Afzal and the Suspicious Bible (4/1/2019)

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Hello friends,

During this week's adventures three main things of note occurred.

Firstly, I taught seminary! Elder Pay and I did anyway. It's early morning here so we woke up extra early and somehow had the strength to teach a barely-prepared lesson to a class of high school kids and then get on with our day with minimal napping. It was a cool experience.

Secondly, there's this guy named Afzal. He ordered some Bibles and was referred to us. He wanted several Bibles to give to his family members in Pakistan. We were happy to give him several, but in the midst of messaging him on Facebook, he realized we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we read the Book of Mormon. He suddenly got very suspicious of these Bibles. Here's how the exchange went...

Afzal: "Which church you go
why it look like book of mormens"

The sister who referred him to us answered that the Bibles are printed by the same organization that prints Books of Mormon.

Afzal quoted Jeremiah 1:5 next, which perplexed us because it didn't seem to have anything to do with the conversation at hand and is in fact one of the verses we use to back up our belief in a premortal existence.

We then asked if we could get him his Bible.

Afzal: "If those r KJV"

Elder Pay: "Of course!"

Afzal: "Kings James version
Right"

Elder Pay: "Yes they are Kings James Versions"

Afzal: "Not Book of Mormon"

Me: "Yes, if you only want a King James Bible, that is what we will give you"

He stopped replying. We kinda gave up hope amidst thinking it was ridiculous and funny how suspicious he was of our Bibles. I thought it was over, but Elder Pay proceeded over the next few days to keep messaging Afzal stuff about the Bible and the Book of Mormon teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, since we had nothing to lose. Then a couple days ago we were amazed when Afzal finally responded to one of these messages!

Afzal: "How many king James version Bible that you have"

We told him we could get him 5 Bibles, and he gave us his address! We promptly headed over with 5 Bibles and waited a while for him to come to the door.

Finally he did and looked at the stack of Bibles I was holding. He shook his head. "It's the Mormon book," he said with resignation in his voice. "No!" I assured him. Elder Pay explained that he could compare it with his King James Version. After examining one of the copies, he was finally convinced. The suspicious Bibles were vindicated and he accepted them. We don't have a return appointment yet but we plan on seeing him again sometime for sure. It was a hard-won battle. I'm just glad he didn't ask "Do these Bibles talk about 'Mormon' in them?" because I suppose I couldn't truthfully say they don't with the chapter heading of Ezekiel 37. Anyway, I made Afzal look a little silly but he seems like a cool guy, I do hope we get to meet with him again.

We met and taught another referral yesterday, a guy named David. He was super open and willing to hear our message, which we taught fairly quickly and simply. We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he agreed to. He is awesome! Pray that he doesn't cancel our return appointment.

Lastly, Jason, our recent convert, was interviewed and ordained to the Aaronic priesthood! He now has a temple recommend and is well on his way to a temple trip!!

Hope all of you have had a good week. Conference is coming up quickly. I am really excited for it. Remember to prepare yourself with questions and be open to what God will teach you. This will be my third General Conference since I became a missionary. (Wow...)

Love,
Elder Gallagher

Pics: (Throwback) Ashland road at night
Pond in Reynoldsburg
 
 

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