Happy Eyes
“Happy the eyes that can close.” --from Cry the Beloved Country
Sunday, February 11, 2007
When i have grown a foot or two...
We have new neighbors across the street that we've hit it off with. He's stationed at Ft. Carson and they're both from Idaho ("I-da-ho?? Noooooooooooooooo! YOU da ho!" Sorry, couldn't resist) but moved here from their most recent post in Maryland. Funny, we moved to Colorado and so many people around us are from the east coast--down the street a few houses are from Manassas, VA; next door to us are from Ft. Washington, MD (but in the Air Force); next to them are from Columbia, MD (!); and down a ways from Bowie, MD. Crazy. But i digress...We introduced ourselves to M. & B. (do i need to do pseudonyms when blogging??) and Doug helped them move some bigger stuff in. We later had them over to dinner and since then M. has joined me on a girls' night and we've had dinner on our own when her family was in Idaho and I've introduced her to some people in the neighborhood she might enjoy for playdates; etc. It came up that we were LDS and they just laughed and sort of did a "no way!" reaction and said that lately so many of their friends are LDS. Their close friends in MD were LDS and M. later told me that when she told this friend that WE were LDS her friend's response was basically, "Hello! Is someone trying to tell you guys something?" which was also B.'s comment. Anyway, I will be the first to admit that I am not a good member-missionary. I do not go out of my way to find people for the elders/sisters to teach. When the elders recently came over to do their schpeel and ask us what Doug and I are doing to find people to teach the gospel my response isn't cold, but it's honest. I tell them that I have lots of non-member friends and I am happy to answer their questions and invite them to activities when it feels appropriate, but I am not going out of my way to convert people. I am not friends with non-members with the goal to baptize in mind. I think I'm a decent example. People know I'm LDS and often that dispels erroneous ideas on their part. OK. So. During my last conversation with M. before I went out-of-town, she commented that she and B. need to find a church, that she's not psyched by a lot of the churches she's seen in the area (there's a heavy Evangelist influence in the Springs) and they usually go to the post non-denominational service but that's a 40 minute drive. I told her she was welcome to go to church with us to which she responded they'd probably be more comfortable at our church than a lot of other churches in the area. And from there, I don't remember the rest of the conversation. But no doubt I got distracted and failed to follow-up with more info or maybe that was just where the conversation ended. I don't recall. Well, I talked to Doug and he said they were at church today. Apparently their friends in MD referred the missionaries to them and they said they'd go to church. They stayed all 3 hours and Doug sat with them during the 2nd and 3rd hours. While I'm happy they were at church, I feel badly. I feel like I failed to act, that I should have been more specific with my invite to church, less off-handed maybe? I tend to beat myself up over stuff. I just hope I didn't put them off somehow, because that certainly wasn't my intention.
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3 comments:
It's so hard. I know how you feel. We invite our non-member friends to activities, and that's easy since we're in charge of them. But I always wonder if there is more we should do, and I am always more worried about doing more harm than good. Jake is definitely much better than me at that. But I think you could be that great member-missionary that is a great on-point helper, and maybe it's best that you were NOT the one to call the missionaries. You just never know.
I agree w/ Cami that you probably did just what these friends needed and felt comfortable w/. I'd never want someone to think that I was just friends w/ them because I hoped to convert them. It's so hard to know exactly the right way to be a member missionary, but it sounds like you're doing a great job!
So great that they decided to come and that Doug was there to help them out. You're doing great.
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