Bike Crash #1

Hello Everybody,

Colorado is a mighty interesting place. Maybe it's just being a missionary here. In fact I'm sure that's what it is.

President and Sister Murdock
with Elder DP

I met my first false prophet this week. He claimed to be "Bishop, Apostle, Prophet and Reagent of the United States of America." He talked a lot about how many billions of dollars Obama owed him by divine right and how the United States would struggle until he received it. It was actually kind of sad because he looked like he was probably homeless and it was a bit scary how serious he was about it. I also had a drunk guy toast me and then yell at me to go back to Utah. Ahhhh good times.

I also had some awesome experiences. Last night we had a devotional with Matthew Holland, President of UVU and son of Jeffery R. Holland. He shared with us how he knew the Book of Mormon is true. He said that he went to the mountains to pray and try Moroni's promise but he prayed and fasted and read and kept doing all these things and felt nothing. Finally after a crazy attempt to summit another peak he was on his way back down and he had the line "line upon line, precept upon precept" running through his head. When he talked to his father about it he realized that that was how he had developed a testimony. He already had one. He had learned bit by bit as he experimented upon the word and found that it was true by experience. It made me think of my own knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I am sure that the Book of Mormon is the word of God because every time I read it my mind is enlightened and I gain new insight and feel that peace that can only be explained as the spirit. Although for me it was not one spectacular moment of the Spirit as some people have described I believe that our witness of truth can come in many different ways as we seek it humbly.

One super cool experience I had this week was that we had a super motivational Zone Meeting and I got really fired up to talk to everyone I saw and the first person we came across gave us a conversation! That never happens. He had actually investigated the church previously and talked about how he had half-heartedly tried Moroni's promise and didn't feel anything after he read a couple pages. He talked about how he assumed that other people had and that not every member of the church was dishonest or hadn't received it but he expressed a desire to hear people express how they had received that promised witness. We explained to him what a Fast and Testimony meeting was and how he could come to a meeting where he would feel that and then I shared with him my experience of how I came to believe that the Book of Mormon is true and that the teachings of this church are true. After all of that it turned out that the day after he was leaving to move to Minnesota and so we won't get to hear the end of the story but he told us he would go to a Testimony Meeting on Sunday and try it out again. He was a super humble guy and very astute. He posed some really good doctrinal questions that were sincere and we were able to clarify misunderstanding as well as explain to him what we believed. It was an all around superb experience. It was cool to see how sometimes you will plant a seed and never know how it turns out.

So our area is one ward and we bike the entire distance. I'm still getting used to the whole biking thing. The other day we were going down a hill and I had a loony-toon-esque crash. I was reaching back with my right hand to get a flashlight from my bag as it was getting dark and we were headed down an unlighted trail. As I was doing this my companion slowed down quickly to make a turn. I reacted quickly so I wouldn't run into him and hit the brakes. Unfortunately my left brake is my front one and as we all know when you hit your front break your bike tips forward. This, combined with my exceeding momentum, caused me to catapult over my handlebars. I almost caught myself on my feet but I lost it and went down hard on my hands. Fortunately there was a patch of grass to my left and I was able to roll myself onto the grass so my looong skid would be a bit softer - whether this was by my own quick instincts or maybe some kind of Angels in the Outfield type thing I am as of yet unsure. My wrist has been a bit sore since it and I was pretty scraped up but other than that I came away in one piece which was good.

I love you all, thank you for the emails and letters. You are all in my prayers and I'm thankful for yours as I serve the Lord.

Ate Mais,

~Elder Della-Piana