Editor's note: The following is a an excerpt taken from Brady Poppinga's book "True Spirit of Competition."
The minute I arrived in Uruguay as a missionary, I felt the heavy weight of the challenge that was before me. The life I had lived for the previous 19 years would be extremely different from what I was going to be doing for the next two years. The first big change was how I could carry myself. Pre-mission in the heat of competition, I had a short fuse that would explode at any sign of defeat (Especially when facing my older brother). I could care less who was hurt or offended along the way, I just wanted to win.
Now my main charge was to bring a message of peace, charity and service to the people of Uruguay. The second big change was that I thought I was going to be leaving a hypercompetitive environment for one that would be far less fierce. Oh was I mistaken. Instead of taking on big 300-pound offensive linemen I was now taking on arguably a bigger task. That was learning a new language and assimilating to a foreign culture.
The first few weeks in Uruguay, my trainer made sure learning the language and adjusting to the culture would be like a baptism by fire for me. On one of my first Sunday nights in Uruguay, Elder Wilson decided to team me up with another newbie (Lance Hydric) and send us out on our own while he and Lance Hydric’s companion stayed back and ate ice cream and planned for the week.
We had a handful of Books of Mormon and were told to head to the midtown plaza, where everybody in that town hung out, and preach the good word and give out the Books of Mormon to anyone who wanted one. With the zeal of two puppy dogs, Elder Hydric and I headed out to preach the good word.
Since neither he nor I could speak the language except for the basics, this night became a defining moment in my life on many different levels as a missionary, person and athlete. As we arrived at the plaza, we noticed it was the place to be, since it was packed with people. Kids were playing and dancing, and most of all there were families sitting around drinking the customary drink in Uruguay, mate.
Elder Hydric and I spotted a young family walking right at us. We stopped them and began to attempt to speak to them. In the middle of what we were saying, they all broke out laughing and pointed at us like we were some traveling comedy show. We looked at each other, taking what we were saying and ourselves very seriously, and felt humiliated. After they began to attempt to speak to us in a mockery form of English, we extended a Book of Mormon to them and nodded. They took it, and that was the last we saw of them.
Our puppy-dog-like zeal was tested time and time again as we attempted to strike up conversations and preach the good word that night. It was the most humiliating thing I had experienced up until that point in my life. Our Spanish was so bad, the people couldn’t help but laugh at us, and the younger generations made sure we knew how goofy we sounded by laughing and pointing in our faces.
Tired and almost broken, we needed to head back to reunite with our original companions as it was getting close to our curfew. On our way back, coming right at us with a calm stroll was another family that would be very convenient to speak to. With some doubt and a little fear, I asked Elder Hydric if he wanted to stop and attempt to talk to this family. His response was simple yet profound. He said, “I am not afraid.” I thought, I agree with that. We have already been through the worst. What else is there to fear? Away we went again, fumbling along, trying as hard as we could to preach the good word. The result was the same as before that night. We really couldn’t communicate with them, making for an awkward exchange.
After about nine months of battling on a daily basis the humiliation of being made fun of and getting some pretty confused looks because of my struggles with the Uruguayan Spanish language, I finally started getting to the point to where I began to speak Spanish with ease.
Because of the no-fear attitude that was very deeply encoded in my being early on in my mission experience with Elder Lance Hydric, I didn’t shy away from opening my mouth and attempting to speak Spanish, even though at times what came out of my mouth didn’t make sense or sounded funny. Eventually that attitude led to me learning the Spanish language.
Since then, I have kept developing my ability to speak Spanish and learned to speak it well enough to eventually be hired as a color analyst for Fox Deportes, the most popular Spanish-speaking sports channel in the United States. For the first time in the history of the United States of America, I was able to be a part of the first ever all-Spanish telecast of Super Bowl XLVIII.
Just like when I competed as an athlete on the field or court, I rose to the challenge of the competitive moment, which was tackling the process of learning to speak Spanish. If it wasn’t for my competitive spirit to go toe to toe with such a difficult challenge without backing down, I may have never been able to fully learn the language as I did.
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Brady Poppinga has played for the Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys. He has worked as a motivational speaker and studied business management at BYU.