Updated on March 7, 2022
Doug Tales 56: Negotiation
Doug Mendenhall was born on March 8, 1957, and would have celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday tomorrow, March 8, 2022. As a way of remembering him, today we’re re-posting Doug’s final post on this blog. “Negotiation” was originally posted November 27, 2020, and then printed on pages 507-508 of Conquering Spiritual Evil Blog Posts 2020 (2021):
We have written about working a restaurant in Fairview, Utah from July 2006 to July 2008 before in our books and on this blog. No one was paid, it was all labor given to Him.
There were many lessons learned from this experience, hard and also wonderful lessons.
The one thing we didn’t know about was that there had been a “negotiation” with the Savior about opening the restaurant and working it before we came to this mortality.
Maybe I should say a covenant was made. We obeyed the covenant and the Lord Jesus Christ came to the restaurant with His wife, Mary.
It makes me wonder how many of us made similar covenants with Him before coming here. It could have been something as simple as giving money to a beggar, which He was playing the part of.
Wow, it could be thousands of different things. Are we open to this kind of opportunity? Would we actually believe if it did happen? No, how about when it happens?
I know that for months after, people would eat their meal in that booth and then not leave. They’d just sit there. For hours sometimes. We’ve discussed “morphic resonance” in one of our books. Is that what it was? Is that why people are drawn to the Sacred Grove? To Johnson’s Farm in Kirtland? Interesting questions.
My question is, if the Lord Jesus Christ came and told one of something He wanted done, and you didn’t know if He had made a covenant with you before mortality, would you be allowed to negotiate?
I mean, is it okay to negotiate with Him? I know my friend Snuffer does. There are times he even gets what he negotiated for. But he is an attorney and is well versed in negotiations.
Should that person call the Snuff and ask him to negotiate with the Savior for them? Or just ride it out and see what happens. Because obviously nothing will happen unless they accomplish the “mission.”
It is the time of year when we would be preparing to feed fifty families a free meal at that restaurant. After the meal the children could go upstairs to the Christmas room and pick out a present for someone else. Then their parents went up there and picked out presents for their children and themselves.
It was very hard work. We wouldn’t get home until about 1 AM and then do it all over again the next day. We also did a live Nativity outside where a manger scene had been built. Friends and workers from the restaurant had sewed costumes for people to play the parts of Mary, Joseph, Angels, Wise Men, and Shepherds. It was beyond cool. One couple even put their own baby in the manger for a few minutes.
The following Thanksgiving was when They came to the restaurant.
So if one was to receive a “download” from the Lord Jesus Christ about doing a project, and that person understands that He would make it no small project, would it be okay to negotiate with Him about certain things that you might desire if the project was actually done. Based on the Snuffer example He is open to this.
I wonder what this person should negotiate for. Are there some “rewards” that are better than others. Or is that according to the individual. For example the three Nephites thought the reward of staying and doing His work as translated beings was better than what the other nine wanted, to be with Him in His Kingdom immediately upon transitioning.
I know what I would tell this person. Just wondering if you would have similar ideas.
Really interesting proposition, isn’t it.
God bless.