August 30, 2021

From Ben: The World Turned Upside Down

This week, me and Elder Hamilton got hit with some crazy news. 

We had been covering two areas till said news: Trenton as its own, then Belleville and Napanee as its own. Then, out of nowhere, we got some off the cuff news that the Belleville-Napanee area WAS GETTING PULLED FROM OUR GRASP BY SOME NEW SISTERS!!! We had not heard anything from the up-tops about this, we heard about it on Wednesday and they were taking the area on Friday, so we had our feet swept from underneath us. 

They're actually angels, and, though unexpected, they will really help me and Elder Hamilton. We were struggling to organize ourselves for a while there covering three branches. But, it still took some mad moves to help them with the transition which was pretty hectic. And, when all was said and done, after we explained to them everybody they would be teaching, got them a mattress, and figured out some logistics, we looked at our list of people at Trenton... and realized, in one stark moment, that we had literally nobody to teach! Everybody that wanted to meet with us was in Belleville! 

The Sisters, with smiling faces, pulled the rug right from underneath us. The world turned upside down and now me and Elder Hamilton are blank slating Trenton  (But once again, to clarify, the Sisters are actually angels, comedic phrases should be taken as seriously as one should take themselves, that is, not very seriously.)

We've also got the green light to go street contacting!! (can it be true?) The Mission President's wife, Sister Ensign is warning us however, to make our interactions with people normal and natural, not awkward and uncomfortable. A couple of the concerns being people may see us as doing our best to force our beliefs onto them, and us becoming religious salesmen and actually doing just that (intentional or not). Both of which being a no-good situation. 

So! We are once again learning to navigate the social waters and learning the best ways to invite people to learn from us and for themselves. 

We were walking home from one of our walks and saw this older guy doing yoga on this paved trail in a park area. We hailed him, asked how his day was, why he did his yoga on the paved trail, and struck up a conversation. It was totally wild! After he found out that we were missionaries for the Church, he started dropping these complex terms about meta-reality, the human condition and why the world was the way it was. And I could somewhat detect what he was getting at, that is, debate. Which isn't very productive. Regardless, he dropped a comment about how there could be such a vast number of Christian denominations and I was like "Yo! That's the exact question Joseph Smith asked! That leads into what we believe! The Restoration of the fullness of the truth!" I was feeling pretty hyped when the Old yoga man started agreeing, but it was to naught. He agreed, then... didn't really. The conversation started looping, and after we had said the same thing three times we realized we were getting nowhere. The best part of the conversation though was when some random character drove by in their car and shouted something along the lines of "HAVE YOU READ THE WORD!?" I'm not sure what their intention was, but I'm pretty sure they were making fun of us. Which was so hyped. I've been waiting for something like this to happen my whole mission! It's so classic! Anyways, we eventually said goodbye to the Old yoga man. He called us out for being 'conditioned' (we talked about how the mission wants us to focus on the Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C and the Pearl of Great Price and the Preach My Gospel books and that we weren't going to read the books he was suggesting to us) and for making an excuse to leave (which was totally true by the way). The conversation with the Old yoga man was highly educational. 

We also had the opportunity to teach another child! (The natural fear still remains) the lesson was something else. After talking about Minecraft and the likes, the first question she asked was "where do all the bad people go...? 

I just had to smile. Children, always keeping us on our toes

I legit wasn't sure how to answer the question! Not because I didn't have an answer, but because I wasn't sure how to explain it to this inquisitive 8 year old. Should I talk about the Plan of Salvation and the three kingdoms of Glory? That God judges everybody according to the light they have received? That those without the law aren't accountable? What kind of bad were we talking about anyways? It's an important question! But somewhat complex. 

If I can remember correctly, we talked about how God loves all His children, even the wayward ones, and that  even if they are 'bad' (which is kind of a tricky word to define sometimes) God still loves them completely. Unfortunately we didn't get to explain our understanding of what happens after Judgement, but we did talk about what happens post-life, the separation of spirit and body after death and the eventual Resurrection. I sure hope she followed our overcomplicated answers. I'm still learning how to simplify the complex, and sometimes get lost in my own answers

A couple of the other questions she asked were...

What do demons look like? 

What if the earth was square like in Minecraft? 

Is the earth Flat? 

When was the first fox seen?

How was Eve made?

Can you die if you are an angel? 

Has your house ever been robbed? 

When was the first hippo seen? 

It was a wild lesson. I really appreciated the questions too! They were everywhere! But I was like "Dang! I gotta start asking more questions myself! Take the Savior's advice and "be like unto a child!" The new Sisters will be teaching the child and I'm kind of sad. Those questions were really fun to try to answer (we did have to plead ignorance a couple times,) and the child was really fun to teach. 

And finally! Another cool thing that happened was when a Sister in the Belleville branch invited me to be a Keynote Speaker at a multi-stake missionary youth activity! My pride was drinking it in and so I had to re-remember my own "nothingness" . Jokes aside, it felt pretty cool! Unfortunately I couldn't accept because we have legit no idea what is going to happen with the upcoming transfers and the Sister who asked needed to have it set in stone at that moment. 

Have a great week everyone! To quote The First Aid Kit in their song Silver Lining "just keep on keeping on"

1) Our enthusiastic invitation to our live photo.

2) Some pizza we got at a local place last Pday

3) The Trenton airplane museum! (Caught me blinking at the right moment too)