Recently, an athlete in the CrossFit games, Mandi Janowitz, noticed three missionaries at her gym. As a joke she told the missionaries if one of them could do a full clean and jerk with a 315-pound bar then she'd convert. (A clean and jerk requires raising the bar from the ground to above your head in three movements: moving from a squat to a position where the bar rests at shoulder height then driving it above your head.)
One of the Elders stepped up to take the challenge:
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Video Companion
Video edited and republished with permission from Mandi Janowitz.
CrossFit recently posted this video to their Facebook page, along with Janowitz's praise for the missionaries:
"Three missionaries walk into the gym... "One of them takes me up on my bet. "This was awesome!"
In the comments on Facebook, the praise for the missionaries just kept flowing:
Eli Robertson: "Two things I respect, Mormon missionaries and Crossfitters."
Ryan Piggott: "That's power! But the real power comes from the message they share, and that is God lives and loves us, Jesus is His Son sent to give us an example to pattern our life's after and so much more. And that there is a proper way to go about living life, just like any crossfit movement has a proper technique to be executed correctly. Thanks for sharing the video."
Scott Williamson: "Personally I am not a Crossfit fan. However I do enjoy the weight room and will always respect LDS missionaries. When I was on my mission we played a game of basketball against some young men. Shoes, slacks, and all.... We made a bet with them, who later held up their end of the bargain & showed up to church after we won ;) They continued to come to church several times. I'm not sure if they were ever baptized or not. I do know sometimes you have to step out of the norm to remind those who aren't familiar with missionaries that we are all human and had lives before serving.
"I think this is great! Nice work missionaries. Maybe they don't get baptized immediately, but you might have triggered something as simple as them attending church one day.
"Oh yeah! And nice lift Elder!"
Nobez Ngakuru: "In his church pants and shoes evenđ"