First off,
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!
I am sending you something cool in the mail, it will probably take a month until it gets there Dad... Sorry...
SO several things I learned about this week:
1. People are so different!
We are teaching these two friends who are in the same religion. We met with one of them this week and taught her the restoration, she understood the implication we were making and how important it is to find out for sure if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet. We had a great lesson and we learned about her life and her hardships and how God has always lead her to the correct path. The spirit was so strong when we taught her. And we left with a prayer and we felt so much love for one another.
On the other hand when we taught her friend the same truths she rolled her eyes and laughed at us, which is normal... sometimes. But the thing that made me the most sorrowful of all is when she interrupted us and pointed out a woman sitting across the way and whispered fiercely at us, informing us she was once a part of her faith but that now she had decided to follow the devil and is never welcome back. We taught her of choice and accountability and not judging others in a very kind way and she interrupted us again and pointed to another woman walking down the street and said, "She committed adultery and has left our faith and is never welcome back." Then she asked if we had people who left our church and if we ever talk to them again. We said, yes! of course!! We want them to come back and to feel the love of God again. She did not believe us and quoted a verse from the bible about shunning those who have left from the ways of the Lord. I responded and said, " But what of it when Christ left the 99 for the one who was lost?" She did not understand and pointed out another person who was handicap and begging for money and said something unkind about him. It was the first time I realized and met someone who understood the bible, as in the words of the bible but could not understand the parables and the small and sweet things that we can apply in our life. I was so incredibly saddened by this woman.
2. Missions are too short!!! I have about 6 months left, this week I am celebrating my year mark in the country and I never thought I would come that far. I am really going to try and live it up fully until the end.
3. I am grateful for Air conditioning. We have one thank heavens!!!
4. At Zone conference we had President Mason speak to us. He is a Church historian and holds The Ezra Taft Benson Endowed chair. He shared an experience from the Journal of Marco Polo the famous explorer when he discovered Unicorns. He was shocked to discover that Unicorns did not look a thing like how everyone thought they looked like and he explained them as having:
"hair like that of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick.he head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it ever bent towards the ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud.”
STOP! What did he really see?
Now you probably figured it out that it wasn't a unicorn he saw at all, but actually a Rhino!! But God didn't create Unicorns, he created Rhinos. He spoke to us about church history and how sometimes we imagine this beautiful Unicorn when we think of the history of the church and when we find out something new about the history we step back and we say, wow, that didn't look like what I thought it did, in fact it looks like nothing I have ever seen before. But God brought to pass the church and the restoration through the means that he did because it is beautiful that way. People might try to picture it to be the beautiful glittery moment, but it was hard and there were many trials that came to pass with the people. And he did it this way because God didn't create unicorns, he created Rhinos, and they are still powerful and beautiful, and the number one virtue of a Rhino verse a Unicorn are that they are real. So the next time you find out about something in Church history that seems to pop your bubble, just remember God created Rhinos, not unicorns! Hope that made sense... If not I am sure Dad can translate what I just tried to explain, but it was pretty cool.
I know strange letter this week hope you enjoyed it!!!
Love,
Sora Long
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