Episode 5: Jack Esplin

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught, “An assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important but secondary to a call to the work.”

Jack Esplin learned this firsthand. Originally assigned to labor in the Bolivia Cochabamba Mission, if you were to ask Esplin, today, where he served, he would say Bolivia and Colombia.

But, even before then, before he left on his mission, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to go.

“For me, it was mostly just the fact that, you know, we’re commanded to, as young men in the church.” Esplin said.

That changed the moment he entered the MTC. The learning and growth that he experienced because of his mission made it worth it for him.

“I loved that six weeks,” Esplin said. “It was incredible. Just the atmosphere, the spirit that’s there is crazy. And just the new habits that I formed there and the people that I met in my district, my companion and stuff.”

The new habits that he formed at the MTC translated to his determination in learning his mission language.

“I had this notebook,” Esplin said. “I would carry it around in my pocket in Bolivia. [...] I literally would not speak a word of English because I just wanted to learn Spanish so bad. So, I would walk around, and I would write down words and that whole little notebook is just totally filled with words.”

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Esplin didn’t know it then, but that stubbornness to never give up and finish would serve him well eleven months later.

It started like any other day. It was the day of transfers as well as P-day, and the missionaries were gathered at a church building to say goodbye and play some sports. While there, the missionaries began talking about the political unrest that the country was going through, and their uncertainty amid the situation. It was not long after that that the missionaries were told to remain in their apartments.

According to Esplin, Americans were especially at risk. The missionaries ended up spending about four weeks in their apartments. During that time, they could not wear church clothes or even wear their tags outside. They were surrounded by blockades and burning buildings.

Yet, amidst constant questions and the precarious situation, Esplin felt peace.

“I think, just trusting in the Lord’s plan,” Esplin said. “None of it is how I envisioned it to go. [...] Obviously, it was kind of nerve wracking, and it was kind of scary because I was like, ‘Well, what the heck? Where are we going to go? I don’t want to leave these people already.’ [...] I think I was just trusting in Him because I was like, ‘Yeah, I know that the Lord will make everything work out. Even if it’s not how I expected it to go. It ended up being better than I could have ever imagined.”

That move was only the first of many. He, along with other missionaries, was flown to Brazil and stayed at the Brazil MTC. From the Brazil MTC, Esplin was reassigned to the Colombia Cali Mission. Before going to Cali, Esplin was sent to a third MTC – the Colombia MTC. He stayed there for two weeks and then finally made it to Cali. 

He only stayed in Colombia for four months before COVID-19 struck. As the severity of the virus became clear, church leadership decided that all missionaries with 18 or more months of service would be released and sent home from their mission. At that point, Esplin was at 17 months and three weeks. He thought that he would be able to stay out, but it was determined that he was so close to 18 months that he was sent home.

Esplin’s mission had been a rollercoaster, but this was different.

“I was like, ‘Well, I do get to go home, see my family, and rest and not walk around all the time anymore,’” Esplin said. “But at the same time, I was like ‘Dang, I really wish I could just finish my mission.’”

Despite his desire to finish serving, Esplin realized that the Lord had a different plan for him. That is exactly the advice he would give to missionaries facing a similar situation.

“For anybody that gets reassigned or that has to go home early or anything like that, it’s all because of the Lord’s plan, and He knows what’s best and He knows what’s going to bring us the most happiness,” Esplin said.

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You can listen to the full episode with Jack Esplin on the media player above. To listen to past and future episodes, search for “Called and Qualified: A Missionary Story Podcast” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Episode 4: Ashley Drowns

 

**Aside from the name of the missionary, other names have been changed to assure privacy.

Ashley Drowns knew from a young age that she wanted to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She took the motto “every member a missionary” to heart.

Growing up, she was shy but, in an effort to put Ether 12:27 to the test, she turned to prayer.

“When I had the impression that I should try to be more outgoing, try to share the gospel more, I honestly asked God, I was like, ‘I don’t know where to start. What can I do?’” Drowns said.

That is when the Lord provided her with a unique way to strengthen her self-confidence while also sharing her testimony.

When she was 15, she shared the gospel with her friends by giving them “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlets with her testimony written in the cover.

The pinnacle of that experience came when one of her friends accepted a pamphlet, began meeting with the missionaries, and chose to join the Church.

That was a formative experience, one that further lit her desire to serve.

Drowns further prepared by going out with the sister missionaries in her area, and taking lessons from how her brother prepared for his mission.

Drowns opportunity to serve came sooner that she originally planned after then Church president Thomas S. Monson announced the age change for young missionaries in October 2012. With the announcement, sisters could begin serving at 19 instead of 21.

“I was so excited,” Drowns said. “I couldn’t even contain my emotion. I think I might have cried a bit.”

After she had done as much preparation as she could, the call finally came. She was called to the Hungary Budapest Misson and spent nine weeks in the MTC.

Her mission was full of inspiring, motivating, and testimony-building experiences. One such experience centered around one specific person whom she taught.

“[Erin] was already seeing the sister missionaries when I got transferred into the area,” Drowns said. “She was consistently taking the lessons, making improvements to her life. I saw her go from smoking so much a day to going two weeks without smoking at all.”

It was not just smoking, Drowns saw Erin change other things – redefine her life – so that she could become a member of the church that she knew to be true.

“If someone told me, ‘You have to change every aspect of your life in order to do this,’ I would have to be pretty convinced that it was the right thing to do. And she showed so much faith in every aspect of her conversion. I was learning from her the whole time.”

Erin was ultimately baptized in a motel hot tub. Her faith served as a light for Drowns when she faced her own challenge.

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Perhaps, Drowns’ most life changing moment from her mission had nothing to do with teaching the gospel to others but what she learned for herself.

Drowns came home from her mission six months early. She had never experienced depression before.

“I was realizing that as I was going day to day that something was changed,” Drowns said. “And I really didn’t want it to be a change that I couldn’t handle or that He couldn’t get me through.”

Drowns did everything she could to be able to serve through the struggle. She talked with her mission president and received permission for one of the elders in the area to give her a priesthood blessing.

In that blessing, Drowns was told that she should stay in Hungary and complete her mission. However, not long after, her mission president said that he felt prompted to send her home.

Drowns was thoroughly confused.

“A week later, I was given the opposite message from somebody who also was in a position to receive revelation from God,” Drowns said. “How can you reconcile that? And that was a question I had for years. The question is ‘Why would God say to me that I should stay and then send me home a week later?’”

Wrestling with that question led Drowns to the story found in Genesis 22.

Thousands of years prior, Abraham had been given that same conundrum, when the Lord instructed him to sacrifice his son, a son which he had been blessed with after years of effort and struggle. In faith, Abraham went forward with the command. It was only when he was about to go through with it that an angel stopped him and saved Isaac.

That story from the past gave peace to Drowns in her present.

“I felt at that moment that that’s exactly what God had done to me as far as testing my heart, testing my obedience, testing my love,” Drowns said. “He wanted to see if I was willing to load up that donkey, prepare with wood, take all of my doubts up the top of that mountain and lay them down on the alter and obey when He said stay. But then, give me what He knew I needed, which was to see my family.”

When she returned home, the majority of the reception was positive and loving, which is what she says is important for anyone to convey to the missionaries they know who return home ahead of schedule.

“Genuinely show interest in their well-being outside of wanting to know what happened because they’re still a person and they still have things that they’re working through,” Drowns said. “I told you, it took me years to find that answer. I think it was at least four years later. Four years. If the person, then, didn’t have an answer for you that day. I mean, unless you know me four years later, you’re not going to know the answer because I don’t have it.”

For those who came home early for any reason, Drowns highly recommends messages and talks from President Jeffrey R. Holland.

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You can listen to the full episode with Ashley Drowns on the media player above. To listen to past and future episodes, search for “Called and Qualified: A Missionary Story Podcast” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Episode 3: Dallin Slater

At first, Ammon, Idaho native, Dallin Slater, didn't picture himself serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He would see his friends come home from their missions and how difficult it was for them to transition back into everyday life that he didn't want that struggle, and he didn't want to go to college.

Instead, he decided to serve his country in the National Guard. However, while Slater was in basic training, he changed course one more time.

"Definitely a lot of mixed emotions," Slater said. "I submitted my papers while I was in training, and so that was a lot of weird feelings going on there. Right? Because I'm like, focusing on my training and stuff like that."

When he thought of himself on a mission, he saw himself serving in New Mexico. The Lord had dramatically different plans. Slater was called to the Dominican Republic.

Slater didn't know much about the island or its culture, but he figured it out quickly.

"I was like, 'Okay, where is the Dominican Republic?'" Slater said. "I remember I studied a little bit of the geographics in Spanish class, but I had no idea it was in the Caribbean. Like, okay, Spanish speaking. I thought I'd be playing soccer, but no, it was baseball. It took me a while to actually get comfortable with that was my mission call. Like, this is where I am going. Like, that is for me."

As an Elder called to speak Spanish, Slater learned at the Mexico MTC, a place that Slater calls "a paradise on earth."

"I love that place," he said. "I am so jealous of anyone who gets called there and gets to do their MTC there, because it literally is a heaven on earth because it's just this campus in the middle of the city and there's parrots and birds flying around, and you just feel like it's literally set apart from society."

There, Slater had to objectives: learn how to be a missionary, and learn passable Spanish. When he left the MTC, Slater thought he knew all he needed to know about Spanish, but when he arrived in the Dominican Republic, he learned that that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"I thought I could understand Spanish going in, but really, I went to the Dominican Republic to learn Dominican Spanish," he said. "All the members, I'd be like, 'Yeah, I'm going to go back [and] study Spanish.' Like, 'Oh, yeah, you're gonna need to study Spanish because you speak Dominican."

Whether he spoke clearly or not, Slater says he accomplished one of the most important things he could have ever done while he was there.

"I got called to the Dominican Republic so I could better get to know my Savior," he said. "I feel like God needed me to get to know his Son better."

That he did. Though, perhaps, not in the way he expected or wanted. Midway through his service, Slater began to feel sick, and he couldn't shake it. It got to the point that the mission nurse told him and his companion to go get tested for parasites. When the results came in, it showed something surprising — Slater's companion had parasites, but Slater did not.

Despite what the tests said, Slater got worse. He got retested, and this time it showed that he not only had one parasite, he had three. 

In an effort to get him the best help possible, Slater was moved to the city. After some time and antibiotics, Slater began to feel better. That didn't last, though.

Ultimately, the difficult decision was made that he needed to come home. When the decision was made, Slater was torn. He knew that going home would allow him to receive the help he needed, but he had worked so hard to go out in the first place, and he was just two transfers away from finishing.

"It hurt so bad," he recalled. "I'm not going to lie. I came home. I was very angry. I was very mad. I'd always ask why. I tried my best. I did a lot of preparation before the mission so I could stick it out, you know?"

Despite his uncertainty and disappointment, Slater did recognize tender mercies. When he left the Dominican Republic, he wasn't alone. He traveled with his mission president and the area presidency.

Returning home may have answered one question, but it also produced more question marks. What would he do now? When would he get to feeling better? Would he be able to go back out.

As Slater recovered, some of the fog surrounding Slater's situation dissipated as well. For one thing, with just two transfers remaining on his mission, Slater soon learned that he would not go back out. Instead, he had to options: finish and be honorably released, or finish the last two transfers via a service mission.

Even though Slater was welcomed home with open arms, he still felt that he didn't finish. His perspective changed when his dad's friend visited.

"I was just talking to him and I was like, 'Man, I wish I could like, finished out strong, you know?' Slater remembers. "I was still contemplating how was I was going to go about doing the service mission. Like, 'Dude, you did it. Like, 'That was what God required of you. Don't look back and be like, 'Oh, I didn't finish.' Like, you went and served a mission. You served a worthy mission.'"

Slater opted for a service mission. Over that time, Slater worked in baptistry and in different areas of the temple, continuing to learn and grow as he served.

Now, Slater can confidently say that he indeed "did it." He "served a worthy mission."

When asked what people could do to support those who come home early from their mission for any reason, he recommended making sure they feel loved.

"You just love them," he said. "Honestly, that was one thing. There is such a stigma about it, and it's so frustrating. People need to understand and accept that. [...] Just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong."

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You can listen to the full episode with Ashley Drowns on the media player above. To listen to past and future episodes, search for “Called and Qualified: A Missionary Story Podcast” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.