I come from Utah where I had only a handful of non-Mormon friends. So it is quite the different experience to be here in California surrounded by mostly non-Mormons. I've recently had the experience of having a a good non-member friend accompany me to some Relief Society Enrichment nights. My friend grew up Methodist but married a Jewish man. So they basically don't do religion in their family because it is too complicated. You can just imagine what December is like for their two children. One set of grandparents must celebrate Hanukkah and the other set must do Christmas. So it is all crazy whirlwind of celebration in December. Even though my friend has made it clear she's not looking for religion, she does enjoy going to enrichment nights with me for the girls' night out aspect and an evening away from the kids. I don't push anything. What would be the point of being pushy with anyone anyway?
Last night my friend came with me to a family history/dutch oven demonstration enrichment night. It was so funny on so many levels. As I sat next to her, I found myself getting so anxious about what people were going to say. It's so different going with someone who has no church background. For example, during the family history portion the instructor compared the importance of one's own journal keeping to Laban's brass plates. I'm sure my friend was so confused on what brass plates are and what they mean to our religion. One old lady got up and talked about her Mormon Pioneer grandparents and I was secretly praying the whole time that the grandpa wasn't a polygamist or at least if he was, I hoped she wouldn't mention it. She didn't. Whew! It's not like any of these things are embarrassing or weird it's just it would be easier to sit and talk with someone about these subjects rather than have them hear snippets and wonder weird things to themselves.
The Dutch oven demonstration was the funniest. When the large cast iron crock pot with it's red hot coles sitting on top was brought out, she got a surprised smile and exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like that in my life!" She could not figure out why someone would take the effort to cook food in that contraption. I told her it was a big pastime for some people especially in Utah. Our church is big into scouting and it is also a pioneerish tradition. My own brother Todd makes a mean Dutch oven peach cobbler. They even have a big Dutch oven cook off here in San Diego in Old Town during the Mormon Battalion celebration.
It's just funny to see your own traditions and familiar way of life viewed through the eyes of someone with a completely different background. She acted like she had a good time and she keeps coming back for more, so I guess she enjoys herself at these functions.
2 comments:
Very fun. We had some non-members who came to activities in MD, but not a lot at enrichment.
Yeah people have no clue what us LDS people are talking about most of the time. It's a whole new culture that even I feel lost in often.
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