I've had my first one since living alone. They seemed like a nice pair of blokes. They knocked on my door then asked me if they could have a talk about the bible, with a smile. I was busy so I politely asked them to leave. The guy in the front said he'd only take about a minute of my time. I insisted no, politely. He then nicely said, "Good bye, God-bless," and I said, "You too." I would've invited the guy in if I wasn't busy - something I couldn't do when I was still living with my parents. I'm personally an atheist but the academic, historical side of religion's always been interesting to me. My dad was a scientist and he was usually nasty to these kinds of people, especially when they caught him while he was working in the garage. You guys ever had interesting experiences with them?
Some Jehovah's witnesses helped my mom once, so for a while they would come over every Saturday morning and we would have to listen to them. Also, some Mormons helped my Mom move furniture so she told me they would be coming by and to "just let them talk and sing."
Fed a couple of them one time when I had some friends over watching sports. They showed up at the door and I told them I knew a ton about the Book of Mormon already, but if they wanted a burger they were welcome to stay. They came in and ate. Nice guys. We never talked about issues of faith, just sports and hamburgers.
I remember some stopped by my uncles house once and their first words were Do you believe in God? and my uncle said No. The guy was just lost for words and didn't really know how to respond.
i don't make a big deal out of them. i respect for having the guts to go door to door and getting shut down constantly. i've got no problem with saying, "Not interested" while looking at them in the eye. i don't like wasting their time or mine.
It seems like they always catch me on Saturday morning when I just woke up. What's worse is that my youngest daughter is the nicest ever, and she won't let me ignore them. "Open the door, dad... they're just doing they're job... be nice." So I am. I opened the door yesterday, and there was the same guy whom I've seen already before. "Oh, hey, [SwoLy]! I'm here to bring you this issue of--" "Look... I apologize for interrupting you, but... I need to be honest with you. I haven't even read the one you left last time. I am sorry to tell you that... because I am so busy and don't even have time to read my own stuff, I don't read yours. I don't want you to leave this here and I don't read it again. Sorry, but... I just won't and don't want to waste one you could give someone else." He said "OK... I appreciate your honesty... here's..." and he gave me a small pamphlet that says what the Bible says. We spoke a bit more and they left. They said "God bless" and went about their way. I just can't turn these peeps down. They're out there in the cold, spreading the Word, and I'm having just a nice conversation... but I feel bad NOT TAKING their stuff to read... so I just had to tell my daughter "look, I just don't want to be mean to them... let them ring once or twice if we're busy, and they'll leave." "But today it was good you at least told them you won't read their stuff, dad. That was good." The SwoLy household is a Catholic home.
We should make a movie out of this. A touching story about a man and his daughter... Spoiler FIGHTING CRIME AND KICKING SOME MORMON ASS! YEAH!
Can't really speak for Jehovah's witnesses (who I think are usually locals) or other Christian missionaries, but I was a Mormon missionary from Sept '97-'99. But for the most part, the random door knocking was generally the least entertaining part of that experience. It's definitely nice when people are friendly, even if they're in no way interested, but it definitely sucks when people throw bottles at your head and/or threaten you with guns, or better yet answer to the door in their underwear. (I don't need to see that, sir) You may not realize it, but any of the LDS guys (or girls) you see going around are far from home, and have very little communication with their families and friends, and are pretty much spending all of their time doing service and teaching. (it's actually a rule that you only call your family on Christmas and Mother's day - the idea is that you can stay focused on the work) They don't have a job; they don't go to school; they're literally full-time missionaries. The companionships are actually assigned by a mission president, and they tend to rotate to different towns/congregations every couple months. For example, during my 2 years, I had 13 different companions and served in 10 different areas. (I served in the Tacoma, Washington area) On a typical day, they wake up at 6:30, pray, do some light exercise, eat breakfast, and then study scriptures (Bible/Book of Mormon) for an hour individually, and then for another hour with their companion. Then, if you're in a place where you're speaking a different language, you study the language for another hour and a half. Otherwise, you literally spend the rest of the day (usually 10 AM to 9 PM) out in service. If you don't have specific teaching engagements, service opportunities, or any other appointments, you try to stay busy so in the end you just go knocking doors. Most of the time you get the cold shoulder, but occasionally you meet someone who's been hoping you'd come by, and that's why you do it. Anyway, I just wanted to shed some light into the daily lives of the goofy looking dudes wearing ties and riding bikes. You don't have to let 'em in your house, but feel free to give 'em a honk and a thumbs up sometime.
I've got no problem with them. If you don't want to talk to them, you don't have to. However, they provide for very interesting discussion or debate if you so choose. I've spoken with them a few times and can respect them.
Well the full-time missionaries are the ones responsible for teaching new people and getting them ready for baptism, and that definitely is one of their primary responsibilities. So yes, to a certain degree they're out looking for converts, but it's also about service and at the very least, just basic education I guess. There are a lot of misconceptions and, while obviously not everyone is ready or willing to accept the Mormon faith, we still believe it's beneficial to spread the word of God and bring the Spirit into people's lives.
