I like talking with the missionaries. It reminds me of the good parts of my 2 years - spending time to get to know people.
Anyway, about 2 weeks ago, we signed up to have them over. I asked them in church what the would like to eat for dinner. I offered BBQ, steak, Pizza, etc. They said something fresh and lots of veggies. I suggested stir fry and their eyes lit up with the spirit of promise. So we had Rice, veggie stir fry with a little beef and an cabbage Asian salad. Those two girls were in heaven. One is from the Philippines and said it was similar(ish) to what she eats at home. I asked when was the last time she ate stir fry and she couldn't remember - she's almost ready to go home. Poor girls are so tired of mashed potatoes, pot roast, Little Caesars Pizza and chicken.
Yesterday morning I texted them if they had appointments after our dinner. They said just a planning meeting with the ward mission leader at 8:00. I told them to plan to spend extra time with us for a little service activity. By the time they arrived to dinner, they said their meeting had been cancelled - so they had the entire night with us.
Our conversation shifted to post-mission plans and college. One sister said she was thinking of going to BYU Idaho. I let loose a polite tirade of how insane it is at BYU Idaho and she should strongly consider other options. I wasn't nice about that school. The Sister from the Philippines was surprised and asked why I didn't like it. I said they just have insane rules that make life difficult for no real reason. She thanked me for my honesty as she heard similar stuff about BYU Idaho but no one ever said why.
Talking with them, the other sister is from Orem, UT. Poor thing, she got called to Phoenix, AZ. She said she was little disheartened at her mission destination. I took a picture of the sisters with them baking with our kids, coerced the sister from Orem to give me her mom's cell number and sent the picture to her mom. I texted back and forth a little with the mom and they shared a few words with each with me as intermediary. Both mom and missionary were rather happy.
After dinner, we baked chocolate chip cookies. The sisters were really good to help make the dough and helped our young children participate. While the cookies were in the oven, they shared the little video on the ipad and had a "spiritual message". I kept excusing myself to put a new batch in the oven.
ONce the cookies were done, we made several little baggies with a few and tied a little ribbon on them. Then we stopped at the grocery store and bought a bunch of mini chocolate milks.
[Background story - a while ago were had a mini-crisis and found ourselves at the hospital in the ICU waiting room, Praying our loved one would be OK. A nice stranger helped us in our hour of despair in that waiting room]
We took the cookies and milks to our local hospital waiting room to share with anyone who happened to be having a bad night. Our version of pay it forward. No one happened to be in the waiting room, so we gave it to the hospital staff - who suddenly had a smile brought to their face.
No 'proselytizing' - just people being nice to each other. The missionaries had their name tags on, that was about it.
We returned home and talked briefly before they had to return home and we had to put the kids to bed. Making small talk, we asked what else they did that day. They said they had only been in their apartment, as it was a "weekly planning day". Hopefully we provided a nice quiet evening and no pressure on the girls. Very little churchiness, just talking about life and trying to share a little kindness.
Aaaaand, we spared a few souls by keeping the missionaries off the street.
