Andy

On my return flight from Phoenix 1-8-09, no one sat next to me on the Albuquerque to Midland leg of the flight. Not willing to miss an opportunity to share the gospel I moved up a row. Andy works with the environmental regulations for an energy company in Midland. This company had previously been owned by the company I work for. We had an enjoyable visit talking about people we both knew. I changed the subject to families. He is a single dad taking care of two daughters 18 and 15 and a son 11. His world seemed to revolve about his children. When it seemed appropriate I asked about his church. He was raised Church of Christ and sometimes attended the 1st Methodist church. I stated that I attended the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS or the Mormon Church. He immediately said do you know Chuck Allen or David Lafrance. I told him I attended church with them. After we talked a little more I asked him if Chuck ever told him why we were called Mormons. He said he had not and that he did not know why we were called Mormons. I pulled out the B of M and asked him if he knew what it was. He thought it was written by someone contemporary. We then talked about the Bible / B of M picture in detail. He wanted to know if we knew where Lehi landed. I told him somewhere in Central America. He wanted to know where the word Mormon came from. I turned to the page that lists the books in the B of M. I told him about how Mormon compiled the record and Moroni buried the gold plates to prevent them from being destroyed. We talked about the 200 years of righteousness and the subsequent rejection of Jesus by the people and would kill anyone who did not deny the Christ. I explained that the B of M complimented the Bible. I asked him if he believed that we lived before we were born and if we would live after we died. He believed that we would have a spiritual resurrection without our bodies. We then turned to the picture of the Plan of Happiness. We went through this picture in detail. When we talked about the resurrection he said he did not want his body back because it had too many things wrong with it. I then turned to the scriptures on the resurrection first pg 236 then 73. He read the marked scriptures and would reading past them. We read about the spirit world pg 308 and faith pg 289. I turned back to the front of the book and explained how Joseph Smith got the plates and translated them. We talked about the 3 and 8 witnesses and how Oliver Cowdry would write as Joseph translated. We talked about the pictures in the front of the book. When talking about Samuel the Lamanite I turned to his prophecies of Jesus’ birth and death pg 401 – 402. He not only read the marked passages but he also read everything on the page. We turned to the coming of Christ to the Americas. He wanted to know if we knew where this took place. I again said Central America, probably in the Panama & Guatemala area. He then told me that he had an archeologist relative who in the 1950’ and 60’s did exploration work in this region. The plane was close to landing so I offered him the book he said that he wanted to get a B of M but did not want to take the one I had. I told him that it was OK with me. He gladly received it. My next step is to contact Chuck and David to inform them of our visit and ask them to take over from here.