NOM

We had the Sister Missionaries at our house for dinner last night. It really was a nice evening, I truly enjoyed it.

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.

What a wonderful person you are Korihor.

I hope to be like you some day.

Love it dude, nicely done!

Last time I had the missionaries stop by (about 10 years ago) I had them digging trenches when I was putting in my irrigation system. The other time they came over we had a bbq and jumped on the trampoline. I remember times like that on my mission in Manchester UK; it was nice to have those mental breaks.

If there is divine justice in this universe, you have dramatically increased the chance that you are going to heaven. Well done.

Corsair wrote:If there is divine justice in this universe, you have dramatically increased the chance that you are going to heaven. Well done.

This!

Great stuff, Korihor. You're serving your own little mission there and clearly your service is appreciated! It's nice that you and your family can find enjoyment from it too, in the meantime.

Korihor wrote: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.

Wow...reading about your evening makes me want to spend time with your family

What a great example you and your family are for these sisters and I have to believe you guys were like a breath of fresh air compared to how many of their dinner appointments go.

I have to say that we've had some incredibly awkward times when we've had missionaries over for dinner. Many of them really lack social skills or just plain don't seem to care to interact that much (unless it's them giving us a spiritual thought, etc.).

Anyway, I loved reading this! Sounds like you and your family have your priorities in the right place and you have lots of fun together too...

That's a cool evening. With daughters, I do miss the sister missionaries in our ward. We used to have the sisters over a great deal, but for the last five years I have worked into the late evening, and so the lack of my "chaperoning" capabilities made having the male missionaries over an impossibility. And my kids used to really enjoy having them over. It's great that you were able to make the parents' day as well.

When I was a missionary, there is no way I would have been able to enjoy something like this. I would have felt guilty the whole time, that I wasn't being "urgent" about "the Work". I'm sure many of us felt this way.

hiding in plain sight wrote:I hope to be like you some day.

You obviously don't know me well enough.

achilles wrote:When I was a missionary, there is no way I would have been able to enjoy something like this. I would have felt guilty the whole time, that I wasn't being "urgent" about "the Work". I'm sure many of us felt this way.

Ya, this would have been very difficult for me as well. These sisters seemed OK with it though. I get the impression that overall currrent missionaries don't have the same urgency that we did. At least I hope I'm right.

AllieOop wrote:Wow...reading about your evening makes me want to spend time with your family

Mrs Korihor is wonderful, Me... ehhh. We're just regular folks.

Corsair wrote:If there is divine justice in this universe, you have dramatically increased the chance that you are going to heaven. Well done.

I assure you and everyone else, this is only one small positive attempting to balance a thousand negatives. If cosmic karma exists, I'm still up 'you know which' creek.

A few things I forgot in the original post
The sisters jokingly said something about our house being a place they could come and 'call home' if such an occasion arose. I responded the offer is always on the table. I think they realize we're 'that family'.
I think I made Sister Orem a little homesick. I feel bad, that wasn't my intent. We talked a little that the church is stuck in 1960's mentality because that is what the older Q12 are accustomed to. when they die and the younger apostles are in charge, we'll see the church advance to 1990. She thought about it and it seemed a little light bulb flickered in her brain.
I offered they could push a little button on my phone named "facetime". They nervously laughed and declined.

My kids were insane last night, especially our son. He was like a caffeinated hyena. The sister just laughed and said they liked it because most of the family's in the ward are old and/or boring. I'm pretty sure we're the only 'liberal' family in our ward.

Well done.

Nicely played.

Korihor wrote:

Aaaaand, we spared a few souls by keeping the missionaries off the street.

Way to #LIGHTTHEWORLD!

Seriously, though that was a really awesome thing you guys did.

Also, did you go to BYUI? I did; during Bednar's reign of terror. Well done on trying to warn Sis. Orem. It's a toxic environment. And it's sooo f-ing cold!!!

Mo pag
I went to BYU Provo. I only hear the horror stories of BYUI

I found this post extremely inspiring, and took the opportunity to steal/adopt some of your ideas last night, Korihor.

We had the elders over. I have not been to church in three or four months, and I wanted to avoid that conversation if possible, since I'm still determining how open I want to be about my feelings on the church.

Two days before, I texted them: "Tell me what you've been dying to have for dinner. Be honest." They asked for some time and came back the next day with an answer: Hawaiian Haystacks. They would later tell us that neither had been served it on their entire missions (one which was ending in a week).

My wife made some cookie dough in advance, and when the elders got there we had them immediately start rolling it into balls for baking. I turned on some pop music (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, to be specific), and we ate dinner while the cookies baked. We talked about non-gospel topics exclusively. It was really nice.

More theft/adoption from Korihor: I took a pic of the missionaries and finagled a mother's phone number from one. We had a nice chat. If she had had an iPhone, I definitely would have offered some FaceTime. I did tell the missionaries that anytime they wanted to take a break and play some videogames, they were welcome to come by.

Then we went to the emergency room, where the staff was happy to receive the bounteous harvest we were offering and promised to take them around to each unit, but they wouldn't let us go back personally. This is fine. My social anxiety made this the most unpleasant part of the process, anyway.

In the parking lot, it's now like 8:40 (the missionaries chose to drive separately). I asked if they would like to reconvene at our house, but they said they didn't have time. So we got out of there without a spiritual message or prayer. It was awesome.

Thanks for the ideas, Korihor! I have a friend who is Exmo and an RM, and it never quite sits right with me how hostile he is to the missionaries. I try to point out that he wouldn't have liked that when he was a missionary, but he has rage, and that's understandable. I, on the other hand, am much more attracted to this philosophy of "love mingled with subversiveness." #slothenthework

To Enoch:

No matter what your avatar implies about you, you're a good man Korihor.