Week 56: Rally at the Temple Lot
Before email: My companion and I were involved in a car crash Saturday night (we were not driving) where neither of us was really hurt. It hit on my companion's side, the airbags deployed, the car was pretty crunched up, but all of us got out okay. My BYU roommate Elyse was in a very bad car crash six days into her mission with lasting damage, and I think about that a lot. We could have died or been paralyzed or had other lifelong or long-term injuries, but we were not. I know God protected me and her.
Being an angel must suck. They have to go around wedging their bodies between cars and stuff.
Mostly I'm just annoyed about all the mission bureaucracy in the aftermath. Annoyed that my instinct was to text my mission president before I texted my dad. Annoyed that our roommates, who picked us up afterwards, told their district leader about the crash because they felt, even in a moment of crisis, like they needed to tell an authority figure they'd be home late. Annoyed that all the Pharisees in this mission are saying, joking or seriously, that it happened because we were late getting out of an appointment. Annoyed that our mission president's first question when he called the next morning was "How late did you get home?" Instead of "Was anyone else hurt?" We survived a T-bone that left the car crunchy, but please, let's all fuss about a couple of grown adults getting home at 9:40 PM and report it to the proper psuedo-authorities.
And annoyed that I had to field questions and texts from our ward all of Sunday. If I get any email replies to this bringing up the car crash, I will PERMANENTLY remove you, any of you, from my mailing list. (People from Idaho, my writing buddies, coworkers, Spencer, and people I have emailed personally are the only exceptions.) I don't need you to be cloying, you are not helpful, and emails filtered to me through my parents definitely aren't any different than emailing me personally. See Job 16:2-3. I'm so exhausted.
Alternative topics to bring up include but are not limited to: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the 2020 March for Life in D.C., the gospel, funny stories, memes, your own lives, and the top eleven worst players for the San Francisco 49ers.
And now, on to the email!
Dear Loved Ones,
Remember that one time I tracted into the minister over the church on the Temple Lot? Yeah, I forgot I tracted that street and went back. The minister's wife, Vivian, said we could come over again. She gave us her number and took ours.
This Wednesday, I was staring at our board of People I Wish I Could Teach if They Ever Replied to Texts, Picked Up the Phone, or Answered the Door, and I thought, "Hey, let's see what Vivian's up to."
I called and she told me, "I was just thinking about your girls, but I lost your number and didn't know how to get in touch with you."
We got over there two hours later. We showed them a video about Joseph Smith's First Vision and talked about all we had in common and all we have different.
They have firm testimonies of the Book of Mormon and believe that native peoples are Lamanites. They believe that Joseph Smith was given a special mission to restore Christ's church.
But they don't believe he was supposed to be a prophet. He was called to be an apostle but decided to be a prophet, seer,and revelator instead. He started receiving revelations, which Glen called "historical" rather than scriptural and said he isn't sure any of them should have been published. Since they don't believe in the Doctrine and Covenants, they are under no obligation to believe he was a prophet, or that the Aaronic priesthood was restored to him. They think only the Melchezidek is on the earth today, the Aaronic one ending with Christ.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the Book of Mormon is “the keystone of our religion” and “Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.”
And our revelations.
Keystone it may be, but it is not the rock on which our religion it built. That would be revelation. Members of the church make much of that keystone quote. If you pull out the keystone that holds up an arch, yes, the entire thing will crumble, but pull out any piece at all and most of it comes down. The Book of Mormon, if disproved, would abolish our entire religion, but we need other pieces.
As we were leaving, Vivian said, "I have something for you," and handed us an invitation to a rally on the Temple Lot for Saturday.
Now, I've attended stuff put on by other churches on the down-low. I went to a Sikh holiday party/worship service when my Idaho mission president told me he thought I shouldn't. I went to a lunch put on inside a Seventh Day Adventist church. So my plan was to not mention the invitation to anyone in leadership and get away with it. We'd only be going to a little bit of it, anyway, because we had shift at the visitors' center right after.
And then my companion mentioned it to our mission president. He told us to tell the VC director we'd be late. I appreciate when that man actually makes my life easier once every six months or so.
All of the rally we could go to was a panel discussion on God's love. It was extremely Christ centered, more on topic than a lot of church functions I've been to. We got a strong Protestant vibe, especially when we heard a young girl singing a song my ex-Baptist companion recognized from Vacation Bible School. They call it Vacation Church School because they use more than just the Bible. All I all, it was a very polite experience and Vivian and her husband are very nice people.
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
Being an angel must suck. They have to go around wedging their bodies between cars and stuff.
Mostly I'm just annoyed about all the mission bureaucracy in the aftermath. Annoyed that my instinct was to text my mission president before I texted my dad. Annoyed that our roommates, who picked us up afterwards, told their district leader about the crash because they felt, even in a moment of crisis, like they needed to tell an authority figure they'd be home late. Annoyed that all the Pharisees in this mission are saying, joking or seriously, that it happened because we were late getting out of an appointment. Annoyed that our mission president's first question when he called the next morning was "How late did you get home?" Instead of "Was anyone else hurt?" We survived a T-bone that left the car crunchy, but please, let's all fuss about a couple of grown adults getting home at 9:40 PM and report it to the proper psuedo-authorities.
And annoyed that I had to field questions and texts from our ward all of Sunday. If I get any email replies to this bringing up the car crash, I will PERMANENTLY remove you, any of you, from my mailing list. (People from Idaho, my writing buddies, coworkers, Spencer, and people I have emailed personally are the only exceptions.) I don't need you to be cloying, you are not helpful, and emails filtered to me through my parents definitely aren't any different than emailing me personally. See Job 16:2-3. I'm so exhausted.
Alternative topics to bring up include but are not limited to: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the 2020 March for Life in D.C., the gospel, funny stories, memes, your own lives, and the top eleven worst players for the San Francisco 49ers.
And now, on to the email!
Dear Loved Ones,
Remember that one time I tracted into the minister over the church on the Temple Lot? Yeah, I forgot I tracted that street and went back. The minister's wife, Vivian, said we could come over again. She gave us her number and took ours.
This Wednesday, I was staring at our board of People I Wish I Could Teach if They Ever Replied to Texts, Picked Up the Phone, or Answered the Door, and I thought, "Hey, let's see what Vivian's up to."
I called and she told me, "I was just thinking about your girls, but I lost your number and didn't know how to get in touch with you."
We got over there two hours later. We showed them a video about Joseph Smith's First Vision and talked about all we had in common and all we have different.
They have firm testimonies of the Book of Mormon and believe that native peoples are Lamanites. They believe that Joseph Smith was given a special mission to restore Christ's church.
But they don't believe he was supposed to be a prophet. He was called to be an apostle but decided to be a prophet, seer,and revelator instead. He started receiving revelations, which Glen called "historical" rather than scriptural and said he isn't sure any of them should have been published. Since they don't believe in the Doctrine and Covenants, they are under no obligation to believe he was a prophet, or that the Aaronic priesthood was restored to him. They think only the Melchezidek is on the earth today, the Aaronic one ending with Christ.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the Book of Mormon is “the keystone of our religion” and “Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.”
And our revelations.
Keystone it may be, but it is not the rock on which our religion it built. That would be revelation. Members of the church make much of that keystone quote. If you pull out the keystone that holds up an arch, yes, the entire thing will crumble, but pull out any piece at all and most of it comes down. The Book of Mormon, if disproved, would abolish our entire religion, but we need other pieces.
As we were leaving, Vivian said, "I have something for you," and handed us an invitation to a rally on the Temple Lot for Saturday.
Now, I've attended stuff put on by other churches on the down-low. I went to a Sikh holiday party/worship service when my Idaho mission president told me he thought I shouldn't. I went to a lunch put on inside a Seventh Day Adventist church. So my plan was to not mention the invitation to anyone in leadership and get away with it. We'd only be going to a little bit of it, anyway, because we had shift at the visitors' center right after.
And then my companion mentioned it to our mission president. He told us to tell the VC director we'd be late. I appreciate when that man actually makes my life easier once every six months or so.
All of the rally we could go to was a panel discussion on God's love. It was extremely Christ centered, more on topic than a lot of church functions I've been to. We got a strong Protestant vibe, especially when we heard a young girl singing a song my ex-Baptist companion recognized from Vacation Bible School. They call it Vacation Church School because they use more than just the Bible. All I all, it was a very polite experience and Vivian and her husband are very nice people.
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
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