Elder Cathcart October 2009

My first week with Elder Lynn has been pretty dandy. We mostly spend all our time tracting houses. We're trying to find people to teach. We found this one lady while tracting who came out and said that we were a cult. We asked her, ok, what?
She said, I would never join your church unless you got rid of your custom Bible that you got. Assuming she meant the Book of Mormon, I said I would not apologize for revelations of God. She seemed confused, and said, that New World Translation you guys got... We cut her off and said no that is not us. She said, oh, well, you guys don't celebrate birthdays... We cut her off again and told her, no that's not us, that's the JWs. She said, oh, Mormons, well, I know that you guys are kooky too, I just can't think of what right now. We said thank you. She said OH, you guys might be nice guys, but your religion is a whack job. We asked her what she had against it. She said, I can't remember anything right now... You guys will have to come back on Wednesday and I will tell you. We walked away from that one laughing. She might as well have told us she hates us simply because someone told her to.


We ended up coming back on Wednesday though. Her husband was there. They let us in, we sat down and just exchanged messages was all. The way SHE was glowering at Elder Lynn when he taught about Joseph Smith, we figure she had since "remembered" (aka looked it up on an ANTI site) what she had against our religion so that she could justify hating it. It never broke out into a bash, probably because of how the meeting started. They told us they were Born Again Christians, and the husband started our discussion about what we thought about the doctrine of being born again. I could see where this was going so I quoted John 3:3 and then John 3:5 and explained that there is a rebirth that happens when you "enter the kingdom of God" and a rebirth even before that when you "see the kingdom of God," or in other words, recognize for the first time by the Holy Ghost that the kingdom of God is indeed before your eyes, and then you will enter it. SO, I concluded to him, since there are plural instances when it happens, it must therefore be a process, not an instant. Lynn joked to me later about how I took his core fodder, put it out on the table, and ravaged it to pieces, and then put it away. The husband seemed sheepish after that about telling us directly that our religion was being misguided. He didn't seem to like the idea of an authorized church being lead by authorized apostles. He said, oh, God doesn't work that way anymore, I believe he's trying something new... and then he went off on a 15 minute long thing about how unorganized religion is the way to go. We joked about this later too, saying that Oh, I wonder how they spread the message to other Christians, however they do it, it better not be organized. Heaven forbid they ever want to have any association with their brethren, if so, Good mercy, they better not have it be orderly in any way, they better not appoint a spokesman at all, they better not have any rules appointed for this gathering, because that would constitute an organization. It makes me laugh that they try to argue to me that having a church is not what Jesus wanted when the Bible says, "The Lord added unto his church daily such as should be saved." (Acts 2) What a joke! They were good people though.
We haven't had too many other stories to tell from tracting.
We had an appointment with Portia again though. We taught her the gospel, first principles and ordinances. We thought we did pretty well. We asked her if she would like to set a date for baptism, or if she would think about it. She was extremely hesitant. I noticed when I read from my quad, she was eyeing it to be sure I was reading from the Bible. Portia is going to meet with us next Thursday. Hopefully we will be able to teach her about the book of Mormon better. She almost seems afraid to tell us she doesn't trust it. She won't read it, probably because of what she's read is in it. It's the greatest irony in the world to me that people won't even open the book of Mormon for fear of Mormon Doctrines that might be inside, which we in fact do not gleam from the Book of Mormon, but from the Bible. Joseph got it right when he declared that the Bible is full of doctrines which are strange to the sectarian world.
Besides these, I don't have any other stories for telling. The work is moving along slowly and surely. I still get tired of rejection and that no one will give me even 30 seconds of ear-time. The churches round these parts beat it into their heads that we are not to be talked to, and the rest just right us off as the whacks that go door to door, don’t bug me. I really still feel powerless to convince someone by my own strength, but I know by the power of God and by blooming fruit in my soul by experiment, that the message we are sharing is good and true. I'm learning so much. The gospel's been the same in every dispensation, and this is one of those dispensations. I love to study the scriptures. I love the Bible, and I love the Book of Mormon. With the sticks of Joseph and of Judah, broken hearts can be mended, wounded souls can be dressed, dull spirituality can receive life, hope can bloom in the hopeless, the spiritually blind and deaf will see and hear, and happiness will abound. The Bible says that we know that God is surer to hear our prayers when we keep his commandments. All these different religions around stem from men who don't want to do that at all costs. If the world were good and willing to hearken to the truth, then there would be only one religion. In my recent studies, I've become even more convinced of the Book of Mormon's mission to straighten out Apostasy like a Chiropractor straightens out a crooked back. They that erred in spirit will come to understanding and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
I think I speak for everyone in the family when I say that let's be sure that when we meet again around a table on the other side that there are no empty chairs. This is the revealed religion of Jesus Christ, the one who is also known as Jehovah, who created the earth, stood on Mt. Sinai, parted the Red Sea, and was crucified in the flesh to atone for the sins of the world! This is the same religion in every dispensation, I wish I had a tongue that could speak how I feel, but I cannot in the least speak how I feel. It is too great.