You Can't Bring Me Down - Mission Prep Series Class 6

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In the Mission Prep Series Class 6: "You Can't Bring Me Down," we tackle the universal topic of mental health and coping with hard things, offering insights for aspiring missionaries. This episode emphasizes two core principles for navigating life's challenges, with a strong focus on the powerful spiritual solution.
While acknowledging the pragmatic need to advocate for oneself and address personal challenges before a mission, as demonstrated by Lauren's experience of delaying her mission to become "mentally solid", the episode truly shines a light on the profound spiritual principles that underpin resilience.
The Spiritual Solution: Understanding Your Divine Identity
The most powerful principle for coping with any hardship, from anxiety and depression to difficult circumstances, lies in understanding your true identity:
•
Divine Identity as a Son or Daughter of God: Elder Christofferson suggests that "spiritual rebirth" can make "depression... evaporate and any anxiety... quite manageable". Elder Boyd K. Packer adds that "principles of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve". The foundation of this spiritual strength is the knowledge that you are a child of God.
◦
Moses 1:1-22 provides a powerful example: God repeatedly emphasizes to Moses, "thou art my son," highlighting his true identity before all else. Immediately afterward, Satan attacks Moses's identity, calling him "son of man," but Moses, grounded in his divine sonship, rebukes Satan "in the name of Christ". This teaches that knowing "who you are" is the most potent tool against challenges.
◦
Your worth is constant: Drawing from Sister Rooney's General Conference talk, the episode clarifies that "Your worth is not tied to your obedience. Your worth is constant. It never changes. It was given to you by God, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to change it." While obedience brings blessings, your inherent worth is always great in God's sight.
•
The Atonement of Jesus Christ: Internalizing this divine identity is deeply connected to understanding Christ's Atonement.
◦
1 Nephi 21:16 states, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands," signifying that Christ thought of us and our potential even during His suffering. This powerful truth helps missionaries understand that the gospel's very first principle, "God is our loving Heavenly Father," is built upon love.
◦
D&C 6:33-37 reinforces this: Christ invites us to "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the print of the nails in my hands and feet." This scripture underscores Christ's personal suffering and boundless love for us, cementing our identity as etched into His very being.
•
Feasting on the Words of Christ: To build this deep understanding of your divine identity, it's essential to "feast on the words of Christ" through diligent scripture study, prayer, and allowing the Holy Ghost to teach you. This personal knowledge, combined with your agency, is key to navigating anxiety and depression.
◦
Elder Holland's BYU speech, "Lessons from Liberty Jail," is recommended for gaining "more ammo" to cope with struggles by understanding how to turn personal "Liberty Jails" into "temples" through the gospel.
The episode culminates with a powerful invitation to read 3 Nephi 11, described as the "pinnacle of the Book of Mormon". In this chapter, the resurrected Christ invites the multitude to come forth "one by one" to feel the prints of the nails in His hands and feet. This deeply personal interaction emphasizes Christ's individual relationship with each of us, teaching that despite our unworthiness, through Him, we become worthy and can proudly embrace our identity as a "son of God" o

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
All right, welcome back to Mission Prep Series
Podcast, or we'll call itMission Stories Podcast.
Lauren, sometimes we refer to itas Mission Stories Podcast, and
sometimes Mission Prep SeriesPodcast.
It's one and the same.
It's the same.
It's the same.
You good with that?
Yep.
Yeah, okay, you're good withthat.

(00:20):
Okay, Lauren, I'm super excitedfor this episode because this is
one of those episodes wherewe're delayed in starting our
recording because you and I arejust sitting at this table
talking about these principlesand we can't shut up because
there's so much good stuff.
It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (00:35):
And we just keep like, oh, but we could do this,
but what about this talk fromthis apostle or what about this
scripture?
And we just, okay, stop andlet's just record and hopefully
we can get out what we'refeeling, right?
This is such an important topic.

SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
Spirit-led.

SPEAKER_03 (00:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, so just a reminder to ourlisteners.
The point of this podcast is...
I had such a great missionexperience.
It was a marvelous work and awonder.
You had such a great experience.
And the same way that Lehipartook of the fruit and the
tree of, and the vision of thetree of life and all he wanted

(01:09):
was he just felt peace and joy.
And it was just so, all hewanted was to go and share it
with others.
That's how I feel.
That's how you feel, right?
Yeah.
About missions.
And so for those of youlistening who are preparing for
your mission, we just want youto have that experience.
We're so blessed with thisopportunity.
So we're trying to share ideasand thoughts and topics and
principles that equip you tohave the best experience you can

(01:30):
possibly have.
And this is one of thoseprinciples.
We call it the sixth one in ourclass that we teach.
This is one of those principlesthat is common among us.
I love the scripture that saysit talking about temptation.
And it says, I don't rememberwhere it's at, but it says,
there's no temptation that isnot common among us.
I love that.
It sounds like, okay, we are allin the same boat.
We're all dealing with the samethings.

(01:50):
And today's topic is we're goingto tackle mental health.
how to cope with mental health,how to deal with mental health,
how to deal with hard things,hard situations, scary
situations.
This is a common thing amongstall of us.
We all run into it at some pointor some level or another.
But it's really this principleis all about some really good
tools on how to deal with thisas a missionary.

(02:13):
I wanted a quick, before we getinto some of your stories, I
wanted a quick start off with aquote from Elder Christofferson.
He said this, And you tell mewhat you think about this,
because this is a littlecontroversial.
He says, if we can lead ouryouth and young adults to
spiritual rebirth, depressionwill evaporate, and any anxiety

(02:36):
in their lives will be quitemanageable.
Even death itself cannotthreaten their peace once they
have been born of the Spirit andhave learned to trust in God.
What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_00 (02:46):
Amen.

SPEAKER_03 (02:47):
Yeah, just amen to it?

SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Yeah, and I understand that.
Well, my understanding of thisquote is not necessarily that
he's aiming at, oh, mentalhealth is not real and it can be
fixed just by this one thing.
Obviously, there's multipleresources that we've been
blessed with, especially here intoday's age.
I feel like in the last 50years, just the stigma kind of

(03:12):
behind mental health hasdecreased like by so much.
And so now it's more widelytalked about.
But the fact that apostles areaddressing other ways to be able
to manage these things and toovercome them through the gospel
is one of the ways that we canapply it to our life.
So he's not here to say, oh,it's not real.

(03:32):
Oh, whatever, this or that, buthere's a way to overcome it.

SPEAKER_03 (03:37):
Let me dig in a little more.
The apostle Boyd K.
Packer said this, the principlesof the gospel will improve
behavior quicker than a study ofbehavior will improve behavior.
That's in Preach My Gospel.
Is it really?
So this is interesting becausewe're starting this whole
discussion about mental healthand coping with hard things on
your mission.
We're starting it.

(03:58):
I just dove in with thespiritual solution to it, but I
don't, I know we can't, that'snot the only message, right?
So let's take a step back andunderstand, and we're going to
focus on two principles that wecan give our listeners that,
that really are very, veryeffective.
The first, so the firstprinciple is going to be all
about this spiritual solution tohard things, dealing with hard
things in mental health.

(04:19):
And we're going to get in somedeep, fun, amazing, powerful
stories with that.
But the other side is more of apragmatic practical.
We live on this earth and wehave to understand not our
limitations, but the context ofthe human experience.
There are some, yeah, real, realneeds.
So why don't we, why don't wetalk?
I want to call this principleadvocating.

(04:39):
Well, let's just advocating forourselves.
Tell the story you told me alittle bit about your mission
president's wife.
Is that who it

SPEAKER_00 (04:46):
was?
Is the, um, first counselor ofthe mission presidency, him and
his wife.
His wife was actually themission nurse.
So I was in good contact withher, just precautionary things.
They decided to come to one ofour baptisms.
I think I was in like my secondtransfer maybe.
So I was still very new in themission.
And they were at the baptism,very small town.

(05:08):
And they made the journey allthe way out there.
So they're like, we might aswell spend some time here.
So they invited us out to lunchafter.
And we went out and had lunchwith them, and, you know, we're
kind of just sitting there.
We didn't really know them toowell, but they asked, you know,
they kind of wanted to knowabout our story, my trainer and

(05:28):
I.
They wanted to know about ourstory, so I decided to serve,
and we ended up talking.
She already knew some of mybackground, so...
It was kind of like no elephantin the room, like I could just
go.
And we started talking, and Itold her my story, just kind of
told her what the hoops that Ihad to jump through to get out
to the field.
She ended up saying, you know,that she was so amazed.

(05:50):
And this is not told to be in aprideful way, but she had asked
if I had her, or if she had mypermission to share my story at
a conference that she was goingto speak at.
And this conference was cateredtowards, it was held in Utah, it
was catered towards members ofthe church, specifically parents
who had kids that were eitherout on missions or preparing to

(06:11):
go on missions.
She wanted to really drill inthe principle to get the help
and figure your stuff out beforeyou went out into the mission
field.
Because for me, I mean, youknow, my papers got pushed back
a lot by a lot of time.
You know, my timeline that Ithought was going to happen was
not my timeline at all.
But, you know, in those sixmonths where I had to figure

(06:32):
stuff out, I was solid.
I was mentally stable.
I was able to be at a pointwhere I could go serve and
really dedicate my all.
There's a lot of people thatdon't do that.
And so whereas I got to be ableto go to the mission, I hit the
ground running.
A lot of people hit the groundand fall flat on their foot.

SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
That they do.

SPEAKER_00 (06:51):
Flat on their face.
And

SPEAKER_03 (06:55):
then they have to start a process of trying to
learn how to cope with.
And it's okay, right?
Because sometimes the mission,the experiences on the mission
can trigger this or triggerthat.
And as young people aredeveloping, they can deal with
it at various ages.
But I love that this sister wholoved your story, which I do
too, said, went and taught toparents of kids going on a

(07:16):
mission, advocate for them orbetter yet, teach the kids to
advocate for themselves.
And that's what was so, so, soimpressive knowing you in high
school and about your story wasthat in such a short period of
time, you in, in such humilityand with such drive listened to
the council that we were,everyone has given you or your

(07:37):
friends, your family, and youadvocated for yourself and you
just went forth and said, okay,If I'm concerned about any
element of my physical health,mental health, spiritual health,
I will choose to take action anddeal with it in a humble way.
And you did.
And it was so amazing to watch.
And it was so powerful to seehow you did progress.

(08:00):
And it wasn't perfect, right?
There was times where, okay,we'll try this.
Oh, that didn't work.
Okay, whatever.
I'll try this.
Okay, now this works.
Right?
And you eventually got to theperfect formula of I'm solid.
Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 (08:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (08:12):
Yeah.
And it was so impressive towatch you go through that and to
advocate for yourself.
So obviously principle numberone to missionaries dealing with
this is advocate for yourself.
Don't be ashamed.
There's no temptation or mentalhealth issue that's not common
among us.
We all deal with it.
And learning to cope with thesethings or treat these things is

(08:35):
obviously a process.
And so I love your advice.
Deal with it beforehand.
Like the same way that wepreach, look, how can you
possibly go out to a missionfield, lead souls to Christ
through faith, repentance,baptism, and the gift of the
Holy Ghost, if you've never donethat yourself?
If you yourself have not builtyour faith and you've never
repented and you don'tunderstand your covenants, how

(08:57):
are you going to lead otherpeople to do that?
So the same applies here tomental health, right?
If you're going to be out there,go through the process, the
humility process of repenting,looking in the mirror and
saying, maybe I need some helpand let's talk to some
professionals, right?

SPEAKER_00 (09:12):
Yeah.
And even, I mean, the mission isno easy task.
Everyone knows that.
But sometimes you will feel likeyou'll hit a wall while you're
out serving.
And it's very different beingable to deal with it in the
mission field versus outserving.
And I'm so eternally gratefulthat I took the time, the extra
six, seven months to be able tofigure out all my stuff and

(09:34):
figure out what was working forme and what wasn't before I got
out.
So then when I did hit Roblox, Ididn't hit that many, thank the
heavens, but I was able tofigure it out because I knew
what worked for me and I knewwhat didn't.
Whereas some people, you know,they can't hit the ground
running.
And then finally, after sixmonths, they're kind of starting
to go and And then they hit awall maybe a couple months

(09:57):
later.
And it's so different just, youknow, being in the mission field
and trying to figure that out.
Because partially you feel like,okay, well, I'm taking time for
myself, but my mission's notabout me.
Like I need to be out servingpeople.
And then you feel guilt.
Yeah, you get hit with this waveof guilt and you kind of just
stuck.
Like you just keep digging thehole, digging the hole, like
quicksand type of thing.

(10:18):
I remember I had one companionand when we were together near
the end of our time together shehad started struggling just with
some circumstances in her lifeand it was starting to affect
her mental health.
Me being like oh well I kind ofbeen through a process like this
like I know how to help her Ican give her some advice.
Me in the moment thought that Iwas helping her but it turned

(10:41):
out that there's a lot of thingsI could have done differently.
And I recognize that now, butit's so different being in the
missionary environment than inthe environment before.
And from personal experience,it's so much better to figure it
out before you go.
Like DNC4, you serve with allyour heart, mind, mind, and
strength, right?
It's hard to do that when youstart finding all these problems

(11:02):
for the first time that havegone swept under the rug for the
last...
X amount of years.
Whereas you figure it out beforeand then these problems start to
arise and you're like, okay, Iknow my missionary purpose.
I know what I can do to fixthis.
What am I going to do so I canget back to a hundred percent on
my missionary purpose?

SPEAKER_03 (11:19):
So a couple of years ago when the church came out
with their new youth theme, itwas based on Luke 2 52.
And I'd never looked at thatverse and had any understanding
of it.
It was like, we always talkedabout that versus being like,
oh, that's the only thing weknow about our savior before he
turned 30.
Because it says, and Jesus grewin, what was it, stature in, oh,
I forget.

(11:41):
I'll pull it up.
Yeah, pull it up.
Luke 2.52.
So this campaign that the churchput out for the youth campaign
was based on this idea that whatwe know about Christ in growing
up is that he focused on fourareas of his life to be prepared
for his mortal ministry.
The first area he focused on wasspiritual.
The second was physical.

(12:02):
The third was mental.
And the fourth was social.
Do you have it?

SPEAKER_00 (12:05):
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature.

SPEAKER_03 (12:07):
Increased in wisdom, which is mental.

SPEAKER_00 (12:09):
And stature.

SPEAKER_03 (12:10):
Stature is physical.

SPEAKER_00 (12:11):
And in favor with God.

SPEAKER_03 (12:12):
Spiritual.

SPEAKER_00 (12:13):
And man.

SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Social.

SPEAKER_00 (12:15):
Oh.
Read

SPEAKER_03 (12:15):
it again.
Read it again.

SPEAKER_00 (12:17):
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in
favor with God and man.

SPEAKER_03 (12:20):
Isn't that amazing?

SPEAKER_00 (12:22):
Amazing.
And so

SPEAKER_03 (12:22):
this campaign a couple years ago, you were on
your mission, was basically,look, youth, let's focus on
those four areas of your lifeand make preparations for So
Christ focused on those fourareas to make preparations for
his mortal ministry.
The same way, I love how you'resaying it, Lauren, you're
teaching such a powerfulprinciple.
And honestly, I feel the spiritwhen you preach it.
The same way that spirituallyyou had to do preparations, we

(12:45):
all do, we have to prepare byreading the scriptures and
really reading them and prayingand going to the temple.
All that preparation is towardsbeing a better missionary and
being a better person.
Same goes for physical, mental,and social.
Same goes.
right?
We have to do these things.
So I love this story of preparebefore, do everything you can,
advocate for yourself, tell yourparent, tell your bishop, hey, I

(13:09):
have these thoughts or I feelthese things.
Well, good, let's try and takecare of them.
There's nothing to be ashamedof.
There's no temptation or problemthat's not common among us.
So before we get into what Ican't wait to talk about, which
is the spiritual side of how tosolve this, let me give you my
background story.
So I remember when I was I don'tknow how old I was.
I was in my basement, vividmemory, and my parents had just

(13:33):
left us on their first vacation.
They went to Hawaii, and mygrandparents were staying with
us.
And I'm down in my basementdoing whatever, playing G.I.
Joe, He-Man, whatever.
And I just casually went, I'mgoing upstairs.
So I started going up thestairs, and I remember I hit the
middle of the stairs and juststopped, and this thought came
into my head, your parents aredead.

SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 (13:53):
They're not coming back.
And I immediately, my throatseized, my chest got real
painful, and I just startedfreaking out.
Just because the thought camein.
They're not coming back.
They've left you and they're notcoming back.
This thought came into my brain.
So I gathered myself and Iremember just kind of going on

(14:14):
with the day and trying to dealwith this, but I kept feeling
the shakiness, the scariness,this fear.
Well, five days later, mom anddad come back.
No problem.
That's good.
Great.
Within the next month, therewere five or six episodes that I
had where I would go to myparents and say, mom, I don't
know what's going on.
I don't know.
I don't feel good.
I feel like I'm dying.
And they're like, oh, no, theyput me in bed or they lay me

(14:36):
down or they'd sit with me.
But this kept happening.
And so the next part of thisstory, I feel so blessed that my
parents took me to aprofessional who was so good at
dealing with this, at least forme.
Because here's what we did.
They didn't know what to do.
So they took me to a doctor andI don't remember the name of
this guy, but I love him foreverbecause here's what he did.
Did a bunch of tests, did this,asked me this, did this.

(14:58):
And finally he kind of sitsdown.
He looks me in the eye.
He goes, oh, Sean, good news.
I know exactly what's happeningto you.
Which immediately gave me thislike confidence.
And he says, Sean, you're havinganxiety attacks.
And I was like, oh, I don't knowwhat that is.
He says, well, the good news isthis.
I'm going to give you the toolon how to deal with them and
it'll overcome them.
Here's what you do.

(15:19):
every time you start feelingthis anxiety attack, run to the
fridge, get out a big glass ofmilk or water, drink it, just
drink it big.
And then immediately go lay downon a couch or a bed and just
breathe in and out for 10minutes.
And Sean, when you stand up,it'll be gone.
And I was like nine.
So of course I'm like, great.
And I look at my parents andthey're like, like sweet

(15:42):
parents.
Do I do?
Okay, let's do this.
So I remember maybe a weeklater, I'm supposed to go to
Scouts and ride my bike, and Ihave this panic attack.
I go get a drink.
I lay down.
I breathe in and out.
I stand up, and guess what?
Gone.
Gone.
I go ride my bike in confidence.
About a week later, it happenedagain.
Went through the process.
Done.
Gone.

(16:02):
And guess what?
Never did I have an anxietyattack ever again until I was in
my mid-30s.
So fast forward, like, I'm in mymid-30s.
I had just started my ownbusiness.
That is not easy.
I had partners.
I had all kinds.
I had new babies that had justbeen born.
Like the pressures of the worldwere on me, and I'll never

(16:24):
forget.
And driving my car in San Diego,and I look up in the sky, and
all of a sudden I go, oh, myneck seizes, my throat seizes,
my chest starts to hurt, and Ijust start going, I think I have
a cancer.
I'm having a heart attack.
I'm about to die.
Like just panic, panic, panic.
And after a few minutes, I satthere and went, oh, I know what

(16:45):
this is.
I know exactly what this is.
Someone give me a fridge.
And I didn't have a fridge.
So I was like, I literally in mymind, like put my hand up
holding a pretend cup, drank itout, drove in the car I was
driving.
So I just breathed in and outfor 10 minutes.
And guess what happened?
Gone.
It was gone.

(17:06):
Okay.
So question, Lauren, about myexperience.
Is milk magic?

SPEAKER_00 (17:12):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (17:13):
What?
No?
Milk saved me.
Milk.
Milk didn't save you.
No, this is the moral of thestory.
Milk has a magic element.

SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
You picked milk over water?

SPEAKER_03 (17:24):
They told me milk.
I picked milk.
Okay, so you don't think themilk is magic?

SPEAKER_00 (17:28):
No, neither is the water.

SPEAKER_03 (17:30):
So why did that work for me, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 (17:33):
The mind is a powerful thing.

SPEAKER_03 (17:37):
So what was the whole milk and the breathing and
the bed thing and the layingdown thing?
What do you think that was?
If there's no magic in thatthing and that stuff, if that's
not what solved my anxiety, whatwas it for?

SPEAKER_00 (17:49):
Well, I mean, imagine this.
You're nine years old and you'reso focused on this one thing
that you feel like is consumingyour entire life.
And then...
For 10 minutes, you're justfocused on breathing.
For one or two minutes, you'refocused on drinking your water.

SPEAKER_03 (18:04):
You're so smart, Lauren.
These things were placebos,right?
Placebo effect.
And the doctor knew that if Ican shot, he knew and understood
a little bit about anxiety.
And he knew that my brain is sopowerful, it can invite in the
thought, your parents are dead,not coming back.
You better get scared.
But if my brain brought that in,guess what can take it out?

SPEAKER_00 (18:24):
Your brain.
My

SPEAKER_03 (18:25):
brain.
And so his method was use aplacebo to focus your brain on
other things and you can startto control your thoughts.
And then what follows is yourbody responds.
Man, I was so thankful becauseI've used that the rest of my
life.
Whenever I have depression oranxiety, temptations, whatever,
I immediately follow thatprocess and it works.

(18:45):
And I've taught that to my kids.
And when he gets back from hismission, I'll have him share
some stories because it'spowerful.
It really, really works.
Now, obviously, like in yourcase, for example, a placebo
might not work all the time,right?
Like I look at your case and Igo, I remember when both of my
kids were born, they both hadsomething physically was

(19:07):
happening.
Like one kid, his eye started todie.
Evan's eye started to die.
Like one day I look back in thecar, the rear view mirror, and
my little baby boy is sittingthere staring at something.
And one of his eyes just startedlike floating to the middle.
And I was like, what is goingon?
And so the doctor said, that eyeis shutting off.
It's turning off.
Something's weak in it.

(19:28):
So it's just, the brain says,I'm not going to use you
anymore.
I'm going to go to this othereye.
And so we put him throughtreatment and it fixed it.
Now, my other son, I showed youa video yesterday.
He had a thing called a proxia,which was a brain disorder that
doesn't allow you to articulatethe words.
So he understood the words thathe was trying to say, but it

(19:48):
only came out in syllables, likeda, da, ba, ba, da, da, da, da,
da.
And he would have talked likethat the rest of his life had he
not gone through some therapy tohelp it and improve it.
So I kind of developed this idealike, oh my goodness, man, these
little bodies are like atoaster, right?
A toaster is just made up of 300little parts that all work with
each other.
And sometimes one of those partsjust doesn't quite function the

(20:10):
way it's supposed to.
And then problems happen.
But there's a way to deal withthat.
And once I learned that, I waslike, it's okay.
It is okay.
Now let's just go deal with it,right?
Let's get someone who knows howto deal with it.
So when I learned your story, Iwas like, sometimes the brain
has an imbalance of chemicalsthat causes certain feelings or

(20:31):
thoughts, right?
And it's okay.
That's normal.
And there are ways to fix it.
And sometimes there are drugsand medicines and sometimes
there's therapy and all thesecoping mechanisms, right?
But the point is to bedeliberate and advocate for
yourself to tackle those things,right?

SPEAKER_00 (20:48):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (20:49):
Yeah.
Was your experience hard?

SPEAKER_00 (20:53):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (20:53):
Was it?

SPEAKER_00 (20:54):
100%.
But, you know, looking back onit now, there's a lot of
valuable lessons that I learned.
In the moment, you know,everyone has their Liberty Jail
moment where they're like, comeon, Heavenly Father, pull
through, man.
Before your mission?
Yeah, before my mission.
But then you look back on itand, you know, you're always

(21:15):
going to have a Liberty Jailtype of moment.
Yeah.
but there's always going to be away that you come out of it
stronger or you come out of itlearning something.
And that sounds a little cliche,but it is true.

SPEAKER_01 (21:26):
It is true.

SPEAKER_00 (21:26):
And I remember, cause I mean, you were, how old
was I when you met me?
15?
Yeah, you were 15.
15.
Now I'm 20.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (21:36):
I'm also 20.

SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
Keep telling yourself that.
I'm just kidding.
No, but anyways, I feel likewhen I first met you, it wasn't,
super prominent you know itwasn't something I was consuming
my life my mental health issuesbut when I you know went out
into the world when I went to myfreshman year of college is kind
of when I hit a wall and startedsinking but I recognized that I

(22:00):
had gone kind of untouched andso you know it's kind of
building up throughout my yearsin high school but it's kind of
like oh well I It's not that bigof a deal, blah, blah, blah, all
this stuff.
And then I got on my own like,oh crap.
And then there's external thingshappening that I couldn't
control either.
And it just did not help it atall.
And there's actually a reallycool story that I haven't shared

(22:23):
with many people, but I feellike I want to share it.
So right before I came homeafter my first semester of
college, I was going through aman, like if there's a rock
bottom, I was past that.
It was such a difficult time forme.
And I remember this is back kindof in my prideful era where I

(22:46):
was reluctant to get help.
I was reluctant to talk aboutwhat was going on.
And in my mind, I remember wehad this conversation in your
kitchen one night, but in mymind, I was protecting other
people because I didn't want toburden other people.
I didn't want to make myproblems their problems.
They had their own stuff to do.
And I was reluctant to tellingpeople that has changed now.

(23:08):
But I remember I just kept thisall bottled in.
I had family all around me inUtah and still I chose to
isolate myself.
And my roommate, who I love sodearly, was talking to me and
she was like, hey, Lo, justletting you know, like this
weekend I'm going up to SaltLake, like I won't be here.
I'll come back on Monday,whatever.

(23:30):
It's like a Friday.
She's like, I'm going to be outof town, whatever.
And I remember she left on aFriday night and I remember
sitting there.
I read through my patriarchalblessing, which is actually
something that I did.
And I was just kind of sittingthere, stuck in my thoughts,
still reluctant to get help.
And about 10 minutes after Ihear a key open the door and my

(23:55):
roommate walks in, I kind ofpause there and I kind of start
freaking out.
I'm like, what are you doing?
You can't be here.
Like, you're not supposed to behere.
At this point, I'm kind of justlike melting in a pool on the
floor.
But she comes in and sits downnext to me.
And she's like, I don't know.
I just felt like I needed to behere tonight.
She's like, we got a flat tireand they were trying to figure

(24:17):
it out.
And I just thought I should justgo back.
I feel like I need to be heretonight.
She actually ended up likesaving me that night.
And...
I will forever be grateful forpeople that are in tune with the
spirit to be able to receivethose promptings to be angels in
the lives of others.
That being said, that experiencewas hard for me, but it also

(24:39):
taught me a lot.
It was kind of like my spiritualrebirth as like what you shared
in the quote earlier.
It was a moment where Irecognized with 100% certainty
that God was aware of me.

SPEAKER_01 (24:52):
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
Cause I remember sitting on the floor and I'm
gonna be honest.
I did not really pray.
I, I didn't wake up, say mymorning prayer.
I didn't bless my food.
I didn't say prayer going tobed.
But I remember sitting on thefloor and pleading with Heavenly
Father.
I'm like, please, I need to knowthat you can see me right now.
I need to know that there'ssomething out there that I'm
meant for, that I'm made for.

(25:14):
Because I didn't understand.
I was too deep under a pile ofall this stuff.
I couldn't understand what myworth was.
I didn't really know andunderstand that I was a child of
God.
And there was nothing I felt.
regarding the gospel, regardinganything that could pull me out
from under that pile.
And I just kind of, you know,you sing as a child, like in

(25:39):
primary, like a child's prayer.
It's heavenly father, are youreally there?
And do you hear and answer everychild's prayer?
And those lyrics were goingthrough my head.
And so I just decided to pray.
And then not even 10 minuteslater, my roommate walks through
the door and I'm like, okay,He's aware of me.
And it's kind of when I hit thatI went home for the semester and
I was talking to my mom and Iwas like, OK, I'm tired of this.

(26:00):
Like, I can't feel like thisanymore.
I'm not going to go anywhere.
I'm not going to progress.
I'm literally just going to staywhere I am and I can't keep
living like this.
So then I decided, okay, it'stime to get help.
And so I really tried all of myoptions.
I stepped out.
I started going to therapy.
I started getting on meds.
Those meds didn't work.
I got new ones.

(26:21):
I got new ones.
I got new ones.
I tweaked the dosage.
I tweaked that dosage.
I took this one off, put thisone on.
And finally, after like sixmonths, I got the right
combination for me.
That started working for me.
And I had to reach a point.
I remember on the mission, he'dbe like, okay, you got to look
for the humble because they'reready.

(26:41):
I remember being like, okay, I'mreally at the humblest that I'll
ever be right now.
So I'm going to go find help.
And the gospel has a huge rolein it.
There's a talk actually by AlanT.
Phillips that was given in theOctober conference, I think of
2023.
Holy, this man is incredible.
But he just talks so...

(27:02):
strongly about or so powerfullyabout our identity as children
of God and that when you reallyunderstand it your life changes
and I think when I started totruly understand oh my goodness
like He compares, he tells astory about his son and how they
left him at a gas station onaccident and they come back to

(27:25):
find him and he's like perfectlygood.
But he was talking about, he'slike, I love my son so much.
I love him so much.
And I'm an imperfect father.
And he said, I can't even beginto imagine how much a perfect
loving father in heaven loves usas his children.
Yeah.
And I just love that becauseonce you feel that love, it's

(27:45):
kind of like a little boost up.
So you're like, okay, I have aperfect father that's cheering
me on.
I have a perfect father with aplan for me.
Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 (27:55):
And that journey, that understanding, that
spiritual understanding for youstarted that night when you were
on your knees begging and theanswer was, yeah, I've just sent
this angel to come in and showyou as a direct answer to your
prayer.
I am aware of you and I loveyou.
I'm here.

UNKNOWN (28:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
I'm

SPEAKER_03 (28:11):
here through her at this moment, but I'm here.
Wow.
And then how much, okay, so thenlet's, let's, okay, so let's
transition from the, I guess,pragmatic kind of, we live in
this world, we have to followcertain, you know, let's get
professional help.
Now let's move to the spiritualside of things and really,

(28:32):
really dial down because this iswhere it's exciting.
And you've mentioned it a fewtimes, especially the idea
about, now this is the drumroll.
Listeners, Preparing for amission.
This to me is the most importantand powerful principle for how
we can cope with anything hard.
And it has everything to do,Lauren, with what you're talking
about, how God taught you your,first and foremost, taught you

(28:56):
your identity.
And when you started tounderstand your identity, And I
watched you through high school.
I watched all you kids throughhigh school.
Your identities all went fromI'm a basketball player to I'm
the coolest person in school tolook how I look to I'm cool
within my social group to like,you know what I mean?
Like normal, like all of us gothrough that.

(29:16):
But our identities through ourteenage years are, they're going
all over the place.
And not until you can get to theone true identity can we
actually get on top of ourself-worth and and our mental
health.
And I mean, it's such a powerfulprinciple.
So can I read this?
So watch this.

SPEAKER_00 (29:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (29:36):
One of my favorite stories.
I'm going to read it really fastbecause it's a lot.
This is in Moses 1, 1 through22.
I'm going to go super fast.
And usually in my class, here'swhat I say.
When the Lord gives us thesescriptures and when he starts
repeating something, payattention.
That's the doctrine he wants usto know.
And so I tell my class, I'm justgoing to read through it really

(29:57):
fast.
You tell me what is the thing herepeats more often than anything
in this story.

SPEAKER_01 (30:01):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (30:01):
Okay.
This is Moses, the prophet Mosesup on the mountaintop seeing God
face to face.
And it says this, the words ofGod, which he spake unto Moses
at a time when Moses was caughtup into an exceedingly high
mountain and he saw God face toface and he talked with him and
the glory of God was upon Moses.
Therefore, Moses could endurehis presence and God spake unto
Moses saying, behold, I am theLord God almighty and endless is
my name for I am withoutbeginning of days or years and

(30:23):
this is not endless.
And behold, thou art my son.
Wherefore, I And behold, now...

(30:54):
This one thing I show unto thee,Moses, my son, for thou art in
the world, and now I show itunto thee.
And then it goes on and talksabout how God showed Moses from
the beginning to the end, and hesaw every human being that has
ever come to this earth, and hegoes and goes and goes, and then
God leaves him, and he kind offalls to the earth and goes into
this state of stupor.

(31:15):
Now, Lauren, did you pick up onanything that was repeated over
and over and over again?

SPEAKER_00 (31:20):
My son.

SPEAKER_03 (31:21):
How...
Of all the crazy miraculousthings in a story that we
proclaim is true, where we'resaying that God, this person saw
God face to face, spoke withGod.
The fact that God's main lessonhe wants to teach this person
and all of us is his identity.

(31:42):
And the most powerful identityis he's a son or a daughter of
God.
He was just pushing into thesoul of Moses who he is.
It's not that he's a basketballplayer, although he was, I've
heard, a pretty good hooper.
Outside shooter.

SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
Comparable to LeBron James.

SPEAKER_03 (32:03):
Yeah, pretty much.
Moses was the LeBron James ofhis day, for sure.
But whatever other, right?
Moses had identities that werepretty fascinating, his whole
story.
His first conscious identitywas, I'm a son of Pharaoh.
Like, I'm royalty.
Then he learns later that he's aHebrew.
oh man, I'm not this, right?

(32:24):
His whole journey and life hadto do with identity.
And then it comes to this peakwhere God teaches him his true,
and from this moment is whereMoses really goes and becomes
who he is and does what he does.
God was teaching him identity.
So further, Moses wakes up andhe gets visited by someone.

(32:44):
Who does he get visited by?
You remember?
You don't remember?
In the story?
Look at Lauren's

SPEAKER_00 (32:50):
face.
Oh, see?
Right?
Satan.
Satan?
Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
So I'll read it

SPEAKER_03 (32:55):
real quick.

SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
Later, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (32:56):
Came to pass, and Moses, let's see, no, no, no.
Presence of God withdrew fromMoses, and the glory is not upon
Moses, and he was left untohimself, and he was left unto
himself, he fell to the earth.
Now mine own eyes, he says this,he says, mine own eyes have
beheld God, but not my natural,but my spiritual eyes.
For my natural eyes, okay, itsays, okay, okay, okay.
Came to pass, and when Moses hadsaid these words, behold, Satan

(33:17):
came tempting him, saying,Moses, son of man, worship me.

SPEAKER_00 (33:22):
Wrong.

SPEAKER_03 (33:22):
What was the first thing that Satan decided to
attack?

SPEAKER_00 (33:26):
His identity.
His

SPEAKER_03 (33:27):
identity.
Because he knows if he can...
All you listeners, Satan knowsthat if he can get you to
believe that you are of anylesser value than a son or
daughter of God, than a discipleof Christ, he can start working
with that to get you down, down,down, down, down.
So...
Satan tries us with Moses first.
Satan, son of man, not son ofGod, son of man, worship me.

(33:49):
And can it pass that Moseslooked upon Satan and said, who
art thou?
For behold, I am the son of Godin the similitude of his only
begotten.
And where is thy glory that Ishould worship thee?
Behold, I could not look uponGod except his glory should come
upon me.
And I were transfigured beforehim, but I can look upon thee in
the natural man.
Is it not so?
And he praises God in Christ.

(34:10):
And then he says to Satan,deceive me not, get out of here.
And then he says, in the name ofChrist, leave, and Satan leaves.
How powerful is this story forall of you preparing
missionaries who are one daygoing to face a companion who is
trash, really hard companion, oryou're going to be in some

(34:35):
dangerous or scary situations,right?
My scariest one of them was Iwas in a car kidnapped by a
bunch of mafia, Russian mafia,scared to death.
You're going to be in hardsituations, scary situations.
Sometimes you'll be in asituation where you think you're
going crazy.
Like there's just issues thatyou have.

(34:56):
And God gave us in thisscripture the most powerful
principle on how we can deal andcope with those.
But it must start with anunderstanding of your identity.
It must.
Our favorite talk from this pastgeneral conference was Sister
Runia.

SPEAKER_00 (35:13):
So good.

SPEAKER_03 (35:13):
And do you remember when she put her hand up in the
air?

SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
The worthiness comparison.
The worthiness parable.

SPEAKER_03 (35:20):
Yeah.
She goes off on this idea thatoftentimes in the church, we
feel that our identity is basedand locked to obedience and
worthiness, right?
Like I'm only worthy if I'mobedient.
I'm only worthy and good if I'mnot sinning or if I don't give
in to temptation, right?
And she just crushed that andsays, that's not at all what

(35:43):
scripture and God teach us aboutyour identity.
She says this, your worth is nottied to your obedience.
Your worth is constant.
It never changes.
It was given to you by God andthere's nothing you or anyone
else can do to change it.
Obedience brings blessings.
That's true.
But your worth isn't one ofthem.
Your worth is always great inthe sight of God, no matter
where your decisions have takenyou.

(36:07):
It's so powerful.
It's so, so, so powerful.

SPEAKER_00 (36:12):
Yeah, I love that.
And I feel like it's thescriptures, but modern day
prophets and apostles too, thatjust preach over and over again,
you are not your decisions.
You are a child of God.
And I think what really changedmy perspective on my identity,
what made me start to believeit, is understanding the
atonement of Jesus Christ.

(36:33):
Thank

SPEAKER_03 (36:34):
you, Lauren, for going there.
This is so powerful.

SPEAKER_00 (36:37):
There is a...
scripture in 1st Nephi 21 thatmy trainer showed me and the
second I heard it I'm like wowthat is good it's verse 16 it
says behold I have graven theeupon the palms of my hands and
so you read that and you thinkabout oh my goodness there is a

(36:58):
perfect man a perfect savior andwhen he was being tortured when
he was being mocked when he wasbeing spit on when he was
getting crucified he he wasthinking of me.
And not only was he thinking ofme, he was thinking of who I can
become through him.
And that's the most powerfulthing that I recognize as a

(37:18):
missionary, is that you helppeople learn who they can
become.
But it all starts with thefoundation of knowing who they
are.
Because once you understand whoyou are, you can kind of build a
trajectory of where you'regoing.
And without the knowledge ofyour divine identity as a child
of God, you're not goinganywhere.
But as a missionary, you haveliterally been set apart with

(37:39):
the power to preach the gospel.
And the very first, the veryfirst principle that you teach
in chronological order, inlesson one, first principle is
that God is our loving heavenlyfather.
That's the very first thing youteach.
And, you know, the brethren werevery intentional with that,
setting it up like that, Ithink.

(38:01):
Because once you, you know,think about Jesus Christ.
Everything he did, he was movedwith compassion to do so, right?
A person is always moreimportant than a number.
Everything that Jesus Christdid, he made sure that the
people he was serving could feelhis love.
And then he told everyone, okay,two great commandments, love

(38:23):
God, love thy neighbor.
Everything that Jesus Christinvites us to do is out of love
for either ourselves, our fatherin heaven, or for our brothers
and sisters.
And so I think that it'simportant to remember that the
gospel is built upon love.
The plan that Heavenly Fathermade for us was made out of
love.

(38:43):
And so when we think ofourselves, we have to think of
ourselves with that same love.
When we serve other people, whenwe're teaching our friends, when
we're helping people prepare forbaptism, when we're helping them
learn how to repent, how tostudy the scriptures, do it in a
loving way.

SPEAKER_03 (38:59):
But I think that you nailed, in order to do that,
right?
Because I agree with you.
When you listeners, when you goout there and learn how to love
other people and serve them,you're actually living what
Christ taught.
You are finding joy.
You're forgetting yourself andfinding joy.
But the step before that, inorder to get to that point where
you just love others, Lauren,you nailed it.
It is coming unto Christ throughfaith, repentance, baptism, the

(39:21):
gift of the Holy Ghost, andbeing converted to him.
having your heart changed,having that mighty change of
heart.
And so the only really way to dothat is, and that's how you grow
this identity of being a son ordaughter of God, as being a
forgiven, loved partner andcompanion in the covenant with
Christ, is to start by feastingon the words of Christ.

(39:41):
Read your scripture, study,study, study, because every word
is going to teach you aboutJesus Christ and teach you about
who your identity as a daughteror son of God.
And then you start praying andyou spend time with the Father
and in the name of Christ, andyou will be filled with the Holy
Ghost, which teaches you who youare.
It builds you that identity.
And you will stand up withconfidence, reading and praying

(40:03):
and going, I am a son ordaughter of God.

SPEAKER_00 (40:05):
Yes, yes.
And honestly, the reality isthat Christ already completed
his atonement.
Heavenly Father already madethis plan.
You were already born.
You already, for most of uslistening, have entered into a
covenant with Jesus Christ.
So what are you going to doabout it?
The gospel is really predicatedupon our agency.

(40:27):
Our success in the gospel, oursuccess in life, our success in
understanding this divineidentity is predicated upon our
own agency and action.
I mean, you teach as amissionary, faith is a principle
of action and power.
So you have to act to understandthis identity.
The most effective way, like yousaid, praying, renewing your
covenants, going to church,reading the scriptures, doing

(40:50):
all these things to truly helpyou understand what you mean to
Heavenly Father.
When somebody understands whatthey mean to a loving Father in
heaven, their life changes.

SPEAKER_03 (40:59):
And like the Apostle Christophers has said, when you
understand that, you're able tomore fully and better deal with
things like anxiety ordepression.
You can deal with it.
I love your theme of thescripture that says, you are
engraven on the palms of myhand.
Let me show you another one.
So I was in the city ofMikheyevka, and we had a small
branch there.

(41:19):
And I'll never forget, BratZagreyev.
was his name, Brat Zagreyev.
And Brother Zagreyev was thebranch president.
And this guy was so new in thegospel, and he was such a kind
of a timid, just kind man.
Man, these strong Ukrainskipeople, they just kind of ran
over him.
And I don't know that they werethat kind to him, but it got to

(41:40):
a point where he called us overone day.
He's like, guys, I don't think Ican do this.
I'm done, man.
They're just mean to me.
Or they bully me.
I'm not doing this.
Well, what had just happened iswe got to deliver to him that
day Doctrine and Covenants thathad just been translated into
Russian.
They didn't have it yet.
All they had was the Bible andthe Book of Mormon.
We got to introduce to theseguys the DNC.
So he was just saying, guys, Ireally am broken down.

(42:03):
Like, this is hard.
I'm not dealing very wellmentally with this.
Like, I can't do this anymore.
Like, I'm quitting.
Like, I'm out of this.
And we felt so bad for him, butthen this happened.
I felt inspired to read, say,look, here is the Doctrine and
Covenants.
More revelation.
Like, you've not seen this ever.
Right?
We opened up, and I says, pleaseread D&C 633-37, and this is

(42:23):
what it said.
And he read this and just lookedup and went, wow, okay, I'm not
going.
I'm in.
Here, listen to this.
God's Christ says to JosephSmith as he's in prison, fear
not to do good, my sons.
Again, my sons.
Look at this.
Look at this.

(42:44):
Whenever things are hard, hefocuses on, listen, remember who
you are.
So fear not to do good, my sons,for whatsoever ye sow, that
shall ye also reap.
Therefore, if ye sow good, yeshall also reap good for your
reward.
Then this.
Therefore, fear not, littleflock.
Do good.
Let earth and hell combineagainst you.
Let it.
Let it be hard.
Let it be dark.

(43:05):
Let it be a struggle.
For if ye are built upon myrock, they can't prevail.
Behold, I do not condemn you.
Go your ways and sin no more.
Perform with soberness the workwhich I have commanded you.
Now listen to this, Lauren.
This is so powerful.
Look unto me in every thought.
Doubt not, fear not.
Behold the wounds which piercedmy side and also the prints of

(43:26):
the nails in my hands and feet.
And that is what you said.
We, I, Sean, am etched on hishands through the suffering that
he, through love, was willing toendure.
It was for me.
It was for you.
And he loves me so much thatthat is my identity.
It is so powerful.

(43:48):
Man, it is powerful.
Okay, so the principle here, youguys, in listening is you're
going to deal with hard things.
And it'll range from mentalhealth to a bad companion or
someone you just don't get alongwith to people spitting on you
or the Russian mafia kidnappingyou or whatever.
I

SPEAKER_00 (44:04):
hear when that happens.

SPEAKER_03 (44:05):
Yeah.
But you, if you know who youare, if you do the work to build
your identity that is your trueidentity, you can cope with it.
You can deal with it.
Okay.
I want to read a scripture last.
Do you have anything else youwant to add?

SPEAKER_00 (44:21):
A little plug really quick.
There's a BYU speech from ElderHolland from 2008.
I was like four when he saidthis.
But it's called Lessons fromLiberty Jew.
Oh.
And it talks about how every oneof us, in one way or another, is
going to spend a little time ina liberty jail, spiritually

(44:44):
speaking.
And this Elder Holland, I think,is phenomenal at relating our
worth and struggles mentallywith the gospel and how to find
a solution.
But for those of you that wantto have a little more ammo up

(45:05):
your sleeve for when you hitproblems like this that you'll
have in life, this speech isreally, really good talking
about how you can turn a Libertyjail into a temple.

SPEAKER_03 (45:15):
Nice.
And that's more of the word ofGod, right?
That's an apostle.
So again, feast on the word ofChrist on the words through his
prof of his prophets.
That'll help build your identityas a son of God, a daughter of
God, a disciple of Christ.
And that is going to give youthe more of a coping ability to
deal with hard things and mentalhealth struggles.

SPEAKER_00 (45:34):
Honestly, when I chalk, sorry, my last thought,
when I chalk it up to one thing,like my progression in, you
know, my mental health or as adisciple, I chalk it up to
knowledge.
You know, it's a Christ-likeattribute that I did not have.
I went out on the mission and I,looking back, I'm like, how did

(45:55):
I do that?
I knew nothing, like literallynothing, literally nothing.
But that being said, I didn'tknow all this thing, all these
things.
I didn't know why I was a childof God.
I didn't know how the atonementapplied to me.
I didn't know why I had the bookof Mormon.
I didn't know why I should readit after having read it a couple

(46:17):
of times, after having listenedto words of living prophets and
apostles, after having studiedthe atonement.
I mean, it's not like a one anddone type thing.
It's a lifelong process toobtain knowledge and to build
your testimony.
But yeah, it's like learning alanguage.
Like the spirit's not just goingto put words in your mouth.
You got to study and give itsomething to work with.
When we build our faith, we gotto give the spirit something to

(46:40):
work with or else we're going tokeep hitting the wall head
first.

SPEAKER_02 (46:43):
Nice.

SPEAKER_00 (46:43):
You got to be nourishing yourself.
I mean, just like Alma 32, yougot to like nourish that seed.
Heavenly father will take careof the rest.
The spirit will take care of therest and confirm it to you, but
you got to give it something towork with.
And so I, Future missionariespreparing to go out.
Start now.
I'm not saying you have tofinish the Book of Mormon.
I'm not saying rush through it.

(47:04):
But genuinely seek to havemeaningful studies.
Does it mean that you...
Maybe you don't have time for anhour every day.
Maybe you only have 15 minutes.
The Lord loves effort.

SPEAKER_03 (47:14):
No, go an hour.
Go an hour.
Just kidding.
Do everything you can.
Do what you can.

SPEAKER_00 (47:19):
But...

SPEAKER_03 (47:20):
Go an

SPEAKER_00 (47:20):
hour.
Truly dedicate time.

SPEAKER_03 (47:22):
Go an hour.
Remember a few episodes ago,Carter, Carter Burrup, the elder
who's out serving and killing itright now, he read eight hours
straight

SPEAKER_02 (47:29):
for days in a row.

SPEAKER_03 (47:31):
Like, do it.
Feast, feast, feast, feast.
Don't just nibble.
Feast.
Now, if I get your point, dowhat you can.
But seek...

SPEAKER_00 (47:37):
Literally pray.
I told this to so many of myfriends that I was teaching.
They're like, I don't understandwhat's going on.
My girl, I didn't either.
You got to say a prayer.
Ask Heavenly Father to help youunderstand what you're about to
read.
And he will give you revelation.
It also helps a lot to seek witha question in mind.
Like, for example, my missionpresident gave me the
invitation.

(47:58):
Well, he gave everyone in themission an invitation.
Search for the doctrine ofChrist and highlight it.
Highlight in one color of faith,one in repentance, one baptism.
And so when I'm looking forthese things, I'm looking for
things in the scriptures.
I'm not just reading.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not just blank minds, you know,just go through the motions.

SPEAKER_03 (48:14):
To end this episode, which has been powerful.
Let's give our listeners onevery specific and pragmatic
thing to do.
So again, you'll build youridentity the more you feast.
I want you all to go out andread 3 Nephi 11.
3 Nephi 11 is the pinnacle ofthe Book of Mormon, the most
important chapter.
We're both holding our hands atlike a rooftop.

SPEAKER_00 (48:32):
It's like the Sermon on the Mount of

SPEAKER_03 (48:34):
the Book of Mormon.
It's like the most importantthing.
It is what it all builds up to.
And that's when Christ isresurrected and appears to the
people on the Americancontinent.
and reveals himself and comesdown from heaven and they've
heard his voice and theyrecognize him.
And it gets to a point wherehe's teaching them and this big
mass of people are on theirknees, humbly going, oh my

(48:54):
goodness, God is here.
Jesus Christ is here.
Then this happens.
This is 13.
Came to pass that the Lord spakeunto them saying, arise and come
forth unto me that ye may thrustyour hands in my side and also
that you may feel the prints ofthe nails in my hands and in my
feet.
that you may know that I am theGod of Israel and the God of the

(49:15):
whole earth and have been slainfor the sins of the world.
And it came to pass that themultiple did go forth and thrust
their hands into his side anddid fill the prints of the nails
in his hands and feet.
You got to say something.
Go.
No,

SPEAKER_00 (49:26):
keep going.
Keep going.

SPEAKER_03 (49:27):
Did fill the prints of the nails in his hands and in
his feet.
And this they did do going forthone by one.
That's what you wanted toemphasize.
Until they had all gone forthand did see with their eyes and
did feel with their hands anddid know of a surety and did
bear record that it was he ofwhom should be written by the
prophets that should come.

SPEAKER_00 (49:47):
One by one.

SPEAKER_03 (49:48):
And that must have taken hours or days.

SPEAKER_00 (49:52):
Wasn't there like 3,000 people?
I

SPEAKER_03 (49:55):
don't know how many, but it must have taken so long.
But listen, Lauren, often I'veasked myself this.
What would it be like if thatwas a three-day process and you
were in line?
What would go through your mindas you are waiting and you can
see so far above, you're like, Ican't see his face, but I see
that there's someone up on thatpodium or on that stand or
wherever he was.
And in X amount of time, it'llbe my turn to be kneeling at his

(50:21):
feet and to see the holes in hisfeet and hands that I caused and
with gratitude and love, Say,I'm thankful.
Thank you.
Like, I've often thought, whatwould go through my mind for
those hours or days that I'm inline until I got to that point?
And I'm telling you, the onething at this point in my life
that I would be thinking of, I'mso grateful for him.

(50:42):
I love him so much.
Despite my sins, my weaknesses,everything that I am, I am so
unworthy to be in God'spresence.
But not because, but because ofhim, I am worthy.
And my identity is I am a son ofGod, proudly.
He loves me despite the thingsthat I do.
And I am saved and exaltedbecause I'm in a covenant with

(51:04):
Jesus Christ.
I am his disciple.
Now that identity can overcomeeverything.
Everything.

SPEAKER_00 (51:11):
I honestly think I would feel so, like you said, so
much gratitude, but I'd bethinking to myself like, how
lucky am I to be this man'sdisciple?
Like after, especially like foryourself, I love that scripture
with everyone, everyone.
I mean, there's no question whypresident Nelson invites people

(51:33):
to read that chapter when hehands them a book of Mormon.
He said it himself.

SPEAKER_03 (51:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
To everyone he hands it to.
He mentioned that in aconference talk.
And I just think that onescripture, one by one, Christ
wants a personal relationshipwith each of us.
He died for it.
He died for the opportunity tohave a personal relationship
with every single one of us.
And then you think about allthat he did, and then you think,
oh my gosh, I can...
share his love.

(51:58):
I can share his message.
I get to be a disciple of JesusChrist.
It's not an I have to type ofsituation.
I have to read my scriptures.
I have to do this.
I have to go on a mission.
I get to serve a mission.

SPEAKER_03 (52:10):
That's right.

SPEAKER_00 (52:10):
There's people that don't ever have that
opportunity.

SPEAKER_03 (52:13):
That's right.
In the whole history of theworld, we are so blessed at this
opportunity to go be that and dothat.
You missionaries listening orpre-missionaries, once in a
lifetime opportunity Do it withyour whole heart, all your
heart, mind, and strength.
Come unto Christ.
Be converted in him.
And you will find that identityand you'll be able to deal with

(52:34):
anything hard.
Anything.
Wow.
Amazing.
Last words, Lauren?

SPEAKER_00 (52:40):
Christ will heal you.

SPEAKER_03 (52:41):
Beautiful, beautiful.
So come on to him.
Great.
What a great, powerful episode.
Thanks for sharing some personalthings.
Thanks for bringing in thespirit.
I have felt it today.
What a great, great, greatepisode.
See you next week.

UNKNOWN (52:56):
Bye.