It was a great day

Usually, Fast and Testimony meeting is my favorite meeting to attend. I love hearing all the different testimonies borne by members of my ward... my friends. However, the last few months have been painfully boring and uninspiring. Instead of spiritual messages of faith, we received travel-monies, brag-a-monies, and long-winded sermon-monies. It is difficult to get through meetings when these are being spewed over the pulpit.

However, today it was different, and back to the type of meeting I look forward to each month.

What was different? Perhaps it was me, and my willingness to search for the message of faith in their words, or perhaps it was those who stood to bear their testimonies that were different. In any event, I left feeling uplifted and spiritually fed, and it felt GOOD.

One particular testimony touched me where one good brother stood to tell about an experience he had earlier in the week where he was confronted with someone who was talking badly about the "Mormon Cult." He was hurt by the words confrontation and tried to dismantle the anger by subtly bearing his testimony to the irate man. It didn't accomplish much and the man stormed out of the office.

For a couple of hours afterward, this ward brother replayed the exchange over and over in his mind and worried that he didn't handle the situation correctly. Maybe he could have been more bold in his testimony, or maybe he could have taken a more "Porter Rockwell" approach. It was much to his surprise when a knock came on his office door and the irate man stepped in. He said he had come to apologize for the words that he'd said earlier and felt sorry for his behavior. The ward brother expressed how glad he was for the apology and, again, bore his testimony.

The entire exchange may have done nothing to change the irate man's opinion of the Church or its members. Perhaps he'll go on thinking his same thoughts and keep his same opinions. But what DID change is the way this dear brother will handle similar confronations in the future. He was an example of what Christ would do -- simply that he would love his brother and continue to stand as a witness of Christ and to not bow down in the face of adversity. He can walk away blameless that he did all he could to let the irate man know that Mormons are Christians and that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, just as He is for everyone on earth.

I hope I could do as well in a similar situation.

I love the Gospel and I'm grateful for all our Savior has done for me -- little, seemingly insignificant me -- and He loves me. I'm so thankful for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I pray that I can always stand as a witness for Him who stands at its head.

It was a great day. :o)