Ep. 13Brad Wilcox - Teacher, Author, Speaker
Brad Wilcox - Teacher, Author, Speaker
Brad Wilcox - Teacher, Author, Speaker shares insights from their mission in Viña del Mar & Santiago, Chile and how those experiences shaped their career and life.
About Brad Wilcox - Teacher, Author, Speaker
Brad Wilcox - Teacher, Author, Speaker is featured in this episode of The Best 2 Podcast, sharing how their mission experience influenced their personal and professional journey.
Key Topics
- Mission experiences in Viña del Mar & Santiago, Chile
- Career development and growth
- Personal transformation through service
- Lessons learned and applied
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Full Transcript
Full Transcript
In early 2014, before I had even received my mission call, I took a mission prep class at BYU. At the time, I was less than enthusiastic about my inevitable impending mission obligation. But over time, thanks to my professor’s boundless excitement and contagious enthusiasm, I began to see that my upcoming mission, if not at the time, my first choice for spending my prime young adult years, was at least worth the risk. I’ll always be grateful to that bouncy, optimistic mission prep teacher who began to shift my perspective on missionary service. As it turned out, my mission became the single most formative experience of my life. Not only spiritually, but also personally, socially, emotionally, and even professionally. You might know this particular teacher from some off-qued lines among Latter-day Saints, such as, “Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference.” Or, “It is not a finishing touch, it is the finishers touch.” Or perhaps this one, “Don’t let the world change you when you were born to change the world.” the author of each of these pathy and inspiring mantras and today’s guest is Brad Wilcox. Brad’s a lifelong educator with undergraduate and master’s degrees from BYU and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction with a focus in literacy from the University of Wyoming. He’s author of more than 30 books and has spoken multiple times in general conference. His BYU devotional, His Grace is sufficient, remains the most popular speech ever delivered on the BYU campus. Within the church, he served as a member of the Sunday school general board and his first counselor in the young men general presidency. Brad served his mission in the Chile Vignia Delmare mission from 1979 to 1981 and later returned to Chile as president of the Chile Santiago East Mission from 2003 to 2006. On this podcast, as you might know, I often invite a friend or family member who brings a meaningful connection or unique perspective to the guest or topic. For this episode, my wife Jess, a former elementary school teacher, joins me as we talk with Brad about his career journey from a sixth grade classroom to the university lecture hall, his unique research interest in the study of names, taking gospel study seriously on a mission, mission presidents as mentors, and a whole lot more. All this coming up next [Music] We have ties to you, Brad. We feel like we’re your best friends, even though you might not know us personally. » No, we’re going to claim that title, best friends. good you do in your lives. I’m going to take total credit for it. » Yeah, as well. You should. » Yeah. I just would love to see more young people be aware of this because you’re addressing the very concerns that a lot of them have, » right? Like they think if they go they’re going to be behind in school or they’re going to be missing out on career development and it’s like actually the complete opposite. So hopefully get that through to them. » Yeah. So Jess was going to kick off with the first question for you as our resident educator. » Yeah. So you initially started at elementary school. Is that correct? » Yeah, I majored in elementary education and then I taught sixth grade. » Oh, that’s so cool. So what took your leap from elementary education all the way up now to college professor. » When I was in high school, I took an aptitude test and it said I should be a priest or a rabbi. And that’s not good news for a little Latterday Saint kid. So I went on a mission. I served in Chile in the Vineyard Delmare mission. And then I got back from my mission and I was a freshman at BYU. And my dad said, “You need to take one of those career exploration classes.” He said, “Dad, those are for the people who don’t know what they’re doing.” And he said, “You ought to take one of those career Yeah, because I was changing my major about every three weeks. One minute I wanted to be in journalism, the next history, the next I wanted to be in music, the next I wanted I mean I loved everything and I couldn’t decide where I wanted to settle. Well, I took the class and they said, “We’re going to do an aptitude test.” And I said, “It’s just going to say I should be a priest or a rabbi.” They said, “This is BYU. We took that one off.” Oh, good. » So, I said, “What’s next on the list?” And I took the test and it said I should be an elementary school teacher. » Wow. And I thought, “Why should I do that?” And then I thought, “Why not? I mean, elementary teachers teach everything. One minute I could teach history, the next minute I could teach music, the next minute I could teach reading, and the next minute I could teach math.” You know, it it was just a perfect place for me to land and I love the variety, but even more, I love the fact that I could make a difference. It was really exciting to me to be able to feel the feelings that I had felt on my mission. Feelings like, hey, I matter. What I’m teaching matters. this is helping. I’m part of the solution instead of part of the problem. And it rekindled all those feelings from my mission. And so I taught sixth grade. I’m still in touch with some of those little sixth graders. They have kids who are on mission themselves. » Wow. » I taught for three years. Then I went to get my masters and I found I enjoyed teaching future teachers as well and helping and nurturing and mentoring them. And so when an opening opened up at BYU and they said, “Hey, if you’ll go get your PhD, we’d love to keep you.” Then I thought, “Okay.” I bit the bullet. I took four little kids and my wife and we went to University of Wyoming and I got my PhD and then I came back and joined the faculty at BYU and then I switched over to religion department just about maybe eight years ago because it was after I had served as a mission president and they had asked me to teach the mission prep classes where I met your husband. He was one of my students. » And then they said, “If you’ll move over to religion, we’d like to have you teach you the scriptures.” And I thought, “How do you not want to teach at the scriptures?” So, I went from teaching senior girls who were in their last year of their elementary ed program » and who had school all figured out. And the lowest grade I ever gave was a minus. 18 professional boys who have a long way to go. » Yeah. » Brain’s still maturing. » No. » So, as a university professor, obviously you’re expected to research and publish and do those kinds of things. And one of your research areas was anamastics, if I’m even saying it right. Is that right? » The study of names. » What even is it? And what caused you to be interested in it? I was fascinated in it because I was working with students. My PhD was in literacy, so teaching people to read and write. And back in the Harry Potter days, all the kids were writing stories and all their stories were about Hagrid and Dumbledore and Hogwarts. But I told them they couldn’t plagiarize. So they started writing about magwood and bumblebear and pigs warts. I mean they just would make up their own little names. And I figured out that I could actually identify who was writing by the names they were choosing or making up. And then I started thinking about the Book of Mormon and thinking, huh, there’s a lot of interesting names in the Book of Mormon. And would it be possible to identify an author like Joseph Smith through those names? Well, we spent about 10 or 15 years doing that research. I teamed up with some wonderful professors who were in statistic, who were in linguistic and we did all kinds of studies on that and we found that no we could identify by his names because he gravitated the same sound even though he said I’m basing these names on ancient language. ages, but we found what we ended up calling a phono print, a sound print. Have you heard of word prints? » Word prints. They can identify authors by the words they choose. Oh, » and they’ve done word print studies on the Book of Mormon and found that it wasn’t written by Joseph Smith or Oliver Calgary or Solomon Spalding or some of the other people people are so quick to name as the authors of the Book of Mormon. In fact, in the word prince, they actually found that the book was written by multiple authors, which is what we claim. They could actually tell a difference between the writings, the writings of Nephi, the writings of Elma. And so we thought, well, would that translate down to the sound level, the sounds they’re coming up with as they’re creating names. And it’s been fascinating. I won’t bore you anymore with a lot of the details, but we did find that we could identify a sound print for Solomon Spalding. We could identify a sound print for Fulcan, but we couldn’t identify sound prints for Joseph Smith. Rather, the names in the Book of Mormon actually started following the natural naming patterns that you see in sentence names that come from different cultures, that come from different backgrounds and are more unique in their pattern. So that was interesting. And then we broke the names out by Lemoni, Nephi, Jerichi, and Mulikite names and found that they were very different from each other, statistically significant difference. » Wow. And so it sure makes us realize that there’s more to the Book of Mormon than people blow it off us. They’re so quick to just say, “Oh yeah, it’s just a fraud. It’s fiction. It’s written by Joseph Smith.” But when you look in depth, we were fascinated by how unique the Book of Mormon is. And the names in the book actually stand as testimonies that the book was not written by any single author. And if it was, that author was sure not following patterns that most authors use. I’ll have to connect you to another podcast where I talked about that and yeah, you can learn more of the details. » Well, I was wondering if you’d published that paper somewhere also. several in fact we won an award in a journal where we published Tolken’s phon » and identifying his phon and then we published in academic journals like one called names which is the journal of the American moastic society and then we published in latter day saint venues as well » that’s awesome » so teaching children is very different than teaching adults and even in a church setting. I feel like when I’m in primary, it just flows so naturally and it’s so easy. But then when you get called to be the gospel doctrine teacher, it feels more tense. And so I always » speaking in general conference. » Yeah. Fine. I don’t wish that upon myself. » But I’ve had good really good institute teachers over the years who could just teach well and teach adults well. And I always admire that. And I just I guess my question is it’s one thing to teach students, but how do you teach teachers to teach well and connect with their own peers and audiences that are not six years old? I just find that very fascinating and it’s a real skill. » Casey Griffith at BYU just did a podcast, a limited series called Gospel Teaching. People can find it at the Religious Studies Center website. But it was fascinating because he interviewed outstanding teachers and asked them that very question. And you’ll be interested in some of the things they said. I know in my own experience I think well maybe God has been able to use me to teach adults because not in spite of the fact that I majored in elementary education but because I did because I’ve spent my whole life trying to bring things down to a simple level trying to find analogies and example examples that could help a young child understand. And so when people say to me, “You have helped me understand grace. You have made it so simple.” Or, “I liked your book on the atonement because it was made so simple.” » And maybe God needed a teacher. Maybe she has enough lawyer that speaks at a very adult level and analyze things in a very adult way. Maybe he needed somebody who could try to just explain complex doctrines in a way that people can grasp. So, I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve had teaching children because I think that prepared me well for teaching adults. And vice versa, when I teach adults, like in general conference, the best compliment I got was when a father said to me, “My son, my 12-year-old son actually put down his cell phone and listened to you.” said with the first talk in the whole conference he sat down and listened to » and I thought well » okay » very easy to listen to » the teacher now and again » well you do really have a gift the ability to think about something complex and distill it into something simple and then you’re a good like linguist right you’re pathy there are things that people remember from your speeches that are really meaningful that become like mantras of their lives so because of your ability to teach and speak you’ve influenced many more people’s lives than you probably are even aware just because of the platform you’ve had and the role you’ve played. I just am wondering if you’ve been able to reflect on that and about how cool that is. » Well, thank you for your compliment. That does mean a lot to me. I was speaking with President Nelson’s daughter and I said, “Does your dad even know the impact that he has had in my life, in the lives of so many and how everybody loves him.” And she just started to laugh. She said, “I told him that one time.” I said, “Dad, everybody loves you.” and he said, “Except all the people who don’t.” And I would have to say the same thing on a much smaller scale to you. I appreciate those who have responded well to something I’ve offered, but I know there are others who don’t. I mean, we’re talking about keeping things simple. Some people get very critical because they say, “I oversimplify things.” So, I don’t know. You just start figuring out what you’re doing is for God. And if he’s okay with what I’m trying to do, then I can’t think too much about how many people are responding well or how many people hate my guts because as you said, Jessica, as a teacher, you’re trying to love. You’re trying to connect. And I just can’t afford to walk into a classroom and be thinking, “All right, which one of you is going to post something negative about me on your social media?” Because then I get defensive and I get guarded and I hold back and I can’t hold back. I think the same thing could be said for missionaries. I mean, there are people who say, “They were my angels. They saved me. They changed my life.” But look how many people scream at him in the street. I mean, they don’t even do anything except wear a name tag that says Jesus Christ on their chest. And how many people are they swearing at him, calling him all kinds of names. And these are young men and young women. Mother Teresa said, “When you love, you open yourself to hurt. When you love, you open yourself to criticism. When you love, you open yourself to pain. But love anyway.” And that’s what Heavenly Father does. That’s what Jesus Christ does. That’s what President Nelson does. love anywhere. » So, I want to go now into your mission. We’ve kind of given some background on your career and your quote unquote secular side of your life and now want to know » I don’t know is more » they’re pretty well intertwined. » Yeah. You start realizing that everything is the spiritual side of your life. Yeah. That’s a thing that missionaries need to learn because they come home from their missions and they say, “Oh, now I have to get back to real life.” And right, no, no, your mission was real life. Keep living like you were on your mission. » Yeah. Well, if I ever write my book, the core insight is that you can get some beneficial things from your mission by, you know, learning how to plan a schedule and learning how to do your dishes. And there’s degrees of value for each of those things, but you will not get the core deep values of a mission, things that really matter. Things like learning how to love, learning true sacrifice, lots of those things without the spiritual side because it is so tightly intertwined. So the rug pull is that you actually can’t disentangle secular from spiritual. » Yeah. The closer we weave those, then I think the happier we are because then you see purpose in some of these mundane things that you’re doing over and over just to earn a living. » Instead, you just start realizing that you’re making a life. I always tell my students, your journal is not a record of your life. If you want a record of your life, write a little life sketch that it’s short enough that your kids will actually read it. But a journal is a tool for making your life. And that’s that interwining of life and the spirituality that really make every day worth living and not just Sundays. So, this might be a silly question, but had did you always plan on serving a mission as a young man? Were there ever any points where you thought, well, I’m not really sure about this? » I think every kid kind of has to say, do I really want to do this? And part of that’s just out of insecurity and fear. It’s not, well, is there really a God and does he really have a prophet? And did the prophet really say that everyone should? It’s not that. It’s more like, » am I up to this? » Can I really learn a language? Can I do this? And I think that fear often gets translated into, well, I just don’t know whether I’m miss for me. But if we can replace the fear with faith, then we realize that in the strength of the Lord, we can do all things. I had two older brothers who served. My younger brother also served. There were four boys in the family. And my older brothers were great examples of serving mission. And my mom would read their letters. letters children are what we used to use in the olden days » and she would read their letters and we would track where they were being transferred on maps and my younger brother and I I don’t think I ever wrote a letter to my brothers on their mission but boy their missions were having an impact on me and it was because my mom and dad were letting me be part of that. And I think now that missionaries can call home, I still hope they’re writing in their journals, their experiences. » But when they call home, I think it has that same opportunity to involve younger siblings and to say, “Hey, the coolest thing just happened and to get their younger siblings excited about mission.” That’s what my brother’s missions did for me. And so I went on a mission and I went with a testimony, but I think like most I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I mean, I have to admit that the first time I read the Book of Mormon, covered and covered, was in the MC Street. And my testimony just grew so much on my mission that I look back and I think, could I have lived my life without learning Spanish? Yeah, Spanish has been very helpful to me, but I could have lived my life without speaking Spanish. Could I live my life without having lived in Chile? Boy, Chile has enriched my life so much. But yeah, I could have lived my life without that. But could I have lived my life without the testimony that grew and became so independent and so personal? Could I have lived my life without that? That’s where I have to start seeing. I don’t know. » I don’t know. » When you arrived in the very beginning in Vignia Delmare is when you serve. What year did you arrive there? » I left in 1979 and the Vignia mission had just been broken away from the Santiago North mission. So I was one of the first 15 missionaries to receive a call to that particular mission. So we were just kind of starting out and I had a wonderful mission president named Gerald J. Day. He taught in Georgia at the time. He was the dean of the business college at one of the universities there and then later became the president of Snow College here in Utah. But he and his wife had such an impact on my life. I think I was called to Chile because they were called to Chile. If they had been called to Minnesota, I would have been called to Minnesota » because I felt like God literally put me with them because of the mentoring, the love, the help, the friendship that we developed. In fact, next Sunday, a couple of other former missionaries and I are going to go visit them and wow, can’t wait for that. So, yeah, I was so excited to be in Philly. But looking back, it wasn’t just chilling. That’s why I always smile when some kid says, “I got called to Austin, Texas. What the heck?” And I think, “Oh, you’re right where God needs you. You’re right where God needs you.” And I felt that when I was there, the mission companions that I served with, people I met, the members I met, the people I had the privilege to teach, all had such an impact on my life. And then how my mission prepared me for the future. I ended up getting called right back to Chile as a mission leader. So I served from 79 to 81 and then from 03 to 06 I went right back to Chile. Not to the same mission but to the same country. And now there’s going to be a temple right in where the old steakhouse used to be and where the mission offices had been built in an old church school that they had used early on. I mean, that’s where the temple’s going to be. And when the general conference came along, when they were going to announce that temple, Elder Kevin Duncan, who was the head of the temple department at the time, he’s now serving in the presidency of the 70, he walks up to me in the parking lot of the church offices and says, “Now, Brad, it’s inappropriate to scream in general conference.” And then he walks away and I’m crawling after like Kevin why would I scream in general conference and he just turned around and he said Brad you’ll be sitting on the stand it’s inappropriate to scream in general I was like what is when President Nelson announced the temple in Vinar I almost screamed » oh my god This is very exciting. So, this might be a hard question. When you were a missionary, not a mission president, what was your most treasured experience? » You look back at each of the areas that you served in and you can remember specific moments when you know that you were there at the right time and in the right place. Whether it was to help a youth who had been assigned to be your temporary companion or whether it was teaching somebody who was very sincere about their desire to learn more about Jesus Christ or whether it was mentoring a leader, a new bishop who didn’t quite know exactly what his next step needed to All of those were wonderful experiences, but I think the experiences that mean the most now looking back through all those years were the experiences where your testimony grew. Experiences where you finally took your gospel study seriously. I read books like Jesus the Christ and marvelous work and a wonder and the miracle of forgiveness and books that I would never have picked up and read if I hadn’t been there on a mission and the difference that Lrand Richards and James Tal made and Spence W. Kimble may in my life through those words. much just can’t be measured. The chance to pray and receive answers to prayer that you recognize to have one on-one interviews with the mission president where you finally stop caring about whether you’re made or zone leader or not. You finally aren’t trying to impress him. The name president on his name badge just fades away and he becomes the friend, the mentor that can answer some of your deepest questions that you’ve never dared to ask anyone. Somebody who can coach you through some of your efforts at self betterment that you’ve struggled with. Those are the moments that I look back at now and I say, “Wow, those are the moments that really gave me a foundation for my life.” Because there’s never been a time in my life when I’ve felt doubts or had questions that I’ve ever thought, “Oh no, now everything’s over.” because I can look back and as Elder Holland has said, I want to trust the things I know about God and the church to help me be patient with the things I don’t yet know. And where would I have ever drawn that place without my mission? Yeah, I was going to say maybe this is a rhetorical question, but how many young people are going to be studying and praying with intent, especially early in their lives, without the benefit of a mission? » Yeah. Because some of those experiences happen when you finally get pushed into the deep end of the pool. And a lot of parents, a lot of young people are hesitant to push somebody or jump themselves into that deep end of the pool. So, we keep a lot of kids in the kitty pool. We keep them in the shallow part of the pool. And sometimes you just don’t learn to swim until somebody stops holding your head above the water. even wrong. Sometimes you just don’t learn if he’s always there answering your questions. Sometimes you have to say a prayer and feel like God’s not even listening to you. Sometimes you have to feel like you’re just hollering out into the universe and nobody’s listening to be able to feel the motivation to keep praying and to keep striving. And then when the answer finally comes, you appreciate it. You understand it so much more. And then you realize it wasn’t that God wasn’t there. It wasn’t that God wasn’t caring. And it wasn’t that God was too busy talking to his apostles and prophets to worry about me, this little missionary down in Chile. I think instead you realize God let my head slip under the water so that he could motivate me to find a way to get up and take a breath and so that he could teach me to appreciate the times when he is carrying me a little more overtly. I always tease with teenagers and I say to them, I remember when I knelt down on the top bunk of my bunk bed. I always close to the top bunk because it was a little closer to Helen and it was a little farther from the sea. And I knelt down there on the bunk. I waited till my companion was done with his prayer because I wanted God’s undivided attention. And I remember praying, “God, are you there? God, are you hearing me?” And suddenly my room was filled with light. And then the car passed. » Yeah. Right. » I was alone again in the dark. See, I always say that and it was a true experience, but I tell that because it makes the teenagers laugh. But I hope it also helps them understand that there are times when a God who is not just worrying about our comfort will step back a little because he’s worried about our growth. And I’m grateful for the mission that becomes a safe environment for us to stretch and grow. » Those are pretty profound principles. » I know. And maybe when we talk to young people, we just need to keep saying, “Oh my gosh, you love the food in Chile. The empanadas are great.” » Right. But no, I don’t think so. deep down, as much as I love empanadas, » that’s not what changed my life. » Yeah. » So, what do you say to those people who are feeling a little bit challenged and maybe more specifically returned missionaries that come home and life hits you or young parents and it’s just like, man, I know that the gospel is true and I know that the Savior’s there and that he loves me, but this feels kind of difficult. And I feel like on my mission when things were difficult, I never felt like, man, I just don’t know if I should be here. I always felt like, no, this is still the right thing. And I still had this bubbling enthusiasm. And sometimes when you come home from your mission, you maybe still have those thoughts of, I know this is true, but I’m not feeling that that bubbly feeling anymore. And that can feel pretty difficult for some people. » Yeah. I think we see the spirit of God like a fire is burning. And then when people don’t feel that fire, they think they’re not feeling the spirit. They’re not feeling the help of heaven. They’re feeling very alone. So I think I propose that in the new hymn book they say the spirit of God like a furnace is working. Now, I don’t think they’ll ever change the hand. I don’t think they ever will. But really, isn’t that a little more like it? I mean, if I come home and I find my house on fire, I’m going to notice. And there are times when we do feel that fire, but not every day. What keeps us going is going into the house and feeling comfortable enough to just keep changing the diapers and taking the trash out and trying to figure out what you’re going to fix for dinner. It keeps us going because we’re comfortable. When do we notice the furnace? It’s when it’s not working. And that’s when we say, “Oh man, I got to do something about this.” So maybe we just need to notice the furnace a little more and recognize that if we felt the fire all the time, we couldn’t get on with some of the experiences that we’re meant to be having in this life. We couldn’t get on with some of the learning that happens in this life. So, we can thank God that it’s not always like a fire. And sometimes it’s a little more like a furnace. You know, you don’t always feel a fire when the baby’s screaming at night and you just cannot calm this kid down. And when you’ve taken your kids to church and you’re like out in the foyer again and you’re thinking, “Why am I even doing this? It’d be easier if I just stayed home with these screaming kids. I still remember the time I was holding my little toddler and I felt this warmth in my chest, but it wasn’t the spirit. It was that he peed on me and I had to go home and change my shirt. But I dragged him back to church. Not because I’d felt a fire, but because I had the spiritual maturity to see that the growth is in the digging. It’s not just when you find the gold. It’s in the digging. The growth, the learning is in the efforts. It’s not just when we finally get the baptism or we finally see a child bear his testimony for the first time. Those are some wonderful days and some wonderful moments. But the thing that gets us through those moments in between is knowing that Christ will meet us where we are and we will have his help. We have access to his power to the ministering of angels to the gift of the Holy Ghost through oures through our covenants. We have access to this power that can get us through and it does. I spend a lot of time in the sacrament renewing my covenants in Spanish because it was on my mission that I finally understood what it meant to renew those covenants and to have that covenant relationship. So every Sunday I says I do it in Spanish to this day. And then I spend time thinking about the Savior, his sacrifice, the atonement, the suffering he went through so that he could offer me the gift of the atonement. And I’m grateful for every one of them. I’m grateful for the repentance and forgiveness. I’m grateful for the resurrection and life after death. And I’m grateful for the comfort and consolation during trials. But I think something that I’ve been doing more lately is I pull out my calendar. » There it is. » Podcast right there. Podcast. And I pull out my calendar and I turn it to the next page and I say, “I need thy help because this is a little scary and this is really important and this I’m not quite prepared for and this I’ve got to get through to that kid and this is going to be my opportunity. And I start saying, I need access. I’m using my agency to choose to welcome your help into my life, into my very real and lusty life, my overcrowded days, my late nights, my early mornings. I need you to abide with me, not just to even fight But all day long I need the every hour. And I think when we use our agency to welcome God’s grace, he is right there. He can’t give it to us if we don’t choose anything. can’t force his health, force his blessings, but he will give it when it is invited. » Well, I have one final question for you and then I’ll let you run here. You’ve seen a lot of people go premission to postmission, whether that’s in your mission prep classes, whether that’s in your church callings, whether that’s your own children. What is perhaps the biggest change you’ve seen in these people from premission to postmission? I think we all see the change. I think we see the maturity come. I think we see the deepened testimony. We watch young people as they stand up speak at their missionary farewells and they read the little talk that mom and dad wrote for them. And then we see them when they come home and they stand up there with so much confidence and they testify of Jesus Christ and their relationship with Christ because of their covenants. I mean, it’s incredible to see. We see the same thing at FSY. We see the same thing at youth conference. We see the same thing at an ironic priest camp or a young women camp and we just see this incredible growth and then we just want to say come on hang in there don’t quit when you live up you don’t give and I would just say, “Please don’t think that you have to just be perfect after you’ve had your spiritual experience. When you come home from your mission and you take your name tag off, you don’t take Jesus off. You don’t take your garments off. You wear Jesus Christ, every day just like you used to wear your name tag every day. And that’s through the good days and the bad days. Enduring to the end does not mean enduring without errors. It means enduring despite errors. And if we could just get that into the kids’ minds and into their hearts, then instead of going home from an FSY being filled with lights and then three days later just seeing them go back to their video games and their social scrolling and their focus on the world. Seeing them go back caring so much about what they hear, think at school instead of caring what God thinks. If we can just help them endure, endure to the end, which isn’t the end of FSY or the end of your mission or even the end of life. It’s enduring to our end which is become more like God, more like Jesus Christ. And as we have the courage to the best and to find that grit to say my faith will endure despite my changing moods. Then we start seeing the changes. We start seeing the characteristics of Christ slowly but surely in our own lives. When people are watching and when people aren’t watching, we see that we can make a correct choice as to what we’re going to do on our computer. Even when nobody’s around, we can have patience with a screaming baby. Even when nobody’s around. And that’s when we start feeling the satisfaction of having devoted our lives to something that’s so much bigger than ourselves and our needs and desires in the moment. Joseph Smith said, “I am a lover of the cause of Christ.” That’s what I am, too. » It’s amazing. Well, Brad, it’s an honor for both of us to get to talk to you today. I I was telling Jess last night, there are a couple of people that I’ve met very briefly in my life. One was Cecil Samuelson when I was a freshman. I walked past him. I don’t know him. I walked past him, but he looked at me and said, “Hi.” And it was the weirdest feeling to me because it felt like he saw into me and actually cared about me. The smallest interaction meant so much to me. I had a chance on my mission. » The one who said hi first. » He said hi first. It was just like I’m a little freshman. It meant a lot to me. On my mission, I had a chance to have a very short meeting with President Gong before he got called into the corner of the 12. And it was like the same feeling where I felt I I suppose it’s the pure love of Christ is what I felt. I share that just to say that I felt that with you in my interactions brief up until now and I haven’t felt that with many people but you’re one of them and so I I really regard you as a very special person. » Well, I appreciate that. I’m far from being an Elder Garnet. I’m far from being an Elder Samuelson, but I appreciate the fact that you know that I care and I love you and that’s very sincere. » Awesome. » Well, thank you so much. All right. » So great to talk to you. » Have a good one, Brad. » Thanks so much. » All right, that’s it for the podcast. How about Brad Wilcox? Huh? Thanks to Brad for coming on. I’ll put a link to the podcast he talks about where he uh goes more into depth on the names in the Book of Mormon if you’re interested. You can see that in the episode notes. If you’re new to the podcast and enjoyed this conversation, feel free to check out some of the previous episodes. People like David Nielman, Thomas Griffith, Carol Given, some really cool people who credit their missions as a foundation for their success. So, I’m staying pretty busy in school these days, so I won’t be releasing episodes all the time. They’ll be a little bit sporadic, but I’m always trying to find cool people to talk to, and I’ll bring those to you when I can. So until then, thanks. See you. [Music] [Music]
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