Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we’re in Moroni seven, eight, and nine. I have a story for you. It’s from Moroni seven, verse 48.

  00:15 Moroni says, if you live with faith, hope, and charity, eventually you’ll become like Jesus, “and when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” It’s not about, I’ve done a lot of charitable things, it’s I’ve just become charity. Here’s the story, and it’s about someone you know. I believe you taught him. Jonathan Heder. Do you remember Jon?

John Bytheway: 00:39 I made a roll on a spreadsheet, an attendance roll, where students could just check the box. Jonathan did not check the box. He doodled dragons up and down, going throughout the length of the spreadsheet.

Hank Smith: 00:51 Just a little at each time?

John Bytheway: 00:53 Just a little dragon each time, and I saved that roll because I thought it was so interesting. I did not know that Jonathan Heder would become who, Hank?

Hank Smith: 01:01 He has taken on many roles, but probably his most iconic is Napoleon Dynamite.

John Bytheway: 01:08 Incredible.

Hank Smith: 01:09 John, he probably learned it all from you.

John Bytheway: 01:11 I gave him that character, right? No, no. He brilliantly created that character. It was amazing.

Hank Smith: 01:16 Brilliantly, brilliantly. This story is about him, and this is after he gained some fame. John, I’m not a big TV watcher. I’ll watch TV with my wife and kids in the evening, but a long time ago I came home from teaching seminary one afternoon, and John, I got to tell you, not that this is super significant to this story, but it is for me. I just did not at that time of day, ever turn on the television. You get home from work and there’s plenty to do. I got home and Sarah wasn’t there, and for some crazy reason I decided to turn on the television and on came this talk show. The talk show host said, “We’d like to welcome to the show, Jonathan Heder.” I knew automatically. I’m like, “Oh, I know that this actor is a member of the church. Wow, how cool is this? This must happen all the time that members of the church get invited on a national popular talk show.

John Bytheway: 02:11 Happens all the time, right?

Hank Smith: 02:12 I just happened to run into it on this one day that I turned on the television. Jonathan comes on and he’s sitting with this talk show host, and she really wants to talk about his religion. He’s there, I think, to talk about a movie. She is more interested in him being a member of the Church of Mormon, at that time.

  02:30 He sits down and they start talking. The talk show host said, “You’re Mormon, aren’t you?” And he said, “Yeah, yeah, I am.” And she said, “So you don’t drink?” “Nope.” “You don’t smoke.” “Nope.” “You don’t swear.” And he’s like, “Well, I try not to.” And she said, “How do you do that being in Hollywood? How do you do that? The parties around Hollywood.” And he said something funny he said, “Well, usually I don’t get invited.”

  02:56 That probably should have been it. But John, she did not want to let this go. She kept pushing and pushing him. I don’t know if he got uncomfortable with it. He seemed to think … In my mind I could see him saying, “Well, I’d like to move on from this topic and talk about why I came here.” And she said, “Well, how do you do that? How do you not drink? How do you not smoke? How do you not break the law of chastity? How do you not do all these things?” And he kept saying funny answers.

  03:22 And then there was this moment. He wasn’t upset, he wasn’t angry. He just ended the conversation when he said, “Well look, it’s who I am. It’s not that hard.” I loved that. Aren’t you tempted by smoking and drinking and doing drugs and all of these immoral things? Aren’t you tempted? He simply said, “I’m actually not super tempted because it’s who I am.”

  03:46 Isn’t that interesting with Moroni seven, John?

John Bytheway: 03:49 Mm-hmm.

Hank Smith: 03:49 We will become something. When he comes again, we will know him. We shall see him as he is because we are like him.

John Bytheway: 03:57 And that’s what President Oaks reminded us of in that talk, the challenge to become. It’s not just to know what to do, but when you know what to do and you do what you know, begin to become something different. And for Jonathan, it was like, “It’s who I am.”

Hank Smith: 04:13 It’s who I am. It’s who I am.

John Bytheway: 04:13 So good.

Hank Smith: 04:14 I’ve lived my life in a way that it becomes very natural. At first, things are tempting, I think when we’re young, John. But as we get older, it becomes who we are. Our temptations change. We want to become more patient and more gentle, and maybe that’s the idea of the Lord has is, yeah, as you change, these temptations will not be as attractive.

John Bytheway: 04:35 I love what you said, Hank. He wasn’t, “You should be this way,” or he wasn’t, “Everybody should be this way.” Just, “No, it’s who I am.”

Hank Smith: 04:43 Yeah, it’s who I am. It’s not as difficult as you make it sound.

John Bytheway: 04:44 As you might think.

Hank Smith: 04:46 If anybody knows Jonathan out there, or Jonathan in case you’re listening, I have no idea, thank you for your goodness.

John Bytheway: 04:52 For being who you are.

Hank Smith: 04:55 Yeah. Thank you for being who you are. We’d love to have you join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re on Moroni seven, eight, and nine, like I said, and we’re with Dr. Mark Ogletree, who opens up these chapters in wonderful ways. I thought to myself, “I am going to be a better father from what we heard from him.” We hope you’ll all come join us over there. And then come back next week, we’ll do another followHIM Favorites.