Wednesday, January 17, 2007
So today I went to the post office with my friend's son, Yaakov. I got on line behind 2 well dressed young men, and I noticed they had name tags. I knew right away: Mormons. On a mission.
I was filled with conflict. Extrovert-Maven wanted to chat them up. Anthropologist-Maven wanted to pepper them with questions (hey, what's with the special "Mormon underwear?"). Lubavitcher-Maven won: just shut up and stand on line.
But one of them turned to me. "Awww, what a cute kid! What's his name?" "Yaakov," I answered. He looked at me quizzically. "Yaakov?" "Yeah, same as Jacob." He continued, "Do you like living in Miami? We're from Vegas." "Oh yeah? My mother-in-law lives in Vegas." (When are they going to start the Mormon schtick?) "Where in Vegas?" "I have no idea." They started to talking to the lady in front of me. (Was it my Jew-vibe?)
The lady told them there was Mormon church near her. One guy said, "Yeah, we're everywhere," and started ticking off countries. When he said Israel, I wanted to whack him. They gave her a picture of Mr. J. Then they went to the postal worker and chatted her up, all charming and friendly. Was this all part of a sinister plan, to Mormonize America?
One post office at a time?
Love, Maven @ 
8 Comments:
At 10:50 AM,
Mrs Andy said…
I feel I need to comment as a Mormon, just so your not confused...or want to smack the missionaries.
Mormons are in Isreal, however, we DO NOT proseletize or preach our beliefs. There is a satellite campus of Brigham Young University (BYU--the Church run college based in Utah) in Jerusalem. Students can take a sememster at the Jerusalem Center where they can study Jewish/Islamic/Middle Eastern history, relious studies etc.
Part of the agreement that our Chruch made with the government of Israel to establish the center over 30 years ago, was that the students and faculity there, would not prozeletize, preach or bug the residents of the country (Jewish and Muslim) about the Church. Students who do so, face expulsion from the program and disciplinary action from the Universtiy and possible jail time in Israel. So far, the Mormons who've gone to the Center have kept their end of the bargain and are well respected by the community.
I hope that puts your fears to rest, as a Chruch, one of the core parts of our beliefs is that "We claim the prvilidge of worshiping the Almighty G-d according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men (an women too!!) the same privilege, let them worship how, where and what they may."
The Mormon Church does have missionaries all over the world, but contrary to popular belief, we don't try to force our beliefs on people. The missionaries (and I was a missionary once) teach people about our faith and invite them to see for themselves if it's trut thru prayer, fasting and serious contemplation.
I hope this puts your fears to rest about Mormons in Israel. Have a good one.
At 10:53 AM,
Mrs Andy said…
I was also going to say, if you have any questions you'd like answered about Mormons, I'd be happy to answer them for you. There is no question too weird and I promise I won't preach to you either. :)
The email is: ourtimeineden AT gmail **dot**om
At 11:58 AM,
Maven said…
eden: i had a feeling i'd hear from you !
firstly, i want to assure you the post was written a little "tongue-in-cheek." we lubavs have our own outreach workers. if anybody's gonna take over the world, it's gonna be us! :)
secondly, i have a raging curiosity for different cultures and religions. truthfully, there's tons of questions i'd like to ask (mormon undergarments?). you can bet i'll be using the email address you provided. i didn't ask the mormons at the P.O. for many reasons, modesty amongst them.
i'm glad you cleared up the israel issue. watch your inbox!
At 3:44 PM,
Mrs Andy said…
I can hardly wait. Becuase truthfully, ever since I've been reading your blog I have a million questions for you too. So, I will watch my in box, but no hurry. I know you are busy with your sweet children and wonderful husband. :) Will talk to you later. :)
At 6:57 PM,
Maven said…
great! we'll open an "interfaith dialogue" via email.
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