Day 109 – Go Home Mormons -July 15, 2006

Later today, Elder Pierce and I stopped and talked with a woman who was having a nice picnic dinner with a few friends. She and they were on top of this little hill, a table cloth was spread out for them to sit on. Their dinner was over at this point, so they sat and talked about current events. Trying to be a better, bolder missionary, I walked up and introduced myself and my companion. I told the woman that we had a message to share with her. “Go away Mormons!” she said, very angrily. “Have you had a chance to hear our message?” I asked. She said, “I don’t want to talk to you! I’m a holy roller! (with some amount of puffed-up pride). She then added, “I’m a God fearin’, tongue-speakin’, Jesus lovin’, black woman runnin’ for my life!” <(direct quote)

So, not wanting to spend our time with this obviously close-minded individual, we turned to leave. As we were leaving, she yelled at us, “I know all about you people and your million dollar mansion that you call a temple.” I stopped, turned around and walked up to her and her friends. I looked up at her from the bottom of the hill and said, “The temples are Holy houses of the Lord that can only be entered by those who are earnestly trying to keep the commandments of God.” She was quiet for a second. When she next spoke, she said some odd things as a response. She said, “God’s gonna let anyone in his house that wants in. You discriminate. That does not sound like God. It sounds like the devil.” I responded, “I’d have to disagree with you. In the Tabernacle, there were some rooms that only Moses could…” “Don’t tell me about Moses!” she snapped. I know all about Moses. And I know all about your church and I know it’s wrong!” I told her that I was worried that the things she had heard about our church were not true. I told her that we were here to tell her the truth about what we believe and let her choose which path to follow. “Be gone Mormons!” she shouted.

So we left her and went to check on W to see about him coming to church tomorrow. He wasn’t home, so I guess he will not be at church again this week. As we were leaving, we again passed the “holy roller” on the hill. We were on our bikes. She saw us and started yelling at us, “Go back to your mansions, Mormons”. She started singing an anti-Mormon song. I did not know there was such a thing. I could not hear all of it, but I heard what I guess was the chorus. “Go back to your temple, Mormon. In peace, leave me be. I don’ need your temple, Mormon. My God’s good enough for me.” Wow. Just when you think you’ve seen it all…