Week 66: Nazdravie

Just so all of you know, when you look at the sun, you sneeze.  It doesn't work every time, though; you have to have a sneeze already coming.  However, that's just one opinion.  Apparently.  A lot of missionaries think that when I'm about to sneeze, I run into sunlight to make everyone think it works.  Then when they tell me to do it again, I can't because I don't have a sneeze coming.  They're wrong, I'm right.

Last night, we had call-ins, which is where we "call-in" and report numbers for the week, in my case, to the district leader.  All of the sudden, Elder Brennan sneezed.  

Me: "Wow, how did you do that?  There's no sun."

Brennan: "Yeah, I heard about that.  Sister Stratton told me that if you look at the sun and say 'blue dolphins,' you sneeze.  But that sounds fishy."

Me: "Classic.  People telling half-truths but then adding in a lie so that people don't believe the part that's true."

Brennan: "Like how people say they believe in God but organized religion is unnecessary?"

Me: "Right.  One might say, 'I believe in sneezing, but I don't need to look at the sun to sneeze.'"

People say that a sneeze comes from the inside, which it does.  Just like going to church doesn't in and of itself make you a better person, you need to have a sneeze already coming in order for looking at the sun to work.  On the other hand, only about 1 in 5 is affected by this phenomenon, and there's almost nothing you can do apart from pinching the bridge of your nose to cause a sneeze, so the analogy only goes so far.