The Book of Mormon made my job easier

 I just dropped some cruise ship passengers off at a nature tour in Ketchikan, Alaska, and was heading down a narrow dirt road in my bus. In the road I saw a Book of Mormon, laying in the mud, all bent out of shape and ripped up a little. I recognized it the moment I saw it (it's easy to recognize, the book is blue the church is true) and my first instinct was to just drive on, but my second instinct was to stop and pick it up. I stopped, put on my hazards and ran back for the Book of Mormon. When I got back to my bus, another bus was coming up the road, and thankfully where I was stopped was the only point in this narrow road where I was able to pull over and let my coworker drive more cruise ship passengers to the nature tour. 

In the Mormon faith that instinct is called a "prompting of the spirit" like, it's God nudging you to do something. It's up to interpretation whether that prompting is your first instinct or your second instinct, or just like a nagging feeling that you should stop and do something you wouldn't normally do. And in the Mormon faith it's called a "tender mercy" which is a little unnecessary happy blessing from God. 

Now, I no longer believe in promptings or tender mercies, but I think the belief is beautiful and people who see God's hand in their lives are wonderful people. But yeah that was a crazy coincidence, how stopping to pick up a Book of Mormon ended up making my job as a bus driver a lot easier. 

 I wouldn't have stopped if it was any other book, but the Book of Mormon is very sacred and I was taught to always treat the book gently, like, don't put it on the floor, keep it in a leather case, and read a little bit of it every day. I must've had a visceral reaction to seeing it covered in mud. And when you're driving, you don't have a lot of time to think, but the decision came pretty quickly, despite two different impulses hitting me at the same time, the impulse to stop and the impulse to keep driving. I'm glad I stopped, although I don't know what to do with the Book of Mormon now. 

It's also a little weird to think God would have given me a tender mercy when I'm just a cog in the capitalism machine. Like, this was more a blessing for the Alaskan tour bus company I work for. 

The Book of Mormon was laying in the mud in front of a house that had a Trump 2024 flag on it. Which having to see that feels like the opposite of a blessing. What if the Trump supporter threw the Book of Mormon in the road in front of his house? That's most likely what happened honestly. Worshipping Trump leaves no room for Jesus I guess. 

Also, I'm gay. Does God give promptings and blessings to His gay children? 

Leave a comment below! It's a lovely morning in Ketchikan, my tourists are all happy, it's lightly raining, and my manager offered to take us out to sushi. Love you all.

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