Holla Familia!
This week has been interesting. I have met my first Less Active that has topped all of the other weird Less Actives that I have met in my entire mission. He was off the scale on craziness. Soooo I will give you my little story that is pretty much a run down of the whole things... Which may not make sense to you.... but I will do my best: So first off, we met him originally during the snow storm that we had here where we got two feet of snow. We were walking around trying to talk to people and they just looked at us like we were crazy and told us to go home and stay warm. It's kinda hard to talk to people when they don't want to get cold and because it is cold they aren't really interested in your message. Anywho, we met him during this storm and he said that right now wasn't a good time to talk, but he said "I would love to meet up and get coffee with you guys sometime, Oh wait you guys don't drink coffee, well we will meet at Lucie Monroe’s and talk there this week sometime" Lucie Monroe’s is a little coffee shop here in C-Burg. Sooo we meet him there and he is all dressed up in this business suit and when we sit down the first things he says is "What can I do for you Ladies?" Like it was a business transaction or something. So I was pretty straight up with him and asked him why he wasn't coming to church, and that people were wondering why he wasn't coming out to church anymore. He said that he didn't really like the Christiansburg Ward. He liked Blacksburg because they had more of a discussion and talked about things, but Christiansburg was all about our church is true and no one else is and only talked about that the entire time... which I haven't heard yet... but then he said that he went for his son’s sake to get him more spiritually understanding and stuff, but that he had that covered too now. By going and doing taekwondo, doing homework with him, asking him how his day was, and other things. I then said that those were all great Personal Relationship building things, but not really Spiritually building. He then changed the subject to something different I am not really sure but somehow we got on the Topic of God. He then stated that he had a different view of what God was, and that it kinda creeped him out when people referred to God as Him. He didn't believe God was a man, or that man was created in God's image. Okey... He then went off on how hard it was to understand God and that he was confusing to man and that there really was no way man could understand all of the things God does. Ok, we don't understand all of the things that God does, but that doesn't make him confusing. In fact in the scriptures it states that Confusion is of the Devil. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. That He teaches to the understanding of man and that is through Plain and Simple things. God wants all of his children to return to him, not just a few because they couldn't "understand" what he wanted them to do.
His response to our conversation was the most startling part. He told us that he was on the Verge of being offended. That it was stupid and offensive to think of God that way. Simple was for two and three year olds. Then he quoted Shakespeare and told me to remember that... I obviously don't remember it because, well one Shakespeare is not God. and yeah Shakespeare has a lot of great quotes, but take it out of context and put it in your own understanding and thoughts it doesn’t make sense... well actually it still doesn't make sense when it is in context... so yeah.
He also kept laughing at me because of my "expressionate face" he could read everything on my face. Errm... obviously he couldn't read facial expressions so well, because he didn't guess mine very well. He must have mistaken my confused face for a face of enjoyment. He also kept mentioning how much wisdom and age he has on us, so I was thinking like he was 50 or something. but he is 35. that's only like 15 years older than me, and well... There is Man’s knowledge and Gods knowledge and I guess you can decide which one you want.
So that conversation was awesome... a little frustrating to deal with Scientologist people.
Another thing I have been thinking about this week is the Gospel. This Church. Again if my thoughts don't make sense then I apologize. When people turn away from the Church. What do they turn too? They have a lack in their testimony. They aren't as good as others. They don't understand something that others seem to understand. Rules don't make sense. Members offended me. ETC. I thought to myself, and what I believed and thought when in my own mind I turned away from the church. I still attended church like everyone else, but inside I was not growing I wasn't doing anything, I guess I was a bit agnostic. I didn't know or believe God was there anymore. Of course on my behalf I never took the time to get to know him through the scriptures and through prayer - which we must do in order to come to know him. I guess I just thought that one day I would come to a 'knowing' that I would just identify that God was there without making any effort. It wasn't until I started to do those things that things started to go into place. I then realized the importance of the Prophet, and General conference and listening to them. I took the Prophet for granted. When you turn away from the Church, if you don't believe in the church, You don't believe in the Prophet, you don't believe he is there anymore or exists. If you have a testimony of this latter day Prophet You have a testimony of this church. If you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon You have a testimony of this church. If you believe in ANYTHING in this church in this Gospel. You have a testimony. Start with what you have. and grow. Don't expect to "know" everything. Don't expect a "Knowing" to occur without effort. Scripture Study, Prayer, diligence etc. You have to do it! When people turn away, in my mind, they go into the same state that I was once at. Agnostic. Is God really there? does he really even Exist? I'm here to tell you that he does exist, and that he has restored his Gospel to the Earth. Wickedness never was happiness, and this Gospel has brought me more happiness than anything else. It has brought me Faith, Hope, and Love for the things around me. It has brought me to appreciate the things around me. It bothers me when people say they do not believe, or know that the Gospel is true anymore. It is your own personal fault. What have you done to prove it right? what have you done to figure it out? Have you been reading? praying? keeping the commandments? how can God tell us that it is true if we aren't searching for it?
Man will tell you that we all came from an amoeba that crawled out of the ocean. God tells us that we are created in his image, and have the potential to become Gods and Goddesses ourselves. Now I personally don't want to be an amoeba with no future. God is the way to go for me.
Well I love you all and I hope you are all doing well. If you have any questions, or anything that I can do for you let me know. I really do mean it! That's what missionaries are for. Elder Nelson didn't just say "ask the missionaries" just to say it, He meant it.
So Go. Fight. and Win. The battle of a Testimony is real, it's what we used against Satan and we won then. We can win today.
I Love You All!!!!!!!!!
Sister Karen Call
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