Entry Forty Seven: Amen 🙂‍↕️👍 Not Amen 🙂‍↔️👎

December 10, 2025

Entry Forty Seven: Amen 🙂‍↕️👍 Not Amen 🙂‍↔️👎

Hohhhhhhhhhh what a week y’all, what a week. I hope y’all had a good week. This past week was… let’s just say a roller coaster. However, I get to go to the temple again today (hence the Wednesday email). Let’s take a dive into it, shall we?

To begin, this last week we actually cooked. Got way more finds than we usually can pull in this area, and we now have an RM in our ward (plus we found out one kid has his call to the Idaho Pocatello Mission), so our member lessons dramatically improved! We’ve basically been meeting with Nick every night, and he is super excited for his baptism in a couple weeks. He gave us some crazy lore from his past, and I just love him so much more now. If you are currently struggling to see good within people, take NIck as an example that that kind of person still exists!

I got to have a counseling session because of some worries with past mental health struggles. It was actually really good, and turns out the church’s representative in this area went to Viewmont (Go Vikes!). Learned a lot about being mindful. (Also don’t worry, I’m doing good, they’re mainly worried because it’s the winter season lol)

I accidentally deleted the Facebook Messenger app in an attempt to fix a bug, and then couldn’t get it back. ☠️

Yeah, turns out our mission is not allowed to have Facebook, but messenger is practically essential for all accountability, plus contacting home. I couldn’t reinstall messenger because my access level on the mission phone was too low, but we were able to sort it out and I have it back. Just a very stressful day lol.

On Saturday morning, we got a call from the Spanish Elders that they’re getting an oil change and they need a ride. We got to pick them up, get lunch, blitz a parking lot to find some people, and then took them back because the car should’ve been finished in like 3 hours, right?

Well…. not exactly. I guess they hadn’t even started (and then they never texted when they did finish), so we got to spend literally all day with these fine gents. Legit it felt like the MTC again, always being around other missionaries. It was a lot of fun, and we had a very cool moment when contacting a referral:

We pull up to this guy’s house, and we’re about to just head right in. I tell the group that we should say a prayer before going in. We say a prayer, and then Elder Mortensen basically says, “You know, I’m feeling special, how about we all say a prayer before going in?” We all agree (because lowkey we haven’t said like any prayers all day together 😬), and each take a turn saying a prayer. We finally go to knock on the door, and the guy answers. He told us that he just got out of the shower, which meant that if we hadn’t delayed going in by about 10 minutes, we never would’ve talked with the guy.

It was a very good conversation, and we actually just had a church tour with him last night. He’s pretty interesting… but you know, God is no respecter of persons, and so hopefully good things come from it.

This transitions right into the spiritual thought I wanted to share. I’ve come to a very real testimony of prayer this past week. I used to have the assumption that prayer was a privilege (in a way), and that you could only pray and ask for things if you were worthy to receive them. I get it, it makes sense, because God loves effort. However, this is what the adversary wants us to believe.

I want to tell you all today that it does not matter what you have or haven’t done in the past, God wants to talk with you. He is even more anxious to talk with you than my dog is when my Dad motions toward the skijoring leash, signifying they are about to go for a run. The beautiful thing about prayer is that the act of faith itself qualifies us to receive these blessings we seek. To quote from the bible dictionary:

“The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves… blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them.”

This doesn’t discredit the fact that we have to get moving after our prayers and act. I believe President Hinckley once said something along the lines of:

A testimony is not gained on our knees, but rather on our feet.”

In short, pray! Ask your loving Heavenly Father for the things you need, then go out, make plans, and accomplish those things. Never forget the price that was paid for you to have this wonderful gift of prayer. I testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives, and he is the one who “bringeth good tidings unto [men], that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings unto them of good, that publisheth salvation” (3 Nephi 20:40). I testify in his holy name, amen.

Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!

Ohh, I love y’all so much. May your days be blessed!

-Elder Clayton

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