Entry Forty Five: Chitter, Chatter, Bitter, and Batter

November 24, 2025

Entry Forty Five: Chitter, Chatter, Bitter, and Batter

What is up everyone??? I hope your week was immaculate and that you saw at least one tender mercy from the Lord in your personal life! This week has been absolutely CRAZY but super fun and fulfilling. Let’s get into it, shall we?

To begin the week, I had an exchange with our Zone Leaders, and I got to spend 24 hours with not one, but two of my new favorite missionaries, Elder Kaumavae (Kum-uh-vie) and Elder Evans! This is because they’re training a new missionary, so technically I was this greenie’s first exchange ever. He thought we were having an emergency transfer at first 😂

We made the great mistake while on this exchange to walk through a populated college campus with a young member who’s preparing to go on a mission (and who was dressed up for a choir event, so he looked just like us lol) and the attitude of talking with literally everyone, all while walking toward a teaching appointment in the library. I hope that makes sense, because in short we ended up talking to about 300 people in the span of 1 hour and found around 10 new people to teach. I’m not even gonna lie, it felt just as chaotic as a Destiny 2 raid (shoutout my OG team), which means that it was an absolute blast! We also had a lot of productive work later on in the day, and ended it with ice cream with another member. Solid day in my opinion.

We had zone conference down near Chattanooga, TN, and I was fortunate enough to be able to drive through! I legit want to serve there so bad; it is such a beautiful city. The conference was great though! I’ll share more towards the end.

So this story I wasn’t too sure on sharing until I saw the Book of Mormon app verse of the day (Jacob 7:8), which confirmed to us that we were at least somewhat valid in what we did. In short, we promised a repeating offender basher at the park curses for persecuting the saints and denying the truth. Hopefully he turns around and softens his heart. What’s probably a bit too crazy about this is we told our district, and some of the other Elders wanted to go see him, but when they got to the park like literally 5 minutes after we left, he was just gone. We accidentally banished bro I guess 💀

Ok so back to zone conference: For a foundation let’s look at a quote by Elder Andersen:

“Fear and faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time.”

This eternal truth is made manifest in modern psychological practices. Something our mission has been focusing on is classical conditioning to push out doubtful thoughts. The idea is to use the negative thought as a cue for you to think about the thought and identify where it really comes from; a loving Father in Heaven who sent his Only Begotten Son to die for you, or a pathetic father of lies, deceit, and captivity?

From there, we use our agency to choose a positive thought. We were introduced to the idea of a power statement; a short phrase that includes a doctrinal truth and a lot of gumption. One that I cooked up this week is “Only I control my destiny!” Think of a statement that you can use when doubt arises.

I’m not sure who needed to hear this idea, but I thought I should share. The Lord has commanded us, be of good cheer (Matthew 14:27), and I believe that this is one of the ways we can fulfill that commandment.

I’m not saying positive thinking will automatically change everything, but I am saying that our mindset matters. Trust me, when you only think negative thoughts about yourself, the adversary has a lot more control over you. Turn to Jesus! I plead with you all to abide in him; let him heal the scars you carry and let him fill you with his love! I testify that He does live! Go discover this majestic truth for yourself. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I will follow God’s plan for me, holding fast to his words and his love. I will work, and I will pray; I will always walk in His way. Then I will be happy on earth and in my home above.

Apologies for the yap, this week was a great week. I wish you all the best,

-Elder Clayton

I actually took some photos!