Changing Through A Book

Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy acquaints us with a strong testimony of the converting power of the Book of Mormon: Sister Celia Cruz Ayala of the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission decided to give the Book of Mormon to a friend.
She wrapped it in attractive paper and set out to deliver her present.

On the way she was attacked by a bandit who stole her purse and with it the wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon.
A few days later she received this letter:

Mrs. Cruz:

Forgive me, forgive me.
You will never know how sorry I am for attacking you.
But because of it, my life has changed and will continue to change.
That book [the Book of Mormon] has helped me in my life.
The dream of that man of God has shaken me.
... I am returning your five pesos for I can't spend them.
I want you to know that you seemed to have a radiance about you.
That light seemed to stop me [from harming you, so] I ran away instead.

I want you to know that you will see me again, but when you do, you won't recognize me, for I will be your brother.
... Here, where I live, I have to find the Lord and go to the church you belong to.

The message you wrote in that book brought tears to my eyes.
Since Wednesday night I have not been able to stop reading it.
I have prayed and asked God to forgive me, [and] I ask you to forgive me.
... I thought your wrapped gift was something I could sell.
[Instead,] it has made me want to make my life over.
Forgive me, forgive me, I beg you.

Your absent friend.

James E. Faust -What I Want My Son to Know before He Leaves on His Mission -April 1996 General Conference

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

There were a bunch of people at Starsmet, shopping, but these three girls seemed to be getting into everything. They went into the backroom where they weren't supposed to go but they argued that they could go back there because the sign we had on the door hadn't said 'not to enter' it had other words on it that basically meant the same thing, but the girls didn't believe it did. So my manager and I had to write "Do Not Enter" on the current sign to finally get them to stop. Then I was driving home from work, down a mountain trail, and a rain/snow storm caught me as kept sending muddy rockslides down the dirt trail that me and other cars had to avoid. A lot of cars had gotten stuck, and I ended up exiting through a bus onto the street below my parents house. There two kids, a young boy and girl were playing. I turned behind me and saw a rattlesnake come out of the sand and try to strike me. I ran but like lightning it came after me, however I somehow managed to veer it off towards the children. It struck them and killed them and I got a bizarre sense of pleasure from it, however, I decided that this wasn't the sort of ending for the children that I would want, so I pulled out a remote and hit a button and in a blink of an eye the children were alive again.

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. ;)

-S.N.D