(Source: LDS Living)
Though Mormons everywhere strive to “be an example of the believers,” a few Mormon YouTubers are an example to millions of people online every day. And they know that the greatest way to spread the gospel around the globe is by simply living their faith—and letting the world see it.
1. STUART EDGE
LDS YouTube star Stuart Edge loves a good prank—and he loves filming it even more. But these kinds of pranks aren’t your typical internet fare of people tripping or being spooked. These pranks are all about making someone’s day a little bit better.
Generally, Edge’s “victims” are caught off guard, but they always leave with a laugh, a smile, and in some cases, a kiss.
His first viral video pranked strangers to kiss under a sprig of portable mistletoe just before Christmas 2012. That video spurred his YouTube success and now has over 27 million views. Since then he’s done other kissing pranks, including a kissing prank for breast cancer awareness, a second and third mistletoe prank, and even a Spider-Man kissing prank.
But there’s one thing that sets Edge’s channel apart: service. In addition to humorous kissing videos, Edge films his interactions with others as he seeks to live his faith by serving everyone and anyone. He secretly films himself doing magic tricks to give money to the homeless or giving $100 tips to pizza delivery men; women of all ages glow with joy as they are handed flowers for Mother’s Day, and single girls blush as they are serenaded by Edge and his friends on Valentine’s Day. He even paid a girl who hit his car to thank her for her honesty in admitting it was her fault.
As he said in one video, “The main reason I do it is to hopefully inspire others to go out and do the same thing.”
2. DEVIN SUPERTRAMP
Even if you don’t recognize the name, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of his videos. Latter-day Saint Devin Graham, known better as Devin Supertramp, is dedicated to making amazing, adventurous videos and sharing them for the world to see. His videos have netted him sponsors such as Ford, Mountain Dew, and many other well-known brands because of his knack for “getting the shots that no one else will.”
While Graham has produced solo videos with content ranging from extreme parkour and skyscrapers to cute puppies and stunning scenery, his vision and work have also helped launch the careers of other YouTube stars like The Piano Guys and Lindsey Stirling.
One of Graham’s latest collaborations involved many of these now-popular YouTubers as they participated in a Christmas video of a world-record-breaking live Nativity. In the behind-the-scenes footage from the project, Graham said about his fellow YouTubers, “I feel everything that we do with our videos—we always try and ask ourselves, ‘Does this stand for what we believe in?’” He then went on to share, “That’s what I want team Supertramp to be known for.”
Graham’s influence as a filmmaker is not limited to the Mormon world, and he enjoys sharing his faith. His Mormon.org profile best describes how he lives his faith through his work: “My standards were set high as a youth, and I take pride in sharing the gospel and living the standards daily and will not deviate regardless of the pressure by others to put out a video. It is a way of life for me, and the videos I put out are an expression of my beliefs and myself all at the same time.”
