Preface: I hope this long letter makes since, I didn't have time to proof read too much.
Dear Family,
Britney Belcher and Samuel Dargan were baptized and confirmed this week. We are so happy for them. The Bishop is pretty excited about the missionary work that is happening in the ward. Britney was really scared after her baptism that she would be kicked out of her home because she got baptized. We said a prayer with her in the church parking lot before she went home, asking the Lord to soften the heart of her grandma who had threatened to throw her out if she got baptized. She told us a few days later that her grandma just seemed to have given up trying to stop from believing us. Her grandma still does not want us to come by because the neighbors start talking and asking questions after they see us go by. We had been meeting down the street at her friend’s house but racism, intolerance, and slander have forced us to stop meeting at that home too. It has been a few months since we knocked that street and tried to talk to more people, so we are going to try to knock it again and try to address a lot of the misconceptions.
This Sunday after the confirmations I was standing in the foyer waiting for some investigators to show up late when I saw one of the young men’s leaders, Brother Howard, bolt out of the chapel with one of the priests. The sacrament hymn was playing and as the priests lifted the cloth to brake the bread they were shocked to see that there was NO BREAD! They quickly searched the kitchen and found frozen bread, but that would not do. So Brother Howard, realizing that the ox was in the mire, ran out into the church parking lot, jumped in his car, and floored it across the street to the Piggly Wiggly grocery. When the sacrament hymn ended, he was still buying the bread. There was a moment of silence in the chapel, then one of the priests proceeded to bless the water first, and not wait for the bread. After the water was administered to the congregation Brother Howard made it back with the bread and the bread was blessed and administered to the congregation. I had never seen that happen before. I have seen a few close calls in my time, but never like that. I didn’t know that the water could be administered before the bread.
To say that we had an exciting Sunday is an understatement. Two confirmations and someone forgetting the bread, pretty memorable. In church we also found that a young man who had been attending regularly was not a member of the church and wanted to be baptized. We are exciting to be working with him. We also met one of the member’s daughters who wants to be baptized with her boyfriend. They need to get married before they are baptized so the bishop told us to tell them that he works for free. Hahaha I love the church. Not many people realize that we do not have a paid ministry and don’t charge to marry people or baptize them, or anything.
This week we met with one of our media referrals. He is name is Heath. He is a young man who feels that the lord has called him in a dream to become a pastor. He attends a “Christian” school and is working hard to get to know his scriptures. First he wanted to talk with us and learn what we are all about. So we set up a return time. When we came back it was obvious that he had it set in his mind that we were wrong. He had looked online and found some of the common questions we are asked. He told us that the Book of Mormon is false because it says that Jesus would be born in Jerusalem. He told us that he had read up to Alma Chapter 7, and that he didn’t agree with it. I was surprised that he would dare make such a claim when it was plain that he had looked up some questions online. I told him that I am from Orange County, and I asked him if he knew where that was. He said that he did. I asked him, “What if I told you that I was from Irvine, would you know where that is?” He replied that he didn’t know were that was. I explained that the same idea applies to the people in the ancient Americas. Many of the people who lived in the ancient Americas were descendants of Lehi, who is from Jerusalem, which Heath would know if he read the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Lehi came from across the ocean and settled in the ancient Americas. His descendants couldn’t have possibly known much about Ancient Israel’s geography, especially about 500 years after that people had left Jerusalem, just as a young man in South Carolina does not know about California’s geography. So in Alma chapter 7 verse 10 when the author writes that Christ will be born back in Jerusalem he is giving reference to the general area of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is not far from Jerusalem. The fact that the author references Jerusalem because of the limited knowledge of the people he is speaking to rather than Bethlehem is evidence that the Book of Mormon is actually scripture of an ancient date. IF Joseph Smith was a false prophet and had written the Book of Mormon himself, he would have well known that Christ was born in Bethlehem and could have written that instead of Jerusalem. So Heath’s attempt to disprove the Book of Mormon backfired on him and allowed us to show him one of the evidences of its validity. He was speechless when we finished explaining it to him. We continued on through the lesson. We talked of how God is our loving heavenly father, he loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son and we turned to John 3:16. We were able to see the difference between the King James Version that we use and the New Inspired Version that Heath often read from. We pointed out that the NIV says that Jesus Christ was God’s only son- which carries a much different meaning from “only begotten son”. Saying that Christ was God’s only son alienates the rest of us from our divine heritage as sons and daughters of God. Heath liked that little commentary. We continued onward. We covered how God has always called prophets, he agreed with that. We talked about Christ’s birth and ministry. We briefly discussed the idea of the great mystery of the “trinity” when he asked us if we believe in it. We explained that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings united in purpose. We cited evidences such as the baptism of Christ, the great intercessory prayer, etc. Then we got into how Christ established his Church. We reference Ephesians 2 and 4 while explaining that Christ’s church was founded on the foundation of apostles and prophets and that Christ is the cornerstone etc. Heath chipped in and quoted off Matt 16: 16-18 telling us that Peter was the rock. We had to go back and explain that the principle of revelation is being taught in this scripture. Christ states that flesh and blood did not reveal to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, but revelation from God was the rock upon which Christ church was built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell can not prevail against the church that is lead by Jesus Christ himself, through revelation. We explained that the church was not founded upon Peter, for if it was, then the church fell with Peter during the intense persecution that followed the early Christians after Christ’s ascension into heaven. Heath seemed to understand that after some explaining. We then talked about the apostasy and how Christ has restored his gospel to the earth once again through Joseph Smith. We related Joseph Smith’s vision and asked him who he felt appeared to Joseph Smith. He brought up the trinity again and said that God and Jesus are one. We explained that one of the truths once again revealed to Joseph Smith was that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are separate beings. We testified of Joseph Smith’s calling and mission and asked him to pray about it. Heath was very reluctant. He really did not want to pray and ask God if Joseph Smith was called as a prophet. He told us that the Bible says that we should not trust our own understanding and feelings-so he could not get any answer to his prayer as we described that he would. He did not cite any scriptures. We read Galatians 5:22-23 We helped him see how the spirit does talk to us by the feelings we get. He continued to flip through his scriptures when a section caught his eye which said something along the lines of; fear not, be not afraid, take courage. With hesitation he asked us what we wanted him to do. We invited him to kneel down and ask God if Joseph Smith was called as a prophet. He asked if he had to kneel down for it to work. We replied that we were not forcing him to do anything, but that kneeling was a great way to show God that he was humble and willing to learn. He told us that God knew he was humble and that he didn’t have to kneel to show it. At the point we gave up, and just sat there for a minute, and he eventually decided that he would pray, seated in his seat, as if to satisfy us and prove that he wouldn’t get an answer. He said a very interesting prayer. Afterward, he had some questions about how we confirm people members of the church and give the Holy Ghost. We told him that there would be two confirmations in church this Sunday and that it would be a great way for him to see how we do stuff. He told us that it was up to his parents. He called his parents in and asked if he could come to church. They told him “no.” He tried to assure them that he was fine. His parents said that he could come if he brought his youth pastor with him. Heath picked up the phone (this is Saturday night at 9:00pm) and began to call his youth pastor when his parents reminded him of the hour and they decided on next Sunday. Elder Goodrich and I were a little excited that he wanted to attend one of our church services. After seeing their son’s interest in attending our church the parents told us that we would not convert their son and that the only reason why they were letting us met with Heath was because we “produced questions and doctrine that made him dig deeper into the scriptures and his own faith.” We assured Heath’s parents that we do not convert any one to our religion. That is not how we operate, that is not how God works. If there is any true converting to be done, the Holy Ghost does it, we can not take the credit. Real conversion comes from the Holy Ghost.
We have another appointment scheduled with Heath Thursday. We are going to see if he really is reading from the Book of Mormon and has prayed. If he still seems confident that we HAVE TO BE wrong and keeps looking up silly questions to ask online we are going to have to explain our purpose and that our efforts have to be spent elsewhere.
Well, I am about out of time. I hope you enjoyed hearing about a piece of what missionary work is like in the South. I love you all!
Elder Calvin Smith
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