Entry Seventeen: Sorry, I’m just straight up baptist

May 12, 2025

Entry Seventeen: Sorry, I’m just straight up baptist

5/12/25

Hello beloved children of God! I hope you all had an incredible week! I know this week has been unreal here in Forest City! The work is thriving, and I just love losing myself in the service of God. I’ve come to find the harder I work, the faster the pace of the week is. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but a welcome one, as Sunday is truly a day of rest! But, let’s now get into what happened this week:

We started with an exchange with the ZLs, and this time I got to go with the top dog himself, Elder Andrus. We worked “the gold mine” (our yellow dots in PMG) to the last speckle, and ended up with a lot of people who wanted to meet with us again. Pretty cool, right?

This set the pace for the rest of the week, and (not to brag, but) we ended up with a 20/20 week. Essentially, 20 people agreed to meet with us again in one way or another, and then we had 20 teaching lessons with a member present. Elder Driggs said this is probably the hardest he’s worked his whole mission, and he’s almost to the end. It definitely took some miracles to make this happen. Seek and expect miracles! They’re very real!

Some other minor stuff:

1️⃣ There was apparently an earthquake near Gatlinburg, TN (center of our mission). Everyone’s ok though, we didn’t hear any bad news from our mission.

2️⃣ Our friend Maya is finally on date! It’s going to be a little before she can get baptized, but it’s only about a month wait.

3️⃣ We’re teaching someone named Destiny right now. Nothing too special about that, but I’m afraid I’m getting flashbacks to The Lightfall campaign on legendary mode.

4️⃣ Elder Driggs and I street preached the other day. Just imagine the image that’s at the top of chapter 1 in Preach My Gospel of Dan Jones on the well. It straight up felt like we were Alma and Amulek.

5️⃣ Our little street preaching moment got us a personal shoutout from Sister Barlow! Then, two days later, President Barlow sent us a voice message saying how proud he is of us and all the hard work we did this week.

6️⃣ By the end of the week we were so tired we just crashed… into another car. Don’t worry, it was the most minor fender bender of all time, but we still had to fill out the insurance exchange form and a cop was involved (it’s just church policy). Everyone’s safe, and Ronnie’s a chill guy. He wasn’t mad at all we touched bumpers.

7️⃣ We had an older lady say, “Sorry, I’m just straight up baptist.” 😂

Spiritual Thought:

This week was Mother’s Day! I love my mom so very much. Moms really run the world, so shoutout to all the moms I know, as well as all you future moms!

If you know me, you might know that I love the story of the stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. One of my favorite parts about this story is highlighted in Alma 56:47, which reads:

“Now they [the stripling warriors] never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea and they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.”

My mom has one of the most solid testimonies of Christ I’ve seen. A little about my mom (correct me if I’m wrong on any of this, Mom) is that she grew up in communist Romania, and didn’t get to know religion all that well until the missionaries were allowed in the country. My mom is what we in the mission world would call “elect” and was among the first in the Bucharest branch to be baptized and confirmed a member. She told me she was the only one in her whole high school who was a member. It must’ve taken a LOT of faith to walk this path almost entirely alone, but I am so grateful my mom did that. I really loved this quote from this past conference by Elder Boom:

Why is it that some of us take for granted the faith and testimonies of our parents who through all their hardships have remained faithful? Do we think that they do not have a clear understanding of things? They were not and are not deceived! They just have had too many experiences with the Spirit and can say with the Prophet Joseph, “I knew it, … and I could not deny it.”

My mom has taught me to trust in God, just as the moms of the stripling warriors. Without her testimony, my mom never would’ve been able to raise my siblings and I in righteousness. She never would’ve even met my dad to be honest. I am so incredibly grateful for all my parents (specifically my mom for today, don’t worry Dad, you’ll get some good stuff come Father’s Day) have done to bring me to the gospel. So, my invitation to you all is to just be grateful for all your mom has done for you. And if you are a mom, give yourself a pat on the back. I don’t know how you do it, but keep going strong!

That is all from me this week! I love you all! Email me if you have anything awesome to share. I love hearing from each of you!

Behold the great Redeemer die, A broken law to satisfy. He dies a sacrifice for sin, That man may live and glory win.

Driving more cautiously this week,

-Elder Clayton

Pictures!