Mormons, Etc.
We are sponsors for a family who just arrived in Stuttgart on Sunday. I am so glad that we've been able to sponsor someone...after our disastrous "sponsor" (and I use that term so very, very loosely) in Yokosuka, I made it my life's mission to make sure that someday we would sponsor someone and that we would do a damn fine job of it.
We picked them up at the airport on Sunday. Mom, Dad, three handsome young sons, two little dogs, 54 suitcases. Took them to their hotel in my car, their rental car and a taxi. Got them set up there. I had purchased a laundry basket and filled it with snack-y foods, water, paper plates, plastic silverware, even dog treats. Good dog treats, too, not Snausages.
They were understandably a little shellshocked on Sunday, so we didn't talk too much, but they came by this evening and had a little desert with us. They are in the midst of dealing with the living hell that is housing. They're being told that there are no stairwell apartments available for them for a year. Ridiculous and I don't believe it for a moment as there is a unit right upstairs from us that is empty. They are looking into getting a house out on the town.
Anyway, turns out these folks are Mormons. I found this out from Hans on Sunday after we left them. When he said they were coming over tonight to see our apartment, I was a little worried. What were we going to talk about? Reading Dooce has made me a little afraid of Mormons. What if I slipped up and offered them caffeine or something?
Turns out that they are completely, unabashedly hiliarious and not at all easily offended. Which is good, especially if they spend time with us. By the time they left, I felt free enough to tell them "Wow, I didn't know Mormons were so funny!".
In other news, I got another Amazon order today. How I love, love, love the folks at Amazon. They get me my junk in very short order. I got a big, yummy, fat pile of new books, and a couple of old ones that I haven't read for a long time. I finished Doctor Zhivago before we went to Austria. It was very good, though the ending sort of petered out...I was expecting something a little more dramatic. Still, it's a very good and surprisingly easy read. It's not all full of Russian words. Sometimes a lot of foreign language in a book is a turnoff, but there wasn't a lot of it. I guess the most confusing part was trying to keep Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, White Army, Red Army, Cossacks, etc., etc. all sorted out. I'm thinking that it was all a bit confusing for the Russians at the time too. Still, I like those Russian Revolution-era stories, the end of the nobility and the great socialist undertaking. It was a noble idea, right? It reminds me of that Ayn Rand novel--the family keeps moving to smaller and smaller places, they're living in some grand house in a portion of the old ballroom. Kind of depressing.
OK, time to hit the hay. I just wanted to share with all of you how damn funny those Mormons were. Hopefully we'll see more of them soon...who knew?
We picked them up at the airport on Sunday. Mom, Dad, three handsome young sons, two little dogs, 54 suitcases. Took them to their hotel in my car, their rental car and a taxi. Got them set up there. I had purchased a laundry basket and filled it with snack-y foods, water, paper plates, plastic silverware, even dog treats. Good dog treats, too, not Snausages.
They were understandably a little shellshocked on Sunday, so we didn't talk too much, but they came by this evening and had a little desert with us. They are in the midst of dealing with the living hell that is housing. They're being told that there are no stairwell apartments available for them for a year. Ridiculous and I don't believe it for a moment as there is a unit right upstairs from us that is empty. They are looking into getting a house out on the town.
Anyway, turns out these folks are Mormons. I found this out from Hans on Sunday after we left them. When he said they were coming over tonight to see our apartment, I was a little worried. What were we going to talk about? Reading Dooce has made me a little afraid of Mormons. What if I slipped up and offered them caffeine or something?
Turns out that they are completely, unabashedly hiliarious and not at all easily offended. Which is good, especially if they spend time with us. By the time they left, I felt free enough to tell them "Wow, I didn't know Mormons were so funny!".
In other news, I got another Amazon order today. How I love, love, love the folks at Amazon. They get me my junk in very short order. I got a big, yummy, fat pile of new books, and a couple of old ones that I haven't read for a long time. I finished Doctor Zhivago before we went to Austria. It was very good, though the ending sort of petered out...I was expecting something a little more dramatic. Still, it's a very good and surprisingly easy read. It's not all full of Russian words. Sometimes a lot of foreign language in a book is a turnoff, but there wasn't a lot of it. I guess the most confusing part was trying to keep Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, White Army, Red Army, Cossacks, etc., etc. all sorted out. I'm thinking that it was all a bit confusing for the Russians at the time too. Still, I like those Russian Revolution-era stories, the end of the nobility and the great socialist undertaking. It was a noble idea, right? It reminds me of that Ayn Rand novel--the family keeps moving to smaller and smaller places, they're living in some grand house in a portion of the old ballroom. Kind of depressing.
OK, time to hit the hay. I just wanted to share with all of you how damn funny those Mormons were. Hopefully we'll see more of them soon...who knew?
Comments
Except, of course, they weren't caffeinated. Nothing like a refreshing Sprite or Sunkist at 5 AM on the St. Paul campus when you've been working fourteen hours straight!
Either errant beliefs are leading them to happier, more well-rounded lives, or what we think they believe isn't what they really believe.
What Do Mormons Believe?