I've mentioned before that we were frequently told to seek prophecies or "words" from Yahweh, and especially on Sabbath. I was continually uneasy about this sort of thing, because I was never sure if it was my inner mind, my imagination, or if it was truly Yahweh. If I wasn't sure, I really didn't want to do it at all. Nevertheless, I tried, because everyone else got words, and I was afraid that my difficulty in this area might indicate a serious spiritual flaw. Also, it seemed to me that Yahweh must have better things to worry about than our petty little questions. After all, He had an entire universe to run! It sort of reminded me of a toy I'd seen as a child, a black plastic ball that would answer your questions. It was constructed in such a way that it was right more than 50% of the time, because some of the answers were vague. Also, a lot of the answers were contradictory if you took everyone's words and compared them, and a lot of things were later declared to be writings of Satan. So to be honest, I tried to avoid this sort of thing when I could. Something was wrong, and I wasn't sure what it was.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason, I was praying one Sabbath in the middle of October when a prophecy came to me, and it scared me. It said that within three days, an earthquake would strike California. I never received prophecies like this, predicting calamities, and especially not with a time frame like that. I was terrified. What if it didn't happen? Then I would be a false prophet deserving of being stoned to death. What if it was right? Would that be my fault? And of course, Mom and Dad jumped right on it. They were excited! Judgement on California, with all its materialism and sin and homosexuality! We had known this was coming! I did not share their enthusiasm. It seemed to me that either way, the outcome would be bad.

By Tuesday, three days later, it had happened. A large earthquake had hit San Francisco. Mom and Dad thought this was even more of a sign, and went around telling everyone they knew that we had known this was going to happen. The whole thing scared me and left me feeling very uneasy.