Chance Encounter with "Nephi"

In Mormon culture, it seems that a lot of people have had, or know someone who has had, a chance encounter with one of the three Nephites. Well, I can do them one better. I actually ran into Nephi the other night.Okay, so maybe it wasn't the actual Nephi. But it was a good man nonetheless. And when we served together in the Guatemala City Central mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Eric Richardson was nicknamed "Nephi".

The nickname was appropriate in several ways:

• "young" (maybe not "exceedingly", but still only 19 or 20 at the time)
• "large in stature" (at least compared to me, though I'm not a big guy)
• "lowly in heart" (humble, so this blogpost must be killing him)
• "a ruler (leader) and a teacher"
• "filled with the power of God" (he definitely taught with authority and the Spirit)

I freely admit that these are simply my opinions and that Eric wasn't and isn't perfect. But he was a great missionary and I looked up to him a lot. As a result of that admiration, I was very happy to run into him and his sister (my friend Hannah) while coming home from the metro station. We had a good, short conversation and I'm glad to hear he's doing well.