Elder Jared Esplin: *Unique experience

Aloha Ohana!

I have had a very unique experience this week. Last Thursday me and my companion went out tracting. On our way back to our car we saw a lady working in her garden. We talked with her for several minutes. She was the president of a Buddhist temple. We asked her if she needed service and she said she needed help setting up for an event the next day. The temple is above a restaurant called the water drop tea house (if you want to look it up. When we got there she took us upstairs to the temple. In the "dojo" we met their equivalent of a priest. Her title was "shi fu" she was a short Japanese lady with a shaved head.

Standing in a catholic Cathedral

At first I was really nervous around her. I couldn't tell if she liked us helping. I was really worried about doing something offensive or touching something that was forbidden. But as we helped them (the temple president and the Shi Fu) move tables we became more comfortable around each other. At the end of our ser vice they brewed us lychee tea. Then we left to do our interviews with president Bekker. (Me and my companion later found out it was black tea so we accidently broke the word of wisdom, oops.

Later we returned to the water drop tea house because the president invited us over for lunch. When we got there we got VIP treatment. We did not have to pay for our food and they gave us a little bit of everything. One thing Buddhists believe is that killing is evil so they are vegetarians and do not eat meat. So they had tofu imitation meat. It actually was really good. After that they introduced us to some of there members who had flew in for the event we had set up for.

It was quite a peculiar experience being that close to another religion. It was comforting to me knowing that despite our different beliefs about religion we were not so different. They had a lot of similar morals and they were striving to be the best human beings as they could be. It helped remind me that we are all children of God and since we are all siblings from a loving God we should all be loving and helpful towards each other.

I hope this experience will help. It has opened my eyes to the how people who are different can still get along.

Love you all Elder Esplin