Jimmy

Jimmy, our neighbor downstairs, is just the nicest guy.  He's a single dad with two grown kids.  He's always been so friendly and such a good neighbor.  I baked chocolate chip cookies one time and took him some to thank him for being such a good neighbor.  On another day, he mentioned that he loved brownies, so the next time I fed the missionaries, I made a big pan of brownies so I could share some with him.

For some reason, I got it in my head that I had somehow offended him.  I happened to mention when I brought him the brownies that I had also made them for the missionaries.  After that, it seemed to me that he pulled away a bit.  I got it in my head that he felt that I was only doing those nice things so he would meet with the missionaries.  It's funny how I started reading into his actions to justify my belief.  It finally bothered me so badly I wrote him a note to let him know that we weren't being nice to him so he would see the missionaries.  (I worded it much better than that).  I was trying to apologize for offending him.

One night after getting home from the Family History Center, I felt prompted to go visit Jimmy.  So I went upstairs and dropped my stuff off and then went down and knocked on his door.

I’m so glad I did, because he really had no idea what he had done to prompt my note and apologized all over the place, while I tried to tell him I had misunderstood, and I apologized too. I found out that he had come up to talk to me a couple of times, because he felt bad that I was feeling bad.  We sat on his porch and visited awhile.  I found out he is quite a religious man, although he is not currently affiliated with any religion.  I invited him to see the temple when it’s done, but he said no.  (I hope he will change his mind.)  When he was a teenager, he had attended LDS services because his best friend was a Mormon, but he didn’t seem to know that the church is really The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  And he didn’t know why we are called Mormons, although he did remember about the gold plates and Joseph Smith translating them.

He was so complimentary about Mark and me, saying what good neighbors we were--the best.  So when I apologized, he said “How could you offend me?  You brought me treats?” 

During our visit, the skies opened up with a major downpour, so I just stayed to talk until it was over.  When I finally left, I gave him a hug.  I’m so grateful I was prompted to talk to him and it turned out to be a misunderstanding that we were able to talk out.  I felt really good afterwards and I hope he did too.

One thing I found out about Jimmy was he belonged to a church called the “Foursquare Church.”  Their “pastor” left his congregation to go to Tennessee after claiming he had a vision.  Sadly, this left the congregation without anyone to lead them.  That’s when Jimmy decided not to belong to any church.  Interesting and sad.