This might, all together, be the third time I have ever visited a church service. My youth was spent repenting in the Jewish temple on high holidays and I rarely ever saw the inside of an American church. I have also spent a great of time traversing various Indian (the dot, not the feather) hot spots-mostly Hindu temples. So, my knowledge of all things Christian is fairly limited...
All I know is I have never visited with nicer people. Ever. The Mormons were so full of warmth. Everyone was incredibly open and willing to explain everything to us. We even went to Bible study-which up until now has been a real mystery for me. I met several "Elders" and "Sisters" and learned what a good family is made of. They gave us free copies of the Book of Mormon when we asked (to peruse at our leisure). We also sang some very uplifting songs about God and bounties and etc. It was an unusual service, as we were told multiple times, because of the "changing of the Bishops" and we saw several grown men cry. It sounds like they develop really strong relationships with their community over the 3 or 4 years they are stationed there.
Another thing that really stood out to me is the eating of blessed bread/drinking of blessed water. The alter boys (not sure if that's their appropriate title) would walk around and pass out trays with pieces of bread and cups of water. I noticed how your neighbor to your left offers you a piece of bread from the tray before they hand you the tray and you offer your neighbor a piece of bread. It seems like a real sign of community- the most holy act of offering your neighbor sacred food. I think that Erin and I are going to visit another Mormon service to see what family services are like so that we may compare. I can't wait for more testimony!
All in all, I think Erin covered most of what we saw and observed in the above post. It was a fairly uneventful service. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was kind of hoping for more songs, more reading of text, more bling bling on the outfits... Bummer, dude.
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2 comments:
I am surprised they let Erin enter the Ward house, after that time back in 2002 when she swore on the Temple grounds in SLC. I thought you'd be blacklisted, Erin.
I have a few thoughts of my own on Mormons but don't want to taint the lovely experience you are having. Just don't get tricked into getting baptized. And read "Under the Banner of Heaven".
So here's my 2 cents on the whole "Mormons are super nice" thing. I lived in Utah for a while, worked in a very Mormon part of Arizona, have had several Mormon or ex-Mormon friends, and have a Mormon cousin-in-law. I can say that pretty much every Mormon I've ever met (with a few exceptions) has been super duper nice. Like nice in a way you didn't think still existed.
But then there's the church itself. Allow me to indulge for a moment in a story from this summer when I lived in Enterprise. One day I went for a walk with an African-American friend and we ended up near the LDS church up on the hill. She related how, growing up in La Grande, Mormons would try to convert her, despite the fact that - at that time - people of her race weren't allowed to rise to the higest levels of the church hierarchy. The LDS church has since changed that policy, but they were really late in doing so. Like well after the civil rights movement.
I guess my take-home message is that individual Mormons may be nice but the church itself has some pretty sorry history and still involves itself in reactive politics (case in point: their massive support of California's anti-gay marriage prop 8). So for me, I'm happy to be friends with Mormons but there's no way I can support the church itself.
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