I am using this photo with my post so that all of Brandy's friends may have a moment of interest in what I am going to write. This is BYU quarterback Max Hall, his wife and dog out on a walk. The New York Times did a full page feature on Hall that touched on his mission, football accomplishments and home life.
Did you know that for fun they host "Office" parties at their house? They invite some of Hall's teammates and their wives over to the house to watch the NBC show The Office -- I usually just watch it at home and then talk about it the next day with my brother Keith.
Anyway, I share the first few paragraphs of the story, written by Pete Thamel, with you:
PROVO, Utah — Brigham Young quarterback Max Hall has had doors slammed in
his face, the police called on him and been coldly rejected hundreds upon hundreds of times.
In seven months as a Mormon missionary, Hall went door to door to thousands of homes in Des Moines to spread the word of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sometimes he received a cup of lemonade and an invitation to sit down. Other times, he got shouts of disdain and threats to call 911.
Hall said he converted eight people during his mission. But what he did not realize was that the sneers and cold shoulders would provide perfect, if inadvertent, preparation to help the B.Y.U. football team complete its own mission this season.
If you're a BYU fiend and you need more of the story you may access it here, but just know that the NY Times is a site that requires you to log on. My boss actually has the paper delivered to his home and he cut out the page for me. You bosses out there should take note: that is a good way to motivate your employees to let them know you think about them on the weekends.
Back to the article. I get what Thamel is trying to do with the beginning of this story but my experience was different. There were people who I taught that agreed baptism was an important step in their lives and so they were baptized. I did not, however, convert a single person on my mission. That was not my role.
I, too, experienced sneers and cold shoulders. It was a humbling, refining but ultimately positive experience in my life. There are multitudes who do not believe as I do -- who look upon me as a person who has been confused by the subtle craftiness of men.
That is an opinion that is out there. I have felt it, seen it and heard about it. My view is much different, but I will not share it here.
I will say, however, that I am exceedingly proud to have stood for something that I believe in to my core. Some people get caught up with what others around them are doing and miss opportunities to really make a difference for other people in this life.
At times I have made a difference for somebody but most of the time I have been strengthened by the associations I have had with other people who stand resolute when the wind, hail and rain beat upon them.
I hope I can always be somebody who makes a difference. My plan is to never give up and to associate mostly with the best that life has to offer. It's worked so far.
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