So...

I'm a bit of an anomaly in Latter-day Saint circles. I'm in my thirties, never married, a bit of a liberal Mormon, and yet I'm still active with a Stake calling.

This afternoon, a single sister in the Ward stopped by my place unannounced. Her reason?

"I felt impressed that you need a friend, and felt prompted to stop by this afternoon..."

Was that an insult? :)

Of course, she *did* bring me banana bread. She really is a nice girl, and so I don't want to speak negatively about her. I appreciated her reaching out. I've had a rough week, and she knows it. But, I found the prompting comment a bit bizarre.

What were some of the most outlandish promptings you received or heard about in your TBM days?

Okay, I'll bite. You're single, she's single. I think she wants to jump your bones (after marriage, of course). Maybe she's making the first move.

If you like her, why not reciprocate? The Boner.

My mom's TMB friend kept being "prompted" to have seven kids with a TBM RM who never finished High School.

The ensuing financial and emotional burdens were enough to scare anyone who knew them, TBM or not.

20 years later they got a divorce.

My parents were prompted to reproduce and neglect and abuse. Sort of a package deal with the homely ghost, I guess.

Nice.

My translation for "I felt impressed that you need a friend, and felt prompted to stop by this afternoon..." is really:

"I was raised to believe that men asked women out, but you're single, I'm single, we're similar in age, and for some reason you haven't asked me out yet. In order to convince you how wonderful of a wife I could be, here is an offering of banana bread. I hope you taste of it's deliciousness and become addicted to my cooking so you'll ask me to bake you something again in the future, and I may eventually cure your loneliness. Because you hold a Stake calling, everything in your life is dictated by promptings, so I thought it would be important to assure you that I was prompted to be here. Now that I have shown you my domestic skills, please ask me on an official date immediately."



Non-mormons would chalk this up as building a friendship. It's just the weird code talk that makes it awkward. Someone who had never been raised LDS would just say that they were thinking about you and wanted to say hello.

I've been racking my brain trying to think of any outlandish promptings...I can honestly say there haven't been any that I can recall.

I think it's just an excuse for Mormons to do something outside of their comfort zone. If they blame it on the Holy Ghost, then it can't be wrong!

do you wear plaid pants ?

When I was single, I was dating a particular girl and on one of the dates, she kept mentioning about her getting ready to go on a mission (hint, hint). I got a "prompting" that said, "marry her." Thankfully I ignored it... I wasn't really that much into her.

"promptings" = impulses, good or bad

Just be glad that this one was fairly benign. She does sound like a nice girl.

Just wait until someone else gets a prompting that you disobeyed a prompting to marry her! I've seen stranger things happen.

My father got really upset that I wasn't getting revelation that matched his revelation about me, and I couldn't even guess until years later what it was. That seems like outright mental illness to me.

My ultra TBM sister (currently a Stake Relief Society President) told me the following 3½ years ago when I was still ultra TBM:

She said, "I feel prompted that you need to move to Utah (Utah County). You need to sell your California house before the price goes down any further. I just know God will bless you for it."

The reality?

I did NOT sell my home. In the past 3½ years it has gone up $270,000 from its low of $600,000. It's now worth $870,000. I've made ¼ million dollars on my residential home investment. I then discovered MormonThink during that time and learned that TSCC is a fraud. I will NEVER move to Utah County (or Utah with the Mormon cult-controlled Morgbots running amuck).

I just know God blessed me for NOT following her promptings!!!!