Day 329
It's been a tough week. We've been trying to work by the Spirit and go wherever we are directed to go, but we seem to be consistently led into the most hostile neighborhoods. We had just finished knocking doors about sundown last Friday, and a group of five kids, probably ages 17 to 19, started yelling at us across the street as we headed to the streetlight where our bikes were chained up. I'm learning to ignore it; generally it's just like a dog barking, and with the same basic motive. But lately... I don't know, I've been tired.
"I like yo bike, lemme have that!" one of them says. And my companion and I just stop, and look at them for a second. The smiles fade a little. And I say, "No. But I'll let you have something else," and walk toward them, reaching into my jacket to grab a pass-along card. It's the funniest thing: they so expect us to be intimidated by them that when we aren't, they're immediately threatened. You could see that split-second where their insides seized up, and they thought about running. Five kids, all of them bigger than either of us, ready to bolt when a 130 lb. white kid in glasses starts walking toward them. The wicked flee when no man pursueth.
So they freeze. I pull the first card from my shirt pocket, and they relax slightly. Each one holds out a hand to take a card, in total silence. I wish I had a camera. All except the last one; he looks off in another direction and starts, um, dancing. Like, really expressively. He's got his tough-guy face on, and completely ignores me and my card; just dances for a good 30 seconds, until we walked away. It was hilarious to us, but none of them seemed to think so; apparently we were being seriously dissed. It's a weird culture.
So we walked away; and once we were a good 50 yards off, some of the macho came back and they started making fun of us again, but it was just kind of petulant and sheepish. I'm really tired of people assuming we're completely emasculate just because we're white.
So we decided to get out of the ghetto for a while, and do some tracting in the U of M student housing. We talked to an elderly white lady on her doorstep, and when we told her where we were from, she said, "Oh, that cult?" And she proceeded to tell us how wrong it is to believe that Jesus is inferior to God and that only 144,000 will be saved, and all this nonsense, until we finally stopped her and said, "You know we're not Jehovah's Witnesses, right?"
And she finally stops for breath and says, "What?" And she's obviously flustered. "Well... who are you, then?"
"We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, like we said."
I was furious. I said, "Maybe you could let us tell you what we believe, instead of the other way around. It might not be the most Christlike thing, to judge someone's beliefs before you even know what they are."
Well, as you might imagine, she didn't like that very much. She started screaming through her storm door at us about how we had embarrassed her on her own property (I wanted to say, "Who embarrassed you? Nobody made you insult the wrong religion"), and how we thought we were so smart and why don't we go find someone else to humiliate.
So I apologized (insincerely, I'll admit), and we walked away. She follows us out, still screaming, but this time the mockery is actually directed toward our beliefs. She ran out of ideas before she ran out of breath, though, and eventually she started reaching. "Why don't you boys return to your angelic form??" she howled toward the end. To which we replied, "...what?"
Now, Elder Sellers, who is a better person than me, chastised me about it, and about five or six doors later I prayed about it and decided to go back and really apologize. She graciously accepted my apology, even (with difficulty) saying it was a "Christian" thing to do. She even apologized for her behavior. But the crazy thing was, she didn't stop; she kept on berating everything we believe in, just breathing out pure hate on us... I was surprised it didn't turn her teeth black. It was almost like she couldn't help it, or didn't notice it. Some people are so accustomed to hatred that it's almost their native tongue.
So we ducked away as quickly and politely as we could manage, and kept walking. We knocked into another house on the same street, and a college student in a mohawk and a "Rage Against The Machine" shirt answered the door. We said who we were and where we were from; and he, apparently mistaking us for The Machine, says, "Well, you can f--- off."
"Wow," we say. "That's not very nice."
And he says, "If you knock on my door again, I'm going to f---ing slit your throats," and slams the door.
So we didn't knock again. I've been thinking about baking him a Tupperware full of cookies and leaving it on the doorstep. Love, the Missionaries. Kids are funny.
Other than that, it's been a terrific week! It's been in the upper 20s and rainy, so knocking doors all day has been a blast. Hah, actually, I'm feeling strangely content. We've met several very nice, intelligent people who are hungry for the message. Life is good.
--Elder Dolan
"I like yo bike, lemme have that!" one of them says. And my companion and I just stop, and look at them for a second. The smiles fade a little. And I say, "No. But I'll let you have something else," and walk toward them, reaching into my jacket to grab a pass-along card. It's the funniest thing: they so expect us to be intimidated by them that when we aren't, they're immediately threatened. You could see that split-second where their insides seized up, and they thought about running. Five kids, all of them bigger than either of us, ready to bolt when a 130 lb. white kid in glasses starts walking toward them. The wicked flee when no man pursueth.
So they freeze. I pull the first card from my shirt pocket, and they relax slightly. Each one holds out a hand to take a card, in total silence. I wish I had a camera. All except the last one; he looks off in another direction and starts, um, dancing. Like, really expressively. He's got his tough-guy face on, and completely ignores me and my card; just dances for a good 30 seconds, until we walked away. It was hilarious to us, but none of them seemed to think so; apparently we were being seriously dissed. It's a weird culture.
So we walked away; and once we were a good 50 yards off, some of the macho came back and they started making fun of us again, but it was just kind of petulant and sheepish. I'm really tired of people assuming we're completely emasculate just because we're white.
So we decided to get out of the ghetto for a while, and do some tracting in the U of M student housing. We talked to an elderly white lady on her doorstep, and when we told her where we were from, she said, "Oh, that cult?" And she proceeded to tell us how wrong it is to believe that Jesus is inferior to God and that only 144,000 will be saved, and all this nonsense, until we finally stopped her and said, "You know we're not Jehovah's Witnesses, right?"
And she finally stops for breath and says, "What?" And she's obviously flustered. "Well... who are you, then?"
"We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, like we said."
I was furious. I said, "Maybe you could let us tell you what we believe, instead of the other way around. It might not be the most Christlike thing, to judge someone's beliefs before you even know what they are."
Well, as you might imagine, she didn't like that very much. She started screaming through her storm door at us about how we had embarrassed her on her own property (I wanted to say, "Who embarrassed you? Nobody made you insult the wrong religion"), and how we thought we were so smart and why don't we go find someone else to humiliate.
So I apologized (insincerely, I'll admit), and we walked away. She follows us out, still screaming, but this time the mockery is actually directed toward our beliefs. She ran out of ideas before she ran out of breath, though, and eventually she started reaching. "Why don't you boys return to your angelic form??" she howled toward the end. To which we replied, "...what?"
Now, Elder Sellers, who is a better person than me, chastised me about it, and about five or six doors later I prayed about it and decided to go back and really apologize. She graciously accepted my apology, even (with difficulty) saying it was a "Christian" thing to do. She even apologized for her behavior. But the crazy thing was, she didn't stop; she kept on berating everything we believe in, just breathing out pure hate on us... I was surprised it didn't turn her teeth black. It was almost like she couldn't help it, or didn't notice it. Some people are so accustomed to hatred that it's almost their native tongue.
So we ducked away as quickly and politely as we could manage, and kept walking. We knocked into another house on the same street, and a college student in a mohawk and a "Rage Against The Machine" shirt answered the door. We said who we were and where we were from; and he, apparently mistaking us for The Machine, says, "Well, you can f--- off."
"Wow," we say. "That's not very nice."
And he says, "If you knock on my door again, I'm going to f---ing slit your throats," and slams the door.
So we didn't knock again. I've been thinking about baking him a Tupperware full of cookies and leaving it on the doorstep. Love, the Missionaries. Kids are funny.
Other than that, it's been a terrific week! It's been in the upper 20s and rainy, so knocking doors all day has been a blast. Hah, actually, I'm feeling strangely content. We've met several very nice, intelligent people who are hungry for the message. Life is good.
--Elder Dolan