Posted by:
Jgalla
(
)
Date: February 24, 2012 12:27AM
...And it was worse than I remembered.
I had gone to my hometown to visit my mom, and brother-in-law was singing in church that weekend. (This is the perfect return missionary who married my 19 year old perfect molly-mormon sister last year). They begged me to come to church with them to hear him sing, and I gave in. He's got a beautiful voice, and it was a pleasure to listen to him - but the rest of sacrament meeting was practically unbearable.
It was like listening to a broken record. All the memories came flooding back. The first counsellor droning on in his monotone voice, the start of meeting announcements, the songs that I haven't sung in 10 years yet still know the words too, the mind-numbingly boring talks about the priesthood giving by a simpering housewife and an egotistical jerk, and the sacrament prayers. The whole meeting, exactly the same format as it's been my whole life. It was slightly interesting hearing all this stuff for the first time since I left the church, from an "outsider's" perspective...but it took a lot of willpower to keep my derisive snorts in my head.
I did find it entertaining when my sister's in-laws gaped at me when I passed on the sacrament trays without partaking, and then proceed to whisper dramatically to each other.
At one point when the simpering housewife's talk had gone 15 minutes over, even my mom and sister had stopped paying attention, and were giggling to each other and digging around in my mom's purse for junk to play with. I, however, pulled the latest Nora Roberts book out of my purse, and my mom looked at me - shocked and aghast - and hissed, "You can't DO that! It's NOT allowed!" To which I replied, "How is this any worse than what you two are doing? At least I'm being quiet."
Needless to say, I was relieved when the meeting was over, and actually laughed out loud when my sister asked if I was staying for Relief Society.