The missionary pumpkin

A single pumpkin still sits on our front doorstep (even though we are almost fully Christmas decorated inside!)  There's a story about this pumpkin.

The night of Halloween someone (let's call them hooligans) stole the pumpkins from our front doorstep. They took the carved pumpkins, the little pumpkin Joseph painted, and even a really big pumpkin which wasn't carved yet.  The next morning we found only this pumpkin remaining.

It's our missionary pumpkin.  When we carved our pumpkins Joseph decided that we needed to make a pumpkin in honor of Brandon, who is a missionary. So, he drew this lovely representation of Elder Porter.  And, after everything else was stolen, only this little pumpkin remained.

We have had fun imagining what must have happened, using some scripture stories from the Book of Mormon as reference. Such as the story of Abinadi (Mosiah 13), where he tells the guards in King Noah's court to "touch me not" because he has not delivered his message.  And they couldn't touch him, even though they surely tried!

Or the story of Nephi building a boat with his brothers.  Laman and Lemuel murmured mightily about helping with the building and came forward to throw him into the "depths of the sea" (nice brothers). And then this . . . "as they came forth to lay their hands upon me I spake unto them, saying, 'In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh, and whoso shall lay his  hands up on me shall wither even as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him.'"   And, after a rather "shocking" experience, Laman and Lemuel remarkably decided to be helpful.

So, this is what we imagine happened.  We think that our pumpkin thieves tried to take the missionary pumpkin and were shocked and knocked backward all the way across the front lawn.  So, they left the missionary pumpkin in place and ran off to wherever it is that hooligans run off to. (I do hope they didn't "wither even as a dried reed."  That would be a little harsh).

Apparently the protection afforded to missionaries serving the Lord also applies to their pumpkins back home.  So there, all you pumpkin thieves out there.