Missionary Podcast3

Three young men from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are interviewed on a podcast about their mission work. They discuss why they decided to go on a mission and their goals as missionaries. They talk about the importance of serving others and spreading the message of Jesus Christ. They also address common misconceptions about missionaries and emphasize that they are individuals with their own unique experiences and personalities. I'm nervous. Don't be nervous. Don't be nervous. I real quickly. I just saw you put you play the guitar. Oh, okay. That's good. Um, I can't hear you really. Yeah. How is there? We go. There we go. Timestamp of the missionary podcast. Following recording was produced by BNB Productions, BNB Productions, Tacoma, Washington, quality audio and film reaches at BNB Productions INT at gmail.com. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. As always, I'm your producer. You can call me and with me, I have three fine young gentlemen, three elders from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Welcome fellas. So good to see you guys. Great to have you here. So for the folks listening, go ahead and go around and introduce yourselves. Yeah. Okay. My name is Elder Tui or Elder Tui Tabuki. Come from Utah, American fork and sorry on the two year mission to serving. How about you, sir? How about you? I'm Elder Hanson from Farmington, Utah. Doing the same thing. Serving two years out here. Nice. Grown closer to Jesus Christ. There you go. Grown closer to God. And you? Fine, sir. I'm Elder Claussen. I'm from Montana, Bozeman, Montana. Do you want to get closer? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. And I'm just I'm out here serving a mission to, you know, trying to help people find Jesus Christ. Gotta love that. Shout out to Jesus. Speaking of which, this podcast is brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Find them at www.thechurchofjesuschrist.org. So anyway, gentlemen, let's go ahead and get this thing started. Right. So now, obviously, you guys come from church homes, right? Like, you know, your family, you know, they worship as you do. So why leave the safety and comfort of home to come out here and, you know, get out in the streets? Why mission? That's a great question. You know, it's you think about like the Bible, right? If Jesus Christ and his apostles just stayed put in one place, you know, in the safety of, you know, where they're at. I don't think a lot of things would happen, right? I don't think a lot of the Bible would be created. And so very much like our stories, I think if because we love God, because we have a testimony in Jesus Christ, we want to follow his example and go out out of our comfort zone to one have a testimony in Jesus Christ and God and to, you know, help all these come into Christ. That's beautiful. That's great answer. Are you going to follow that up, bro? Yeah. Well, so there's a lot of people say we sacrifice two years of our life so people can live with their families together forever, because a lot of people out here, they don't have hope. They don't they don't have a faith in Jesus Christ. And all we're doing is we're sacrificing just two years of our life. And it it does seem like a long time, but compared to our lifetime, it is really short. And we're helping people to find that hope and that joy so they can live with their families together forever. That was beautiful, beautiful. That was absolutely yeah. So what's recorded that? Oh, yeah. And how about you, sir? Do you want to answer that one as well? Yeah. So I think going out on a mission isn't like it's different for every person, right? There's no like one one solid reason that everyone goes out on a mission. For me, it was because, first of all, like my father, he served a mission and he always talked super highly of just the mission experience going out and helping people and serving people. It changes you for the better, right? Because every day you wake up and you're just thinking of how you can help other people, you're thinking of how you can bring them closer to Jesus Christ. And it just makes you a better person. And my dad is like one of the most generous, generous, selfless people I've ever met. And I just I wanted that I wanted to go out here and learn to be like him. So that was my one of my big motivating factors to going on a mission. For sure. That's beautiful. And so we have some of those character was forged out there. And yeah, I feel so great. All right. Real quickly, I just wanted to say that Elder Klassen, I was there when he came in on the mission. We picked him up and we as we were driving, we asked him, why did you come out on a mission? Right. You know, everyone has a different story as he was talking about. And what he said, he said, I came on a mission because the prophet said to, you know, you feel like that's that's an obedience right there. Right. Jesus Christ, he asked us to do things and going on a mission. We believe that's one of them. Preaching the gospel is for surely one of them. And just for that obedience, that willingness to be that humble is just so it's it's admirable. Absolutely. Yeah, it's moving. I got goosebumps over you guys can see it at home, but I got goosebumps. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The spirit is definitely moving in this podcast. So speaking of moving. So you guys, you know, leave home, you come out on this mission. Right. And I'm assuming that, you know, your family wishes you well, that they want to see you succeed. And especially your dad, you know. So so being out, you know, on the mission, what are your goals as a missionary? We'll start with you and kind of go the other way around. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, kind of like I talked about, you know, one of my big goals for going out here was just to improve myself. Right. Was just to come closer to Jesus Christ, to gain that firm testimony, become a better person. But and honestly, I think that's really it. Right. Because we're out here. We don't know how many people we're going to be able to influence, how many people we're going to be able to bring closer to Jesus Christ to help find the truth. Right. Because that's up to God. Right. That's up to what he wants, what he has in store for us. It's all about his plan. So we just go out, we do our best. Right. And we don't expect any any results. Right. We just we just do what we know is right. And the rest takes care of itself. Right. Like some missionaries, they go out there and they say, oh, we're going to we're going to bring this many people to our church. We're going to get this many baptisms. Right. And if I don't get this, I'm not a successful missionary. But that's not the case. Right. It doesn't matter about how many people you bring to Christ. It's about what you're doing, if you're doing your part. And that's it. You know, that's that's all God expects. It's beautiful. They're spreading the seed. Some fall on fertile ground, some rocky, you know, thorns finding those seeds. Yeah, absolutely. Now, what about you? Do you have any now? Are you more? I guess somebody baptized and get some folks in the door? No, no. Well, obviously, those are awesome things to do. Absolutely. You come out here and when you see those things happen, it does bring you joy. But for me, the reason I came out here is, first off, I love serving people and people might just say, I love serving people, but I truly do feel joy in serving people. You know, in Mosiah 217, it says, when you're in the service of your fellow beings, you're only in the service of your God. And I truly do feel joy when I serve those people. And another reason I came out here is I want to be a good dad, right? I want to be a good father. I want to be a good husband. And a lot of people that have gone on missions, they grow so much, right? 18 years old, moving away from home, don't know anyone, you literally just drop everything and go and you devote your time to Jesus Christ. And I think that will help me throughout the rest of my life to be a good father, to be a good dad, and just to be a good person overall. And I can just go help people for two years, not think about myself, think about others. That's a great answer. Fantastic answer. You guys are sharp, man. You can't see him at home, but these are some sharp looking guys and they talk it just like they walk it. But you bring up a good point and I'll find your goals as well, but you bring up a good point, that commitment, right? To be a father, to be a husband, to be a good person, it takes a commitment, it takes a resolve, right? That fortitude and going out on a mission can definitely teach you that. I can see that's awesome, man. Kudos to you. One more time. Elder Tui, what do you got? What are your goals as a missionary? You got any missionary goals? Yeah. Jesus for two. You know, a lot of it is just trying to be the best person I can be, trying to be the best father I can be, and developing attributes that can help me not only in this life, but in the next life. Absolutely. Because ultimately we're down here to prepare for the next life, prepare to meet God. That's a good point, right? And so just, you know, being the best that I can be. Yeah. And networking is one of the best things out here. I'm not going to lie. Really? Yeah. You walk around and you talk to a bunch of different people. You know, if we didn't even go out today or that one day that we met you, we wouldn't even be here. Yeah. So meeting new people is another goal of mine. Look at God. So, you know, I'll be honest with you guys. I've had, you know, some of you folks come out my door in the past, you know, and some other folks, you know, and I'm always nice, right? Not as nice as I've been to you guys, you know, like the spirit was on you, but, you know, I'm nice and cordial, right? But, you know, for the most part, when people, you know, see coming to their door, you know, oh, it's just them, you know, and they don't really know who you guys are, you know? So if we could, you know, talk to me about maybe, you know, just some of your personal stuff, like things you would want these people to know before they slam the door in your face. I'll start with you. Yeah. I think the biggest thing that we want people to know is that we are not robots, right? We're not walking around like everyone's wearing the shirt and tie and the black tie. We're not all the same person. We all have backstories. We all have personal lives, things that we do like, and who knows, it could be similar with the thing that you like. But we're not robots. We're human. We're imperfect human on a perfect will, which is God's will. Hey, that's nice. You hear that, folks? Do you hear that? You're not robots. You've been waiting to use that one. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So something that I would like people to realize about us missionaries is we don't come, a lot of people think we come and knock on your door. They're like, don't try to convince me. Don't try to put your religion on me. But all we're doing is we're inviting people to come unto Christ. That's all we're doing. And if you don't want to accept it, that's okay. And we just go around and we invite people to come to Christ. And a lot of people, they're like, oh, do you have to hit a certain number? Do you guys get paid? You do this. And no, we're just doing this out of the love of Jesus Christ. We actually pay to come out here. We do this on our own will, and no one's forcing us to do it. And I think having that faith, we believe these things to be true, and we love it so much that we want to spread that joy. And we're not trying to convince anyone. We're just inviting people. Yeah, the door's open. Yeah. I like it. I mean, I would just second what they said. We're not robots. We go up to the doors, and we've got this kind of missionary face on sometimes. We open the door, we're like, hey, we're the missionaries. We're big, smiling, happy kind of thing. And I think it comes off the wrong way, like we're a salesman or something, when that's not the point. Like he said, we're just here trying to help people. We're not doing this for our own benefit. We don't have any ulterior motives. We're honestly just trying to do our best to spread the word of God, because we believe that it will help them. We're doing this for them. Right. Elder Tui over here, this man is the most natural person I've ever met on the doorstep. He comes up, he's just immediately your best friend. He is so good at that. And I wish I could be like that, because I don't have that. I go over to the doors, and I immediately freeze. I tense up. I'm like, oh, no. But yeah, I just wish that they know that we're just regular people, and we're just here to help them. They're not robots. Yeah. And to kind of add on that, like missionaries that serve around us and people that we meet, they're some of the greatest people that I've ever met, some of the smartest. Like Elder Clawson right here, this guy, you know, like the AP Calculus test? Yeah. He didn't even take a class. I'm sure he looks like he smashes heads. There's some genius people out here. And I was going to say to you guys, you all have like resting mission face. Like you all got it. Waiting to bust that one out. So talk to us, Elder Clawson. Talk to us about, I know you said that you also work on the tech side. Yeah. Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about that being a tech mission. Sure. I mean, it's nothing glamorous, you know. We're just a bunch of kids, right? And we're told like, hey, go out and make content for our Facebook page. And it's just like a, you know, small Facebook page for the mission over here. It's nothing huge, but we were given a budget. We've got a couple of cameras, a couple of computers, a couple of lights, mics, and we just travel all over the mission. And we do all different kinds of stuff, right? We make Christmas videos. We make like interview videos of like other members. We help with the missionary work, too. Like, you know, there's some missionaries who go door to door, right? And you open the door and the person speaks Spanish, right? You can't communicate with them. So we make these videos of other missionaries speaking Spanish, essentially doing a door approach, right? Saying, hey, we're the missionaries. And so they can show them this and be like, hey, you know, this, you know, just be able to talk to them that way. Jesucristo. Shout out to Jesus. So now, you guys, do you have any specialties in the mission or just kind of? Ooh. No, we just knock doors. You're the soldiers, the infantry, right? Yeah, we're in the dirt. We're in the mud. That's what we do. We're in the trenches for sure. So now, you mentioned, so now, so you're a fairly new missionary. How long have you been on mission? About a year and a half. Okay, no, you're seasoned. And how about you? Yeah, three months. Three months, right. And you're wrapping up. Yeah, I'm wrapping up. You're wrapping up. Now, what's that going to be like when you leave the mission and? Oh, that's a good question. So, you know, it's a hard one too. I, after, you know, it's coming up in eight weeks, we're about to go, or I'm about to go back home. And hopefully my plans are to go to UVU, which is a college in Utah, and study Spanish. And then I'm going to try to study abroad so I could use that language to help others. Nice. Pretty much. Yeah. But, you know, it's whatever God wants, you know. I love this guy, man. You guys are pretty awesome. So the reason I was asking about, you know, kind of like the longevity is, you know, obviously with a two-year mission, you know, you have, you know, you have your seasoned mission guys, you have your newbies coming in. And I'm not sure if we touched on this last time, but, and I guess this is more so for you and, you know, we'll kind of go around, but what do you think for a new missionary? What is something that they need to have with them? You know, I mean, comfortable walking shoes, obviously, but, but, you know, what kind of, I guess, mentality or, you know, resolve that they need to have? Oh, yeah. You know, okay. One thing that I see a lot, you know, I've, I've been with about three new missionaries, kind of four. I'm one of them. Yeah, he's one of them. One of the things that I see all the time, I think, is the lack of hope or the lack of willing to change. Right? And so if we come in with the mindset that we have, that God is doing what he needs to do, as long as we're pushing for the people that we're talking to, I think that will help us in the long term, or that will help their mission in the long term. And even being humble enough to change, because in the mission, you will always be humble. If you get prideful, you're going to get humbled. Life will humble you. Yeah, life will humble you. I know what's happening. Let alone a mission. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, exactly. Humble pie around here, man. Humble pie, every day. Exactly. And it's just crazy. But the mission will humble you just as life will. Okay, so be open to the lessons. Exactly. One of the things that we say here at B&B Productions is that you're never too old to learn and you're never too young to teach. Ooh, I like that, right? That's a good one. Yeah, I like that one. Shout out B&B Productions. And actually, while we're doing that, I'll take one of those. The following recording was produced by B&B Productions. B&B Productions, Tacoma, Washington. Quality audio and film. Reach us at B&BProductionsint at gmail.com. And this next section is brought to you by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Find them at www.thechurchofjesuschrist.org. So, on to you. Yeah. You've been in the field for a little while. What are some of the things you think, you know, missionaries need to have when they come in to do their mission work? Yeah, so I'm one of the newer missionaries, right? And I am one of those people. But something that I think... That wasn't to you. I wasn't saying about that. I'm one of those newer people. And I think something that's important for people to realize that are coming into the mission is it's tough. It's not just all rainbows and sunshine. It's tough. Days are hard. Days are long. But the only way you're going to grow is through the hard times, right? Nothing good comes easy. And I think a lot of people don't realize that, that to grow, to progress, to learn, you have to go through hard times. And you just have to accept that and keep on pushing and don't give up. Absolutely. Great advice. Acceptance is a very high vibration. So, got to accept it. And how about you, good sir? Yeah, I'd just say willingness. The quote that I really like is, God can make a willing man capable, but not a capable man willing. You come out, you can prepare all you want, and that'll help you in the mission for sure. You can get a bit of a head start. But ultimately, you come out in the mission, as long as you're willing to work, and you're willing to do what you know you should do. That's all that matters. You'll get there. I came out, I was so introverted, could barely talk to anybody. And I'm going around talking to strangers every single day. And it was hard. But honestly, as long as you work at it, you'll get through it. You'll get there. You just got to keep pushing, keep going, just be willing. And it's for a noble cause too. Yeah, exactly. Now, I just thought about some of this. I want to kind of backtrack a little bit. We talked about the family, where you guys come from, right? And so my question is, I know you said your dad went on a mission. Did you guys also have family members that went on missions? So my older brother and my dad both went on missions. Okay. And so they were a little bit, were they kind of a little bit of an influence to go to mission or kind of something you looked, you know, obviously you looked up to them. Oh yeah, 100%. Okay. Now, what about you? No one? Yeah, so no one did. My dad and my mom, they grew up in the church, but they didn't want to go on missions. So I'm seven of 11 and my older siblings, they didn't want to go on missions either. And so I'm the first one in my family to go on a mission. How many? Seven of what? 11. And so, and so, and out of all of them, you know, growing up in the church, you know, mother, dad, you're the only one that went on a mission. Why? That's a good question. That is such a good question. I mean, we kind of talked about it before, but like, you know, like no one can understand, like, you know, but you like, was it, I mean, like, yeah, please. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't know. I've, I've always had a love for the church. I've always had a love for God. Um, just because of the experiences in my life where, uh, you know, God came in, came through and unified my family when it was broken. Right. And so I just think that blessing kind of really pushed me and the influences, uh, around me were like, yeah, she's going on a mission. You'd be great at it. You'd love it. Um, but ultimately the thing that really pushed me all the way through was a prayer. It was simple prayer. Uh, I went to this temple or I went to our temples that we have one in Bellevue is a really pretty temple. Um, and Utah, we have a bunch, but I went to the temple. I didn't go inside the inside of the temple, but in the parking lot, I just prayed. And then I go back home and I'm just scrolling on my phone, like, you know, minding my own business, not really thinking about that prayer, but then, uh, scripture came to my head and it was DNC 31 one. And I was like, what's that? So I go to it and keep in mind, I didn't read the scriptures at all. Right. Right. And so I'm like, just blank, just blank. Um, and it says the very first verse, it says, Thomas, my son, blessed are you for your faith in my work. And my name is Tomasi, but translated to English. It's Thomas. And so I was like, oh, okay, I got to go. And so that's why I came out of the mission. That's, that's awesome, bro. That's awesome. I was hoping for that. I think the people at home want to hear that too. And so now, um, so we, so we covered, you know, why, you know, why become a missionary? You know, why go out in there? We talked about the ups and downs and knock on the doors. And, um, I think we might've covered this before, but, but since we have new folks here, let's cover this again. And we can start with you, um, from your time in your mission work, what has been your favorite experience or most memorable moment? Um, well, I mean, nothing like huge comes to mind, except I did get hit by a car while I was biking. Okay. Yeah, no, that, that was one of those like, oh yeah, I'm going to remember this for, for a long time. Yeah, no, it was, it wasn't too bad. I didn't, I mean, my bike got trashed, but I wasn't like, I didn't break any bones. Okay. So it was okay. But yeah, no, other than here in, um, Washington or yeah, I was in Washington. Um, yeah, I was in the area. I was over, I was biking up Meridian, which is like the super, super busy street. And like the drivers, they were just crazy. We'd see accidents like on that road every single day. And I was one of them. You got in the mix. And no, what about you? Yeah. So I don't know if there's anything, there's definitely memorable stuff that have happened, but I can't think of any right now, but I would say one of the most memorable things for me to get me out on the mission is like, why I came is one day, I mean, after I got my mission call, right. Um, you're probably not too familiar how it works, but what we do is we fill out all this paperwork and we submit that we're willing to go preach the gospel for two years. And these 12 apostles, they look at us and they review that stuff. And they feel inspired to call us somewhere anywhere, like almost anywhere in the world. Like I've friends in Tanzania, friends in Peru, our friends in Brazil, Texas, everywhere, everywhere in the world. And I got called the Tacoma Washington and I won't lie. I wasn't, I wasn't too excited. Right. Um, yeah. Like, I don't know. I've never really, I've been to Seattle and it was cool, but I wanted to get that like exotic experience, like go to Costa Rica or learn Spanish somewhere, you know, like my brother, he went to McAllen, Texas and he learned Spanish and it's helped him in his life. And I, after the gym one day I was in the sauna and I was praying and I was praying to see if there was a reason I was called here. And if I really should go, because I didn't know, I didn't have that answer yet. I knew I needed to go, but I didn't know if Washington was the right fit. And after I was praying, I, like Elder Tui said, I didn't really think too much of it. I just put my, you know, got all my clothes, started walking out, put my backpack on. And when I started backing out, there was a Washington license plate right in front of me instantly, right after I backed out of the gym. And that was the answer to my prayer. Because, I mean, you don't see that too often right after a prayer. You're not going to see a Washington license plate. Absolutely. And there's a couple of other experiences, but that's probably a memorable experience for me. That's awesome. I like that. It's beautiful. Yeah. How about you, Tui? What do you got? I think the most memorable experience, actually, yeah, we were talking about funny stories last time. And one funny story was, actually, when we came out, when I came and met my, or Elder Hanson, and we were, we were going around in this mall, Tacoma Mall. And then we talked to this one guy and just kind of, you know, chatted it up. And all of a sudden, this guy, this guy with just a white robe, white pants, white shoes, just white everything, and his blank face, he's just straight everywhere. And he comes up to us and he's like, Hey, you want some shoes? We're like, sure. He's like, okay, sure. Yeah. And then he's like, okay, follow me. And so we walk. It was, it was crazy. Cause this was out of nowhere, you know? It sounds crazy. I'm on pins and needles, man. Come on. Yeah. This guy is just like wearing white, white, everything. He's like, we think he's got Jesus Christ or something. He's coming everywhere. Oh, but here we go. And we go to Foot Locker and he's like, okay, pick whatever you want. In the most monotone way and just go pick whatever you want. And so we go and we look and we start looking. We're like, here, should we get this one? This one, this one, that one. And then this guy, he's like, yeah. Okay. You like that? Take it and go to the cashier. And so we go to the cashier and then he pays for all of it. This day is like what? 500 something. It was a crazy amount. And you know, just, just my story is so memorable cause there's good people out there. He like had you call him by a weird name too. I would say the funniest part of the story is he literally put in his car, paid for it and walked away. Didn't say a word to us. Oh, really? Not like literally paid for it and walked away just like that. Like it was weird. It was cool. That's so generous. Yeah. I wonder what that was about. Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Well, gentlemen, uh, we were about wrapping up on time. Um, but as always, it's been a fantastic, fantastic experience having you here. Uh, I always feel that God is in the presence when you guys walk in the door. So, uh, that's always a good thing. Um, but before we go, um, just remember that this show is brought to you by the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Find them at www.thechurchofjesuschrist.org. And of course, as always, following recording was produced by BNB Productions, BNB Productions, Tacoma, Washington, quality audio and film. Reach us at BNBproductionsint at gmail.com. And so as we prepare to wrap up, uh, I want you guys just to give us your final thoughts. Um, you know, any messages of hope or inspiration you'd like to people out there to hear, and we'll start with you. Good sir. Oh, put me on the spot. Yeah. All right. The final thing, the one thing that you have to remember, the most important thing is that God loves you and he wants you to come back to him. That's the most important thing to know. If I can leave you with anything, it's that that's beautiful. Amen. Yeah. And I would, the thing I would say is that even when you don't feel like you have a purpose, you're here for a reason. God didn't send you here for no reason. And you need, you need to find that purpose and whatever it is. Yeah. And that's what I would just like to say. Everyone has a purpose here. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah. How are you gonna follow that I would echo what they say. Sorry. Pardon me. Elder. It's okay. It's okay. I respect it. Thank you. Um, I think the biggest thing is right. Those were, they said, and I'm just from what we were talking about the power of prayer. If you get, if you're feeling down, if you're feeling lost, if you feel like there's no hope in this life, safer, try it. If you haven't tried it, try it and see what it does for you. You know what I'd like us to do right now? Since we're on the air, why don't you say a prayer for all of us here and for the people who might be listening to this podcast for sure. I'd love to. Yeah. Okay. I did a great family father. So grateful for this time and opportunity to be here with dads and on this podcast. We're so grateful for, um, BNB introductions and you know, their willingness to have us over and to talk about the gospel and our reasons out here are so grateful for the good people out here to um, that are trying to make this world better and making the world better. We ask that you please bless that as we, uh, and this podcast that whoever may be listening to it may know that they are loved by thee and that there is purpose and hope in this life. And as long as they're willing to find it, they will find it. Um, we ask that you please bless, um, that the spirit may guide us throughout this life and journey in this mortal experience so that we can best prepare for the second coming and to meet the father. We're so grateful for the atonement of Christ and the sacrifices that thou has made for us. And so grateful for Dez and his willingness to have us over father. We love you. And we're so grateful for all the experiences that we've been through. And we say these things and leave these things at thy hands in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, gentlemen, that was a fabulous podcast. And, and again, thank you guys so much for being here. We really, really appreciate having you.