I actually never heard this story before last night, over dinner with Mrs. Hela.

It was 1997, and both Mrs. Hela and I were still TBM (well, I was TRYING to be...). As usual, I was serving as Ward Clerk and my dear wife was in charge of the craft projects for RS. She is good at that stuff; she oil paints, makes jewelry, cobbles together decor from scraps. And she makes it all look much, much better and have more utility than the usual crap emerging from Relief Society craft projects. Certainly, her stuff is leagues beyond tampon angel xmas tree ornaments (Search that story on RfM if you dare).

Anyway, she was as happy with her calling as I was miserable with mine.

Then one Sunday after sacrament meeting, she was approached by the ward's 1st Counselor to the Bishopric. He was an odd guy. Wore a full beard, was a vegetarian in order to be a WoW extremist but loved his coffee enemas. Anyway, he cornered my wife and asked her if she'd accept the call to be Primary President.

Mrs. Hela cocked her head to one side like a dog trying to understand human speech (her words, not mine) and blurted out, "But I don't like kids."

To which Odd 1st Counselor replied, "Neither do I. Hate 'em. Can you start next Sunday?"

Of course, being TBM at the time, it never occurred to my wife to refuse the calling.

Luckily for her, we got an opportunity two weeks later to move into a much nicer home, so we left that ward before she had to do too much.

In any case, I looked at my wife last night after she told me this and said, "You've never really been a good fit for mormonism, have you?"

She smiled sheepishly and replied, "Yes, and I'm just now realizing what I should have seen all along."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2012 11:34AM by helamonster.

were meant to be in--a square peg?? I never fit in in mormonism and I tried so damn hard.

My TBM daughter keeps trying--her father told her not too long ago "your mother was NEVER happy in mormonism." I just thought I had no other choice.

"I just thought I had no other choice." That may be one of the most significant statements on this board in a long time.

That reminds me of when I was called as YW pres. I told the bishop I would rather to to hell than to girls camp...thought he should know that. I did serve as pres. but I had people who enjoy camping do camp for me. I didn't stay overnight once, just made my appearance for daytime activities. I wish I knew your wife, I think we'd get along great. I'm surprised a counselor asked her to be president, the bishop extends callings to presidents, that's my experience anyway. The bishops counselor usually extends all the other orginizational callings.

It's been a number of years since that happened, so it might've gotten a tad jumbled in her memory.

That's a great story.

When I would get a phone call asking me to do something, I'd just say, "No," then listen to the dead silence on the other end. They always expect an excuse. I didn't owe them an excuse. The fact that I didn't want to do it was excuse enough. So after the awkward silence, they'd say, ok, and we'd hang up. Ha, ha.

At first I thought this thread would be about Henrietta Lacks.