15. Hare Krishna

In contrast to my last post, I have a friend who is similar to me in that he loves learning about and experiencing different cultures who once said that as he was on his mission it dawned on him that his "goal" was to convert everyone he possibly could to Mormonism. Obvious, right? However, he realized that if he actually achieved this goal on a global scale, he wouldn't really like it. Why? Well, his thoughts were that if everybody on the planet earth was converted to Mormonism, it would diminish the overall diversity of the world which was something that he really enjoyed.

To a certain extent, I understand where my friend is coming from. I really enjoyed listening to and simply experiencing the different way of belief that the people at this temple had. I like to see the similarities and differences that existed between their beliefs and mine. In many ways, it strengthened my testimony of the LDS church. Obviously that's not a bad thing. 

In much greater and more significant ways I disagree with the mentality of my friend. 

1. I don't see why believing in the story of the boy Joseph Smith, having the true priesthood power to bind families on earth and in heaven, having an increased and more powerful relationship with the God who knows all things, having the ability to see all events on the earth from a perspective of eternity, having a hope to become something much, much greater than we currently are, knowing that we have a champion Savior that can right our wrongs and give a brightness to the future has to diminish any amount of diversity. I do see that, yes, there will be considerably less weird doing-of-things because of some mysterious superstition. There would be less cows in India because they would no longer be sacred, but they would be, and less buildings that looked like the one behind me in that picture. This, however, leads me to my second point: the trade-off is totally worth it.
2. I think that if everybody could more fully abide by the churches  standards of sexual morality and the way that we treat our body (word of wisdom) to name just two, the world would convert into a place so very much more majestically beautiful, and enjoyable to live in that any lack of cultural difference would cease to be important. Our prisons would be almost vacated, the over all amount of fear in the world if it could be measured somehow would plummet, the list goes on and on. I can not tell from where I stand, any foreseeable downfall to the entire human race understanding and believing the teachings taught in the church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints.