Lynn, no. They think that you haven’t heard of the RIGHT brand of Christiainity!
I used to get Mormon missionaries all the time when I lived in Utah(go figure), but I haven’t ever seen a once since moving to Oregon. I’m pretty sure they can sense evil and don’t bother with me any more. Although I do miss asking them where Elder Barry is! I never get tired of that joke!
Now that I think of it, I don’t ever get missionaries any more. I do get people looking for the old folks home on the next street over. I think the closest I’ve had to missionaries is the two mortuary salesmen that showed up looking well dressed and already dead 
Only once, when living up in Clifton Park, NY. Must have been around '90. Two Mormons knocked on my apartment door. I was in a bad place mentally, so I accepted a Book of Mormon from them and chatted awhile. Nothing came of it and they never bothered me again.
None since then, and never been approached while out and about. That may be due to being large, ugly and having a near-constant pissed off expression on my face
We’ve had Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and, I believe, some Seventh Day Adventists, plus a few I never stopped to figure out which cult they represented.
But the most interesting was when I was a kid in the early seventies. My family had gone down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Our parents left us in the motel room and went out for dinner. Someone came knocking at the door, where us four fairly young kids were sequestered - I was probably about 10 years old at the time. It was a small group of Hare Krishnas. They were probably soliciting as much as proselytizing. They asked for a donation and gave us a book on Krishna. I gave them some money, probably about five cents in pennies, which was pretty much all we had.
I once had a JW come to my door. I stopped staying home on Sundays.
My roommate in college actually invited some Mormons in. He let them talk for a while, using cups with the various “saints” on them. He then asked for the cups to show them what he believed, but they said they’d talk about it when they came back next time. They never did.
We don’t get anyone banging on our door because we live in an apartment building. No one buzzes in missionaries.
So instead they preach on the street and in subways. The LDS missionaries are usually quite lovely; whenever they are in front of the supermarket, they help my wife home with her groceries. JW witnesses just sit on the subway platforms and hand out the Watchtower, so they aren’t too bad, either.
It’s the Jews for Jesus that get on my tits.
We have a Jehovah’s Witness who phones us occasionally. She’s very nice, and we’re willing to talk to her. Not changing our minds at all, which I think she finds challenging. We don’t mind.
I’ve never been approached by Mormons, just occasional Pentacostal street preachers.
Growing up on the southside of Chicago you get hit on by the jehovah witnesses a lot… i learned my lesson about being polite but not direct when i was 13… i was raising money for Live Aid (remember that) when a JW told me that it was waste of time… that the earth was coming to an end in several years and that the people in Ethiopia were all destined for hell. I really had nothing further for them after that… when i find out someone is a witnesses i usually chalk it up to a lack of education or some mental defect and ignore it… (hence THe Williams sisters… Micheal Jackson etc)
We got the Mormons later on… all of these white dudes in dress shirts riding bikes through the neighborhood. I asked them when they dropped the whole curse of ham bit and they really had nothing else further to say… i remember i told one they only got interested in black people when BYU couldn’t keep up in d one football anymore without the brothers… i think Lawrence O’Donnell had a valid question for Mitt Romney… but he also shoudl pose it to Harry Reid… so you both were members of a church that considered black americans to be some sort of descendants of a curse… ??
I’ve gotten Mormons once or twice. Moe often, I get the JWs who pull into the parking lot next to my bus stop and proceed to try to offer me stuff - at least once a month the same woman does this and she has yet to get the idea that I don’t want the stuff. I’m almost always the only one at that bus stop when she comes by too.
I was approached by LDS members after dark when I was walking home once. That was a little nervewracking. I felt like the minute I tried to walk away they would bash me over the head and carry me off. Probably irrational, because it IS a pretty safe neighborhood, but I felt pretty on-edge the whole time I was dealing with them.
I haven’t gotten very many in the last few years… perhaps after what I did, they marked me down as a no-go.
I have a theology minor and while I’m not a supreme expert on religion, I definitely know a thing or two about it. Well, the Jehovah’s Witnesses came a-knocking and I wanted to toy with them. I sat and listened to them for a few minutes until they gave me an opening by saying something like “Do you have any questions?” or “Do you understand what we’re saying?”
I jumped right in there. I started asking about Thomist Metaphysics, about faith-alone redemption vs faith and works, etc., etc. Whatever I could pick out of their conversation, I asked them about. They weren’t quite sure how to continue and after they got a bit befuddled, I admitted that I’m Catholic and a theology student and after a close, scholarly look at my religion (and others), I decided to stay where I am. I just wanted to have a “nice chat” with them (as they put it when they started the conversation).
I haven’t seen them since.
I get Mormons, whom I blow off by telling them I would never join a religion that doesn’t treat all people equally. When they protest that “we don’t do that,” I point out they have NO female preachers. This works with any religion that doesn’t allow a woman to head it.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are good to talk to because they will try forever to get their ideas across. I point out the if God is god and Jesus is god, you have two gods, but you claim to have only one god. And that eating blood is not the same as a blood transfusion.
At home I’ve gotten the two young men in white dress shirts and ties, wearing backpacks. I assume they were Mormon, but we never got that far. I see them walking around often.
One time I was reserving some park picnic tables for a birthday party when a Jehovah’s Witness came up to chat. That was actually fun, she probably wasn’t expecting a stark “I’m an atheist” response and a conversation about evolution.
Get a few Jehovah’s Witnesses now and then.
My conversation stopper is telling them I can’t hear well. Then they flee. I’m like, WTF? Why are you fleeing all of a sudden? Weirdest example were the two guys who were nice enough to show me how to operate a lawnmower (while hubby was away on a deployment) and then just turned tail. I knew they were missionaries by the pamphlets they were carrying, but they didn’t give me any. I suppose it’s good they’re not trying to actively convert me, but don’t deaf people deserve to be saved or whatever?
Now here’s a question, have you ever been a missionary?
When my wife was a girl, some missionaries stopped by her house and convinced the babysitter to leave with them and get religion. The babysitter and the missionaries took off, leaving the future Ms. Attack and her 2 brothers, all less than 5 years old, alone until their mom came home hours later. As you can imagine, it is best that she not deal with missionaries, so I get that job.
I usually tell them that we are getting excellent results from our current religion, but we will call them if the service goes downhill. This usually ends the conversation.
I’ve probably had about every variety of christian knock on my door trying to save my soul. The good cocktail party stories include the following: the Mormon young man whose face went totally white and started shaking when I said, “Of course, I can see the future. For example, I know you will die a virgin.” The Pentecostal minister who wanted me to pray with him and who went total berzerk and starting shouting “Abomination” when I grabbed his hands and began praying to the Great Goddess of the Tarot. The Baptist deacon who still hasn’t given me a good answer to how fortunetellers can be cursed, but the magi of the bible were important and valued visitors to the young Jesus.
I tell them I have no interest in religion and more often than not, they thank me and leave.
However, they usually come on Saturdays and that is when I wear my Satan outfit.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have come by on several occasions; these are indeed the middle-aged or older ladies. They have also been rather simple (not all JWs, just the ones who’ve come to my door). One lady attempted to convince me that evolution wasn’t true by pointing out that the Volvo parked nearby couldn’t turn into a Volkswagon. When I said “Yes, but cars don’t reproduce” I could tell by the look in her eyes that the conversation had already stepped off into the deep end as far as she was concerned. I tried lobbing metaphorical softballs back to her but she quickly turned and ran. Never came back. The other ones just gave me the literature and went away.
One extremely earnest, grinning fellow stopped me when I was working in the front yard to invite me to his church (some little local Pentecostally type show). When I told him I was an agnostic you could see the mental tape of his pre-prepared spiel snap and jam the gears as he attempted to process this. I then had to explain what an agnostic was, but I don’t think he really ever understood.
The local Baptists have been by to invite us to church; no proselytizing, just a “howdy neighbour, this is where we are, feel free to stop by” which was nice.
And I’ve not had any Mormons knock on my door but occasionally run into them on public transport. We chat about non-religious things. I feel so sorry for those boys, sent away from home for a year for the purpose of annoying total strangers and receiving abuse. That’s gotta be hard.
We get the Mormons once in a while. Last time was while I was washing the car, and they offered to help. We had a perfectly nice conversation, followed by “thanks but no thanks”.
The JWs don’t come around anymore. My wife talked to some of them several times, not to confront but to find out what they believed, and they found out she wasn’t going to convert and they stopped coming around.
Most of the houses on my block have “No Solicitation” signs up, so by the time they get to our end they usually get the idea.
Regards,
Shodan