Apparently the World is Flat

Hey, sorry I didn't email yesterday. All the libraries were closed.

The World is flat. That is why no one has claimed Antarctica as a country, because it is just a mountain range around the edge of the world. And the Sun can't be in two places at once. And the biggest reason, if the world was a globe, the people in Australia would know that they are upside down. All of this and more was explained to me by some guy, we think he was drunk, during one of my two exchanges this past week. On my first exchange with Elder Lehnig, the District Leader, I went out to the YSA area and worked out there but it was my second exchange that was truly enlightening. The Assistants to the President came out and exchanged with us on Thursday and it was awesome! It was so cool to see them outside of meetings, to actually see them Proselyting. So we had a great day then we went to a lesson with Julia and took Brother Garner, our ward mission leader, with us. That was also very cool to see him be able to explain principles in a way that I can't. He was really key in making that lesson successful. 

The next day was also really interesting. It was the first day that Elder Haslam and I were back together, he went to the Assistants area for Thursday, we went out with renewed vigor, but our appointment fell through. So we went down to the harbor to go street contacting. We ran into a lot of interesting people, including this one homeless guy who was deaf. I felt the impression to use what very little ASL I knew to tell him that Christ loved him. I don't know any other ASL so I don't know all of his reaction but he seemed appreciative. We also ran into a couple of guys who are "missionaries" for a group called Hebrew Israelites. I'm not sure exactly how to explain them but they really hate us because they know we have a Picture of Christ in the front of the Book of Mormon which depicts him as a white man. I've had a couple of run-ins with them before and they never end well. They don't talk, they yell, and as hard as we try, all they want to do is bash. In the past I just walk away as soon as I can but this time it was different. I didn't recognize who they were until it was too late and by the time I did identify them, a few other people had walked over to join us, so I couldn't just walk away like normal. They started laying into us, like normal, and I tried to answer their questions as best as I could, knowing that this discussion wouldn't go anywhere. Eventually I just started ignoring them and trying to detach everyone else so we could leave, because we did have an appointment to get to. Thankfully one woman and her family left on their own accord so I only had a man and the woman he was with to guide away. I actually was able to get the woman away and I had started in on the restoration, I had just started getting to the first vision, when the man started getting really heated up, I think because the Hebrew Israelites had started talking about how Christ was going to enslave all white people, or something crazy like that, and the man started yelling about it to the point that the woman I was teaching had to leave to pull him away. Then it just being the two of us now, Elder Haslam tried to politely excuse us but they weren't having any of it so i just gently took Elder Haslam by the arm and we walked away. Moral of the story, you can turn anything into a teaching opportunity. Then we went out with Brother Garner again that night and started to really crack down on getting these 30-something referrals from headquarters taken care of. 

So the really fun part of this email, Preparation day, last week. We got the opportunity to go down to Fort McHenry, and actually go inside the Fort this time. It was so awesome! And it was made even better by the fact that Elder Haslam is a bigger military nerd than I am! So we got to go around and look at all the different cannons and buildings and talk about them and then start talking about modern warfare versus colonial warfare and it was just a lot of fun. Then the highlight of the day was when they took down the 15 star flag to put up the 50 star flag for the night, apparently President Truman made an executive order for there to be a flag flying at Fort McHenry 24 hours a day. So watching them put the 50 star flag up was cool but what was even cooler was that I got to fold the 15 star flag! I just happened to be standing at the right spot at the right time and the ranger looked at me and asked if I knew how. I nodded and folded it up. There were about 6 people that helped hold it steady, since it was a 10 foot by 14 foot flag. 

1 Nephi 13: 17, 19

Elder Howell