"Elder. Wake up." It was a loud deep grumble.
"Is that another earthquake?" I muttered, turning to the other side trying to sleep.
"Elder its 6:32. Wake up. We have to be on time, we made a goal."
"Elder, I have no water, so this time I will throw dirt on you. You had your warning."
Immediately I sat up. "I'm awake. I'm awake! Hold your fire!"
True to his word, Elder Pachu had a handful of soft loamy looking dirt that he was prepared to throw all over me.
"Ugh. Bro, we both got like four hours of sleep last night. How can we work like this?"
"Elder." He said in a stern voice. "We have gone over this. I am not 'bro.' Do not call me that. Call me Elder, or Elder Pachu."
I cannot believe it. The world as we know it is ending, and this man still woke up on time.
I pulled open my stat display and clicked on his stat screen.
^The Holy Ghost^
Elder Pachu - Level: 43 + 1, 44
--Titles--
- Son of God -
- Disciple of Christ -
- Child of the Covenant -
- Tribe of Ephraim -
- Elder -
- Trainer -
- Companion -
--Stats--
Faith : 70
Hope : 49
Charity and Love : 87
Virtue : 64
Knowledge : 14
Patience : 6
Humility : 94
Diligence : 200
^Obedience : 232 + 8, 240^
Mine was the same. But he had already earned new points in obedience. AND he leveled up.
I closed the window.
I knelt on my bedroll.
Oh Father. I don't get it. I know I'm not supposed to compare, and I know that one star differeth in light than another, but this is getting ridiculous. Elder Pachu isn't THAT much better than me... Is he? Is that what you think?
I waited. Thinking. Wondering if I would get a response.
I don't know if I got one, but in my head I thought that if God were to respond to me, he would say "I don't compare your stats. Nor is that what makes someone better than another."
While my eyes were closed, I continued to pray, but I rolled my eyes.
What's the point of these stats? All it does is make me feel worse.
I got a distinct response to myself what I would say if I was God. "Then do better."
I stopped to think for a minute. I'm not God, nor can I respond to my own prayers for him.
So instead of wanting a response, I just gave a simple plea. Please give me an opportunity to grow, and one that I can succeed in. I want to make both me and thee proud.
I opened my eyes. I felt a little bit of peace replace the earlier annoyance and resentment that I had been feeling.
I opened my stat window.
^The Holy Ghost^
Elder Todd - Level: 1 + 1, 2
--Titles--
- Son of God -
- Disciple of Christ -
- Child of the Covenant -
- Tribe of Ephraim -
- Elder -
- Companion -
--Stats--
Faith : 6
Hope : 2
Charity and Love : 1
Virtue : 4
Knowledge : 4
Patience : 4
Humility : 0 + 3, 3
Diligence : 1
^Obedience : 6^
I smiled. Some progress.
Then I sat there and wondered. Did God just retroactively answer my prayer?
I then looked around, expecting all the other missionaries to be doing the same thing.
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They weren't. All of them were still asleep except the district leader and Elder Whu.
"Elder what the heck! Nobody else is awake, why are we getting up!" This was more of an accusatory statement than a question.
I looked at Elder Pachu. He was kneeling as well.
Elder Pachu spent a few more seconds with his eyes closed before he rubbed them and looked at me. "Oh, sorry Elder, I fell asleep again. Thanks for waking me up."
I gave Elder Pachu the slow eye roll.
Then he looked around and noticed all the other missionaries asleep too. Then raised his finger and shook it, quietly saying "Elder, we are not here to be sheep who blindly follow the other sheep."
That's all he said, before he pulled out his phone and groaned.
I looked over, his battery was dead.
I handed him my phone, he smiled at me and and nodded. He looked to see if there were any important announcements from the district leader, like there sometimes was in the morning.
I looked at the district leader who was only thirty feet away and he was stretching. "Elder this is pretty dumb time to be checking for announcements."
"I'm sorry, force of habit."
We studied our scriptures and worked out. By the time we were working out, the other missionaries were rousing and also doing some stretches or "praying" though some could definitely be said were sleeping.
Elder Samuels is definitely asleep. I thought.
Finally we all came together. at our previously designated spot in the parking lot. There were 14 salvaged chairs from the wreckage in the church for us to sit on. We were all still dressed in our white shirt, tie and suit. We didn't have anything to change into, the Sister Missionaries were still in their dresses. Although I did notice that Sister Smithfield had somehow found pajamas last night.
Elder! I chastised myself in my head. And intentionally looked elsewhere from her. Which might have been obvious because she was on the opposite side of the circle as I was.
Elder Pachu must have noticed because when she wasn't looking at us he bumped my ribs from the side and gave a disgusting smirk while raising his eyebrows.
"You know, one would think that a missionary like you would be a bit more focused on the work, and less on girls." I aggressively whispered in what I would call in piano terms pianissimo. Which I think is a French word for playing piano keys as soft as possible.
My memory came back to me from when I was ten, my mom was teaching me how to play the piano.
"Mom what does pianissimo mean again?" I pointed at the pp sign on the music sheet I was playing.
"It's Italian for very softly." She lovingly said with a smile.
Suddenly I was brought out of my memory when Elder Baker stood up and asked someone to pray so we could start the meeting.
Elder Pachu had risen his hand so fast I couldn't even get my bearings properly to register what the district leader had said.
"Alright, Elder Pachu will say the opening prayer, and the song will be "Israel Israel God is Calling, led by Elder Whu."
After the song was sung, I couldn't get the words of the song out of my head.
The district leader was talking but in my head all I could think was this portion of the song on repeat.
Come to Zion, come to Zion, For your coming Lord is nigh.
I was bobbing my head to the imaginary beat because Elder Baker was staring at me expectantly, along with the entire district.
It was completely silent as I returned the looks.
Elder Pachu leaned over, did you not prepare a scripture?
Oh frick. That's right! Elder Baker had asked me to give the scripture last night.
I was suddenly incredibly nervous with butterflies in my stomach and then I stood up to say my part. I had nothing in my head, though I studied the scriptures this morning, I didn't intentionally mark anything for this moment.
Then a memory of my dad teaching in our daily morning scripture study came to me.
"What do we learn from this verse?"
"Uhh. That Nephi is sad." My older, eight year old brother said.
"Well I'll tell you what I learned from this verse. That they had pillows back then." My dad said.
From what I could remember, the scripture had talked about how Nephi's tears watered his pillow by night because of the wickedness of his brothers who wanted to kill him, and who didn't listen to the word of God.
I came to from my memory and I was already pulling out my scriptures to this verse.
"Alright everyone, turn to 2nd Nephi 31, I think it's the last verse."
As I turned to chapter 31 and saw there were two more chapters in 2nd Nephi, I realized I was wrong, It was the last chapter of the book, I knew that much. "My bad guys, it's Chapter 33." When I turned to chapter 33, I scanned the chapter to find the verse, and quickly realized it was verse 2 and 3. "We are going to read verses one through three."
I started reading as soon as everyone got there in their scriptures.
1 And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.
2 But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.
3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.
I was about to stop to make my point about the pillow, but then something compelled me to keep reading, and I decided I couldn't skip verse four.. or five, or six
4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.
5 And it speaketh harshly against sin, according to the plainness of the truth; wherefore, no man will be angry at the words which I have written save he shall be of the spirit of the devil.
6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.
As I finished reading it. I felt like I had just learned a lot. First of all, my memory was completely wrong, this had nothing to do with his brothers that wanted to kill him. It had everything to do with Nephi's love for his people, and how he knew that God could save them, and how it hurt him to know that some would not accept that.
I remembered last night after I received the letter from the first presidency, I had noticed Elder Pachu crying, I asked him if he was okay, and through his tears he told me that he was thinking about the man we had tried to help yesterday. The man who's leg was broken, or severely hurt and who refused to let us heal him, even though there was a creature right in front of him that probably wanted to hurt him, he still rejected Jesus, he still rejected help, and we were right there, just when he needed us--Jesus--the most.
And so without mentioning Elder Pachu from last night, I related the story of the hurt man and his rejection of Christ and connected it to the verses I had just read. And talked about how not everyone out there will want to hear our message of Christ, but that's okay, because he has redeemed us and so even if we can't help other people we still have great cause to rejoice.
And then I sat down.
Everyone was looking at me with a long introspective pause.
"Wow. Elder, That was wonderful.
I sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of my head.
I wasn't prepared, I forgot. But still the Spirit obviously helped me at every step of the way right there.
"Until we receive news from the Mission President, we have been given instructions to standby at our rendezvous spot and continue cleaning up the church." Elder Baker continued.
While we were cleaning up the rubble, piling it up in the parking lot and salvaging what was still usable, I thought about what had just happened, how I was nervous, and then the Lord gave me strength and confidence. Perhaps this was his answer to my prayer this morning.
--
"Alright, I have received some news from the Mission President." Elder Baker said.
Everyone stopped looking at their nails, or talking to each other, or carrying rubble; and paid close attention.
"You have all received that notification on our level-up display right? The announcement from the first presidency? I'm sure you all have a lot of questions--"
"Uh yeah, what the heck is a 'devil's dungeon?'" Elder Samuels butted in.
"Yes. I was getting to that. So I have received more information. Apparently some Elders in northern Canada came across... How should I put it, a dungeon. The Holy Ghost called it a 'devil's dungeon' in their notifications once they approached it. They were seeking shelter from the cold blizzard that was currently afflicting them. All the buildings around them had been crumbled from a similar earthquake as we experienced here. They entered the dungeon. And inside, well they received armor and weapons. They said it just appeared on them. The Holy Ghost called it "The Armor of Christ." And apparently the strength of their armor reflected their stats. However, once they entered this dungeon, It sealed behind them. They received a notification that said 'No return.' They crawled through the dungeon coming across all sorts of dumb monsters that they just walked past. When they came to another door leading to a room, they opened it, it was called a 'Boss Room.' And in there, one of the two missionaries died. The other had incredibly high stats and managed to defeat the boss alone. Limping out from the dungeon, He saw the sun was shining once again. That's right. The blizzard had ceased when he had cleared the dungeon and defeated it's boss."
It was a little poetic, as right as Elder Baker finished saying this. Another earthquake hit. Along with this earthquake, fiery little creatures started climbing up from the rubble all around.
We all looked at each other. We were all terrified.