Be Thou Not Ashamed

Thought I'd share a little missionary experience I had a few weeks ago....

It was an unusually busy Saturday for me. I had so much I needed to accomplish and nothing seemed to be going right. As I drove back to the copy store for the 3^rd time that day, I was feeling frustrated and harried. I was working on a RS project and needed to have the copies printed and cut just right in order for the testimonies to fit perfectly in the front of the Book of Mormon. This time I decided to take a copy in with me so I could show the clerk exactly what I needed…..he was not thrilled to see me again, but was determined to deliver satisfaction this time, probably more for his benefit than mine. The clerk went to the back of the store and began working on my project.

Several people came and went, helping themselves to the self serve copiers available in the store, however, one young man lingered behind me waiting for the clerk’s help. He was a short little guy….a foreigner, probably attending Utah State and had a project of his own. As I stood at the counter waiting, I began to feel uncomfortable that my project was monopolizing the clerk’s time and delaying others. I made several apologies and decided that not everyone in the store needed to know that I was working on a church thing…..a Book of Mormon thing, so I discreetly covered the book with some scratch paper that was close by. Immediately, a scripture came to my mind with great force and absolute clarity….Be thou not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is that what I just did? He who sees everything just saw what I did and what was in my heart! I felt the sting of shame and embarrassment and quietly uncovered the lettering.

There in the quiet evening hours of the store, the bright lights glistened off the gold lettering of the Book of Mormon and I ran my fingers gently across the cover as I thought about the experience I just had. Still waiting for the clerk, the thought came to my mind….you have this book in your hands. You should give it to the young man behind you and I knew immediately that I had been provided with an opportunity and the spirit was prompting me to act.

My first reaction was, I can’t do that! If this doesn’t turn out well, it will be embarrassing and the woman using the copy machine will be witness the whole thing, what if he asks me questions I can’t answer, I’ve never done this before, what if he rejects me and, well, I had many excuses and thoughts race through my mind, one being, if you wait too long, you’ll never do it.

I slowly turned to the young man and asked, have you ever read this book? He said no. If you’d like to, it is yours to keep. I handed him the Book of Mormon, something I had never done in my life. He graciously took it and thanked me. He thumbed through the pages and said it’s like the bible? Yes, it’s a second witness, another testament of Jesus Christ. Does it conflict with the bible – no it doesn’t. Oh, this is Joseph Smith and all that – yes it is….at that moment, I thought it was over, but he just nodded and smiled. A few moments later he thanked me again and said, I read the bible every day and the bible is life…you have given me life. I will read this. I thought how profound – you have no idea how right you are. The Book of Mormon contains the words of life….Treasure up in your minds continually the “words of life”. I wanted to say, if you’ll read it and act on it, you will know just how right you are.

I finished up my business and said good bye….my heartfelt prayer is that he will open the book and feel of the spirit. I know it is a good seed and that it was planted on good ground and pray it will grow into something wonderful for this young man. I know that the spirit led me there that day, perhaps three times because maybe he was having as busy of a day as I was and was running late. ~~~Jan :)