Family.
This week has been quite an adventurous one. We had Zone conference down in Ottawa, and we got to split some other missionaries. There are 2 elders covering all of downtown Ottawa, the lack of missionaries we have here is quite frustrating sometimes. One of these elders is our District Leader, Elder Hall, from England. They have a ward of 150 active, 300 less/inactive people. Needless to say, they have a lot of work ahead of them. Their work is very different from our work. Anyhow, I went on splits with Elder Hall, and we met this family, a family that downright left me with a migraine.
As we shared dinner, I observed that this couple were as happy as could be, no marital problems, and as smart as could be--they spent most of their time talking to Elder Hall about String Theory and all sorts of physics nonsense, but still had enough room in their brains to talk about poetry and literature with me, as well as Stem Cell theory. I hope to establish here, that they are really smart. It came to our spiritual thought discussion, and they sat us down.
We spoke of their beliefs. They joined the church for its family principles. They continued to search for answers. They didn't have a real testimony, they had questions, people just continued to tell them "wait until you get to the temple, you'll find answers there." So they waited, kept commitments and went to the temple. They didn't find any answers after they temple. Once I heard that I wanted to say "Well duh. Nobody has answers after the first temple trip." But they continued to go and eventually stopped.
Now they don't believe in God. The husband looked at me and held up 3 fingers
"There are things you know you know,
There are things you know you don't know,
And There are things you don't know you don't know."
Then he continued to speak
"I don't know if there is a God or not, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't need to know."
And Darned it all, they were the nicest people I've met in Canada. Super nice. Elder Hall asked the man 2 questions. In his stellar English accent.
"What if you're wrong?"
The man just laughed. "Ah the wager, who's wager was that again?"
"Pascal's wager" I mumbled.
"Ah yes, you see, I am a fan of stoicism, the belief of controlling your rational emotions. I've made a choice, if there is a God I will stand before him and honestly apologize and pay for the choice I've made."
"Aren't you afraid of not living with God, of Hell so to speak?" I asked him.
"You see, it would be irrational to live in regret, I can't comprehend what hell is like right now, why fear it? and once I'm there, I can't change it, why live in regret? It doesn't make sense.
Why do you fear Hell Elder Holm?"
I took a moment to respond. "I guess I fear it because I cannot comprehend the utter pain and suffering that comes with the consequences of Hell. I've been told that the consequences are beyond my comprehension, and that frightens me most of all. Rational or not. And it's not that I fear pain, or death or fire and brimstone--he nodded in agreement to this--but it's because I fear living alone, without love. Love from God, love from others, because love isn't a rational emotion, and is something I'm afraid Hell is lacking."
He looked and smiled at me, and said "And that is perfectly okay that you believe that, I accept that." Once again, so nice. At this moment, I felt sad for them. They believe they are so intelligent. Yet they lack the knowledge found in the heart of every child. It's sad, really.
Elder Hall then asked them, "So, if you don't believe in our church anymore, why do you keep your covenants? I see you are still wearing your garments."
The man answered "1. because I respect the people who witnessed me make the covenants, 2. Because they are so Comfortable!"
Yeah right, sounds like a huge JUST IN CASE WE'RE WRONG to me.
At the end they thanked us for our time, and said they were surprised when Elder Hall asked to come back. "Usually elders never come back after tonight, and the sisters always cry. I'm impressed with you two."
Huh.
Anyways, left that problem in Ottawa, back to Val D'or. We didn't have any investigators come to church, sad. But that's okay, the branch president came back up this weekend and took us out to a chinese buffet. It was at this buffet that I discovered Frog's Legs. Yes, the man you knew who could live forever eating nothing but chicken noodle soup and doritos, has decided to be adventurous with food. The world is upside down. Frog legs aren't too bad, they do in fact taste like chicken. They still came with the spine and everything though, that was a little difficult to get over.
Sunday was cold. A crushing -40 farenheit/celsius with wind chill. I have a video I'm leaving in My dropbox for those who would like to view. Also with this email, a picture of myself, after 20 minutes of tracting. Frozen eyelashes, nosehairs and everything else.
That's about it this week, transfer calls are this saturday, we'll see what happens.
E. Holm
This week has been quite an adventurous one. We had Zone conference down in Ottawa, and we got to split some other missionaries. There are 2 elders covering all of downtown Ottawa, the lack of missionaries we have here is quite frustrating sometimes. One of these elders is our District Leader, Elder Hall, from England. They have a ward of 150 active, 300 less/inactive people. Needless to say, they have a lot of work ahead of them. Their work is very different from our work. Anyhow, I went on splits with Elder Hall, and we met this family, a family that downright left me with a migraine.
As we shared dinner, I observed that this couple were as happy as could be, no marital problems, and as smart as could be--they spent most of their time talking to Elder Hall about String Theory and all sorts of physics nonsense, but still had enough room in their brains to talk about poetry and literature with me, as well as Stem Cell theory. I hope to establish here, that they are really smart. It came to our spiritual thought discussion, and they sat us down.
We spoke of their beliefs. They joined the church for its family principles. They continued to search for answers. They didn't have a real testimony, they had questions, people just continued to tell them "wait until you get to the temple, you'll find answers there." So they waited, kept commitments and went to the temple. They didn't find any answers after they temple. Once I heard that I wanted to say "Well duh. Nobody has answers after the first temple trip." But they continued to go and eventually stopped.
Now they don't believe in God. The husband looked at me and held up 3 fingers
"There are things you know you know,
There are things you know you don't know,
And There are things you don't know you don't know."
Then he continued to speak
"I don't know if there is a God or not, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't need to know."
And Darned it all, they were the nicest people I've met in Canada. Super nice. Elder Hall asked the man 2 questions. In his stellar English accent.
"What if you're wrong?"
The man just laughed. "Ah the wager, who's wager was that again?"
"Pascal's wager" I mumbled.
"Ah yes, you see, I am a fan of stoicism, the belief of controlling your rational emotions. I've made a choice, if there is a God I will stand before him and honestly apologize and pay for the choice I've made."
"Aren't you afraid of not living with God, of Hell so to speak?" I asked him.
"You see, it would be irrational to live in regret, I can't comprehend what hell is like right now, why fear it? and once I'm there, I can't change it, why live in regret? It doesn't make sense.
Why do you fear Hell Elder Holm?"
I took a moment to respond. "I guess I fear it because I cannot comprehend the utter pain and suffering that comes with the consequences of Hell. I've been told that the consequences are beyond my comprehension, and that frightens me most of all. Rational or not. And it's not that I fear pain, or death or fire and brimstone--he nodded in agreement to this--but it's because I fear living alone, without love. Love from God, love from others, because love isn't a rational emotion, and is something I'm afraid Hell is lacking."
He looked and smiled at me, and said "And that is perfectly okay that you believe that, I accept that." Once again, so nice. At this moment, I felt sad for them. They believe they are so intelligent. Yet they lack the knowledge found in the heart of every child. It's sad, really.
Elder Hall then asked them, "So, if you don't believe in our church anymore, why do you keep your covenants? I see you are still wearing your garments."
The man answered "1. because I respect the people who witnessed me make the covenants, 2. Because they are so Comfortable!"
Yeah right, sounds like a huge JUST IN CASE WE'RE WRONG to me.
At the end they thanked us for our time, and said they were surprised when Elder Hall asked to come back. "Usually elders never come back after tonight, and the sisters always cry. I'm impressed with you two."
Huh.
Anyways, left that problem in Ottawa, back to Val D'or. We didn't have any investigators come to church, sad. But that's okay, the branch president came back up this weekend and took us out to a chinese buffet. It was at this buffet that I discovered Frog's Legs. Yes, the man you knew who could live forever eating nothing but chicken noodle soup and doritos, has decided to be adventurous with food. The world is upside down. Frog legs aren't too bad, they do in fact taste like chicken. They still came with the spine and everything though, that was a little difficult to get over.
Sunday was cold. A crushing -40 farenheit/celsius with wind chill. I have a video I'm leaving in My dropbox for those who would like to view. Also with this email, a picture of myself, after 20 minutes of tracting. Frozen eyelashes, nosehairs and everything else.
That's about it this week, transfer calls are this saturday, we'll see what happens.
E. Holm
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