Entry 1 - How it all began.

I don't think it would surprise anyone if I said that I could answer the question to "How it all began ?" with 5 very simple words. "A knock at the door!" As unspectacular as it may sound, that's exactly what happened. The only strange thing about it was my Dad answered it, my mum was in the kitchen and under normal circumstances she would have been the one to get it.
However my Dad could , and still can, be very quick to extract himself out of facing any awkward or unwanted visitors , and he did what a lot of us fella's do so well, he opened the door , saw who it was, and asked them to hold on for a moment while he called the wife!

My mum duly went to the door . My dad walked into the front room , collected his cigarettes ,shook his head and did a pretty good disappearing act. A few moments later my mum walked into the front room with two young men in suits. She invited them to sit down and they both shook my hand and introduced themselves as Elder Rob Crane and Elder Ian Finchley. I greeted them and was really curious as to what they were doing in our front room on a Tuesday evening. My mum sat down and the two elders began to tell us that they were visiting homes in our area to talk about Jesus Christ and they had a pamphlet of material that they would like to share with us . I was still curious, not in how they actually got in - my mum was always going to let them in, they hardly had to do any sort of pitch to get in, that is just my mum's nature, but more along the lines of what two young men in posh suits were going to tell me about Jesus Christ that I hadn't already heard. They began by asking a lot of questions, of which my mum answered the majority. They were general questions, not specific to any religion, things like "Do you currently attend a church?" - which incidentally we didn't. What I can remember noticing were the badges they wore which displayed their names and the name of a church underneath, The Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints. Eventually the conversation swung round to them and who they were and where they were from. Both hailed from South Africa, both were early twenties and both were on their two year mission They explained that a huge part of their mission is visiting homes, like ours, and sharing the information they were going to share with us.

My mum patiently listened, Initially I was only half interested. References to Jesus and heaven and so on and so didn't really interest me, but for the following 45 minutes or so they sat, they were friendly , they declined a cup of tea or coffee, explaining they didn't drink either of these as it was against their beliefs. "NO COFFEE?" I can remember thinking, that would finish me off! But in between all the religion and all the beliefs, I started to listen a little more attentively. They were focusing more and more of the conversation on me, and I suppose for a 14 year old , I was impressed. They commented on their youth programmes within their church and activities they get involved in, this was more of interest to me. I don't' remember every particular word spoken on that first visit, they did say they were Mormons, but preferred to be called Latter Day Saints, they did tell us about where there church was, which was about 30 miles away in a place called East London, (Yes, it is in South Africa) and yes, they did ask whether my Dad would be interested in joining us, to which my Mum politely explained that he was having an early night and wouldn't be interested anyway, but by the time they had said they were going to leave us with their material , and would like to come back for another visit, I was quietly curious.

My mum was yo-yo-ing as to whether to agree to let them come back, which again, didn't surprise me. I'm pretty sure during the course of that first meeting she pointed out she was a Catholic who didn't go to church, but was a believer nonetheless. They assured her there was no pressure at all, but by coming back , we would have an opportunity to read the pamphlets in more detail, and they could answer any questions we had. In truth, my mum was being polite, and not really totally sold on what she had heard, but she was willing to listen and so leaned towards letting them come back for another visit .Then, to my amazement Elder Finchely asked if I would be interested in them coming back to answer any questions I had?

I was impressed , the thought that they would be interested in what I had to ask really sparked something in me ,so replied I would be interested, with this, my mum agreed to another visit in two days time.

They shook our hands and said their goodbyes. Amazingly my Dad re-appeared in the front room and my mum went through the events of the evening. It didn't impress my Dad that much. I flicked through the pamphlet and we talked about what we thought. I think we were both impressed with the elders more than anything in particular we had heard. My mum liked them both, polite, friendly young men. I was more taken with what I felt was their interest in me. We both knew they were keen to talk, but I felt they were especially keen to talk to me, it was the way questions became more directed at me, how genuinely interested they were in any comments I made. It made me feel more grown up. like an adult. I had had an adult conversation with my mum and two Mormon missionaries, and I didn't feel like a kid. They didn't talk to me like a kid at all and that was great as far as I was concerned.

I did look at the pamphlets and the majority of what I read seemed to make fairly good sense,at the time, it seemed as if the Mormons were good people who lived good, clean , healthy lives. At that time I hated smoking, my Dad smoked , and I hated it, so this was a plus to me too. My poor Dad, that was the cruncher to ANY further interest for him, not that there was ever going to be any realistic hope , but the non smoking belief was the final nail. That, and the no alcohol practise added to it , well.... that was that. But they were coming back in a couple of days and I wanted to make sure I had some sensible questions for Elders Rob Crane and Ian Finchley!


NEXT TIME : THE SECOND VISIT AND A COMMITMENT.