“You could see the happiness come into his life…he was just so much happier with his family, and his work, and all the things that he was doing,” Warren adds. “Those are the most rewarding experiences.”
The missionary work did not always go that smoothly. Some rejected the messages of the LDS church, even when, in Warren’s eyes, they knew they could benefit from the teaching.
“[Seeing people] not making changes in their life that would bring them a lot more happiness because of… fear of change,” Warren explains, frustrated, “was kind of hard.”
After nearly two years of intense work, it was time for the missionary to come home. And after feeling so concerned at the outset of his journey, he returned satisfied that he had learned as much from the citizens of Mexico City as he had taught them.
“Even if someone’s made a lot of mistakes, or if their life’s torn apart, they can change that and completely turn things around,” Warren notes.
The experience, to put it plainly, gave the wrestler a new outlook on life.
“Things are going to work out if I have the right perspective on life and know how important my family is, my friends, good relationships, [and] those types of things,” the sophomore says. “So it gave me a better perspective, I think, on life.”
After touching down in the U.S. in August of this year, it was quickly back to Cambridge. After a two-year delay, it was finally time to become a sophomore. What’s more, Warren would get a chance to rejoin the wrestling team.
“I missed wrestling while I was in Mexico City, so it was good to be back on the mat,” Warren says. “I’m really, really looking forward to the first competition.”
Despite being gone from the team for two years, the second-year grappler hardly missed a beat. He quickly began getting back into shape, training rigorously to regain the 15 pounds he had lost. And though Warren knew very few of the wrestlers on the squad, he became an integral component of the team almost instantly.
“He was welcomed back with open arms,” sophomore co-captain Walter Peppelman says. “He’s really got great things to say and great things to add both on and off the mat.”
Importantly, Warren shores up a hole at the 133 lb. class that the Crimson has had trouble filling the past few years.
“It is going to make a big difference,” Weiss says of Warren’s return to the wrestling scene. “He makes the wrestlers around him better as well.”
Despite the anticipation surrounding Warren’s return, he has yet to compete in his first match, as the first two contests of the year have fallen on Sunday, the day of the Mormon Sabbath. While Warren had wrestled on Sundays before his mission, he refuses to do so after his two-year trip.
“That’s part of…what my mission changed in me,” Warren explains. “[It] made me see what was really important for me, and not wrestling on Sundays to me shows where my dedication is.”
“I know the thing that’s going to be the most important in my life is my faith, and I want to put that before anything else,” he adds.