrificed. Come to Christ. One day, if you keep having faith and repenting and get baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, you can become perfect one day. That's it. And that's the greatest gift a father can give to us.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Become like him. Dude, he caught fire.
SPEAKER_02:Lauren, your brother caught fire. This is awesome. I'm so happy to see this, dude. And you did really, D&C 4, serve with all your heart, mind, and strength. At least that's what we saw. Yeah. And the motivation ultimately, when you make that choice to do that, ultimately that leads to this rebirth, right? The motivation of I just, I have this, I've loved listening to Lauren talk about the peace and joy that comes from converting to Christ, and then you just want that for everyone else. Like it's such a great, beautiful motivation. Yeah, so we've got lots of stories. We're running out of time for this episode, so we'll have you back for part two. But Lauren, you had a question for your brother.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, final question, B. To all the missionaries, future missionaries that are listening, what's your biggest piece of advice?
SPEAKER_01:That's a good question. I think I would just sum it up by saying just trying to be 1% better every day. If I look at my mission, I went through certain experiences at the beginning to propel me for the rest of my mission. So if I didn't go on that exchange, who knows? If I didn't have that really, really good companion and then not as good companion after, who knows? But I was able to just try and be 1% better, not just for me, but for my family back home supporting me, for God supporting me, for God sending his son, Jesus Christ, for me to be better through him. So it's being 1% better, not just for you, but you have a family with you.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and you had said before the episode we were talking, you mentioned that, but you also mentioned be all in, which is that concept, right? Which is if I'm all in, that means tomorrow I'm going to try a little bit harder. And I'm all in tomorrow. I'm going to try a little harder. And when I get knocked down or things do get hard, I'm still here. I'm still all in. I'm going to give it all my heart, all my mind and strength. When I was in the MTC, Elder Holland was there, the apostle, and he said, he says, I'm going to give you a piece of advice to all you missionaries. You got to promise not to tell your parents. So we're like, that's weird. Yeah, he's like, I mean it. Raise your hands and promise you will not tell your mom what I'm about to say. So we all raised our hands. Stoney just raised her hand. When we all raised our hands, Elder Holland said this, work so hard that you have to be brought home on a stretcher. Skip food, skip rest. Be so desperate to find those to bring to Christ that you will be brought home on a stretcher. That's being all in. That is being all in. That is trying every day to be 1% better. Good
SPEAKER_01:advice. And the cool thing of being all in and 1% better is you'll know at the end of the day if you did what you're supposed to do because not only would the spirit tell you, but you'll know. Because you're
SPEAKER_02:exhausted in the greatest, most happiest way
SPEAKER_01:ever. Our mission president would always say, earn your pillow. Nice. At the end of the day, earn your pillow, earn your food, earn your testimony. Love it. Work for it. That's awesome. And I think with the Be All In, it's very easy for... Like us to really know, so like the parable of the dishes. I knew without anyone saying it. If you finish your day and you're sitting on your couch after a long day knocking, but you didn't really talk to anyone, you're kind of just out there not really doing anything, you'll know because the Spirit will tell you. And it'll motivate you, I hope. To change the day after.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm excited next episode to talk to you about the techniques that you use because I know you opened your mouth and you talked to people. You talked about getting on, you called it bus preaching. We called it tram preaching and bus, right?
SPEAKER_01:Trams, trains.
SPEAKER_02:All of it, right? So next episode, we'll talk about all these techniques that you applied in order to be all in and to work with all your heart, mind, and strength. But dude, awesome to have you be this changed person Disciple of Christ sitting before me. Whereas two years ago, you were a great dude. You were lukewarm. Great dude for the world. For the world. And now you're a great dude for God, which is awesome. That's good. So thanks for listening. Come back. We'll hear part two. And Lauren, you have anything to add? No, you're good. You're good. All right. Brayden, get some rest. I do. Because next time.
SPEAKER_01:It's 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_02:Next time you need to bring a little more energy.
SPEAKER_01:I'll say less. Challenge accepted. Okay,
SPEAKER_02:good. All right.
SPEAKER_01:We'll get it
SPEAKER_02:cracking. We'll get it cracking. Talk to you next time.
