I have a ton of Jack Mormons in our family, and I just don’t have the heart to be rude to some poor kid who just wants the privilege of wearing the special underwear. But I haven’t had a lot of proselytizers from any religion since I hung up the rainbow flag. For some reason that seems to work as “Evangelical-B-Gone.”
You know, I’m rude as hell to these people. And why? Because I consider that they’re being rude as hell to me. Think about it – they’re basically saying to you, “You idiot, how you could possibly believe anything but what we believe?” Their disrespect for your beliefs is inherent in the fact that they show up at your door. Of course, they compound their sin by invariably showing up at dinnertime. Do I really need to be polite to someone who interrupts my dinner so they diss me?
When I was living in Taiwan, an absolutely gorgeous Chinese girl stopped by my apartment. The problem was she was a LDS missionary. She wasn’t very hard core and, in fact, talked mostly about living in the USA. She graduated from BYU and had just returned home (Taipei).
After about an hour I had to leave to teach a class. She asked if she could come back the next day and, of course, I said, “Fine”. Problem was it wasn’t her that showed up the next day. It was a “real” LDS missionary. I told him that the guy who had an appointment with the girl wasn’t here and that I was too busy studying to talk.
Turns out that a few of my friends who lived in the area had also been “set up” by the same girl.
They’re like chimpanzees. They’re cute when they’re young (think Osmonds), but when they get older, they get nasty.
Seriously, I’ve had them in before, and they were perfectly reasonable. I was pleased that they weren’t too pushy. Of course, I grew up in the Bible Belt, where people pester you about Jesus left and right, so just about anything’s a breath of fresh air compared to that.
When I’ve lived in a hot and humid climate, I usually invite the Mormons in for a cool drink, with the understanding that I’m not interested in converting. We have a nice visit about where they’re from, how much the humidity is killing them, and then I send them on their way. I figure they’re somebody’s kids and they’re honestly trying to do what they think is right, so I’ll at least be polite to them. Doesn’t mean I have to give them a chance to try to convert me, though; and they’ve always been quite respectful of my “no proselytizing” rule.
The JWs, though, I greet at the door trying (not too hard) with one hand to bare restraining the collars of my two large and LOUDLY barking dogs. “SORRY!” I shout over the din, “NOT TODAY.” They’ve always retreated rapidly. I’m not going to tell them that the dogs are barking because they want to greet their new FRIENDS! Everyone who comes to the door is a FRIEND! 
We have JW swarming all over around here, usually bright and early on Saturday morning. I’ve answered the door twice and told them politely I wasn’t interested and took the Watchtower the offered me, but after that I just ignored the knocks on the door (we’d always know they were coming because the neighbor calls us and says “JW alert!”). The last time they came by I was listening to music pretty loudly with the windows open. Coldplay, I think it was. I didn’t go to the door. They left a pamphlet in my door about depression. 
There’s a house right around the corner from me that is owned by an LDS guy who has lots of real estate here. He keeps this one house just for Missionaries (should it be capitalized?) to stay in. I invite them in, if they come by, and we talk about religion. I make sure they understand from the start that I’m not interested in converting, and I won’t try to convert them. Sometimes I invite them for dinner and attend family-type events at the church. Sure, I’ve run into a few who are rude and pushy, but mostly they’re polite, very nice, and have interesting things to say. JW’s, OTOH, I’m soured on. A couple of them stopped by one morning while I was getting ready for my daughter’s birthday party. “You’ll have to excuse me”, I said, “I’m terribly busy preparing for my daughter’s birthday party right now”. No matter how many times or ways I politely tried to get them to leave, they wouldn’t go until I got very firm/borderline rude about it.
Very strange anecdote. It is my understanding that LDS missionaries must be with their partner pretty much all of the time. I’ve never heard of one working alone.
Yes, that’s true. I don’t see how that particular girl could have been a real full-time missionary. A girl with an odd hobby seems more likely. The LDS Church does attract its share of …interesting people.
Well, one can not let a request like that go unanswered. 
I was not going to expand on it because I thought I forgot most of what the missionaries said. But checking the net and other sources, the back and forth of the meet came back to me, will get to post the results tomorrow.
I had these two Jehovah’s ladies who came by a few times when I was laid up with my female illness last year. One was a sweet looking old lady, and the other was a less sweet looking middle aged lady. I let them in just because I never really knew what the JW beliefs are.
They were really really nice the first time they came by, but got pushier and pushier. Finally I started bringing up things like drugs and gay sex and they got rather hostile and never came back. I figure if they are going to come in and tell me what they think, I at least owe it to them to tell what I believe in.
Things did seem to be a little different in Taiwan. The guy that showed up was casually dressed, not the white shirt, black tie and name tag that you see in the USA, at least here in CA, but both had copies of the Book of Morman with them. And the guy seemed to be a really hard core missionary type.
If he didn’t have a white shirt and a name tag, he wasn’t a full-time missionary. A ward missionary, possibly (regular congregant whose job is to contact interested people, but not to randomly proselyte–but they have tags too), but not a full-time missionary like you generally see. They look the same everywhere, and they always have the white shirt and tag. In Polynesia, they might wear sarongs instead of pants, but they’ve still got the shirt and tag no matter where they are.
Nope.
Missionaries have a very strict dresscode and ALWAYS work with their companion. It doesn’t matter if they are in the U.S.A. or B.F.Syberial. Those weren’t missionaries.
And it’s my understanding that the girls have to go out in threes, as opposed to the guys who go out in twos. But they never, ever, EVER go alone. Heck, an unmarried relative who converted to LDS a few years ago has a home religion teacher come by once a week, and since it’s a man he is not allowed to enter her home without another woman present. They’re very strict about propriety.
Strict about propriety, yes indeedy. But women missionaries are generally in pairs, too–both kinds are sometimes to be seen in threes for various reasons, so that’s probably what you’ve seen with the women.
My LDS relative told me the girls go out in threes; i’ve never seen them myself.
Of course, she has the missionaries over to play video games, which they’re really not supposed to do during their mission time. So clearly she’s an evil influence.
We get Mormon missionaries through Rochester every summer. The annual Hill Cumorah Pageant is in a town not far from here, so there are a lot of people involved with that coming to town.
I’ve never had a bad experience with them. Last year I got asked if I were interested in hearing about the Book of Mormon, and had they had no trouble with a polite, “No, thank you.” We got to talking about the pageant, and then went out seperate ways.
I’ve had mixed experiences with JWs, though.
The most annoying proselytizers, in my opinion, are the college kids going around getting signatures for PIRG legislation. They have mission driven into their heads, and no sense. Now, I grant had I wanted to argue with the JWs I might feel the same about them, too. The last time one of the PIRG kids came around they were pushing a bill to get schools to keep lists of all chemicals used on the premises, including health hazards, and first aid reccomendations. These were to be kept in a folder in the school administration’s office, and be available for parents to inspect at any time. They even had a proposed format for the data to be displayed in, which was not MSDS compatible.
When I asked why the current MSDS sheets required by Federal law weren’t acceptable, I got a blank stare. :rolleyes:
My office is right down the street from a LDS building, so I often encounter them on the street. I just tell them I will not join a religion that discriminates against women. Of course, they assure me that their religion doesn’t, I ask them if women can be ministers, they say no “but it’s not discrimination against women.”
I tell them yes it is, and they can tell me they agree with it but they cannot tell me it’s not discrimination against women.
I also tell them I would never worship a “god” who allowed 9/11 to happen.
In the 1990’s we worked with a couple of Russian guys at the hospital in Brooklyn who absolutely ADORED the JW’s. Why? Free English lessons. Invite them in, practice talking English for 1.5 hours, ask many questions about “how do you say x right”, then turn Russian-hostile in a blink of an eye and throw them out.
They were delighted when they came back.