Ambushed
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:41 am
It's 8 p.m. and the babysitter should be showing up any minute. A knock at the door. My wife comes upstairs stressed out. I'm just jumping out of the shower and putting on a shirt frustrated that I'm going to be the one to run downstairs and let the babysitter in. My wife doesn't know what Mormons are really, or have any concept of missionaries or even door to door proselyting. She's scared because 3 men in suits are at the door, is it INS or the FBI or something? At that point I had to laugh to myself. What timing. And what bureaucratic mixup. Afterall, I'd been getting letters regularily from the stake mentioning, "we realize that you've requested no contact, and we respect that, but we invite..."
So here I am at the door. One guy, silent. One guy a little older, over and over, trying to BRT by saying things like, "Hey, I understood you went on a mission to ...., I just got back from there." "Hey, what part of ... were you in?" Like, you know, the one free night my wife and I have all week (or more) with all kinds of pressures and stresses I'm just going to drop it all and say, "Oh yeah? Hey, come on in. Let's talk about ... while I let my wife sit on the sidelines. Maybe she'll feel the spirit and ask to be baptized huh? It's all so simple you know.
In between the older guy trying to make a connection, the senior comp is paroting, "Is there a better time we could come back?" "Is there a better time we could come back?" Even after I said, "Hey look, I don't have time for this now" or "I've got family things I"m taking care of", they just can't read between the lines and need the direct F-U answer. So I had to eventually tell them, "Can you please go, now. Leave." Like Adam directing Satan out of the Garden.
Oh I know, when I was a missionary, if a less active talked to me that way it was just fuel for the confrontation. I used to be nicer to missionaries having been there and knowing what it was like on their side. But know I'm learning what it's like on the side of normal, sane, non-cult indoctrinated people. And I hate to say it, but I understand why I got the door slammed in my face. And they were right to do so. Two years, wasted, in annoying normal people.
So here I am at the door. One guy, silent. One guy a little older, over and over, trying to BRT by saying things like, "Hey, I understood you went on a mission to ...., I just got back from there." "Hey, what part of ... were you in?" Like, you know, the one free night my wife and I have all week (or more) with all kinds of pressures and stresses I'm just going to drop it all and say, "Oh yeah? Hey, come on in. Let's talk about ... while I let my wife sit on the sidelines. Maybe she'll feel the spirit and ask to be baptized huh? It's all so simple you know.
In between the older guy trying to make a connection, the senior comp is paroting, "Is there a better time we could come back?" "Is there a better time we could come back?" Even after I said, "Hey look, I don't have time for this now" or "I've got family things I"m taking care of", they just can't read between the lines and need the direct F-U answer. So I had to eventually tell them, "Can you please go, now. Leave." Like Adam directing Satan out of the Garden.
Oh I know, when I was a missionary, if a less active talked to me that way it was just fuel for the confrontation. I used to be nicer to missionaries having been there and knowing what it was like on their side. But know I'm learning what it's like on the side of normal, sane, non-cult indoctrinated people. And I hate to say it, but I understand why I got the door slammed in my face. And they were right to do so. Two years, wasted, in annoying normal people.