Conversations with Confused People

Conversation 1

For those of you who don’t know, our apartment which is quite nice, is a little on the small side. It has approximately 700 sq ft of room broken down into 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a small living room, and a small kitchen. While this is plenty of space for us to live, it isn’t plenty of space for a laundry room, much less a washer and a dryer. There are talks of putting up a small laundry facility for us, until then it is off to the Washateria to do the laundry once or twice a week. You can’t tell Kelley this, but I have actually come to enjoy my time there. For one, I can do a weeks worth of laundry in less than 2 hours, and it gives me a little “me” time. I usually spend this time reading a book, or occasionally catching up on a Koukl podcast on my ipod. When I was there last week a couple of visitors came by. The visitors were on foot, wearing dark pants, white short-sleeved button down shirts, ties, and each of them had on a backpack. They also had on name tags that identified them as elders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, big surprise there huh. Elder Hunt and Elder Fellows tried to act like they were looking at the information board as I was moving clothes from the washer to the dryer. They happened to be standing right next to where I had placed my book down. I am reading Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life for the third time, perhaps I will be able to finish it this time. :) So as I walked up reclaim my seat they decided it was a good time to strike up a conversation. You know me….I never want to miss out on a good conversation. I was actually excited, as I have never knowingly held a conversation with a Mormon. After a bit of small talk, they asked if I had a family, and I told them yes. The ice breaker was for them to recommend some reading to me that could really help my family. I though it a little odd coming from a couple of guys that didn’t look old enough to have a serious girlfriend, but a nice gesture none the less. For the next little bit I played dumb, asking as many questions as popped in my head…other than the “what are you smoking” question, I kept that one to myself. It was getting time to get back to laundry, so I had to go ahead and wrap up the conversation. I told them why I had moved to Texas, and that while I didn’t know exactly what all they believed, I was certain that we had some differences in our beliefs, and that I would like to spend some time talking about those differences on another day. We exchanged information, and I gave them the open invitation to come by the house whenever they liked. We shook hands and that was session one. I went home and spent the next 2 days doing as much research as I could on Joseph Smith and his band of very confused followers. It was difficult trying to sift through everything I was reading, but I did the best I could.

Conversation 2

Saturday rolls around, Kelley and Haley went to see Ratatouille with our neighbors. G-man and I were hanging out doing what we should have been doing on a Saturday afternoon in the fall, watching football. I had just started to feed G some food at about 3 o’clock when Elder Hunt, and Elder Fellows wheel in on there bikes. I welcomed them in and offered them something to drink, to which they declined. I told them I was really glad they came by, but that I was short on time, kickoff was only an hour away. They said no problem, they needed to leave at 3:30 to go to their next appointment anyway. So after a decent amount of small talk we got around to discussing things. We bounced back and forth over a few issues, and finally got around to the Bible, and discussing various translations, and its authority. They made some claims that were completely unfounded, and I let them know that what they were saying was false and gave them my reasons for saying so. I doubt seriously that any of my arguments made any headway, but who knows time will tell. We eventually wrapped up, and I went on to watch a painful football game. After reflecting on that hour long conversation, I knew that I really needed some additional material to take their views head on. I did some more research and ordered a couple of books, and a pamphlet. The website seems to be pretty good, and most of the info that they put out is from ex-Mormons. Here is a link if you are interested http://www.lifeafter.org/. The books have shipped, but haven’t arrived yet.

Conversation 3

My buddies came back again today. They showed up at noon, and 3 hours of interesting conversation later, they left. My brain was just about fried after talking with them. I spent a lot of time probing them, to try and find out exactly where our views depart. I certainly got some answers from them, some were as interesting as my recent research indicated they would be. I told them what I believed, and asked them based on the information I just told them, would I spend eternity in heaven with God. They were quite reluctant to tell me that I would be going to Spirit Prison when I die, but I finally drug it out of them. I countered their views with as much scripture as I could point out to them on why if the bible is indeed true, that I would not be going to Spirit Prison, but I would indeed go on to live eternally with God in heaven. At the end of the 3 hours I still got a blank stare, and the statement that was interjected the most throughout our conversation this afternoon “Well I know the scriptures (Book of Mormon) are true, because I prayed and God confirmed it for me”. There is no doubt that as our conversations continue that I have my work cut out for me. I am not discouraged in the least bit; it was actually fun, and I look forward to our next meeting. Please join me in praying for Elder Hunt, and Elder Fellows. My prayer for them is that they would see the truth, and flee from the lies they are currently believing.