Memory Lane
Hey everyone,
The first day, we met an old war vet who asked me the same questions I used to ask myself, such as why is there so much evil in the world and if God is really a loving god, why does he allow children to suffer as much as they do. Because I've asked those same questions myself, I was able to use the Book of Mormon to help him see the larger picture, the Mercy AND the Justice of God. Recently, I've found a lot of comfort in a BYU Devotional from a few months ago entitled "Stand Forever" by Elder Corbidge, I believe. In that talk, he talks about the differences between the Primary Questions, and the Secondary Questions. The Primary will always answer the Secondary Questions, but the Secondary Questions will not always answer the Primary Questions. It's an incredible talk and probably my favorite line is near the end, where he says, "I have a lot of questions, but I don't have any doubts."
But, just as Moses, as soon as you have an amazing spiritual experience, Satan always tries to get his licks in. On Wednesday, and on Thursday, those licks came in the form of Hebrew Israelites, which are essentially the religious version of the Black Panthers. The incident on Wednesday wasn't nearly as bad as the one on Thursday, I think at least in part because I called his bluff fairly early on. He called out to us and I recognized an African style shirt distinctive of Hebrew Israelites, so when he got over to us and asked us to open to a specific scripture, I simply asked if he was an Israelite. When he answered in the affirmative, I asked him if he was going to yell and scream at me for what I believed. He acted appalled, but I could see the switch in his eyes and from that point, he was very kind and polite, as opposed to the one on Thursday. At one point during that bash, he offered me $112 dollars to prove to him that God did not intend to destroy the Earth with the flood (which ultimately would've proved in his twisted logic that God is a changeable God, thus destroying the reality of God. Yeah, I know... Makes no sense). While I could've easily done it and made over $100 dollars in a minute, it wouldn't have been for the right reasons, so I simply told him that we had to go and left as soon as I could.
Friday was an adventure as well, not only because we spent most of the afternoon in the East side of the city. We met a couple of very expressive and eccentric people, one of whom bought us bananas from the guy who drives a horse drawn carriage around the city, selling fruit. A word about the horse, the phrase 'Pee like a racehorse' has a whole new meaning to me now. We also got called into a small bank by a Spanish lady, and by Spanish I mean she didn't speak any English. When we went in, this dude was arguing with the cashier about his ID, which was apparently invalid, so I thought we were going to have to mediate this fight between two people, both of whom it was obvious that English was their common language, but not their native one. It ended up being a couple of Spanish speaking members who wanted to say hi and ask where the Spanish Branch met, which was a relief because I still don't know what was wrong with that guy's ID.
As for the people that I have a weird connection to, the Institute teacher was my parents' next door neighbor from when I was born, and I ran into a guy that I taught while I was in Savage Mill who now lives in our apartment complex, so it will be amazing to see what happens with him.
This will probably be a relatively short email, mostly because this morning was crazy and now I'm relaxing on the bank of the Susquehanna River.
So it's pretty obvious that I'm supposed to be in this area, because all this week I've been running into people that I either have a surprising connection with, or I've personally met them before.
The first day, we met an old war vet who asked me the same questions I used to ask myself, such as why is there so much evil in the world and if God is really a loving god, why does he allow children to suffer as much as they do. Because I've asked those same questions myself, I was able to use the Book of Mormon to help him see the larger picture, the Mercy AND the Justice of God. Recently, I've found a lot of comfort in a BYU Devotional from a few months ago entitled "Stand Forever" by Elder Corbidge, I believe. In that talk, he talks about the differences between the Primary Questions, and the Secondary Questions. The Primary will always answer the Secondary Questions, but the Secondary Questions will not always answer the Primary Questions. It's an incredible talk and probably my favorite line is near the end, where he says, "I have a lot of questions, but I don't have any doubts."
But, just as Moses, as soon as you have an amazing spiritual experience, Satan always tries to get his licks in. On Wednesday, and on Thursday, those licks came in the form of Hebrew Israelites, which are essentially the religious version of the Black Panthers. The incident on Wednesday wasn't nearly as bad as the one on Thursday, I think at least in part because I called his bluff fairly early on. He called out to us and I recognized an African style shirt distinctive of Hebrew Israelites, so when he got over to us and asked us to open to a specific scripture, I simply asked if he was an Israelite. When he answered in the affirmative, I asked him if he was going to yell and scream at me for what I believed. He acted appalled, but I could see the switch in his eyes and from that point, he was very kind and polite, as opposed to the one on Thursday. At one point during that bash, he offered me $112 dollars to prove to him that God did not intend to destroy the Earth with the flood (which ultimately would've proved in his twisted logic that God is a changeable God, thus destroying the reality of God. Yeah, I know... Makes no sense). While I could've easily done it and made over $100 dollars in a minute, it wouldn't have been for the right reasons, so I simply told him that we had to go and left as soon as I could.
Friday was an adventure as well, not only because we spent most of the afternoon in the East side of the city. We met a couple of very expressive and eccentric people, one of whom bought us bananas from the guy who drives a horse drawn carriage around the city, selling fruit. A word about the horse, the phrase 'Pee like a racehorse' has a whole new meaning to me now. We also got called into a small bank by a Spanish lady, and by Spanish I mean she didn't speak any English. When we went in, this dude was arguing with the cashier about his ID, which was apparently invalid, so I thought we were going to have to mediate this fight between two people, both of whom it was obvious that English was their common language, but not their native one. It ended up being a couple of Spanish speaking members who wanted to say hi and ask where the Spanish Branch met, which was a relief because I still don't know what was wrong with that guy's ID.
As for the people that I have a weird connection to, the Institute teacher was my parents' next door neighbor from when I was born, and I ran into a guy that I taught while I was in Savage Mill who now lives in our apartment complex, so it will be amazing to see what happens with him.
Love you all,
Elder Howell
Comments
Post a Comment