Pics first.
The top of a giant market: https://www.dropbox.
Thugs skate at the Independence monument: https://www.dropbox.
This is Big Ken in our branch. His teammates call him the "Black Mamba" https://www.dropbox.
English Class registration is legit: https://www.dropbox.
English class spiritual thought. We had 130 people! https://www.dropbox.
My office snack: https://www.dropbox.
My comp (our last week together): https://www.
Now for a story.
It was an eventful night just like any other. Summer semester at BYU was only 6 weeks long so of course we had to stay out late every night. This particular day we decided to go to the grass slope behind the library. The statue of Brigham Young looked out for us as we took turns superman-gliding down the slick grass hill. We had done it before but this night was especially fun. As we were trying out new tricks a man and a young woman walked past us. The man seemed to find enjoyment in our rowdy teenage antics. He came up to us and asked if he could take a video of one of us sliding down the hill. Of course I posed for the camera and then hucked my body forward for maximum speed. This man thanked me and then started talking to our group of about 8 people. He introduced himself as Mr. Safeed from Saudi Arabia. He had a little bit of an accent but he sounded like he’d lived in the states for many years. He was a very enthusiastic man and started to tell us about a book he was writing. The book was about the theory of numbers or something. He was doing research about how the whole universe was run according to numbers. Obviously he was a little off his rocker. Well, anyways he continued talking to us for the better part of an hour and a half and he could have gone on forever it seemed. By this time it was near 2am and we were tired. My friends were making signals to each other to get out of there but I had the thought “this guy has been telling us about his stuff for 2 hours, I can share with him about our stuff for 2 minutes at least.” So as we were wrapping up the conversation I asked him, if he had ever come to our church to worship. We were on BYU campus so it was kind of a weird question. He said that he had never actually joined an LDS meeting even though he had lived in Utah for many years. I told him that he was missing out and how I had been blessed so much by living the gospel. I explained that we had many different congregations on campus and that he could join us the next day if he would like. He politely asked where and what time. I told him 10am at the conference center but he was not familiar. I tried to direct him but the message was not going through so I said here, I’ll show you. So, at 2am now, my friends, this man, and I walk 15 minutes across campus to show him where we would be meeting for sacrament meeting the next day. We made it there and then parted our ways feeling hopeful that he would come the next day.
Sunday came and he didn’t show up but it was a good story for all of us to tell the next week and I was glad that I was brave enough to even invite him.
Thats basically the end of the story but there are a couple more details I didn’t mention.
- When we were walking to the conference center we were trying to make small talk and I asked him if he had any kids. He said yeah he had 2 kids. Then he whipped out his phone and fumbled around facebook for a second and pulled up a picture of his kids. I looked at the picture for a second then I got really scared. I knew those kids! Shayon and Shaya from Albuquerque. The older boy was my age and he was in my physics class senior year. And I had gone over to his house several times with the missionaries because he wanted to learn about our church. The younger girl was friends with a lot of members so she came to mutual activities about once a month. When he showed me the picture I think I said “what the heck” like a hundred times because it was such a weird coincidence. I texted his kid the next day and he was like “yeah, thats my biological dad, he’s kind of a character.”
- When we were finally going home it was about 2:30 and I was kind of out of it. I said bye to my friends and started to walk home but then I remembered I left my backpack and phone in the girls’ dorm. So I ran over there and walked inside to grab my backpack and go. I got it and then walked out but as I was walking out I ran into the RAs of the girls dorm and they were like “what are you doing in here?” and they kicked me out. lol.
- The next day at hall meeting my friends told this story to our residence assistant. I was nominated “stud of the week” and I got 2lbs of frosted animal crackers. #worth
My life is good. This week was good. We do cool stuff and hang out with president.
The gospel is true. So is the church. Go invite someone to join with us.
Love,
Elder Osborne