Thursday 6 May 2010

A visit from the Mormons

Last night we were visited by representatives of the church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-Day Saints AKA the Mormons. Having recently read an article from the Sunday Times about their programme of sending young people around the world to spread the word, their visit was a bit like bumping into a celebrity for me.

We were making our dinner at about 6.30pm when we heard a knock. Given we only know about 10 people in this country, we tend to assume someone knocking on the door is asking us to move our car in the car park. My boyfriend answered the door and there were two young men dressed in shirts and ties with little backpacks on. They both looked very neat and nervous. They each had a little name tag written in Greek.

My instinctive thought was – don’t let them in, they will try to brainwash us! Luckily my boyfriend is slightly friendlier than me. They stood in our entrance way for a while explaining that they were representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-Day Saints. I asked the obvious. Apparently Mormons is their nickname. Even our usually feral kitten was silently watching them next to us. Usually he runs and hides from visitors but obviously even he found them to be quite gentle.

We invited them in and ended up having a very enjoyable chat with them about their work in Cyprus. These young men had saved $10,000 each in order to have the opportunity to spread the word during a two year stint abroad. The one man was from Utah and the other from Germany. They both spoke fluent English as well as Greek. Quite incredible considering that Greek is a hard language. They were quite disappointed that people in Cyprus seldom actually talk with them in Greek but instead respond in English.

Intriguingly, they have actually managed to convert some Greek Orthodox Cypriots to the Mormon faith. Certainly, their visit helped me to learn about a religion that I know little about and it probably does result in the occasional conversion. They were not pushy in their methods but instead were happy to just answer any questions and provide information. I definitely have more respect for a religion where believers actually do something for their faith.

4 comments:

  1. You have an open mind - this is an invaluable asset.

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  2. They have pretty notorious and unfortunate views about interracial marriage. I hear it is slowly changing.

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  3. I didn't know that. Off to look it up. I definitely don't agree with a religion that is that narrow-minded.

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  4. I think it's really tied to American history and when/how Mormanism emerged. Unfortunately because of the insular nature of the Morman system those roots could take a very long time to grow out of. For sure, not every Mormon everywhere is some kind of bigot, but sometimes these things get entrenched in unexpected ways, right.

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