Japrix Weaver Stubbs - Why Success Isn't About Winning, But About How Well You Endure Life's Repeat Set-Backs

In this heartfelt episode, we explore the inspiring journey of Japrix Weaver Stubbs—a talented athlete and dedicated missionary—who faced multiple knee injuries, personal doubts, and the challenges of redefining her identity. Her story offers hope and practical insights for those navigating setbacks and crafting their next chapters with faith and perseverance.

In this episode:

• Japrix's experience of tearing her ACL twice and the emotional toll it took
• The pivotal role of her mother’s faith and the powerful impact of small, uplifting truths
• How her injuries shaped her spiritual growth and strengthened her reliance on the Atonement
• The importance of redefining success and identity beyond physical achievements
• Navigating college sports with faith, values, and authenticity in a competitive environment
• The intertwining of her athletic pursuits, mission service, and future career ambitions
• The unique support her husband provides, including participating as a practice player
• Practical advice for missionaries and returnees facing hardships and delays
• The lessons learned about humility, patience, and trusting Heavenly Father’s plan

Timestamps:

00:00 - Welcoming Japrix Weaver Stubbs and her remarkable story

01:21 - The devastating impact of her first ACL tear before a state tournament

02:39 - Emotional pain and loss of identity beyond being an athlete

03:12 - Discovering the Atonement’s power during recovery

04:22 - Her mother’s faith and the small notes that uplifted her during difficult days

06:35 - Returning to basketball after multiple surgeries and the perseverance involved

07:51 - The frustration of tearing her second ACL and feeling God’s timing

08:45 - How her surgeries prepared her spiritually for her mission

09:39 - Supporting her mission while staying connected to basketball

11:05 - Transitioning successfully into college basketball and balancing faith and competition

14:02 - Navigating team dynamics with integrity and exemplifying her values

15:20 - Dealing with comparisons and understanding blessings through faith

17:25 - Her experience of three ACL surgeries and the lessons in resilience

19:41 - The significance of prayer and reliance on Heavenly Father through setbacks

21:28 - How her hardships have built her character and prepared her for future challenges

23:34 - Supporting her future goals and trusting God’s plan for her next chapters

26:16 - Words of encouragement for others going through trials and setbacks

27:41 - The power of humility and Christ-centered faith in overcoming life’s difficulties

Resources & Links:

• Ether 12:27 - Book of Mormon
• Physical Therapy as a Career

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of Return Missionary Next Chapters Podcast. I'm your host, Sit Bassett. Imagine you're a 16-year-old who practically was born with a basketball in your hand. You're a future Division I recruit. The state tournament is only two days away, and in one heart-stopping moment, your ACL tears in a fluke accident, and your dreams vanish with it. Most people would call that a tragedy, but for our guest today, Weaver Stubbs, that was just the first of four major need surgeries in seven years to challenge both her basketball future and her identity. From the course of a junior college to a full-time mission and eventually to the D1 stage at Weaver State University. She has lived a cycle of rehab, return, and repeat. But today we aren't just talking about basketball. We're talking about what happens when your picture-perfect life keeps blowing up and how you keep the faith to keep standing when your knees won't. Hello, Japri. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited and grateful to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Well, it's it's really an honor to have you, to be honest with you. We know how how busy you are. You've got a big game tomorrow. So you're right in the middle of the rigors of trying to get prepared for that. So we appreciate you taking a moment to chat with us. So, yeah, sophomore in high school, right before the big game. Wow, what happened there?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

So it was two days before the state tournament. Um just in practice, was jumping up to steal a ball, and when I came down, felt a big paw and it hurt super bad. Um long story short, I was able to get an MRI the same day. Um, I had a great doctor, he was super helpful to get me in quick. And so we got my results that night, and I was pretty devastated that I wasn't gonna be able to finish our season. I didn't quite know what an ACL rehabilitation process looked like, and so I didn't know how difficult it was going to be for me in the coming months. But definitely just that week was awful because the state tournament is the thing that every athlete is working for, looking forward to the entire season, and that had just um, you know, gone away just like that. And I was also really sad because it was my last season with my older sister. She was a senior that year, and so I'm still kind of sad that we won't get that time to play together back, but it's okay because life goes on. Um, but like I mentioned, there was other struggles in the coming months that really came with this injury. In my high school, I was known as, you know, the point guard on the basketball team or the shortstop on the softball team, and so much more than the physical pain of tearing my ECL was the emotional pain. I felt like I had lost my identity. People knew me as the sporty girl, and so now who was I without sports? Who is decree? And that was something that I had to learn. I had to learn that I was a daughter of God and that I had value so much more than just uh athlete. That we're much more than what we do and our accomplishments, but it's so much more than that, and that was a really big character building experience for me, and where I learned more about the atonement of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

As a sophomore high school, that's a good way to start uh to learn wisdom in your youth, so to speak. Um, I gotta tell you, I'm just getting this PTSD. Um, having just had ACL surgery, I think I'm on six months, like on recovery. I'm hi, I'm Sid Bassett, I'm six months recovery. It was a big, big deal. And I know that to have that happen to you, especially as an athlete. I was never that kind of athlete, so I didn't have that to redefine myself, but I can only imagine how hard that must have been to go through that. And you know, frankly, it's probably hard for your parents. So you don't get to that level of competition without support around you. And I'm gonna go on a limb here to say that it was probably your parents, am I right?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah. Um, it's actually funny that you ask that. My mom was with me through every step of this journey, my dad too, but my mom maybe a little more so because she would come to the appointments with me and everything. And actually, the time that we were in the doctor's office and we got the results of my MRI, my mom was so um devastated and sad for me that she was about to pass out, and so she had to lay on the ground inside the doctor's office. And because she knew much more than I did, like what was the journey, what was the road ahead of me. And so she knew that this was going to be super tough for me. But I'm really grateful for my mom because she's one of the biggest reasons that I did get through it in high school. Something that she started to do after I was injured was she would put little pieces of truth on these three by five cards in her bathroom, and she would hang them on the mirror, and so they would each say something like, God answers prayers, or I am a child of God, you know, things that we're taught from young ages. And so one day I was just gonna use the bathroom in my parents' room, and I was washing my hands and I looked up and I read the one that said, Christ atoned for pain. And that hit me so hard. It was a truth that I had known, but in that exact moment, I was able to relearn that precious truth that Christ felt my pain, that he knew what I was going through. And that was probably my first experience that I remember in my life knowing this aspect of the atonement is true, that Jesus Christ is there for me and he's with me every single day helping me through this recovery. And so I'm grateful that my mom was able to share her testimony with me through these cards, and it helped me so much.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

As a side note, I am giving a talk in state conference tomorrow, and it is on the small and simple things. And as it turns out, I also share those little stories, those little uh snippets of my mother and uh in my growing up years. And I'm so glad you had a mother who was willing to go from you know prostrate on the ground, like suffering this internal pain, and yet she had the kindness and and took the time to support you in the little ways. And and I love that. I love those little notes. Uh did you by chance save those? Are you one of those people that saved notes?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yes, I did save I saved that one. Well, she has most of them still in her bathroom. And then on my mission, every once in a while, she would send me a card and I would hang that up in our bedroom with my companion. So those notes are still lingering in our family.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Way to go, mom. You scored big there. All right, love that. Okay, so two days away, scouts are presumably there. That's gonna be a big deal for your recruiting. But you get back on your feet and you start to play again. Take us through sort of the next that recovery. We we don't want to go through all those months. Those are hard months. But you get past that, you get back on the court again. Let's hear about what happened after that.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah, so after I toured my ECL the first time in high school, I did have lots of coaches lose their interest in me because they knew that you know I might not be the same player when I come back. But luckily I did keep at it, and I'm proud to say that I was recruited to Snow College. It's a junior college here in Utah and I had a great season there, my freshman year of college. Um I was super lucky and the entire season I was planning to go on a mission and so I knew that that was my plan. From the age of sixteen I knew I was gonna serve. But then again, the second to last day of basketball season, so in our semifinal game of the conference tournament, again the big tournament that every athlete is working for in the first quarter, I tore my other ACL on my other knee. And it was so frustrating because now this time I did know what I was facing, I did know what I was getting into, and I just kind of believed that I had done it again. And especially this time thoughts rolled through my head about well, Heavenly Father, how are you letting this happen when my next desire is to serve you and to bring your children to Christ? How could you let this happen when I that's my plan right now? And I was really just at a loss because I didn't know what the next year was going to look like. My first surgery took me a year before I was playing basketball again, and so I kind of figured, well, is it gonna be a year before I can go on a mission? Like and then it'll be even longer before I come home to play basketball. I wasn't sure what that whole process would be. A blessing now is that I only had to wait five months to go on my mission, and it turned out that my first surgery was what made that happen because my doctor felt confident that I would be able to rehab my knee and be able to focus on important things during my recovery on my mission because of my experience that I had in high school. And so I I have a difficult time saying I'm grateful for my knee journey, but that high school experience is what prepared me for my rehab on my mission.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Good thing there's only two of these things that happened. A foreshadowing things to come. But I just I I love your attitude. I love the fact that at that point, like I said, you had to redefine, you know, this sports girl, if you will, to use your words. And you had to sort of get back on your feet again and go through all the rehab and all the work and efforts and the long days and the and the long and early mornings, and you went through all that and then right before the big game again, it happened again. I just I just I think that's something to soak in for a minute, because no doubt you've had to live that over and over and over again. So it did you didn't waver, you still wanted to serve a mission. I think that's great. And from you, you said when you're young, you want to serve a mission. She'd always planned to do that. You go and serve, and obviously you do a fantastic job, and you played as much basketball as you could, but there was no strength programs there on the mission. So you just had to every every P Day, I guess, you had the act take the opportunity to to try to get yourself back into a place so when you got back, you could maybe compete again. Is that all right?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah, I took every chance that I could to find the hoop. Not a lot of sisters love playing basketball, but I was really grateful for those companions that would come to Lotye Park with me and watch me shoot or walk into the church, and Elder Carl would let us in to shoot hoops, and so yeah, no doubt I was trying to keep out my game, but most importantly, I was trying to get my knee stronger. So I was doing lots of plyometrics on my own, lunges, different exercises that I had learned to help my knee get ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I love that. Um you did it, um, very impressive. Okay, so now let's go back to you returning from your mission. This is a question I ask most of our guests, and that is do you remember those days and weeks that you returned back from your mission to home? What what were those like?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, when I came home, I really hit the ground running. The day after I um flew into Cedar City, I went and got a job. I had an interview already set up before coming home, and I started the next week. But on top of that, I was getting ready for basketball. I was luckily had found a school that I was going to play at, and I was shooting every day, working out, lifting, getting ready for that, and also just spending time with family. And so I think it really helped me to stay busy and I felt like I had a purpose working towards basketball and also getting a job actually at a physical therapy clinic, and so that definitely helped me. One aspect I struggled with was that on my mission, you know, you're very outward focused. You're serving others, trying to help them as best as you can. And coming home, I felt very self-focused. I was trying to figure out my future and what am I gonna do here? What should I major in? And how will this work out for me? And so I was feeling selfish, but of course, that's what Heavenly Father wants you to do. He wants you to plan for your future and to be successful. And so that's something that um missionaries don't need to be afraid of coming home. It's okay to take care of yourself and to have a great life.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Well, it's interesting. What what I have found is missions teach you how to serve, they teach you how to love people that you didn't even know. And then you come home, you he need you to serve yourself, to develop yourself to become the person he needs you to be. Because you already know in your heart you're gonna serve people with those talents, with those gifts that you develop. That's a it's a great way he works with us. And yeah, and at times it does feel like it's all about us, but and some, you know, sometimes in our life, some phases it is kind of about us, and we do need to focus on and getting education and the other developmental opportunities that come away. Okay, so you come home, you're playing for junior college, and you make your way to Weaver State, which is a Division I program, which you've wanted since you were a young girl, I presume. You did it. Congratulations. How did that feel?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Oh, I'm super proud of myself, not only because of my knee surgeries, but just in general, to be an athlete that reaches the Division I level is a huge blessing. I'm grateful for coaches that still believed in me after my injuries, and I am grateful for my dad who would go to the church and shoot with me all the time. We spent lots of hours together. Everyone in my family would go to the gym of means. So I was proud to be at Weaver State. Being in Utah still was great as well, because I've had lots of family friends be able to watch me play. So it's been quite an accomplishment, and I am proud of that.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah, good for you. And so in prior conversations, you and I have talked about, you know, when you're in the locker room with people who aren't of your necessarily your same faith or people who have the same values as you. Can you talk about what it's like to be in the locker room and how you navigated that uh with your team?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, it is it's a challenge. Definitely they see me as, you know, maybe a little weird at times that I don't participate in the fun activities that they do or what they see as fun, which I don't really care for at all. Like, you know, just their lifestyle is very different, especially the culture of women's college sports is very different than an LDS lifestyle. And so that can be difficult for me at times, but I'm really grateful to be the person that when they think of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that they'll think of me and hopefully I'm being a good representative of that, and they can look at it as you know something that they think is cool, like that I live by my standards and I'm not afraid to, you know, share what I believe with them. And so I am grateful that I can be that person for my teammates, even though it's a challenge at times.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

I remember a conference talk some years ago. Excuse me, President Ukdorf was talking about some of the health challenges he had, and he'd look at some of his peers um in the military that had much more strength than he did, and he wasn't able to run as far as the others, and he wondered why, you know, he lived the the the cut the covenants that he'd made, and and uh of course that was his story. Just turn to your story. You know, you saw many of your teammates who didn't live a life of the same same standards that you did, yet they had successes and they moved forward in ways with you feeling like you gotta kind of take two steps forward, three steps back with all your surgeries. What what how did you reconcile that in your mind?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, I mean, I wish that the gospel was a bending machine. I wish that the more good acts you did, the more blessings came. I definitely don't think that's how it works. I think you are blessed for making good decisions though. That that is true. But it can be frustrating as an athlete to see my teammates participating in, you know, drinking, smoking, whatever you wanna say they're doing. Um, and I'm over here going to church every Sunday, fulfilling my calling. I'm a return missionary doing what I feel is making good decisions and yet I don't see you know, basketball results or things like that. And it can be frustrating to think like, Oh, why is this not working out for me? Why is like why can't I have more success when I'm trying so hard to follow the covenant path? But really I know that I am being blessed and that you know, basketball is just a game at the end of the day. I've learned to be a role player on my team and it's tough. I mean, always battling for playing time and just wanting to be a good basketball player. I'm still competitive, I want to win, I wanna go out there and I wanna compete well. But yeah, it can be difficult when you see people around you that, you know, are making such different decisions than I make and they're living on top of the world, it seems like, but I think we can all relate to that in some type of way.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Yeah, yeah, you're right. I wonder what age you had to get to before you said basketball is only a game. I cannot imagine I in fact, I don't think I've ever heard those words come out of your mouth. Basketball is only a game. Yet this is where you come. And speaking of some setbacks, the setbacks weren't done with that second ACL. So do you want to take us through the chapter of your your third surgery, your fourth ACL? Let's hear about that. Oh just sounds so painful.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

So kind of to make it all make sense, I had a meniscus surgery at the first year I came home from my mission at a junior college, which is a much less serious injury, but still I needed surgery. But from that season at the junior college is what got me recruited to Weaver State. And so then now I was out my first season at Weaver and in the preseason, we I had only played in a couple of games. In the preseason during a practice, I tore my ACL again. So this was going to be my fourth surgery, and this time it was the knee that I tore in high school, so I had done left, right, now left again. But like I mentioned before, it was it's not about the physicality of this challenge, it's about the emotional and the spiritual growth that happens when you have these experiences. Again, of course, I knew exactly what I had done in the moment that I tore it. I can I recognize the feeling because I had done it before. I knew I had torn my ACL that day in practice and I was devastated. Like, wow, I had worked so hard for this. I I put in so many extra hours shooting, so many extra days in the gym just getting my knee strong. And again, my dreams were crushed. I wasn't going to be able to finish my season as a division one athlete that I had dreamt of for a very long time. And so this time around, um it was my husband who got me through my recovery. I leaned on him every single day. It was very draining spiritually and emotionally and physically, of course. Um, but I wouldn't have been able to get through it this time around without his testimony and his reminders of, you know, that we aren't alone, that Heavenly Father is taking care of us. And again, reflecting on my previous knee surgeries helped me so much with this one as well that I I didn't have the same issues of struggling with my identity because I had learned that. I had learned the atonement and the power of the atonement, so I was able to lean on that testimony that I had, but still I relied on others and on Heavenly Father. My prayers became super sincere um during this last recovery. It's still pretty fresh for me, but I am grateful that I have built that relationship with my Heavenly Father where our my prayers more so love like I'm asking him for his help. Like just tell me what you want me to do and I will do it. And Heavenly Father, I know that you're the only way I can get through this, so please help me right now. I need you today. And sometimes it really was on a day-to-day basis, like I'm just trying to get through today and we'll see what tomorrow brings. But my prayers on Heavenly Father are really just a friendship, and I know that he is my father and that he loves me so much. And I'm really grateful for all that he has done to help me through this process one more time. And I'm really praying that I don't have another knee surgery. Maybe I have a little more to learn, but hopefully not about this at least.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Well, I'll say a collective prayer for you. You know, they say there's the old adders, there's no growth in the comfort zone with all of the with all of the uncomfort, d discomfort, I guess is the right word, that you've had through all those years. And then to hear you speak um, you know, of such great faith and courage and and love and devotion to your Heavenly Father. And even that experience you had as a young, you know, 16 year old or sophomore, I'm not sure how old you were, but it's that young age where your mom was planting little seeds um within you of you know who you are and your relationship with with god it's paid off it sounds like and all of those all of those recoveries have only built a person of even greater character and strength and that to know you is to know what that feels like and what it looks like in life so I I commend you for your integrity in that way so thanks for sharing that with everyone. So even though you've done all this you're still in the grind. I mean a D1 school doesn't slow down because oh I'm so sorry you've had those four surgeries. We're gonna take it easy on you. I mean that's that doesn't happen. So how do you get through those days? I mean the the mornings the evenings how how does that work out for you?

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Yeah division one sports is unlike any other level I played at of course it's designed that way but it's a lot more than going to practice for two hours and then maybe you have a two hour game once or twice a week. And we watched film which can be an hour you lift you have treatments everything you have to be early to and so it is a hard thing to manage. I've definitely learned about time management and being able to prioritize things but it has given me lots of life skills and like I mentioned before I wish I was you know our star player just performing better on the on the I've definitely been able to look outside myself as well and see how I can help my teammates where they need it and just be a good teammate being able to cheer them on being um you know an asset to my team in small ways and working hard in practice. Yeah it it's definitely a grind and all of these things I've been through the principles are the same. You know rehabbing the knee it's it's repetitive it's slow. A lot of the efforts are unseen but it will pay off. As a missionary a lot of the things you do are repetitive. Success might be slow your efforts can go what feels unseen and same with division one sports. It's repetitive and you know success it it's there but the progress is slow. And so all these things I've been through have just prepared me for the next step of life and I know that these principles that I've been learning through basketball and with my mission that I will be prepared for the next plan that Heavenly Father has for me and where he's taking me next.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Well I think the definition of star player has a different meaning than just the person who gets the most playing time and I really appreciate and no doubt your teammates appreciate you as well. I I do have to go on a bit of a tangent here because before you left your mission there was a commitment you made to me specifically unsolicited mind you that I would be there for your wedding and as it turned out I didn't make it. But with that came your next resource your husband crew you told me just before this call that he actually gets to spend time with you on the court which is incredibly rare. How does he get to do that?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah well just some background is I met my husband when I was 10 years old. I played on a boys basketball team because there wasn't a competitive girls team in my town and so I played on the boys basketball team and you know we started dating in after I graduated high school actually and then we dated through our missions but I mean I guess you can't really count that as dating you're never talking to each other and then we dated for a year coming home and he played at a school for basketball as well and then we you know decided we couldn't take the long distance anymore and so we got married. But like you mentioned he's still part of my basketball life. He's actually a practice player on our team so if anyone's not aware a lot of the college teams college women's teams will invite male players to come play against us because they're bigger, faster stronger and so if you can be successful against a man then you're probably gonna do pretty good when you play against your competitors and so that's been something that crew and I are both super grateful for that he gets to come to practice with me every single day. Um and he gets to be around my teammates, see what we're working on and he helps me um not only spiritually like I mentioned but yeah he helps me with basketball. He's a great player he helps me with my shot and definitely it's been super fun to just keep playing together.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

That's so great. I don't know that what an extra blessing that you have in your life I I'm sure you school him all the time but you I'm sure you don't want to admit that on this call so I'll I'll leave that one. He's way better he's way better than me I think that's just great that you get to spend the time together. Okay so here we are to the last couple of questions. One of the questions that I get all the time is how do I keep going on? How do I endure this challenge? How do I endure this struggle?

SPEAKER_01 26:57

And so as a return missionary now with a lot of perspective that you've gained and wisdom that you've accrued what would you tell a return missionary or anyone for that matter who's struggling and finding that keeping that hope is is hard to do yeah I would tell them that they are not alone a lot of people experience this everyone experiences hardships but for me one of my go-to scriptures is ether 1227 can be well known or maybe if you don't know it anyways it's about humbling yourself before Jesus Christ and if we humble ourselves before him and have faith in him then he'll make our weak things become strong. And my ACL journey is a perfect example of that that you know my experiences in high school were my weaknesses. They that was a horrible time for me what I it was what I considered the hardest thing I had been through up to that point in my life. And it became a strength. It helped me on my mission. It helped me learn certain lessons that I wouldn't have learned in another experience maybe. And then my my struggles on my mission, those ended up being you know my favorite parts of my mission were the hard times and I just can testify that when we humble ourselves before Jesus Christ then he will make those weaknesses our strengths and that he can make things so much better than we imagined and just continuing off of that. I actually found a career path that I want to pursue is physical therapy and so that's another thing that you know maybe without this experience that I wouldn't have found a love for the rehab process and wanting to be able to bless other people's lives and so I know that whatever struggles we go through that Coming Father is preparing us for things to come.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

We may not see it or we may not even want it at that time but he is preparing us and he has a better plan than what we have for ourselves and so if we can be humble and ask him to lead us and he will then we will end up where we need to be you took my last question away you answered it without it being asked what can I say we've learned so much from you thank you Japree thank you and good luck in the game tomorrow I hope uh you're taking on I I Idaho State is what you said. Yeah Idaho State okay go Weber State I'm sorry Idaho State friends well have a great rest of your day and uh enjoy the rest of your evening and we will talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Awesome thank you so much