The ultimatum‏

4/18/11
I attached a picture of the dinner that I made for Elder Downs and I last night. I fried mini tortillas in butter, spread refried beans and cheese on them, and closed them into burritos. It was delicious. I just thought you might want to know that.

So we tracted into this 16 year old young man named Jean this week. He was really interested in everything we shared about Christ's gospel and repentance and he accepted the restoration. We invited him to come to church with us on Sunday and offered to walk with him to church to which he readily accepted. We showed up on his doorstep at 8:15 on the dot and rang his doorbell. It was apparent that everyone inside had been sleeping because his mother answered the door slightly flustered and not fully conscious. She went and woke Jean up, and we waited in his living room for about 15 minutes while he got ready really quickly. On our walk to and from church we had a really good talk with him and I found out a lot about his tough situation in life. So he's been with his 19 year old girlfriend living in his parents home for about a year now. She's 7 months pregnant with their baby. He's 16 year old! We talked to him about his plans for the future and how he plans on being a father. He's still a sophomore in high school, but he has some job prospects lined up for when he graduates. We talked about marriage with him and he agrees that it's the right thing to do. We're hoping to be able to help him and his girlfriend get married. I can't imagine what that is going to be like to be a 16 year old father still a sophomore in high school. He NEEDS the gospel, and the gospel will help him out more than anything else. The cool thing is that he has a pretty open mind and a soft heart and he's willing to make some changes and learn.
I had my last quarterly interview with my mission president on Wednesday. He goes home on July 1st, and by that time we will officially be the Boston, Massachusetts mission. It was weird to me that my mission president is going home. We had a good talk about the mission. I'm gonna miss President Pehrson a lot, but it's cool that he committed to be there at my homecoming in August.
We volunteered to do service at the Hartford Hospital. They assigned us to be the 'fall prevention team'. We walk around looking really official in our blue jackets and clipboards and check all the equipment for the patients who are on 'fall alert' because they've fallen in the past or at high risk of falling. I got my orientation this week. I felt pretty cool doing my 'rounds' and asking the patients questions and checking off the boxes on my clipboard and evaluation sheet. Beyond that it actually turned out to be a very profitable missionary tool. We're not allowed to give out anything or proselyte at the hospital, but people see us and know who we are and sometimes come up and ask us questions. I got to meet some really cool people in the hospital, and hopefully from what little we do we can help someone else out on their search for answers and happiness.
I ran into some weird people tracting and street contacting yesterday. Arthur, an old homeless man, was really drunk and followed us around a bit and kept asking us," How do you know that I know that I know that I know?" Yeah, it was strange. He kind of ruined a contact we made with this other couple in the street because he walked in-between us and the couple while we were talking and started shaking our hands. "I KNOW! But how do you know that I know that I know that I know?..." After we finally were able to shake off Arthur, we ran into these 2 U-CONN girls in the street. U-CONN threw a big party yesterday to celebrate their NCAA championship and had a parade in downtown Hartford. While we didn't join in the festivities we did see lots of people in the streets who were talking about it. These 2 girls actually approached my companion and I and told us how 2 missionaries had helped her move out of her apartment once and she thought that that was really nice but was very curious as to why those 2 missionaries would leave everything behind to serve missions. Her friend, who pulled out a cigarette and started smoking while we were talking, said, "That's nothing. They don't smoke, drink alcohol, and they don't even drink coffee! What's the matter? Don't you like coffee?" I could have told her, "No, I've tried coffee before, and it was disgusting," but I decided that that wasn't really at the heart of the issue.  So I decided to answer all their questions with the ultimatum of our message: the Book of Mormon. "Well, the easiest way to answer that question would be to explain to you that we believe in modern day revelation and that God speaks to us today and calls prophets. If this book (the Book of Mormon) is true that means that Joseph Smith really was a prophet receiving revelation from God, and the commandment given to us to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, even coffee and tea, really came from God. If this book is true it means that God has commanded us not to drink coffee." I similarly explained that the personal witness I've received from God that the Book of Mormon is indeed true was a major factor in why I was serving a mission, as well as was probably the reason why those 2 missionaries who helped her move out of her apartment served. "You see, your real question isn't 'Why do you go to church on Sunday?' or 'Why don't you drink coffee?' or 'Why are you serving a mission?' Your real question and the one you want the answer to is 'Is the Book of Mormon true?" They brought up other questions and got a little frustrated when I kept answering their questions by referring back to the Book of Mormon. "Don't you think that at this point it would be more prudent to actually read the book!?" I asked them. The ultimatum of our conversation rested on the Book of Mormon and there it remains. Those who claim that answering questions this way is a 'cop-out' obviously don't understand the importance of the Book of Mormon in the message of the Restoration nor will they be able to comprehend why it is that Jesus Christ himself put such great emphasis on the Book of Mormon, even to the point that he said that the saints would "remain under condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon." (D&C 84:57)
The Book of Mormon is true. I can't deny it. I spend a good deal of my time and energy on getting people to sincerely read and pray about it. When people actually do so, a spiritual witness of it's truthfulness always follows, and answers as to what they should do and where they should go from here are simultaneously answered. Sound advice: read it, study it, ponder it, pray about it, live it's teachings. I know that the Book of Mormon is true.
I love missionary work! Life is great, and the weather is smiling upon us today in Hartford with sunny skies and highs in the 60's (it's good because a huge rain storm dropped 4 inches of rain on us this weekend.)
    
            with much love from your favorite elder,
                  -Elder Shepherd