August 20, 2025 • 50 mins
This episode of the "Mission Stories Podcast" features a conversation with Sister Molly Baxter, a returned missionary who served in the Michigan Detroit mission, including the "8 Mile" area. Molly highlights her faithful and happy mission experience, noting that not all returned missionaries have such positive experiences.
The central theme of the episode is that miracles and angels are a right for those "set apart as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ to preach his gospel". Molly and Shawn define miracles, suggesting they are not solely large-scale events like parting the Red Sea, but also include:
• Divine meetings where one encounters individuals who profoundly change their life.
• Small, consistent spiritual experiences that build faith, such as waking up with a positive attitude or gaining insight from scripture study.
• The "mighty change of heart" experienced through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which they describe as the greatest miracle.
Molly and Shawn share several personal miracle stories from their missions:
• Tishi's Healing: Molly recounts the story of Tishi, a 65-year-old woman needing knee replacement surgery, who was miraculously healed and able to walk immediately after receiving a priesthood blessing, fulfilling a bold promise made by an elder that she wouldn't need surgery. Tishi was later baptized after six months of teaching and her health remarkably improved.
• The Malakansi Woman: Shawn shares an experience with an elderly Russian woman, one of the last "Malikansi," whose ancestors had sought the true church with authority for generations. She recognized the restored gospel, was baptized, and passed away about a week later.
• Mallerie at the Smoothie Cafe: Molly tells of a young woman working at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe drive-thru who was on the verge of ending her life. Molly, following a prompting, spoke to her about being a missionary for Jesus Christ, which the woman interpreted as an angel sent from God and a direct answer to her prayer for a sign, saving her life.
The episode emphasizes that these are the true miracles that matter most, as they pertain to the eternal salvation and spiritual growth of individuals, which is God's primary work and glory. They encourage listeners to have faith and expect these types of miracles in their own service. Molly also shares a quote by President Hinckley, emphasizing that serving the gospel is not a sacrifice but an investment with eternal dividends.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
As soon as they say amen, Tishy looks at us and she
jumps, leaps out of her bed andjust starts skipping around her
apartment.
And we were all sitting there incomplete awe, just shocked.
And we were like, did we justwitness like a miracle?
Like a healing of the sick andafflicted miracle?
(00:21):
Like he promised her in the nameof God that she wouldn't need
surgery and she's walking onthis knee that is like...
she needed a knee, like a fullknee replacement for.
And she's like, I haven't likewalked in like three months.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
All right.
Welcome back to the MissionStories podcast.
Today is an awesome day becausewe have, well, we have a special
guest, but I'm not going to.
Yeah, I will.
I will do this because it's beensix months that I've been
begging, pleading.
I don't know.
All the things that we've donefor you.
And then six months goes by andAnd we don't have Lauren with us
(00:57):
today, but we do have Molly O.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
Hello.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01):
Which is Molly.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Happy to be
SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
here.
Or Sister Baxter.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05):
Whatever you want to call me.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, actually, that could berisky.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11):
Maybe not.
Molly, I've known for a longtime, and we got to see your
journey go through elementaryschool, middle school, high
school.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:17):
And then the mission.
Yeah.
And now you are the RM.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
I am an RM.
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
And it's just, it's amazing.
I love so much when...
You know, it's like my dream.
When I had my mission experienceand it was like, wow, that was
so great.
There's nothing that could havebeen better.
Nothing will top that.
And it was such a spiritualexperience.
It was so amazing.
And I go, do others have thatexperience?
(01:43):
And to come home and learn thatsome don't is so disheartening
and disappointing.
But then I see...
molly and i see others who youjust faithfully did it right you
applied a lot of the trueprinciples that make for a good
mission and i love seeing youbecause you're so Happy and
strong and converted, and you'rea true disciple, and it's just
(02:04):
so great to see you.
You're just this little punk kidsinging in my wife's choir.
Okay,
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
okay.
And
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
now you are this just faithful, amazing.
I know, you're uncomfortablewith me praising you like this,
but I'll let you introduceyourself in a minute.
But just for context for thelisteners, so missions, to be a
minister of the Lord full-timeSet apart.
Set apart as a minister of theLord Jesus Christ to preach his
(02:31):
gospel and to bring souls tohim.
So few people in the history ofthe world get to do that.
So few.
Like what percentage, Molly?
What do you think?
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
I don't even want to throw out a number that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
There's no way to know it.
But it's so mind-boggling to methat we are so blessed to be
born in this day where we get tobe a part of that small
percentage of people who get tobe a minister of the Lord,
authoritative, full-time.
SPEAKER_00 (02:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
And man, I didn't want to lose or waste a single
second of the two years that Iwas in Ukraine on my mission.
And I, you know, faithfully, Ican say we did our best.
We really did.
And the Lord rewarded us andthose with whom we worked.
And it's just joy.
It's just pure joy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:14):
It's pure joy.
It is.
Yesterday I was at the beach andthis random lady walked up to me
and my friends and she was like,hey, do you guys go to church?
And we were like, yeah, we go tochurch.
And she's like, oh, it's so goodseeing some young kids going to
church these days.
Like I go to mission church.
I was going to invite you.
And she was like, do you openyour mouths and share this with
your friends?
And we were like, lady, you gotno idea.
(03:36):
You got no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
I guess the question follow-up would be, did you open
your mouth and share it withlady?
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
No.
Oh, geez.
What?
She was kind of walking away.
Oh, okay.
And yeah, it was just not the,yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
But even those who are not of our faith, those who
believe in Christ, there's ajoy.
And then we say, come join whathas been restored and you will
have, we can't have in this lifea fullness of joy, but man,
sometimes I feel like it'sclose.
SPEAKER_00 (03:58):
Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01 (03:59):
And the mission is a huge part of that.
Yeah.
Because the mission is truly howwe become closer to Christ and
how leading other people toChrist is the most joyful thing
in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Yeah.
So this podcast for thelisteners, we are trying to
share with you our experiencesthat led to a positive, amazing,
marvelous mission experience andour path to being built on the
foundation of Jesus Christ.
We're trying to share with youthose things so that you can go
out more equipped to have abetter chance to have an amazing
(04:32):
mission.
Because look at the statistics.
There's like a 50-50 chance thatyou'll come home and it'll be
eh.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
And it has everything to do with these
principles we teach.
So today, we had a hard timepicking which principle to focus
on because Molly, you have somany great stories and
experiences.
We picked the number five.
This is miracles and angels areour right when we are set apart
ministers of the Lord in thework.
And so we've got some coolstories.
But, you know, before we dothat, why don't we...
(05:01):
Do a little introduction.
Oh,
SPEAKER_00 (05:03):
brother.
SPEAKER_01 (05:04):
A little intro to explain to the audience who
we're about to talk to.
SPEAKER_00 (05:09):
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER_01 (05:20):
Molly is from?
Molly served and is from?
SPEAKER_00 (05:24):
Detroit.
That took a second to get going.
That took a long time.
And then I heard the intro.
I was like, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:31):
That took a long time.
I might overdub this and makethat come in sooner.
But what specifically is that?
That's from a movie called?
SPEAKER_00 (05:37):
Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
Eight Mile.
Where did you serve?
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
I served on Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Molly served on Eight Mile, Detroit.
The like crazy, how do youdescribe Eight Mile?
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
The place of the Lord.
No, no, no, no.
Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
How would Eminem describe Eight Mile?
SPEAKER_00 (05:56):
Eminem...
SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
That's where he's from.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (05:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:00):
8 Mile's a special place.
I served in Detroit.
I served in the Michigan-Detroitmission, which...
Had more than just 8 Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (06:07):
Okay, but let me ask you this.
Would you live in 8 Mile ever?
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
No.
Okay, why not?
Because it's a scary place.
But I
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
thought it was the place of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Let's just say there's a billboard that has to
remind you in Detroit that saysGod has not left Detroit.
Because sometimes you have to bereminded that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:22):
So 8 Mile is kind of this ghetto area of Detroit.
SPEAKER_00 (06:25):
Yeah, you can kind of think of like the strip in
Vegas.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (06:28):
interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (06:29):
But like just half of the buildings are just
abandoned.
Okay, so
SPEAKER_01 (06:34):
I skipped ahead because I wanted to do the intro
that took too long and do themusic, but give us a little
intro of who you are.
SPEAKER_00 (06:40):
So, I'm Molly Baxter.
I grew up here in Carlsbad,California.
I served in the Michigan-Detroitmission.
I go to BYU in Provo, studyingbusiness.
SPEAKER_01 (06:57):
Nice.
Yeah.
And you're a wonderful person.
We've known you for a long time.
Yeah.
Big fan of the record.
You've been home for...
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (07:03):
Been home for a year.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Has it been a year?
SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
It'll be a year in, what's today?
The third?
It'll be a year in four days,
SPEAKER_01 (07:11):
five days.
Amazing that it took you 12months, not six, to get here on
my podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Okay.
Well,
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
let's dive in because I want to hear your
stories, more of your stories.
I've loved some of them so much.
And there's, we picked thisprinciple.
Why do we pick this principle?
This principle is, again,listeners, that if you go out
and have the faith to thatmiracles and angels are
assisting you, or angels areassisting you and miracles are
your right, if you go throughwith that faith, like if you
(07:36):
understand how valuable thesouls, the children of our
Heavenly Father are, and youhave faith in that, then you
will see that you have a powerto do the work of the Lord, to
lead souls to Christ.
But only if you tap into it,only if you have faith.
So this principle is all aboutgo expect these things because
the Lord will give them to you.
Why is this one of yourfavorite?
(07:58):
Why did you pick this one?
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
I think about before I went out on my mission and I'd
hear stories and I heard allthese miracles that these return
missionaries experienced on themission.
And I was like, oh, I just wantto go witness all these
miracles.
And I went out and my testimonyof miracles changed changed
because how I defined a miraclechanged once I started serving
(08:22):
the Lord.
Because I think we think ofthese miracles like raising the
dead and, you know, healing theblind, which are all real
possible miracles through faith.
And I believe that because of mymission.
But I also believe that thereare miracles like, I call them
divine meetings, like where youjust run into someone who
changes your life, changes yourday, changes your minute.
So that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
Let me just interrupt and ask you.
So You're saying that before themission, the only understanding
we would all have, I'd say thisis true for me too, is a miracle
is the world being flooded orthe sea being parted or someone
being
SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
raised from the dead.
Or the lion's mouths being shut.
That's right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
But you're saying that as soon as you got on your
mission, you started toexperience something that was, I
would argue, is incredible.
way more powerful than
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
if
SPEAKER_01 (09:06):
I saw some water behave unnaturally.
Way more powerful because it hadto do with, I fell in love with
the people of Ukraine.
And when I saw people come toChrist and see the joy and the
change that occurred in theirlives, and the fact that I'm
from Podunk City in USA andtraveled across the world and
(09:28):
would pray every day to findthis golden person and did in
this miraculous way, thatmiracle to me, Yeah, it doesn't
seem, to the layman, it doesn'tseem like such a big, amazing
miracle.
But to us, those became themiracles, right?
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
And I think, and serving with missionaries and
young missionaries who come outand maybe they're struggling to
adjust and missions harder thanthey thought it was going to be,
or you're plopped in the middleof Michigan in negative 40
degree weather from SouthernCalifornia.
And you're like, what am I doinghere?
I think sometimes the miracle isthat you wake up in the morning
with a positive attitude or youlearn something in your
(10:04):
scripture study that, you know,boosts you or brings you the
spirit that day.
And so I think we, think aboutthese miracles as a missionary,
like, Oh, what can I do for allthese other people?
But I think too, we have toremember that the Lord cares
about you as a missionary and asa person and wants you to have
those small, consistentspiritual experiences that are
miracles in and of themselvesthat help you bring miracles to
(10:27):
other people.
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
Because if those are building our faith, right?
If God gives us these amazingmiracles to build our faith, to
lead us to repentance, to ensurethe covenants that we live in,
how much more useful are theyif, Our goal is to go and lead,
find and lead souls to Christ.
Of course, he's going to allowthese powerful miracles to
happen because he's proclaimedthroughout scripture.
(10:48):
The most important thing we canbe engaged in is crying
repentance unto the people andgathering Israel and bringing
people to the celestial kingdom,leading people to Christ.
It's the most important thing wecan do.
So of course he's going to giveus the power.
Look at every, almost everymissionary in all of scripture,
every prophet, the miraclesweren't there because wow, look
what happened.
(11:08):
The miracles were, there to helpthem lead souls to Christ period
SPEAKER_00 (11:11):
yeah that's it and I think about like when you think
about Christ in the NewTestament when he's you know
calling his apostles and hisdisciples and he's giving them
power and authority and he'ssending them off to do an
amazing work like they did andbe missionaries before he did
that he spent time with them andhe got to know them and he
blessed their own lives theirfamilies lives and perform
(11:33):
miracles in their lives and thenhe sent them out and said you
know share this and so I thinkas a missionary I And what I
would ask missionaries when Itaught missionaries was, what
were your touch points with theSavior this week?
You shared the gospel, but howdid you come to know your Savior
more this week too?
And how did he come to meet youwhere you were at?
And I think we forget that thoseare miracles in our own lives.
(11:55):
And we have to...
In order to appreciate the bigmiracles, we also have to
recognize those tender merciesthat the Lord still brings.
I
SPEAKER_01 (12:02):
love it.
It does all start with themiracle that comes from the
atonement of Jesus Christ andhis sacrifice and the miracle
that I've been forgiven, that myheart has been changed, that I'm
a different creature because Ilive in a covenant with Christ.
That really is a miracle, right?
It is.
We've all felt the sadness thatcomes from sin or the...
The guilt or the shame.
(12:23):
The shame.
And those of us who have come toChrist in faith and repentance
and through covenants, havingthat sadness and shame swept
away and replaced with such joyand happiness, that's a miracle.
But it's internal.
And I agree with you.
It does start there.
Yeah.
And then we want to go out anduse other miracles to lead souls
(12:43):
to Christ.
Yeah.
So I want you, Molly, to sharewith us and the listeners that
Some miracle stories.
Starting with Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (12:54):
Tishy.
SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Tishy.
Tishy my queen.
We won't say why her nickname isRiri, but her nickname is Riri.
SPEAKER_00 (12:59):
Which is ironic because that was her nickname
for us was Riri.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
Oh, she called you Riri?
SPEAKER_00 (13:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:04):
Okay.
But.
Okay.
So Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (13:06):
It all works out.
SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
You're Riri in this story.
She's Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (13:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:09):
Okay.
Tell us.
Tell us the story.
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
So I just want you to picture like the craziest
Baptist black lady, 65 yearsold, lives alone.
Sick out of her mind.
Like, has all the ailments onecan imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (13:24):
Please tell me she lives an eight mile.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
No.
Dang it.
That was Betty.
Tishy is not an eight miler.
But
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
she
SPEAKER_00 (13:31):
could have been.
She could have survived there.
SPEAKER_01 (13:34):
But she's older and sick?
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
Yeah, just really struggling physically.
And we taught her for about sixmonths before she was baptized.
SPEAKER_01 (13:40):
Six
SPEAKER_00 (13:41):
months?
And it was mostly in thehospital that we taught her.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (13:44):
I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00 (13:45):
She just, like, struggled a lot.
But when we first met her, shewas getting ready to have a knee
replacement.
And she lived in like theprojects and like government
housing, you know, didn't haveanything, was on food stamps,
all that stuff.
And we met her.
And at this time of my mission,I was ward sharing.
I had, there were eightmissionaries in our ward.
(14:05):
So just in our area, we had aton of missionaries and they
were all elders.
And so...
We go over to meet her and she'stelling us her life story and it
is like one of the most tragiclife stories I've ever heard.
Genuinely, if I had lived herlife, I don't think I would
believe in a God, to be honestwith you.
And I don't know if this is theplace to share these deep things
that she experienced, but shehad five kids before the age of
(14:29):
19.
Like she was just...
really struggled with abuse anddifferent things in her life.
And so we kind of met this womanwho was very broken but had a
ton of faith in God.
SPEAKER_01 (14:38):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
And she was like...
She's meeting these 20-year-oldgirls who are here preaching the
gospel to her.
She's been going to church everyday for 65 years, you know, and
every week.
SPEAKER_01 (14:49):
Like Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_00 (14:50):
Yeah, and she's super active and sings in her
choir.
I
SPEAKER_01 (14:53):
want to meet this woman
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
so bad.
Oh, she is incredible.
We've got to get her on thepodcast, honestly.
She'll preach to you.
She is the best.
But we're sitting therelistening to this, and I'm like,
Tishy, like, I'm just so sorry.
And she's like, you don't needto be sorry for me.
I know God is real and she'slike honestly the hardest thing
in my life right now is I needthis knee replacement I can't
(15:16):
walk and we're realizing at thispoint we've been over to meet
her twice and we'd never seenher stand up she'd always called
to us to come get in and shejust kind of sits in her bed
like can't really move and um wewere like Tishy can we give can
we um get you a priesthoodblessing and we taught her about
the priesthood and we called theelders over and and they came
(15:37):
right over and we kind ofexplained the process what it
was and how you know jesuschrist gave this power to the
apostles and she was like yeahyeah and we kind of explained to
her we said tishy if the onlyway this works is if you have
faith miracles are wrought byfaith it's not the other way
around right um so if you havefaith that these elders through
(15:59):
the power of the priesthood canheal you you will be healed do
you believe that and she waslike yeah She was like, the
scriptures say, out of themouths of babes will I hear the
gospel.
And here are two babes sittingright in front of me.
And we're like, okay, Tishy,fair enough.
And at this point, we'd onlyknown the woman for two weeks.
And she just, you know, puttingall of her trust in us.
And so the elders put theirhands on her head.
(16:20):
And, you know, these are18-year-old boys.
We're kind of expecting them tosay like, hey, we bless you with
faith and strength to getthrough this trial.
But the elder who gave her thisblessing was like, I bless you
that you will not need surgeryfor this knee.
Whoa.
And I'm just kind of sittingthere listening to this and I'm
like, Ooh, like not doubting theLord, but I was like, you know,
(16:41):
elder, that was kind of a boldthing to bless this woman.
And, but I was like, I havefaith.
She has faith.
Like, I guess it's going tohappen.
And I have a video of it on myphone and it is, we played it
for the whole mission one time.
But as soon as they say, amen,Tishy looks at us and she jumps,
leaps out of her bed and andjust start skipping around her
(17:04):
apartment.
And we were all sitting there incomplete awe, just shocked.
And we were like, did we justwitness like a miracle?
Like a healing of the sick andafflicted miracle?
Like he promised her in the nameof God that she wouldn't need
surgery.
And she's walking on this kneethat is like, she needed a knee,
like a full knee replacementfor.
(17:25):
And she's like, I haven't likewalked in like three months.
And she's like skipping around.
And I had this video over andshe goes, isn't God good all the
time?
And we were like, yes, he is.
And so it was just so cool tosee like that didn't change my
testimony in any way.
Like it was not that my faithcame from that experience, but
(17:46):
it strengthened my testimony inthe sense that because I had
faith, maybe those miraclesdon't happen, but they can.
And the Lord knows.
blessed her through the power ofthe priesthood and through the
authority we held asmissionaries.
And it was just amazing to see.
SPEAKER_01 (18:01):
I have so many questions.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:06):
Okay.
Let's, let's, let's, let's getto the ending of the story
before I asked like a bunch ofthese questions.
So did Tishy, did she ever takethe spiritual path seriously?
Did she ever, she, you know, didyou teach her?
Did she ever get baptized?
Is she a member of the church?
Like what happened?
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
Yeah.
So she was baptized, um, firstweek of April of 2024.
So over a year ago, she wasbaptized.
Um, she's, she wanted to bebaptized on Easter.
So she was baptized on Easterand which might've been the end
of March.
I can't remember, but She wasbaptized.
We taught her for about sixmonths because her issue was it
(18:45):
was hard for her to get tochurch because of how sick she
was.
She had stage four kidneyfailure.
So she really struggled to getto church.
And so we had to kind of call mymission president.
We were like, can we get anexception?
She can't make it.
And he was like, yeah, that'sokay.
And as soon as we got thatexception, we were able to get
her to church.
And...
We were like, okay, HeavenlyFather.
We've been humbled.
(19:06):
We get it.
SPEAKER_01 (19:06):
And I've been around when you get texts from her or
voice messages or I don't know,you're calling her or something,
and it just seems like she's avery faithful, strong person.
SPEAKER_00 (19:14):
Yeah, and we kind of thought, my companion and I, and
this isn't like a morbid thing,but we genuinely believed
because we got to know herreally well.
I taught her with the samecompanion for six months.
We were together for a longtime.
And we kind of believed that assoon as she got baptized that
she would pass away.
She was really just not well.
And kind of the oppositehappened.
Like she's not perfectly healedand just, you know, 25 years
(19:37):
old, but she's, She goes tochurch every week.
No way.
I just got a text last week froma member in the ward saying,
hey, Tishy bore a testimony andtold anyone that was thinking
about that they needed to goserve a mission because they
never know the lives they'regoing to change.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
She was like, just want you to know she's doing
well.
So it was a long process withTishy and it took a lot of
service.
We would go over and help herclean her apartment and help
feed her and things like that.
But she did get baptized.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
I just look at this little Molly, who's this little
kid.
You decide to serve the Lordwith her.
all your heart, mind, andstrength.
You go out there with faith andyou work your butt off and you
work hard.
And then I think of this womannamed Tishy that I've never met,
but you describe her and I justlove her so much.
I just do.
And the fact that you two, Godled you two, you were called
specifically to go find Tishyand Tishy was seeking or was
(20:27):
ready.
And God led you two together toperform miracles, which were
your right.
And because of the faith of thiselder and because of your faith
and because of Tishy's faith,Miracles happen to lead her to
Christ.
And now she has come to Christin the fullness or the
restoration of the gospel.
And it's such joy.
It's so great.
Okay, second question.
Do you recall, because I've beena part of many blessings and
(20:48):
some pretty miraculous ones.
I've also been a part of manydiscussions and lessons and
experiences.
And I've come to a point in mylife where I think I'm getting
better at discerning And themission obviously helps us.
How do you discern when the HolyGhost is present and when that
spiritual or holy thing ishappening?
Do you recall at all what youwere experiencing in your spirit
(21:11):
during that blessing or when shegot up?
Do you recall at all?
Did you feel the Holy Ghost?
I know I'm putting you on thespot here, but...
SPEAKER_00 (21:16):
Yeah, I'm trying to think because I feel like that's
the...
question of the century, right?
Like how do we feel the spirit?
What does the spirit feel like?
How do we receive revelation?
Right.
And Elder Bednar has all of hisstuff about that.
And that's like, everyone'swondering that.
And I don't think we ever fullylike are perfect at that.
But I will say the feeling thatI remember is my first thought
(21:38):
in that when he said that was,whoa, Elder, that was bold.
That's bold.
Yeah.
And I You know, he's probablygiven two blessings in his whole
life, this elder, right?
He's 18, you know?
How
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
faithful is he to make that promise?
SPEAKER_00 (21:52):
And that was the second thought.
It was, and I believe that thatwas the spirit was, hey, are you
questioning me?
Like, this is my work.
This is my power.
I've blessed you to use it.
And
SPEAKER_01 (22:06):
Tishy is my glory.
She's my daughter and she willbe exalted.
And that is glory.
SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
Yeah.
And he says
SPEAKER_01 (22:12):
that my work and my glory is to bring to pass the
immortality of Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:17):
And eternal life of Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:18):
Exactly.
And so that was my secondthought.
And it wasn't like there wasthis like burning in my bosom
and like this angel came downand I felt like tears.
But it was just this kind ofquiet like this is my work.
I've trusted you to be here andwitness this, and you are a
vessel for me to bring thegospel to this woman, but I'm
(22:41):
going
SPEAKER_01 (22:41):
to do my work.
Well, and I bring it up becausethe scriptures teach us that the
Holy Ghost is discernible,right?
Yeah.
And it does take a long time forus, you listeners, to learn how
to experience the Holy Ghost, tofeel it, to discern it, to
understand it, to recognize it.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
And for me, what I've learned, and that
experience is an example, iseveryone feels the Spirit
differently.
But for me, I mean, I believepride is the most damning sin.
Pride is the root of any sinthat happens.
And for me, the way that theSpirit speaks to me is it calls
me out, calls me to repentance.
SPEAKER_01 (23:13):
Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (23:14):
And it's not that I was being prideful in that
moment, but the Spirit's like,hey, this is my work.
Like, believe.
And at this point in my mission,I'd been out for a while.
I was a pre-experiencedmissionary, and I'd seen
miracles.
This wasn't, like, brand new tome, but it was just this quiet
reminder of...
Have the faith.
(23:35):
Trust in the faith you have.
You have more faith than youthink you do.
SPEAKER_01 (23:39):
It reminds me of Moroni 9.
Let's read it real quick becauseI was going to save this for the
end.
And I was going to say thatyou...
if you recognized or discernedthe spirit as this calm,
peaceful, that is expressed manytimes.
Like it's, it's, it's so hardfor us to use mortal terms to
express what this spiritual,powerful, eternal God-like
(23:59):
experience is.
So we fail, right?
The words that we try to use,they fail, but we do our best.
And the scriptures, they talkabout a peace and a comfort and
a joy.
And we call the Holy Ghost thecomforter.
SPEAKER_00 (24:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
And it sometimes is still and quiet, and other times
it is loud, burning
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
in the bosom.
Sometimes it calls you to
SPEAKER_01 (24:14):
repentance.
I mean, probably always does,right?
But listen to this part.
It says in Mormon 10.
Despise not, he says, and wondernot, but hearken unto the words
of the Lord and ask the Fatherin the name of Jesus for what
things soever ye shall stand inneed.
For example, a knee fix or...
(24:34):
kidney failure fix orconversion, right?
Doubt not, but be believing.
Begin as in old times and comeunto the Lord with all your
heart and work out your ownsalvation with fear and
trembling before him.
Yeah.
Doubt not, be believing.
Just accept that you are calledto minister to these souls.
(24:55):
Believe, believe that the powerof God can be used to help Tishy
feel the spirit and come untohim.
Let me share a story now.
That was awesome.
Thanks for sharing a story aboutTishy.
Okay.
So I was in the city in UpperPetrovsk and we were knocking
doors.
And one day we knock on a doorand this disheveled woman opens
the door with an apron on andlike, I don't know, food all
(25:17):
over her face.
She was cooking or something.
And she's like, yeah.
She's like, well, she's like,oh, you guys.
She's like, look, I don't havetime for you.
Okay.
But come on in.
You can talk to my family.
We're like, oh, sure.
So we walk in.
She says, they're down the hall.
So we go down the hall and weturn and she lied.
We weren't talking to herfamily.
Oh no.
We were talking to her
SPEAKER_00 (25:38):
pastor,
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
350 year old mother or grandmother.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
Just the oldest woman I've ever seen in my life
is just sitting there and we'relike, Oh, she, that's lame.
Like this woman isn't evencoherent.
She won't even understand us.
She's like, she just, that'slame.
SPEAKER_00 (25:52):
So we'll get baptized in the spirit world at
this point.
Yeah.
Too far from.
SPEAKER_01 (25:55):
Yeah.
So we sit down and she looks upand sees us and we're like,
Hello?
We're the missionaries.
And immediately she just perksup and starts talking like she's
25 years old.
SPEAKER_00 (26:07):
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01 (26:07):
We're like, oh, wow, this lady's with it.
Oh, my goodness.
This lady is like superenergetic and charismatic and
super old.
Just really just old,
SPEAKER_00 (26:15):
old, old, old.
SPEAKER_01 (26:17):
And so we're like, well, we have a message.
We've come all the way from, youknow, America and we have a
message about the restoration ofthe gospel of Jesus Christ.
And she said, I'll listen toanyone talking about Jesus
Christ.
Teach me.
Let me know if you havesomething to teach me.
I'm going to listen.
Cool.
So great.
So we start teaching, teachingand she's listening.
And then she starts askingquestions and we start engaging
and we're like, wow, this is avery, very spiritual and
(26:38):
fruitful discussion that'shappening right now.
I just got started to get reallyexcited.
And as we talked and talked, andthen we got to the restoration
and Joseph Smith and we tell thestory and she gets this serious
face on it.
She's just listening andlistening and listening.
Okay.
Now we kind of finished that andshe puts her hand up like stop.
And then she puts both of herhands on the sides of her chair.
(26:59):
And what seemed like 13 years,she started to wiggle around and
move.
We're like, what are you doing?
What's happening?
And she was just trying to standup.
But because of her age, it tooka long time.
SPEAKER_00 (27:09):
About 13 years.
13 years.
SPEAKER_01 (27:11):
She eventually got to her feet, looks me in the
eye, and starts walking towardsme.
And I'm like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_00 (27:17):
I'm about to get murdered by this 350-year-old
lady.
SPEAKER_01 (27:19):
Seriously.
That took 13 years for her tostand up.
She gets to me.
She gets so close.
And she starts quoting verbatimIsaiah.
How beautiful on themountaintops are the feet of
those who bring glad tidings ofgreat joy.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Publish peace.
SPEAKER_01 (27:35):
Publish peace.
And she just starts quoting methese Isaiah scriptures.
And I'm like, wow, what is goingon?
And then she sat down and shesaid, now it's my turn to teach
you something.
We're like, oh, okay.
She's like, I have a story foryou.
Here's her story.
This is amazing.
She says, I grew uppre-communism.
And during communism, you're notallowed to believe in God.
(27:56):
So you'd have people who areunderground believers, but
nothing public.
SPEAKER_00 (28:00):
Kind of like an Alma situation.
SPEAKER_01 (28:01):
Alma situation.
And she says, but I'm so oldthat my parents and
grandparents, we did live in atime where religion was
thriving.
It was the Russian OrthodoxChurch.
Wow.
And she said, there was a timewhere a group of my
grandparents, like years ago, solong ago, they were part of the
Russian Orthodox Church, butthey had a desire to learn and
(28:23):
understand more.
So...
They kind of secretly, becausethey weren't really supposed to
do this, they would secretlymeet kind of in underground
meetings with the Bible, andthey would study the Bible
together to try and understandit better.
You know, it had kind of theRussian Orthodox then church had
kind of a Catholic tinge.
It was like, you don't reallyneed to study the scriptures or
no, it's just common
SPEAKER_00 (28:40):
teaching.
In fact, you're kind of, yeah,discouraged against it.
You
SPEAKER_01 (28:42):
kind of are.
And so this was kind of sketchy.
They had to do it underground.
And after a long time, this grewto a pretty big underground
group of these old people whoare, or these people who were
studying the Bible, and theystarted to make some really
fast, She says, That's cool.
Who has authority?
(29:08):
They were like, How about westop going to the Russian
Orthodox Church, we continue tostudy, let's find the one that
has authority.
SPEAKER_00 (29:26):
Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
And so they get together.
That's cool.
Isn't that amazing?
Yeah.
Now listen, this is famous.
You can look this up.
This is a group.
They said, we decided to callourselves the Molokansi.
Now, Moloko is milk, Molokansi,I don't know if it's related.
I've never really understood whythey call themselves the
Molokansi, but you can look itup.
Molokansi, Russian Molokansi, itexists.
And it was a group ofunderground people who left the
Russian Orthodox Church in orderto study it themselves because
(29:49):
they weren't satisfied that thetruth was there and the
authority wasn't there.
And so this lady is telling usthe story and we're like, oh my
goodness.
And she says, now listen, guys,if what you're telling me is
true, that the gospel of JesusChrist, as we all discovered
hundreds of years ago, isn't onthe authority, isn't on the
earth.
(30:10):
And we made this decision toseek it out.
She says, guys, to my knowledge,at least in my family, I'm one
of the remaining Malakansi.
And if what you just told me istrue, then am I the one that
have found the restored gospelafter the thousands of people
and the years of seeking?
She says, if this is true, thenhow beautiful on the
(30:34):
mountaintops are the feet ofthose who bring glad tidings of
great joy, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah.
Wow, that's cool.
And we're like, what the heck?
So we said, listen.
We testify to you that this isthe truth.
We testify to you that thegospel has been restored and
that you guys were wise and knewthat the authority wasn't there.
Will you continue to learn fromus?
And we'll teach you these.
And if it's true and you findout, will you be baptized with
(30:56):
the proper authority?
She says, absolutely, I will.
Let's talk.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
So did she get baptized?
SPEAKER_01 (31:01):
Well, we started teaching her.
I don't know if you like theending.
We started teaching her.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
She died first.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
I'll tell you.
I'll tell you.
We started teaching her and wehad all the lessons and the
discussions and she kept everycommitment and she started
coming to church and she got herdaughter involved, the crazy
cook lady.
She got involved and her grandgot her daughter involved and we
all started meeting and talkingand teaching and spirit was
there and they were keepingcommitments.
And after a few months, shesays, guys, the Holy Ghost tells
(31:28):
me that this is true.
Baptize me.
Baptize me immediately.
We need to do baptism rightaway.
And I will never, Molly, forgetthe day.
We had to build a font becauseyou couldn't take her on the
lake.
It's too old.
You couldn't take her in like aswimming pool.
Too old.
We built a structure that hadsome stairs on it.
And I'll never forget the day,man.
It took us 30 minutes to get herup those stairs.
And when we got in the water,she asked me to baptize her.
(31:50):
I'll never forget.
I put my hand to the squareready to baptize her.
And she says, stop, wait.
And she looked out in the crowdand she says, where's my
daughter?
And she took about 10 minutesand just kind of finished off
her repentance she's like I'm sosorry that time that I said this
to you and that one time shejust started continuing to
repent
SPEAKER_00 (32:09):
like it
SPEAKER_01 (32:09):
was so sweet and tender and then she looks at me
and goes I'm ready and I'llnever forget I got to slowly put
her in the water and bring herup this ordinance of baptism and
she died like a week later
SPEAKER_00 (32:22):
There you go.
That's cool.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (32:26):
This passion that I had before my mission, because
when I came to Christ and feltthe joy and just the power and
the love, I wanted so badly tobring it to others.
And I knew that God had calledme to where I needed to go.
I know that I was called to gofind her.
And it's a miracle to me thatbecause we were working hard and
faithful, it's a miracle that wewere brought together that I
could help play a role in thisstory of the Malakansi.
(32:49):
And I can't believe thatsomeday, 2,000 years from now in
this celestial kingdom, I'll besitting with all those malakansi
and being like, you found her.
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
You brought this.
SPEAKER_00 (32:58):
That's so cool.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (32:59):
a miracle, Molly.
SPEAKER_00 (33:00):
That is a miracle.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (33:01):
incredible.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
It's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01 (33:03):
It really
SPEAKER_00 (33:04):
is a miracle.
It's the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
Okay, you've got more miracles.
You've got...
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (33:08):
Some miracle with some smoothies or something.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
Oh, yeah.
Okay, so this doesn't have quitethe ending that you may expect,
but...
This kind of goes with yourprinciple, and I don't know if
there's been a podcast aboutthis, but the open your mouth
principle as well.
SPEAKER_01 (33:23):
Oh, yeah.
We have a whole bunch.
SPEAKER_00 (33:24):
And this one, I thought about you this day of my
mission.
I was like, Sean would be proud.
But I was training a brand newmissionary, and he was actually
getting married next week, whichis crazy.
Congrats.
Side note.
Anyways, training this brand newmissionary, and we had set a
goal that we were going tofollow every prompting.
And we were obedient.
(33:46):
We were living worthy.
We were purpose-focused.
And so we had the Spirit withus, and I believe that as you're
obedient as a missionary and asyou're focused on your purpose,
that you have the Spirit withyou.
And so we kind of made this goaltogether that we were going to
follow every prompting.
And we're leaving this lesson.
We have an hour to kill beforeour next appointment, and we're
(34:08):
going to go knock some doors.
And as we're driving, my thoughtis, hey, we need to stop by
Tropical Smoothie.
And I was like, and then myfollow-up thought was, that's
not purpose-focused.
Like, what?
Sister Baxter, get it together.
Like, you're training a newmissionary.
This is not setting a goodexample.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
Wait, but your mission kind of theme or this
idea of, wait a minute, trustthe, I'm a missionary.
I'm called to minister.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (34:31):
trust that first thought.
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
Trust the first thought because you feel like
that's God's, Like what else?
God is going to guide us.
He's going to let us again havemiracles.
Yeah.
And so you first questioned thethought and then said, wait a
minute, I'm supposed to trustthis thought.
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
Yeah.
And so I kind of looked over tomy companion.
I was like, hey, how do you feelabout this?
And she's like, she's like,yeah.
Like she didn't necessarilyhave, it wasn't one of those
moments where we both had thisreally strong feeling to go to
Tropical Smoothie.
But you
SPEAKER_01 (34:55):
trusted that the Lord was guiding you in faith.
SPEAKER_00 (34:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
And so we were like, okay, we'll go.
And we had...
set this other goal as acompanionship that we were going
to talk to everybody.
SPEAKER_01 (35:07):
Talk to everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (35:08):
Open your mouth.
And I was kind of a crueltrainer in the sense that I, you
know, made her do some thingsthat made her pretty
uncomfortable.
That's not cruel.
That's a huge
SPEAKER_01 (35:17):
blessing.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
It wasn't cruel.
We were best friends.
But I look back and I'm like, Iprobably should have eased her
in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01 (35:22):
No,
SPEAKER_00 (35:22):
no.
But you jump in feet first andthat's how it is.
So we pull up to this drive-thruand we didn't have time to go
in.
So I was like, we're just goingto go to the drive-thru because
we had to be at thisappointment.
Someone we were really excitedto teach.
And so we pull up to the window,we order our food and it's like
busy inside.
And my thought is, should wehave gone inside?
(35:44):
Like there's a lot of people inthere.
Like, was that maybe what theprompting was about?
Like, but at this point I waslike really hyped about my mango
smoothie.
I was like, well, whatever, it'sfine.
Like we followed the prompting.
That's what matters.
So we pulled to the window and Itell my trainee, I was like, my
comedian, I'm like, get out andtalk to the people behind us in
the car.
(36:04):
So, and she was great.
Like she was bold.
Like she was like, really?
And I was like, yeah, just knockon their window and tell them,
invite them to church.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (36:11):
awesome.
I love that so much.
Open your mouth and talk toeveryone.
SPEAKER_00 (36:13):
Yeah.
And so she gets out.
So she's not in the car with meand she's, I can still see her
from my rear view mirror.
All, you know, rules are beingfollowed, but I can like see her
talking to these two girls inthe back.
Um, and yeah, The girl's takingmy money, you know, I'm paying
for my smoothie and she's givingthem to me.
She has a headset on.
She's also taking the orders forthe drive-thru and making the
(36:35):
smoothies and like paying.
So it's like this one womanoperation.
She's like probably like 25,like is a college town.
So I was like, whatever.
And she's sitting there and Ijust, it just blurts out of my
mouth.
Like I hand her my credit cardand I'm like, hey, like I'm a
missionary for Jesus Christ.
And...
(36:55):
Like, I can't remember exactlywhat I said.
I want to say, like, I think Isaid, I'm a missionary for Jesus
Christ.
Would you, like, do you have afaith?
I think that's what I said.
I was like, I'm a missionary forJesus Christ.
Like, do you have a faith inJesus Christ?
Or something, like, super casualbecause we were just kind of in
this drive-thru.
And she kind of just, like,looks at me weird and takes my
(37:19):
card and And like shuts thewindow, like the window shuts
back down.
And I was like, oh my gosh, likethis is so embarrassing.
Like just, and as a missionary,you kind of have this idea that
you're going to go out and like,and you are, you know, you're so
powerful and like, you know,but.
it's still awkward.
Like you still kind of have tofight this like awkwardness of
(37:40):
like
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
fun, embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00 (37:41):
Yeah.
And we, I would always say beawkward for Jesus.
Like just, it's awkward to knockon someone's window on a drive
through and invite him tochurch, but you do it because
you believe that this is thereto serve with
SPEAKER_01 (37:52):
all your heart, mind and strength.
SPEAKER_00 (37:53):
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
And so, and you only have 18months, two years to do it.
So you, every moment.
So I'm like, Oh my gosh, likethis is a low point for me.
And, like, I just got a doorslammed on me in a drive-thru.
Like, this is terrible.
And she opens the window backup, and she takes...
And mind you, when I said thisto her, I had interrupted her on
(38:15):
the headset.
So everything was fightingagainst me.
Like, it was terrible.
And she comes back.
She opens the window.
She hands me my card, and she'scrying.
Like, not, like, teary-eyed,but, like, sobbing.
Like, streaming down her face.
SPEAKER_01 (38:30):
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (38:31):
And...
I kind of just look at her and Iwas like, oh no, like this is
worse than I thought it was.
Like this is terrible.
I really offended this girl.
And like I served in a placewhere people were very religious
there.
So it was like, you know, likethey had faith and they had a
church and it was like sometimesoffensive to like invite them to
another one.
And so I'm like, oh no, like Ireally offended her.
(38:54):
And she takes off her headsetand there's the chaos going on
like in this situation.
And she hands me my smoothie andshe's like, Um, she says, I said
a prayer last night to God and Itold him that if he, like I
wanted a sign and if he didn'tsend me a sign, I was going to
(39:18):
end my life tonight.
SPEAKER_01 (39:19):
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (39:20):
And she looks at me and she's crying and she said,
you were an angel sent from God.
SPEAKER_01 (39:24):
Oh geez.
SPEAKER_00 (39:26):
And I just like looked at this girl and I start
crying.
Like it was like, never, Neverloved someone so much that I'd
never met, never talked to.
Like it was just like, it wasone of those surreal moments on
the mission where you're kind oflike an out-of-body experience
where it's just the Lord andyou're kind of watching it
happen almost.
And it's like this interactionbetween the Lord and this girl
(39:47):
and I'm just like watching it godown.
SPEAKER_01 (39:49):
Was it maybe a marvelous work and a wonder?
Was it a wonder?
SPEAKER_00 (39:51):
Yeah, it was a wonder.
And everything kind of goesquiet and you just can't
describe it.
And she just said like, She saidthis to me, and it wasn't me, it
was the Lord, obviously, butshe's like, you saved my life,
and I will never forget you.
And she gives me my smoothie,and my companion gets back in
the car, and she's crying, andI'm crying, and my companion
(40:14):
looks at me, and she's like,what's going on?
Like, what happened?
Did you guys, like, what's goingon?
And I just was like, what's yourname?
And she's like, Mallory.
And I was like, Mallory, like...
maybe we may never see eachother again, but I hope you know
that the Lord loves you.
And she just was like, thank youfor what you're doing here.
(40:36):
And just like, she like getsback, someone gets her
attention.
She like gets back on theheadset and we drove away and I
never saw her again.
Never talked to her again.
Um, and we went back, we liketried to go back at different
times to kind of like see if wecould find her again.
Um, but It just like, we neverwere able to, but it was
(40:59):
incredible because yeah, shedidn't get baptized.
I didn't see her get baptized.
I didn't teach her the gospel,but I do believe that because I
followed the spirit that theLord used me and my companion to
bring her what she needed.
And maybe in that moment whenshe needed was not a story about
Joseph Smith in the book ofMormon, but clearly what she
(41:21):
needed was a reminder that theLord, no matter what
denomination she is, is aware ofher.
SPEAKER_01 (41:26):
That's so amazing.
All of the elements of thestory, because in the most
loudest way throughout thescriptures, the Lord through his
prophets has said, seek me guys,ask, pray, seek me out.
And if you will seek, I willsend you answers.
I will come to you.
And this woman, Mallory, she wasright.
She was at rock bottom and shewas seeking and praying.
(41:47):
And the Lord says, you knowwhat?
I'm sending my servants toanswer you, to teach you that
you are seen, you are loved, youare known.
And you're right.
Maybe that's just the seed thatgets planted.
And in five years, othermissionaries knock and she goes,
you know what?
I remember you guys.
Let's talk, right?
There's a progress, right?
Paul said, and he taught withSilas or whatever.
Was it Silas?
Silas, right?
(42:08):
Some of us plant, some of uswater, but God is the one
orchestrating and giving theincrease on all of it.
I brought up that second Nephi25, 17 during your story on
purpose.
And the Lord will set his handagain a second time to restore
his people from their lost andfallen state, wherefore he will
proceed to do a marvelous work,yea, a marvelous work and a
wonder among his children ofmen.
(42:28):
Now again, those of youlistening, you may consider our
stories coincidence.
SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
You
SPEAKER_01 (42:35):
may consider them, all right, maybe the Lord had a
hand in it, but those aren'tmiracles compared to, I don't
know, the sea being parted orsomeone raising from the dead.
Molly and I are here on oursoapbox to stand up loudly and
testify.
These are the miracles of theLord because there's nothing
(42:55):
more valuable than theindividual who is the son or
daughter of God.
SPEAKER_00 (42:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
And God loves them so much.
His only work in glory is not topart seas and not to do these
big, crazy miracles.
The miracles of us finding othersouls who are looking, who are
hurt, who need the gospel ofJesus Christ.
These are the greatest miraclesof all.
The changed heart that Mallorysomeday will have because you
faithfully listened to the HolyGhost and went out to serve a
(43:22):
mission.
The Malakansi lady, that wholefamily, they're strong, active
members of the church, thechildren, the grandchildren.
And that's a miracle.
These are the true miracles thatmatter.
SPEAKER_00 (43:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:33):
And the result is, is the evidence of that is the
joy that you and I feel becauseof the power of the Holy ghost.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
Yeah.
As
SPEAKER_01 (43:39):
we talk about these.
SPEAKER_00 (43:40):
Yeah.
And I think the greatest miracleof all miracles is one, the
atonement of Jesus Christ andthe fact that our hearts can be
changed because of that.
Right.
Have you experienced a mightychange of heart?
Alma says, right.
And, and, I think that's thegreatest miracle of all is that
we can change.
Like the nature of our being canchange because we serve and we
(44:06):
love and we do what the Saviorwould do.
And so, yeah, it's not theparting of the Red Sea.
But if you're a missionary andyou're serving with your heart,
my mind and strength and you'refocused on your purpose to bring
the gospel to those that needit, that the Lord loves.
you will experience that mightychange of heart and those will
become as big to you as theparting of the sea.
(44:28):
And if you're not seeing thesesmaller, and these are even
bigger miracles, but if you'renot seeing these smaller
miracles as these partings ofthe Red Sea in your personal
life, you got to change yourattitude.
You got to focus more on yourpurpose.
You got to come to understandthe Lord better because these
are miracles and he is working achange in your heart and that's
the greatest miracle of all.
SPEAKER_01 (44:49):
Beautiful.
I love it so much.
Yeah, and we both could sit herefor 10 more hours telling
stories about these miraclesthat happened.
Some big, some like more in yourface.
Most of them are how you soughtout to do the will of the Lord
and he put things in our pathsto find people whose hearts have
become a part of that greatmiracle of change through the
atonement of Jesus Christ.
(45:11):
And the evidence that it's alltrue is the joy that we feel.
SPEAKER_00 (45:13):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
That's beautiful.
Molly, do you have a commitment?
Do we have a commitment from youthat you will come back to tell
more stories?
SPEAKER_00 (45:21):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (45:21):
Okay, good.
Now the whole world will holdyou to that.
SPEAKER_00 (45:24):
Yeah, I'll be back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:26):
We need more 8 Mile stories, more Riri stories.
Tishy, I want to meet Tishy.
Bring Tishy back.
SPEAKER_00 (45:32):
I should bring her back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:33):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (45:34):
I have...
Oh, go ahead.
Did you have something?
No,
SPEAKER_01 (45:36):
no, you go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
I have one quote that...
I just thought of maybe it wasthe Spirit.
And I want to read real quick ifI can find it.
This is what I had taped in thefront of my scriptures my whole
mission.
And this is just my testimony ofmissionary work right here.
Because I think when you'regetting ready to go on a
mission, Some missionaries goout with this passion and fire
(45:59):
already, you know, and some theydon't go out with that same
passion and fire, but they knowthey love the Lord and so they
want to serve him, but theydon't know what that's going to
look like.
Maybe they're scared.
You know, everyone comes fromthese different backgrounds, but
the mission brings us together.
And so I served with someincredible missionaries and
something that I think we canall agree on, whether or not we
(46:21):
came out for different reasonsor not, is this quote by
President Hinckley.
And it says, it is not, and it'stalking about living the gospel
of Jesus Christ, but I thinkabout serving a mission in place
of that.
It says, it is not a sacrificeto live the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
It is never a sacrifice when youget back more than you give.
It is an investment, a greaterinvestment than any.
(46:44):
Its dividends are eternal andeverlasting.
So I think about this change,we're talking about the miracles
we've experienced that havechanged our hearts and our minds
and our souls in a way that youknow, we can't get in any other
way is more than I eversacrificed to go on a mission.
More than anything I left behindis the change that I experienced
(47:06):
and the love I gained for notjust people of Detroit, but the
Savior.
And so whoever is listening tothis and they're like, I'm
scared to go on a mission.
I'm leaving so much behind.
I'm leaving my girlfriend, myboyfriend, my family.
It's a lot and it can beoverwhelming.
It's never a sacrifice when youare sacrificing for the Lord
because you're just going to getback more than you could ever
(47:27):
give.
And so, um, that's what I thinkabout when I think of these
miracles is just the changesmore than, more than anything we
could give up.
And so
SPEAKER_01 (47:38):
it's beautiful.
I love it.
Let's add to that.
And then we'll end with the Lukefive 20.
It says, so the Lord was withthe apostles and there's this
man who had the palsy and hecame and he said, Jesus said to
him, and when he saw theirfaith, because they brought him
to be healed, and they said,well, these guys really believe.
He says, when Jesus saw theirfaith, he said unto the man, thy
sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and Phariseesbegan to reason, saying, who is
(48:00):
this which speaketh blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but Godalone?
But when Jesus perceived theirthoughts, he answered and said
unto them, what reason ye inyour hearts?
Which is easier to say, thy sinsbe forgiven thee, Or to say,
rise up and walk.
I love this.
He's like challenging, like,okay, which do you consider
easier?
Like, I just said these words.
You don't even know if his sinsare forgiven or not.
(48:21):
So which would be harder for meto say that would actually come
to pass?
To say your sins are forgivenyou or to say, rise up and walk?
Clearly, they're like, well,obviously, it'd be much harder
for you to say, rise up andwalk, and he would actually rise
up and walk.
And then he says this.
But that ye may know that theSon of Man hath power upon earth
to forgive sins, he said untothe sick of the palsy.
I say unto thee, arise, and takeup thy couch, and go into thine
(48:44):
house.
And immediately he rose upbefore them, and took up that
whereon he lay, and departed tohis own house, glorifying God.
The miracle, I love that Christis teaching.
The miracle, as amazing to us asit is that this man stood up and
walked, it's nothing compared toyour sins are forgiven.
(49:07):
That is the greatest miracle ofall.
SPEAKER_00 (49:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:10):
That we will live in the presence of our Father in
heaven in the celestial kingdomfor eternity with our families
because of Jesus Christ and hissacrifice.
I love him so much for it.
It's such a...
That is the miracle thatmatters.
SPEAKER_00 (49:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:22):
Yeah.
And we can all experience
SPEAKER_00 (49:23):
that.
It's the
SPEAKER_01 (49:23):
atonement.
It's the atonement.
SPEAKER_00 (49:24):
And it's...
It's so simple to say, but Ithink it's real.
That's the miracle.
Yeah.
We talk about it as this story,as this thing that happened, but
it's real.
It happened, and it can happenevery day in your life if you
choose to access
SPEAKER_01 (49:40):
it.
You're a perfect example ofthat, Molly.
Thanks for joining us, andyou'll be back.
So listeners, come back becauseMolly's amazing, and come listen
to us next week, listeners.
Thanks.
UNKNOWN (49:52):
Bye.
Bye.
As soon as they say amen, Tishy looks at us and she
jumps, leaps out of her bed andjust starts skipping around her
apartment.
And we were all sitting there incomplete awe, just shocked.
And we were like, did we justwitness like a miracle?
Like a healing of the sick andafflicted miracle?
(00:21):
Like he promised her in the nameof God that she wouldn't need
surgery and she's walking onthis knee that is like...
she needed a knee, like a fullknee replacement for.
And she's like, I haven't likewalked in like three months.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
All right.
Welcome back to the MissionStories podcast.
Today is an awesome day becausewe have, well, we have a special
guest, but I'm not going to.
Yeah, I will.
I will do this because it's beensix months that I've been
begging, pleading.
I don't know.
All the things that we've donefor you.
And then six months goes by andAnd we don't have Lauren with us
(00:57):
today, but we do have Molly O.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
Hello.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01):
Which is Molly.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Happy to be
SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
here.
Or Sister Baxter.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05):
Whatever you want to call me.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, actually, that could berisky.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11):
Maybe not.
Molly, I've known for a longtime, and we got to see your
journey go through elementaryschool, middle school, high
school.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:17):
And then the mission.
Yeah.
And now you are the RM.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
I am an RM.
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
And it's just, it's amazing.
I love so much when...
You know, it's like my dream.
When I had my mission experienceand it was like, wow, that was
so great.
There's nothing that could havebeen better.
Nothing will top that.
And it was such a spiritualexperience.
It was so amazing.
And I go, do others have thatexperience?
(01:43):
And to come home and learn thatsome don't is so disheartening
and disappointing.
But then I see...
molly and i see others who youjust faithfully did it right you
applied a lot of the trueprinciples that make for a good
mission and i love seeing youbecause you're so Happy and
strong and converted, and you'rea true disciple, and it's just
(02:04):
so great to see you.
You're just this little punk kidsinging in my wife's choir.
Okay,
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
okay.
And
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
now you are this just faithful, amazing.
I know, you're uncomfortablewith me praising you like this,
but I'll let you introduceyourself in a minute.
But just for context for thelisteners, so missions, to be a
minister of the Lord full-timeSet apart.
Set apart as a minister of theLord Jesus Christ to preach his
(02:31):
gospel and to bring souls tohim.
So few people in the history ofthe world get to do that.
So few.
Like what percentage, Molly?
What do you think?
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
I don't even want to throw out a number that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
There's no way to know it.
But it's so mind-boggling to methat we are so blessed to be
born in this day where we get tobe a part of that small
percentage of people who get tobe a minister of the Lord,
authoritative, full-time.
SPEAKER_00 (02:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
And man, I didn't want to lose or waste a single
second of the two years that Iwas in Ukraine on my mission.
And I, you know, faithfully, Ican say we did our best.
We really did.
And the Lord rewarded us andthose with whom we worked.
And it's just joy.
It's just pure joy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:14):
It's pure joy.
It is.
Yesterday I was at the beach andthis random lady walked up to me
and my friends and she was like,hey, do you guys go to church?
And we were like, yeah, we go tochurch.
And she's like, oh, it's so goodseeing some young kids going to
church these days.
Like I go to mission church.
I was going to invite you.
And she was like, do you openyour mouths and share this with
your friends?
And we were like, lady, you gotno idea.
(03:36):
You got no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
I guess the question follow-up would be, did you open
your mouth and share it withlady?
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
No.
Oh, geez.
What?
She was kind of walking away.
Oh, okay.
And yeah, it was just not the,yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
But even those who are not of our faith, those who
believe in Christ, there's ajoy.
And then we say, come join whathas been restored and you will
have, we can't have in this lifea fullness of joy, but man,
sometimes I feel like it'sclose.
SPEAKER_00 (03:58):
Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01 (03:59):
And the mission is a huge part of that.
Yeah.
Because the mission is truly howwe become closer to Christ and
how leading other people toChrist is the most joyful thing
in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Yeah.
So this podcast for thelisteners, we are trying to
share with you our experiencesthat led to a positive, amazing,
marvelous mission experience andour path to being built on the
foundation of Jesus Christ.
We're trying to share with youthose things so that you can go
out more equipped to have abetter chance to have an amazing
(04:32):
mission.
Because look at the statistics.
There's like a 50-50 chance thatyou'll come home and it'll be
eh.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
And it has everything to do with these
principles we teach.
So today, we had a hard timepicking which principle to focus
on because Molly, you have somany great stories and
experiences.
We picked the number five.
This is miracles and angels areour right when we are set apart
ministers of the Lord in thework.
And so we've got some coolstories.
But, you know, before we dothat, why don't we...
(05:01):
Do a little introduction.
Oh,
SPEAKER_00 (05:03):
brother.
SPEAKER_01 (05:04):
A little intro to explain to the audience who
we're about to talk to.
SPEAKER_00 (05:09):
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER_01 (05:20):
Molly is from?
Molly served and is from?
SPEAKER_00 (05:24):
Detroit.
That took a second to get going.
That took a long time.
And then I heard the intro.
I was like, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:31):
That took a long time.
I might overdub this and makethat come in sooner.
But what specifically is that?
That's from a movie called?
SPEAKER_00 (05:37):
Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
Eight Mile.
Where did you serve?
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
I served on Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Molly served on Eight Mile, Detroit.
The like crazy, how do youdescribe Eight Mile?
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
The place of the Lord.
No, no, no, no.
Eight Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
How would Eminem describe Eight Mile?
SPEAKER_00 (05:56):
Eminem...
SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
That's where he's from.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (05:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:00):
8 Mile's a special place.
I served in Detroit.
I served in the Michigan-Detroitmission, which...
Had more than just 8 Mile.
SPEAKER_01 (06:07):
Okay, but let me ask you this.
Would you live in 8 Mile ever?
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
No.
Okay, why not?
Because it's a scary place.
But I
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
thought it was the place of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Let's just say there's a billboard that has to
remind you in Detroit that saysGod has not left Detroit.
Because sometimes you have to bereminded that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:22):
So 8 Mile is kind of this ghetto area of Detroit.
SPEAKER_00 (06:25):
Yeah, you can kind of think of like the strip in
Vegas.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (06:28):
interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (06:29):
But like just half of the buildings are just
abandoned.
Okay, so
SPEAKER_01 (06:34):
I skipped ahead because I wanted to do the intro
that took too long and do themusic, but give us a little
intro of who you are.
SPEAKER_00 (06:40):
So, I'm Molly Baxter.
I grew up here in Carlsbad,California.
I served in the Michigan-Detroitmission.
I go to BYU in Provo, studyingbusiness.
SPEAKER_01 (06:57):
Nice.
Yeah.
And you're a wonderful person.
We've known you for a long time.
Yeah.
Big fan of the record.
You've been home for...
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (07:03):
Been home for a year.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Has it been a year?
SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
It'll be a year in, what's today?
The third?
It'll be a year in four days,
SPEAKER_01 (07:11):
five days.
Amazing that it took you 12months, not six, to get here on
my podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Okay.
Well,
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
let's dive in because I want to hear your
stories, more of your stories.
I've loved some of them so much.
And there's, we picked thisprinciple.
Why do we pick this principle?
This principle is, again,listeners, that if you go out
and have the faith to thatmiracles and angels are
assisting you, or angels areassisting you and miracles are
your right, if you go throughwith that faith, like if you
(07:36):
understand how valuable thesouls, the children of our
Heavenly Father are, and youhave faith in that, then you
will see that you have a powerto do the work of the Lord, to
lead souls to Christ.
But only if you tap into it,only if you have faith.
So this principle is all aboutgo expect these things because
the Lord will give them to you.
Why is this one of yourfavorite?
(07:58):
Why did you pick this one?
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
I think about before I went out on my mission and I'd
hear stories and I heard allthese miracles that these return
missionaries experienced on themission.
And I was like, oh, I just wantto go witness all these
miracles.
And I went out and my testimonyof miracles changed changed
because how I defined a miraclechanged once I started serving
(08:22):
the Lord.
Because I think we think ofthese miracles like raising the
dead and, you know, healing theblind, which are all real
possible miracles through faith.
And I believe that because of mymission.
But I also believe that thereare miracles like, I call them
divine meetings, like where youjust run into someone who
changes your life, changes yourday, changes your minute.
So that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
Let me just interrupt and ask you.
So You're saying that before themission, the only understanding
we would all have, I'd say thisis true for me too, is a miracle
is the world being flooded orthe sea being parted or someone
being
SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
raised from the dead.
Or the lion's mouths being shut.
That's right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
But you're saying that as soon as you got on your
mission, you started toexperience something that was, I
would argue, is incredible.
way more powerful than
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
if
SPEAKER_01 (09:06):
I saw some water behave unnaturally.
Way more powerful because it hadto do with, I fell in love with
the people of Ukraine.
And when I saw people come toChrist and see the joy and the
change that occurred in theirlives, and the fact that I'm
from Podunk City in USA andtraveled across the world and
(09:28):
would pray every day to findthis golden person and did in
this miraculous way, thatmiracle to me, Yeah, it doesn't
seem, to the layman, it doesn'tseem like such a big, amazing
miracle.
But to us, those became themiracles, right?
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
And I think, and serving with missionaries and
young missionaries who come outand maybe they're struggling to
adjust and missions harder thanthey thought it was going to be,
or you're plopped in the middleof Michigan in negative 40
degree weather from SouthernCalifornia.
And you're like, what am I doinghere?
I think sometimes the miracle isthat you wake up in the morning
with a positive attitude or youlearn something in your
(10:04):
scripture study that, you know,boosts you or brings you the
spirit that day.
And so I think we, think aboutthese miracles as a missionary,
like, Oh, what can I do for allthese other people?
But I think too, we have toremember that the Lord cares
about you as a missionary and asa person and wants you to have
those small, consistentspiritual experiences that are
miracles in and of themselvesthat help you bring miracles to
(10:27):
other people.
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
Because if those are building our faith, right?
If God gives us these amazingmiracles to build our faith, to
lead us to repentance, to ensurethe covenants that we live in,
how much more useful are theyif, Our goal is to go and lead,
find and lead souls to Christ.
Of course, he's going to allowthese powerful miracles to
happen because he's proclaimedthroughout scripture.
(10:48):
The most important thing we canbe engaged in is crying
repentance unto the people andgathering Israel and bringing
people to the celestial kingdom,leading people to Christ.
It's the most important thing wecan do.
So of course he's going to giveus the power.
Look at every, almost everymissionary in all of scripture,
every prophet, the miraclesweren't there because wow, look
what happened.
(11:08):
The miracles were, there to helpthem lead souls to Christ period
SPEAKER_00 (11:11):
yeah that's it and I think about like when you think
about Christ in the NewTestament when he's you know
calling his apostles and hisdisciples and he's giving them
power and authority and he'ssending them off to do an
amazing work like they did andbe missionaries before he did
that he spent time with them andhe got to know them and he
blessed their own lives theirfamilies lives and perform
(11:33):
miracles in their lives and thenhe sent them out and said you
know share this and so I thinkas a missionary I And what I
would ask missionaries when Itaught missionaries was, what
were your touch points with theSavior this week?
You shared the gospel, but howdid you come to know your Savior
more this week too?
And how did he come to meet youwhere you were at?
And I think we forget that thoseare miracles in our own lives.
(11:55):
And we have to...
In order to appreciate the bigmiracles, we also have to
recognize those tender merciesthat the Lord still brings.
I
SPEAKER_01 (12:02):
love it.
It does all start with themiracle that comes from the
atonement of Jesus Christ andhis sacrifice and the miracle
that I've been forgiven, that myheart has been changed, that I'm
a different creature because Ilive in a covenant with Christ.
That really is a miracle, right?
It is.
We've all felt the sadness thatcomes from sin or the...
The guilt or the shame.
(12:23):
The shame.
And those of us who have come toChrist in faith and repentance
and through covenants, havingthat sadness and shame swept
away and replaced with such joyand happiness, that's a miracle.
But it's internal.
And I agree with you.
It does start there.
Yeah.
And then we want to go out anduse other miracles to lead souls
(12:43):
to Christ.
Yeah.
So I want you, Molly, to sharewith us and the listeners that
Some miracle stories.
Starting with Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (12:54):
Tishy.
SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Tishy.
Tishy my queen.
We won't say why her nickname isRiri, but her nickname is Riri.
SPEAKER_00 (12:59):
Which is ironic because that was her nickname
for us was Riri.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
Oh, she called you Riri?
SPEAKER_00 (13:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:04):
Okay.
But.
Okay.
So Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (13:06):
It all works out.
SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
You're Riri in this story.
She's Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (13:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:09):
Okay.
Tell us.
Tell us the story.
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
So I just want you to picture like the craziest
Baptist black lady, 65 yearsold, lives alone.
Sick out of her mind.
Like, has all the ailments onecan imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (13:24):
Please tell me she lives an eight mile.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
No.
Dang it.
That was Betty.
Tishy is not an eight miler.
But
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
she
SPEAKER_00 (13:31):
could have been.
She could have survived there.
SPEAKER_01 (13:34):
But she's older and sick?
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
Yeah, just really struggling physically.
And we taught her for about sixmonths before she was baptized.
SPEAKER_01 (13:40):
Six
SPEAKER_00 (13:41):
months?
And it was mostly in thehospital that we taught her.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (13:44):
I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00 (13:45):
She just, like, struggled a lot.
But when we first met her, shewas getting ready to have a knee
replacement.
And she lived in like theprojects and like government
housing, you know, didn't haveanything, was on food stamps,
all that stuff.
And we met her.
And at this time of my mission,I was ward sharing.
I had, there were eightmissionaries in our ward.
(14:05):
So just in our area, we had aton of missionaries and they
were all elders.
And so...
We go over to meet her and she'stelling us her life story and it
is like one of the most tragiclife stories I've ever heard.
Genuinely, if I had lived herlife, I don't think I would
believe in a God, to be honestwith you.
And I don't know if this is theplace to share these deep things
that she experienced, but shehad five kids before the age of
(14:29):
19.
Like she was just...
really struggled with abuse anddifferent things in her life.
And so we kind of met this womanwho was very broken but had a
ton of faith in God.
SPEAKER_01 (14:38):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
And she was like...
She's meeting these 20-year-oldgirls who are here preaching the
gospel to her.
She's been going to church everyday for 65 years, you know, and
every week.
SPEAKER_01 (14:49):
Like Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_00 (14:50):
Yeah, and she's super active and sings in her
choir.
I
SPEAKER_01 (14:53):
want to meet this woman
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
so bad.
Oh, she is incredible.
We've got to get her on thepodcast, honestly.
She'll preach to you.
She is the best.
But we're sitting therelistening to this, and I'm like,
Tishy, like, I'm just so sorry.
And she's like, you don't needto be sorry for me.
I know God is real and she'slike honestly the hardest thing
in my life right now is I needthis knee replacement I can't
(15:16):
walk and we're realizing at thispoint we've been over to meet
her twice and we'd never seenher stand up she'd always called
to us to come get in and shejust kind of sits in her bed
like can't really move and um wewere like Tishy can we give can
we um get you a priesthoodblessing and we taught her about
the priesthood and we called theelders over and and they came
(15:37):
right over and we kind ofexplained the process what it
was and how you know jesuschrist gave this power to the
apostles and she was like yeahyeah and we kind of explained to
her we said tishy if the onlyway this works is if you have
faith miracles are wrought byfaith it's not the other way
around right um so if you havefaith that these elders through
(15:59):
the power of the priesthood canheal you you will be healed do
you believe that and she waslike yeah She was like, the
scriptures say, out of themouths of babes will I hear the
gospel.
And here are two babes sittingright in front of me.
And we're like, okay, Tishy,fair enough.
And at this point, we'd onlyknown the woman for two weeks.
And she just, you know, puttingall of her trust in us.
And so the elders put theirhands on her head.
(16:20):
And, you know, these are18-year-old boys.
We're kind of expecting them tosay like, hey, we bless you with
faith and strength to getthrough this trial.
But the elder who gave her thisblessing was like, I bless you
that you will not need surgeryfor this knee.
Whoa.
And I'm just kind of sittingthere listening to this and I'm
like, Ooh, like not doubting theLord, but I was like, you know,
(16:41):
elder, that was kind of a boldthing to bless this woman.
And, but I was like, I havefaith.
She has faith.
Like, I guess it's going tohappen.
And I have a video of it on myphone and it is, we played it
for the whole mission one time.
But as soon as they say, amen,Tishy looks at us and she jumps,
leaps out of her bed and andjust start skipping around her
(17:04):
apartment.
And we were all sitting there incomplete awe, just shocked.
And we were like, did we justwitness like a miracle?
Like a healing of the sick andafflicted miracle?
Like he promised her in the nameof God that she wouldn't need
surgery.
And she's walking on this kneethat is like, she needed a knee,
like a full knee replacementfor.
(17:25):
And she's like, I haven't likewalked in like three months.
And she's like skipping around.
And I had this video over andshe goes, isn't God good all the
time?
And we were like, yes, he is.
And so it was just so cool tosee like that didn't change my
testimony in any way.
Like it was not that my faithcame from that experience, but
(17:46):
it strengthened my testimony inthe sense that because I had
faith, maybe those miraclesdon't happen, but they can.
And the Lord knows.
blessed her through the power ofthe priesthood and through the
authority we held asmissionaries.
And it was just amazing to see.
SPEAKER_01 (18:01):
I have so many questions.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:06):
Okay.
Let's, let's, let's, let's getto the ending of the story
before I asked like a bunch ofthese questions.
So did Tishy, did she ever takethe spiritual path seriously?
Did she ever, she, you know, didyou teach her?
Did she ever get baptized?
Is she a member of the church?
Like what happened?
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
Yeah.
So she was baptized, um, firstweek of April of 2024.
So over a year ago, she wasbaptized.
Um, she's, she wanted to bebaptized on Easter.
So she was baptized on Easterand which might've been the end
of March.
I can't remember, but She wasbaptized.
We taught her for about sixmonths because her issue was it
(18:45):
was hard for her to get tochurch because of how sick she
was.
She had stage four kidneyfailure.
So she really struggled to getto church.
And so we had to kind of call mymission president.
We were like, can we get anexception?
She can't make it.
And he was like, yeah, that'sokay.
And as soon as we got thatexception, we were able to get
her to church.
And...
We were like, okay, HeavenlyFather.
We've been humbled.
(19:06):
We get it.
SPEAKER_01 (19:06):
And I've been around when you get texts from her or
voice messages or I don't know,you're calling her or something,
and it just seems like she's avery faithful, strong person.
SPEAKER_00 (19:14):
Yeah, and we kind of thought, my companion and I, and
this isn't like a morbid thing,but we genuinely believed
because we got to know herreally well.
I taught her with the samecompanion for six months.
We were together for a longtime.
And we kind of believed that assoon as she got baptized that
she would pass away.
She was really just not well.
And kind of the oppositehappened.
Like she's not perfectly healedand just, you know, 25 years
(19:37):
old, but she's, She goes tochurch every week.
No way.
I just got a text last week froma member in the ward saying,
hey, Tishy bore a testimony andtold anyone that was thinking
about that they needed to goserve a mission because they
never know the lives they'regoing to change.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
She was like, just want you to know she's doing
well.
So it was a long process withTishy and it took a lot of
service.
We would go over and help herclean her apartment and help
feed her and things like that.
But she did get baptized.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
I just look at this little Molly, who's this little
kid.
You decide to serve the Lordwith her.
all your heart, mind, andstrength.
You go out there with faith andyou work your butt off and you
work hard.
And then I think of this womannamed Tishy that I've never met,
but you describe her and I justlove her so much.
I just do.
And the fact that you two, Godled you two, you were called
specifically to go find Tishyand Tishy was seeking or was
(20:27):
ready.
And God led you two together toperform miracles, which were
your right.
And because of the faith of thiselder and because of your faith
and because of Tishy's faith,Miracles happen to lead her to
Christ.
And now she has come to Christin the fullness or the
restoration of the gospel.
And it's such joy.
It's so great.
Okay, second question.
Do you recall, because I've beena part of many blessings and
(20:48):
some pretty miraculous ones.
I've also been a part of manydiscussions and lessons and
experiences.
And I've come to a point in mylife where I think I'm getting
better at discerning And themission obviously helps us.
How do you discern when the HolyGhost is present and when that
spiritual or holy thing ishappening?
Do you recall at all what youwere experiencing in your spirit
(21:11):
during that blessing or when shegot up?
Do you recall at all?
Did you feel the Holy Ghost?
I know I'm putting you on thespot here, but...
SPEAKER_00 (21:16):
Yeah, I'm trying to think because I feel like that's
the...
question of the century, right?
Like how do we feel the spirit?
What does the spirit feel like?
How do we receive revelation?
Right.
And Elder Bednar has all of hisstuff about that.
And that's like, everyone'swondering that.
And I don't think we ever fullylike are perfect at that.
But I will say the feeling thatI remember is my first thought
(21:38):
in that when he said that was,whoa, Elder, that was bold.
That's bold.
Yeah.
And I You know, he's probablygiven two blessings in his whole
life, this elder, right?
He's 18, you know?
How
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
faithful is he to make that promise?
SPEAKER_00 (21:52):
And that was the second thought.
It was, and I believe that thatwas the spirit was, hey, are you
questioning me?
Like, this is my work.
This is my power.
I've blessed you to use it.
And
SPEAKER_01 (22:06):
Tishy is my glory.
She's my daughter and she willbe exalted.
And that is glory.
SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
Yeah.
And he says
SPEAKER_01 (22:12):
that my work and my glory is to bring to pass the
immortality of Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:17):
And eternal life of Tishy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:18):
Exactly.
And so that was my secondthought.
And it wasn't like there wasthis like burning in my bosom
and like this angel came downand I felt like tears.
But it was just this kind ofquiet like this is my work.
I've trusted you to be here andwitness this, and you are a
vessel for me to bring thegospel to this woman, but I'm
(22:41):
going
SPEAKER_01 (22:41):
to do my work.
Well, and I bring it up becausethe scriptures teach us that the
Holy Ghost is discernible,right?
Yeah.
And it does take a long time forus, you listeners, to learn how
to experience the Holy Ghost, tofeel it, to discern it, to
understand it, to recognize it.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
And for me, what I've learned, and that
experience is an example, iseveryone feels the Spirit
differently.
But for me, I mean, I believepride is the most damning sin.
Pride is the root of any sinthat happens.
And for me, the way that theSpirit speaks to me is it calls
me out, calls me to repentance.
SPEAKER_01 (23:13):
Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (23:14):
And it's not that I was being prideful in that
moment, but the Spirit's like,hey, this is my work.
Like, believe.
And at this point in my mission,I'd been out for a while.
I was a pre-experiencedmissionary, and I'd seen
miracles.
This wasn't, like, brand new tome, but it was just this quiet
reminder of...
Have the faith.
(23:35):
Trust in the faith you have.
You have more faith than youthink you do.
SPEAKER_01 (23:39):
It reminds me of Moroni 9.
Let's read it real quick becauseI was going to save this for the
end.
And I was going to say thatyou...
if you recognized or discernedthe spirit as this calm,
peaceful, that is expressed manytimes.
Like it's, it's, it's so hardfor us to use mortal terms to
express what this spiritual,powerful, eternal God-like
(23:59):
experience is.
So we fail, right?
The words that we try to use,they fail, but we do our best.
And the scriptures, they talkabout a peace and a comfort and
a joy.
And we call the Holy Ghost thecomforter.
SPEAKER_00 (24:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
And it sometimes is still and quiet, and other times
it is loud, burning
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
in the bosom.
Sometimes it calls you to
SPEAKER_01 (24:14):
repentance.
I mean, probably always does,right?
But listen to this part.
It says in Mormon 10.
Despise not, he says, and wondernot, but hearken unto the words
of the Lord and ask the Fatherin the name of Jesus for what
things soever ye shall stand inneed.
For example, a knee fix or...
(24:34):
kidney failure fix orconversion, right?
Doubt not, but be believing.
Begin as in old times and comeunto the Lord with all your
heart and work out your ownsalvation with fear and
trembling before him.
Yeah.
Doubt not, be believing.
Just accept that you are calledto minister to these souls.
(24:55):
Believe, believe that the powerof God can be used to help Tishy
feel the spirit and come untohim.
Let me share a story now.
That was awesome.
Thanks for sharing a story aboutTishy.
Okay.
So I was in the city in UpperPetrovsk and we were knocking
doors.
And one day we knock on a doorand this disheveled woman opens
the door with an apron on andlike, I don't know, food all
(25:17):
over her face.
She was cooking or something.
And she's like, yeah.
She's like, well, she's like,oh, you guys.
She's like, look, I don't havetime for you.
Okay.
But come on in.
You can talk to my family.
We're like, oh, sure.
So we walk in.
She says, they're down the hall.
So we go down the hall and weturn and she lied.
We weren't talking to herfamily.
Oh no.
We were talking to her
SPEAKER_00 (25:38):
pastor,
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
350 year old mother or grandmother.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
Just the oldest woman I've ever seen in my life
is just sitting there and we'relike, Oh, she, that's lame.
Like this woman isn't evencoherent.
She won't even understand us.
She's like, she just, that'slame.
SPEAKER_00 (25:52):
So we'll get baptized in the spirit world at
this point.
Yeah.
Too far from.
SPEAKER_01 (25:55):
Yeah.
So we sit down and she looks upand sees us and we're like,
Hello?
We're the missionaries.
And immediately she just perksup and starts talking like she's
25 years old.
SPEAKER_00 (26:07):
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01 (26:07):
We're like, oh, wow, this lady's with it.
Oh, my goodness.
This lady is like superenergetic and charismatic and
super old.
Just really just old,
SPEAKER_00 (26:15):
old, old, old.
SPEAKER_01 (26:17):
And so we're like, well, we have a message.
We've come all the way from, youknow, America and we have a
message about the restoration ofthe gospel of Jesus Christ.
And she said, I'll listen toanyone talking about Jesus
Christ.
Teach me.
Let me know if you havesomething to teach me.
I'm going to listen.
Cool.
So great.
So we start teaching, teachingand she's listening.
And then she starts askingquestions and we start engaging
and we're like, wow, this is avery, very spiritual and
(26:38):
fruitful discussion that'shappening right now.
I just got started to get reallyexcited.
And as we talked and talked, andthen we got to the restoration
and Joseph Smith and we tell thestory and she gets this serious
face on it.
She's just listening andlistening and listening.
Okay.
Now we kind of finished that andshe puts her hand up like stop.
And then she puts both of herhands on the sides of her chair.
(26:59):
And what seemed like 13 years,she started to wiggle around and
move.
We're like, what are you doing?
What's happening?
And she was just trying to standup.
But because of her age, it tooka long time.
SPEAKER_00 (27:09):
About 13 years.
13 years.
SPEAKER_01 (27:11):
She eventually got to her feet, looks me in the
eye, and starts walking towardsme.
And I'm like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_00 (27:17):
I'm about to get murdered by this 350-year-old
lady.
SPEAKER_01 (27:19):
Seriously.
That took 13 years for her tostand up.
She gets to me.
She gets so close.
And she starts quoting verbatimIsaiah.
How beautiful on themountaintops are the feet of
those who bring glad tidings ofgreat joy.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Publish peace.
SPEAKER_01 (27:35):
Publish peace.
And she just starts quoting methese Isaiah scriptures.
And I'm like, wow, what is goingon?
And then she sat down and shesaid, now it's my turn to teach
you something.
We're like, oh, okay.
She's like, I have a story foryou.
Here's her story.
This is amazing.
She says, I grew uppre-communism.
And during communism, you're notallowed to believe in God.
(27:56):
So you'd have people who areunderground believers, but
nothing public.
SPEAKER_00 (28:00):
Kind of like an Alma situation.
SPEAKER_01 (28:01):
Alma situation.
And she says, but I'm so oldthat my parents and
grandparents, we did live in atime where religion was
thriving.
It was the Russian OrthodoxChurch.
Wow.
And she said, there was a timewhere a group of my
grandparents, like years ago, solong ago, they were part of the
Russian Orthodox Church, butthey had a desire to learn and
(28:23):
understand more.
So...
They kind of secretly, becausethey weren't really supposed to
do this, they would secretlymeet kind of in underground
meetings with the Bible, andthey would study the Bible
together to try and understandit better.
You know, it had kind of theRussian Orthodox then church had
kind of a Catholic tinge.
It was like, you don't reallyneed to study the scriptures or
no, it's just common
SPEAKER_00 (28:40):
teaching.
In fact, you're kind of, yeah,discouraged against it.
You
SPEAKER_01 (28:42):
kind of are.
And so this was kind of sketchy.
They had to do it underground.
And after a long time, this grewto a pretty big underground
group of these old people whoare, or these people who were
studying the Bible, and theystarted to make some really
fast, She says, That's cool.
Who has authority?
(29:08):
They were like, How about westop going to the Russian
Orthodox Church, we continue tostudy, let's find the one that
has authority.
SPEAKER_00 (29:26):
Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
And so they get together.
That's cool.
Isn't that amazing?
Yeah.
Now listen, this is famous.
You can look this up.
This is a group.
They said, we decided to callourselves the Molokansi.
Now, Moloko is milk, Molokansi,I don't know if it's related.
I've never really understood whythey call themselves the
Molokansi, but you can look itup.
Molokansi, Russian Molokansi, itexists.
And it was a group ofunderground people who left the
Russian Orthodox Church in orderto study it themselves because
(29:49):
they weren't satisfied that thetruth was there and the
authority wasn't there.
And so this lady is telling usthe story and we're like, oh my
goodness.
And she says, now listen, guys,if what you're telling me is
true, that the gospel of JesusChrist, as we all discovered
hundreds of years ago, isn't onthe authority, isn't on the
earth.
(30:10):
And we made this decision toseek it out.
She says, guys, to my knowledge,at least in my family, I'm one
of the remaining Malakansi.
And if what you just told me istrue, then am I the one that
have found the restored gospelafter the thousands of people
and the years of seeking?
She says, if this is true, thenhow beautiful on the
(30:34):
mountaintops are the feet ofthose who bring glad tidings of
great joy, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah.
Wow, that's cool.
And we're like, what the heck?
So we said, listen.
We testify to you that this isthe truth.
We testify to you that thegospel has been restored and
that you guys were wise and knewthat the authority wasn't there.
Will you continue to learn fromus?
And we'll teach you these.
And if it's true and you findout, will you be baptized with
(30:56):
the proper authority?
She says, absolutely, I will.
Let's talk.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
So did she get baptized?
SPEAKER_01 (31:01):
Well, we started teaching her.
I don't know if you like theending.
We started teaching her.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
She died first.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
I'll tell you.
I'll tell you.
We started teaching her and wehad all the lessons and the
discussions and she kept everycommitment and she started
coming to church and she got herdaughter involved, the crazy
cook lady.
She got involved and her grandgot her daughter involved and we
all started meeting and talkingand teaching and spirit was
there and they were keepingcommitments.
And after a few months, shesays, guys, the Holy Ghost tells
(31:28):
me that this is true.
Baptize me.
Baptize me immediately.
We need to do baptism rightaway.
And I will never, Molly, forgetthe day.
We had to build a font becauseyou couldn't take her on the
lake.
It's too old.
You couldn't take her in like aswimming pool.
Too old.
We built a structure that hadsome stairs on it.
And I'll never forget the day,man.
It took us 30 minutes to get herup those stairs.
And when we got in the water,she asked me to baptize her.
(31:50):
I'll never forget.
I put my hand to the squareready to baptize her.
And she says, stop, wait.
And she looked out in the crowdand she says, where's my
daughter?
And she took about 10 minutesand just kind of finished off
her repentance she's like I'm sosorry that time that I said this
to you and that one time shejust started continuing to
repent
SPEAKER_00 (32:09):
like it
SPEAKER_01 (32:09):
was so sweet and tender and then she looks at me
and goes I'm ready and I'llnever forget I got to slowly put
her in the water and bring herup this ordinance of baptism and
she died like a week later
SPEAKER_00 (32:22):
There you go.
That's cool.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (32:26):
This passion that I had before my mission, because
when I came to Christ and feltthe joy and just the power and
the love, I wanted so badly tobring it to others.
And I knew that God had calledme to where I needed to go.
I know that I was called to gofind her.
And it's a miracle to me thatbecause we were working hard and
faithful, it's a miracle that wewere brought together that I
could help play a role in thisstory of the Malakansi.
(32:49):
And I can't believe thatsomeday, 2,000 years from now in
this celestial kingdom, I'll besitting with all those malakansi
and being like, you found her.
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
You brought this.
SPEAKER_00 (32:58):
That's so cool.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (32:59):
a miracle, Molly.
SPEAKER_00 (33:00):
That is a miracle.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (33:01):
incredible.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
It's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01 (33:03):
It really
SPEAKER_00 (33:04):
is a miracle.
It's the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
Okay, you've got more miracles.
You've got...
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (33:08):
Some miracle with some smoothies or something.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
Oh, yeah.
Okay, so this doesn't have quitethe ending that you may expect,
but...
This kind of goes with yourprinciple, and I don't know if
there's been a podcast aboutthis, but the open your mouth
principle as well.
SPEAKER_01 (33:23):
Oh, yeah.
We have a whole bunch.
SPEAKER_00 (33:24):
And this one, I thought about you this day of my
mission.
I was like, Sean would be proud.
But I was training a brand newmissionary, and he was actually
getting married next week, whichis crazy.
Congrats.
Side note.
Anyways, training this brand newmissionary, and we had set a
goal that we were going tofollow every prompting.
And we were obedient.
(33:46):
We were living worthy.
We were purpose-focused.
And so we had the Spirit withus, and I believe that as you're
obedient as a missionary and asyou're focused on your purpose,
that you have the Spirit withyou.
And so we kind of made this goaltogether that we were going to
follow every prompting.
And we're leaving this lesson.
We have an hour to kill beforeour next appointment, and we're
(34:08):
going to go knock some doors.
And as we're driving, my thoughtis, hey, we need to stop by
Tropical Smoothie.
And I was like, and then myfollow-up thought was, that's
not purpose-focused.
Like, what?
Sister Baxter, get it together.
Like, you're training a newmissionary.
This is not setting a goodexample.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
Wait, but your mission kind of theme or this
idea of, wait a minute, trustthe, I'm a missionary.
I'm called to minister.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (34:31):
trust that first thought.
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
Trust the first thought because you feel like
that's God's, Like what else?
God is going to guide us.
He's going to let us again havemiracles.
Yeah.
And so you first questioned thethought and then said, wait a
minute, I'm supposed to trustthis thought.
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
Yeah.
And so I kind of looked over tomy companion.
I was like, hey, how do you feelabout this?
And she's like, she's like,yeah.
Like she didn't necessarilyhave, it wasn't one of those
moments where we both had thisreally strong feeling to go to
Tropical Smoothie.
But you
SPEAKER_01 (34:55):
trusted that the Lord was guiding you in faith.
SPEAKER_00 (34:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
And so we were like, okay, we'll go.
And we had...
set this other goal as acompanionship that we were going
to talk to everybody.
SPEAKER_01 (35:07):
Talk to everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (35:08):
Open your mouth.
And I was kind of a crueltrainer in the sense that I, you
know, made her do some thingsthat made her pretty
uncomfortable.
That's not cruel.
That's a huge
SPEAKER_01 (35:17):
blessing.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
It wasn't cruel.
We were best friends.
But I look back and I'm like, Iprobably should have eased her
in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01 (35:22):
No,
SPEAKER_00 (35:22):
no.
But you jump in feet first andthat's how it is.
So we pull up to this drive-thruand we didn't have time to go
in.
So I was like, we're just goingto go to the drive-thru because
we had to be at thisappointment.
Someone we were really excitedto teach.
And so we pull up to the window,we order our food and it's like
busy inside.
And my thought is, should wehave gone inside?
(35:44):
Like there's a lot of people inthere.
Like, was that maybe what theprompting was about?
Like, but at this point I waslike really hyped about my mango
smoothie.
I was like, well, whatever, it'sfine.
Like we followed the prompting.
That's what matters.
So we pulled to the window and Itell my trainee, I was like, my
comedian, I'm like, get out andtalk to the people behind us in
the car.
(36:04):
So, and she was great.
Like she was bold.
Like she was like, really?
And I was like, yeah, just knockon their window and tell them,
invite them to church.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (36:11):
awesome.
I love that so much.
Open your mouth and talk toeveryone.
SPEAKER_00 (36:13):
Yeah.
And so she gets out.
So she's not in the car with meand she's, I can still see her
from my rear view mirror.
All, you know, rules are beingfollowed, but I can like see her
talking to these two girls inthe back.
Um, and yeah, The girl's takingmy money, you know, I'm paying
for my smoothie and she's givingthem to me.
She has a headset on.
She's also taking the orders forthe drive-thru and making the
(36:35):
smoothies and like paying.
So it's like this one womanoperation.
She's like probably like 25,like is a college town.
So I was like, whatever.
And she's sitting there and Ijust, it just blurts out of my
mouth.
Like I hand her my credit cardand I'm like, hey, like I'm a
missionary for Jesus Christ.
And...
(36:55):
Like, I can't remember exactlywhat I said.
I want to say, like, I think Isaid, I'm a missionary for Jesus
Christ.
Would you, like, do you have afaith?
I think that's what I said.
I was like, I'm a missionary forJesus Christ.
Like, do you have a faith inJesus Christ?
Or something, like, super casualbecause we were just kind of in
this drive-thru.
And she kind of just, like,looks at me weird and takes my
(37:19):
card and And like shuts thewindow, like the window shuts
back down.
And I was like, oh my gosh, likethis is so embarrassing.
Like just, and as a missionary,you kind of have this idea that
you're going to go out and like,and you are, you know, you're so
powerful and like, you know,but.
it's still awkward.
Like you still kind of have tofight this like awkwardness of
(37:40):
like
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
fun, embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00 (37:41):
Yeah.
And we, I would always say beawkward for Jesus.
Like just, it's awkward to knockon someone's window on a drive
through and invite him tochurch, but you do it because
you believe that this is thereto serve with
SPEAKER_01 (37:52):
all your heart, mind and strength.
SPEAKER_00 (37:53):
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
And so, and you only have 18months, two years to do it.
So you, every moment.
So I'm like, Oh my gosh, likethis is a low point for me.
And, like, I just got a doorslammed on me in a drive-thru.
Like, this is terrible.
And she opens the window backup, and she takes...
And mind you, when I said thisto her, I had interrupted her on
(38:15):
the headset.
So everything was fightingagainst me.
Like, it was terrible.
And she comes back.
She opens the window.
She hands me my card, and she'scrying.
Like, not, like, teary-eyed,but, like, sobbing.
Like, streaming down her face.
SPEAKER_01 (38:30):
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (38:31):
And...
I kind of just look at her and Iwas like, oh no, like this is
worse than I thought it was.
Like this is terrible.
I really offended this girl.
And like I served in a placewhere people were very religious
there.
So it was like, you know, likethey had faith and they had a
church and it was like sometimesoffensive to like invite them to
another one.
And so I'm like, oh no, like Ireally offended her.
(38:54):
And she takes off her headsetand there's the chaos going on
like in this situation.
And she hands me my smoothie andshe's like, Um, she says, I said
a prayer last night to God and Itold him that if he, like I
wanted a sign and if he didn'tsend me a sign, I was going to
(39:18):
end my life tonight.
SPEAKER_01 (39:19):
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00 (39:20):
And she looks at me and she's crying and she said,
you were an angel sent from God.
SPEAKER_01 (39:24):
Oh geez.
SPEAKER_00 (39:26):
And I just like looked at this girl and I start
crying.
Like it was like, never, Neverloved someone so much that I'd
never met, never talked to.
Like it was just like, it wasone of those surreal moments on
the mission where you're kind oflike an out-of-body experience
where it's just the Lord andyou're kind of watching it
happen almost.
And it's like this interactionbetween the Lord and this girl
(39:47):
and I'm just like watching it godown.
SPEAKER_01 (39:49):
Was it maybe a marvelous work and a wonder?
Was it a wonder?
SPEAKER_00 (39:51):
Yeah, it was a wonder.
And everything kind of goesquiet and you just can't
describe it.
And she just said like, She saidthis to me, and it wasn't me, it
was the Lord, obviously, butshe's like, you saved my life,
and I will never forget you.
And she gives me my smoothie,and my companion gets back in
the car, and she's crying, andI'm crying, and my companion
(40:14):
looks at me, and she's like,what's going on?
Like, what happened?
Did you guys, like, what's goingon?
And I just was like, what's yourname?
And she's like, Mallory.
And I was like, Mallory, like...
maybe we may never see eachother again, but I hope you know
that the Lord loves you.
And she just was like, thank youfor what you're doing here.
(40:36):
And just like, she like getsback, someone gets her
attention.
She like gets back on theheadset and we drove away and I
never saw her again.
Never talked to her again.
Um, and we went back, we liketried to go back at different
times to kind of like see if wecould find her again.
Um, but It just like, we neverwere able to, but it was
(40:59):
incredible because yeah, shedidn't get baptized.
I didn't see her get baptized.
I didn't teach her the gospel,but I do believe that because I
followed the spirit that theLord used me and my companion to
bring her what she needed.
And maybe in that moment whenshe needed was not a story about
Joseph Smith in the book ofMormon, but clearly what she
(41:21):
needed was a reminder that theLord, no matter what
denomination she is, is aware ofher.
SPEAKER_01 (41:26):
That's so amazing.
All of the elements of thestory, because in the most
loudest way throughout thescriptures, the Lord through his
prophets has said, seek me guys,ask, pray, seek me out.
And if you will seek, I willsend you answers.
I will come to you.
And this woman, Mallory, she wasright.
She was at rock bottom and shewas seeking and praying.
(41:47):
And the Lord says, you knowwhat?
I'm sending my servants toanswer you, to teach you that
you are seen, you are loved, youare known.
And you're right.
Maybe that's just the seed thatgets planted.
And in five years, othermissionaries knock and she goes,
you know what?
I remember you guys.
Let's talk, right?
There's a progress, right?
Paul said, and he taught withSilas or whatever.
Was it Silas?
Silas, right?
(42:08):
Some of us plant, some of uswater, but God is the one
orchestrating and giving theincrease on all of it.
I brought up that second Nephi25, 17 during your story on
purpose.
And the Lord will set his handagain a second time to restore
his people from their lost andfallen state, wherefore he will
proceed to do a marvelous work,yea, a marvelous work and a
wonder among his children ofmen.
(42:28):
Now again, those of youlistening, you may consider our
stories coincidence.
SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
You
SPEAKER_01 (42:35):
may consider them, all right, maybe the Lord had a
hand in it, but those aren'tmiracles compared to, I don't
know, the sea being parted orsomeone raising from the dead.
Molly and I are here on oursoapbox to stand up loudly and
testify.
These are the miracles of theLord because there's nothing
(42:55):
more valuable than theindividual who is the son or
daughter of God.
SPEAKER_00 (42:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
And God loves them so much.
His only work in glory is not topart seas and not to do these
big, crazy miracles.
The miracles of us finding othersouls who are looking, who are
hurt, who need the gospel ofJesus Christ.
These are the greatest miraclesof all.
The changed heart that Mallorysomeday will have because you
faithfully listened to the HolyGhost and went out to serve a
(43:22):
mission.
The Malakansi lady, that wholefamily, they're strong, active
members of the church, thechildren, the grandchildren.
And that's a miracle.
These are the true miracles thatmatter.
SPEAKER_00 (43:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:33):
And the result is, is the evidence of that is the
joy that you and I feel becauseof the power of the Holy ghost.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
Yeah.
As
SPEAKER_01 (43:39):
we talk about these.
SPEAKER_00 (43:40):
Yeah.
And I think the greatest miracleof all miracles is one, the
atonement of Jesus Christ andthe fact that our hearts can be
changed because of that.
Right.
Have you experienced a mightychange of heart?
Alma says, right.
And, and, I think that's thegreatest miracle of all is that
we can change.
Like the nature of our being canchange because we serve and we
(44:06):
love and we do what the Saviorwould do.
And so, yeah, it's not theparting of the Red Sea.
But if you're a missionary andyou're serving with your heart,
my mind and strength and you'refocused on your purpose to bring
the gospel to those that needit, that the Lord loves.
you will experience that mightychange of heart and those will
become as big to you as theparting of the sea.
(44:28):
And if you're not seeing thesesmaller, and these are even
bigger miracles, but if you'renot seeing these smaller
miracles as these partings ofthe Red Sea in your personal
life, you got to change yourattitude.
You got to focus more on yourpurpose.
You got to come to understandthe Lord better because these
are miracles and he is working achange in your heart and that's
the greatest miracle of all.
SPEAKER_01 (44:49):
Beautiful.
I love it so much.
Yeah, and we both could sit herefor 10 more hours telling
stories about these miraclesthat happened.
Some big, some like more in yourface.
Most of them are how you soughtout to do the will of the Lord
and he put things in our pathsto find people whose hearts have
become a part of that greatmiracle of change through the
atonement of Jesus Christ.
(45:11):
And the evidence that it's alltrue is the joy that we feel.
SPEAKER_00 (45:13):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
That's beautiful.
Molly, do you have a commitment?
Do we have a commitment from youthat you will come back to tell
more stories?
SPEAKER_00 (45:21):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (45:21):
Okay, good.
Now the whole world will holdyou to that.
SPEAKER_00 (45:24):
Yeah, I'll be back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:26):
We need more 8 Mile stories, more Riri stories.
Tishy, I want to meet Tishy.
Bring Tishy back.
SPEAKER_00 (45:32):
I should bring her back.
SPEAKER_01 (45:33):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (45:34):
I have...
Oh, go ahead.
Did you have something?
No,
SPEAKER_01 (45:36):
no, you go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
I have one quote that...
I just thought of maybe it wasthe Spirit.
And I want to read real quick ifI can find it.
This is what I had taped in thefront of my scriptures my whole
mission.
And this is just my testimony ofmissionary work right here.
Because I think when you'regetting ready to go on a
mission, Some missionaries goout with this passion and fire
(45:59):
already, you know, and some theydon't go out with that same
passion and fire, but they knowthey love the Lord and so they
want to serve him, but theydon't know what that's going to
look like.
Maybe they're scared.
You know, everyone comes fromthese different backgrounds, but
the mission brings us together.
And so I served with someincredible missionaries and
something that I think we canall agree on, whether or not we
(46:21):
came out for different reasonsor not, is this quote by
President Hinckley.
And it says, it is not, and it'stalking about living the gospel
of Jesus Christ, but I thinkabout serving a mission in place
of that.
It says, it is not a sacrificeto live the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
It is never a sacrifice when youget back more than you give.
It is an investment, a greaterinvestment than any.
(46:44):
Its dividends are eternal andeverlasting.
So I think about this change,we're talking about the miracles
we've experienced that havechanged our hearts and our minds
and our souls in a way that youknow, we can't get in any other
way is more than I eversacrificed to go on a mission.
More than anything I left behindis the change that I experienced
(47:06):
and the love I gained for notjust people of Detroit, but the
Savior.
And so whoever is listening tothis and they're like, I'm
scared to go on a mission.
I'm leaving so much behind.
I'm leaving my girlfriend, myboyfriend, my family.
It's a lot and it can beoverwhelming.
It's never a sacrifice when youare sacrificing for the Lord
because you're just going to getback more than you could ever
(47:27):
give.
And so, um, that's what I thinkabout when I think of these
miracles is just the changesmore than, more than anything we
could give up.
And so
SPEAKER_01 (47:38):
it's beautiful.
I love it.
Let's add to that.
And then we'll end with the Lukefive 20.
It says, so the Lord was withthe apostles and there's this
man who had the palsy and hecame and he said, Jesus said to
him, and when he saw theirfaith, because they brought him
to be healed, and they said,well, these guys really believe.
He says, when Jesus saw theirfaith, he said unto the man, thy
sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and Phariseesbegan to reason, saying, who is
(48:00):
this which speaketh blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but Godalone?
But when Jesus perceived theirthoughts, he answered and said
unto them, what reason ye inyour hearts?
Which is easier to say, thy sinsbe forgiven thee, Or to say,
rise up and walk.
I love this.
He's like challenging, like,okay, which do you consider
easier?
Like, I just said these words.
You don't even know if his sinsare forgiven or not.
(48:21):
So which would be harder for meto say that would actually come
to pass?
To say your sins are forgivenyou or to say, rise up and walk?
Clearly, they're like, well,obviously, it'd be much harder
for you to say, rise up andwalk, and he would actually rise
up and walk.
And then he says this.
But that ye may know that theSon of Man hath power upon earth
to forgive sins, he said untothe sick of the palsy.
I say unto thee, arise, and takeup thy couch, and go into thine
(48:44):
house.
And immediately he rose upbefore them, and took up that
whereon he lay, and departed tohis own house, glorifying God.
The miracle, I love that Christis teaching.
The miracle, as amazing to us asit is that this man stood up and
walked, it's nothing compared toyour sins are forgiven.
(49:07):
That is the greatest miracle ofall.
SPEAKER_00 (49:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:10):
That we will live in the presence of our Father in
heaven in the celestial kingdomfor eternity with our families
because of Jesus Christ and hissacrifice.
I love him so much for it.
It's such a...
That is the miracle thatmatters.
SPEAKER_00 (49:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:22):
Yeah.
And we can all experience
SPEAKER_00 (49:23):
that.
It's the
SPEAKER_01 (49:23):
atonement.
It's the atonement.
SPEAKER_00 (49:24):
And it's...
It's so simple to say, but Ithink it's real.
That's the miracle.
Yeah.
We talk about it as this story,as this thing that happened, but
it's real.
It happened, and it can happenevery day in your life if you
choose to access
SPEAKER_01 (49:40):
it.
You're a perfect example ofthat, Molly.
Thanks for joining us, andyou'll be back.
So listeners, come back becauseMolly's amazing, and come listen
to us next week, listeners.
Thanks.
UNKNOWN (49:52):
Bye.
Bye.
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