My Why
I served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Nebraska Omaha Mission from October 2018 to 2020. I loved my experience, but it was exceptionally different and held several different challenges. I served a fully proselyting mission with cerebral palsy. I underwent seven surgeries to be able to serve a mission.
About a year and a half into my mission, I was laying in bed one night when inspiration struck. I had the thought, “If I had this struggle to get on a mission, there have got to be other missionaries with similar, inspiring stories.” Now, five years later, this project gave me the opportunity to act on this idea.
The How
The title and inspiration behind this podcast comes from a quote by President Thomas S. Monson. He said, “Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”
To date, five episodes of the podcast have been released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The people that I interviewed were a combination of people that I know, and those who responded to a request that I made on social media. Topics include serving with a disability, mental health, illness, and being displaced because of political unrest.
I used the equipment and facilities at BYU-Idaho Radio to interview the individuals and edit the episodes. I promoted the show by creating a social media account for the show where I posted links to episodes and updates. I also cross-promoted the show on my personal profile. Additionally, I created a blog where I posted articles summarizing and highlighting each episode.
What I Learned
I learned and gained several skills as a result of this project. This project reinforced what I had learned about editing through Adobe Audition, but I think the number one thing that I learned and improved on was interviewing. It is difficult to interview people, especially when you are discussing intimate subjects.
This project helped me to know how to better direct an interview and conversation to hit key points while also allowing the person to feel that they are being heard and that their story is important.
I was able to further hone my skills when it came to Adobe Illustrator, as I used the program to create all of the art and imaging for the podcast.
This project also reinforced a spiritual lesson. I gained a better understanding about how the Spirit can reside anywhere that he is welcome. We were often in small studios, but because of the things that were talked about and the emotions that surfaced, the Spirit was powerful and palatable. The Spirit can be felt anywhere!
Analytics
I decided to measure the success of my project not based on how many listens it got, but on how many people it touched and helped. I had several people reach out to me, both people that I interviewed and other listeners, who expressed their thanks and how it has helped them.
That being said, as of the time of this post, the show has had 39 plays on all platforms. On social media, the page has five followers and three likes. Below is a screenshot of the analytics:
Conclusion
I am so grateful for this project, what I have learned, but most of all, how I have been able to put all of the skills that I have learned from my degree to serve people in this unique way. I plan to continue interviewing and posting episodes, so that I can grow the show’s footprint and impact as many people as I can.
Links
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1xFGd0unyU7p4OdgO9xMEi
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/called-and-qualified-a-missionary-story-podcast/id1796504189
Blog: https://calledandqualifiedblog.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572278177707
Trailer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/season-1-trailer/id1796504189?i=1000692412679