Who was on the Lord’s side, who?

(Nutshell for Non-LDS: Mormons believe that everyone alive once dwelled with God before being born. Before the world was even formed there was a war in Heaven, as John’s Revelation made famous, and this war was about whether we should be allowed to make mistakes when that would mean we would suffer, or if our lives should be so controlled that nobody would be able to sin or choose wrongly at all. Satan advocated for the latter, and the rest is mythology.)

If the War in Heaven was a war of words, an essentially missionary war, and nobody was won over from the Bad Side to the Good Side, then it had to have been the most supremely ineffective missionary effort of all time. Which means that we need to consider…

How many of us were once on Satan’s side of that war?

Revisiting Bedbug Haven

In the eight weeks from the middle of June 2012 to July 2012, I and seven other missionaries lived in what was referred to by the mission office as "bedbug haven." It was an apartment built for four but, as mentioned before, there was twice that number living there. Plus bedbugs.

Quarters were cramped. There were three rooms, none of them very big, and connected them was some sort of hallway that managed to have kitchen appliances, a sink, a washer, a dryer, and an ironing board stuffed into it. Common it was to need to squeeze by someone (or several someones) as they were working food or laundry in order to go from one room to another. Eventually my companion and I relocated to the third room, along with all its weight equipment and other random junk, but before that change I slept on a couch and another missionary slept in a large closet.

And there were bedbugs. Can I stress that enough?

Understandably, tensions were high, and all of us did at least one thing that we later regretted. I carried a chip on my shoulder against some of them, and so did they, until a little while later when we were able to get some fresh air and reflect. One by one we bumped into each other again and saw that we were very different from how we had remembered each other, and we apologized and moved on.

There are two missionaries from Bedbug Haven that I have yet to bump into and may not ever have the chance to (both went back home before I was able to) but I don't- I can't- hold anything against them.

What I'll always remember from this episode in my life is that people get better, and even when you live with them for eight weeks you still don't always see the best side of them. People are who they are, but when their circumstances get the worst of them don't mistake that for who they would be in a better situation.

The Redemption of Shemesh

Note: I apologize for my lateness in posting this. I was caught up in wanting perfection for this story. 

There once was a young man, or a horror shaped in the likeness of a young man, whose name was Hastur. He was the moon, or, in other words, his light was not his own. He had light, but it was only a light that had been taken from others, and he gave nothing of his own in return to she that had loved him. His true name, spoken only in the wild places and in terrified whispers, was Darkness, and the name of his dominion the same.

Fiction: Song and Rain

A training missionary and his son were walking on the dirt road again one day when, without any permission whatsoever, or even a polite advance notice, the storm clouds gathered and the rains descended. And so fiercely did they descend that after a few minutes the younger missionary looked too and fro for a handy ark, observing that circumstances were looking as if it would be necessary. If nothing else, his feet were certainly drowning by this time.

And of what concern of yours is this?

Follow-up to: They called him Judas, after the dagger

"For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 3 Nephi 14:2

But story isn't entirely about Judas, you know, even though I could say an awful lot about him. It's about all of us, "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of  God." Judas betrayed his Savior, Peter betrayed his Savior, and so has every other soul in all of the worlds of Creation. As President Uchtdorf repeated in last year's April session of General Conference, talking of a bumper sticker that he had seen, "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you."

We have all done things that we aren't proud of. When the Son of God was in such agony as to bleed from every pore, such agony that even He, who healed the sick and raised the dead, shuddered at the thought of it and asked His Father to take, if it were possible, the experience away from him- how much of this pain was on our own account? How much does it matter that one of us was responsible for one drop, and another of us for another drop?

We don't know what their circumstances are. But we do know that we're all unfinished products, and if God has forgotten their sin then surely we have no justification in remembering it ourselves. Every time that we do so we make a mockery of the Atonement, and the greater sin may well be on our own heads.

I could do no better than to again repeat the words of President Uchtdorf again: "This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it!"

Have a good day, folks.

Fiction: They called him Judas, after the dagger

A soul met with Peter to thus sojourn with him at the gates of Heaven for a time. Their conversation came to turn to Judas, and the soul mentioned its pity for him, that he was cast into outer darkness for betraying the Son of Man.