corn road

This week I have seen how anti-Mormon rhetoric helps my cause as a missionary. Once upon a time there was a man who kept hearing all this weird stuff about “the Mormons.” Something about multiple wives. So he and his wife looked it up on the internet and in the search they stumbled across mormon.org. They were interested by what they read that they decided to order a Bible and talk to the local representatives serving in their area…me and sister dodge. When we got the text from headquarters we rolled our eyes. Another person who wanted a bible. Don’t get me wrong, we want people to have the Bible. That’s why we give them away. The Bible is the main book of scripture that talks about the Savior. Even if they don’t accept the Book of Mormon, it’s better that they read at least the Bible than no scripture at all. But usually the people who want just Bibles aren’t really interested in talking about Christ’s restored gospel, and since our calling is the bring people unto Christ through His restored gospel, it’s a little disheartening. But we called to set up an appointment and John’s wife, Diane, answered. She said they had time that day and she told us that John was interested in finding out more about the Book of Mormon. Yay! (Another chip off the shell of pride that traps my soul. Someday I’ll be free of it—one chip at a time.)


So we drove to go and see John and Diane. We were warmly welcomed and we sat down at the kitchen table with everyone that was home: John, Diane, their 19 year old son, and their son-in-law. I can’t even tell you how rare that is for everyone, as opposed to just the person who ordered the item, to sit down and listen to us. I began the lesson by explaining that our most important and foundational believe is that we believe in God, we are His children, and He loves us. “Wait a minute please,” John said. He grabbed a notebook and so did his son-in-law. “Can we take notes?” he asked. “Umm….yeah,” I answered. First time anyone has ever taken notes during a lesson I was teaching. At this point we were a little scared. We were afraid that we had just walked into a trap. Sometimes people will bring us into their homes to correct our beliefs. It’s never happened to me, but it happened to Sister Dodge so we were scared. But our fears were unrealized. They sincerely wanted to take notes in order to remember what we taught. Everyone asked really great questions. And we answered all the anti that they had heard from other sources. During the lesson John asked what they would have to do to become a Mormon. It was an awesome lesson. And to top off the cake, their daughter walked in with a chocolate cake and we all got a piece. One of the coolest lessons ever.

We saw them a couple days later and taught the Plan of Salvation and it was another awesome lesson. Everyone asked really great questions. So basically this is a really cool family and of course we think they are going to get baptized. We are so happy to know them. They searched out the Church because of the weird things they had heard about us. Bad press is good press.

On Saturday we taught another lesson to a less active who invited two of his non-member friends. Sweet! (I tried so hard to keep the word “sweet” out of my vocabulary because it’s so missionary cliché, but to no avail.) Anyways, one of the friends was asking us all these questions about the anti she had heard. She wasn’t asking sincerely, but she was just trying to shake our faith or make us look stupid by revealing our ignorance…but we do this all day everyday so we patiently explained that we were aware of all the different arguments against the Church that she brought up and yet we still believed. We encourage people who are researching the Church to research whatever and wherever they feel inclined, but we always emphasize including a sincere and prayerful examination of the Book of Mormon in that research. Usually people against the Church aren’t willing to do that, which is fine; it’s their choice.

So while we were being grilled by this girl, the other non-member friend of the less-active was getting upset with her and he started sticking up for our beliefs and views. Wahoo! We have an appointment with him this Wednesday and Thursday.

One last story: Becky and her son had a baptismal date and they were supposed to go to church yesterday but we couldn’t get a hold of them for a like a week so we assumed they were not interested any more. Sad day. Crush. But just now we got a call from her saying her little boy had the swine flu, but he’s better now, but that’s why she hadn’t been available. Yay!-Not about the swine flu, but about how she’s still interested. Which leads me to this new thing I am learning. I have decided to assume everyone is going to get baptized. I am going to allow myself to raise my hopes because it’s worth the fall. As a missionary I get crushed over and over and over again, but it’s better to have high hopes than to live my life in a neutral pit. I’d rather be crushed over and over again because everyone deserves all the help they can get. I have to believe in everyone because I have faith in Christ that he can help them all despite whatever. It’s a scary lesson to learn, but I’ve learned that I can recover from big time blow when someone I love decides not to follow the path that I believe will make them the most happy. Their agency doesn’t have to affect my hope for them…so there’s my philosophical entry of the day.

Random: There is a road in our town called Coughran Road. Try pronouncing that name, Coughran. When I saw it, I pronounced it “Coog-ran,” but it is actually pronounced “Cough” (as in ‘I have a cough’) and “ran” (as in ‘I like to ran’ haha…sigh.) Coughran. So I thought that was a weird name, but what’s weirder is that the Pleasanton residents don’t even pronounce it Cough-ran. They instead call it Corn Road. So when they see “Coughran Road,” they say, “Corn road.” Why? Well, why not?

Love sister alyse johnson