Every Religion Has Someone at the Door

88,500 Latter-day Saints. 430,000 Christian missionaries worldwide. 9 million Jehovah's Witnesses. 

Every faith sends somebody — and the way we treat the one on our porch says more about us than about them.

You can disagree with a religion and still be kind to a nineteen-year-old on your doorstep. The way we treat the missionary at the door says more about our own faith than theirs.

In this episode, we cover...

Freedom of Speech: "The Ones We Send" 

Full Story:"The Ones We Send: Living Your Faith When Your Kids Are Gone" 

From the Newsfeed: "Every Religion Has Someone at the Door" 

Faith & Hope: "On the Lord's Errand" 

Father Time: "The Missionary"

Funny Factory: "You Try Selling Jesus" 

Fitness Minute: "The Body You Send Them Off With."

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📖 Jason's book "The Promise to the One": https://www.amazon.com/Promise-One-Ja...

🌐 Website: https://jasonhewlett.com/

The Jason Hewlett Show — Where we use lots of F Words: Faith, Family, Fatherhood, Freedom, Fitness, Funny & Farce, as well as the Fulfillment of your Promises.

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#TheJasonHewlettShow #EveryReligionSends #MissionariesWorldwide #FaithAtTheDoor
#KindnessAtTheDoor #LatterDaySaintMissionaries #ChristianMissionaries #GoldenRuleFaith
#OnTheLordsErrand

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Welcome to the show. Right now, as I'm sitting here, there are 88,500 missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving somewhere in the world. The most in the history of my church. And yes, if you don't know already, I'm a member of this church. Some know it as the Mormons or LDS, but we prefer the actual full name of the church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it just broke the record for the most missionaries set in 2014. Three of them are mine. Yeah, Redford is in Argentina, a year into his two-year adventure. Ella is heading to Peru next for her 18-month mission. And Romney, well, Rney flies out next week to begin his two-year mission in Guatemala. His first full week has been here in our home for training, and it's been amazing to be a part of. Soon he will be in a touristy town called Antigua, Guatemala, working 12 hours a day, out on the streets, learning a language, wearing a badge with the name of Jesus Christ next to his own. And I will write him an email every week just hoping to hear from him. Three kids gone at once. Two years for the boys, eighteen months for the girls. I'm gonna be honest, every second of it is hard, painful, heartbreaking, even sobering. Times three. And also, it's probably the greatest blessing of our lives. Times three. So today we're not just talking about missions, we're talking about sending. Yeah, sending kids to college, sons and daughters to the military, humanitarian workers, gap year kids with a backpack. If you've ever put a child on a plane and stood at the gate watching a door close, well, this show is for you. This one is gonna hurt a little, and it's going to bless you. So let's get into it. Yeah, coming up on the show, the Jason Hewlett Show, and there's lots of F-words around here, as you know. Freedom, faith, family, fatherhood, fitness. Funny. I love saying that because it's just silly. But the freedom of speech is where we'll start. The ones we send 88,500 missionaries. Three of them are mine. And the truth about living your faith when your kids are gone, in the full story, we'll be talking about the ones we send, living your faith when your kids are gone, the airport, the empty rooms, the language you can't speak in your own house from the news feed. And we only try to bring the good news here. You can go anywhere else to see the news that's kind of a bummer right now out there. But we've got good news for you. Every religion has someone at the door, the global numbers behind every faith's sending, and how to treat the young person on your porch. And then in Faith and Hope, On the Lord's Errand, a song, a piano harmonica, the hymn I sing when I miss my kids. And Father Time, I'll just share a few thoughts about being a dad of these missionaries. And the funny factory, you try selling Jesus, the real comedy of door-to-door ministry and why the Amazon guy has an easier job than my kids. And in Fitness Minute, the body you send them off with. Yeah, it's brought to you by our sponsor. That would be Cardio Miracle. If you don't know what Cardio Miracle is, the world's finest nitric oxide and vitamin D3 supplement, we are sponsored by them. We thank them for all of their help. So stay with me. This one is for every parent who has watched a plane leave with their kids on it and stayed at the gate a little too long, wondering what just happened to the life you knew. My watch is now a comedian and a critic and a bit of a jerk, honestly. I've had insomnia since elementary. Today, my friends, we're going to talk about the promise I have never in my whole life kept to myself and some of the changes I've been making. Yeah, last week I told you sleep is what you do all day long, or at least work on, and that my body was finally sending me the invoice for 25 years of all nighters. And if you didn't check out that episode, I hope you will, but I want you to know this week my sleep has been kind of worse. Because when a kid of yours is on the other side of the world on the Lord's errand, the body doesn't let you sleep very easy. And the body knows, the body listens for the phone that isn't going to ring. So let's talk freedom of speech and the ones we send. I want to tell you the truth about the promise I did not know I was making 20 years ago. When I held Ella, I did not know I was preparing to put her on a plane to Peru someday. When I held Redford as a newborn, I did not know I was raising a young man to hand back. And when Romney was three years old saying, I like it when you're nice, Daddy, not mean daddy, at me in a car on our way to McDonald's for our daddy's son date. I did not know I was raising the 18-year-old who would be in Guatemala in a few weeks, teaching people Spanish, in Spanish, about Jesus Christ in a different language. Crazy. Nobody tells you when they hand you a baby. This one is on loan. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 88,500 full-time missionaries in the field right now. That is the most in the history of my church. And it's driven by the first wave of 18-year-old sister missionaries and 55 new missions that opened July 1st. These are now 506 missionary worldwide or missions worldwide. It's incredible. And three of those 88,500 have my last name. And here's what I wanted to say to every parent watching. Whether you're a Latter-day Saint or of a different faith, we are much more the same than you realize. Whether you share my faith or none at all, you know what exactly what I'm talking about, because this is not a Mormon story. It's a sending story. A kid at college? You know. A son or daughter in the military? You know. In a way, I never will actually on that one because your kid is in harm's way and I take my hat off to you. A kid doing the Peace Corps, humanitarian aid, a semester abroad, a gap year backpack, you know. A kid who took a job in a city you couldn't point out on a map. You know. If you have this experience happening right now and you want to put it in the chat, I'd love to highlight where your family member is, where your kid might be. And sometimes we get people commenting on here, and I'm I'm if I see them, I will shout them out. But the address changes, the uniform changes, the badge changes. You're unable to help in real time at every need, plea, and catastrophe they're going to experience. The ache is the same. And here's what I've learned watching my kids go one after the other. The version of you that raised them cannot be the version of you that supports them. The version of me that was the announcer of Redford's lacrosse games and drove Ella to golf and worked out with Romney in the basement gym. That version is done. A new version has to show up. One that writes letters consistently, because it is their lifeblood to hear from their parents. One that prays out loud in an empty kitchen. One that lives his faith, not because the kids are watching, but because they're not. And when your kids are gone, your faith stops being a family activity and becomes a personal contract, a true promise, like I like to talk about anyway. Every religion in the world is some version of this. Every faith sends somebody, and every faith trains parents to let go. So let me ask you this whose door did you close this year? A missionary, a soldier, a college kid, a kid with a dream? And hopefully they walked through that door and made something amazing. When when the kids are gone, does your faith get quieter or louder? And what promise are you keeping right now, in secret, that your kid can't see you keep? If a young missionary of any faith knocks on your door tomorrow, would somebody's mom feel proud of how you treated her kid? And what is the new version of you that has to show up now that they're gone? And are you actually showing up as that person? Some good things to think about. I hope you'll join me here today. The full story right after this. Nobody prepares you for the drive home. The drive home is when your faith either gets deeper or it doesn't. In that car, in that silence, you're alone with the person you've become, not the person your kid remembers, not the person your kid can see anymore, just you. I've made that drive with Redford gone. Let me show you a picture of uh of some of these experiences. They're they're pretty surreal, if you will, because I'm telling you, when they when they go, it's rough. Here's a picture of Redford a year ago when we uh we said goodbye to him. I can't believe it's been a year. You know, his brother Royal all the way on the edge there is as tall as him almost now. Redford and uh and Romney. Romney's right next to me there on the other side of Redford in the suit. But this was a year ago, I can't believe it. My gosh, how time flies. They're doing great though. Redford's in his mission and having a wonderful time in a place called Santa Fe, Argentina. Uh uh, I mean, it's a it's a mission. He's working hard. He's uh been uh struggling and challenged by a lot of things, and equally he's succeeding a great way. And then I've you know, I've made it known, and and Romney, who is next. You know, Romney's got his mission called to Guatemala. It's going to a place called Antigua, like I said. It's a very popular place in terms of the uh the volcanoes that you can take pictures with and other things. It's really cool. And so, then of course, there's Ella. Our lovely Ella, she announced to us on Mother's Day that she was gonna be going on a mission. We were like, okay, hey. So she decided to join her brothers. She's going to Peru. That's a shot of her in Alaska, where she's been living for the last few months. And so each of these kids, you know, they're they're leaving. It's a crazy time of our lives to see this all happening. And, you know, I made the drive with Red. I'm gonna make the drive with Romney next week, and I'm about to make it happen again with Ella in six weeks. We're gonna say goodbye to all these cute kids, and here's what living your faith actually looks like on the other side of that room. Number one, the room is still their room. You know, their bed still smells like them for months after, and then it doesn't. Some parents make the room a shrine, some turn it into an office the second week. There's no wrong answer, but there is one right answer. You have to actually process it. You can't outsource grief. Grief is a promise you make to your own heart. If you skip it, it collects interest. And ask me how I know. Number two, the language changes. Yeah, I served in Brazil. I speak Portuguese, at least I did 30 years ago. Tammy, my wife, served in Honduras, she speaks Spanish. Guess what? Redford's speaking Spanish in Argentina, Romney's learning Spanish from for Guatemala, and Ella will speak Spanish in Peru. What does that leave me? My Portuguese is now completely irrelevant in my own home. I sit at dinner, my wife and kids are gonna be someday speaking Spanish together. I'm gonna be like, hey, what did what did you say? Como está? You know, I was fluent in Portuguese. I had that, well, I had what we call the gift of tongues, really. You know, uh I mean, really, I was unable to speak a word up until eight weeks into my mission and teaching a family about Jesus Christ in their own tongue. That was a major miracle. It happened to me, it happened to Tammy, it's happening to my kids right now, and now I'm on Duolingo with the app trying to catch up so I can understand the family that came from me speaking Spanish. I'm like, El Gato está en El Biblioteca, you know, like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying. The people we raise get fluent in a world we don't fully speak anymore, and that is not a loss, that's the point. Number three, presence becomes something new. For years, I've talked about presence on this show. Put the phone down, be at the table. That was true while they were there. When they're gone, presence becomes something you cannot fake. It becomes prayer and fasting and writing a letter when you have very little to say due to your life being so boring now that they're gone. Going to the temple with their name on your mind, talking to God about a specific child in a specific country at a specific hour and believing God hears you and is with them. That is presence you can't post. Presence nobody sees, presence that only counts if you actually do it, and that's the promise. Number four is that the marriage gets different. Yeah, Tammy and I are alone in the house more than we've been in 20 plus years. Royal, who's 14, is the only one still around. The soundtrack around here is quieter. The marriage you built while the kids were there is not the marriage that carries you through this. You have to build a new one on purpose, on walks, on conversation, on the front porch after the last light goes out. Sending a kid away sends the marriage into a new season. It either gets tended or it gets brittle. I choose to make it stronger. Number five, living your faith becomes an act of trust, not performance. You know, when my kids were home, my faith had an audience of all four kids. Now it's an audience of one. And generally, Royal isn't around since he's always out with his friends. So my audience is now me and God. When the audience shrinks, either your faith deepens or it disappears. There's no third option. The parents who thrive when their kids leave are the ones whose faith was already for God, not for the kids. The families who fall apart are the ones who learn usually too late that the faith they were living was really a family performance. And now the family's gone, there's perhaps less of a foundation than we realized. The best gift I can give my three missionary kids right now, better than a package, better than money on their card, even though they like that, is the knowledge that back home their dad is still doing what he taught them to do. Praying, reading scripture, going to church, keeping the promise. They can't see me do it. So I have to actually just do it. Nike probably got a royalty when I said that. Just do it. You're welcome, Phil Knight. The ones we send are the ones who make us finally decide what we actually believe. Ready to jump into the newsfeed? Let's do that right after this. Alright. From the newsfeed, every religion has someone at the door. Story one. I love these news things that we find. The Latter-day Saint record. I have this cool team that finds all these cool stats. The Latter-day Saint record. On July 14, 2026, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that approximately 88,500 full-time missionaries are now serving worldwide. The most in church history surpassing the previous high of 88,000 in 2014. Elder Ronald A. Rasband made the announcement on social media, attributing the surge to the first wave of 18-year-old sister missionaries entering the field. Yeah, my daughter's one of them. On July 1st, 55 new missions opened, bringing the worldwide total of 506 missions. That is a 12.6% increase in a single year. Story number two. This is not just my church. Every faith sends somebody. According to Global Missions Research, there are approximately 430,000 full-time Christian missionaries serving worldwide across every denomination. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Jehovah's Witness reports 9.2 million active publishers in 241 lands. So there are a lot going on. Seventh-day Adventists, they don't as much send out an army of folks to preach, but rather has them in their local congregations around 20,000 called to preach and teach as missionaries in their communities. Muslim Dawa workers, Buddhist teachers, Hindu ashram teachers, Catholic orders, every major world religion has a version of sending. This is not just a Utah thing. I mean, Utah is certainly a very public version of it. If you've ever been to the Sullivan City Airport, you've seen the crowds gathering for the two-year return of a son or daughter, and few things will bring a tear to your eye if you see it and know it's happening even among strangers. But uh among all religions, this is a human thing. Story three The person at your door. Somewhere this weekend, a 19-year-old maybe a wearing a white shirt and a name tag. I wore my white shirt today for this episode. A stranger in your land, they may be carrying a book that is blue, or a watchtower, or a holy bible, or a rosary. They're going to knock on somebody's door. Somebody's mom sent them. How you answer that door says more about your faith than theirs. My ask is not a Mormon ask. It's a decency ask. You don't have to agree. You do not have to join. You can be kind. A glass of water, a smile, a no thank you, but I appreciate you. That's the whole thing. Case in point, my friend David Avron. He's a world-class speaker, one of the best and he travels everywhere. He's beloved. He's one of the great speakers and a dear friend. He sent me this text the other day, and let me just find it's a photo that he took of some missionaries outside his door. I hope you can see that photo. You see those two young ladies sitting there here? This is what he said to me. He said, Hey, a couple of wholesome young ladies came to the door wanting to tell me about Jesus Christ and the Church of Latter-day Saints. I told them that I I told them that I wasn't looking for a new spiritual journey. But I also recognized that it's nearly a hundred degrees outside. So I gave them each a Coke Zero and a Neutrograin bar and encouraged them to take a break in the shade on my front porch. Needless to say, they were very surprised and very grateful. Really cute kids. Look at that picture of those young ladies. They don't know David. They don't know he's a world famous guy. But he's kind enough to give them a drink and a snack. That's what I'm talking about. Be Christ-like. To those who are doing what they think is right and good. Whether you agree with them or not, they are on the Lord's errand. That is a phrase we use in my faith to mean this person believes they're doing God's work at cost to themselves. Yeah. They pay for it. They're not getting paid. And they're doing this for people they don't even know. You can disagree with the errand and still honor the errand doer. Story four. The cost behind the knock. Latter-day Saint missionaries pay their own way. Some people don't realize that. I mean, I remember working really hard throughout my youth to be able to help contribute to my mission. It's a very expensive thing. And two years for boys, 18 months for the girls, one phone call home a week on what's called a P Day, a preparation day, where the only day where you get a little break to go do some laundry, do some shopping for your food, and survive another week. There's no dating, there's no movies, no breaks for Thanksgiving, no time to rest on Christmas Day, as every day starts at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 10.30 p.m. In a language most of them didn't speak two months ago. Christian foreign missionaries across every tradition pay a similar cost. Military families pay a heavier one. College parents pay the tuition version. And uh hey, Randy, uh good to see you, brother. Hey, my friend, apologies for being late. No, no worries, great topic. Amen. Be Christ like, yeah, it's what it's about. Thank you, brother, for joining. Uh Randy's as good as it gets. If you don't know Randy McNeely, he's a great blessing to me. I I want you to know that somebody's parents are on the other end of the knock. That's all we're talking about here. Hoping their kid gets treated the way you'd want your kid to be treated. And uh I know my friend Randy's got a missionary out as well, and he's had others. It's a great blessing. But to be Christ-like, that is the golden rule. Every faith has some version of it. So, how are you doing with it? Faith and hope right after this. Okay, I want to read you a scripture, and I'm gonna do this quite different than in the past. We've usually focused on the Holy Bible, which is one of the major parts of our religion, and equally we have other revealed um scripture that I'm excited to share with you today. I've rarely done this on this show, and so thank you for joining me for a unique show. I'm also gonna play the piano in just a moment, which is next to me. I hope this goes okay because this is gonna be a different version of something that I've played for a while now, but I thought I'd change it up. So I want to read your scripture first, though. Uh there's a and Randy says, as a parent with a missionary, connect what Jason says. Yeah. Thanks, Randy. You know what I exactly what I'm talking about. And uh, so here's the scripture. It's in the book of Doctrine and Covenants. If you haven't heard of that, we believe it's revealed scripture in our church, in our world, and for everybody. But Doctrine and Covenants, section four, we call this the missionary scriptures for our church. And it's it reads like this This is this is a missionary's creed, really. Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work. For behold, the field is white, all ready to harvest, and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul. And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. Remember, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. Ask and you shall receive, knock, and it shall be opened unto you, Amen. So there's a lot to take in there. I mean that's quite the commitment. It's the ultimate promise. Think of every time you kept a promise nobody was watching you keep. God sees it, and your life bears the truth of it. That's the shape of a mission, that's the shape of a marriage, that's the shape of a life of faith. Keeping the promise every day to God, to self, and to each other. Now I I'm gonna play something on the piano. I'm gonna sit at the I'm gonna scoot over in just a minute to the other camera, and I'm gonna put on the harmonica, kind of the Billy Joel style, if you will, and I'm going to play a piece that I've had in my head every s every night since Redford left. And uh I'll have it in my mind every night, Romney will be in Guatemala, and every night LL be in Peru. But here's the background of this song. So this song is a missionary anthem, and uh I learned how to play it on my mission. You see, I only went to Brazil as a 19-year-old, I only knew how to play Billy Joel's piano man. I didn't even have the harmonica at that point. I bought my harmonica in Brazil and learned it there, and I added it to this song because this was the theme song of our mission. And this this is a missionary anthem, but just as those who fought in ancient battles to protect the religion, faith and freedoms from within the Book of Mormon, uh, the story of within Alma is chapter 56, verse 45 and 46, and 47 and 48. That's what we're gonna do right now with this. This this song is about this. So, this is a guy named Helaman, who is the captain of an army, and he was speaking. He said, Never had I seen so great courage. They said unto me, Father, behold, our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall, then let us go forth. Now they did not fear death, and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives. Yea, they had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying, We do not doubt our mothers knew it. And so it is the mothers who taught them and sent them off righteously. And thus it is the same in our home and possibly yours. With the mother who is the ultimate teacher and captain of our house under the direction of God, whom she worships. This song was written by Janice Cap Perry for children to sing. Randy says this section is one of my favorite in the whole Doctrine and Covenants. Yeah, thank you, brother. And these are great, great scriptures equally. This is a great story. I hope that you'll feel the spirit of it. And even if you have never heard it, I hope you enjoy it. This is my own variation with the harmonica and piano combination. Let's see how it goes. All right, let's go over here. Okay, here we go. Started off with just a harmonica. There we have it. I love that song. I hope you enjoyed it. Oh, it looks like Randy said a few nice things here. Love the harmonica for this. Chills. Thanks, man. Yeah, nobody plays it that way. I'm the only one. Maybe there's a reason, but I like it. He also says, my favorite book of Mormon-related song, we are as the armies of healam, and we are we are as the armies of healing. Let me tell you what that song means to me. You know, the piano is what I do when I don't have words, and when scripture's too formal, perhaps, and prayer feels too structured. I go to the piano, and what comes out is usually what I feel. I play that song different every time I perform it. I played it last night at an event. I play it different every time. The harmonica is like I said, what I learned walking the streets of Brazil as a missionary. My apologies to those who were within earshot of my learning and practicing that instrument. But I'll tell you, when my parents came and picked me up, I well, we we all gathered as missionaries and all the people that were leaving. And my parents were there with a couple of other uh people, and and they said, Okay, now we're gonna sing the mission song, and it's the We'll Bring the World His Truth, that song I just played. And they said, Jason, will you help us? And they thought I was gonna conduct. Bravo, bravo, thank you, Randy. And uh they thought I was gonna conduct because they didn't know what was about to happen. I sat down at the piano, put the harmonica on. You can imagine my parents' astonishment. I had never learned a hymn before my mission. By the end of my mission, I could play every hymn in the 300-plus page hymn book, and it was a miracle in my life. And playing the piano, the harmonica, that song, you know, my kids being out there serving, I believe that they're on the Lord's errand. And that's what on the Lord's errand actually means. Nobody's ever really gone. My kids aren't gone. They're all held by the same God who told a young man from Nazareth to leave his mother and go do the work of the Father. I mean, do you recall these scriptures from John 3, 16 and 17 in the Bible? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. That's what those missionaries are preaching. And who called Abraham to leave his father's house? Who called Ruth to leave her people? Who calls every faithful person in every religion to step away from home to become who they were meant to be? It's your ministry, it's your promise. Living your faith doesn't mean staying close. Living your faith means letting the ones you love go far. So here's my prayer. And it belongs to any parent of any faith. God, take care of them where I can't. Speak to them in a language I can't. Be with them in a way that I can't. When they come home, let them come home more of themselves and a better version of themselves, and somebody filled with the Spirit than when they left. That's a prayer for a missionary. I think it's a prayer uh also for a soldier, or a college freshman, or a humanitarian worker, a kid with a backpack and a bus ticket. Living your faith looks like trusting God with the people you love the most. And that, my friends, is the hardest form of faith I've ever practiced. I'm grateful for the challenge it is, as there are great blessings in our greatest trials. Let's go into Father Time right after this. Okay, so Redford's in Argentina. Crazy. It's been out there for a year. I actually just had the chance to listen to he him and his brother Romney uh have a chat. That was really special. They talked for an hour about what missionary work is like, as my son Redford, who's a year older than Romney, uh taught him all kinds of wonderful things about a mission. Romney, who is only a couple of days into his mission, listening to his older brother talk and answering questions speaking fluent Spanish. It was unbelievable. What a special thing. I've learned a lot watching my son go through this mission in Argentina. Things have gone spectacularly well in some cases, and other times, not so great. And he's witnessed really tough things that I wish he hadn't and yet that's part of life. I'm so proud of him for being out there. And he's doing an incredible work. So Romney flies out next Thursday. In fact, this next broadcast I'll be doing, I'll probably have tear-stained cheeks because we'll we'll be saying goodbye to him at the airport that morning. He first goes to Mexico for four weeks at a training center where he's gonna learn Spanish and be fully immersed in it, equally the gospel and learning to live with other people. It's a it's a really big, tricky time in your life to go to that training. And then, I mean, he'll be thrilled because he'll be done with Zoom. He's been doing he'll be doing Zoom for two weeks at our house, and then he gets to be around people, and he's excited for that, and I'm excited for him. From there, he'll go to Guatemala. We won't see him again for two years. That's how it works, and it's a heartbreaking thing. Yep, we don't want him anywhere else. And uh, yeah, it looks like uh Randy says, I know what Argentina's like, as that is where I served. Oh, right on, you're in Argentina. That's right, how cool! And uh, amen to that, Jason. God take care of them in a way that I can't. Everything else you said, thank you, brother. You know, Ella, she's leaving in um six weeks to Peru, and she'll be gone for 18 months. Peru is coming. My daughter, she's been in Alaska before that, Sun Valley, Idaho, before that, she's in New Zealand, and then she was in Italy. So for the last two years since she graduated high school, she's been traveling the world already. We're just so excited that she's gonna go do this. It'll be awesome that she'll get to learn the language. But I can just say that seeing each of these kids go off and live their dreams, live something that's gonna be fantastic for their lives. I it's it's the greatest feeling in the world to think that they're gonna have this experience. And I appreciate the families and the people that have been kind to them. And uh I I I I can honestly say that it's been um it's been sorrowful in a lot of ways. There's a lot of grief around it. I I've heard other parents talk about their missionaries and they're like, yeah, my my missionary is coming home soon. I'm you know, we're not counting, but in 56 days and 30 or 13 hours, you know, it's a sick funny because everybody is really on the countdown because they miss their kids that much, and yet we're so proud of them, so grateful they're there. And so as a dad, father time has been different. It's been from way afar, and that's been unique. What I do like to think about though is that there is a funny aspect to all of this, and that is what we're gonna talk about next in the funny factory right after this. Alright, let's talk about in the funny factory. Somebody has to say it. Missionary work is the hardest sales job on the planet. I mean, I've pitched six-figure contracts, I've attempted to sell Cardio Miracle to people who are insistent they'd rather die than try it, and I've sold my own show and speeches to people who'd never heard of me, and I've sold them for 25 years. None of it, none of it is harder than selling Jesus door-to-door in a neighborhood where three other churches got there first, and one guy has a no-soliciting sign that specifically lists your religion by name. So here are seven things that I'm just sharing lightly here with you today. Seven things that are objectively harder for a 19-year-old missionary than the Amazon guy in a vest. Number one, the Amazon guy is bringing you something you already bought. You know, the missionary gets the porch light turned off and from inside while you're still on the porch. Number two, the Amazon guy has a package. Yeah, the missionary has pamphlets and a name tag and a companion who's been living in the same 400 square foot apartment as them for six weeks and knows everything about them, and they aren't that friendly sometimes to each other. That's a hard thing. Did you know they have to live with a stranger who becomes their companion for uh a block of time? My my son is right now on his second round with the same companion, so six weeks twice. 12 weeks, what's going on? That's a long time with somebody you may not get along with great. Luckily, they're getting along pretty well. Number three, the Amazon guy leaves. Yeah, the missionary has been coached. If they open the door even a little, keep going. That's not a job, that's a psychological experiment, right? Number four, the Amazon guy doesn't ride a bike. Yeah, missionaries ride bikes. You've probably seen them. I mean, if they're lucky, they'll get one. My my kids most likely won't have bikes, but you know, they'll be in a white shirt in August in somewhere like Houston with a backpack full of Book of Mormon that weigh more than the bike does. Number five, the Amazon guy speaks English. Yeah. Romney's trying to sell the gospel in the language he didn't speak two months ago. I mean, imagine walking up to a stranger's house in a country where you can barely order a taco and trying to explain the plan of salvation. Now that is a job. Number six, the Amazon guy is not living with his companion. I mean, 24 hours a day you're with this person. Same apartment, same bathroom schedule, same food. There's a reason companionship inventory is a real thing in the mission. That's where you have hard conversations with your companion once a week and say, This is what I'm concerned about. Number seven, the Amazon guy doesn't get told he's going to hell for what he's delivering. No, but my kids will. They'll get somebody slamming their face in the door, and and I'll tell you what, people yell the craziest thing. Somebody will threaten to call the cops, somebody will pull a gun or a knife, happen to me, and they have to walk to the next house and knock and smile and do it again at 19 with acne in August. Man, here's the punchline. You know what those missionaries do that night in their apartment on their knees? You'd think they'd probably be cursing people out, no? They pray for the people who slammed the door on them. Yeah, try that tomorrow morning. Try praying for the client who told you off, the boss who yelled at you, and the customer left the one-star review. My kids do this every single night. They're the toughest salespeople on the planet, nobody's paying them a commission except for God. The blessings are coming. As we wrap, let's go into the fitness minute right after this. Alright, in the fitness minute, here's something nobody tells you about sending your kids on a mission or to college or into the military. The last impression your kid has of you, the one that goes with them across the world, is the version of you they hugged goodbye at the airport. That's not a small thing. That's the version of you that shows up in their head when they are homesick at 11 p.m. in a foreign country. That is the version they picture when they pray. That's the version they describe to their companion when they say, Let me tell you about my dad. And you get to choose what that version of you looks like. So when Redford hugged me goodbye, I wanted him to hug a dad who is strong. And yeah, oh, thank you, Randy. Love the way you create comparisons. I never would have thought of it, Jason. Love it. Yeah, it's fun to fun to compare different things between Amazon delivery guys and missionaries. And also when it comes to the fitness piece, Redford hugs me goodbye. I wanted him to hug a dad who is strong, right? But uh strong enough to still be there when he came home. Strong enough that when he calls into you to say, Hey, how are you, dad? My answer is actually I I look and feel even better than when you left, because I've been working out. That's not vanity, that's stewardship. Your body's the only body you get, and it's the only body your kids get a hug when they come home. So take care of it. You know how, don't you? You know what I'm gonna say. Every morning I take the world's best nitric oxide and vitamin D3 supplement made by well, formulated by my dad. The the cat's out of the bag, yeah, it's a family company, and I'm proud of my dad. My brother is the VP, I get to help run it as well. This is an incredible company. It's called Cardiomerical. If you haven't heard of Cardiomerical, it ignites nitric oxide within the blood vessels, it helps with circulation and blood flow. So if you know somebody that's having challenges with their circulation, their uh anything like uh post surgery, these kind of challenges, hey, give them some cardiomerical, see if It'll help. I know that it's helped a lot of people in my neighborhood. In fact, I'm seeing miracles all around me with people that are saying, This is the best stuff I've ever tried in my life. And it works. You just pour it in water. Very simple. You just pour it in water, drink it a time or two a day, and it changes the way that you recover. It changes the way that you live your day. I mean, if you're relying on all the other things that keep you stimulated throughout the day, maybe cardio miracle could be the one that you put in your body instead. What we're going to do is put a link in. You can scan the QR code, and this is the code right here. There's it's also being shown. Yeah. So I know on the vertical one we don't have it, the shot in there, but you'll see it. And then uh if you want to try it, here's our family commitment to you. If you don't like it, you try it for 60 days and you're like, I don't like this stuff, send it back. We won't ask you any questions. I mean, we might like to know why, but we're we're not gonna bother you about it. We're just gonna say, okay, go ahead and get your money back. In fact, keep it, don't send it back, keep it, give it to somebody else. We'll just send you your money back. And that's a promise that we make because you know, we want our bodies to be healthy, we want our people that enjoy what we do uh to be happy. I hope that you'll check it out. And uh, if you want to go get a go get a discount when you click on that link, it's pretty neat. So I hope you'll check out Cardio Miracle, it's good stuff. I use it every single day. I'm so thankful for it. My dad created it because he was having some challenges with his heart, and it's a miracle for us. So, you know, together, having a strong body and having uh, you know, the the supplements that you need every single day, that's what you want your the kind of body your kids to come home to because they're gonna come home, and you know, when they do, you want to be more of yourself, not less. And Cardio Miracle can help you with that. So the link is in the show notes, and uh, you know, save some from the missionary when they come home, they're gonna need it because they're gonna need a lot of recovery after their work out there. So we've got just a minute left of the show. Let's bring it home. Alright. Deep breath. If you're a Latter-day Saint with a kid in the field right now, I see you. I know about the P-Day emails, the mission photos, the pen on the map in your kitchen. Keep going, you'll be fine. And uh Randy says I can vouch for Cardi Merck, use it twice a day, it's made a huge difference. Thank you, brother, for trying it out and sharing as well. I'm grateful you're using it. You know, if you're a parent of any other faith sending a kid somewhere hard, I see you too. Every religion honors the sender. If you're a military parent or a first responder parent, or a parent of a kid who chose a life that scares you, I take my hat off to you. God bless you. Your load is different than mine. Your love is the same. And if you answered the door this weekend to a young missionary from any religion, thank you for being kind. Somebody's mom is grateful. Be like my buddy David. Give him something to drink that's you know, let him sit on your porch and have a snack. You know, Romney's a week deep into his mission, Redford's still in Argentina a year in, Ella's six weeks closer to Peru, and I'm here doing the show, keeping the promise. Because that's what a dad does when the kids are gone and nobody's watching. Whatever you believe, wherever you send them, live your faith. Not because they're watching, because they're not. I'm Jason Hewlett. This has been the Jason Hewlett Show, and I will see you next Thursday. Looks like Empress Creations join us. We'll watch the show and replay. Yeah, watch the show and replay or share it. I'd love for you to share this with your friends. And also, it's packaged as a podcast if you check it out on iTunes, Spotify, everywhere you can listen to podcasts. So we always launch it right after this show, the live broadcast. So I'll see you next Thursday, 3 p.m. Mountain time. Until then, keep the promise.