Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Conversion part 2

Scroll down to read part 1

Tara and I started hanging out a lot. We mostly hung out at her house probably because her mom is hilarious and her house is ginormous. Sometimes, when I would come over two guys in suits and tags wanted to do a little lesson with me. I didn't mind listening to their spiel. I always did because I thought they needed to give so many lessons to get some kind of merit badge. I really didn't think these lessons would benefit me much at all.

I always believed what they said about Joseph Smith. He had a life changing experience, what is there to pray about? I thought, "good for him." I didn't see the use in praying about it like they always asked me to do because I didn't doubt it. I also never had much luck praying. Probably because I had absolutley no idea what I was doing and I only prayed about frivolous things that seem to only matter to a teenage girl. I had prayed maybe twice in my life at that point. Anywho, I never doubted Joseph Smith's experience but I also had no idea what it had to do with me. Remember I was taught nothing about Christ. Well, eventually the elders asked me to get baptized. I really didn't know what that meant but I said sure because I didn't know what else to say. Honestly, I thought the idea of baptism sounded very strange. I spent the next couple weeks avoiding the missionaries like Aaron avoids mayonnaise. Yep, I was one of those investigators. Please don't hate me.

I continued to hang out with Tara. New missionaries came and went. I always meet with them like Tara asked me to, but I learned to say "no" to the baptism question. I didn't want to be Mormon but I also didn't mind helping them with their "merit badges." I never once fulfilled my assignment to read the Book of Mormon and I honestly can't remember if I ever prayed about anything they asked me to. I think I went through four sets of missionaries. If you served a mission I give you permission to get frustrated with me all over again, I'm sure those missionaries were.

To be continued...

2 comments:

middledavis said...

Jen, I'm glad you're writing your conversion story. It's very interesting so far. I'm sure I'll like the whole thing because I love a happy ending!

Christopher said...

can't wait to hear the rest :)