Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody!
Unfortunately, the Charles River is too frozen over for it
to be dyed green, but the Irish spirit is definitely alive and well!
I just wanted to share this super cool experience I had this
last week. It was on the last bus we were going to be taking for the day.
For some reason, my attention was drawn to this man sitting across the aisle
and a few seats up. He was reading something, and I noticed that it was the
Bible. I felt prompted to ask him if he would be interested in a Book of
Mormon. At first, I tried to reason away the prompting by saying that we'd done
enough work with no fruit to show for it, that it was just against social
norms, and about any other excuse I could think of. But the prompting
persisted, and with a phrase from Zone Conference (something about not being
afraid of social norms when you contact someone) ringing in my ears, I took a
deep breath, pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon, and went up to this man
on the bus. I said, "I noticed that you were reading the Bible, and I was
wondering if you'd be interested in a volume of scripture that builds on and
supports the Bible, proving the divinity of Jesus Christ?" His eyes just
got wide and he said, "OF COURSE!" We went on to have an incredible
discussion about the origins of the Book of Mormon, family history, and how the
Bible and Book of Mormon work together. SO SWEET!!! And thank you, Zone
Conference! If it wasn't for that comment about social norms, I honestly don't
think I would have had the courage to act on this prompting. But I did, and we
are hoping to begin teaching him soon! :)
Note on the guy with the mohawk at Church last week: he was
passed on to the Longfellow Park Elders (a single's ward in Cambridge), and
he's investigating there. Kinda frustrating, but we're all on the same team...
So Echols (I can't bring myself to call him by anything but
his last name) told me about this BYUTV special where they read a letter about
a man from Idaho who was going to school in Boston, and invited his entire
class (almost all of different nationalities) to attend a Christmas function at
the Church, but only one member of his class came. That classmate was baptized
shortly thereafter. It sounds a lot like Jian's story. So maybe my first
baptism made BYUTV. I like to think that it did, because Jian was something of
a miracle in so many ways :)
So here were some of my thoughts to build on the
exemption/sanctification thought last week: I think that more than anything,
this path of sanctification is difficult because, of necessity, we travel the
parallel road of repentance. Our external circumstances may become difficult,
but the inner battles of the soul-of good versus evil that happen every single
day of our lives-are by far the most difficult part of this process. Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland said it best: "Repentance is not easy or painless or
convenient. It is a bitter cup from Hell. But only Satan, who dwells there,
would have you think that a necessary and required acknowledgment is more
distasteful than permanent residence." He also says something about the
road to discipleship always running through at least the borderlands of
Gethsemane. I noticed the pattern of asking for exemption rather than
sanctification in many situations of my own life. I could honestly go on for
like a bajillion pages and multiple hours, but I'll just stop there. I've just
had lots of thoughts about repentance, justice/mercy, and how they all
interconnect, and there's really no good way to just get it all down. There's
words from ancient scripture, prophets and apostles, my own musings, etc. But
it's definitely enough to get you thinking, right? hahaha
Hope all of y'all have a great week! Love ya!
-"Eldah" Boone
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