While serving at the Hill a group of about ten or fifteen walk in from Mexico. While in the back with the display of all the different languages of the Book of Mormons, one asked me if he could get a Tagalog and Polish Book of Mormon for his friends who were from countries that spoke those languages. "Of course," I replied firmly. Little did I know, everyone misheard me and thought that meant they could TAKE the Book of Mormons from the Book of Mormon display. After retrieving the Tagalog and Polish Book of Mormons I return to find about a third of those on the display gone with more being shoved into bags. As Joseph would have put it, "I cried in the anguish of my soul..." After explaining that we could not take the Book of Mormons from the display but rather there are some available in other languages we can give out if needs be, they begin to "make an order" of all the languages they wanted. French, Korean, Albanian, etc. Very much a "slapping forehead moment". Despite this, it was still a joy to speak Spanish with them and watch their faces light up when they saw Hermana on my nametag. The joys of being a visitors' center sister.
I've had some really amazing experiences in just the past few days of non-members coming into the sites. While at the Hill a man named Paul wandered in. I was on tour, so Elder Erickson, one of the senior couples greeted him and soon found out he had grown up in Seneca Falls, had attended the pageant when he was younger, and that was all he knew about the church. He was visiting a friend nearby and thought he might visit the Hill again and see what it was all about. Elder Erickson proceeds to spend two hours in the back room with him, basically giving him the first lesson. Elder Erickson then pops out and asks if Sister Canova and I would be able to teach him online. He isn't quite ready for missionaries to visit quite yet, but he is very curious indeed. MIRACLES.
I just recently gave a tour at the Hill as well of three men from Hawaii. They lived in Port Gibson (part of my old area in Newark) and when I start explaining I served where he lived he goes on to say, "I think you may have knocked on my door..." Soon come to find a friend of his who was a member let him know about the sites and said they were always willing to give free tours, and so they thought, "why not?" Such a cool experience to give them a "tour of the Restoration". There is no greater feeling than telling people about these things--which have become so real to me and such an instrumental part of who I am--about it all for their very first time.
In the scriptures it says, "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." What a joy it is to hold the message of the Restoration up as a light. When the Book of Mormon was being published a man named Luther Howard owned the second floor of the Grandin building--the binding room. He got the chance to read pieces of the Book of Mormon before they were available to the public, and was so impressed he started recommending it to his friends. Unfortunately a local newspaper rebuked him for this and Luther stopped speaking. It's a sad story, and what miracles could have proceeded if Luther had not been deterred by man, we many never know. True faith is not trumped by rejection, fear, or in site sister terms, an uninterested guest. ALWAYS proclaim. ALWAYS invite. ALWAYS hold His light up.
-Hermana Abreu
1.Chill'n Grill (fine dining in Palmyra) Ice Cream
2.By the huge Book of Mormon (Sister Canova is tall, as most have probably noticed, so the branches were in her face)
3. Posing as Moroni beside the Peter Whitmer home after dark
4. As a late birthday treat we got Lucy's (a.k.a Mother Smith's) obviously original lemonade at the LDS store beside the Grandin. New favorite.
5. Treasure trove in the original Smith family refrigerator
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