Can You Feel So Now Clay Smith

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Justin Barton: Welcome to the Can You Feel So Now podcast. My name is Justin Barton and I'm grateful to be the host of the Can You Feel So Now podcast and I'm sitting here with somebody I've never met before until about two minutes ago and I'm super excited to have this conversation with Clay Smith and get to know him a little bit, learn about his mission, podcast.

Justin Barton: Where he served, what he did, and some of those lessons learned. Clay, why don't you take just a minute, introduce yourself, tell me a little bit about your family, where you're from, and maybe some hobbies that you have.

Clay Smith: Okay. Well, it's nice to meet you, Justin. My name is Clayton Smith and I'm from Snowflake, Arizona, a tiny town up in the mountains of Arizona.

Clay Smith: And I've always lived a pretty, I wouldn't say isolated life, but we've always been up in this quiet little town. I grew up playing sports. I love football, love wrestling. And that's always been a big focus of mine is more [00:01:00] like the physical perspective of myself. Some of the things that helped me become the person I am today is my best friends, my family, but I liked going to EFY.

Clay Smith: I like going to youth activities. And I always had a calling in the church that I tried my best to fulfill. And I think that helped me be a better person while I was growing up, helped carve me into who I would continue to become, continue to better myself. , I'm really into outdoors and sports and stuff,

Justin Barton: I really appreciate that. , That sounds like you had a really cool upbringing, have some really cool hobbies and things that you enjoy doing. Tell me a little bit about your mission.

Justin Barton: Where were you called to serve and what dates were you there? I

Clay Smith: was called to serve in the Caribbean, the West Indies, the lowest chain of islands in the Caribbean, [00:02:00] and I was called to speak French, and when I got that call, it was just, it was mind boggling, I'd never tried to learn a language before, I'd never really left my small town, and I was really excited to be able to go out to this different part of the world, experience a new culture, have that shock.

Clay Smith: And learn new things. That was my mission call. Best mission in the entire world. The Barbados Bridgetown Mission.

Justin Barton: Cool. So it was the Barbados Bridgetown Mission. And when were you there?

Clay Smith: So I set apart August 14th of 2022. And then I was there till the end of, I just barely got back the end of September this year.

Justin Barton: So as you came out of small town, Arizona. I've been to Snowflake. I know what it's like there. . And so I can just only imagine what that would be like to go into a completely different culture, new language.

Justin Barton: Totally different climate than what you're used to. Tell me what that culture shock [00:03:00] was like as you did that.

Clay Smith: Oh, my goodness. It was pretty bad on me because going into the mission, I was a super prideful. Just I had my American pride and physically I was like large in stature and , I was really prideful.

Clay Smith: And so when I got there, it was really hard for me to. Just let myself be humble and just become like one of the people and just like really adapt and learn because I was really like against Oh, . They eat too much bread because a lot of French influence, or they do this weird and so I was really judgmental and critical of.

Clay Smith: Their culture and who they were and that set me back. That was one of the hardest struggles I had at the start of my mission was loving the people and just adapting to that culture. . And it was hard. I had a hard time. Being motivated to learn the language because I didn't have that driving factor my testimony wasn't the strongest and then also [00:04:00] my love for the people wasn't, really there.

Clay Smith: So there wasn't really that motivating factor to give my all to learn the language to be able to bear my testimony with, power and authority and be able to truly love the people. It just wasn't there.

Justin Barton: So, let's sit there for just a minute. So let's talk about, you went in prideful. Hey, I can do anything.

Justin Barton: I can conquer the world. I'm a football player. I'm a wrestler I'm this outdoors, manly man, large in stature all of that good stuff. What was the moment that brought you to your knees when you're like, okay, man, everything's falling apart around me.

Justin Barton: What brought you to your knees in that time?

Clay Smith: There was just, this was a little bit later in my mission, regretfully. This was about after the first quarter of my mission was over. I had this moment where I was at a crossroads. There was so much that was happening. I had a hard time with obedience at the start of my mission and I didn't really understand it.

Clay Smith: I had that prideful [00:05:00] part of me and then that fell into my teaching and my love of the people and my language abilities and all that. And I was transferred to this different island. So I started on Martinique. And then I went to this island called Guadalupe and when I got transfer calls the mission president said I was going to be with this elder and all the elders with me on Martinique, they're like, Ooh, that's the stick.

Clay Smith: Oh, you're going to be with this missionary. He's going to give you a hard time. He's really going to whoop you into. Condition and I had that pride part of me where I was like, oh, I'm not going to let this, missionary boss me around and then I got there and I was determined to be better than him to do everything better than him.

Clay Smith: I didn't need fixing. But he was determined to love me. And so we had that weird little thing going where I was, I had a power trip a little bit, but he was so humble and he loved me. And he really helped me out a lot. And he showed me what it was like [00:06:00] to love the people.

Clay Smith: And got to this point in my mission where I'm like, dang, we're seeing so much success. I feel this is something different that I really want. I don't know what it is. But this is different. I've never felt this before, . This is an amazing way of doing missionary work. And I got to this crossroads where my grandma, she just passed away.

Clay Smith: And the last thing she said to me was, be obedient. And , that was what I needed to hear. She said, be obedient. And I just had. Personal studies and I was doing things right and I knew what I needed to do, but it was so hard to let that old part of me die and just choose between serving how I knew I needed to serve and being prideful and doing things my way.

Clay Smith: And so I just broke down, got on my knees. I told my companion, that I needed to like, to go through a battle. I was praying. I was on my knees for three hours. I was in this room just crying and I just, I didn't know what I needed to do, but I just knew I [00:07:00] needed to change.

Clay Smith: And I, , I promised that I'd try my hardest to, be. On the Lord's side , to be the Lord's and I promised I'd repent every day. And just had this, beginning of this really amazing transformation that happened on my mission. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Justin Barton: What does that mean? To you to be on the Lord's side, to be his, what does that look like in practice for you?

Clay Smith: I think a big part of it is like my cousin, he just got home and I just saw this light and his face changed. It's weird to say like his face changed, but there was something about him and I'm like, he's the Lord's. He's he's a totally different person. And. I think a big part of it is I was super prideful.

Clay Smith: I thought I knew everything and I was doing everything right. But a big part of it was letting my own will die and taking up the will of the father. And I [00:08:00] think a big part of that sacrifice, like consecration, there's a lot to it. I've thought about it before, but being the Lords, I always pictured it as my cousin just got back from his mission.

Clay Smith: He could have. Been a big rebel. He was just one of those personalities where he had a big influence on other people. He was just an amazing, charismatic guy, but that could have been used for something totally different.

Clay Smith: But coming back from his mission, just seeing him consecrating what the Lord gave him for good and just it was like amazing just seeing him on the Lord's side Just knowing whose side he is on

Justin Barton: , It sounds like you may have had a similar Change and when you came back the light was in your eyes and people were like that guy's the Lord's, But I want to ask you maybe a little bit more before you got home Those missionaries that you served on, Martinique first, and then you went to Guadalupe.

Justin Barton: Did you get a chance to meet with them after this humbling experience? [00:09:00] And how did you change in your interactions with them at that point?

Clay Smith: It's a really small mission, so . It's pretty often that you get to see the same elders.

Clay Smith: And I think just being in Conversation with those elders again. , I was a lot more happy. Like before I thought I knew what happy was being with those guys we might've been playing chess like early, like late into the morning or like listening our own music, just little things that

Clay Smith: you'd think it'd make you happy, but true happiness, like I really felt a bond with those elders, like after we met up again, and we just had an open discussion about how we wanted things to be different and it was like in the early Alma chapters when Alma sees the sons of Mosiah again, and They just are super joyful and happy and [00:10:00] like they reunite and they know that they're brothers like in Christ that they're not just still friends, they're brothers in Christ.

Clay Smith: And it just adds to that happiness and that togetherness. And it's the same with my cousin. It's just that joy that we felt when he got off the plane. It was magnified and it was a love stronger than what we had before because now . We had that stronger bond.

Justin Barton: Yeah, not just brothers by blood.

Justin Barton: Now we're brothers, in Christ. That's super cool. So Clay, as you served your mission, you said at first, you're like, dude, , this language, the people the, whatever. There were some bad attitudes. Tell me about how you developed or evolved with the language first, and then we'll go into the people after that.

Clay Smith: Okay. This is my favorite part of the character development or storytelling or whatever, because this was a really [00:11:00] great part of my mission. So I was with this elder that. Everyone thought that we weren't going to get along. I didn't think we were going to get along.

Clay Smith: We loved each other. We pushed each other and we accomplished great things together. And there's this one time that we were on exchange and it took me about 10 months to learn French, like that might not seem like a long time, but compared to normally on missions about six months, we'll do it.

Clay Smith: But for me, it took a little bit longer cause I wasn't really doing the right things. And so I got with that elder. And I started feeling this crazy excitement to teach and share, but I couldn't word it. And it drove me up the wall. And I went on this exchange with an elder and he just got so sick.

Clay Smith: It might've been like a parasite or something, but he was out. He was just laying on the ground groaning in pain. And so we [00:12:00] were in the apartment for that day.

Unedited Video Clay Smith: Man,

Clay Smith: what am I going to do in this tiny little apartment? And I was sitting there.

Clay Smith: And then the corner of my eye, I was like, look at the bookshelf and I see something and I get up and I walk over there and there's something pulling me towards the bookshelf. And I, look and there's this book and I pick it up. And it's this dusty, old copy of the Book of Mormon in this language called Haitian Creole.

Clay Smith: There's tons of Haitian immigrants in those islands. And I pick up this book and the first thing I say is, Oh, Creole I've always poked fun of it, , because , none of the missionaries really teach in Haitian Creole, except for the elder that I was, with.

Clay Smith: He actually knew a little bit, and that played into how much he loved the people too. I felt really strongly that I needed to start reading this book, and that was a lot for me, because I just started to feel comfortable in French. How am I supposed to pick up this other language? And so I start reading it.

Clay Smith: And then [00:13:00] something draws me in. I keep reading it. I can't put it down. I just keep reading and devouring and I'm reading out loud and I can't understand anything. But as I get chapters in, I start to pick out little things like connections through French because they have some similarities.

Clay Smith: So I start to pick out some things and I just can't put it down. And for the rest of my mission, every single day. I read out of that book of Mormon and I finished it in about 30 days. But from that moment on, I had this crazy connection to Haitian Creole, like this desire to learn it. I was really timid with my French, never really wanted to talk to anybody, but

Clay Smith: Then with Creole, it was the exact opposite. As soon as I, I saw Haitian, I said a couple of words and their faces would light up in the back. Boundaries would fall down and the barriers would fall down and he's like what the heck this this white guy speaking Creole, this is crazy and they get so happy [00:14:00] and I'd feel so good.

Clay Smith: Wow. This is crazy What connection this is making and I wasn't even that good and so I kept learning And that just sparked a desire in me to be able to pick up that language, talk to that people because they were neglected in the sense where learning Haitian Creole wasn't really required or suggested.

Clay Smith: And so that became my thing and that started a huge love for Haitians .

Such a cool story. So as you develop that love for the language and really the Book of Mormon drew you in, is that kind of where you can say that your testimony of the Book of Mormon grew or is that more of the language situation?

Justin Barton: Tell me about your testimony of, the Book of Mormon and how, important that is in your, mission and in your life.

Clay Smith: . I'd say definitely both like that situation right there because from the moment I picked it up [00:15:00] to when I was able to speak fluently and talking conversations it was, about the span of three months.

Clay Smith: So it was a crazy testimony builder to me the, power of the Book of Mormon, like how drawn in I was I was feasting on the words with the Book of Mormon I, had actually never read it before my mission all the way through by myself. And that was. Something that a lot of my family members, they try to get me to do. And I, never really did. I read certain chapters. I always liked memorizing scriptures but I never read all the way through.

Clay Smith: And it wasn't until on my mission, I read it through English. And then I had that crazy, experience where it didn't become like this tedious Oh, I got to learn this and look for. Scriptures to help in lessons. It wasn't really something hard to [00:16:00] do. It became a desire and every single day, if I didn't have that personal study and if I didn't read those scriptures, the day was off and it felt weird.

Clay Smith: And , it was so weird to see that change. And then around the time when I picked up that Creole Book of Mormon , you could ask my companions. It was as soon as after hours hit, I was in this my own room just studying, , I'd read French out loud, Creole, and then I just read in English and that's constantly in the book of Mormon and it was off and on just a process of becoming better and repentance and stuff, but that was a huge, moment in my life, just a big turnaround

Clay Smith: I didn't believe it could happen before my mission. I didn't know that was a possibility and I think a lot of it because it's my own natural desire.

Justin Barton: This is, a really neat experience and series of experiences you're sharing with me [00:17:00] Clay.

Justin Barton: Tell me about your conception of repentance before your mission and what changed on your mission and what it looks like today

Clay Smith: before my mission, I think, repentance. I always saw it as like a checklist. There was boxes that I had to hit and building up the courage to finally make it into the Bishop's office and just confess. And that was something that was a big step for me before my mission.

Clay Smith: And I felt so amazing after, but I didn't really. understand what repentance was too much. I just saw it as confession and commitment to try to be better. But on my mission, like I always thought I was going to be perfect, that once you're a missionary, your struggles, they diminish.

Clay Smith: Everything's easier. You're just a soldier of light. It's not going to be the same struggle. That's not [00:18:00] true. One of my biggest regrets is not preparing. Enough for my mission, not becoming a missionary before I started my mission. And a big part of that is my own conversion and , it just astounded me how much my mission president trusted me, no matter how many times I messed up.

Clay Smith: He really helped me learn a lot about the character of Christ and seemed like I'd always mess up and he'd always be so trusting and have so much. Faith in me and I love that

Clay Smith: He really helped me understand that it's not him that's forgiving me It's he helps a lot, but it's you know it's Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and he helped me understand the atonement a lot and that really inspired me to learn and study a lot about the gospel and especially repentance and I [00:19:00] think towards the end of my mission, I finally started to understand a little bit more about what repentance truly is.

Clay Smith: And, , as I went through that step I talked about in my mission where I was at that crossroads and as I started to take up like my daily cross, as I started to take up that commitment of repenting every day and trying my best and being accountable.

Justin Barton: What does that mean to you to pick up and take up your cross daily?

Justin Barton: How does that work?

Clay Smith: Yeah I always really the quote that , If Jesus Christ if he had to spend some time in Gethsemane if he had to suffer for our sins, We have to spend a couple of minutes or two in Gethsemane as well.

Clay Smith: It's the same with the cross. Jesus Christ, He took our sins upon Him. And He took all this responsibility out of love for each one of us. And it's a very, big responsibility. And [00:20:00] it was His calling. And each one of us, You know, we signed on the dotted line before we came here on earth that we were going to come here and we were going to follow God's plan, we were going to Go through this experience of mortality and in our own way, we all have been foreordained and we have this destiny of becoming better, just returning to live with our Heavenly Father and that's our, cross to bear is our discipleship every single day is making those right decisions and , staying on the covenant path and putting off the natural man, just all these things that, It's simple, but it's difficult, and that's a big part of carrying the cross, is it's difficult, and there's a lot of responsibility, but it's necessary,

Justin Barton: That's, really cool. Thank you for sharing that clay. Are there any passages [00:21:00] or verses of scripture that were some of those things that were that hinge pin moment in your mission, or maybe was a recurring theme in your mission that you kept coming back to? And if so what, were they?

Clay Smith: . I know in different points like Alma five obviously can you feel so now just like your body? Yes, that was a big one for me. Like after I had such an like Astounding experience with the atonement and feeling that joy and happiness and peace, you know it's easy to stop having that evaluation that you get put through and I'm a five that helped me a lot and help remind me of what I truly felt my mission and early and earlier transfers that helped a lot.

Clay Smith: I really like Mosiah five. That was one of my personal favorites. I memorized it. It talks about the, gospel of Jesus Christ and how the people, heard the words of, Jesus Christ through King [00:22:00] Benjamin. And they said that they wanted to sin no more. . They had their hearts changed through the spirit.

Clay Smith: They wanted to. Make a covenant with God that they were going to do His will and be obedient for the rest of their lives. And that helped me a lot. I think it starts at two is my favorite part when it says like they heard he said, my name is, I don't know if they believe his words. And they'll credit one voice saying, yeah, that part. I like that. And then verse 15, super powerful. I love that one. There's just little things throughout the 15 verses, you can't serve two masters.

Clay Smith: How do you know the master that you haven't served? That was really powerful for me. Just different things about being on the right hand of God and just being a disciple of Jesus Christ that is really powerful, that helped me a lot.

Justin Barton: No, that's very powerful. Are there any other experiences or lessons learned that you feel is really important to share [00:23:00] right now with me and with others?

Clay Smith: Yeah the first one I'd say is a spiritual one. The second one is humility still spiritual, but more on the humble side. The first one was I had really been studying about covenants and the power that we get through our covenants, because I wanted to understand Russell M. Nelson.

Clay Smith: He's always talking about this enabling power that we can receive, and I wanted to know. But there's this one experience that I'd love to share with y'all that was really powerful to me. It was at the end of my mission, I was training this Tahitian elder that I loved. .

Clay Smith: He was amazing. And we were teaching this lady named Nelly. , I could talk for hours about her. She was amazing. When we first found her She actually bashed us. She said, Oh, you're the Mormons. Oh, this, that, and the other, She's talking about bad experiences She [00:24:00] had and friends that she had that were in the church we had been working on Loving the people and leaving everyone with a spiritual experience to help them accept the gospel eventually.

Clay Smith: And so , we convinced her to, to let us share one verse and it was out of the Book of Mormon. And we shared the verse and we left. Two days later, we came back in the same neighborhood and she ran out and she said, Hey wait, the book you have, I want it. And so that's where I started teaching her.

Clay Smith: And she had an amazing, change. She started reading. She kept all the commitments. It was astounding. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Justin Barton: Do you remember what verse it was you shared with her?

Clay Smith: So I think it was actually when Abinadi is quoting Isaiah

Clay Smith: I think it's Isaiah 53 when he's quoting like Isaiah 53 and he's, saying how Jesus Christ, how he was it's a prophecy of [00:25:00] Jesus Christ and his life and his atonement. It's in French, so I'm trying to translate in my head, , and it's by his scars that were healed, just different things, and testified that only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ understand completely the pain that she's gone through and the experiences that she's had with the church and yeah, we left her with that really powerful.

Justin Barton: I'm going to read that verse right now so that it is here. I found it. It's Mosiah chapter 14. It's verse 5 he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.

Justin Barton: The one that you were looking at there that had a big effect on her. Go ahead and continue the story now.

Clay Smith: She gets hit by a car. She's in the hospital, hospitalized for the doctor say six months.

Clay Smith: We give her a blessing. And crazy miracle happened. She had a lot of mental health problems that just [00:26:00] stopped physically. She got out of the hospital in less than three months and we went back to teaching her because she was about to get baptized. . And so we have this fast Sunday. And me and my companion, we set a crazy high goal of finding 15 people that day.

Clay Smith: And so we were out all day long after church, just finding people. We were on foot. . And so we were super tired throughout the day. Me and my companion, we were falling to the ground. We're trying to climb stairs and we're slipping. My companion is sleeping during some of the visits, We're just so tired.

Clay Smith: We're beat. Nelly, she said that she couldn't do it. We found our 15 people and we were about to leave. And then we're walking home, which is a good walk. And she, calls us and she says, wait, actually, can you come over? I'm available. So we walk all the way back and.

Clay Smith: While we're walking up the stairs to our apartment building, my companion, , faints and falls on the stairs, and I help him up. I'm like, Elder, we just got to get to her house. , [00:27:00] We got to get up there, say hi to the family, and we planned that day that we were going to teach about covenants and the strength that we can get through being yoked to Jesus Christ through covenants, and so we get up there and We have this amazing, powerful lesson, we were crying, it was just beautifully, the Spirit just communicated perfectly, exactly what she needed to hear.

Clay Smith: It was crystal clear she understood the baptismal covenant very well, and she wanted more than ever to make a covenant with Jesus Christ. And we finished the lesson. And we got up and walked out of the house and my companion he like punches me in the arm and he said, elder, do you feel that?

Clay Smith: And I said, yeah, he just punched me. He's no, do you feel that? I'm like, what exactly? I could run home right now I could run home. It was like a physical restoration of our strength. [00:28:00] And I know that gospel covenant strength and power, it's not limited to physical strength and power.

Clay Smith: But in that case, we just were filled with the Spirit, had this amazing lesson. , Minutes earlier, starving, super thirsty, fainting, low blood sugar, everything. And then , we left her apartment and everything was fine. Me and my companion, we probably skipped all the way home it was a very powerful experience for me.

Justin Barton: Now you said you had another experience that you wanted to share too.

Clay Smith: Yeah, just very quick. It's small. It's just before my mission. I did a lot of athletics, sports, , and I only did things I was good at.

Clay Smith: And a good invitation for those getting ready to go on missions is push yourselves, go outside your comfort zones. And something I learned on my mission was being okay not being good at something, but I did not like doing things that I was not good at.

Clay Smith: So [00:29:00] being in a situation where you talk to all these people, you have to learn a language that is super foreign. It just wasn't comfortable, but I couldn't run away. And so it was very, hard for me. One of the hardest things ever emotionally. And learning how to be patient.

Clay Smith: And not be good at things and trust that it'll come. That's a good thing to, learn.

Justin Barton: I love that. And I love that motto maybe , getting comfortable with the uncomfortableness of, new things. . Is that something that maybe your mission president emphasized

Clay Smith: my first mission president, he was a doctor from California. He was very smart, intelligent man, very poised. He didn't get overly anxious or excited, or he usually stayed pretty flat line. , He had a clear mind and he was a doctrine master. [00:30:00] He always emphasized the Book of Mormon.

Clay Smith: He made us promise to read the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of our lives. . And I loved him a lot and he taught me a lot of , what it looks like to just have total confidence in the plan of salvation to where a lot of bad things happen on the mission.

Clay Smith: I was a zone leader on Guadalupe for about 11 transfers. So one zone, 11 transfers, a long time. And there was a lot of just different situations with like missionaries running away or just different things, but he always stayed calm, cool and collected. And he always had a the bigger picture, he always had the celestial, think celestial basically.

Clay Smith: And that's something that I really want in myself is to be poised like him. And then the second mission president he was from Canada. Very outgoing, very [00:31:00] adventurous. He was in his sixties and he was doing like triathlons and like the Spartan races and , he's very adventurous and dare I say adrenaline junkie, he liked doing a lot of crazy extreme sports and I loved him so much.

Clay Smith: He was such an amazing president and a thing that he really taught us was a lot of mental toughness whenever he'd teach us it had a lot to do with consecration and being disciplined. And I love that about him.

Clay Smith: Especially with me wanting to go into the military he always, trusted in me and believed in me and motivated me. He just gave such a disciplined and, a sense of urgency He really helped us push ourselves and see miracles.

Justin Barton: Super cool . So as we start wrapping things up here [00:32:00] clay there's a few questions. I typically close things out with and a lot of this conversation has been A lot about the first phrase. So maybe we'll see if there's anything else on that.

Justin Barton: But this, project is entitled, can you feel so now based on Alma 526 that we've referred to here and that reads, and now behold, I saying to you. If you have experienced a change of heart and felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can you feel so now? So that change of heart,

Justin Barton: is there anything else that just hits you that you want to say something about the change of heart? What that means to you?

Clay Smith: I like in the scriptures how often they use the word remember and being released from a full time mission and being home, it's a whole set of challenges and just different, Different set of challenges to making my discipleship the most important thing in my life, [00:33:00] and , I encourage everyone to go on a mission. All of my family members, all my friends, because it was such an amazing experience for me. And when I am struggling, , I can look back on my mission, the spirit that was felt every single day that I try to feel now, just how I felt and the joy that I experienced. The mission is such a great way to remember and be able to have that ingrained in. Do you feel so now is being home just.

Clay Smith: Trying to, do my best. I know it's different, but the mission really helped me out a lot.

Justin Barton: Yeah. And it is a little bit different. And that's my wrap up question is let's, jump in a time machine. Let's go forward five years, 10 years. You and me and

Justin Barton: we meet up with you 10 years older [00:34:00] clay And you're sitting there at the kitchen table and you got your head in your hand. You're like, man I'm, not feeling it. The connection's gone. What do you say to yourself based on what you've learned over the last couple of years to help yourself remember how you felt now?

Unedited Video Clay Smith: That's a good Question.

Clay Smith: What would I tell

Unedited Video Clay Smith: Myself?

Clay Smith: I know that especially cause I want to go into the military. I know that's that's spiritually, that's a dangerous place to be sometimes, if I were to go 10 years in the future and speak to a desperate Claire, I think what I try to do is, I'd try to help them remember just the amazing experiences that I saw my mission with people that I taught.

Clay Smith: I know [00:35:00] that's like a little bit of, , that's old light that you receive that's old experiences, but That's why i'm so thankful that my mission president invited me to read the book of mormon every day because that helps but I know how fast satan can make us forget and when the spirit's not present how hard it is to even recognize that it's not there.

Clay Smith: And you might even feel the exact same that you did before, or you might think that you felt the exact same, . I'd have to give them some invitations. I'd have to help them act, but I think the biggest thing for me would be. . Maybe looking through my book of Mormon, the one that I've had from my mission where I have all my notes in and dried up tear spots and just like different things where I felt something.

Clay Smith: , I think it's Luke too jesus Christ. He says this doctrine is not of me, but is of the [00:36:00] father. . But he who. Does like he who does the will of the father will know if this is true, like you won't know that you might not remember like the things you felt or feel like have the same testimony.

Clay Smith: But if you want to have those things, if you want to know those things you have to do what the Father asked. You have to experiment upon those things and you'll know that they're true if you act in faith. And I definitely give them some invitations and things to do, but you might have to help me out a little bit.

Clay Smith: I haven't had too much time to think about that.

Justin Barton: And that's what I like about these, is putting these, putting you on the spot to go, okay. What is that I would do? And I think this is a good exercise in that the whole remember thing. Before we close up, what I'd like to invite you to do, if you're willing to, is bear testimony in Haitian Creole or French, whichever you would prefer.

Unedited Video Clay Smith: Oh, I'd love that. That'd be [00:37:00] awesome. Yeah. Okay.

Clay Smith (2): Voila. I'd like to give

Unedited Video Clay Smith: a testimony that if I were to change, Jesus Christ would change me, because I went to live. Jesus Christ has changed me.

Unedited Video Clay Smith: We

Clay Smith: always have

Unedited Video Clay Smith: a chance to learn, to gain knowledge that Jesus Christ

Clay Smith: is redemptive, that the gospel is true, that we are able to live the gospel, and that's what changed us. And we know that he is redemptive, that this sacrifice is an eternal

Unedited Video Clay Smith: sacrifice, and the

Clay Smith: same ones who acted on Paul, the same ones who prayed for me, the same ones who prayed for me,

Clay Smith: Amen. Amen.

Justin Barton: Amen. Thank you so much, clay, man. This has been meaningful for me. I hope it's been helpful and meaningful for you too.

Clay Smith: Yeah, thank you very much.