14. A Little More Culture

Lately, as I have mentioned before, I have been filled with this craving to know more about other cultures, and other religions in particular. I think this began on my mission when I really began to feel as though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really was God's institution here on earth to help all of his sons and daughters return to him, happy and clean. I couldn't help but wonder why so many other churches existed. Most of them didn't seem very evil to me, in fact, they did a lot of good things, and often helped me out in a lot of ways because they gave a lot of people that I taught a solid background in Christ as their Savior.

So I just really wanted to understand what it was that they were thinking and if they could possibly be as convinced as I was that their church was the one God wanted them attending and devoting their lives to. Admittedly, I am sure there is just a big part of me that wants to prove everybody wrong and solidify that I am 100% correct in my beliefs. Sort of a in-your-face kind of thing. But I have hope that another very large part of me just wants to reach understanding.

A cool experience with that was when I went to the krishna Temple (above) a few weeks back. I was impressed with how much the leader (I'm still not sure what to call him . . . pastor, speaker?) knew about mormon doctrine. I think that he must have been a member of the LDS church at one point because he even cited scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants to prove some of his points. This could have just been in preparation for the many BYU students that were there because of an assignment in a world religion class or something (a class I am totally signed up for next semester :) )But the whole time I was seeing these people (the 15 or so followers that looked like they had been there many times before) that were chanting and dancing and really enjoying themselves for the moment, I could help but desire to have the light of truth that is in the perfect Gospel of Jesus Christ fill the in a way that produces the longest lasting form of happiness.