The Episode That Started Temple Bound, Brett Blake on Raising Missionaries

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Before we start the episode, I have a small favor to ask.
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If Temple Bound has meant something to you, would you take a moment right now and follow the podcast and leave a comment on the app that you're listening to?
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When you follow and leave a comment, it helps the podcast show up for more people who are trying to learn, grow, and come closer to the teachings at the temple.
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It's free and it's simple, but it really makes a big difference.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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The Dan Temple Band, we're doing something special.
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We are re-releasing the very first episode we ever put out there.
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When we started the show, we didn't have hardly any audience.
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I'm pretty sure it was just my mom.
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And so this wonderful episode didn't get the attention it deserves.
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It was a transformative episode with a friend of mine by the name of Brett Blake.
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Brett served as a mission president in Denver, and he shares with us how temple worship and service can help us as parents prepare our youth to serve missions.
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It's an inspiring episode with a wonderful outcome.
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I can't wait for you to hear the episode that started this whole show off.
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Enjoy the show.
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Welcome to Temple Bound.
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I'm excited for today's special guest, Brett Blake.
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Brett, welcome to the show.
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Thanks.
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Well, good to be with you.
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Now, this is a very special episode.
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This is episode number one of Temple Bound.
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And obviously, our intention is to help bring people to the blessings of Temple and Family History W.
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And uh I think it might be good for you just to start by introducing yourself and a little bit about how we know each other might be fun.
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Yeah.
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We know each other in an unusual way that most people don't have.
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And that is that I had the opportunity to live in your home while your family uh gallivanted around and explored Europe.
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Uh, had an amazing trip, I think.
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Um, and we were so grateful to be able to live in your house for a little while.
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And we fell in love with it.
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We bought a home in the neighborhood and made, we copied yours.
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In fact, your sons have been in our home and they're like, wait, this is this is our house.
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Well, it's so cool because now you're a youth leader over the Deacons, and it was, it's we didn't know each other.
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We so my family, I sold my company and we decided to get out of Dodge for we decided to run away from our problems and everything.
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And so we we left our home for six months.
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We had never done anything that adventurous before.
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So I remember praying and fasting and being like, please help us find a good family that can rent our home.
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And literally, Brett, this is the part that you don't know.
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I put our home up for rent on Zillow, I think it was.
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And it was literally like you were the first person to respond.
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And how could we have known how lucky we would have been for you to be our home renters?
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And so all we heard about while we were overseas from our friends were like, yeah, we're excited for you to come back, but like, don't push this family out of the house because they are amazing.
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And that was kind of like us.
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Yeah, it's interesting because we had such a great experience.
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That's where we got our call to go serve a mission.
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In fact, I remember sitting in your at your kitchen table, and we were on a Zoom uh call with President Oaks, was coming on.
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He hadn't come on yet, and we were looking in the background, we're like, we're so lucky.
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This is such a beautiful house.
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And there was a picture of the temple right over our shoulder, right between me and my wife Erin.
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Oh, no way.
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And and we're we were waiting for President Oaks, and we're like, that's just a little much.
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That's like probably over the top.
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So we hopped up and tried to change it around, but we have that amazing memory in in your home and uh just a wonderful feel.
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We love that.
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And I've loved to get to know you and your boys.
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Um so yeah, what a way, what a wonderful way that the Lord has brought us together.
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And now we're doing this this episode.
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And it's so cool because again, I heard so many wonderful things about your family.
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I was pumped to meet you guys, and then we just hit it off right out of the gate, and now you're in the ward and now you're the leader to my son, which is so cool.
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Your family is what makes your family so special is that is how down to earth they are.
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I think a lot of times in the church, we there's a culture of like perfectionism that exists.
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And so what what you guys do is set a good example and just really down to earth and natural.
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As a matter of fact, I was gonna tell you this.
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I want to have your wife on the show as well as a guest, because my wife, when she told when she heard that you were coming, she's like, that's perfect.
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And if you don't have his wife join, you're really missing out too.
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And I said, Yeah, for sure.
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So that's true.
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Thank you for having me first because I I I'll set the lower benchmark and she'll blow that out of the water.
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She's a hard act to follow, no question.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So, man, so let's let's talk a little bit about like so you get received a mission call.
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So tell us about that call and and what you did for the next number of years.
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Yeah, you know, that's an interesting.
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I love my mission president.
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He had such an amazing influence on my life, President Simmons.
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I always wanted to be like him, but never imagined I'd have an opportunity to serve as a mission leader like he was.
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And especially at that when I got received my call, you know, I was in my 50s.
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I had never served as a bishop, never served in a state presidency.
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All the boxes they claim you need to check, um, right?
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Those I didn't check.
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And and um we got a we got an invitation to go and serve.
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Um, and it became such a blessing in our life.
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I had a little bit of an imposture syndrome the whole time, thinking, you know, if they know who I am and what I've done, they'll probably ask me to go home.
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But we had a chance to serve during COVID.
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Uh, we went out, um, I remember being at home waiting to go, thinking, I'm so grateful for the the savages who were serving there before us.
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They're they're gonna take care of all the COVID-related issues, and we're gonna be able to get there just in time.
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It's gonna be summer and and everything's gonna be cleared up and we're gonna be able to get get to work.
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But we got the news that we weren't gonna be going to the MTC.
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We wouldn't have that opportunity to spend those three days with the Corum of the 12 and the first pregnancy, and we just head straight to Denver.
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Um, and when we got there, everyone was locked up and and uh the temples were closed um and the churches were closed, and it was a unique experience.
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So very interesting.
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So, right, you were called in, and we all thought COVID would be over during that summer, but you just had to go straight to the field.
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So you didn't have the preparation to go like like that most people do to get trained.
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You didn't have any of that.
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Well, make no mistake, the church does a great job of training you.
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They just load you up with materials they they have a mentor, there's podcasts, but they have a three-day live training that they usually they usually allow a mission leader to come to the Pro Bowl MTC and spend some time together with other mission leaders and with the church leaders.
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Ours were was done virtually.
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So we sat um in now our home uh here in Gilbert and hopped on our computer and and uh we just listened and learned from there.
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So, what was that like when you first entered the field?
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What does that transition like going from regular guy in an award to stepping into a mission president seat?
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Yeah, it's you know, they tell you that you're set apart a few weeks before you go.
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Um, other RAS band set us apart.
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Um, and when you land, the keys officially transfer over to you.
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And I remember going to the mission home, uh, standing with the outgoing mission president.
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We had wrapped up a few things.
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We can't talk about any missionaries.
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We just he he talks about finances and how the missions run and gives us a tour of the house, and he's ready to leave, and the phone rings and he hands it to me.
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And uh the first call I got was from a missionary.
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He said, President, I'm sorry to do this to you.
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I know you just got here, but you need to send me home.
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And the mission leader, President Savage, who I love to this day, looks at me and waves and turns out, walks out the door, and and I sat uh in that office, watched him leave, thinking, What on earth have I gotten myself into?
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And um, and we were off and running, and and it was a frantic pace.
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Unlike, you know, I've run several companies, um, I've experienced really significant challenges in business and other things, and but I wasn't prepared for that, the pace of missionary work.
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Um, it's um wonderful, amazing, and exhausting all at one time.
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Because you're just going more early morning, late at night, nonstop.
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And so as you went through this journey, what was that like getting to know your missionaries?
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Yeah, you know, when I when I think about missionaries, I think about actually an experience I had in my home sitting um at my computer after we had gotten our assignment to Denver.
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Um, I pulled up on the computer and saw a um somehow my feed showed a missionary who had just that week got their call to Denver.
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And and I saw his opening.
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And as I watched his opening, and I'm thinking now I'm ready to cry, I I'm not a crier until I got my call.
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Now I cry more often.
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Somehow I got a leak, but but it I just started to ball.
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I just felt this overwhelming love for this young missionary.
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And that love for these missionaries extended as a gift throughout the entire mission.
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I remember even in the last few transfers when I was thinking, well, this missionary is really not going to be, quote, my missionary.
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This missionary is going to spend most of their mission with the incoming mission leader.
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But by the time we met them and sent them off for their first companion, just had this deep love and just such a desire for them to succeed and to do well.
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And it was a great gift.
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One of the great blessings and gifts of being a mission leader is that love that is ongoing.
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Um, we hear from our missionaries almost every day.
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Um, and it's a great blessing in our lives.
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Yeah, I am very fortunate that my mission president lives in Mesa.
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And I've been very grateful for the fact that I have this wonderful man who's like a father to me.
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And we don't, and honestly, we haven't talked directly in a long time, but it's one of those things that pops up in social media.
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That relationship that that is built between a mission president and the missionaries is sacred.
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And it's a it's a parental type of relationship.
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I wonder, you know, now that you're you're complete on your mission, looking back, I'm sure that's obviously one of the things that you miss most, but what are the things that you miss about that experience?
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The flow of revelation.
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Last night I had an opportunity, I had a missionary call me late, and we talked about a um a question he had about his life.
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And um I recognize I don't have the keys anymore.
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And I I did tell him that, you know, Elder, I have I don't have keys for you, and you need to talk to your key holder.
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And but here's some suggestions and things.
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Um, but there is a flow of revelation.
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Uh, the mission leader before us called it just in time revelation that you receive.
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That is it's wonderful and it's amazing, and it's so consistent.
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And um, I have a hard time kind of going back and pointing to a single instance or because over and over and over again, there were just tremendous blessings that the Lord gave me.
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I remember I had a one young missionary who had come to us from a situation where his mother had left him at eight years old.
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His father had him in and out of the house, but by the time he was a teenager, his father actually used him in a way that both he and his father were arrested.
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Um and it took a bishop, he was not active in the church, but he'd been baptized thanks to his grandma.
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Uh it took a bishop to who was an attorney to go into this um to the and and explain what had happened, and he had nothing to do with it.
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But his father went to prison, was still in prison, and he ended up with his grandmother, and um, and his grandmother took him, he and his sister to church.
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He had some other members, family members who were members of the church.
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You know, he had in teenage years, he'd gone off the rails and done some things that probably uh shouldn't have done, would definitely would have offended the Holy Ghost.
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And um, and then he found out about a year before his mission that his grandmother was gonna pass.
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And she passed very quickly and left he and his sister without parents um available to take care of him, with the grandmother who'd been an influence out of their life.
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And somehow a priesthood leader had encouraged him to come on a mission.
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When he got there, he had a great attitude, and he was, I could tell he was gonna be a great missionary.
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But it became clear, because he talked maybe more than he probably should to to one of his companions, that he had not taken care of his confessions that he should have before the mission and things that normally would a missionary would have sent home.
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And I began to counsel with him, and it was hard because I didn't speak his language.
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Um, and we included a state president who could speak English and translate, and we had just this amazing spiritual experience through this whole process.
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It took several weeks working with the missionary department, and of course, we're not gonna send a missionary like that home because there's no home to go to.
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Um, but we're gonna help him to repent.
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And he didn't at first think he needed to repent, and then as he learned, he understood he needed to, and he finally confessed and very brokenhearted.
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Um, brokenhearted and in many respects terrified that his confession would leave him without the opportunity to continue a mission in the United States, would leave him basically homeless again back in his home country.
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Um by the time we finished that, I was weak out.
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Oh sorry, I didn't mean to I remember as I was leaving the mission, the last conference, he came up to me and hugged me and and just laid his shoulders on my on his head on my shoulder and weeped.
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Just cried like I'm crying.
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And uh I'm just so grateful for that experience.
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Not one that I'm qualified for, one that the Lord showed me step by step how to help.
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And I learned through that and many other experiences like that, of the deep love our Savior had.
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You know, I went on my mission probably a little bit less forgiving for people who make mistakes and probably a little bit more judgmental than I should be.
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And I've come home from a mission with just this great desire to love everyone.
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I don't care what they do or what what their past has been, um, just because I felt a little bit of the savior's love for individuals through the experiences I've had.
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So yeah, I love that.
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Brad, thank you for sharing that.
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And it's um touching because I think, you know, one of my favorite quotes that I've heard is the church is just the church.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't a place where people go, where good people go to worship the savior.
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It's a hospital where people go to get help.
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And we are all equals.
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Everyone needs the savior the same.
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And uh being a parent, I can relate to some of this because I never, before I started having children, I never knew how to love something outside of myself to that extent.
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And it teaches us, of course, how the savior loves others.
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And like what you did as a mission president expands on that because it's you're no longer just your genetic offspring.
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Now you're looking at anyone's kids coming in.
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And you're the gift of that mantle, it sounds like, is an increased capacity of loving and seeing people through the savior's eyes, which I'm sure in return has shown you how the savior sees you and your family.
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You mentioned you know the challenge of this young young man in particular.
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Could you speak a minute about maybe some of the general patterns you saw of challenges of this rising generation of missionaries?
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Yeah, it's an it's an interesting time because uh and and our time was interesting too because we had missionaries who had come to us who had been in their rooms for you know for years during COVID that they just decided they kind of got comfortable in their house and they hadn't left and they'd spent time gaming and doing other things and just getting out and doing things was a challenge.
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Um, but this isn't an interesting um and a wonderful generation in their capacity to care for and love for love others.
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If you look at some of the challenges that this generation has that leads people to confusion and concern about things, it it's rarely um about things other than the fact that they want to be fair and they want to care and they want to love, they want to love all people.
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And with when they feel like the church policies um uh or their understanding of the church policies or the way that members of the church tend to look at or treat other people, that actually becomes a major concern of theirs.
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And so it's actually wonderful to think, if you will, about the major concerns of this in this generation is a little bit different than ours.
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It's it's centered in that their concern and care for other people in many respects.
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So it's it's neat to see that.
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But yeah, so that concern, so it's yeah, I get it.
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This generation is obviously like bombarded with information we never had.
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Like the internet and social media pieces, they get exposed to different elements.
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So it's nice to see that connection or desire to serve.
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And yet somehow there's this like isolation that occurs.
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Like COVID was part of it, but it seems like that's still occurring, where it's like an isolating effect of all this technology in social media.
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And so, you know, I've heard from others that sometimes anxiety was a problem that they had to come up against as mission presidents.
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Was that true for you as well?
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Yeah, we had a considerable number of missionaries who were um were having help and getting counseling for that, maybe 20% plus.
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We were in Denver, so we had many missionaries who had health issues, who couldn't go in international missions, who needed to be in a place where there's good medical care.
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But yeah, there for sure, there's more anxiety.
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Um, there's more um individuals who worry about am I worthy?
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Am I, you know, am I okay?
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.720
Uh, and a lot of kind of self-focus um in that.
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:11.680
Um, you know, one of the things I love about we're talking, I know your your podcast is temple-bound, talking about temples.
00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:38.400
If you think about the role of the temple, um the temple is really the place where the Lord has an opportunity to reveal himself and to be able to enter into a more fully this loving relationship with us that President Nelson introduces to this concept of a said, this this amazing love that our Heavenly Father has for us that goes beyond reason.
00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:42.079
He always will reach out to us once we're in a covenant relationship.
00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:51.359
And we talked a little while as we were preparing for this about how can the temple help prepare young men and young women to serve a mission?
00:18:51.599 --> 00:19:01.599
And one of the things you've you you would see is I'd have missionaries that say, What is the one thing that would make the most difference in my mission?
00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.839
And I would always say a testimony of and a love for Jesus Christ.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:11.599
And they were like, Well, you know, what about this and this and this?
00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:25.359
And I said, No, it's if if you look at the Book of Mormon, we have great prophets like Neek Nephi and Mormon and Moroni, but we only have a few great missionaries.
00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:48.319
And I don't want to be disrespectful, but when you look at the great missionaries, there were Alma and his posterity and the sons of Mosiah, and they, by virtue of their sincere repentance and the miraculous repentance of Alma the young and the sons of Messiah, they had come to know the Savior in an amazing way.
00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:57.759
And that love for the Savior, just like Paul's experience, the love for the Savior motivated them to be remarkable missionaries.
00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:00.400
And so, how do you get that kind of love?
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:01.599
How do you develop that love?
00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:02.799
Well, to me, there's two ways.
00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:08.079
One is you have to have a change of heart and you have to repent.
00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:14.880
And usually the worse the sins, the greater the gratitude.
00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:22.640
Um, and yet we don't want to encourage all of our young men and young women to go out and sin in some major way so they can experience that.
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:44.240
But the natural way to do that is starting with the covenant of baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and then going into the temple, the Lord has provided a way for us to be able to enter into these loving relationships and to feel his love for us, which Nephi learned in his dream is the greatest thing we can feel.
00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:49.599
And the angel said, and the most joyous to the soul is feeling the love of Christ.
00:20:49.759 --> 00:21:07.759
So, whatever we can do to help our youth really understand their covenants, to begin to make covenants, keep their baptismal covenants and get into the temple, um, I think will empower them to become powerful missionaries, wonderful missionaries.
00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:08.960
Man, I love that.
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:15.119
You know, it's hard to talk to you because you're making me a little aware of this, especially when you have four sons.
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:16.720
It's it's a powerful concept.
00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:24.319
You know, a lot of young men and young women, when they think about serving their missions, there's lots of motivations that go into it.
00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:30.559
And it's for those who are, there's a percentage of them that are just dialed in, like, I want to serve the Lord.
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:33.759
But it's what I love about your message is that it's not just for those.
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:37.359
It's for the the young men and young women who are not sure what they should do.
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:39.359
You know, they don't they're not sure what's right.
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:44.640
Or maybe they're they're really battling with the idea that they've done things that would prohibit them from going on a mission.
00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:48.799
And like the idea of repenting is so scary when it involves confession.
00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:49.759
I know firsthand.
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:58.079
It's a very scary thing to have to tell someone what you've done in order to properly vet those that process out.
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:03.519
But that message is so simple and Beautiful that just getting to know and love the savior is what it's about.
00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:13.759
So turning that that's what I love about the savior's love, most of all, is that his his love turns anything that's negative and horrible in this world into a wonderful, beautiful gift.
00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:21.920
So things that we've done that have caused damage to others, we have a greater, you said it, a greater love and appreciation for the savior.
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:29.440
Not that we would want them to learn it that way by choice necessarily, but all of us are on the path that we are on and it's unique to us.
00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:32.079
And for all of us, it looks like repentance.
00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:35.279
And so it doesn't matter how great or small the sin.
00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:37.200
What matters is the savior.
00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:50.480
And you're saying that walking the covenant path as established in the temple is what prepares them for a mission in the sense that they are able to experience that love by becoming worthy to attend and then serve within it.
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:53.039
Is that a fair is that a good summary of what you just said?
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:54.160
That's a great summary.
00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:56.319
Can I, and I'll want to follow up on this.
00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:13.119
I I had an interesting conversation with our deacons quorum a while ago, and I asked them, listen, if if I got angry with someone, which I've been known to do with the airline at the airlines in the past, and I'm trying to get better, would that keep me from the celestial kingdom?
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:16.559
And everyone would have said, no, no, that does.
00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:18.880
That's not that's not a big enough sin.
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:21.680
And I said, Yeah, it would.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.000
The Lord said, no unclean thing can enter into his presence.
00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:29.759
And they were like, oh no, we're forlorn, we're we're toast.
00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:32.880
And I said, but no, that's the blessing of the saviors.
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:38.079
You know, he doesn't distinguish between magnitudes of sin.
00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:57.839
In the church, we have identified some sins that experience has taught church leaders that individuals need counseling, they need guidance to help them get past the guilt and to be able to overcome the habits that are formed from some sins.
00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:06.799
But the savior doesn't distinguish between sins, which we're taught in the scriptures, if we think we're without sin, we fool ourselves.
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:15.359
So knowing that, just understanding that principle, especially those of us who think we don't need the savior, is is critical.
00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:23.920
And as we help our children at whatever level they are to understand that they really do need the savior, even if it's just little sins.
00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:28.000
Like when I was, when I went on my mission, I was, I loved the Book of Mormon.
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.319
I went to church, I was a seminary president.
00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:32.079
I thought this church is amazing.
00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:33.599
I love the social part of it.
00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:39.839
I got to the MTC and I learned that the gospel was faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:41.839
And I thought, this is crazy.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:44.960
How come nobody taught me that in my life?
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:52.480
But I actually, in my mind, thought at the time, I love everything about this church except for Jesus.
00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:55.599
Like, why do we have to talk about Jesus Christ all the time?
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:59.200
That's just that stuff is just for sinners.
00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:02.960
And I'm not partying and I'm not doing this and I'm not doing that.
00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:04.960
I don't need Jesus.
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:07.599
And and uh can you imagine?
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:14.079
I mean, it's blasphemy, but but um then I came to know him and to know how much I need him.
00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:21.680
And the longer I live, the better I try to be, and the more I recognize I need him, which is kind of interesting.
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:27.599
Recognizing we need him increases, expands our love for him, our gratitude for him.
00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:30.960
And that motivates us to be better missionaries.
00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:34.079
You know, he said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:48.880
Obedience becomes easier for all of us when we know the master who's asking us to do things and know what he'll do for us and how he cares for us and that he only wants the best for us.
00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:54.960
And so, mission or no mission as parents, our target isn't to get individuals on mission.
00:25:55.519 --> 00:26:11.920
Our targets is to get our children into covenant relationships with Christ, where they can have their loneliness solved, where they can overcome any doubts or insecurities in Him, in that covenant relationship.
00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:14.319
That's the promise that he's given to us.
00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:24.640
The power of the temple is that power of knowing who we are and knowing what the Lord has in store for us, right?
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:33.359
We're set apart for to be kings and queens, and we're given specific promises of power that would be rested upon us.
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:38.240
This concept of power is central to missionary work.
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:48.720
If you look at the charge that the Savior gave to his 12 apostles in Matthew 28, we always read, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, right?
00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:57.839
But we forget that the this verse before it was, all power has been given me in heaven and in earth.
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:02.880
And then comes the word, therefore, go ye into all the world.
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:08.079
The therefore is that now the Savior had power.
00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:14.799
And he even told his apostles, before you go and teach, I want you to wait until the Holy Ghost comes upon you.
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:21.119
And in Luke 24, he says, you wait until you're endued or endowed with power.
00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:22.240
Right?
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:25.519
That's why our missionaries go to the temple before they go on their mission.
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.559
They get endowed with this power.
00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:32.000
And they need power as missionaries.
00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:39.519
They need powers of discernment, they need power and testimony, they need the power of knowing that they're forgiven.
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:46.480
Um, and all of that power and an understanding of who they are comes in that endowment experience.
00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:48.400
They go to the temple.
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:51.839
I always tell missionaries, by the time you're a missionary, you're only half big.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:28:00.720
You go to the temple, you receive really the covenants that you need for your mission and the covenants you need through life to be able to do the things you need to accomplish in life.
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:07.279
But the real blessings of the temple are when they get home and they go back and they get, as you know, the ceiling power.
00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:10.799
All the blessings of eternity are bestowed upon him.
00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:11.599
Wow.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:12.720
I love that.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:19.680
I think for me, what's amazing in that concept is the idea that there's this power that comes from them going to know who they are, right?
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:22.079
In the temple, we learn our truce identity.
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:27.920
We we teach it young with I'm a child of God, and we see it more manifest in the endowment.
00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:30.720
And the more we go, the more it seeps in.
00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:35.680
And there's an actual endowment of power, endowment meaning gift.
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:42.880
Like there's an actual bestowal of power that can't be can't be explained, but can only be experienced.
00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:52.319
And when we go for the first time, I I think all of us are just wrapped up in the human experience of going to something new and different.
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:53.839
And that's that's okay.
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.640
I mean, that's why we're we're encouraged to go repeatedly.
00:28:57.279 --> 00:29:00.000
But I was always curious, Brett, what you were gonna say.
00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:09.599
Because as I am raising four boys and and preparing them as best I can to have a relationship with the savior, you know, that's the key thing.
00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:17.519
It's not it's not the mission, it's the relationship to the savior first, which leads them to the temple, which leads them to a mission.
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:20.000
And then back to the temple when they're spouse.
00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:34.319
And so, yeah, I I love that description of not just understanding who they are that generates power and helps them on that covenant path to define their relationship more with the savior, but also that actual endowment or gift of power that's bestowed upon them to be more powerful.
00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:35.359
It's interesting.
00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:55.039
If you look at there was a leadership uh um training that Elder Bednar did in October of 2022, you remember, and they had the order of the pitchers, and they said, you know, we always talk about our mission, we hope it calls on a mission, but putting the savior first, and then the ordination of the priesthood in the temple before the mission is the right order.
00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:59.680
And and if you think about it, and you think about the restoration of the church, right?
00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:16.160
The restoration of the church kind of goes in a similar pattern where Joseph gained a testimony and a relationship with of God the Father and his son Jesus Christ, and and eventually priesthood power came, and then eventually the temple ordinance was uh restored.
00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:19.359
Um, and the preparation for a mission is similar.
00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:27.519
It's we first I want to center our children on Christ, and and we need to teach obedience because that's the purpose of our life.
00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:32.160
But obedience has to be connected to the love of the Savior.
00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:39.440
And the more we can, I when I was in the mission field, had parents would say, What can we do to help our kids prepare for the mission?
00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.680
I said, Teach them how to repent.
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:46.640
Like the process of coming to Christ is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:48.240
Christ Himself taught it.
00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.319
Faith in Him enough to repent of our sins.
00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.440
When we truly repent of our sins, we're ready to make a covenant.
00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:59.359
We're like, okay, I want to have this feeling all the time.
00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:00.480
I want to follow you.
00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:05.920
And we do that through baptism or retaking the sacrament every Sunday.
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:13.599
And then we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost who actually teaches us other things we need to have faith in, other elements of Christ's teachings we need to have faith in.
00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:16.960
And it's a circular pattern, Elder Renlund taught us.
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:21.680
When they become missionaries, they will stand up and they'll recite their purpose.
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:24.559
Our purpose is to invite others to come into Christ.
00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:32.960
And then they'll say, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, um, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:37.839
But the purpose of coming into Christ presupposes what?
00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:40.720
That they're next to Christ.
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:44.240
Otherwise, it would be our purpose is to point people to Christ.
00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:45.680
That's not it.
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.319
Our purpose is to invite people to come into Christ.
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:52.960
So as parents, our goal is we need to connect our children to Christ.
00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:59.759
Once they're connected to Christ, then they can be great missionaries because they're there and they can invite other people to do it.
00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:02.240
And the connection to Christ comes through covenants.
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:15.440
You know, as a parent, I can tell you what's so powerful about what you just said is that for me, it was a big lesson to learn that my job as a parent was to be a steward of their relationship to the savior, and it wasn't me.
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:20.559
And, you know, I think it's very natural for us to look at our kids as like a reflection on us.
00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:28.000
And so we bring a lot of misemotion to our children early on, at least I did, around how that reflects on me and the family name and all these things.
00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:43.839
But at the end of the day, when I saw the detachment between me, the savior, not the detachment, but the more strong connection that is the savior and my children, it gave me a lot of space to just step away from selfishness and how their actions portrayed to me.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:45.440
And I've got great sons, by the way.
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:48.720
I'm just talking about the normal things that we worry about as we raise kids.
00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:56.160
But I will say this, and this is what I love about it, is that there's a lot of parents who are going to listen to this, whose kids are nowhere near a mission.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:33:00.880
And the point is it's not about the mission, it's about the relationship to the savior.
00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:14.640
And when we have children that struggle, my my I have a very close friend whose oldest son was struggling and he was helping me in my journey, and he just said, you know, Will, it's all about the savior and light.
00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:21.440
And so we do what we can as parents to just introduce as much light to them in every way we can.
00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:22.799
And it looks like what is light?
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:23.359
It's love.
00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:26.400
That's God is love, we read in the New Testament.
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:27.599
So it looks like love.
00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:34.640
So whenever I find myself getting lost, which is consistent as a parent, it's it's like, what does love look like right here?
00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:37.119
Another way of saying that is what would Jesus do?
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.319
But it sounds better to me to say, what does love look like in this case?
00:33:40.559 --> 00:33:46.480
And as a mission president, you've got to practice that over and over and over again with hundreds of young men and young women.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:48.480
Yeah, I love what you said.
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:51.039
And and I'll second you that you do have great kids.
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:59.440
I've I've had a chance now to have two of your boys in my quorum, and both of them are outstanding academically and ban, my word.
00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:01.279
He plays my piano.
00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:06.079
I think I have my my the you know electronic piano thing.
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:13.760
I go in there and I'm like, how is that young man of his size creating such beautiful music from that piano?
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:20.239
But but um President Nelson has done just such a remarkable job of pointing us to the temple.
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.480
And I've had a chance to listen to him.
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:26.639
I told my missionaries, I posted something in our little missionary alumni page.
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:30.159
I said, I got a new life coach, and I'm just so grateful for him.
00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:35.679
And I usually don't, you know, I'm not on to make commercials, but I just want to introduce him to you.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:42.159
And I took a picture of a coach with a with a whistle on, and I put President Nelson's face on it.
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:44.800
I said, Press, here's my new life coach.
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:57.679
And I listen to him every day, and I I just found on the LDS app that little thing that you can say, hey, one of my study plans is to listen to President Nelson's talks, and I do that when I walk our dog.
00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:10.320
And I'm just shocked by, you know, he started his presidency, if you remember, at the press conference in the lobby of the Salt Lake Temple, because he said, Well, I want to start with the end in mind.
00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:19.199
And um, almost every time he stands to speak, he weaves the temple in in some way into his message.
00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:38.000
And and he reminds us that our responsibility as members of the house of Israel, and specifically with um as members of the house of Ephraim, from which many of us are or Manassas, that our job is to gather Israel.
00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:39.760
And where are we gathering them?
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:42.079
When I went on a mission, I I was mistaken.
00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:48.159
I thought we were gathering people into the baptismal font or into the wards, and we're not.
00:35:48.719 --> 00:35:51.840
We're gathering in people into the covenant.
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:59.440
We want to gather Heavenly Father's children back into a covenant relationship with him.
00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:02.960
If you remember, what did he tell Joseph Smith?
00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:06.719
He said, in the in the grove, right?
00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:14.559
Sacred grove, he said, their hearts they teach for doctrine the commandments of men, but their hearts are far from me.
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:16.400
What does he want?
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:22.000
He wants us not just to worship him, he wants a relationship with us.
00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:32.559
He wants to love us, and that relationship is manifest in a covenant where he promises us all that our hearts desire.
00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:37.119
And he promises he'll reach out to us again and again and again.
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:45.280
He'll do that to the you know, 20-year-old who was baptized at eight years old, he'll do that over and over and over again.
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:49.519
His love knows no bounds, it knows no reason.
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:53.360
And that relationship is a relationship he wants to have with everyone.
00:36:53.519 --> 00:37:08.320
And when our youth really get to the temple, they do family history, they begin to understand this intergenerational responsibility they have, their hearts turn to the fathers, the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:13.679
They understand their responsibility in that, not only to their own family, but to others.
00:37:14.159 --> 00:37:20.639
They go out and they gather rather than go out and try and baptize just to add people to the church.
00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:26.320
They in their gathering, they want people to have the same experiences that they had.
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:30.719
And, you know, Alma the Younger, Paul, great examples.
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:49.199
They just want to gather people to that covenant so other people can overcome their feelings of discouragement, depression, this deep-seated loneliness that they have, and understand and recognize who they are and how much they're loved and what their potential is in the grand scheme of things.
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:52.400
And where do you teach youth that?
00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:55.840
You really teach them in the temple.
00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:04.239
And so getting your youth not only to go and do baptisms, but getting your youth to the temple as soon as they can.
00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:10.400
It's amazing to me to see young missionaries who had worked as ordinance workers in the temple.
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:12.960
They'd received the Melchizedek priesthood.
00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:16.320
They went and got their endowments relatively early before the call.
00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:20.320
And even if it was one or two or three months, they went and served in the temple.
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:33.679
They were actually, there was something about their understanding that made them more obedient, more desirous to do what's right, to work uh more diligently and to help individuals.
00:38:33.840 --> 00:38:48.559
But and I think that's because you can't help but be in the temple and begin to just have all of um the power of these covenants kind of start seeping into your heart and begin to realize, okay, what this is all about.
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:51.119
I didn't have that experience, to be honest with you.
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:55.679
I went to the temple and had the experience like, whoa, this is new.
00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:57.599
And why didn't I know this before?
00:38:57.760 --> 00:38:59.679
And well, I I checked that box.
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:02.159
I went to the temple, now I can go on my mission.
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:05.599
Um, and I and I I would love to have had a chance to do it again.
00:39:05.679 --> 00:39:14.079
But anyway, I love what you're doing with this podcast and hope that it'll help many to make that decision to get to the temple more often.
00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:16.400
And yeah, and experience it.
00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:25.440
And you know, what you know, as as I was listening to you, what was really strong in my heart as I was hearing you talk about the end game, the end in mind, right?
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:29.760
At the end of the day, Helling Father is just a dad who wants his children to come home.
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:35.440
Like if we really want to simplify the gospel down to its bare, bare bones, he wants us home.
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:41.760
He wants us to be happy and he wants, he knows there's one, there's only one path, and that's the savior.
00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:44.800
I have my oldest son coming home later today.
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:50.960
And as as I as luck would have it, which I don't believe in luck, today is Van, the son that you mentioned his birthday.
00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:53.840
Oh, thanks for reminding me.
00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:55.920
I have a call and then we're done.
00:39:56.880 --> 00:40:02.159
And the greatest gift my sons have given me is what I find in the temple.
00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:04.559
It's this thing of of understanding.
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:10.480
It's really, you know, it's it's the light of understanding why, why we're going through this journey together.
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:22.719
And so as you have helped your own wonderful children prepare to be adults, and now you've had a hand in helping the Lord in preparing hundreds of young men and young women through the mission.
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:29.440
I would love for you, as our closing thought, for you to leave a message for your missionaries.
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:30.559
What would you tell them?
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:31.840
What would you want them to know?
00:40:32.239 --> 00:40:39.119
And you talk to them, you stay with them frequently, but given the context of what we're talking about today, what's a parting message that you would want them to know?
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:40.079
Yeah.
00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:51.519
The the day after we got home from our mission, I went to the temple with my daughter, um, Kate, and posted a photo um for a missionaries that said the gathering continues.
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:57.760
Um the temple is your place of refuge.
00:40:58.239 --> 00:41:05.280
The Lord can be found there in real and really important ways.
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:07.440
And I know that that's true.
00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:09.199
Jesus Christ lives.
00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:26.079
At the center of this all is that he truly was literally resurrected and he lives, and he can be found in his temple where he's helping to allow us to receive all the blessings that the Father's proming us promising us to us there in the temple.
00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:29.199
And I testify that in the name of Jesus Christ.
00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:29.920
Amen.
00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:32.880
Thank you so much for for being a guest on the show, Brett.
00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:36.960
Thank you so much for having the impact on my boys that you've had.
00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:41.440
And I will, I'm a I don't believe in luck, I don't believe in chance.
00:41:42.159 --> 00:41:54.800
I'm so grateful to to our father for the fact that he gave us an opportunity to share a home, not the same time, but to to put us together at the same place in the same time later on to be friends.
00:41:54.880 --> 00:41:56.079
So thank you, Brett.
00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:56.960
Thank you.
00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:58.239
Appreciate that.
00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:04.880
Tempo Bound is brought to you by the Light on a Hill Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at building and strengthening families across the globe.
00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:10.559
Produced by Heather Humphreys, with show notes and social media managed by Isabel Dizon and Kimberly Simbafon.
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:12.960
Wardrobe by Anne Collar.
00:42:13.119 --> 00:42:20.480
These views and opinions expressed by the host and guests are on their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:25.440
Thank you for joining us today as we continue learning, growing, and striving to bind our lives closer to the Savior.
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Until next time.