Yeah, odd contradictory title huh? Pretty much describes the day, though--for pretty much the whole day until supper, the place pretty much turned into a ghost town as all the Mormons went off to church. And church is apparently quite long--on the schedule, the two different church times are both three full hours in length. Wow. Back when I went to church in White Rock Gap when I was a kid, church was... maybe an hour if the preacher wasn't there that day, maybe an hour and a half or even two if he was.
Anyway, the day started off pretty lonely and boring. Attempted to get my dad to come take me back home for a while to visit with him, Mom, and Julia (and also get some stuff I forgot to bring), but later found out (when Mom called) that he was up camping on McAffee's Knob. Apparently he forgot that I was going to call him and ask him to come get me, or something along those lines. Eh, it ended up okay (though boring for a while), I hung out in the basement lounge drawing stuff, listening to music, and drinking orange soda while waiting for my clothes to get washed and dried. First time using the laundry room went fairly well, considering I haven't really had much practice with the whole washing clothes thing... forgot to use fabric softener but it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.
Day finally started getting better around suppertime--bumped into a bunch of people I knew in there (mostly from my orientation group) and sat with them and talked a little while I ate (and they finished off the last bits of their food--I guess they had been in there for a while already.) Then a couple of guys I hadn't met before sat down and ate and talked with me for a little while, and finally a couple of girls showed up after they left and I talked some more and showed them some stuff I'd drawn. Lots of talking and getting to know people a little better, and I'm finally starting to remember at least some people's names now. I ended up being talked into going to the fireside (which, oddly, does not involve fire--it's a meeting-type thing at the LDS church where several people give speeches, tell stories, etc. and they sing a few hymns.) Stories were actually kind of interesting--apparently one of the speakers had actually had some pretty similar experiences in his younger years to what I went through. Plus I got to sit with people I knew and talk a little before/after the speeches, and eat brownies and ice cream (so once again, no need to break out the M&M's tonight!)
After that a bunch of people went to this thing where everyone gathers in front of the hill in front of the main hall and sings hymns. I'm not a singing person at all, so I just quietly mumbled along with the words most of the time (though I did sorta-mumble-sing a bit, rather than just mumbling, when they got to the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner.) Afterward, there was lots and lots of talking, and I ended up getting better at remembering people's names, getting to know them a bit better, and also getting invited to two different wards' barbecues--one tomorrow night, and another the next week. Wow... people are actually inviting me to stuff. It's kind of surprising after what I was used to from high school, and even somewhat from Dabney, where nobody seemed to want to have any contact with me at all outside of school and would just kind of give me a funny look if I brought it up.
Actually even got into my first religious discussion with a couple of Mormon girls--and rather than the usual conversion attempts and "you're-different-than-me rage," they actually seemed pretty impressed with who and what I am, and actually focused more on what we have in common rather than petty differences. My faith (pun not intended) in religious people's ability to actually be nice and friendly just got a bit of a boost, I guess.
Interesting Mormon trivia: the Holy Spirit is actually pretty well-defined in Mormonism, rather than just being the very vague "third part of the trinity that nobody really talks about much" that I was used to seeing in some other Christian groups. Basically, as it was explained to me, it's a sort of presence in/around everyone that lets you know what God wants you to do if you stop and listen to it. I'm not sure if other Christian groups have a similar explanation, but I know I've never heard anyone describe exactly what the Holy Spirit is (or why it's defined as a separate thing) during my years going to church as a kid.
No comments:
Post a Comment