Late Night Baseball Games

Today, as I made pizza from scratch for dinner (a fantastic recipe that Katie Herald gave me) I had a spontaneous flashback to the days when I was taught by Ben, that I honestly forgot about.

My little brother Kyle was on the ASA Baseball team for a long time, Ben would come up to the games and me and him would spend time together. Most of the time we would talk about the Book of Mormon and he would answer my questions I had about the church (there were hundreds thousands millions, I might post a whole bunch of them from my journal with his answers at some point). There is one night I remember distinctly.

It was one of my brother's later games, they were the last ones in the park. Between the fields there is this concession stand, but since it was so late, it was closed. Me and Ben jumped up and sat together on the counters surrounding it.

"I want you to read the whole Book of Mormon," he said. "there is a promise in the end of it."

"What is it?" I asked. Like I said, I had millions of questions.

"I can't tell you, you have to see for yourself."

Soon enough I got the answer out of him, I think he enjoyed my curiosity. I soon learned about this promise, which led to learning about the Holy Ghost or the Spirit.

The Spirit was one of my most favorite things to learn about. I thought (and still think) its one of the coolest things. If you have ever felt it, you know what I mean.

The baseball park holds some of my dearest memories of learning about the gospel. I learned a lot of the things I know there. I remember things from when my mom asked what Ben had in his bag and he awkwardly looked down replying "Mormon books..." to me and Ben going through a huge trial together. I should explain that story, it was a really spiritual experience for me....

With tears in our eyes, broken hearts and crushed spirits we wandered into this nature trail. I followed him, bawling my eyes out. He was strong, but I could see the pain in his eyes. We walked along the trail silently for a few minutes. Then he did something that confused me.

He fell to his knees and looked up at me, asking if I would join him. I had no idea what he was doing at first, until he removed his hat and asked me to remove mine.

He prayed his heart out, saying everything I was thinking to our Heavenly Father. When we said amen, I opened my eyes and the sun was shining through a small hole in the trees at us. (This sounding familiar at all??) When we stood up we stood there for a minute, I was the first one to speak, commenting on the light that was surrounding us. But since I hadn't learned of Joseph Smith's first vision, I didn't think much of it.

I turned around and say a note on the tree, telling us to find light in our lives. (or something similar to that, I don't remember exactly because it was so long ago....) So we tried to keep our heads up and be happy.

Its amazing how much missionaries mean to their converts. I fondly look back on my memories of learning and I can remember just about every place I was taught something in the church. I am so happy to have this experience and even though being a convert is hard, I am so glad He picked me to do it. I have so much to be thankful for.