Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 10:29:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: gaymormonwriter@yahoo.com
Subject: Born To Be A Missionary Chapter 32 adult/youth

Born To Be A Missionary
Chapter 32

(Author's notes: The usual copyright and legal notices.)

The illumination of white light was so warming to everyone. Brilliant and
yet so soft, it didn't pierce the eyes. Nothing could compare to the
experience of witnessing the event as it had engulfed the entire room of
white.

And then, slowly it seemed to disappear as it had appeared. Everyone looked
around the room, all noticed the center chair was empty and the spotlight
above it was darkened. The realization to everyone was that Gary had passed
over.

Joel and Terry each felt immediate loneliness as the hands that held each
one of theirs was gone. The connection between the two had been
broken. They looked over at each other. Their eyes met for the first time
since being brought to this room. They both longed to be next to each
other, but neither felt they could move.

Witnessing such an event was both monumental and spiritual for those
touched by the spirit of Gary's passing. The room began to hear whispers as
some choose to comment among themselves.

Joel and Terry turned away from each other.

Elders Lewis and Martin remained behind them.

The white clad gentlemen at the table continued to whisper among themselves
until a noise in the corner distracted them.

All eyes turned towards the corner.

A ladder appeared, descending from the ceiling. A clearing of the throat
was heard. All eyes stared towards the corner. Suddenly, movement on the
ladder occurred. An object with two wings of feathers appeared, touching
down each step of the ladder. The wings were completely white, but shadowed
by the light. Then they heard and saw the fluttering of the feathers of its
wings.

Stepping down from its final step, the wings surrendered into a turn.

An angel stood before them and approached the group, spreading the wings
like a man stretches his arms. The angel stopped at the table and looked at
each member sitting there, focusing in on each pair of eyes. Probing,
searching out the inner thoughts and motives of each one.

Everyone noticed the beauty of this angel and his wings. The angel was
dressed in a white linen suit, shirt and tie for the benefit of his
appearance before the humans.

Joel and Terry immediately felt subconscious about their nudity and crossed
their legs and arms for modesty. Elders Martin and Lewis, in a movement of
protection, each moved behind Joel and Terry and placed their hands on
their shoulders to comfort them.

The angel began to speak in a rich baritone, raising his eyebrows and
lowering his wings.

"This is an interesting gathering of wise men." Said with an eerie sense of
sarcasm.

The gentlemen at the table began to feel uncomfortable.

"Who are you?" One of the gentlemen asked.

"I am Gabriel."

Gabriel looked around the room, sensing the immediate fear from everyone.

"I am not to be feared, though many legends describe me as one who should
be feared. I am a messenger, sent by God, as he has so often has done in
the past."

The gathering of human souls still remained earnest in fear.

"I am here to talk to you about why you are here and where you are going
from here."

Still, this did not resolve the emotions of the men.

"I know why you are here," Gabriel said, "as witnesses. There have been so
many witnesses in the earth's history as recorded in the Biblical
Scriptures of man. Some are chosen and some are not. All are always
reluctant to partake in the experience."

Again, Gabriel allowed silence to speak for him.

Gabriel turned to the four young men, the two sitting and the two standing
behind them.

"You need not cover yourselves, as humans were created in the complete and
natural state of nakedness. I am only clothed at this moment because I am
on a mission here. We usually are not clothed."

"But, I am not..." Terry began to protest.

"No need to be concerned as it doesn't really matter."

Slowly, Terry and Joel relaxed and removed their arms and uncrossed their
legs. With his eyes closing, Gabriel kneeled before the empty chair that
Gary had occupied. Reaching out first, he touched the young men's upper lip
cleft, than lowering his hands, placing them on their chests.

Instantly, both Joel and Terry felt warmth surround their hearts as two
hands once again connected them.

"I listened to your stories as I was a witness to these proceedings
here. Knowing your stories you feel that you have felt much pain and sorrow
in your lives. There are those in the world, far more pained than you have
been. Through your pain you made choices to cause yourself physical pain to
the point of ending the life God gave you. I can feel your hearts beat,
strong and determined. Your hearts being stronger than your mind, may seem
broken, but the healing is of the first order."

Than, opening his eyes and looking into each set of the eyes of Terry and
Joel, Gabriel said, "And they will heal, quickly."

Gabriel removed his hands from Joel and Terry and stood up and looked to
Adam and Aaron-Elders Martin and Lewis.

"I listened to your pleasing words of passion and love. I witnessed the
love between humans. Love for some never having been expressed, love being
expressed for the last time. The power of love and what humans will do for
love has always been an ageless emotion that conquers", and lowering his
eyes, "or can destroy one another."

Than turning around facing the table again, looking straight into the eyes
of the gentleman at the head of the table, Gabriel said, " And there are
those who have never felt loved, or loved and even deny themselves love."

The gentleman at the head of the table, the one who spoke to the Elders
during the testimonies, looked empathic, stunned and vulnerable. He knew
without hesitation what Gabriel was talking about. No one knew his anguish,
his secrets in life.

"And here you sit, all of you in judgment of someone's love. By who's
authority, are you here to do so?"

Each man at the table became extremely uncomfortable, but yet none of them
had felt any sense of comfort since Gabriel appeared.

"Heavenly Father." One gentleman spoke.

"God?"

"Yes."

"Ah...I don't seem to recall God calling any councils of any kind to pass
judgments on anyone."

"We have the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood," said the same man at
the table.

"And who gave you such a priesthood?"

"Why our Church did, through it's priesthood leadership."

Silence again filled the room as Gabriel pondered the emergence of such
information. But then he already knew the answers to all the questions he
would ask or be asked.

Suddenly, from the table, a gentleman spoke up softly.

"Do you know the Angel Moroni?"

Gabriel looked the man in the eye. His eyes were soft and endearing.

"Moroni?" Gabriel said. "There are a lot of Angels in heaven. Would I know
him?"

Gabriel knew very well if he knew him.

"Yes, the Angel who appeared to the founder of our Church Joseph Smith."

Gabriel started to spin around in the air, fluttering his wings, tossing a
feather at the gentleman who asked the question. The gentleman collected
the feather in his hand. Than, Gabriel stopped and brought his face in
close to the gentleman.

"I know what you want me to do here. You want me to confirm or deny the
stories written concerning the history and founding of your church."

The fear swept the face of the gentleman. If he could hide he would have,
but he couldn't. He had to face the Arch Angel Gabriel and admit to him
that yes, he wanted the truth.

"Yes." He meekly responded.

"You want me to deny or confirm the scriptures, ALL the scriptures, written
by the hand of man...believed to be inspired as witness to the works of
God, the Heavenly Father?"

"Yes," he said this time, even more weakly.

"Even the stories written about my exploits?"

The gentleman just nodded his head this time.

Gabriel wreaked an incredible fit of laughter. Bouncing around the room,
laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.

Adam and Aaron both thought at the same time that if there were gay angels
in heaven, Gabriel had to be one.

At that moment, Gabriel stopped laughing and came over to Elders Martin and
Lewis. He looked at both of them, back and forth. A smile slowly appeared
at the corners of Gabriel's mouth. A twinkle appeared in his eyes.

"I heard what you thought."

Immediately, both Adam and Aaron turned red with embarrassment.

"Human reactions are so humorous."

Gabriel turned back to the gentleman at the table, the one asking
questions.

"What do you seek from the truth of all that there is?"

Without flinching, the gentleman said, "That is what we do, seek the
truth."

"Why do you seek the truth?" Gabriel asked.

For several moments, there was no response from the gentleman, than Gabriel
spoke.

"Because Man is never satisfied with anything he has? Because seeking the
truth allows Man to doubt what he does know?"

The room became quiet as the words echoed in each mind. Each man in the
room, except for Terry, recalled the words of their testimonies in church
that they..."knew the Church was true". Everyone used that same phrase in
reaffirming the personal belief, saying over and over again...'the Church
is true', as if they were trying to convince themselves each time they gave
their testimonies.

The questioning gentleman spoke up again, determined this time for an
answer.

"Is the Mormon Church true in it's history and it's scriptures and it's
doctrine?"

Gabriel swooped around and brought himself face to face again to the
gentleman.

"What you believe is already in your heart. Just listen to it."

"What if we are all wrong, what if the church is wrong?"

Gabriel maintained his appearance with the gentleman.

"What does it matter as long as you have had faith in God? I will not say,
nor would it be my place to tell you which religious organization you
should follow. As you know, the Christian faith has broken away so many
times from the original Church providing once again another example of
Man's everlasting dissatisfaction with what he has."

Gabriel backed off, again swooning around the room. Adam and Aaron remained
steadfast NOT to think about the swooning, but Adam couldn't help but think
that Gabriel was showing off for them. At the moment, Gabriel swung towards
Adam and winked at him.

"Of course," Gabriel began again, "We have always thought Mankind has been
slow to revelations and progress. It's like that children's story THE
WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy always had the ability to go home to Kansas. It just
took her some time to realize that she always had the power to do so from
the beginning."

"Man has had the abilities to do anything since the beginning of time. What
Man has on Earth today has always been there for him. Everything Man
processes, has come from the Earth and himself. Marvelous inventions have
come from using the human body form and inner workings. Materials have come
from the surface or underground of the Earth. It has always been there."

"Why has it taken Mankind so long to develop? Imagine what the world had in
the Christian year of 1900 and what it has progressed to in just over a 100
years. Thousands of years Man was stagnate in development, but why in just
a few years as it exploded? What Mankind has today should have been
realized 1000 years ago."

"What Mankind had than Mankind has now? Yes he did. It's the same thing
about Truth...it's there, it's always been there"

"You just have to accept what you feel in your heart."

Gabriel gave dramatic pause at this moment to allow his humankind audience
of witnesses to digest what he just said.

Gabriel surveyed the room, bringing his eyes upon the gentleman who asked
the question about 'truth'.  Gabriel read his thoughts.

"No, I am not going to give you that answer. Why? If you took that
information with you, no one would be believe you, not for one second. So
my revealing to you the 'truth' or 'divine secrets' to you and the others
would make no difference to the history of mankind. I tend to want to be
more dramatic with my revelations."

Adam found himself chuckling at that remark thinking again, to himself that
Gabriel was way too flamboyant for his own good. Again, Gabriel turned and
moved right up to Adam. Face to face.

"I heard that. You seem a little slow to learn that I know what you are
thinking."

Adam returned the gaze.

"You have no idea." Gabriel said.

Aaron couldn't help chuckling to himself as Gabriel voice sounded so much
like Jeremy Irons saying the same thing in his two movies, THE REVERSAL OF
FORTUNE and THE LION KING. Gabriel turned and gazed upon Aaron.

"I thought that was pretty good myself."


Gabriel returned to the table. Again, he addressed the questioning
gentleman.

"Don't forget that this a dream you are having. It is written that most
'angel appearances' occur in dreams, though I would prefer communicating
with humankind, which, would be so much easier if they were awake."

There was a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

"Some on you will wake up and not remember the events here and some of you
will."

"Only 6 of you will remember the entire dream. The 2 surviving witnesses
will remember their portion of the dream. Though the spirit of one man
brought you together, it will be your spirit to determine how it will
affect your lives."

"There will be a facilitator who will bring the Chosen 8 together. Because
he will seek the truth to what you have experienced in your dream, he will
become the 9th member of the Chosen. Because of this dream, you will take
several journeys in you lives."

Gabriel turned towards Adam and Aaron. When he began to speak, only Adam
and Aaron heard his words.

"You, two, will lead the Chosen 9. You seek the answers to many questions
here. Everyone here has a piece of the Map. The two of you already have
your pieces in your procession. The others have a piece, somewhere in his
family archives. The common thread is their family genealogy is the lineage
of the family of "Hale". The pieces will fit and will lead you to what you
seek. What you will find will contain many 'truths'."

"There is danger involved here and once you have found what you have sought
out, Death may consume all of you within moments of each other,
collectively as a group at any moment in time."

"It is not essential in your lives to follow the paths of the map. Your
life's mission is far more important as you bring love and understanding,
to help those like these two young men, accept who they are and still find
peace and love through God, our Heavenly Father as you have. You will
always be missionaries all your lives. As Jesus Christ was a missionary,
who taught, blessed and encouraged change among the masses of mankind of
his time, you too must do the same."

"Choose wisely with the direction of your paths, as Wisdom is a fundamental
part of mankind's nature that if allowed to grow, can blossom into such
fruits of wonderment."

Having completed the message he was sent to give, Gabriel turned and began
his ascent towards heaven by way of the ladder. The ladder too, began its
ascent and vanished.

Everyone in the room felt the emptiness of the room with Gabriel's
departure.

The room slowly descended into blackness as each member of this collective
began to realize their awakenings from the dream.

The end of Chapter 32