Upon these I write the things of my soul...

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

My Life of Crime

   Pardon me if this doesn't seem like something worthy of "things of my soul." But, bear with me. A few weeks ago, Elder Nielson and I were knocking on doors in Sinking Spring (a city just outside of Reading). It was a bit chilly, and it was getting dark, but we were staying warm, and everything was going just fine. Then, as we were talking to a lady and her husband at their door, a police car drove up to the house, and a police officer stepped out of the car. He started walking up to the door with his flashlight in his hand...


                                       Image from dispatch.com 

   At this point, multiple thoughts were going through my head. First, I wondered what the couple we were talking to was thinking. An officer coming up to the door isn't always a good sign. And, the combination of two strangers and an officer doesn't seem much better. I was also thinking what was going to happen to me. Obviously, I knew we were fine proselyting, but I didn't know what would happen in our conversation with the officer. A night in jail as missionary isn't the most glorious of situations. Anyway, just a couple thoughts...



                     Image from hubpages.com


   Continuing on, the officer asked us for our permits. We said we didn't have any, because we were missionaries. He asked for our ID's, which we readily gave to him. He took them back to his car, and left us there for a bit. In the meantime, we apologized to the couple and walked to the officer's car. After a while, the officer got out of his car, gave us our ID's, and asked us to leave. Although we knew we could be there, honored his request, and headed out into the night.

   Now, like I said, I know that this may not seem worthy to be part of "things of my soul." But, I think this is just one example of the many small experiences we have that make up our life. Perhaps we could classify them as the outer shell of our soul. They could be the decorations, or sprinkles, that make life sweet.

3 comments:

Uncle Bart said...

This happens all the time! Especially when in the winter, its cold out (hats) and it's dark (but it's only 5:00!)

Bonnie said...

Adam says that when this happened to him on his mission, he and his companion told the mission president, who told church headquarters who got their legal team to get the police to start abiding by the law and leave the missionaries alone. Just fyi. :)

Looking forward to seeing you in a few months!

Matt Brown said...

We had similar issues a number of times in Detroit and its' suburbs. Definitely mention it to the mission president. Most of the time, a simple phone call to the jurisdiction in question prevents it from happening to future missionaries.

Good luck elder!