On a cool fall Sunday afternoon in Cambridge, Justin Weaver and Wes Hartmann are standing outside the University Ward, posing for a picture.
"Let's do something sexy," Hartmann says, barely cracking a smile. "Get on my shoulders."
"Dude, I don't wanna get on your shoulders," Weaver replies.
By now, the two have perfected their shtick. Hartmann, a linebacker, plays the funny man, and Weaver, a running back, the straight man.
Eventually Hartmann gives in, and the freshmen roommates stand still, put their arms around each other and smile. In their free hands, each holds a small zip-up bag. Weaver's is blue and Hartmann's is red, but they've switched for the picture - it works better with the lighting.
Inside those bags is the Book of Mormon. Inside that book is the life they have chosen to lead.
Why Tufts
While watching a team workout during his recruiting visit to Tufts last year, Weaver, who grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, asked head coach Jay Civetti to tell him about some of his players.
One of them was sophomore Kyle Duke, who went on his Mormon mission to Washington state right after high school.
"[Civetti] said, 'Oh, this guy's kind of interesting - he went on a Mormon mission,'" Weaver said. "I was like, 'Actually, I think I'm gonna do that.'"
When he mentioned to other coaches that he would be gone for two full years after his freshman season, some were taken aback. But Civetti was different.
"Coach Civetti was saying that he respects that we decided to do that, and that it shows what kind of people we are," Weaver said. "I liked that."
Though Civetti didn't recruit Duke or Atticus Swett, another Mormon on the team currently serving his mission in Budapest, he has created an environment that is accepting of Mormon athletes.
"I think it can be a real positive," Civetti said. "You're gonna get back a 20-year-old sophomore who's experienced things in life a lot different than your average sophomore or your average 20-year-old."
By the time Hartmann flew to visit Tufts from Orange County, California, Weaver had already committed. Though Hartmann probably would have chosen Tufts anyway, learning that another Mormon was coming was the icing on the cake.
After that, it was Duke who helped bring Weaver and Hartmann together.
"I didn't know there was another Mormon on the team until Kyle Duke told me in the summer that we should be roommates," Weaver said.
"I don't know how I got your number," Hartmann said. "Oh, yeah - we found each other on Facebook."
And a friendship was born.
Adjustments
Alcohol, coffee and premarital sex are three major components of many college students' experiences.
Mormon law prohibits all three.
Though Weaver and Hartmann have come to embrace the lifestyle, at Tufts they've had to make some adjustments.
"It was pretty rough the first month," Weaver said. "I'd always had friends [in high school] who weren't Mormon because I was on the football team, but they kind of tried to hide things from me that they knew that I wouldn't be a part of. I hadn't been around a lot of the stuff that goes on here on a daily basis."
Hartmann put his experiences balancing his Mormon faith and social life at Tufts more bluntly.
"In high school, people are doing all kinds of things on the weekends; it's not expected to be drinking," he said. "But here, it's like the weekend is drinking and doing crazy stuff. I'm down for crazy stuff, just not drinking."
In addition to resisting the temptations of college life, Weaver and Hartmann have spent a lot of time answering questions about their faith. The most common one: Can you have multiple wives?
"The answer is no, in case you were wondering," Weaver said.
Others ask if they are Christian, or about what differentiates Mormonism from other religions; and, of course, about the limits of pursuing the opposite sex.
"You can make out with girls," Hartmann says.
"That's still pushing it, though," Weaver chimes in.
In their first year on the football team, Weaver and Hartmann have had plenty of opportunities to teach their teammates about their faith.
"If it gets brought up, all of the sudden you'll start getting bombarded with questions," Weaver said. "That's a fine thing. I think it's cool that people just want to know and are interested."
Still, if ever they are feeling alone, they have the Mormon community for support. At Tufts, according to Hartmann, there are 11 Latter Day Saint students who meet every Thursday night. At the University Ward in Cambridge, Mormons from 16 different Boston-area schools gather each Sunday.
And in Bush Hall, Weaver and Hartmann have each other.
"It's kind of nice at the end of the day to go back home with someone that has the same values and the same thought process as you," Weaver said.
"I think it's definitely a good thing," Hartmann confirmed.
Becoming missionaries
As Sunday church services begin, Weaver and Hartmann are at the front of the ward, blessing the sacrament - preparing small plastic cups of water and slices of bread to be passed around the room. It's the second straight week they've done it, Hartmann says.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Weaver was putting together his first 100-yard rushing game in a Tufts uniform, while Hartmann was leading the defense with 12 tackles.
Now, with the football season over, they won't don the brown and blue again for almost three years.
Starting next summer, Weaver and Hartmann will be missionaries and nothing else, every moment of every day, for two years. To prepare, they attend "mission prep" classes on Sundays, where they practice teaching and speaking about their faith. They also talk to family members - Weaver's dad and both of Hartmann's parents went on missions, Hartmann's brother is currently serving in Argentina, and Weaver's brother got back from Peru a few months ago.
Still, no amount of talking can get them fully ready them for what's to come.
"Nothing can really prepare you completely," said Ben Wanamaker, one of the leaders of the University Ward in Cambridge. "You do a lot of training before you go, but there's no substitute for the actual experience."
On top of the spiritual struggle, a two-year mission can take a huge physical toll. When Duke left for Washington, he was a 285-pound offensive tackle. In the first few weeks of his mission, he put on 20 pounds from junk food. Then, he began losing weight. When he returned home, he weighed 198 pounds. Some people didn't even recognize him.
"It was definitely humbling to come back and try to play football," he said.
There are other challenges, too. Missionaries are allowed just two phone calls per year, on Christmas and Mother's Day, and they only have access to email once a week.
But Weaver and Hartmann have no second thoughts about leaving.
"I think there's a time and place for everything," Weaver said. "We might get a little chunky or a little too skinny, depending on where we go, but we can work that out over the summer."
Regardless of what happens to them physically, their faith will be tested every day.
"They're gonna have hard times," Duke said. "When someone says to your face, 'What you believe is false, you're wasting your time,' you really have to be like, 'No, no I'm not.' You really have to be sure in that."
Now, Duke is as confident in his faith as ever. After an interview in the Tower Cafe last week, he reached into his backpack.
"I brought something for you," he said. "Have you read The Book of Mormon?"
Losing the training wheels
Over winter break, Weaver and Hartmann will submit their mission papers to the Mormon church headquarters in Utah. In late January or early February, they will find out their destinations.
According to Hartmann, the chances are slim that any two people in their mission prep class - there are about 20 - will be sent to the same place. In other words, Weaver and Hartmann will most likely be pulled apart.
But this is just the next step in their journey. Once again, they will be forced to adjust.
"When you're with your family back home, it's kind of like you have the training wheels on the tricycle," Weaver said. "When you go to college and the training wheels are taken off, you can either fall over and get off the bike or keep riding."
In that analogy, their impending mission is akin to riding a unicycle. But Weaver and Hartmann have the maturity and the confidence to make the leap.
"There's times when you see them and they're like two little eight-year-olds wrestling," Civetti said. "But then when you think about the choices they're making in their lives, you look at them and you're like, 'Wow, those two eight-year-olds are really like 30-year-olds.'"
For Weaver and Hartmann, those choices feel natural. The Mormon faith is part of who they are.
"Other people have things that work for them," Weaver said. "I think this is just the right thing for us."
