Mission From God
So... had an interesting evening tonight... Mormons showed up at the door before Ian got home from work. Those boys are always so polite, and the patience of my LDS friends in putting up with my endless Dial-A-Mormon questions has really given me a good respect for their missionary work. I cheerfully invited them in, and sat chatting with them a bit. At their request, I prayed with them, and agreed to make an appointment for them to return later in the evening after dinner to speak with Ian and me.
The Mormons came back, and I rather dragged Ian downstairs with me to chat with them, but chat we did. We sat and listened to them for an hour, and had engaging conversation. Poor Utah boys. They laughed when I joked with them, pantomiming them with a note pad, "Hmm, List of Challenging Questions Raised By Atheists...." They were nice about it. They said the magic words, too, "I don't know." I respect I Don't Know as an answer. It's okay, and it's humble.
They were pleased to discover that we already have a copy of The Book of Mormon, and that elderdutton had already highlighted the appropriate passages for us to read. They also asked us to read the Book of Enos, and another short passage which they bookmarked (sorry, Mormon friends, don't know the other off the top of my head). They asked us if we'd read and simply pray to ask God if this is true. We both agreed that we would, and I have to admit some amusement that the boys seemed really surprised by that! Well, gee, I mean why not? Sure, we're non-believers, but we're not rude... not full-time, anyway. Why on earth would we have sat chatting with them for an hour, already prayed with them once, and then refuse to pray and ask God ourselves? Glad to have made them happy, anyhow.
This is something I intend to do and with sincerity. I did this twice before, incidentally. I didn't feel like I got an answer then, but as I said to the missionaries tonight, who am I to tell God that his response should be on my time, not his?
We closed our meeting tonight with a prayer, and they asked if either of us would like to say it on our behalf, so I did. I thanked God for good stuff, and thanked him for bringing the two missionaries to our door, and said we'd read and pray, and just simply put it to God that we're hoping to hear from him. Seemed simple enough, really.
We've got a follow-up appointment with the Mormons next Tuesday to discuss our thoughts on the reading and prayer, and see if we've heard from God.
Trace
The Mormons came back, and I rather dragged Ian downstairs with me to chat with them, but chat we did. We sat and listened to them for an hour, and had engaging conversation. Poor Utah boys. They laughed when I joked with them, pantomiming them with a note pad, "Hmm, List of Challenging Questions Raised By Atheists...." They were nice about it. They said the magic words, too, "I don't know." I respect I Don't Know as an answer. It's okay, and it's humble.
They were pleased to discover that we already have a copy of The Book of Mormon, and that elderdutton had already highlighted the appropriate passages for us to read. They also asked us to read the Book of Enos, and another short passage which they bookmarked (sorry, Mormon friends, don't know the other off the top of my head). They asked us if we'd read and simply pray to ask God if this is true. We both agreed that we would, and I have to admit some amusement that the boys seemed really surprised by that! Well, gee, I mean why not? Sure, we're non-believers, but we're not rude... not full-time, anyway. Why on earth would we have sat chatting with them for an hour, already prayed with them once, and then refuse to pray and ask God ourselves? Glad to have made them happy, anyhow.
This is something I intend to do and with sincerity. I did this twice before, incidentally. I didn't feel like I got an answer then, but as I said to the missionaries tonight, who am I to tell God that his response should be on my time, not his?
We closed our meeting tonight with a prayer, and they asked if either of us would like to say it on our behalf, so I did. I thanked God for good stuff, and thanked him for bringing the two missionaries to our door, and said we'd read and pray, and just simply put it to God that we're hoping to hear from him. Seemed simple enough, really.
We've got a follow-up appointment with the Mormons next Tuesday to discuss our thoughts on the reading and prayer, and see if we've heard from God.
Trace