I knew Brock from his Instagram, Brock's Kit Closet, long before I knew his story. Then he reached out about being on the show, we connected the same day, and our Wi-Fi went out at home right before we recorded. So this one came together at the golf simulator where I work. Short notice, no prep, and it turned into one of my favorite conversations so far.

Brock grew up in Syracuse, Utah, the youngest of six in a family where missions were simply what you did. He played one year of soccer in first grade, hated every minute of it, and quit. The cleats were uncomfortable, the shin guards hurt, and as a defender he felt like he was doing nothing. Funny how life turns out.

What changed it was his mission in Switzerland and Germany. An investigator's eight-year-old son was unbelievably good at futsal, and Brock watched him score game after game without understanding anything about the sport. Then came a sport night in Basel playing soccer with young single adults and nonmembers, and the 2010 World Cup watched with members and investigators under his mission president's rules. That little boy now plays professionally in Europe.

We also talk about the prompting he felt at a family friend's house in Switzerland ("you're going to serve here") and the mission call that came a year later. We talk about building his testimony line upon line, and what it was like to go from the Utah bubble to branches where members drive two hours to church and give a talk every other week because only ten people show up.

Then the career part. A 4.0 at Weber State to get into BYU, a German degree, an advisor who asked why he only ever talked about sports, and a semester in Vienna that turned into an internship with the Austrian national baseball team. That same study abroad led him to the ward where he met his wife. Now he works game days at Real Salt Lake and the Royals, and he spent three and a half years as a club admin for high-level academy teams. He's also a friend of Luukas from our earlier episode, which is how Saints in Soccer came up.

Plus: roughly 300 soccer kits, a surprising amount of Utah soccer history, and a simple piece of advice to close.

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