Mattathias Westwood Q&A

"Missionary Weekly Report for 28 March-3 April, Mumbai 1st Branch, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" by Mattathias Westwood, the final finalist in this year's Mormon Lit Blitz, is up today. Check out the story, and then come back for the Q&A:

This piece explores an Indian Mormon experience specifically. How do you feel like the national context shapes the story? Would the same tensions play out differently somewhere else?

The only Mormon experiences I can speak to convincingly are American Mormon experience and Indian Mormon experience. I do think that in India, the pressure of missionary work is heightened by the fact that there are just so many people around to teach. And because religion is such a major and public part of most people's lives, there's not even the excuse that exists in some parts of the world that most people probably just aren't interested in religion of any kind, and that's why they don't want to listen and we maybe don't need to bother them. In India, almost everyone takes religion very seriously, and most people are very open to talking about it. But that doesn't mean that they're going to take Mormonism seriously or decide to join the Church, because conversion is hard and the truthfulness of Mormonism isn't obvious or self-evident at first glance (or second or third).

For me, this led to a state of constant discouragement, where I felt like because people were so ready to listen, if people were not interested in joining the church, it was because I wasn't good enough at teaching the gospel for them to recognize it. At some point, I realized that I was absolutely right-- I wasn't good at teaching it at all, but there were people who understood it anyway, who figured out all the things I couldn't teach them, because it wasn't me they were learning from. I was just there to give them a human point of contact and directions towards the church building.

What role do you think literature could play in increasing our multicultural awareness and imagination in the Church?

The scriptures say that God speaks to people in a language they can understand. I don't know what the future holds, but I hope that as more Mormons from around the world share their own experiences, share how the gospel feels and tastes to them, share what pulled them into this life and keeps pulling them back even when things are hard, that it will help us to be one, in the way that the scriptures say we should.

I think when we hear how the gospel sounds to other people's ears, it will become even more beautiful, and maybe some of the things that cause us worry or pain will be eased as we see them through other eyes, or as we see different ways of doing things, as we learn from each other. I don't think it's fully possible to separate gospel and culture, because they blend together and it can be hard to tell which is which, and stories that show how the gospel weaves itself into different cultures can give us possibilities we didn't think of before or help us see our own mistakes. And all of it hopefully gives us more types of language, so that God has more ways to reach us.

What would you like to see more of in Mormon Literature? 

Honestly, I would be happy just to have more of it, from more people, in more places, thinking through Mormonism in their own experience and writing what it feels like and means for them. I am much more of a reader than a writer, and I read pretty much whatever I can get my hands on and I'm grateful if it helps me think through my own experience or think outside my own experience, and the details of where it comes from or what it says don't matter much to me as long as they are genuine and thoughtful. "Let a thousand flowers bloom."

Where can we read more of your work? 
As I said, I'm more of a reader than a writer. I have lots of stories that float in my head but usually I'm too busy finding new stories to add to the mix and break down into raw materials for living a good life for me to write stories of my own. You could try breaking into my parent's house and sorting through the boxes they keep in the spare bedroom for the notebooks I wrote in when I was in high school. But there are a lot of boxes, and most of them are just my dad's books, so you'd probably get tired of looking, and if you found those old buried stories they might not be worth it.  If you're interested in listening to me ramble on about other people's stories, you can find me at http://mattathiasingh.blogspot.com/ continuing to occasionally write a blog long after it stopped being cool, or you can see what I'm reading and what I've read at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14527427-mattathias (My name is Mattathias, king of readers, look upon my works, ye mighty, and get really excited because you've never heard of that book before but it looks really interesting and now it's time to go to the library and check out a bunch of books...)