The Way, The Truth, and The Life

I would like to share one experience for which I will always be grateful.

On Thursday, we left the apartment at 10am to start work. We sat down at the bus stop and said hi to a woman. We were just asking her a couple questions and after a minute she said, "What are all these questions for? I know you, you're the Mormons." We then asked, naturally, how she knew the Mormons. She said, "I just know about you. And I can tell you that you are wrong."  I've become pretty bold with this message by now, but the spirit led us to respond very softly. She shared a couple more choice words with us and then she got in a car and left. I thought, "Well, that was an interesting start to the day."

Within the next couple hours, two other people with whom we spoke told us things such as, "it's really too bad, what you're doing" and, "I feel so sorry for you. How did you allow yourself to get sucked up into this church?" Now, those remarks weren't anything out of the ordinary, but to have three people like that before dinner wasn't normal.

Just as I was trying to understand where this opposition was leading us, we talked to a woman. She started out with, "nope, I don't want to hear it. God doesn't exist." We asked how she knew and she shared a story in which she asked a priest if God exists and he was not able to answer her. We taught her many things, and I was so proud to stand with my companion and testify to her of the existence of God and of the divinity of Jesus Christ. When our testimonies ended, I saw her start to say something. Obviously, she wanted to refute our words, but we watched as she tried to speak and was literally unable. We stayed there for probably 10 seconds. After the silence, we invited her to kneel down and ask God if He is there. She said, "No. First of all, I will never kneel down. And second, I will never ask that question." That moment was really sad for me personally. I saw that we had been given the power that Néphi had in the Book of Mormon (for she was not able to deny the truthfulness of our words) but she chose to reject the invitation to come unto Christ.

To end the conversation, she stated, "I'm going to say one more thing and then this conversation is over. If God really does exist, why is there so much suffering in the world?" We explained, "We understand that that was your conclusion, and we respect that. We would like to tell you, simply, that we have the answer to that question. It is not unanswerable. So, if you are sincerely asking us for an answer, we will be overjoyed to help you find it. Would you like to see us again?" Sadly, she said no. She didn't want the answer. And she left.
I know that God lives and that he knows his children. I know that in 1830, the kingdom of God was restored upon the earth by the prophet Joseph Smith. I also look forward to the day when the kingdom of Heaven will be fully established among us and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, will reign.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood