The Bible Dictionary defines the "Tower of Babel" as "confusion of Tongues" That is an understatement. Chaos is more like it.
Why in the world do we have to have soooo many languages spoken? I do think those of our friends here who are speaking "Antwerps" are sounding more familiar, however when we went to Holland the other day and it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to understand every word the cashier uttered. Last night we visited with a family from South America, the children are learning Dutch in school. The father has picked up Dutch as well but not very much of it. The mother only spoke Spanish. We had fun having everything translated all over the place. Then we went to Shilpa and Schlok and heard her yell at Schlok in Hindu and then turn around and speak broken English to us even throwing in a few Dutch words she has learned. We will be meeting with the family from the Philippines again soon and then of course there is Sarah who came from Portugal and John and a few more from Africa, where they have a ton of dialects. We have our Blind sister who only speaks French, not to mention the Williams family from Suriname. In the grocery store last night we had a family who sounded like they came from Pakistan in front of me and an Asian family in back of me. Walking through the Jewish district we could hear some of them speak Hebrew. There are also a lot of Turks here as well. We had two plumbers come today to do some work and they only spoke French. I did not understand one word but sign language always seems to works. Most of the kids here know some English because practically everything on T.V. is in English with Dutch sub titles. Europe does not produce it's own movies so they just show all the American films. The church has come out with some great DVDs that have subtitles and some even speak in different tongues. This church is really becoming a world wide church with hundreds of languages spoken. Do you think we will be able to speak to each other in the spirit world? I do
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Just think of it this way, by the time you come home, you will be able to travel anywhere and understand at least a few words in every country. I hope the Spirit does most of the talking so you don't have to. Hang in there!
I got a blessing for the gift of tongues on my mission and it really helped. My mission president said that the gift of tongues comes more of desire than anything else. Keep up the good work...You're amazing for all that you're doing!
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