Lessons from a Mormon

30-03-2024

Last week I was headed to seek wifi refuge at a McDonalds (that’s an entire other story). Mid mouthful, my earphone began to slip. Readjust. Bag falls off the shoulder, and in the midst of all this readjustment (in a fairly vulnerable position I would say), I was approached by Elder Harrington. Being so focused on the wardrobe malfunctions, eating and the like I had to take a moment before realising he was talking to me.

He and his missionary partner Elder French (not his real name, but more on that later) stoked up a conversation. I was arguably in a rush and began to wriggle my way out of the conversation when I thought, ‘you know what, life’s too short to be in a rush to nowhere’. I stayed and talked.

The first thing I learnt was that the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints is the correct term to use instead of ‘Mormon’. I had no idea they were the same thing. "No idea": an emerging theme.

In the 40 minutes that followed, I allowed these passionate 18-ish year olds to share their faith with me. Now I’m sure someone out there would be at least a little upset that I entertained this conversation, having my own (different) convictions, but that in itself is disheartening to me. Can we not listen to each other without preaching. Hear without aiming to convert?

Merely from an education/teaching perspective, it’s so incredibly important to truly listen and to learn about the world around us; you might even learn something new about yourself.

I digress. I was (much) later asked what the take home for me was. It was this: the zeal and faith that this church has is incredible. Thousands of young people sign up to go on ‘missions’, and are blindly sent across the world to share their faith. One of these lads is from Paris, the other from Venezuela. They were ‘sent’ here at the beginning of the year. English is neither of their first languages. They didn’t know each other before now either. A friend of theirs was sent to Taiwan, had to learn Mandarin from scratch!

Do I possess such faith to learn a new language for the sake of sharing what I believe?

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Postscriptum

Two months have passed, and I am still in regular contact with my dear Mormon pals. I'm choosing to pass on the opportunity to discuss theology and beliefs in this post. Needless to say our regular 'studies' involve me bringing a myriad of questions, many which remain unsatisfactorily answered (which I have never seen as a weakness btw), and a deep search for truth within my own beliefs has begun.

Always walk through life like you have something new to learn, and you will.

Vernon Howard