Posted by:
overit
(
)
Date: March 24, 2017 03:19PM
Picture the scene. Clinging on by my finger nails to church activity, the monthly "Feed the Missionaries" list was passed around Relief Society. (Mormon men clearly unable to organise such a challenging thing) RS president did her usual passive aggressive speech about the same families are always feeding the missionaries, so I reluctantly agreed to feed them one night. I dutifully prepared a tasty meal and desert aT considerable cost, and my children and I awaited their arrival as the food over cooked in the warming tray of the oven. 45 minutes late they arrived, and then they realised the awful truth. I WAS A SINGLE WOMAN, Worse, a solo mother. I could NOT be trusted alone with their priesthood authority. I must have had "cougar" tattooed on my forehead because these young worthies were not crossing the threshold of my house without a man to protect them both from my tiny frame. A gaggle of children was apparently not enough to save them from my desperate sex starved whiles. They teetered a while when my teenage son arrived on the scene but as he was "only an Aaronic priesthood holder" he was not able to protect them. So the dilemma...they called the ward mission leader who invited himself to dinner. That was the stage I discovered a back bone. "Elders, I have not invited the ward mission leader to dinner. I am a Temple Recommend holder, is that not evidence that I am a member of good standing" SILENCE... (answer - apparently not) Awkward missionary shuffling at the doorstep as they still are too righteous to step over the threshold of wanton single woman/mum's abode for fear of desecration) Elder 2, not tuned in to my seething anger then suggested that we, the family eat indoors, while they the oh so righteous elders eat in the drizzle turning downpour in my garden. I look at them like they are idiots. My 6 year old pipes up "Why don't the missionaries like us? Are all missionaries mean? I thought they were supposed to be kind but these ones are rude" cue snorting laughter from "not quite righteous enough teenage son" I stared at them like mad men and said "elders I invited you to dinner with my family at request of my relief society president, you can eat with us or go hungry" They chose the moral high ground and went hungry that night. I never fed missionaries again, we left the church and lived happily ever after...I wonder if this incident made it to the homecoming talk?