Saturday, February 2, 2008

The Conclusion to conversations with confused people

My books arrived a couple of days after my 3rd conversation with my Mormon friends. I went through the books, and studied as much as time allowed. I took many notes and made a couple of charts that showed contradictions between the bible and their beliefs. My charts included specific references to where their views were stated, as some were in the Book of Mormon, some in their Doctrine and Covenants, and some that were various sayings of Joseph Smith. I also printed up all of the changes that have taken place in the Book of Mormon, that they claim haven’t taken place. I was as ready as I was gonna be, now it was just a matter of getting some time to meet with them. They came by a few times when I was out running errands so I missed them. We finally hooked up and made some time to chat. They day we were supposed to meet they called and said they would be late. They never showed up. We then scheduled another meeting; to which they stood me up a second time, only no phone call this time. Another couple of weeks went by, and they came by my house when I was sitting down to eat dinner. We scheduled another time to meet, and they actually kept their end of the agreement. So they came over, only it wasn’t the same 2 guys I had met with before. Elder Hunt was there, but they had moved Elder Fellows to another city. I can’t remember the last name of the other Elder that replaced Elder Fellows. So we have some small talk, and eventually began to talk about things. Elder Hunt start out by wondering what he is doing here, because he thinks that I don’t really care what he has to say. I kinda of found this funny, since he came anyway. I told him I was interested in discussing our differences, and reasoning out why we believe what we believe, and what is the grounding for these beliefs. So after going back and forth on some differences I think he finally had enough. And one point in time while he was laughing he said “Did Joseph Smith really say that”? At another point in the conversation, he said “I have never heard that, where did you find all this stuff”? I told him I did my research. :) So by the end of our meeting I made zero headway, other than perhaps to let him know that there are people out there who believe differently from them, and have good reasons for it, outside of a subjective feeling. He basically told me he didn’t see the benefit at all for people to sit down like he and I were doing, because it was unfruitful and pointless. I respectfully disagreed with him, and we agreed to disagree. I did 2 more things before they left. I got them to tell me their first names, Adam Hunt, and Chad ?. The other thing I did was pray for them that the truth would be revealed to them. I haven’t seen them since, but I continue to pray that they will find the truth, and flee from the lies they believe.

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