Bruce and Richard

Ahh. I’m returning to the computer after a lovely long weekend in celebration of President’s Day. And, lucky for you (oh wait, and for me!), it was a lovely long weekend filled with lovely subway mates. Lovely all around.

Saturday night I met Ari. Ari wasn’t into having his picture taken, but we talked about movies for a bit- he had a hard time picking a favorite, but said that in college, due to poor television reception and a very limited VHS library, he watched Forrest Gump nearly a hundred times. Ari got off a stop or so after Penn, and as is often the case, so did pretty much everyone else. By 86th, I was the only one sitting on the middle bench opposite Bruce and Richard (AKA Elder Gale and Elder Curlon).

They asked me if I had seen missionaries before, and I assured them that I had. I said I admired their devotion, but I also explained that as someone sort of inexorably (can you really be “sort of inexorably committed" to something?) committed to truth, I have a hard time making an honest commitment to any institution of faith that requires me to declare my speculations either true or false without sufficient evidence. Not to be wordy or anything.

Then Bruce said something I really liked. He asked me if I would do just this one thing- promise to pray to God about what I was supposed to do in this world. I promised him that in my way, even though it's a little different than the praying to God most churches teach, I would always do my best to keep my mind and my heart open to whatever compassionate forces might be out there. And I will. : )

Something else cool we happened to realize? Richard and Bruce lived with other missionaries, who had spent time on my street, and talked to my atheist, but ever interested in ideas and discussions, boyfriend. They knew him by name. They said they had heard he was cool. I agreed that this was an accurate assessment. It's a small world after all.

We were starting to run out of time by then, so I took a picture quickly and then explained how I usually ask favorite movies, foods, and where people are from, as well as one thing to share with the world.

Both Richard and Bruce named the gospel as the thing they’d wish to share- though, using my editing privileges, I’d like to also ask you to consider Bruce’s advice to me- and Bruce grabbed a card out of his pocket and started writing. My stop came up fast, and on my way out Bruce handed me the card with the answers he’d come up with so far. There’s something about this card I like a lot. It is a Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints card, with a picture of Jesus on one side, and on the other, a picture of a DVD, a 1-800 number, a website and three blank lines. Here is what is written on those three blank lines:

Richard Curlon L.A. CA
Bruce Gale Provo, UT- lo mein
Gospel

I like lo mein too.