Entry Twenty Seven: Public Enemy #1

July 21, 2025

Entry Twenty Seven: Public Enemy #1

7/21/25

What’s good y’all? If you’re receiving this email it means that I am alive and well (wait, I am alive and well, that’s awesome!). It’s actually been one of the tougher weeks, but as Kelly Clarkson once sang, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! The beautiful part of Christ’s atonement is that we truly can overcome everything that’s thrown our way and make it out the other end even more prepared for what comes next.

Also, don’t worry, I’m not actually public enemy #1 as the title might suggest, it’s probably more like enemy #4. Yeah… so unfortunately the Walmart here in Jamestown is not the same as Forest City, and there’s a few employees that hate our guts. They kicked us out and threatened to call the cops on us if we showed up again. So that’s exactly what we did 3 days later 💀

Being paranoid at a Walmart was definitely not on my bucket list, but it was probably as close as I’ll ever feel to being Hitman from the hit video game Hitman.

Aside from that fiasco, we had a double exchange this week! We started with the Crossville Elders where I went with Elder Morgan, and then immediately after exchanging back we went with the Cookeville ZLs and I went to Cookeville with Elder Hirst, who turns out is from Davis county! I learned a lot from these two, they certainly have a lot more wisdom than I do.

This random number texted us late one night and they definitely had the wrong number. However, we decided to take it as an opportunity to invite her to church. She received it well, and then after realizing we’re multiple states away, started getting all weird and saying we had cute names and that she wanted to see pictures of us. Then came the real kicker: an AI generated image of a “hot girl.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think someone tried to catfish us 🤣

We also had our ward’s pioneer day celebration this week, which was a lot of fun! Probably had one too many hot dogs, but it was worth it.

Alright, so I wanted to share a couple verses I found this week that really stuck out to me in my studies:

Mormon 9:13, 15, & 21

13: And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea this is wherein all men are redeemed because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death.

15: And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

21: Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

Alright, apologies for the whole reading assignment, but from these three verses we learn about miracles. I especially love verse 15 which tells us that if Christ can literally raise us all from the dead and give us perfected bodies, why wouldn’t he be able to perform smaller yet equally significant miracles in our lives? Then verse 21 tells us that if we don’t doubt, whatever we ask will be granted unto us.

As the prophet has said countless times, seek and expect miracles! It isn’t the easiest work, but by the grace of God all things are possible if we just ask. When the odds become stacked against us (as they inevitably do every time), ask more consistently and diligently. It takes more faith to ask every single day for a miracle than it does to ask once and just hope it will come to pass. That is my testimony to you all today. God is in fact still a God of miracles, and as we work with him and align to his will, anything is possible. I know that Christ lives and he loves us enough to bring about the greatest miracle of his atonement, where we gain access to faith, the most essential tool in our spiritual toolbelt. I say this all in the name of Christ, amen!

God of power, God of right, guide us with thy priesthood’s might. Forge our souls in living fire; shape them to thy great desire.

Praying for you all because I love you all as Christ does,

Elder Clayton

Photo shoot!