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Quick question for any Mormons on this board that might know the answer. If I call tomorrow morning to talk to a member in my area, how quickly could they do it? I ask since I only have a few days here before I go home (since my semester will be over). If anyone has an answer, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Hmm. I had a Mormon question too, but I don't remember what it was. I will now take my leave of this thread without depositing any actually useful information. Thank you for your attention.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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And are you calling someone you know, or calling the local meetinghouse and expecting someone to be there, or calling the missionaries if you happen to have their number, or... Who are you calling and do you have a previous relationship with them?
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I want to learn a little more about the church and the Book of Mormon and such. Plus it's been recommended to me twice to call and talk to someone in person (rather than just relying on what I hear/read on the internet).
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Why not meet with a Mormon after you go home? I'm pretty sure they'd be glad to drop by anywhere you happen to be. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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If you call that 1-800 number, you'll get a call center in Utah- it takes up to two weeks for the missionaries to get your information to visit you. You're in Richardson, right? If you'd like for them to come before you leave, I can e-mail you the info of someone who can put you in touch with missionaries in your area.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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You might be able to call the numbers for these wards - when I went to UTD, these were the wards that I was in. Try Tuesday or Wednesday night, and the Bishop's office. I'm sure that they'll be surprised by your call, but it won't be unwelcome. Richardson 2nd Ward - Family Ward
quote: Because of my parents. They don't look too kindly on Mormons for some reason.
Might I suggest, then, that you not look into the church until you've moved out, one way or another? Seriously, your soul will keep.
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*sigh* I can't be you're actively campaigning to deter someone from exploring a religion, Tom. That's kind of low.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Hmm..Tom is generally more courteous, as a rule. This is like several booths are set up, someone comes over to a booth to flip through a brochure, and Tom comes over from the next booth to interrupt and try to head him off. It's a little more rude than I think Tom approves of.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I'm not actively seeking to deter him at all. I'm saying that if his parents are actively hostile to the church to the extent that they would be unlikely to permit him to welcome missionaries, it would make more sense for him to wait until he was no longer under their roof before starting to explore the church -- rather than, say, hurriedly trying to schedule something last-minute, and squeezing various visits furtively into his schedule. There's no reason to suspect that his interest in the church will wane, and there's no immediate reason for him to have to confront his parents -- or sneak around them -- on this issue. There's no particular call for urgency on this, and that urgency might in fact come with a significant cost.
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Actually I do. If he was still a teenager, I would say wait, but he's an adult. I don't think that parents should be able to dictate their children's life choices once they have grown up.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Great. But he's still living in their house, apparently, which means he's not really an independent adult yet. I don't see the benefit in ticking off one's parents when one can avoid the entire hassle by waiting a bit.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Which isn't what I'm saying, either. I'm saying that if his choices are:
1) Sneak around behind his parents' backs and schedule missionary visits without their knowledge;
2) Anger them by inviting missionaries to their home against their wishes;
3) Wait until he's fully independent to research the church semi-openly and on his own schedule;
...the third option is the most mature and practical of the three.
A certain amount of required respect for his parents and their moral choices IS, I believe, a cost of sharing a house with them. I don't think most people can really search effectively for a code of ethics in secret.Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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4) Have the missionaries visit the place he lives when he is not at his parents' house.
I think that's why he's doing it before he is in their house.
He's 20. It could be years. It seems very unfair to ask someone to wait until they are grown up before they explore something they might want in their life. At that point, they will have formed their life without it. I suspect that's what you're hoping will happen.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: I suspect that's what you're hoping will happen.
Ah. So you're going to assume mean-spirited motivations on my part because why, exactly? I know Scott's drunk that Kool-Aid, but I expect better from you.
Seriously, I'm mentioning this only because most people I know who're twenty years old a) are basically kids; b) will have moved out of their house within two years; c) don't need more reasons to fight with their parents.
You'll notice I don't usually advise young Christian children to reject their family's faith while they're still under the same roof. Why do you think that might be, assuming as smug, self-righteous idiots do that my primary purpose and ultimate goal in every exchange is to reduce the number of Christians on the planet?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Reading this thread, it seemed like you switched reasons for him not to talk to the missionaries as the story came out more. The reasons changed, but the goal remained the same. That does make it seem like it.
I think that someone doesn't reach a magic age and then are grown up and ready to handle the big stuff. In other words, it is precisely by wrestling with serious issues and making mature decisions that someone stops being a kid.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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*points back up to what he's actually written*
No, I didn't. I asked why he couldn't see missionaries at home.
When he answered that his parents didn't approve, I advised him to wait. When I was asked why I thought he should wait, I gave the same reason -- in response to regular badgering -- three times. His being a kid doesn't have anything to do with why I advised him to wait; it only has something to do with why I think he should comply with his parents' wishes.
Anything else you're seeing in that, Katie, is your own baggage.
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I don't want to argue with you, Tom. If I was mistaken as to your goal, I'm sorry for considering it. It did seem weird - I was surprised by it.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Wow, you guys argued a lot about this. Tom, I spent most of my time away from my parents' roof. About 4 hours away to be precise. The only times I'm at home are holidays from school. You might have been right about the urgency, maybe I should wait until I come back to school in January. My thought line though was "What's the harm in talking to them now and then exploring it further when I return in January?" As far as officially being out from under the same roof, katharina is right; it'll be years. I still have at least 3 more semesters on my bachelor's degree and then I'm going after my master's (which will take another year to year and a half). Even after all that though, I'll probably still see my family with similar frequency (holidays and the like), so I'm not sure what difference it makes.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm just a bit ticked off at the Mormon terriers lately, for obvious reasons. It's like I've been wrongly tagged by some of the more clueless antibodies, and I'm really losing patience with their stupidity on the topic.
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BTW, pfresh, I don't want to imply that I think you shouldn't see missionaries on your own time, although I do think this will lead to complications if you really believe your parents are going to disapprove of that choice; I wouldn't try to keep your interest in the church a secret for long, and certainly wouldn't make your first mention of it something like "Oh, by the way, I'm being baptised next week." I'm glad you're going into this as maturely as you are.
The only "harm" I envisioned about the rush to meet (especially since the whole conversion process, even if you chose to undertake it, takes a lot longer) was this: zeal can be really awkward to hide. If you're fired up about a church, it's probably a mistake to spend the Christian holiday with Christians of a different stripe and try to hide it from them. I've seen that particular approach, and it's rarely worked out.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I'm just me. I promise that I will take my opinions from my own thoughts and your posts, and not from the weekly memo.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: Anyway, if someone just comes home for the holidays, aren't they already moved out?
Hm. I think the magic point at which you're moved out is when you stop thinking of it as going home for the holidays, but rather consider visiting family for the holidays.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I only stopped "going home" for the holidays when my parents moved away from my childhood home.
I do think there's a difference between respecting the parents' wishes to not have Mormons come teach in their home, and trying to keep it a secret. I didn't see any evidence that Pfresh would be trying to hide anything from the parents, but you do have to pick your times to bring it up (and "I'm getting baptized tomorrow" is the wrong time, to be sure). I don't think there's anything wrong with seeing how it goes at first before "alarming" the parents.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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>>So you're going to assume mean-spirited motivations on my part because why, exactly? I know Scott's drunk that Kool-Aid, but I expect better from you.
I don't think you're mean-spirited, Tom.
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Whether or not I'm mean-spirited, those motivations certainly are. I'd hate to think that they're part of my "regular MO," as someone has recently asserted.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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pfresh, this is a good taste for you of what you might see from others if you join the church. Hopefully your experience won't be like mine, but my parents let me know that they had puzzled over my conversion and decided "that I just turned off my brain". My boss who was an evangelical protestant fundamentalist told me "the devil got hold of me" and later seemed to believe I was lying about important stuff on the job. I could see no reason for him to believe that except 1) that he used to lie to his boss when he traveled (as he had confided to me) and 2) I was LDS, and we know how evil that cult is.
Don't worry, though. The blessings far far outweigh the troubles that come, and now even my mother is changing her view. She sent her gift for Tsunami victims through the LDS Humanitarian Fund. Gradually the words "Mormon" and "LDS" became okay to mention in her presence, and I had told her how economical the church is and how they pinch every penny until it screams. <laughs> Also how they have people on the ground that are locals in almost every location, so I felt very sure that the resources went where they are most needed. I was amazed and gratified to see that her opinion of the church had changed so much in just a few years.
So stick with what you feel is true and right. When something is the truth, it will always be the best and wisest choice. The truth has that huge overwhelming advantage of being true. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: pfresh, this is a good taste for you of what you might see from others if you join the church.
You should be so lucky. Although you probably will get a lot of Mormons coming out of nowhere to applaud your decision. That happens a lot. *grin*
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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*comes out of nowhere to applaud pfresh’s decision, and unwittingly falls into Tom’s trap*
If you can contact the local missionaries and convey your desire to see them soon, I’ll bet you see them before you leave.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Ah. But, see, Scott, you suggested -- in reply to Katie -- that what I was doing was "actively deterring" someone from exploring a religion. That most definitely is not "what (I) DO." I'd like to see a single post I've ever made recommending that someone not research a religion.
Just because I'm confident that you're wrong about your faith doesn't mean that I consider it my place to dissuade people from it. There are others on this forum who're more interested in that job, and they're welcome to it.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I think both katharina and Tom were giving sensible advise. I'll just throw this out there, but maybe you can put off the missionary visit until you get back from Christmas break. While you're on the break, you could perhaps mention the fact that you're going to be looking into the faith to your parents. They might not approve, but they should certainly support your decision and if they don't, what's the worst that could happen?
It's best to get that cat out of the bag as soon as possible Andrew. If your parents decide to support your decision, you might actually be able to talk to the missionaries while you're on your break. If they don't, then you'll at least feel better when you come back and it won't feel like you're sneaking behind your parents backs when the missionaries come visit you at Richardson.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I feel like this might be a lot of pressure on Andrew. Talking to the missionaries isn't the same thing as deciding to full-on investigate, and investigating isn't the same as joining the church.
Not wanting to tell might just be my gut instinct to keep the things I'm contemplating away from other opinions until I know what I want myself.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: You'll notice I don't usually advise young Christian children to reject their family's faith while they're still under the same roof. Why do you think that might be, assuming as smug, self-righteous idiots do that my primary purpose and ultimate goal in every exchange is to reduce the number of Christians on the planet?
Perhaps they are confusing you with me?
Anyway; I don't really have time for a good quarrel on the subject of religion right now, but I remembered my question! It's in Lost Boys, where Step is giving the blessing to the newborn Zap, and they have to ask the doctor for permission to open up the incubator. He puts a single drop of oilve oil on Zap's forehead, and I was wondering, why olive oil? Is there any particular significance? I seem to recall that the baptists mentioned in the Bible mainly use water. And the Book of Mormon is set in America, so there can hardly be very many olives in it.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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BTW, I just realized that I have advised at least two people on this site not to consider Scientology. So I take that bit back -- except, in my defense, I don't actually consider Scientology a religion. *wry laugh*
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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KingofMen: It comes from here, I believe, in the Bible (yes, we use that too):
quote:(James 5:14) Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord
I'm not sure why it's been interpreted to mean olive oil, but that is the oil we have been instructed to use.
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