How To Serve (And Crush) A Covid Mission - Elder Ryan Mcdowell

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This episode we talk with Elder Ryan McDowell, a returned missionary who served an "unconventional" mission during the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode delves into the principle of choosing to be "hot" (committed and active) over "cold" (rejecting the spirit) or "lukewarm" (indifferent and passive), a central theme highlighted by scriptures from Revelation and First Kings.

The episode traces Ryan's journey and the pivotal choices he made:

• Foundation in Tragedy: Ryan's initial "hot" choice stemmed from a personal tragedy: his mother's ten-year battle with stage four metastatic breast cancer, which she succumbed to when he was about to turn 19. This profound sadness challenged his passive faith and led him to consciously and deliberately feast upon the words of Christ, especially the Book of Mormon, often reading until 3:00 AM. This experience replaced his sadness with joy, peace, and the Holy Ghost, lighting a spiritual fire within him.

• Embracing an Unconventional Assignment: Called originally to Spain, Ryan was reassigned to the Minnesota Minneapolis mission for 18 months due to COVID-19. Despite the disappointment and the challenging circumstances (no in-person proselyting, not entering homes for 11 months), Ryan chose to serve with an enthusiastic, faithful attitude, determined to make his time in Minnesota "worth it" and "build his mission out of bricks," leaving nothing "on the table".

• Overcoming Lukewarmness in the Field: Initially, Ryan admits he slipped into a "passive lukewarm state" for about 12 weeks due to the lack of traditional proselyting methods and his trainer's indifference. However, witnessing another elder's diligent work ethic helped him snap out of it, realizing he "had tasted the bitter and wanted the sweet". He then creatively adapted by utilizing social media and paid advertising to identify and reach people genuinely interested in the gospel, even leading to a baptism.

• Deepening Relationships in Spain: For the last six months of his mission, Ryan finally served in Spain. Here, he made another crucial "hot" choice: investing significant time in building deep, loving relationships with members, not just using them as tools. This deliberate focus on nurturing connections with "lukewarm" youth and members led to a "perfect victory": a photo showing 17 people, including a family of nine, being baptized or reactivated, all supported by the strong network of members Ryan had loved and served.

The episode concludes by emphasizing that Ryan's ability to consistently make "faithful choices" at every crossroads was founded on his initial decision to "feast upon the words of Christ," which ignited his spiritual momentum and allowed him to serve with "no regrets," bringing immense joy.

Episode Transcript

UNKNOWN (00:00):
Bye.

SPEAKER_02 (00:02):
You know, I actually finished my mission, and I get a
message from our ward missionleader in Spain, and he sends me
this picture.
I'm looking at it now, dude.
This is absolutely awesome.
I don't even want to count howmany people were in

SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
this.
How many of these guys, you toldme before, were the guys that
you built these relationships?

SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
There were five people, five members in the
photo who were maybe lukewarm.
They were definitely lukewarm,who now have callings and are in
white baptizing this family ofnine.

SPEAKER_00 (00:29):
There are nine people in this photo, dude.

SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
There are way more than

SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
nine.
17.
All

SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
of them are

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
wearing white.
They're all in front of thetemple.
We had nine people getting

SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
baptized and eight people doing the baptism.

SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
All right, welcome back to the Mission Stories
podcast.
Hey, Lauren, what are youlaughing at?
That was a good intro.

SPEAKER_01 (00:45):
That was good.

SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Yeah, it was good.
Welcome back.
We're excited because I've been,for a long time, wanting to take
this kid.
There was this kid, Lauren, whowas in my priest quorum.
And this kid was kind of wild, alittle crazy.
No, he wasn't wild.
How do I describe this kid?
I would call him enthusiastic,and every time we'd talk about
crazy stories in the gospel orteach a lesson, he was always

(01:09):
the contrarian a little bit, butin a really authentic way.
He was always, why are youshaking your head?
You don't think you're acontrarian?
You love to debate.
You love ideas.
We are joined today by...
Ryan McDowell, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 (01:21):
How's it going?
Thank you.
I'm good.
I'm doing great.
This is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
Thanks for having me.
Do you try and, I mean...
I

SPEAKER_02 (01:27):
mean, yeah, I agree.
I think definitely when I wasyounger, I liked to play that.
But I like to think that I'vegrown up a little bit and maybe
don't push buttons as much asyou

SPEAKER_00 (01:34):
do.
There's no negative in what Iwas saying.
I love that you had thisincredibly interested mind and
questioned things because youwanted to get to the bottom of
them.
I never once questioned your,like, motive.
I felt like you really did seektruth.
You loved it.
This is true.
Right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:48):
I did.
I mean, I like ideas still tothis

SPEAKER_00 (01:50):
day.
And we can call out your mom anddad because you would always
come to me and be like, dude, Ilove that we're debating stuff
in here.
My mom and dad don't do that.
Like I try and like push theirbuttons at dinnertime and they
just won't debate.

SPEAKER_02 (02:01):
Yeah, we got to go tell them that this Sunday

SPEAKER_00 (02:03):
at church.
We'll all tell them that.
We'll all remind them.
Yeah.
Okay.
So today we're going to diveright in because there's so many
stories.
Lauren, we are in good company,right?
We are because we both loved ourmission so much.
I mean, come on.
Scale from 1 to 10, Ryan.
How much did you love here?
And I would sit in our littledesk downstairs and I would read
my

SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
scriptures until 3 in the morning from like 12
until 3.
I like that you picked 11because mine was a 3,000 and
Lauren's was a 10.
I would hold on to that and Iwould just want more and more
and more and I would read untilI fell asleep.
I mean, more of what?
I should have gone higher.
Yeah, you should have gonehigher.
Go ahead.
Like joy.
Yep, I know.
But we're in good companybecause I felt joy in a time

(02:44):
that felt so dark and knew thatthat lasting joy would only come
from Christ.

SPEAKER_00 (02:49):
If you look at all the people in the history of the
world who get to, for a limitedtime, for a time, be a full-time
authorized servant of JesusChrist to go out and lead souls
to him, what percentage of theentire world do you think gets
to do that?

SPEAKER_02 (03:03):
Very little.
It's less than one.

SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
We are part of that group.
Like, how lucky and blessed arewe to be a part of that?
Right?
To live in the restoration, thetime of restoration, the
fullness of times.
Incredible.
Incredible.
So good on you, Ryan, forserving the way you did, and
we're going to talk about it alot.
Okay, so we're going to focustoday on principle number one.
And just as a background andpremise, let's read the two

(03:27):
scriptures that kind of aredissonant but challenge.
You want to read these, Lauren?
Yeah.
Okay, read Revelation first, andthen the first Kings one.

SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Okay.
I know thy works that thouart...
Neither cold nor hot, I wasthou'rt cold or hot.
So then because thou'rt lukewarmand neither cold nor hot, I will
speed ye out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_00 (03:48):
Okay, let's define those.
Ryan, what do you think?
You said a good word, what youthink lukewarm means.
What did you say earlier?

SPEAKER_02 (03:54):
Indifferent.

SPEAKER_00 (03:55):
Indifferent.
And then you had another wordthat I liked later on.
Do you remember what it was?
Passive.

SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
Oh, passive.
Passive.
That was a good hint.

SPEAKER_00 (04:04):
And we're going to come back to that.
So you believe that lukewarmmeans indifferent or passive?
Passive.

SPEAKER_02 (04:08):
That's right.

SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
So then what does cold mean, do you think?
Well, hey, what does hot mean?

SPEAKER_02 (04:13):
I think hot is choosing according to the
spirit.
Nice.
And I think cold would bedenying the spirit.

SPEAKER_00 (04:20):
Ooh.
Or not feeling it, right?
Or in other words, hot would bechoosing to follow the will of
God, which is confirmed by thespirit.
Cold would be choosing your ownwill or against the will of God,
which again would be rejectingthe spirit.

SPEAKER_02 (04:34):
I agree.

SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
I like it.
I like it.
And then later on or earlier,Elijah comes to the children of
Israel and says what?

SPEAKER_01 (04:41):
And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How
long halt ye between twoopinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him.
But if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him nota word.

SPEAKER_00 (04:52):
So this second scripture that confirms this
idea, what do you think God issaying here, Ryan?
And just your opinion, because Iknow you're a good debater.
What do you think?
Is it really saying, and I thinkit is, that God values agency so
much that he would prefer thatwe were not lukewarm, passive,
or halted more than he wouldprefer that we make sometimes

(05:14):
bad choices.
He really prefers that we choosethe good, right?
That's

SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
absolutely right.

SPEAKER_00 (05:20):
Right.
I mean, there's no commandmentin Scripture that says, yeah,
agency is so important, but Icommand you to choose the bad.
Never.
But there's 10 million timeswhere he says, I command you to
follow me and choose the good.
So we clearly know his will,but...
What do you think, Ryan?
These are a little dissonant,these verses.

SPEAKER_02 (05:37):
Yeah, I think so.
I think on one hand, it's, youknow, we want to choose between
good and bad, and then the otherhand is we can't not choose.
We can't be indifferent.
So, and I think they both can betrue.
I think...
just because we choose cold oncedoesn't mean we can't choose hot
later.
And I think as missionaries andas disciples of Christ, you
really can help people choosehot to continue on with this

(06:00):
analogy and go from cold to hotor maybe from lukewarm to hot
and stay trending in thatdirection.

SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Just to kind of, good point, kind of speed
through this.
Here's a verse in Ephesians 4that kind of, to me, gives
clarity on why being lukewarm,passive, or halted is even more
dangerous sometimes thanChoosing to making choices that
lead us down the wrong path,right?
There's a scripture that sayssometimes we need to taste the
bitter in order to prize thesweet, right?

(06:28):
But I like this one in Ephesians4.
It says that we henceforth be nomore children tossed to and fro
and carried about with everywind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftinesswhereby they lie in wait to
deceive.
I love this visual of beingtossed to and fro, right?
It's almost like, let's pretendthis scenario, right?
You go out on your mission.

(06:48):
Ryan, let's pretend.
We'll make this up.
This is totally fake, not real.
Ryan gets his mission call, goesout to the field.
It's during COVID.
You can't proselyte.
He gets with a trainer.
Imagine how tough it would be ifthat trainer's kind of a snapper
head, not really a hard worker.
And Ryan is lukewarm, passive.
Imagine how tough that would be,right?

(07:09):
That would be so tough.
Fake story, right?
I can't

SPEAKER_02 (07:11):
imagine doing that.
That would be really hard.

SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
That's a teaser.
Lauren, that was a teaser aboutwhat's coming up.
We're going to talk about thatstory and how gratefully you
admit that even though goingout, you were on fire, you were
hot, you'd owned your choice,you were converted.
Sometimes, same in my mission,sometimes you get stuck in a
position where you turn passiveand look warm a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 (07:35):
That's right.

SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
And did you?

SPEAKER_02 (07:37):
I think so.
I think...

SPEAKER_00 (07:38):
No, the answer is?

SPEAKER_02 (07:39):
Absolutely.
Right?
I think we all have momentswhere we falter, but I think the
whole point is you get back upand you keep going, right?
It's...
I

SPEAKER_00 (07:48):
don't know.
Yeah, it's called the secondprinciple of the gospel, right?
It's repentance, right?
But I tease that because that'sgoing to go—this is a fun
episode because we're going togo along your story.
But before we get into that,we're going to tell three
stories where you were a goodexample of being faced with hot,
cold, and lukewarm, where you,my man, you— chose the right

(08:10):
choices.
And I love this because thisprinciple is so important for
those of you out there who arelistening and preparing for your
mission.
You have to understand that youhave the power to, you have the
power of the gods to own yourdecision and to choose to serve
with all your heart, mind, andstrength.
You really do.
Okay, so, but before we get intothese three stories, let's get
the foundation laid.

(08:30):
You've got kind of a sad andtragic background.
I mean, I was part of this, wewatched this, we were part of
this, and it was just so sad.
But This tragedy in your lifeled to the first decision that
you made that, would you say,fairly changed the rest of your
life?
Absolutely.
Not even fairly, totally.
Okay, so we're all in the sameward.

(08:50):
And how long did this beautiful,amazing Jenna, how long did your
mom have battle cancer?

SPEAKER_02 (08:58):
So my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was
probably in fourth grade.
I think I was like 10 or 11years old.
And yeah, she was diagnosed withstage four metastatic breast
cancer, which is if, I don'tknow, if you don't speak cancer
talk, that's like the worst youcan get.
It means it's spread to otherparts of your body and that the

(09:19):
end date of when you're notgoing to have cancer is usually
when you're going to pass away.
So from the beginning, it was alittle grim, but I don't know,
we chose to be positive throughit all.
And the gospel ended up being arock that we chose to stand on
as a family and Um, but yeah,she struggled with it for, for
10 years and fought and 10 yearsand, and really killed it.

(09:40):
I mean, you would never haveknown that she was going through
something so hard.
I mean, she was the kind ofperson that she's having a bad
day with chemo and she madedinner for someone else in the
ward

SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
and never, no one, we never knew.
Like you always, you always justthought, Oh, she beat cancer.

SPEAKER_02 (09:54):
That's exactly

SPEAKER_00 (09:55):
right.
When behind the scenes, she'sfighting and fighting and
fighting.
Okay.
So the sad, obviously part ofthe story is she eventually
succumbed and returned to ourheavenly father.
And that was Gosh, how old areyou?

SPEAKER_02 (10:07):
I was about to turn 19.
So I was finishing my freshmanyear of college at BYU.
It was February.
So it was right before COVIDhappened.

SPEAKER_00 (10:17):
Yeah, your story is interesting, man.
It was like three

SPEAKER_02 (10:19):
weeks before COVID.

SPEAKER_00 (10:20):
You got hit with a lot at the same time.
So explain to me what you toldus before about your first and
initial reaction to thistragedy.
As it relates to religion, God,and the church.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 (10:31):
absolutely.
I think...
I think when my mom passed away,the natural knee-jerk reaction
for anyone is to ask why.
You see people around you whohave awesome relationships with
their family.
Maybe their parents don't havecancer or they didn't have a
parent that passed away, and youstart to wonder how a loving God
could allow something thatdifficult to happen.

(10:52):
And I think a lot of people,when faced with those types of
questions, you have to choosewhether you're going to fight to
keep your belief or if you'regoing to abandon your belief and
just say that it was never true.
So I think growing up in thechurch, I've always believed in
the plan of salvation and alwayshad faith in those things, but I
had never really been testedwith something like that.

(11:14):
excuse me, where I had to choosethat that was what I was going
to believe in.
So I guess this situation reallylike threw me into the fire and
I was like, okay, what do Ibelieve?

SPEAKER_00 (11:22):
So it is interesting, right?
Those of us who have wonderfulparents and everyone in this
room does, we do by default, bynature, come to faith a little
passively, right?
We're little kids and Everythingthat's happening in our religion
and our families, we love.
It brings us joy.
And so naturally we like it,right?
But that's a passive reaction.
And when you said I had faith inthese things, I believed in
these things, it's kind of apassive

SPEAKER_02 (11:43):
faith.
It's totally passive.
It is, right?
You're just following

SPEAKER_00 (11:46):
along.
And that's why the message ofthe scriptures throughout is
really, really, really abundantthat says you must choose faith.
Use your agency, and you must dothis.
Everyone has to go through anddo this.
I don't care if you're a memberyour whole life or not.
You have to do the same thingsthat everyone is required to do,
any convert is required to do.
You have to feast upon the wordsof Christ.
You have to pray with thepassions of your heart to ask

(12:07):
God questions.
You have to receive the HolyGhost, and this process starts
the growth of faith, which leadsto repentance and then
covenants, right?
So you...
as we all did, we're passivelygoing through this and then
tragedy hits.
And for the first time you werefaced with, well, misery and
sadness.
Like, do I really truly believeall this stuff that I've

(12:29):
passively accepted all theseyears?

SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
Yeah.
And I think, I guess what I didafter that, right.
It's like, I'm stuck in thissadness.
It's like, you can either chooseto be sad and let it hurt, or
you can go with what you'vegrown up believing your whole
life, which is okay.
Well, if I'm sad, I need to turnin prayer and I need to find
Christ in the situation and seeif he really is the source of,
of, um, comfort and joy in timesof sadness.

SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
So that's what you thought process was.
Now, Lauren, I love that thedecision you made, like, how do
I do that then?
How do I truly go from a passivebeliever now facing the fire,
this pain, now I really have adesire in my soul, right?
Enoch, or Enos, his soulhungered.
Enos?
Enos.
Enos.

(13:16):
your soul started to hunger abit.
Absolutely.
Which drives you to make adecision.
Now let's pinpoint decisionnumber one that you made.
You could have remained lukewarmin that situation and been like,
look, I'm just going topassively see it.
I'll see how this goes.
I'll just passively believe inall this.
But now the passiveness isn'tgood enough, right?
In this time of need and stressand sadness.
Right.
You could have made the coldchoice.

(13:38):
Like, screw this.
Like, eternal families, really?
Like, my family's gone, right?
You easily could have gone thatway.
But you chose to try out theexperiment and there's one
specific way.
Here's the choice you made.
Tell us what the choiceliterally and specifically that
you made.

SPEAKER_02 (13:55):
The word.
I started reading my scriptures,especially the Book of Mormon
and like feasting upon the wordsof Christ.

SPEAKER_00 (14:01):
And did you at the time like make a decision?
You know what?
I'm going to like read the wholething before my mission or I'm
going to like what specificallydrove you?
Because at some point you saidthat your daily routine was I
wake up, I read a little bit, Igo to work, I come back and I
read till 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 (14:17):
Yeah.
I mean, it was at the pointwhere we were during COVID and
fortunately my job stayed openduring COVID.
So I would get home from a lateclosing shift and I would sit in
our little desk downstairs and Iwould read my scriptures until
three in the morning from like12 until three.
Cause I just like, couldn't getenough.
I was reading it.
You'd feel the spirit and you'rejust like, you want more,
especially in times of sadness.
Like I would hold onto that andI would just want more and more

(14:38):
and more.
And I would read until I fellasleep.

SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
More of what?
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 (14:43):
Like joy, joy.
peace, any of the fruits of thespirit that you can think of.
Like I felt joy in a time thatfelt so dark and knew that that
lasting joy would only come fromChrist.

SPEAKER_00 (14:53):
What do you think of that, Lauren?
This guy, this kid who issuffering and miserable, he's
just lost his mom and he's justfeeling these feelings of
sadness and misery.
And he turns to the words ofChrist and can't put them down
because those feelings ofsadness are replaced with joy
and peace, which is the HolyGhost.
What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_01 (15:12):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (15:13):
Isn't it amazing?

SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
I think oftentimes, like as humans, like the
majority of us, right, whentragedy hits and we're going
through a time where we'regrieving, we tend to stay in
that lukewarm position becauseit's comfortable, right?
And we don't want to choose oneway or the other because we're
stuck.
It's like our world just gotflipped upside down, right?
So the fact that you're able to,in such a difficult time in your

(15:35):
life, choose to be like, okay,I'm getting out of this one way
or the other is insane.
Like, that's awesome.
And I think, too, The way thatit prepared you to be able to
serve, right?
Because, I mean, like that quotethat they always say, oh, your
biggest convert on your missionis you, but you have to be
prepared to be converted.
You have to be prepared toconvert other people.

(15:55):
That's wise.
That's good.
And so, you know, you have toput in the work to be converted.
And there's a quote that Iwanted to share from a
conference given way back when,1996.
That's

SPEAKER_00 (16:07):
not that long ago.

SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Jeez.
That's a long time.
Back when the dinosaurs roamed.
Okay.
But it talks about, the title ofthe talk is Conversion and
Commitment.
And it talks about thedefinition of a truly converted
follower of Christ.
It says, Now as missionaries,right, our duty is to help

(16:39):
others come unto Christ throughfaith, repentance, baptism,
receiving the gift of the HolyGhost.
And so when we act in diligence,doing things like Ryan was
doing, reading the Book ofMormon, praying, testing, taking
Taking Moroni's promise andacting on it and figuring out,
okay, how can I come closer toChrist to then help others?
When you act in diligence, thenyou're setting for success for
yourself as a convert, but alsofor others while you're a

(17:00):
missionary.

SPEAKER_00 (17:01):
What were the two C's?
Casual and complacent?
Is that

SPEAKER_01 (17:06):
what it said?
Yeah, casual or

SPEAKER_00 (17:07):
complacent.
So Ryan, would you fairly saythat, you know, as all of us, we
get to a point where we're justliving life happy, were you
casual and complacent in yourscripture studying before this
decision?
Oh, absolutely.
Like we all have been, right?
Yeah, I

SPEAKER_02 (17:19):
mean, it was also COVID during the time, too.
So, like, we were home.
I was sent home from school.
Like, I don't know.
You have to make a choice.

SPEAKER_00 (17:27):
So you made a choice.
This is you.
You, Ryan, you weren'tinfluenced by anyone else.
It wasn't this lukewarm kidwhose dad came in there and
says, dude, you need to startreading until 3 a.m.
today.
And you were like, yeah, I do.
I will.
You made...
you got off of the casual,complacent, passive, indifferent
stage.

(17:47):
And you made this very consciousand powerful decision.
I will feast upon the words ofChrist.
I will read the entire book ofMormon.
And I'm going to read it all theway through to test it, to make
sure that I really believe inwhat I believe in.
And the magic that happened wasyour feelings of sadness were
replaced with feelings of peaceand joy.

SPEAKER_02 (18:04):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
Man.
And so by the end, like howwere, like, were you, I mean,
you said, like, is conversionthe right word?
Is change of heart?
Like, what happened at the end?

SPEAKER_02 (18:16):
I think for me, I would say conversion is
definitely a process.
I don't think I can point to onespecific moment where I can say
I was converted, right?
Because that process continuedthroughout my whole mission and
still is continuing today.
But I feel like that was themoment where I like lit the fire
underneath of me for the rest ofmy mission.
There we go.
I lit the fire before I gotthere, before I started the MTC,

(18:38):
before I got my mission call.
There was something I could havedone before to like give me the
momentum, the spiritual momentumI needed going into my mission.

SPEAKER_00 (18:47):
Now these next three stories we're going to bring up,
would you say that it played arole?
That decision and you feastingupon the words of Christ and
feeling the Holy Ghost andbringing this powerful joy this
this change of heart this wouldyou say that influenced these
other decisions you made

SPEAKER_02 (18:59):
i think it was the foundation of the other
decisions

SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
oh then let's talk about them

SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
wait before we go on i just want to say not to like
hype you up well yes to hype youup yeah hype them up i think
like so personally i didn't knowthe book of mormon is true until
like halfway through my missionso it took me a long time to get
there but the fact that youchose to have these experiences,
you could already go into thefield and when you're like
extending these invitations toyour friends and be like, oh, I

(19:24):
promise you that if you readthis, you will find feelings of
joy, of peace, of comfort,whatever it is.
And you have like a personalexperience to back that up
before you even get into thefield is so cool.
Like that is so powerful.

SPEAKER_00 (19:36):
And that is, wouldn't you say, Lauren, that
is one of our messages.
I mean, I love your story andyour path.
I love everyone's stories andpaths.
But yeah, like the earlier wecan get these principles applied
and the better, because then youhit the ground running, right?

SPEAKER_01 (19:48):
Yeah.
And this is one of the reasonswhy I'm so grateful just for
this podcast, the idea of it,catering it towards those who
are preparing to go on missions.
Because I thought when I got mycall, I'm like, okay, well, now
I feel a little extra motivated.
Maybe I'll read like eachchapter a day of the Book of
Mormon or whatever.
But To really take advantage ofthis time that you have to

(20:08):
prepare to serve the Lord is socrucial.
A lot of times all of ourfriends are getting our calls
and we're waiting for our callsand then we get in and we kind
of just are lukewarm until weget into the MTC and then we
choose to go.
But I wish that I would havetaken a greater advantage of the
time that I had before I startedthe MTC to...

(20:29):
gain a testimony in the Book ofMormon, to learn more about the
restoration, to learn more aboutthe plan of salvation.
And that's why I love doing thisis because I get to help other
people do what I wish I did.

SPEAKER_00 (20:38):
And I love your story because you did make the
choice.
Sure, it happened a little lateron your mission, but you owned
that choice.
You feasted upon the words,right?
Yeah.
So it's just as powerful and itapplied.
I mean, it was your path.
Lauren, I know you have to gowhen you have to go.
So just stand up and leave us,which is make me cry.
I will cry.
But you just go when you need togo.
But let me share a quick story,okay, along these lines.

(21:01):
So I've got this group of kidsright now who I've known for a
long time that's going throughmy mission prep series, and they
come over every Sunday, andwe're doing the mission prep
series.
Let's just say I think they'veall admitted and raised their
hands that they're all lukewarm.
They have their calls.
They're not fighting hard to getto the temple.
They're just passive.
They're just like, eh, eh.

(21:21):
At the beginning, they were allexcited, and then they got the
call, and then that kind of woreoff, and they're just...
Passive.
So this last Sunday, we werethere meeting, and I just kind
of went off preaching, justpounding the podium, spitting a
little.

SPEAKER_01 (21:33):
Pounding the podium.

SPEAKER_00 (21:35):
Pounding it like this.
Yeah, I got it.
And so I committed them andsays, guys, if you go your
entire life and never once justtry to feast upon the words of
Christ like hours and hours in aday and ask God questions and
listen to the Spirit, if younever do that, just try it once
your whole life.

(21:56):
I said the word shame on you.
I don't know, that's judgmental.
I apologize, but I shamed him.

SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
Comes from a place of

SPEAKER_00 (22:01):
love.
Thank you.
And they decided, yeah, let'stry this.
And so for the past four days,three days, we've been having
this group chat and just goingback and forth.
Well, here's, I'll just read youwhat happened yesterday.
I'm sure she'd give mepermission to this.
I followed up and I said, Iwon't say who it is.
I followed up and I says, heyman, how is it going today?
Here's what I studied today.
Here's what I tagged today.
And I get an all bold, it'sgoing so good.

(22:25):
All caps.
Prayers are being answered.
It's like I thought she was mygrandma for a minute.
I don't know why it's all caps.
She's yelling this, right?
She's yelling this.
And I says, no way, dude.
Like, share.
Share.
Like, what's up?
And then she says this.
Both days I have read has beenthe best part of my day.
I don't want to stop.
I genuinely believe it's becauseI prayed that I would have a
desire to read and a desire tofeel the joy that comes when

(22:45):
going further into the gospel,even if I feel like I'm already
happy enough.
Like, that was her big thing is,I'm good where I'm at.
This passive security, this,what's it called?
The And she goes on and on andon to talk about how I'm feeling
so much joy that I never evenknew I could feel.
And it's just awesome to seethese kids diving in and doing

(23:09):
what Ryan did, which was feastupon the words of Christ.
I love your story that you're uptill 3 a.m.
Just I can't put it down.
It's like when I read HarryPotter.
Just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 (23:18):
I never read that.
Is that a bad thing?
Yeah, neither

SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
have I.
You guys watch the movies.
That was a bad analogy, man.
I'm sorry I ruined it.
I'll cut that part out.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, so this foundationaldecision you made to feast upon
the words of Christ, read theBook of Mormon, brought the Holy
Ghost and the peace and joy intoyour life so foundationally.
It caught that fire.
Okay, let's fast forward now.
You get your mission call, and Iwon't go into the details.

(23:42):
Some other day we'll have youback, but this was kind of
miraculous.
You got called to the samemission your dad got called.
You guys know the apostle ElderAnderson, and he played a role
in that.
So you get called to Spain, andCOVID hit, and you don't go to
Spain.
Where do you go?

SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
I was reassigned to the Minnesota-Minneapolis
mission.

SPEAKER_00 (24:03):
Please say Minnesota the right way.
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
Please say it the right way.
Try again.

SPEAKER_02 (24:09):
I spoke Spanish there.
I don't

SPEAKER_00 (24:10):
know what you're talking about.
Minnesota, isn't it?
Isn't that the right way?
Tell me.
That's not how the Hispanics sayit.
Oh.
You don't watch Fargo?
Fargo is all about...
Anyway, okay.
So, listen.
There were two elders in mymission.
My favorite one and then thisguy that hated me.
Oh, gosh.
Now, when they got...
They were called the Ukraine,right?
And when they were in the MTC,neither of them got their visas.

(24:31):
And they went to, like,Tennessee or Texas or someplace
for, like, three or four months.
Now, one elder decided...
I'm here.
Let's go.
God wants me to be here.
There's a purpose.
I'm going to work like crazy andI'm going to find and fulfill my
purpose.
I'm going to lead souls toChrist.
He

SPEAKER_02 (24:46):
built his mission out of bricks there.

SPEAKER_00 (24:48):
There you go.
And the other guy said, this isthe worst thing that has ever
happened to me in my life.
This isn't my mission.
I just had this terribleattitude.
And both of them throughouttheir mission lived that way.
And it was shocking to see thesuccess, the joy, the happiness
of the one compared to theother.
So, They were faced with adecision, right?

(25:10):
There was hot, cold, and there'shot, cold, and lukewarm.
Ryan, why, when you're facedwith this, how hard was that to
be like, I'm going to Spainwhere my dad served?
No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_02 (25:21):
I think, I think it was very different.
I think we learned that themission call was more important
than the mission assignment.
The call being your call as adisciple of Christ to preach the
gospel full time, to bringothers unto

SPEAKER_00 (25:35):
him.
You didn't have to make thatdecision, dude.

SPEAKER_02 (25:38):
No, but I think, I mean, was the choice going to be
I'm miserable and all I want todo is talk about where I'm
supposed to go?
Some people do that.
Or am I doubting God that that'swhere I'm supposed to be for the
time that I'm supposed to bethere?

SPEAKER_00 (25:51):
But you made a choice to have this
enthusiastic, faithful attitude.

SPEAKER_02 (25:55):
I wanted my time in Minnesota to be worth it.
I didn't want to short thepeople there of opportunities to
hear The word of God.

SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
And how many months did you end up being there?

SPEAKER_02 (26:04):
I was there for 18 months.
Yeah.
For quite a long time.

SPEAKER_00 (26:09):
And the words that I often hear you say.
I didn't think I was

SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
going to leave.

SPEAKER_00 (26:11):
And the words I often hear you say, I gave it my
all.
What are the words you often sayabout how you served?

SPEAKER_02 (26:19):
I didn't leave anything on the table.
Even

SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
in Minnesota?

SPEAKER_02 (26:24):
Especially in Minnesota.
Because I didn't think I wasever going to go to Spain.
I didn't.
built my mission out of bricks.
That was something we would talkabout a lot.
We had lots of reassignedmissionaries in, in Minnesota
and we wanted it to be a placewhere you were going to give it
your all.
You were going to make a homethere that you could visit, not
a house out of straw, like thethree little piggy story,
whatever, whatever the story is.
You want to build something youcan come back to and revisit,

(26:47):
not something that's going toget blown away when you leave.
Nice.
And I think I chose, well, Iknow that I chose to build a
house out of bricks and I madeit something worthwhile because
there were people there thatneeded my testimony needed the
opportunity to choose forthemselves.

SPEAKER_00 (27:01):
I like the analogy.
I mean, you guys could have useda different scriptural analogy
about the wise man who built hishouse on the sand and the
foundation of the rock.
Oh, I got in a finger wave.
Judging?
Am I judging again?
This is my bad, Lauren.
We could have.
You're right.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
No, it's great.
I'm just totally joking.
Lauren, I'm just kidding.

(27:21):
It's awesome.
Okay, so how much of a role...
So I honestly think Ryan, thatit's really unique that when you
were faced with this decision,again, you've got a hot choice,
a cold choice, and a lukewarmchoice.
I think the numbers are probably50-50, that half the people
choose to be lukewarm and arecold or more, and then fewer

(27:45):
choose to be cold.
What do you think was thefoundational reason that you had
the integrity, the faith, tochoose to view this as your
mission and to serve with allyour heart, mind, and strength?
Did it have anything to do withanother decision you made?

SPEAKER_02 (28:00):
I mean, it goes back to what we were talking about
before.
I chose, after my mom died, Ichose that I was either going to
be a disciple of Jesus Christ orthat I wasn't, right?
I was going to choose one or theother.
And when I read the scriptures,I knew, I felt it, I wanted it,
and I had that truth and Iwanted to share it with others.

SPEAKER_00 (28:18):
Dude, I love it.
The converting power that comeswhen we feast upon the words of
Christ is it really does changeour hearts and it lays a
foundation for future decisions.
Okay.
So good on you, dude.
So you worked hard in Minnesota,owned that as your mission, and
then eventually went back out toSpain.

SPEAKER_02 (28:35):
That's right.

UNKNOWN (28:36):
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (28:36):
Okay.
So a couple of questions.
Okay.
I say you served anunconventional mission because
when Lauren and I teach theseprinciples and we yell about
things like, for example, openyour mouth and talk to everyone,
right?
That's a principle that willmake you give you a good, a
really good mission experience.
You couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 (28:55):
Yeah, not in the same way you could.
That's for sure.
Okay,

SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
let's debate this.
We're going to argue that, okay,one side is you didn't open your
mouth and talk to everyone.
Yeah.
And you're going to say, yes, Idid, just differently.

SPEAKER_02 (29:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (29:06):
Let's debate this.
Let's debate this.

SPEAKER_02 (29:07):
I got to Minnesota.
We weren't allowed to go intoanyone's homes.
I didn't go into a home for thefirst 11 months of my mission.
I was in my apartment.
I was in family history centersand church buildings for the
first 11 months of my mission.

SPEAKER_00 (29:19):
So how could you possibly not be lukewarm in that
situation and be like, Or evenbe cold in that situation and be
like, I'm out of here.
This is terrible.

SPEAKER_02 (29:28):
I think the main thing for me was that we had
social media and I was like,well, if we're going to have
this be an option, I'm going totake it.
I'm going to run with it.
And I'm going to kill it.
So it was kind of like anunsolved problem.
We had this big goal, which wasbringing others to come unto

(29:49):
Christ and the traditional waysof doing it.
were no longer available to us.
So we had to come together andfigure out how are we going to
do this?
How are we going to bring othersto Christ?
And we used Facebook.
We used members as much as wecould.
It was a struggle getting toknow them.

SPEAKER_00 (30:05):
Before you tell us what you did, let's go back a
little bit, Mr.
Ryan, because when you got outthere, You were gung-ho, right?
You've had this experience withthe Book of Mormon, feasting on
the words of Christ.
You are converted.
You've got the Spirit.
You're gung-ho.
Then you get out, and then yourmission changes.

SPEAKER_02 (30:20):
Well, you're right.
I knew what I wanted.
I knew my why, and I hadmotivation behind me, but I
didn't know the how because Iget there, and everything was
different, and I didn't know howI was going to manifest what I
thought was my purpose and mydrive.

SPEAKER_00 (30:34):
So would you say with this lack of how, this lack
of knowledge—you had your why,but this lack of how, this lack
of knowledge— Would you say,like most of us, you slipped
into a little bit of a passive,lukewarm state?

SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
Absolutely.
I get to my first area, and mytrainer had come from a mission
in South America where it wasvery traditional, knocking on
doors, being in the street.
And he got there and was so sadthat it wasn't what he had, the
joy that he felt.
And he fell into indifference.
So we fell into indifferencebecause I didn't know any
better.
I thought that's just what wewere going to do.
I was pessimistic.

(31:05):
I didn't think that it was goingto work out.
So for 12 weeks...
I was cold and sad.

SPEAKER_00 (31:12):
You stole my thunder, dude.
I was going to ask you, how longhalt ye between two opinions?
Serving and knocking on doors,which you cannot do, or serving
in a different way and findingout, figuring out a better way
to open your mouth.
You stole my thunder, dude.
So it was 12 weeks?

SPEAKER_02 (31:26):
It was 12 weeks.
We taught two lessons, threelessons, to someone who wasn't a
member the whole time in 12weeks.
Which, not that it's a numbersgame, but that means that for...
I don't know, let's do 12 weeks.
For 84 days, there were threedays where I taught lessons.

SPEAKER_00 (31:41):
So the scripture in Ephesians, it talks about how
when we're lukewarm, thepotential of being tossed to and
fro is a very real thing.
Like I had your exact sameexperience.
I was on absolute fire when Igot, like all the prep I was
doing before my mission, when Igot in the field, my mission
companion was fantastic, but haddifferent work ethic.

SPEAKER_02 (32:01):
That's right.

SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
And I didn't know the how.
And so I just kind of went alongwith it.
until I saw Elder Matthew Miles,who was also a Greenie, who also
had kind of a companion that wasdoing it differently, and he
deliberately made a choice to gooutside and just work like
crazy.
And I watched that, and hetalked to everyone, and it
changed my life because I waslike, oh, he's not passively

(32:24):
following anybody.
He made a decision on how he'sgoing to serve.
I need to do that.
I need to do that.
And from that moment on,everything changed, and I was
absolutely in charge of and incontrol of my faithful service
in leading souls to Christ.
How did it change for you?
Because you were passive.
His

SPEAKER_02 (32:42):
name was Kyle Ludlow.
He was the same thing, the sameas your elder in your mission.
Shout out, Kyle.
I saw what work looked like, andI saw how it could be done, and
that's all I needed.
Once I saw that, we startedworking, and for the six weeks
we were together, we got a lotdone, and it was fun.
We had joy.
We helped other people in ourdistrict and around us to find
that same joy that we wereseeing, and it only started to

(33:04):
go up from there.

SPEAKER_00 (33:05):
That's amazing.
So you just made a choice afterseeing that.
You found yourself in thatlukewarm passive and says no
longer am I going to be haltedhere

SPEAKER_02 (33:12):
I

SPEAKER_00 (33:12):
choose

SPEAKER_02 (33:12):
to be I'm grateful for it too because I saw the
sadness of doing nothing andbeing indifferent and I'm like I
don't want that so I learned byanti example I'm like I don't
ever want to see that again so Iknew from then on that I would
never do that and I would beonly devoted only working as
hard as I could from sun up tosundown every single day because
I had tasted the bitter and Iwanted the sweet

SPEAKER_00 (33:34):
beautiful I love it that's so awesome is that a

SPEAKER_02 (33:36):
better analogy than my three little piggies

SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
no the piggies is a good one okay Okay, so this
leads to the second choice youmade.
So one of the principles wepreach and yell about here is
open your mouth and talk toeveryone.
That's a way to be a happymissionary.
That's a way to be a successfulmissionary.
Don't let anyone go by.
You open your mouth and talk toeveryone.
You couldn't do that.
So I'm going to accuse you andsay, you didn't do that.
Do you disagree?
I

SPEAKER_02 (33:57):
would disagree with you.
Good,

SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
good.
Fight back.

SPEAKER_02 (33:59):
I mean, we had unconventional ways.
We had...
Facebook and maybe other onlineways of meeting people and
trying to invite people to comeunto Christ.

SPEAKER_00 (34:10):
Okay, now you're making it soft.
Before the podcast, youexplained some real direct
stories.
You want to share that?

SPEAKER_02 (34:15):
So one thing we would do is we would message
lots of people in groups onFacebook and see if we could
serve them and make a connectionwith them, whether it was raking
leaves or shoveling snow ormoving things, not in their
house because we couldn't go intheir house, but maybe yard work
or other things like that.
But then, you know, Facebookstarted to think that we were
all bots because we were sendingso many messages every day so we

(34:36):
had to come up with somethingelse and our mission and all the
missions at the time wereexperimenting with paid
advertising.
So you'd put money into anaccount and it would show a
sponsored ad to people.
And we came up with some prettycreative ways of how we could
separate the people that wereready to hear the gospel and the
people that maybe weren't readyto hear the gospel and make it

(34:58):
so the people we were showingour ads to were people that had
a fighting chance of wanting tofind more joy in their

SPEAKER_00 (35:05):
lives.
You're trying to softball whatyou actually did?
Maybe a little bit, yeah.
Okay, well, I'll try andsummarize in a softball way.
So basically you had this ideathat, you know, when you put
these young kids up there, youget a lot of weird, creepy
people on social media justreaching out for wrong reasons.
And you're like...

SPEAKER_02 (35:20):
They're more interested in the sisters than
the message.

SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
So you had this idea like, well, wait a minute.
We're in control of the audiencethat we're serving these ads to.
Why don't we...
put some bait out there, and putthese good videos together of
these sisters.
And what happens is you get allthese comments from all these
creepos, and now you can blockthem from your ads.
That's right.
So now you're just targetingpeople who are genuinely

(35:44):
interested in gospel.

SPEAKER_02 (35:45):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 (35:45):
And how did that

SPEAKER_02 (35:46):
work?
We're trying to get closer andcloser to targeting people that
we thought were most likely tobe elect.
And how did it work?
It worked out great.
It's funny, actually.
I was in downtown Minneapolisand we had put an ad out that
was basically two sistermissionaries saying, hey, do you
want to get baptized?
And then they would promisesomething.
I forget what the promise was.
Something about feeling thespirit and feeling clean and

(36:07):
feeling loved again.
And we had this guy fromHonduras.
His name was Josue.
And he clicked on the ad andsaid, yes, I want to go on
Sunday I want to go to churchand I want to learn more about
baptism.
And 12 weeks later, Josue wasbaptized, which was crazy.
And it's like, would we haveever found him before?
Maybe not.
Maybe because he worked 14 hourdays roofing and lived in a

(36:29):
house with 15 other guys.
Maybe he would have never openedthe door for us.
Maybe he, I don't know.
I don't know what his situationwould have been.
I found us reaching people thatmaybe we'd never would have
reached.
Maybe you weren't the onetalking to everybody because we
were able to use a tool that gotbehind doors that you could
never open.

SPEAKER_00 (36:45):
There's the 16-year-old Ryan, I remember.
Finger pointed at me,challenging my thoughts.
I love it.

SPEAKER_02 (36:50):
So now let's compromise.
What if we combine those two?
We combine the talking toeveryone on the street with also

SPEAKER_00 (36:56):
using social media.
I am absolutely willing toconcede because you took a
harder situation, again, whereyou could have chose to be
passive and you could havechosen to be cold and just said,
this is not right.
I'm going home.
I'm useless.
And instead, you made a hotchoice to compromise open your
mouth and talk to people in adifferent way.

(37:16):
Same concept, same exactconcept, right?
You worked with all your heart,mind, mind, and strength
creatively to find the rightpeople to talk to.
Same thing.
I think it was the exact samething.
The concept is the exact same.
And you didn't have to do that.
I didn't have to go out and talkto everyone, literally 4,000
people every single day.
I could have chilled, backedoff, been a little lukewarm.

(37:39):
I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 (37:41):
But do you regret it?

SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
Dude, it's the greatest.

SPEAKER_02 (37:43):
That's the thing.
It's like, yeah, you didn't haveto, but you look back and you
wouldn't have it any other way.

SPEAKER_00 (37:48):
It's the right thing to do.
It's the right way to...
Because that urgency to leadsouls to Christ is nothing but
joy.
It just brings...

SPEAKER_02 (37:53):
Do you think you could have done more?
Do you think you could havetalked to more people?
Maybe a little bit, but notreally.

SPEAKER_00 (37:58):
Maybe 10 days of the mission.

SPEAKER_02 (38:00):
And it's like, I look at my mission the same way.
It's like, I gave it my all, soI look back and don't have
regrets.
I think if you could give onepiece of advice to missionaries,
live your mission the way youjust don't have any regrets.

SPEAKER_00 (38:11):
But I think that the most important...
Yeah, to the listeners, that'sthe message.
But really the lesson in yourstory is you made the first
choice to feast upon the wordsof Christ.
That's right.
Because of that, the fire waslit.
And then you were able to servein a way that you would have no
regrets.
So to the listeners, really whatI want to push here is start

(38:31):
now.
Do not put off the day.
The scriptures say don'tprocrastinate the day of your
repentance.
What I would say is that, yes,but don't procrastinate the day
of you starting to feast.
Not just nibble.
Not just read a little bit.
Not passively read.
Consciously, deliberately feastupon the words of Christ.
Read the Book of Mormon.
Read the Bible.
Read the D&C and the Pearl ofGreat Price.
This will catch the fireunderneath you.

(38:53):
That's a decision you need tomake, listeners.
Choose it now.
That's absolutely right.
Okay, so we've gone throughthree choices you've made where
you could have been lukewarm andyou could have been cold.
Instead, you chose hot.
Let's go to the last one.
So 18 months after your call,your mission president calls you
and says, hey, guess what?
You're going to Spain.

SPEAKER_02 (39:12):
Yeah, he's like, I had two days.
Pack your bags.
You're going to Spain.
I was like, wow, this is crazybecause there had been rumors
that if you don't hear by thetime you hit 18 months, you've
crossed a threshold where you'renot going to go.
So on the month where I wouldhave been 18 months into my
mission, that's the day I wasgoing to leave to go to Spain.
So literally the very lastpossible day that I could have
gone to Spain was the day I gotto

SPEAKER_00 (39:33):
go.
Now what's fascinating aboutthat is often I hear, you know,
missionaries who learn alanguage, it takes six months to
come fluent in a language.
Well, you've got six months toyour mission.
Like that's months and monthswhere you don't understand what
people are saying.
So you made another choice here,which is fascinating.
First of all, for 18 months, youwere used to not going out,
knocking on doors and talking topeople.
Now you could, right?
Yeah.
But you made a deliberatechoice, and it was based on, it

(39:55):
sounds like, what your missionpresident taught you, and you
believed him.
What was it?
What was the choice you madehere?

SPEAKER_02 (40:00):
Yeah, my mission president, his name was
President Hamilton.
He always told us that memberswere super important, and not in
the way that maybe you'rethinking, not just as a tool to
be used, but as a person to beloved more.
We would go into members' homesfor a couple hours and watch
soccer games with them on TV andplay soccer with their kids and
just get to know them and lovethem and share meals with them

(40:21):
and be their friends.

SPEAKER_00 (40:22):
Okay, now my first reaction to that would be like,
what are you doing,

SPEAKER_02 (40:25):
dude?
I'm wasting time.

SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
Why are you out talking to people, knocking on
doors?
Okay, but my judgmentalignorance...
Tell me how it turned out.
You showed me a picture rightbefore this.
I did show you

SPEAKER_02 (40:39):
a picture.
I'll give you a little bit of abackstory.
So there were a couple kids inour ward who were 16 years old
and similar to people you canthink of in your own lives that
maybe were lukewarm and werethere but maybe didn't want to
be there at church or wouldleave, maybe a little rough
around the edges.
They just needed a good example.
They needed someone to pushthem.

(40:59):
And we started playing soccerwith them and their friends, and
they started to like us, andwe'd start inviting them to
teach in our lessons.
And our whole goal was like, wewant to help these kids have
missionary experiences beforethey leave to go to college or
before they leave to go on amission themselves.

SPEAKER_00 (41:14):
Let me interrupt just real quick because I think
I understand the choice you madewas not we're going to find
through missionaries or throughmembers or the choice you made
was we're not going to go knockon doors.
The choice you made was we aregoing to love these people so
much and build such strongrelationships that they will
feel like the light of Christ.

(41:36):
They will feel the atonement asit changes our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 (41:40):
Hopefully we can light the fire under them that I
had under me, right?
That's the whole goal.

SPEAKER_00 (41:44):
And you can't do that when you're just over and
you're going to have dinner oneday with the members And then
you're in and you're out

SPEAKER_02 (41:48):
and you share a quick message and you exchange
pleasantries and then you'regone,

SPEAKER_00 (41:51):
right?
So your deliberate choice was weare going to invest time to fall
in love with these people sothat they can fall in love with
us and that relationship iswhat's going to matter.

SPEAKER_02 (41:58):
Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 (41:59):
Okay.
So

SPEAKER_02 (42:01):
we keep going.
And then these kids, you know, Iactually finished my mission and
I get a message from our wardmission leader in Spain.
And he sends me this picture.
I'm

SPEAKER_00 (42:11):
looking at it now, dude.
This is absolutely awesome.
I don't even want to count howmany people are in this photo.
I just did.
How many people are in thephoto?
Well, first, first, before Icount and tell you that.
How many of these guys, you toldme before, were the guys that
you built these relationshipswith?

SPEAKER_02 (42:23):
There were five people, five members in the
photo who were maybe lukewarm.
They were definitely lukewarm,who now have callings and are in
white baptizing this family ofnine.

SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
There are nine people in this photo, dude.

SPEAKER_02 (42:36):
There are way more than

SPEAKER_00 (42:37):
nine.

SPEAKER_02 (42:38):
17.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (42:39):
All of them are wearing white.
They're all in front of thetemple.
We had nine people getting

SPEAKER_02 (42:42):
baptized and eight people doing the baptisms.
And those were members, themembers that you were...
All of them were members.
I think one of them was a recentconvert from a couple months
before.
The rest were reactivated youth.
A couple were reactivatedadults.
And some were just solidmembers, right?
So it's a fun experience for meto look at this picture from a
couple years ago and see...

(43:05):
One of my good friends, hisname's Orlean.
He's about to finish his missionin Ecuador.
Jorge just finished a mission inSpain.
A couple other youth, I can'tremember their names, but
they're also in the photo.
You have Eugenio, who was lessactive.
You have Reinaldo and you havePablo, who were also kind of on
the fringes, who then ended upbeing able to baptize this

(43:25):
family.
And from what I know and fromwhat I followed up, this family
is super solid and activebecause look at the web of
people that they have stuck tothem, right?
They're not following a waybecause it's not like they have
missionaries that are moving.
They have eight other people inthis photo who are in their ward
to this day that love them.

SPEAKER_00 (43:42):
Absolutely awesome.
So cool.

SPEAKER_02 (43:44):
It's so cool.
Nothing better.

SPEAKER_00 (43:45):
And so throughout all of these challenges, you
served an unconventionalmission, man.
Yep.
Super unconventional.
And at every crossroads, youmade the faithful, I want to
follow Jesus Christ choice.
And that that choice was basedin you making a singular choice
to study the words of Christthrough the Book of Mormon and
read the whole thing with realintent, and you caught on fire.

(44:07):
And all these choices you made,and these are really
challenging, unconventional,hard choices.
You made the faithful choice,and it leads to a picture of 17
people in white.
This is such a beautiful photo,man.
It's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 (44:20):
I just want to add, too, I think you're giving me a
lot of credit for choosing theright, and I will say that I
did, at Crossroads, end upchoosing the right, but it
wasn't easy.
And I think sometimes we look atpeople who we think are choosing
the right and doing a great job,and oftentimes they are.
Oftentimes it's the product ofchoosing the wrong and realizing

(44:40):
they have to get back on theright path.
Right.
So I look at my mission andthere are times where it's easy
to be lukewarm for 10 seconds.
Maybe you have a companion who'sbeing negative, or maybe you
have, you know, family membersat home that are, you know,
giving you pressure or stress.
And then all of a sudden youfeel complacent, but then you
have to snap back into it and belike, look, why am I here?
What am I doing?
And choose the right path.

SPEAKER_00 (45:01):
You kidding me, dude, you just took revelation
three and first Kings 18.
And you just buy at the endhere.
gave clarity to what they meant.
There's a reason God says it'sworse to be indifferent and
passive.
It's worse to be lukewarm thanit is to make a choice one way
or the other.
Because oftentimes when we makethose bad choices, we don't want
that.
It's not joy.
It's not happiness.

(45:22):
And it pushes us the other way.
Awesome.
And let's end with this.
1 Nephi 11, 21 to 23.
And an angel said unto Nephi,behold the Lamb of God.
So this angel shows Nephi theLamb of God.
the son of the eternal father.
Knowest thou the meaning of thetree which thy father saw?
I love this man.
Lehi sees this tree and Nephiwants to know what it means and

(45:44):
he shows him the tree and hesays, do you know what it is?
And he says, yeah, it's the loveof God which sheddeth itself
abroad in the hearts of thechildren of men.
Wherefore it is the mostdesirable of all things.
And he spake unto me saying,yea, the most joyous to the
soul.
I look at this picture, Ryan, of17 people how much joy do you

(46:07):
feel when you see, based on, A,you starting to read the
scriptures and feast upon thewords of Christ, and then all
these other decisions, and thenyou get to the point where you
make a decision, you know what,I'm just going to spend time
with these members, love them,not just get food from them, not
just get a break during the day,I'm going to love them to death.
And now you see these 17 peoplein white getting baptized.

(46:29):
How much joy do you feel?

SPEAKER_02 (46:30):
So much joy.
I mean, I almost, I view it asif it were your own family of
17.
joining the church, right?
There's a scripture in Mosiahabout the sons of Mosiah that
are wanting to preach so bad tothe wicked Lamanites, and they
have to get permission from theking.
And all they want to do ispreach to people that hate them.
And the king asks them, youknow, why do you want to do
this?

(46:50):
And he goes, because they're ourbrethren.
And I think that scripturechanged the way I viewed
everything.
I think if you start viewingthem as your sister, as your
brother, as your father, as yourmother, you start to care more,
and it becomes real to you.
Awesome.
There's no greater joy.
I can't describe.
Yeah, I can't describe it.

SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
Well, thanks for sharing, Ryan.
And just for the listeners, justto reemphasize, the most
important choice I would suggestthat Ryan made was to feast upon
the words of our Savior.
Guys, you've got to start it.
Start it now.
This will change your wholelife.
Do it.
Do it.
Thanks for joining.
We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_02 (47:30):
See you.
Thank you for having me.