On the Path
Helping athletes keep a Christ centered life. Weekly episodes with athletes and coaches that are succeeding in their sport while remembering what is most important and keeping Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.
On the Path
Just Ball
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I talk to Mason Hunter a basketball player at Southern Virginia University about the importance of just going to a game and just balling. We talk about the importance of Jesus Christ and Mason explains why he loves the nickname King of kings and how Christ is above all. Play the game how it’s supposed to be played and know that Jesus is your Savior.
Alright, welcome back everyone to another episode of On the Path. Thanks for everyone tuning in last week and listening to Caden Ford and his inspiring message about spiritual roots and how those help us to understand who we are and where we came from. This week we have another special episode. Today I will take a little second to introduce our guest. Today, the guest is Mason Hunter. Mason is from Saratoga Springs, Utah. He is currently a freshman here at Southern Virginia University, studying business management. And he is on the basketball team as well. And then a fun fact about Mason is that he served an LDS mission in the Philippines. So welcome Mason. We're happy to have you here today. I'm happy to be here. Mason, kind of tell us a little bit about let's let's start with basketball. I've talked to a couple basketball players recently, but talk to us a little bit about your basketball journey and how you got here today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good question. So my journey, I've been playing basketball since I could remember. I mean, I have memories of myself as like a four-year-old. I had like a little Darren Williams Utah Jazz basketball that I would play with. Um and over time I just I've always loved basketball. My dad played basketball in high school and college, and so I just grew up always surrounded by basketball. And I played multiple sports throughout elementary school, middle school, and in high school, um I it was kind of a weird opportunity because in high school I took up golf as well, so I was on the golf team, and then I played basketball, and then I was gonna be playing baseball, and that was the COVID year when COVID happened, and so like I didn't really play baseball, and so I stopped playing baseball and golf. I just didn't really like the other guys on the team, so I just stopped playing golf, and that's when basketball got really that's when I got really serious into basketball was my freshman year, and we had access to a gym, and I would be there for three, four, even five hours a day during COVID, just playing basketball, and that's when I really grew to love the game and um played all four years at Skyrige High School in Lehigh. So I'm a Falcon, I'm I'm happy to be a Falcon. Um but yeah, it it was hard. I've had a lot of trials and I've had a lot of you know roadblocks getting here. Um I fractured my back when I was in eighth grade, and that I didn't play the entire summer and even into the fall, and it was really hard for me. Um I got really sick my junior year, and I that was like right before the season started, and so it like hurt my chances of playing in our preseason stuff, and it was just really hard for me. And after my mission in the Philippines, I came back to Utah and I was hoping to go play at junior college basketball at one of the junior colleges in Utah, and they I've been talking with them and we've been setting stuff up so I can go play with them and get ready to be on their team, and they with all the new NIL and um transfer portal, all the new regulations and the new rules in JUCO, there's tons of people now going back to play junior college basketball, and so the team's just like filled up with people who were coming from Utah Tech, UVU, they were coming from Nevada, others other schools who weren't playing at that division one level, and they came back to a junior college like Salt Lake Community College or Snow College, and they they'd been playing, they'd been practicing and playing against division one players, so they were good. Yeah, and so that those teams took them, and so I kind of had no other option. And we've heard about SVU. Um, we heard it was a really good place, and we reached out to Coach Bevel here, and Coach Bevel said, Yeah, come on out, we'd love to have you. And I committed to go here in July, okay, the middle of July, and then the middle of August, I was out here. Yeah, so less than a month later, it was quick turnaround, and so far it's been awesome.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome. That's that's quite the story, and something that I like to point out. I know it's not always our favorite, but I really like to point out trials in the journey. Yeah, I've talked about trials that I've had, I had some injuries throughout high school as well, but kind of talk to us a little bit about how you were able to overcome those injuries and continue to push forward, even though obviously there were doubts, there was things that you wished didn't happen, but they happened. So now how were you able to overcome that and continue to pursue this goal that you had?
SPEAKER_00For me personally, I think it was just more of my because I I've struggled my entire life kind of having this perfectionist mentality and wanting to be the best, and which is common amongst young athletes, I think, and it's good to have that mentality, you want to be the best. And I felt like having those trials of whether it was an injury or getting sick or whether it was you know poor poor performances and whatnot, it was I used it as motivation to be like, all right, that didn't work, but that doesn't mean I still can't accomplish my goal, and so that just inspired me to work harder. And it's it's hard to do it every day, and I'm not saying you have to do it every day, you don't have to be a hundred percent perfect in everything you do in your sport, you just have to show up, and you know, I always listen to the grades. You listen to Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, even Michael Phelps, they just they're consistent and they show up. Kobe Bryant knows that not every day was gonna be his best day, but he could always give it his best effort, and that's one thing that I kept focusing on was all right, maybe I'm having these trials, maybe I'm having these challenges, but if I can show up and I can do my best, then that gives me confidence to do it again tomorrow. Yeah, and I think that's what helped me get through those challenges was just focusing on the here and now, focusing on what's going on, what can I do right now. Even though it's hard to not think about the future, not think about you know this the championship you want to win or the big game you want to play in. It's just it's hard to do that consistently every day. But over time, the more you do it, the more comfortable it gets, and the more, you know, for me it was just finding that groove of waking up every day and going to practice for a few hours, going on a run, doing push-ups, whatever you can do, get in the gym, and then do it again the next day. And so for me, finding the consistency and just showing up and putting in as much effort as you can and doing your best is where I found strength through the trials. Because I knew I wasn't gonna be perfect even though I wanted to be, and I struggled with that. Yeah, but I just consistently putting in the work and um like I keep saying, just doing the best you can do and what control what you can control, and everything else is just noise, everything else is just smoke around what's going on. So just focus on on yourself and how you can improve, even if it's just one person every day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure. I think I think that's super awesome. I think it's super important for us and everyone to listen and understand that trials are important and they're things that are gonna help us, like you said, it give you motivation to go back your next day and do better and just give your best. Um, I was gonna comment a little bit about your shirt and hat and Tiger Woods. I like that you mentioned him. Um, what do you see different about Tiger Woods? What gives him what makes him the the goat?
SPEAKER_00Obviously, his ability to just win when it matters. Um there's a video on YouTube that I love to listen to, and sometimes I'll listen to it pre-game if I just need a little bit of mental rewiring. Um, but he talks about or his dad talks about him being the most mentally tough person he'll ever meet. And I think that's so true. And you look at it, Tiger Woods mentally, other places of his life probably isn't as tough as he is on the golf course. But what he does on the golf course is you know, he has a bad shot, and he goes, All right, and that's you probably know that with golf. It's you have a bad shot, you can't focus on the shot you just had. Yeah. Because then it's gonna affect your shot on this, you know. You whiff a shot, you slice it, and you're you can't think about the slice because you're probably gonna slice it again. You're gonna you're gonna pull something, or you know. Um, and I that that's what I love about sports like golf and basketball and even baseball a little bit, is it's so mechanically you have to be so consistent in what you do if you want to achieve uh what what you want, and you can't focus on all the negative stuff, and that's why I think Tiger Woods was so good, is because he was just present, he knew what he needed to do, and he was confident in himself because he's he had put in the work. Absolutely. Um he had he had gone to the range for hours and hours a day, he'd he'd gone through the course and played those holes over and over. He'd probably had imagined that those scenarios in his head, I would assume. Yeah. And he when the opportunity presented himself, he was just ready to take it. And I think that's what made him the goat was to be able to do that and do it for so long. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03I think one of my favorite things that I loved to do in high school, right before a big golf tournament, whether it was state, uh region, whatever it was, I would always go back the Sunday before, I'd always go back and re-watch the 2019 final round of the Masters when Tiger Woods won it. And I love watching that because he did exactly what you just explained is he hit a bad shot, no emotion. Yeah, he hit a good shot, no emotion. He was just that flat, level-headed guy the entire round. Yeah. In the end, that's what won it for him. Was I mean, I think his last round he wasn't eight or nine under par. He was right there three, four maybe. But he just played consistent and the other guys just fell. Yeah. Because they were just overreacting, they weren't doing what Tiger was doing. He wasn't keep they he was keeping their composure and they were kind of out there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But yeah, it's I remember that day. It was cool.
SPEAKER_03It's it's a it's a good reminder for me to keep that men that mental game strong because honestly that plays a huge role in all sports.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think like for golf, I think it's one of the hardest sports because there is so much out of your control. I mean, you can control how much time you put in, yeah, and you can control your swing and whatnot, but it's not always gonna be the swing you want. For sure. Unless you're Tiger Woods or Scotty Shuffler or somebody nowadays. But they it's like you said, it's you have a bad shot and it's just even kill. It was a bad, and a lot of times uh there's a book called The Inner Game of Tennis. I don't know if you've heard about it. It's a really good book. Um, I read it when I was like in seventh grade, and I always we just have it in our shelves in our house, and sometimes I'll just open it and read it. But in the book, because tennis is another game that just has so much mental strategy to it. It just a lot of the best tennis players, they have a what we would call a bad shot and they hit it out. But the best tennis players don't see it as a bad shot, they just see it as oh, it went out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or if it was a crazy good shot, he was he had a tweener between his legs and back corner, everybody's like, that was such a great shot, but you know, the best players know it was it was in. And I think that's what we have to kind of try get. I don't know. I think that's what we have to develop in all aspects of our lives is kind of to lose judgment a little bit because that helps us remain in the moment. Yeah. Whether or not it was a good play or a bad shot, or whether or not, you know, you said the right thing to a person or it was a bad interview. Maybe you just didn't say the right things in the interview. Doesn't mean it was a bad interview, or just because, you know, it was a great first date. It was like, well, you probably did things that made it feel that way, obviously, but who's to say it was great or terrible? And that it just comes down to our perception and um having that mental side in sports and in life is it's super important, and a lot of people struggle with it, and I think that's it's really important to just be able to find your your niche and your groove mentally, and that's what separates the greats in life and in sports from the good. Yeah, so yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03I think those are super important things. Um, let's kind of transition a little bit and talk a little bit about the gospel, but I kind of want to talk about your transition from coming home from two years in the Philippines, transitioning into basketball, and how you're able to perform maybe at the level you were before or at a higher level. What were you able to do coming home off your mission to help you be a better basketball player?
SPEAKER_00Hmm. The good news was, and this is what I figured out before my mission, and then really lived it on my mission. The Philippines loves basketball. Okay, and so everywhere you go, people play basketball, and so even random days I'd be in my, you know, my shirt and my pants and shoes, and they'd be like, Wanna go play basketball? So I'd be like, sure, and I just had playing with the kids, and so I was able to play a lot, which was super nice, and I was able to keep some touch, and I got home from my mission, and it was it's hard, as most people who come home from their missions know, is you lose touch, you lose a little bit of feel for the game. For sure. And one thing I noticed was I was a little bit strong, I wasn't a little bit, I was a lot stronger than I was before my mission. Obviously, I had two years of to grow and to do other stuff, and I kind of leaned into that a little bit and tried to just find ways, what whether it was through pickup or just if I was doing skills training, just kind of use my new strength in new ways that I hadn't previously done. And I'd also become a little bit more of a consistent shooter, which I wasn't really a great shooter in high school, which um I think now it's it's fun, but it's hard at the same time because it's trying to keep that consistency. Yeah, and it it bugs me at times, but it's just how basketball goes. And I think for me coming home from the mission and just trying to keep doing what I was doing on my mission, whether it was uh reading my scriptures or it was praying, or I brought my journal. I write I tried writing my journal every day. Some days I'm just like exhausted and I don't want to do it, but yeah, and serving other people is super big too. And I think that helped me a little bit mentally in basketball is just to like focus on what I was focusing on for the past two years because that helped me feel good about myself, is helping other people, yeah, or putting my thoughts towards Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and praying. I think I prayed a lot more for like focusing on basketball than I did before I went on my mission, and I feel like that's helped a lot more is having that you know spiritual side attached to basketball. It makes it a little bit more personal and it makes me a little bit more um it puts a little bit more pressure on me to do the right things outside of basketball. Because if I want him to help me with basketball, I also have to help him with other things around life, whether it's serving other people and being a good friend to somebody or whether it's doing your calling in the church or whatnot. So for sure, I think those are all big things.
SPEAKER_03Those are super important for us. Um talk to us a little bit more about how the power of prayer has helped you throughout your life and how you've noticed a difference in how you're able to perform or how your day is simply.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, prayer is a huge that's one of my favorite things I learned what in my two years in the Philippines was how to utilize prayer. And I think we understand what prayer is and how to pray and what to pray for. But I don't know if a lot of people understand the true power it has behind it. And that's I learned that prayer, if you're focused and if you're really intent with your prayers, it whatever you're kind of asked, like it says it all the time in the scriptures, you know, asking you shall receive, and they kind of leave out the like with real intent, ask. Um, other people talk about it, and apostles and prophets throughout the scriptures and modern-day apostles and prophets talk about it, but um, praying with real intent and being willing to do kind of whatever he asks of you if you're asking for help in your sport, and he, you know, he gives you a prompting to do this a little bit differently or work on this part of your game or to devote a little bit more time to school because you know, we're all student athletes, we're not athletes students, and so if that will help you, if that's what he's asking you to do, maybe that'll help you in your sport. I don't know. For sure, and that's what I've just kind of had to come to accept was just to do whatever I felt was right. A lot of times I like to think my way through things, but just feeling what was right after praying was it helped me on my mission. I saw a lot of miracles from it, and it also has helped me here. And it's funny, I because of prayer I am here at SVU. Because I had I spent many days just praying to know what to do after my mission, where I should go play basketball, who I should contact, what should I even go play basketball? Should I just go to school and get my degree? And I I spent a lot of time praying and there's a lot of days where I just didn't have an answer and it's kind of stressed me out, but because of that I'm here and I've experienced a lot of good things since then. Yeah. And I'm that's just helped me to gain a stronger testimony of prayer, and so I just keep doing that for sure.
SPEAKER_03I think that's super awesome. I think for me I love talking about prayer. I think I've talked about prayer with almost everyone. Yeah. Um while I've done this, but it really is a noticeable difference. And we see that a lot of teams, even here at SVU, before every single game, they will pray as a team. Right? And I'm sure the basketball team probably does that too, right? It's it it gets the team started off differently, right? It gives us more of a I think a lot of when we're thinking about pre-game is getting hyped up, yeah, right, getting ready to go. But something that's really cool about prayer is you take a moment, everyone quiet down, quiets down, calms down, and just the team takes a moment to thank God and ask for protection throughout the game. Stay away from harm and injuries, and it's just for me, I see that as something that's insanely important.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_03Because we kind of talk about that level-headed thing with with Tiger Woods, right? Keeping that mental state, and I think prayer can help that happen, obviously before game. Depending on the sport, you need to be hyped up, you need to be ready to go. But prayer will kind of help us understand more of why we're going out to do this and what we're doing, for sure, right? Um talk to us about the team aspect here at SVU and how your team bonds together and how you guys work well together, both as a team, athletically and spiritually as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's an that's an interesting dynamic because our team has a lot of people who are come from different backgrounds. Um, for the most part, you know, a lot of people at SVU are from the West, mainly Utah. And we have we have a few people, I think we have five or six people from Utah on our team. And so that kind of helps build a little bit of connection. But we also have a lot of people who aren't members of the church um or who don't really go to church regularly who are on the team, and that's totally fine. And they I find it cool because they're still willing to pray and they're still willing to talk about the gospel and they're open to Jesus Christ. And as a team, I think that builds character because we we know that we're not the same, but we can still come together. And I think that helps with people's egos at the same time because when something like this your spirit or the gospel isn't the same, but you're still able to come together, you can still do that with your egos and with your personalities if they're not the same, or you think this should be this way, or you think you're better than this person, you can still come together as a team and focus on the main goal, which is to win. And uh it's super cool because I when we do our we pray after every practice and we pray before every game and it's super fun to just be as a team and and be able to thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be here. Yeah. And you hear some some cool prayers. And it's it's super cool sometimes for me. And a couple sometimes people will pray in the language they learn on their mission and so it's kind of fun. But that's super cool. Um yeah and we in on our team we had a bunch of people in our ward and so we all see each other every Sunday at church and it's fun to hang out with them and just kind of be with them when it's not about basketball. Yeah. And I think that helps build a little bit of camaraderie and trust with one another that even outside of basketball we're doing things that help us to get better and so we kind of build that trust on the court of we're probably going to be doing the same thing of trying to do things to get better and work together. So that's just one thing I've noticed about the team.
SPEAKER_03Yeah absolutely I think that's that's something unique to me that I hear that I see here at Southern Virginia is that everyone like you look at high schools and you see clicks. Yeah. Right? You see the athletes you see um musicians you see uh the theater people and just all these different clicks but at SVU it's kind of like all the clicks are athletes but it's your sport.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right? So everyone kind of that's what I loved when I first got here is I got here and I had 17 friends immediately because they were my teammates. Yeah. So it was so easy to just connect because we had one thing in common and like to this day I'm training with one of my teammates to go run a marathon.
SPEAKER_00That's super cool.
SPEAKER_03He's one of my better friends now so it's like it's just a unique aspect that we get to see here and it's just such a blessing to be able to have that opportunity to have um teammates and you also have the opportunity to like you said share the gospel have that opportunity to pray hear others pray hear them hear it in different language like maybe you don't understand the thing you say but I think they say but it's something that's unique and it's it's just a fun thing to do. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_00Let's talk a little bit about reflect a little bit on your best game of basketball that you've ever played in your life and kind of explain to us maybe not a step by step but kind of what was going on with you mentally and how you continued to play like maybe you started off hot and you're like oh dang I'm gonna have a good game and then how are you able to kind of keep that flow state or whatever I think my best game was my senior year of high school we played our rival who was Lone Peak okay and it was on their senior night and we hadn't won a region game. We weren't a we weren't very good our senior year. We also were in the best region in Utah we had Corner Canyon American Fork and they had guys who were nationally ranked and they're playing at UVU BYU and they're at other Division I schools across the country and so we had to play them twice a week and so it was kind of hard but we played Lone Peak and we just had battles with them every year from the time I was a freshman until that year and so that was our last time playing there and the game kind of started off it was a little bit slow. And I think at the end of the first half I had like seven points. I just it was kind of hard to get points going on we were down 14 and I don't know what happened but I I think my coach was just like just took the reins off of the team and off of me individually and I don't know what I did mentally to be honest. I think I just said screw it I'm just gonna go play yeah and I think I had like 17 in that quarter and then I ended the game with 31 we lost by on a game winning three so it was a little bit it was kind of frustrating yeah but no I it was that was a really fun game because I hadn't really played like that very frequently it was more just like whether it was in practice or it was a game that didn't really matter. And so when when it was in that game when it was against our rivals and it was on their senior night it made it a lot more fun and I was like dang this is super cool. And then looking back after the game I was like I don't even know like what was different and I tried to go back to like how I prepared for the game mentally like with this music I was listening to I ate a Snickers bar before the game so I'm like I gotta eat a Snickers every game now because I'm superstitious and so I think what helped me that game was just not caring what happened and just going out and playing and competing and obviously there's gonna be games when or there's gonna be matches or rounds when you're just playing a phenomenal or you're playing out of your mind. And there's gonna be other times when you feel like you've prepared super well you feel like you've done all the things you can do and you just can't perform and that's how sports is yeah um but that that was probably my best game um and mentally I think I just let myself go and just play. Because a lot of times I worry about is the shot gonna go in? Am I making a mistake? Is like what happens but I was just out there and I was playing and having fun and I think that was the most important was just trying to have fun. Yeah and everything else kind of came into play so that was probably that was probably my best game yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah I love exactly how exactly what you just said um I'm currently taking a class it's called philosophy of sport and it's it's such a fun class because it's just the it's just talking about sports and why people think they do the think the way they do and do the things they do while they're playing sports. Like why is that happening? And I think the first chapter in one of the books we're reading called Knowing the Score it talks about athletes just going out and playing. Yeah right you have hours and hours and hours of practice but then you get to the game and a lot of athletes are thinking back to their practice and what they did to fix how they're shooting or how they're swinging whatever it is but basically just says just go out don't think about the mechanics just go out and play. Yeah and you will play your best rounds you'll play your best game whatever it is and that's kind of what you just said you're like screw it I'm just gonna go ball yeah right and it's just it's such an interesting thing to think about because we're like I wasn't thinking about that during the game and that's why I played bad but it's sometimes we don't know what we're thinking about during the game but it all goes back a lot of people go back to their practice and they're just thinking too much about what happened in practice. For sure so it's kind of interesting when we just talk about going out and playing and that's how it ended up being our best game somehow but it's a super interesting factor and I just felt like throwing that in there but that's um talk to us a little bit about now let's switch and think more kind of the same general question but gospel and spiritually think to when you were at let's say a spiritual high you you really felt that you were doing what God asked you and um doing what you were supposed to do as an ethical human being. Yeah what was your process what was your what what were you kind of doing to help you feel God's presence and know that he's helping you with what you're doing yeah that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00So obviously a lot of missionaries will say like their most spiritual experiences were from their mission and most of mine were from my mission as well and so I'll just share kind of a point in my mission when it was kind of that same thing of kind of just going out and doing it. It was I was at I was probably about 14 months in my mission and I'd been stressed about the language I had been stressed about you know trying to learn certain scriptures trying to learn how to like communicate with people effectively trying to find people to teach trying to get them to come to church and you know make other commitments and I was just kind of stressed out about a lot of stuff that I didn't need to be stressed out about and I got transferred to this one area and I had this companion who was just really fun. He was a little crazy sometimes I'm like all right you need to calm down a little bit pal because you're a little too fun but he kind of showed me that like you don't need to be super stressed out all the time. You don't need to be like what you're doing following Jesus Christ what you're doing as a missionary or as a disciple is super important but it should be fun. It should be should give you joy to wake up and be like I get to like help people learn about Jesus Christ. Yeah or when you wake up in the morning it's like oh I get to pray or oh I I get to read my scriptures I get to read the Bible or the book of Mormon or oh you know general conference for the church is on I can I have time to listen to the prophet speak or an apostle speaker a general authority whoever it is and that helped me find a lot of spiritual momentum was just like having fun. Yeah and it was it kind of translated all aspects of my life it was now I'm like I feel good when I read my scriptures now my prayers are more intentional and they're more thoughtful and I'm feeling answers to them more often or now I'm seeing more blessings. I'm more grateful for the things I have and I'm meeting new people and so for me it was almost the same thing just kind of going out and not worrying about all the other things going on or worrying about things that haven't happened yet or that already happened but just being present and trying to find the joy in the now and just kind of doing what was asked in the moment and kind of with the basketball example of just being like you know what just I'm just gonna go be me. Yeah and I I saw a lot of good things and had a lot of miracles because of it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah and kind of what I got a little bit about out of that at the beginning was kind of it's more of a I get to aspect rather than a I have to yeah it's like oh I have to read my scriptures oh I have to pray it's more oh I get to do these things I get to go out and serve people I get to go out and talk to people about Jesus Christ about our Savior and it's just such it's such an important mindset to have especially in the gospel. Yeah because a lot of the times in the gospel it's a oh I have to I have to I have to and that can be really hard that causes a lot of people to kind of turn away and try different things like move more farther away from the gospel and that's that's hard to see be and a lot of the time it really is just the mindset of the person. Um let's talk a little bit about Jesus Christ and how and the role that he has played in your life and the blessing that he's been and how you are able to apply his atonement and his teachings into your life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah he's obviously the main reason for my life and for the life of everybody on this earth um he I really started to strengthen my relationship with him in middle school when I was about like 13, 14 years old and I kind of just started to get in a a real idea of his power to heal and his power to help people to change and to help people to have fun and enjoy life and have peace. You know you hear of all of his nicknames in life and he's the Prince of peace and he's all those other things and it's true he really does help people feel those things in life and his role in my life has been super impactful because you know we're not all of us are perfect and I've made mistakes that I probably shouldn't have made and like I wish I could have back but I was like that the only way to you know grow from this is to use the atonement and to repent and to go partake of the sacrament and that's a cool part about repentance is it doesn't even have to be for some serious sin or some crazy thing like murder or something like that or some um sexual sin that you commit or whatever it is but it's it's even just like sins of omission of not saying your prayers of not thinking good things about people or things that you probably should have done that you didn't do or things that you could have done differently the thing with repentance is you can be as far away from Jesus Christ as you can but as long as you're face towards him that's all he wants. But as soon as you turn around that's when you start to lose him and that's when he that's when he gets sad and he mourns because you know he sacrificed his life so that you can turn to him and become perfect because of him. And that's that's my favorite part about Jesus Christ is he's perfect but he doesn't expect us to be perfect and that's why he that's why he performed the atonement. Yeah. And he laid laid down his life willingly and not only that but he sacrificed the things of this world of all the joys that we receive as humans whether it's through f food whether it's through money fame whatever it is he sacrificed those things so that he could perform the atonement so that we could live with him and live with our father in heaven again. And I'm super grateful for that because if it weren't for him then we'd all be doomed. Yeah and I'd be lost we'd all be screwed but because of him we all have a second chance and because of him we're all learning and growing and taking that chance hopefully so yeah for sure I think that's awesome. Um kind of reflecting on all the nicknames of Jesus Christ what is your particular favorite and why um that's a good question I would probably have to go with the king of kings because you look at the world and you know there's not a whole lot of kings in the world today. But previously kings ruled the world you had the British Empire you had the Japanese you had the Ottoman and the German and so like they're all taking their turns being kings and ruling over these parts of the world and they just had so much power and they had so much money so much authority over other people and even if they were good or not good like okay Jesus Christ still has more power he still has more money so to speak than you do. He has more resources he created the earth and we're all subject to him he can he can crush a mountain he can dry up an ocean and he's the king of the world and so I find that even more kind of inspiring because he's all he's the king of kings yet he humbly was born in a manger. He's the king of kings yet he washed his sir his disciples' feet he helped people when they needed help and he gave his life up for us and performed the atonement even though he's the king of kings.
SPEAKER_03Yeah and so that's probably my favorite name nickname for him is the King of Kings because he's our king and he's our savior thank you that was that was beautiful um I think it that's that's a great name for him and all the names that he has are great for him obviously um but yeah I think I think we're gonna kind of start to wrap things up a little bit here. We're gonna go through the last two things that I have everyone share. I'll have you first share your favorite Bible verse and kind of why you like that verse and what um it does to inspire you and push you every day and then following that I'll have you share just your best piece of advice for an athlete who's trying to stay on the path.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah my favorite scripture is in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 and it um I can read it for you um so I don't mess it up but it says it's Jesus Christ talking about um he's giving the sermon on the mount and you know he tells everybody be a light to the world love your enemies and bless those that curse you and he's giving all these like crazy new insights and then at the end he goes be therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. And he kind of just drops the bomb on us like dang I don't you already told us to be the light of the world you already told us to love our enemies now you want us to be perfect like Heavenly Father and the thing I love about it is with for the Church of Jesus Christ of all Latter day Saints they have footnotes and annotations in the Bible and if you look at the footnote of perfect it has like a little subsection and it says the potential to be be or become and that's why it's my favorite verse is yes Jesus Christ is asking us to be perfect but it's the potential to become perfect and that's why he invites us to come follow him is he knows that through him we can be perfected through him we can become a God like he is and he wants us to be perfect and like I said I'm a perfectionist and I've all I'm trying to like get rid of it because it can hurt me in a lot of areas of my life but I I think about that and I'm like I think sometimes it's good to be perfectionist because you're trying to be better you're trying to be more like Jesus Christ and obviously you're not gonna be him on this earth you're not gonna be perfect but because of the atonement because of this you know every day is a new day we have the opportunity to get better and to improve and um find ways to become a better human. So that's awesome. And then probably to answer your second question about for any athlete who want like any advice to stay on the path yeah I also brought my journal um this has been super important for me I've written in my a journal I've had multiple journals um since probably 2017 wow I've written in a journal and I think I have I've gone through four journals since then so I'll I'll miss days and like the summer is like I just totally don't write my journal some summers because I just don't I try to write before I go to bed write my the stuff I learned in the day or um but writing having a journal having an an area of your life to go to when things are hard or when you have questions and just kind of voice that out and be able to write it out has helped me a lot to focus on the things that matter most and sometimes sports don't matter more than other things in your life and I also think that any advice for those who want to stay on the path is yeah write in your write in a journal write the things any questions that you have pray about them I also think that praying is super important but um the number one thing for me for sure is to just do that's another one of my favorite scriptures is in James when it talks about be doers of the word and not desire. Yeah I think that's super important is to just go out and do what you can. Yeah and that'll help you stay on the path and help you find ways to help other people and to follow Jesus Christ Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_03For sure I love that and yeah thank you so much Mason for taking the time to be here to thanks for asking me to do this. It's been fun of course um thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode I hope you are able to take this message and apply it into your lives and um share it with others as well. Make sure you're sharing this with your friends and family all those athletes out there that are struggling to find a purpose outside of their sport it's super important for us to remember Jesus Christ who he is and what he's done for us. So remember to share this and to follow the Instagram for daily updates on different scriptures and also for weekly updates on the the next episode coming out. And thank you everyone again and always remember to stay on the path