My SIL, who is Russian, took English lessons from the LDS missionaries for a while back at home (before she met my brother or anything). It’s not uncommon in some countries–my younger brother taught English in Korea on his mission (I have 3–this is a different brother). It was considered part of their service hours, so while they were happy if someone was interested in the religion part of it, it was no big deal if they weren’t. There’s a lot of demand, so they try to fill some of it, that’s all–I can’t speak for the JWs of course. My SIL rather sheepishly admitted that she had no interest in anything but the English lessons; I think she was a little surprised when my mom laughed and said that was just fine.
Dad loved inviting JW’s in for a talk. After all, living in a different town from his siblings and all meant he didn’t get enough practice at debate. By the time they left, they usually had this glazed look in their eyes…
Personally, I have issues with the concept of missionary work to begin with, but mostly my problem is with missionaries going into tribal cultures and stripping the local culture and replacing it with their own. Like making the women wear shirts in the middle of the African summer because it’s apparently Evil In God’s Eyes to be topless… I dunno. The whole thing just pisses me off. Read the book Things Fall Apart for a good description, if you’re curious.
But my own personal experience is much like Miller’s, though I don’t remember if it was JWs or Mormons… but it just seems like most of the time when the goddies come knockin’ it is long before I’d have woken up intentionally on a Saturday.
Don’t know what time you wake up of course, but they weren’t at your door, or Miller’s, at 6:00 a.m.
But we wouldn’t want the truth to get in the way of a good story.
Nice of you to accuse me of lying, but I never said they came to my door at 6am. However, Saturdays and Sundays are the only time I get to sleep in. I tend to stay up until 4am or so and sleep in until noon, because the rest of the week I have to be up at 6:30am.
I am of the opinion that unless you’re expected, you don’t show up at someone’s house. I think it’s rude to knock on someone’s door uninvited. You don’t know that person’s schedule or what they may be doing (sleeping? sex? whatever).
I got chatted up by a couple of LDS missionaries who looked like college coeds. I was all proud at first, like, “Yup, I may be in my forties, but I’ve still got it! The babes can’t resist me!” Then they told me what they were up to, and I realized they were just using me for my soul. Life’s full of little disappointments. 
I didn’t accuse you of lying. Not once. Not even implicitly.
I don’t know what time you wake up, and said as much, right? I’m not too keen on people showing up at my house uninvited either. (and that includes friends!)
“But we wouldn’t want the truth to get in the way of a good story.” sure sounds like it to me.
For me that even includes girlfriends. But I can’t hold that against the JWs - the girls know, they don’t.
Yes, in fact, you did accuse us both of lying. Explicitly. I don’t know about OpalCat, but I’d like an apology. I don’t appreciate being accused of dishonesty.
As a lapsed LDS I had the missionaries sent to my door by an ever-so-helpful (not) neighbor. I was young (22) and tried to reasonably explain that I wasn’t going to let them in, I didn’t want to talk about The Church, blah blah blah. Finally the senior missionary asked if I still had my testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. When I responded with “I have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a liar” they took several steps backward (to avoid the bolt of lightning, I am certain) and they never returned.
A few years ago (different state) my neighborhood was apparently on a scheduled proselytizing effort. I answered the door, all floury from baking, and found to my dismay two bright and shiny faces connected to LDS missionary boys. I smiled and reiterated that I was absolutely not interested, thank you. After their persistence began to wear thin, I gave them my brightest smile and asked “Are you really going to force me to be rude?” They apologized, left, and I haven’t had an LDS missionary at my door since.
I am less kind to the JayDubs, although I attempt to be reasonably polite, but there was a time when the LDS church was a good place for me. My experiences with the Jehovah’s Witnesses has never been positive.
No, in fact, I did not. An example of me Expicitly calling you a liar would look like something like this:
Now of course I actually said,
which may be, at best, an Implicit example of me calling you a liar—and that’s only if that is the meaning you attach to my words. That was certainly not my intent. (read: my meaning)
At any rate, for all I know you may be using a liberal creative license in re-telling the story (an extremely common thing, best I can tell), or maybe you remember the time wrong considering they woke you up, or maybe you can’t tell time, or maybe you were hung over…or maybe you’re lying. I don’t know----and to know that I woukld be required to know what you were thinking. And…I don’t know that.
I do know that the JWs were not knocking at your door at 6:00 a.m.
(FTR, I try to be quick to apologize when it is appropriate. I hope/trust you understand that I was not calling you a liar, and so at least in this instance I won’t be aplogizing.)
Let’s assume for a moment that you are aware JW church policy is not to proselytize before ordinary people’s business hours. You are willing to assert that no one violated this policy at a time and location where you were not present?
Unless you can prove that you were at Miller’s or OpalCat’s house at 6 am on the day in question…
What does an apology cost you anyway? :dubious:
More polite phrasing for your sentiment would have been “It’s really unlikely for them to show up at 6 am, the church frowns on that because people don’t like it.” See how that wouldn’t have accused anyone of lying? 
LDS missionaries in my experience are perfectly nice people. However, I do think what they’re doing is really rude and arrogant; my religion is my business, and I could easily contact them myself. But I can’t bring myself to be rude to them, I’m sure they get plenty of that.
Mostly, though, I hate people dropping by. What if the place is a mess and I’m hanging around in pajamas, which is likely since I don’t usually stay dressed at home? If I wanted to see you, I’d have arranged it and would also be dressed. I don’t care what you want, if I don’t know you’re coming, get off my doorstep.
I must confess that in my only experience with either the LDS or JW (I believe that they were JW but I can’t be sure), I pretended to not be home. In my defense, I had a perfectly reasonable reason (at least in my opinion).
Prior to my senior year of high school, I broke my kneecap and was on crutches for several weeks. My parents had driven out to Illinois (where we have relatives) and I had elected to stay home, since the thought of riding ~8 hours (coming from PA) in a car with a cast and crutches is one of the least appealing things I can think of doing.
It was sometime during the afternoon, and I happened to be on the second floor of our house. I heard a vehicle come up the driveway, and hobbled my way to a front bedroom to look out the window. I believe it was a red minivan. Exiting the vehicle were (as far as I can remember) a man, a woman, and maybe one or two kids. They walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.
I considered the possibilities. I could hobble my way down the hallway, down the stairs, and to the front door, and talk to these people for who knows how long. Or, I could keep quiet, pretend to not be home, and hope they went away shortly, thus saving myself some trouble.
I chose the latter option. Hobbling down the stairs just to talk some missionaries might actually have been less appealing than the 8 hour car ride…
I miss that guy.
Hi Opal! 
A little bit long, but ignore the references at the end if you want to:
Needed to quote a little from **Billdo ** because it fits what happened: If it was me I would have politely send them on his way, but a friend of the family that was a Mormon confused my Dale Carnegie trained father as a good candidate for conversion and convinced him to set a meet with the family.
Two missionaries and a big guy that I assume was an Elder came in. We had our greetings and they set a small display in the middle of the living room, they had a book open to the picture of Joseph Smith getting the call, and then began their history and message, mostly the basics and how fortunate was America for having Jesus appear in this continent! According to the Book of Mormon of course. But the main message was the life of Joseph Smith and how he got his vision.
Well that was nice, but then I asked for what archaeological evidence was there for the book of Mormon?
[This is the moment they began to realize we were not a very low hanging fruit]
Quickly they flipped pages from a book on evidence they had and showed us the ( poor) evidence there was. *
They had to tap dance out of that one, IIRC they pointed to doctrines that tell them that locations are open to interpretation and better candidates are still out there, like the Mesoamerican temples and some pottery and metal stuff, but no good evidence IMO.
I pointed out then about the massive battles that had occurred like in the Cumorah hill and I asked then where were all the iron weapons or bones from the terrific battle? **
But the deal breaker came up when mother and I demanded an explanation on why and how, according to the Book, the Indians in America became dark skinned. ***
http://www.realmormonhistory.com/god&skin.htm
I did ask then if that was so, then if we became Mormons and repented, we should turn white? ****
I also made the point that I would have expected to see a Latino missionary by now, implying that the LDS still has ways to go.
Suddenly there was the “oh, look at the time! we got to go!” moment and promptly packed the stuff and with their faces turned red (not of embarrassment let me tell you) it was a wonder though that they still could say a polite goodbye and had a shake of hands, from the Elder that is. The missionaries were looking really upset and silent, it was an awkward moment and instead of waiting for the Elder (who was saying goodbyes to other family members).I decided to be conciliatory for a change.
I said not to feel bad, that we all believed in Christ (well, my family, I was then turning Agnostic) and we were only different on the way we prayed but we were all brothers. That did it, and we all shook hands in better spirits, of course the Elder or Missionaries did complain to the friend of the family because he then complained to us that the missionaries were disappointed that we did not turn as expected.
New References
The following references were found on my current search, and I wish I had them when I encountered them:
**
Well kimosabe, the latest Mormon research points at Mesoamerica as the most likely place for the acts of the book of Mormon, even pointing El Cerro Vigia, a hill in southern Mexico, as Hill Comorah! Problem is, it follows then that the LDS is fleecing believers in the wrong place then: http://www.hillcumorah.org/cumorah.asp
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/cumorah.htm
*** Other evidence that I whish I had then: No, god did not curse the indians, DNA and a Mormon (!) says so:
**** You know, it would have been trippy if Michael Jackson had been a Mormon :). To be fair, Mormons go to lots of pain now to show that they eliminated the so called idea about the curse of Cain, but they did so by changing their scripture too!
I just want to reiterate that my quoting of Miller’s post wasn’t meant to imply that missinaries ever came to my door at 6am, just to say that one of the reasons I didn’t like them is that they came while I was still sleeping.
I remember there was a simliar incident involving a chainsaw too. Anyone got a link to it?
I live in Las Vegas. More Mormons here than there are slot machines…I worked for an office full of them. Believe it or not, Mormons are big when casinos hire - they don’t gamble or drink…perfect for employers at casinos!
The Mormons I worked with are a bit like Catholics…officially they have to be staid church members, but one-on-one, well, the stories are a LOT different. I have met Gay Mormons, Mormons who drink, Mormons who gamble…but that is only in one-on-one conversations.
My major problem with the Mormons is their homophobia (one of the many reasons I am also an ex-Catholic) and also the Mormons tend to give holier-than-thou a whole new meaning. When you have a conversation with a true Mormon, you quickly learn what a cult member is. A woman I know moved to Salt Lake City…her stories of living there as a black, Baptist, single mother are both hysterically funny and tragic.
So on the very rare occasion that LDS boys ring the bell at my house, I am tempted to invite them in and get naked and offer them a Miller Lite…but in reality, I just say no thanks.
The Mormons I know have all gone on missions…most to foreign countries…and one thing I will give them credit for, when they return to the USA, they have a better perspective of world politics than most Americans…and quite a few return to the USA as Democrats!