I did not want to derail the Japanese thread - http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,136828 - by Yuko Cardon.

I just like to pick up on a point made there regarding tea.

Tea; it's an innocuous drink, enjoyed all over the world... It has deep roots in cultural etiquette, in the orient and, to a lesser extent, in the UK.

as a new member we were always told that, if anyone offers tea, you should refuse and state that "I don't drink tea because I am a member of the cojcolds"... This - we were told - would lead to excellent missionary opportunities as people would then ask you all about the church.

bull

Anytime I used that line, the response was either indifference or suspicious silence (suspicious that you are going to turn a polite occasion into a sermon)

It's a stupid rule, with stupid reasoning. Refusing a harmless (and possibly health promoting) drink is seen as weird, by the rest of the world, and ultimately has no benefits for anyone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2011 05:11PM by EssexExMo.

When I was in 4th grade, my teacher (who had been to Japan and loved the Japanese culture) threw a class-wide authentically Japanese tea party.

Being the only Mo, I refused to drink the tea and suffered severe embarrassment from all my classmates.

Stupid cult.

Offered a cup of tea, I said "my religion does not allow me to drink tea".

I was then asked, "is it also your religion that tells you to drink this crap?" as someone pointed at my cola.

Priceless.

An LDS guy at my work said to me he stays away from anything that has the word "tea" on it, even herbal teas.

ROTFLMAO

While in London, I stayed in the home of a "Friend of a friend."

The first time I was offered tea, I explained that I was Mormon and couldn't drink tea, but since it simply wouldn't do to be in England and not 'take tea,' I had brought along my own herbal tea, which we were allowed to drink.

The lady I stayed with was very nice about this. She asked if I would like to just leave my herbal tea in the kitchen so she could have a pot all steeped and ready for me at mealtimes, and that's what she did.

(I grew up in a tea-drinking home, so I know what "real" tea tastes like and would have known if she had tried to slip some of the real stuff into my tea - but she never did.) She was very respectful of my beliefs and even took the time to introduce me to her Mormon neighbors.

I didn't try to be "in-your-face" about it. I did my best to show respect for the time-honored British tradition of "taking tea, and wanted to partake of it, but had to do it in a slightly different way because of my religious beliefs. Nobody seemed the least bit offended by this.

I'm happy to report that I did things the right way the next time I visited the UK. I drank just about everything, and plenty of it, from one end of the island to the other! Cheers!

(unless of course you have a good reason for it, such as "I don't like tea") ;-)

Not that people will flock to the church, or ask you what you believe that would make you so wonderful as to refuse tea, no, the missionary opportunity is in your action, and the message is clear: Mormons are weird.

This happened to us on more than one occasion. My wife is a convert (yeah, way to go JoD...), and after we gave up tea and coffee and smoking, we would go to our favorite restaurant and decline our traditional coffee. Did anyone ask us why? Yes, and we told them why. Did that impress them? Uh, no. They just shrugged and asked if we wanted something else.

Her mother joined the church not too long after that, and she was very proud of her new church. She was more than happy to tell people at the restaurant "no, we don't drink coffee, because we're mormons now!" Me kinda groaning inside, and the waitress rolling her eyes as she walked away.

Other people would look at us and it was a little embarrasing, but nobody ever asked us about the church. The look on their faces told us all we needed to know- we were weirdos.

So to be a missionary:
Want people to know more about the church? Be socially awkward.
If they should actrually care why you are socially awkward as a mormon they will look it up. And we all know what happens when people investigate the church without a church representative to guide their studies.