LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Born with Half a Heart, Now a Rapping Missionary: Elder Logan Castleton's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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When our story veers off-script, how do we find a faith-filled purpose that transcends our expectations?

Born with half a heart, 20-year-old musician Elder Logan Castleton entered his mission knowing his path would look different than most. Having undergone countless heart surgeries and struggles throughout his life, he was thrilled to be called as a proselyting missionary in Chicago. 

However, when his health took a turn, he found himself unable to continue in that role and was unsure about his future as a missionary. But rather than surrendering to discouragement, he focused on his faith, transforming his health challenges into a unique opportunity to share the Gospel through rap music.

Now known as “The Rapping Missionary,” Elder Castleton intertwines his passion for music with his steadfast testimony, using the power of inspired melodies and honest storytelling to uplift others, testify of Christ’s love, and show the world that even the most fragile heart can become an instrument of divine purpose.

Elder Castleton’s authentic reflections illuminate the truth that, even when your mission doesn’t follow the script you’d planned, there’s still purpose, growth, and genuine hope to turn things around for the better. His journey proves that God’s love shows up in unexpected ways—and that the covenant path is always worth walking, no matter how unfamiliar the scenery.

*** Please SHARE Elder Castleton's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH to this episode, visit: https://youtu.be/5SrLlLXPFAg

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To LISTEN to Elder Castleton's latest song "Light The World", visit: https://open.spotify.com/track/5osZ7DO4FUiZdioQA0zfb2?si=dbc232fb75b04ea8

To LISTEN to Elder Castleton's first song "Notice", visit: https://open.spotify.com/track/3UlLwxxx5t5P8iMEVxbcB8?si=b94cb70af2b04785

To LISTEN to the rest of Elder Castleton's discography. visit: https://rappingmissionary.org/listen

To WATCH Elder Castleton's videos, visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNg88wB7c4iGnH3jZvWATlg

To FOLLOW Elder Castleton on Instagram, visit: https://www.instagram.com/rappingmissionary

To FOLLOW Elder Castleton on TikTok, visit: https://www.tiktok.com/@UCNg88wB7c4iGnH3jZvWATlg

To FOLLOW Elder Castleton on Facebook, visit: https://www.facebook.com/rappingmissionary/

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Scott Brandley:

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Branley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how one missionary, who was born with only half a heart, is giving all he has to teach others that God is in our story and He'll prepare us to get where we're going. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and you're in for a special treat, because we're here with Elder Logan Castleton, also known as the Rapping Missionary. Hey, elder, welcome to the show.

Elder Logan Castleton:

How's it going? I'm so excited to be here.

Alisha Coakley:

We are so excited to have you. I have to tell our listeners this is the first time since Scott and I started this show almost two and a half years ago that we have not heard the whole story of our guests beforehand, and so we're really just going to be like in the passenger seats with you guys hearing about. You know Elder Castleton's story and just you know why is he a missionary sitting there with keyboards and headphones and oxygen and all of the things on there? Um, but we don't want to give anything away just yet, so instead I'm going to ask you, elder, uh, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself? You know where you're from, what your family is like, uh, where you're at right now.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Yeah, definitely. So. Right now I'm in North Utah. I'm a service missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission. I've been serving since July 2023, and I'll finish in July 2025. I love music. I was born with a heart condition and I'm excited to share my story with you all today.

Alisha Coakley:

So cool, we're just going to get started. So, elder, where does your story begin?

Elder Logan Castleton:

Yeah, so I'm Elder Castleton, so excited to be here. You're probably wondering what all this is about, and I'll start. When I was born, I actually wasn't expected to be born because I had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which means that I was born with half of a heart. So they didn't expect me to be born or live or come out breathing. However, when I did, my mom cried because it was such a miracle. I've had a few open heart surgeries three one before the age of two years old and I've continued to have heart surgeries since then. More implications of that. Basically, I know I will need a heart transplant in the future. However, I do not know when and I've never known when.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Yeah, so being born with this heart condition led to a lot of implications in school. I couldn't do what the other kids could. I couldn't do sports, I couldn't run around. I actually stayed inside a lot of my elementary school. I stayed inside at recess where I was always known and non-athletic or whatnot, because I, my heart, physically couldn't produce that much energy I was.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I had a pacemaker to help my heart run and as a kid, in fifth grade, we moved out to Colorado. I was born in Indiana, moved to Colorado to Denver. In Denver, my parents so I have three younger siblings and my mom and dad divorced when I was in sixth grade. Around that time I had a surprise open chest surgery where they needed to replace my pacemaker, and essentially it was a big thing, and at the same time I was working with nonprofit organizations like Make-A-Wish Foundation, serious Fund, children's Network, american Heart Association. For all those who don't know what Make-A-Wish is they basically give you a wish. You just tell them what you want and if it meets certain criteria and if you're eligible, if you have a medical condition, then they will give you that gift. I was going to wish for a piano, a grand piano. However, instead I wished for recording studio equipment.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, so like, how did you get into that? You know where did. Where did your music talent start?

Elder Logan Castleton:

Yeah, yeah. So because I couldn't do sports as a kid, my mom, for Christmas one year, randomly she just got a keyboard so she could relearn how to play the piano. And I took over that piano and I learned it and it was so liberating for me to be able to do something and not be told you can't do this or you got to be careful here. I could just be on the piano however long I want and whatnot, and basically just take this instrument and learn it and share my music with other people.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Because of this and because of my story, like I mentioned earlier, these nonprofit organizations started to reach out and actually even as a young kid like I was two years old American Heart Association I worked with them, already going to fundraisers. So from a young age, instead of in middle school, instead of doing sports or doing different activities, while I didn't participate in school activities like student council, nghs, et cetera with my friends I also traveled nationally going to New York, la, london, to different parts of the country and performing in these venues with celebrities and other fundraiser events with these nonprofit organizations and I'd play the piano and share my story. So I grew up public speaking and sharing this musical.

Alisha Coakley:

What was your first experience? Like?

Elder Logan Castleton:

I honestly, like I don't remember a time when I wasn't doing it, like, like I said, I, I, I, I remember starting. I remember watching a video from 2014. So I was like, um, how old is that? So 10 years old, but I started even prior than that. So I was probably like eight, seven years old when I started doing the piano and I remember I was at a venue of basically like um 200, 300 adults, you know, fine whining and just at this fancy fundraiser activity and I'll just play the piano, everybody will clap and cheer.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I'd go on the microphone, say something witty that my mom wrote down for me to say and then share some of my story. And then that was my night. That was my night as a, as an eight year old, and I grew up like that. So I grew up in situations where I'm super comfortable talking with adults because I've just always talked to them and I've always been built up with my confidence level to be able to perform and be able to speak and to be able to work with amazing people from diverse backgrounds. I remember in New York there were people from Israel and all different parts of the country as well. Um, new York, connecticut, whatnot?

Elder Logan Castleton:

And just, we all just got together for a week, practiced, rehearsed, um, met a lot of cool people like Tom Hanks, george Clooney, and then, just as a fifth grader, and played on stage in front of 2,200 people, gave my story, which was witty and super special, and then walked off and then went back to how to catch up on my sixth grade reading homework.

Alisha Coakley:

I feel like you should have gotten a pass.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, so it was the purpose of this to help raise money for these nonprofits.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It was, it was, and that's why it was amazing who I worked with, roundup River Ranch being one of them. Basically, it was one of the times where I could actually do physical activity in a safe environment. It was like a summer camp where I could just go and zip line and rock wall, with medical professionals around and people just building up confidence. It was wonderful and I met all these people, Um, and it was amazing and I remember that being different from my friends right but, I, I really liked doing it.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I I've always loved performing public speaking. I'm loving this podcast. It's just my cup of herbal tea. Don't drink tea, just kidding. Um, and I, just so I grew up that way.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Sixth grade I had an open chest surgery and that's been my last open chest surgery. Um, sixth grade. I remember coming in. So I was about to get my wish granted and it was the week of, and I got called into the office and they said, hey, they want to. Um, your mom wants to meet you. She's got something to tell you. I was like, oh, this is make a wish, america, tell me about my wish. She said, hey, the doctor's called. They noticed something funny on your pacemaker. Let's just go, it'll be super quick. We went and that's when I was called into open chest surgery. So the week of my, my wish was going to be granted.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Um, I was recovering from my open chest surgery and it was awful. It was a lot of pain I felt that I can't describe, and it was a lot of. I was sixth grade and I was just like why, why does that happen? And I, I've always been. I grew up as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I, while I struggled with testimony, as a lot of people do, in my experiences um, I honestly can't remember I've blocked out a lot of things from my childhood because they were so hard, that's not healthy and um, but I remember just wanting to move on.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I'd really, if it wasn't for that wish, it would have been an even worse week. I really held onto the fact that I want to get out of the hospital so I can go to my wish and start making music. And one of the amazing things is that if I were to get the piano, um, I wouldn't have all this studio equipment. And it was such an inspired change for me to say no, I want this studio. And my mom really helped push me to do that as well. So my terms of hanging out in middle school was I'd bring my friends over after school, we'd make a funny iMovie and we'd record it on my computer and I'd play the drums for them and then I'd go here and then that was just a fun time and I'd always be in my studio. Ninth grade Um, at this time, let's hear, my parents were still divorced. Well, obviously my parents, as, as my parents were divorced, we'd spend some time with dad and then we'd live with mom, and this was going on too for a while. And so, ninth grade, all my friends, all my, all my good friends from middle school, they went to a different school a charter school and I applied for an art school, denver school of the arts and it was kind of the first time in my life where I really had a bigger decision to make and I wasn't sure how to make it. I wasn't ever confident. While I was confident in myself on stage, I wasn't ever in my personal life because of some just troubles I had with my childhood, with dealing with divorce and heart circumstances. So I wasn't ever confident and I always looked to people older than me or in specific leadership positions to kind of tell me what to do. And it was my first time learning that no matter what I chose, it'd be okay, right, as long as they're both good choice, I'll be okay. And but to that, that was a really key moment where I decided to go to Denver School of the Arts. That really that really altered the course of my life as well.

Elder Logan Castleton:

When I went to Denver School of the Arts I didn't have I tried making friends. I didn't have any friends there and I just didn't share the same values as they did. I lived 40 minutes away from the school and they lived 40 minutes the other way, so we were an hour and a half from each other and all my friends were hanging out in their same high school and I was just, I remember, sitting by myself freshman sophomore year at a little spot outside. We could do off-campus lunches and basically I was just sitting outside. I have a specific, I had a specific tree I sat by. So freshman sophomore year I'd be by myself sitting at this tree eating lunch on my phone. On Instagram I'd call my mom every day and freshman sophomore year that's that's how it went Um the last 90 minutes of the day we you majored in something. So it was kind of like a mini college.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So I majored in piano, cause I grew up performing at these events. I had amazing teachers and my first teacher taught me a lot about pop music and how to do really fun arrangements of popular songs for these events. My next teacher really taught me how to get more technical with the piano, learn classical piano and continue to further that. And I did a lot of piano competitions and a lot of things like that to really up my piano game and that helped me get did a lot of piano competitions and a lot of things like that to really up up my piano game and that helped me get into Denver school of the arts.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Um, when I was at DSA or Denver school of the arts um ninth and 10th grade I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my music.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Um, my music taste till then kind of varied a lot with whatever my, you know friends were listening to Not even that, just whatever my family was listening to. And basically it was in 10th grade where I got into a music production. Well, 9th and 10th grade I actually started doing little raps for school projects because they said at DSA you could either write an essay about a topic or do like a creative art project or song. And I was like I don't want to write an essay, I want to, I just want to do a song. Basically, I used my recording studio equipment to create these songs. So I did a rap about aquifers super random thing and then I did a rap about Alan Turing and all these different things. And in 10th grade I got into this music audio production class and one of my friends, he, he was really into edm, like the. You were really cool if you knew edm at dsa and how to make it electronic dance music.

Alisha Coakley:

Um, I was like what is edm, edm, remember, we're old, that's why I thought you were old.

Scott Brandley:

I know what EDM music is.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Whatever, you're way old the electronic dance music things, just super heavy bass. You had a drop which was basically like the music would get to a point where the bass and the drums would get really heavy, and it was just dance music.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And it was really popular to know this kind of music and I thought it would be really cool to learn more of it. So I learned more of it and I'd basically I remember coming home. So all during high school too, I also went to random spots in Denver to public speak and perform piano and different high schools and things and engage the crowd. It was, it was awesome. So I remember getting out of school um early in the day. I went to perform at a high school and I came back to my audio production class just resume the school day and I showed my friends this, really just this EDM song or electronic dance music song, and it was great. They loved it and I I received a lot of validation from that and basically through my high school I I was learning about social media. I was the first kid to since I'm the oldest, I was the one you know Instagram was not new, but just social media and kids were were new to you know how to parent or whatnot. So basically I had Instagram. I had a lot of limits, obviously, but I remember using Instagram a lot and being on it all the time and that's how I I found my comfort a lot in media, like if I was lonely or whatnot. I'd spend a lot of time in my studio writing songs, going through a lot of typical high school things with um oh, she doesn't like me or he doesn't think I'm cool, or whatnot, and I spent a lot of time in music and learning how to make it to be relevant or learning how to make it Cause it was fun was fun or the fun thing to do, and also just finding a lot of peace in it too.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I remember writing my first spiritual song in seventh grade and it was cool for me to see. It was just kind of the one of those times where I showed, I showed my grandma and she loved it, you know, and she's like you're going to be a great person one day, you know, or you are, and that that was the first time I did something like like super meaningful, right, cause the other songs were just about you know, random things, and so basically I came off of that and I remember just wanting it wasn't, I didn't have any friend, or I felt like I didn't have any friends, which is a lot of people feel that way, right, even even now I feel like don't have a lot of friends and I was trying to find just well, spiritually I was doing, I loved my um, I loved mutual, or I guess now you'd like just youth activities um that they have at church Christday Saints.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I loved going there. I loved my member friends, I looked forward to Wednesday nights a lot just to do that and I had fun leaders and things like that. And I remember the end of sophomore year COVID hit so it was all online and I remember my mom bringing up the idea of moving to Utah and I just loved it instantly because growing up we vacationed to Utah to stay with my grandma and I loved my cousins and I always remember being so sad when I had to come back just to real life and didn't know, anybody didn't connect, you know.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Back to my own thing. And so I was so excited about it and my dad stayed in Colorado and we moved to Utah and it was just such a fun. So DSA as well, it doesn't have like sports, it doesn't have an a gym, has like concert halls instead. So I really was and watching media growing up I was really excited to go to like a normal public school, right Like it has all the sports and the student section, that whatever the cheer section. It was great. So I went there and I remember the first six months. I remember being super excited about it, actually like excited, like tell my friends like hey, I'm moving to Utah, like so excited about it. And I was a hundred percent excited. I moved to Utah the first six months and all throughout this time like my health was stable, so my whole life I wasn't on oxygen. Sorry, I guess I should have thrown that out there, oh, okay.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I was never on oxygen, only for a brief time in like fourth or fifth grade.

Alisha Coakley:

Gotcha.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Never on oxygen, like I look super healthy without oxygen. Um, and so I was stable through high school. I don't know why I was just really stable and it was such a blessing. I went to doctors. The hard part was going to doctor's appointments every six months. Basically, you'd I'd forget about it until like the week of like I hope like my heart isn't failing and then having that such an anxious like thing you know come up every six months and then just waiting for the doctor response. Okay, you're stable.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay, I'm fine, but I remember, just forget it, like you could just like live and not think about it, and it was a protective thing with me mentally.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I didn't. I didn't ever address it, I well, I well it was. It was really bad, though, because I remember one year in like junior year, or actually like throughout junior year, like I remember, and just for a long time I'd be laying in bed and be like so worried that my heart would just fail and like I just died, and that was a huge fear of mine, and it was. I had a lot of anxiety with that. I had a lot of anxiety with my health that I'd give out, that I couldn't do something because my friends were doing it and I just couldn't physically, and so it was bringing all that sports things back into just what I did here right the first six months of my junior year I tried so hard to make friends and I couldn't make any.

Elder Logan Castleton:

and I just remember like this was a part where I was like why? Why me, I'm doing all I can't, like I'm, I'm living a good life. I have all these struggles with my family and with my heart condition and why. And at that same time I learned that I would need that my liver was also failing. So now I was like great, now my heart and my liver is failing. I just moved here. I don't have friends, my family struggling, et cetera, and it was just a lot of things. And I remember the day, one day I was just like man it's just so hard, like I'm not making any friends.

Elder Logan Castleton:

The next day I met my best friend and it was. It was incredible. It was just like it's it was. It was my story, right. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen like that a lot, but for some reason I just did. I met one of my best friends, still hang out with him today. It was such a blessing.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Then, a few weeks months later, I met my second best friend and I had two really good friends in high school Senior year I remember having I got into student council and I was so excited to be popular and cool and everything like that and the first week I remember having to be at the school super early to greet the people at the doors, and I just remember just the culture of the student council was so at least the one I was a part of was not genuine whatsoever, it was just I want to be. I remember someone telling them so that whole week, because of my heart condition, if ever I exert like too much, like after dances and things, like if I ever went to like a high school dance or a steak dance, like I'd go home like exert so much energy and I I actually have a lot of energy, like that's what's surprising like I I'm very social, very outgoing because of my performing and because of this, and I just come home and then be super nauseous, throw up and then be sick and I couldn't exert. I couldn't exert a lot of energy. So that was really hard, trying to be super fun and then exert.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So that first week of student council when I was trying to be super outgoing, I just remember feeling like I'm trying to have fun, like this is supposed to be fun, and I'm just not feeling anything, and then I was getting a little more sick and more sick, and more sick until one night. I remember just being. So there's this. I don't know if you know what a sat checker is. It's like a little pulse monitor on your finger.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It tells you how much oxygen you get and what your heart rate's at. I remember pulse monitor on your finger tells you how much oxygen you get and what your heart rate's at.

Alisha Coakley:

I remember checking it that night because I just woke up randomly from my sleep and it was like my heart rate was just at a super low rate, like 45, and I was like oh my gosh.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And my mom, my mom. My mom was working at she. She worked at the temple at the time so she didn't have her phone on her right. So I was just like, if I call her, like, anyway, I called her, she picked up miraculously went to the er. I was having a panic attack. Nothing was up with my heart, it was just anxiety.

Elder Logan Castleton:

But the hard part growing up, and still is, is that it was hard for me to defer what's anxiety and what's actual heart failure Cause. A lot of the time I couldn't discern. So I went to the ER and I remember um, two of my friends texted me the next day like hey, why weren't you at school? And out of all the people I knew at student council, you know like none of them said in whatever. And I just remember like these are my two genuine friends, like these two people here.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And it was a time when I was trying to be hype and popular and all these things and I just realized what really mattered. It was like a wake up call for senior year, like I want to focus on my genuine friends and being nice to other people and really caring about them, what they have to say, and not just a competition or not just this and this. So going through senior year was amazing. It was a great year. My heart was stable and I had a surgery and and also like, when I say stable, um, I think a lot of. I've been learning that what I think is normal is not. When I mean stable, I mean like two surgeries a year, a lot of doctor's visits, a lot of phone calls. So that's stable for me.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Wow and so while I had that and my friends would help out, it was really hard still that just being a normal right. I went to. I did my first year at byu provost. So a mission. All my friends left on missions after high school and um, I remember wanting to wait a year.

Elder Logan Castleton:

My mom's reasoning was she wanted to see if I could, you know like energy wise, do a mission right? Um, so college was the best run for me. I just wanted to. I felt like it was the right thing to do. And senior year I I really grew my testimony of of God and just relying on cause.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I remember, yeah, just relying on on God a lot during senior year, um, and that's when I started for my testimony. And you think about the future and not just staying in the present of high school and getting out of that bubble. And I remember going through something hard and just being like God's the person I need to turn to right now. And so basically I went in that direction. I did my first year of college at BYU and it was so fun and I learned so much. And it was a time where I realized no one like tells me what to do in my personal life as well. I had a lot of hard time living on my own because I had my anxiety of my heart going out and I learned that, hey, it's okay, it won't go out. Um, anything can happen to everybody, right?

Alisha Coakley:

Right.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Just suddenly, boom, my condition isn't like an instant.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I'll a heart, it's a progressive okay, so it'll never just be like boom, um, and it took me. Basically I started realizing that more like, oh, I started growing my testimony the book of mormon. I remember an assignment that we had to read we had to read like 150 pages of the book of mormon in a semester and I remember, um, the day of it was due, I was like, oh no, I gotta read 150 pages of the book of mormon. So me me being wanting to be honest I spent six to eight hours in the Book of Mormon that day and I just remember I remember crying that night because I finished, with like two minutes to spare, did my assignment and I was just like I feel like it's true, like for the first time in my life, like I just had a good feeling after I spent all day in it, like I just had a good feeling.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And that's when I was like I really do know that this is true, you know. Know, because I could choose whether to go to church or not. It's not for us anymore, you know. And yeah, it was really great to just find out for myself um, my mom's active, my dad's not active anymore and for me to be able to find where I stood in my, in my testimony and what I want in my life. It was a really good turning point to where the rest of that semester I just learned more that I'm not just a music person I had callings that weren't aligned with music whatsoever, but just other stuff I like to do.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And I got really organized during BYU. I just really organized, cleaned up a lot and actually my room's not even clean. You should see that it's something that's possessed. We don't need to know.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, don't ruin the dream here.

Elder Logan Castleton:

The good stuff and I got. And then all my friends started getting mission calls and I knew so from the start. Um, there were two options for a mission. One was a proselyting mission and one was a service mission. Proselyting missionary missionaries go out two by two in different you know parts of the world. Um, they live away from home for two years and they spend all day knocking doors and making phone calls and nowadays go on social media and just preach and help others come into christ. And the other option was service mission and I honestly didn't know anything about it other than that you just lived at home, like I literally knew nothing else about it except you lived at home so I knew with my situation, like I knew it was definitely a possibility.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I submitted my paperwork and I remember going to my doctors being like hey, like is a prosciting mission, is that okay? And they said you'll be stable for two years, you'll be good, like your heart's looking great, like sorry I should be your heart's looking really bad, right, but it's, it's at a stable point to where you'll be fine for two years to live. How you're living now, with doctor checkups and all these things, and you know different surgeries, catheters et cetera. Um, so I was like that's amazing, that's such a miracle, you know I don't. So the doctors thought I'd need a new heart at age 13 and I was nine, 18, 19 then and I still hadn't like gotten to a point I wasn't on oxygen. I was 18, 19 then and I still hadn't like gotten to a point I wasn't on oxygen.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I was I actually like did really well better than I thought I would at college with my health and learning all these key lessons. One thing I really learned in college was to be more confident in my abilities to do good. Um, not needing verification or essentially not needing someone to just tell me what to do, but just I remember putting on like a concert for my ward, like just getting all the musical, the people who wanted or wanted to play musical instruments or could, and basically we put on like a mini, like seven, eight song concert with everybody and got the whole ward. And it was a time where I was like I could do a lot of good if I just do it, you know yeah, I don't have to hold back.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So I translated on my piano um non-limitations to more, my personal life as well.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And when I got my mission call, I remember my stake president saying like um, don't be surprised if it's not what you know. What did he say? He's like what you're thinking right now may not basically said somewhere like just don't limit God, right, god can do whatever he wants to do, right? You may think like you're not going out of the country, you may not think you're going to do this type of mission or whatnot, but you, you'd be surprised. So, going into the mission call, I remember opening it and it was Spanish speaking and assigned Illinois, chicago mission. Now, there's a lot of reasons why this is special One. Both my parents went on Spanish speaking missions and I loved like. I actually took a like a week in college to just immerse myself in Spanish, just for fun. Like I was, I just want to learn Spanish.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And that was one thing I just really wanted to do, like I honestly didn't care where I ended up, I just really wanted to do Spanish, like that was my one, like um preference if I had any um Illinois, chicago or Chicago. So both my parents grew up in Chicago. My grandparents lived there for 30 years. I visited Chicago for my senior trip Cause I loved it so much.

Elder Logan Castleton:

My grandpa was like in the temple presidency and the mission office and it was just amazing. Like I loved I lived in. I was born in Northwest Indiana, which is within the mission borders, so I'd see, like my old friends and things, it was just amazing. It was just like God knew me. God knew me where I needed to be. The next week I started cranking out my Spanish. So like I practiced Spanish from then until July when I left, I remember that summer not feeling as great as I had been health wise, but just and just anxiety as well, Like what if something happens with my heart and my mom's not there or this help isn't needed. I need all these different things.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And basically, once we, once I went out, I went to the MTC six weeks. It was great. Um, I learned a lot. I learned a lot. I had a really fun district that taught me a lot of things and, um, I learned just a lot of different things. Like it was a really neat experience. And when I went to my, the first three days I had in Chicago, I had, like the best, a trainer, someone who trains you, um, in a mission field MTC I should clarify to missionary training center.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It's in Provo. They teach you um different principles of how to be a missionary. And basically my trainer or companion or person who was with me 24 seven, he was amazing. And those first three days I remember we, we talked to as many people as we could, from door to door to I rolled down my car window and waved the guy down. You know like we did every, every contact. Um, it's very big in the Chicago mission to spend time on social media 90 minutes a day contacting, and so I learned a lot of that as well.

Elder Logan Castleton:

As, um, we, I gave like three different blessings. We had three baptisms that Sunday and I gave a talk in uh at the baptism and different things. The third day, that night, I got really sick and I woke up the next morning just feeling awful and feeling like if I didn't get a break or a rest, I was like I feel like I'm going to die if I don't get a break, because my body is just going to decline. I need rest. So the second day or maybe it was the first day I called my mom. I got permission to call my mom and explain the situation and obviously she wasn't surprised, right, I have a half a heart Um the that that week. That Saturday an apostle came to our mission and I played piano for him. That Monday I left to go back home and transfer to a service mission.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So, the two weeks I was week and a half I was in Chicago. I did everything that you would expect a proselyting missionary to do or would want to do in a frosted mission in just a week and a half and and the decision to come transfer to a service mission was really it, my line of thinking, just looking back through what I journaled and things like it'd be harder for me to leave than it would be to stay, and that's how I knew it was the right choice, right what? Not what's the hardest, but like it's not just me wanting to go back, it's like it'd be harder to leave than it would be Cause I loved, I just had so much fun in Chicago already just teaching and being outgoing and saying hi to people in the Latinos and all these people and I loved it in it. So I came home that night we met with the service missionary leaders and the service missionary leaders is a couple that basically presides over a group of service missionaries. The service missionary structure has changed since I came home. So when I came home there was about eight service missionaries and I remember playing piano for one of the apostles in the Chicago mission. Everybody singing called to serve. It was huge. It was, you know, loud. The spirit was there. It was amazing. And then I remember playing called to serve at our little district meeting that night, or just a meeting with the missionaries, and it was eight people and I played, called to serve, and that kind of describes like how my transition was. I realized from all the big things in my life, like from performing everywhere and from doing this and this, that God was in also the small things, or what seems small to people's eyes. Right, I learned it.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It was a hard transition for me because I've been taught all my life that proselyting was a mission and that service, service missions just came out, I think, like 2018. So it's super new and it's deemed or it was at least in my mind as not a real mission. That's how a lot of people still think about it and will probably think about it for five to ten years. How is so that was? That was a struggle. I always I didn't care where I served, I didn't care that I was in Utah, I just wanted to serve the way I thought was the right way. I wanted to proselyte. I remember helping a couple with technology for two hours just one day, and I was like is this really missionary work? It was such a struggle for me to transition because of how I've been taught what a mission was Scripture that we've all heard DNC, or not all heard, I guess.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Dnc four, doctrine and covenants four, verse two, oh yeah. It says therefore oh you that embark in the service of God, to see that you serve him with all your heart, mind, mind and strength, that you may stand blameless before God at the last day. Therefore, if you have desires to serve God, you're called to the work. It didn't say oh you then embark on the service of God, I see that you serve him by knocking doors and teaching lessons and doing this.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Nor did it say see that you serve him by helping people with technology or by helping a group of students in Africa learn, or whatnot. Right, whatever it is in your service. It just says how to serve and how being with your desires and how you want to serve. So that was a lesson that I continue to learn today, like how I serve. So the first so that was September, when I got back Left in July for proselyting, came July September. That was September. When I got back, left in July for proselyting, came back service September. I finally and my heart was slowly declining Still I remember going to the doctors and they're like we literally don't know what, like your heart looks stable.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Like your heart looks the same, but you don't feel the same. So we're going to do a heart surgery. We'll check everything out. So we did it. They said we don't know, it looks the same.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So, we don't know why you're feeling this way A few months later, or no, that was December. It like I literally like, was on the couch all day the whole week, like I couldn't move. It was just I just had no energy. And we're like, well, something's wrong, right, no energy. And we're like, well, something's wrong, right, they said. And we're like, just get me on oxygen. And they don't know why my oxygen levels dipped or are dipping Cause my heart looks the same. They still don't know why my oxygen levels low. And that's the crazy part, they don't know why. They don't know why I flush up a lot Like now you can see I'm super red for just exerting energy and talking, um, they don't know why, but anyway I got an oxygen.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So I had a transition with my service and I had to drop all my service missionaries. What they do in a day, they serve at service assignments. So instead of proselyting, they actually go to different like they go to the temple or family search or um thrift stores or not thrift, or like charities or humanitarian centers, and they go and serve for the day. They come back home, then they go the next day and serve somewhere else. So that's their schedule. I had a few different ones which I learned a lot in and I had to stop all of them, except for working at a family search center here locally and essentially it's really neat because I actually could go process so service missionaries now can go proselyting.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So when I got back I actually went to Spanish elders and went to a Spanish ward, et cetera, and it's a unique thing where service missionaries now can just go proselyting when they want to during the week.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, I love that so much.

Elder Logan Castleton:

That was an integration. That happened July 2023. So that was a new thing. So that never happened. The organization was super different. You, you now had leadership. You had, like district leaders and zone leaders, which is lingo in the community and the church community for just different leadership positions.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And December hit had to drop all my assignments. I stopped proselyting, I stopped going to the Spanish ward and I was on oxygen and it was a really hard spot. I was like now I feel like I'm not even serving at all, like at all I'm not serving, why I'm literally on the couch all day. Just yet I'm still a missionary. I could have, I could have easily just stopped and I just I just remember getting a thought.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I did a little music, like, I did some hymns. I wrote some hymns, um for, like they call it, agency hours, when you're not at a service assignment. Okay, like you can use your agency hours and serve within the community. So I used my studio equipment to like, make hymns and things and post it just on my personal instagram account and whatnot. And I really I felt an impression when I had to drop everything that december, which was really hard because I was excited for all the things I was going to do, I felt an impression to pick up the music again, like just god telling me, like, let's use this music, how do we use it. So that whole month I was thinking how can I use it and came to the conclusion. I was looking online and I was just like what if I didn't like rap, like, like and and like? Well, well, you two just first heard about it today, but, um, even that like it's just like an out of the context thing, like you just don't rap and and I will say it's not original.

Alisha Coakley:

Back in the 80s there was the Mormon rap and it was amazing and we all loved it. I know every word to it still, but I'm sure that your rap is probably a little catchier Maybe.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And there there's been people like James the Mormon or Colby Farron doing different missionary rap. They were just I'm just rap in the LDS community, okay. However, it was somewhere I was so nervous. So remember I dealt with like confidence levels my whole life, like if I was confident in what I thought was right and I hadn't been. Like I learned a bit at BYU that I could do good things if I just did it. No one was going to tell me to write rap and I remember going to my mom was on board and it because it was, I started out like it wasn't like rap, it was like pop more, it was like a super light, like pop music that had a little bit of rhythm to it.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And I approached my leaders and I was like, oh man, this is not going to go well. Like I approached my leaders and I said, hey, I know I just stopped all my service assignments. Can I start doing the music full time? And like, uh, yeah, prop, like, and it hasn't. It hasn't been like done. Well, I don't know, maybe, but for my knowledge it hasn't been done. Like your service assignments are humanitarian centers, like already, things put in spot, you can make your own. Like I know a lot of people who did art and music on the side or just as part of their service assignment. But it was unique in the fact that I wanted to actually put music on spotify, like as a missionary. That hadn't been. They weren't sure, right. So we had to ask our mission president things if it was okay and of course, they were hesitant at first, like rapping missionary, like it started off as a rapping missionary, went to rap missionary, like, and I kind of cautioned, like it's okay, it won't, you know, you can approve the songs whatever. Um, so we started it and the first and and just to caveat too, um, none of my songs are approved. Like, I don't get them approved. I just put it, but I'll explain why in a second.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So I posted and I remember messaging that night. I posted January 16th, my first song came out, called Notice, and I remember messaging all the people I knew on Instagram not even knew, like all the influencers and the artists that I knew that were in the church community or whatever. That night and in the morning I woke up and some of them responded to me and like hey, that's pretty neat that you're doing that. I didn't like my own website and everything, um, and basically I started that rapid missionaryorg and I started the rap and basically that first video, someone just social media platform, declare my word, post it on their story. I got like 13,000 views and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is crazy, like and um it's. And then it just like exploded at that point Like a lot of the the re.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It was just amazing, like it was something. It was a huge like click moment for me. No one told me to do this, I just receive revelation by myself and it was okay. It was not something culturally done, but it was something I felt was right and um, as you can see, I'm in suspenders it and this, this confidence kind of has like and confidence, not being like pride but being like humble, confidence in like what.

Elder Logan Castleton:

God has called you to do, and this confidence has taken me a lot, Like it was a click moment where okay, I want to be confident in this, and it was a struggle the next few months. I learned a lot about my social media intake my boundaries on it, when I should or shouldn't be on it, what I should be on, how I should be on it.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And it was all approved for my mission, essentially, and I got all the songs approved and then I started doing like different podcasts, and then I started doing like different firesides and then going all these things and never, um, never collaborated with anyone, but I just continue to do all these things. And then I got to a point where I was at like like 13, 15, 14 million views and I was like this is just amazing to the reach that it is done Like and and think like if I wasn't on oxygen it wouldn't have happened, like I couldn't do any other assignment. But like.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I couldn't have done it. And the doctors don't know why I'm on oxygen, like nothing like now. They know, like they can see through tests like oh yeah, your exertion levels. They know, like it's like it's scientifically back that my exertion level is definitely not what it used to be at all Like it's really bad, but they just don't know why. So and so I did this rep.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I remember stopping in July, like I kind of like paused it for a second because I was faced with all these questions like is rap a good thing to do? Is this just my own desires? Is this just what I feel like doing? And it came to a point where I don't need to get these songs approved because I'm not a proselyting missionary. Proselyting missionaries they teach the doctrine. They teach, they baptize people, etc. My job is just to serve others with good music. I don't need need to teach doctrine, I don't need to. You know, whatever. Like it's just good music that connects with a lot of people. And that's when I shifted to okay. I'm going to continue this direction and continue trusting that it's the right thing to do.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I started um and so I I've continued since and essentially, all that rap, edm experience, all this. I'm using my studio that I got in sixth grade to do God's work and I'm using all the experience in high school that I got to do this and then I'm sharing all the hard things in my life on a podcast like this that's going to connect with X number of people and I also have learned that, basically, like one one thing that I've really learned to it bringing back to my divorced parents, how one thing I've really learned recently is how, um, to love myself. In a way where I was growing up, it was really hard to love myself and who I was, because I was used to all these big accomplishments. I grew up where, like, if I didn't do something good, you know, I was punished, whatever, like it was. So I was really mean to myself all the time for any mistakes I made and I didn't address my mental health until recently when I got news that I so I need heart and liver transplant.

Elder Logan Castleton:

But I started finally being like it's time to start getting on the list. The list takes about six months. Well, it's taken about six months. I'm still not on a list. It takes a while. A lot of people ask why haven't you just gotten it yet? It's because it's a life and death scenario right.

Elder Logan Castleton:

It's. The complications are so high like low survival rate For my condition like you can end up with, like strokes, disabilities, cancer, blah, blah blah You'll always have to be on meds your whole life. You have a year you'll. You'll basically be feeling awful for a year after, if everything goes well, and then you got to check up and then you live x many of years and then you'll need another heart transplant you know, it's not like let's just get a heart transplant.

Elder Logan Castleton:

You know um it life and death. So, faced with life and death situations at the time I wasn't doing my music cause I was trying to figure out that and then, at the same time, I was having to deal with family struggles that recently came up just from you know, divorce things and it was finally hitting me too. And I remember just being on the couch like this is hard now, like it's always been hard mentally, but I finally had to like address it or felt like it.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So, I started going to therapy, which was amazing. I've never gone to therapy and it was. It was amazing it. And then I went to this mental health conference and I just realized I've always known that physical health was so important but I never realized the mental health side, why it was, and I'm finally learning why it's so important. It's just liberating, like it's just liberating to know, it's just. It's so important as much as physical health.

Alisha Coakley:

Right.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So now I'm at a spot where I love myself. I love what I'm doing. It doesn't matter to me how big the reach gets, as long as I'm just putting my five loaves in. As long as I'm doing what I want to do and I enjoy it, it'll get to the people that need it and, let's say, in 50 years it suddenly gets a really big push up. I never know where this will go and it just seems like a stepping stone to my next step in life. Like a stepping stone to my next step in life, like in fifth. It's just. It's been a journey that's I've seen god in, so I still do the rap, I'm working on my christmas album and I have.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I have a really good friend to help get me out of that mental health struggle and he and actually the reason like your, your cousin, so him, my friend, and then another person in our ward came over for like an activity and I showed them all this rapid mission or stuff and I was like, yeah, I'm not doing it anymore because I don't know if I should do it or whatnot. And I was struggling with all my health and family and then music and just confidence and loving myself and they're like what that's, that's what, whatever they were reacting and I suddenly got out of that mental health struggle because of good friends and I started doing my music again and just realizing different coping mechanisms with me. And it's just excited, I have you know till July and I'm excited to see where it'll go. I'm just excited, I have you know till July and I'm excited to see where it'll go. I'm on all those social media you know Spotify, Instagram's my main one Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and all these things and I'm just excited to see, like this whole I don't know if you've like just this whole story Like I think that honestly, this is the most I've shared about my story on any platform or whatever, but just seeing the how everything just like connected right now, Like it, just everything in my life has just connected and it'll be, and and I'm not ignorant to what the future will be to when I get my heart transplant I still don't know when, and that was a big part of my mission and still is I'm walking in faith like I don't know what tomorrow will look like at all.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Like I could be, probably won't be, but, like you know, in a six to eight months I could be in a hospital bed fighting for my life. I don't know.

Elder Logan Castleton:

None of us know the future, though yeah I just can kind of sense what the trials will be a little more. You know like, yeah, I can see. Oh, it's going to be a heart struggle, you know. But none of us really know the future and none of us can plan for it ever. But one thing I've learned is, as I keep trusting in Jesus and God, like I can continue to serve my mission and just serve in my life and bring the story with me. It's just incredible to see where it will go.

Scott Brandley:

You know I'm only 20.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And we each have our own story. That's so unique. When we get to terms, I think, with our mental health and if we really like understand, just are able to cope with our things and really get on a spiritual level of seeing what Jesus needs or wants from us, we can really do good. God needs good people in the world. He needs us to get. There's so much good to be done in the world. We just need to do it. And when we're at peace with ourselves and with God, then we can help others.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And that's been a huge thing for my mission being at peace with God, being at peace with myself, my story. It's still so hard, but I'm learning that Jesus had a really hard life right, and he was so happy, he was so joyful, he was so you know, he had you know, and I just want to enjoy my life too, and we really can. When it's focused on Jesus Christ, we can enjoy it regardless of our circumstances. To the world, I'm not in a good position at all right now, but to God, I'm in the best.

Alisha Coakley:

Falling over here. Oh, my goodness, what you just said about how you're at peace with your story, oh, that just spoke straight to my soul. I've never thought about it before, but I think that that's why a lot of people don't share their stories is because they're not at peace with it yet. I think that's a lot of reasons why people don't do that thing that they are feeling is the good thing to do, right? They they have a hard time with faith is because they haven't allowed that peace within themselves to exist with their story. They keep thinking the story has to change before I can have peace with it.

Alisha Coakley:

But you are this amazing example of no, it doesn't. You know, like I love how, how you just kind of looked at, like, look, I don't know why I'm feeling worse, but I know that it's for a purpose, and you're kind of like starting to see the purpose. And, yeah, you could have done a great job as a proselyting missionary. I'm sure that you could have done a lot, you know, um, and your heart could have sustained and and remain stable and stuff like that, and you probably could have muddled through right by like exerting yourself and then being sick. And exerting yourself and being sick, because sometimes, unfortunately, that's the normal right, like that's, that's our normal. When we have these types of um, health struggles and stuff like that, we just have to get used to whatever it is.

Alisha Coakley:

But the fact that you're so, you're just in it with god. You know, you're just in it with God, you know, you're just like all right, sure, let's go do this. You know, it's like you not only you not only have had the faith to go, you know to go on your mission stuff, but now you're, you're exhibiting that faith to stay, you know, to stay here on the service mission, to stay where you're at with your music, you know, and to just really stay right by Heavenly Father's side, letting him walk with you and your story. And it is like it's I mean, you're like an old soul, yeah, like there's no way that a 20 year old has this much knowledge. You know what I mean and it's just so. Oh, you just have this.

Scott Brandley:

I can't even I would say, along with that, along with the peace that you have, comes gratitude, and it seems that you're very grateful for the blessings that you do have, even though you've got a lot of challenges, which I think is I mean that that's a lesson that a lot of us can learn um, that might not have those physical challenges that you have Sometimes. It's hard to be grateful when you're in the middle of difficult things, and the fact that you found peace in the gifts and the struggles is inspiring. So thanks for sharing that, and I also think that it's awesome that you are able to use your gifts for good, to reach millions of people.

Scott Brandley:

that is, that is so early you know like one of my biggest hopes in my life is that I can make a difference for good in the world. I think you too, Alisha, right, and I mean the fact that you're 20 and you've you've touched millions of people's lives for good through rap music like that's just crazy, but it's also inspiring. So I think you're, you know you're inspiring people in many different ways, just in the peace that you have in yourself, the gratitude that you've found, and then the gifts that you're able to share Like good for you, man.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Thank you.

Alisha Coakley:

And you know, I love it. Someone just the other day and I was talking to him about how we know, right Like that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Right Like it would. The scriptures talk about that, and so I think that sometimes we think, oh, then that means that everything has to be the exact same that it was 1000 years ago in the Bible. Right, it means that our hymns have to stay really slow and off key. I mean, you know what I mean. Like it means it means this and it means this and it means this.

Alisha Coakley:

And I think that we're seeing, especially as we are in the last days, as we know that Christ's second coming is right around the corner, we're seeing that God still is the same, but men are different, right, people are different. And because he's the same and because he loves us all so much and he's always willing to give us what it is when we need it, and and he knows exactly what that is, I think that what you're seeing is you're seeing we're getting to witness through you right now and through other, um, other members of the church and stuff like that, who are finding these really natural, normal ways to share the gospel. That's natural and normal to them. We're seeing where heavenly father. Here's the teenage boy who loves rap music. My son is a big NF fan. I mean, I think he knows everything about everything when it comes to NF, you know, and he resonates with that it. It speaks to him and he feels, he feels so deeply and is so thoughtful when he's listening to, like NF lyrics, lyrics, you know.

Alisha Coakley:

And so I think that it's amazing to see you taking what Heavenly Father has given you, which is your gift of music, right, your ability to to be confident and and all of these kinds of things. And he is using that of music, right, your ability to to be confident and and all of these kinds of things. And he is using that for you to be able to speak to other people who would only hear that language. They're not going to necessarily hear the language from the old school hymns because it's just not something, it's just not who they are right now. And that's okay, and not that you can't feel the spirit anywhere, because I think you can, but I've seen that the church has been making these little transitions into helping to accommodate all of God's children and not putting everybody in just one box. I just think it's amazing what you're doing.

Elder Logan Castleton:

This scripture, right here 2 Nephi, 31, 3,. For my soul delighteth in plainness, nephi, talking for after this manner, that the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God live giveth light unto the understanding. And then, right here, for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding. And I think that just sums up. Oh that's really what you're saying. We each connect with God and with our story in different ways.

Elder Logan Castleton:

And while there's principles behind them. When we focus on Jesus, the amazing part is we can look past all the traditions or the things like that, just as he did with the Pharisees, and focus on the principle there, there, and just to see God take all these hard things in my life to get where I am now to help others, cause I freshman year, I was a teenage boy who was lonely and I listened to music and I looked at my Instagram and now I get to be someone which is a full circle, full circle moment to help that teenage boy.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Look on Instagram and it's just like I'm helping who I once was. It's just such a.

Alisha Coakley:

It's healing, isn't it?

Elder Logan Castleton:

It's amazing and it'll look different for everybody. They're healing, right, but the beauty is when you follow God and take these weaknesses and make them strengths for others and for yourself, and when you really do the work to just be at peace with yourself. It's just so liberating and then showing being like hey, hey, god, you put me here, this is your story, so write your story, being willing to adapt to every cause we're going to have to adapt.

Elder Logan Castleton:

I'm going to have to adapt, you know, when my transplant comes. I'm going to have to adapt when I just go back to school and end my mission and end, you know, and move on from rapid missionary.

Alisha Coakley:

What am I going to do?

Elder Logan Castleton:

then you know. But the nice thing is when we focus on the present and really just where we're at now, because all the anxiety, things, you know, that's all future. So we focus on the present, we can just do the most good we can this day and we don't have to wait for someone else to tell us to do it. That's the empowering part. God trusts us to do it. He puts people in our I call like sphere of influence. My sphere of influence is a lot on social media right now and a lot with this podcast, or a lot with my friends and family.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Someone's influence could be their coworkers or just their little family, you know, like in the country, wherever, like when we do the most to impact our spheres of influence by just following God and what he has us to do. That's what we call doing our best. That's what makes a fulfilling life when we help our sphere of influence and God is with us. Through our story, Our story, our influence is different, but God is always with us and he's with us more than we realize we. Just once we come at peace with ourselves, we can receive his peace and his love more fully, and it just becomes a cycle that you do throughout your whole life Continue to adapt and learn and help and become this amazing person that you are and then just live forever happily. You know, like that's the goal. It's going to be so hard, but it's going to be so amazing.

Alisha Coakley:

Ah man, wow, Wow, wow, wow. Well, I'm going to show my boys. I have a son who's getting ready to go on a mission and he's getting ready to put his papers in right now and stuff like that. And he's our first, so he's my oldest. I've never done this, but I am so excited to be able to show both of them your videos. I'm excited to sit and just binge watch all of them myself.

Alisha Coakley:

Please do Please do I'm pretty sure that maybe one day you and I will collaborate and we'll throw Scott in there too, cause Scott is an amazing lip syncer, so we'll have to all make a video together. I'll do Mormon rap. You can like level it up. Some Scott can be lip syncing. It'll be fantastic.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Why is that wrapping missionary?

Scott Brandley:

wrapping missionaryorg is where you hey you can still be a missionary even after you get released as an elder too, right that is very true the rapping missionary will stay like through my life so true okay, so so.

Alisha Coakley:

So we're going to share all of your things. We're going to share your handles. I I feel like we can definitely even share, I don don't know. Let me ask you this what's your favorite song that you've done so far? Like what's your favorite rap I would love to share?

Elder Logan Castleton:

that at the end of the show it's always just gotta be my recent, like I.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, so it keeps changing.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Yeah, like it, it'll be. It's always my recent, cause I I try to get better and I finally yeah, it's always my recent. So, as long as you like, the website is where you can find all my recents and my 30 plus songs, or whatever.

Alisha Coakley:

So okay, and give us that website again wrapping missionaryorg.

Elder Logan Castleton:

Or you just look up rapid missionary Google, it'll be there.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay, perfect, and it. I mean, I was able to find you really quickly when I went on Tik TOK and just typed in wrapping missionary as well, it popped up. So we'll make sure that we're sharing all of those links and stuff like that, and I'm I'm just going to call it that we're when, when we wrap up here, we will go ahead and put in your most recent wrap so that listeners can hear it right away and they can kind of get a feel for it and everything like that. But this has just been fantastic.

Elder Logan Castleton:

So thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Scott Brandley:

So do you have any last final thoughts before we wrap things up, elder?

Elder Logan Castleton:

No, I think that was that. Was it God's with us in our story.

Alisha Coakley:

That's perfect.

Scott Brandley:

We can definitely see him in yours. So thanks for being on here, man. We really appreciate it and keep keep serving, keep reaching out and and making a difference.

Alisha Coakley:

Thank, you and you know what, just from from one person who's had a lifelong diagnosis of leukemia to someone who is having a lifelong diagnosis with heart problems, Let me just tell you, don't put God in a box when it comes to your health. Either, right, you may say you have to have a transplant, or maybe you're going to have to have multiple goals, or maybe. But you know what, Heavenly father can work it all out. He can work it out. He could keep you surviving and thriving on half a heart for the rest of your life if he wants to. And so I just don't go into that anxiety moment and stuff like that. Just know that he's got you. He's got you and it's going to be beautiful. No matter what, You're going to be able to do everything that you're supposed to be doing.

Alisha Coakley:

Um and and you have no idea what's around the corner. That's that's my favorite thing when it comes to health stuff is, we have no idea what medical miracle is coming out tomorrow. We have no idea what cure is coming. We have no idea what type of surgery is coming or procedure, or you know what I mean. We just we don't know who heavenly father is already working on to be able to work on other people. So just because it is one way today does not mean it's going to be that way tomorrow.

Elder Logan Castleton:

That's awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man. Well, we wish you all of the success and luck and all of the great things that are in store for you. I don't even think we need to wish it for you. You, you got it in the bag. It seems like Heavenly Father is really just smiling down on you and he's just going to keep guiding you, and I love that you are a. I'll rather beg for permission or beg for what's the? What's the saying that I always say, scott, beg forgiveness rather than ask permission. Just go do good. Just go do good. I think it's great.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. Well, thanks again for being on the show and thanks everyone for tuning in to listen to Elder Castleton's podcast and story. And go ahead and do your five second missionary work which is what we call it on our podcast and hit that share button so that we can get this message out there and share some more light into the world.

Alisha Coakley:

Absolutely, and be sure that, whatever social media you're on, that you go find and follow Elder Castleton as the Wrapping Missionary. He's doing all the hard work. Guys, all you have to do is just click a little button, share it with some friends, you know, comment on it, commenting on it is such a great thing, liking it, all of those things, it, it. It helps so much to get these things out into the world. So make sure you guys do that. And if you have a story that you guys would like to share, we want to hear from you. Please, please, please, don't hesitate to reach out. You can head over to latterdaylightscom and fill out the form at the bottom of the page to latterdaylightscom and fill out the form at the bottom of the page, or you can comment anywhere that you're hearing this, or on Facebook. We're around, we're all over the place. We would love to hear from you guys and make sure that you guys share Elder Castleton's story.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. Well, thanks again, elder, for being on and thanks for tuning in, and we will talk to you next week with another episode. Until then, take care. Thanks so much.

Alisha Coakley:

Bye guys.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host