Abraham, Naman and Joseph

In Mosiah 2 (or 3?), King Benjamin tells the people that they must serve others to receive blessings. He says that the rich who give to the poor will be particularly blessed. Then he says that the people who can't give, who don't have enough to help others, only enough to feed their families--he says that they will receive blessings because they would give if they could.

In relation to that, we had the opportunity to spend an hour getting to 3 very cool men from Syria this week. Refugees made homeless by the war, they are eager to return to Syria, but making the best of their time here. Their Names were Abraham, Joseph, and Naman. Very little German, no English, and absolutely no money. But they welcomed us in. They gave us a place to sit, talked to us, treated us as respected, honorable guests. They even asked if we would like some tea. We politely declined, explaining that we don't drink tea, so they asked if we would like some apple juice. We accepted.

What happened next is key--Naman and Joseph went into the other room--taking the only 4 cups they owned with them--and washed the cups, presumably so that we could drink. But no Apple Juice came. Naman came back into the room, and we sat down--on the floor, no chairs or even beds in this apartment, only 3 mattresses and a chess board--and we watched the restoration video together in arabic--on the small, portable dvd player we had brought along with us. As the video started, we noticed Joseph leaving the apartment, and we assumed that he had an appointment or something. But near the end of the video he return, and shortly afterwards we received the apple juice in the freshly washed and dried cups, one of which was slightly cracked, and very very well used.

It took me about 10 minutes to realize what had happened: Abraham was so pleased to see us drink that juice that I was actually confused at first. Joseph actually didn't drink anything--only 4 cups, and there were 5 men. But about 10 minutes into talking about Joseph Smith's vision, the thought hit me: ''Where did this juice come from? Where did Joseph Go? He just went and bought this juice, so that these men could offer hospitality to 2 complete strangers.'' As I considered this, the spirit rushed into my soul, and tears came to my eyes. I looked at these 3 men, so open, friendly, and loving, so far from home and poor and desolate, and felt possibly the most pure love that I had ever felt before. These men understood something. I can not yet describe it, for I do not yet fully understand it myself. But they did. And it led them to give everything they had and more to us, without even being able to understand everything we were trying to bring them, only that we had a very very special book in Arabic.

Comparing this experience to myself, the proud Elder Burton who assumed he would train again, that everything was working out for him because of his own skills and knowledge, who assumed that he was BETTER then other missionaries, that...so much of me during this last transfer has been pride. But I won't take too long talking about my own problems, for that is a form of pride in and of itself.

To end the story, as stated, these 3 men, Abraham, Joseph and Naman, are very eager to return to Syria, to their families and friends, and to their culture--which, from my limited experience, is one of the best. That, unfortunately, means that it is too dangerous for us to teach them. But this experience, this great insight into a life without pride, helped show me what I need to change in my life. And It will definitely be something to work on for the next while.