Page 36 - Insights Into The Scriptures - The Jaredites

also meant to be used as a couch. There was a small reed table. And there
was a reed piece of furniture about three feet (1 meter) high, three feet (1
meter) wide, and two feet (.6 meters) deep, like a cabinet. To my surprise,
a television was sitting on this last piece of furniture. It was on with the
sound turned down, and a soap opera was playing.
I must have had a shocked look on my face because the man
laughed. I had, after all, read that stepping on one of these islands was like
stepping back hundreds of years, and though I may be wrong, I was sure
there were no televisions hundreds of years ago. Also, when a wind came
up, it blew the islands around the lake. Our tour guide said he had been a
mailman delivering mail once per week to the different islands on the lake.
He said that he would check the past wind directions that had blown the
previous week before he left for the delivery. That way, if he got to the
place an island had been, and it was not there, he would know which way
to go. So, how could they have something as modern as television in that
environment?

To my inquiry about the television, mostly done by pointing and
questioning gestures, the man said, “Me show.” So, when I finished the
tour of the inside of his hut, we went outside. He put his hand on my
shoulder and pointed up to the roof.

At first, I couldn’t see what he was pointing at, but considering I
had just seen a working television, I knew it had to do something with that.
I looked carefully, and I realized what was there. He led me around behind
his hut and pointed at the roof where I could get a better view. Hidden by
reeds on the front, though clearly visible in the back, was a solar panel
(Figure 16). When I realized what he was telling me, I turned to him and
nodded. He then smiled and said, “This year, TV. Next year, internet.”

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