Tonight Father David came over for dinner. The missionaries from our stake reached out to us on Monday last week, after Ethan sent them several referrals of our neighbors and people they might be able to teach. So we told them what is going on with neighbors and who might be interested. Ethan also told them about Iveth and Diego and Father David. We told them that Iveth and Diego really are not interested at all. We had a good friendship with them, and still mostly do, but it changed after we invited them to Sophi's baptism. After that invitation, they've kinda closed up. I googled some stuff about baptism in the Catholic church, and I think for their baptisms, people who attend are like endorsing it, so maybe they just didn't want to endorse Sophia being baptized into a religious they think is false? I don't know, but things haven't been the same since then. But Father David was cool talking about religion. So they asked if they could come over today when he was here. Corey was a little hesitant, since we're still gauging if he has any interest (we've extended a few invitations and Corey gave him the book Saints for Christmas). Corey sent Father David a well worded text and Father D said it would be fine with him if the missionaries joined us, so yay! It made for a very fun and interesting evening. The missionaries can't eat with any members though, so we had dinner at 5 with just him, and then the missionaries joined us at 6 after we were finished eating. We had a little visit in the front room - Elders on the left, Father David...
After a short visit, Wesley brought out his portable ping pong set and Wes and Father David had a game while the missionaries kept score. Father David won. Then it was Elder Sibbett's turn -
Elder Sibbett won that match. They told us on Monday that sometimes they do a think "We beat you, we teach you" but they didn't have that deal tonight. After a game of ping pong, they helped Father David get set up with FamilySearch on his phone. As Elder Sibbett was doing that, Natalie brought out her Book of Mormon and was asking questions to the other Elder (can't remember his name) about the restoration and God and she was sharing what she is doing to get ready for her baptism in the summer.
Then she got out the Friend magazine which gave her more topics to discuss. It was really cute to hear her.
She inserted herself right in the middle of the three of them and was bringing up some good doctrinal questions which was cute. Pretty smart 7 year old. Father David got all set up and found some of his family tree.
Then he used the bathroom right when the Elders had to leave so he came out and they were gone without saying goodbye, which was too bad, because Father David stayed for over two more hours. That would have been fun for him and the missionaries to talk more. Last time Father David had to leave right at 7, and we told the missionaries that, so maybe that's why they took off or maybe they had an appointment. But Father David's appointment cancelled, so he and Corey talked until past 9:30. It was fun and they got into some good stuff, like the Arian controversy and some ideas about the current pope. From what we can tell, Father D and Iveth and Diego are all a bit conspiratorial about covid and the vaccine and other world events. We plan to pry into their thinking during future gatherings.
(Sunday Update:) I shared about this visit with Father David and the Elders on facebook, mostly since it's in such contrast to the relationships we see around political differences in the news: "We enjoyed having our friend Father David over for dinner last night and are grateful that he was willing to let us invite our local missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ join us. They played ping pong, Father David got set up to do family history via FamilySearch app, and we had a lovely visit. I’m thankful for examples like this that I see everyday - people of different beliefs and opinions being civil, kind, and friendly!"
There are two comments that made me smile from friends that grew up in my neighborhood with me: Melanie: "THIS! Love it!" and Kiley: "Oh my goodness, this is the most uplifting post I’ve seen in weeks!!! I completely agree, we don’t all have to think and be the same in order to be kind to each other. The world would be so different right now if everyone lived this way. Thank you for posting!"
(Back to Saturday...) So that was fun. A few more pictures from this weekend: On most nights, we put Peter to bed in his room. Sometime during the night, usually between midnight and 2, he wakes up, cries, and comes into our room on his own if I remember to leave it unlocked, or he'll cry at the door until I open it. And then we lay down on the floor together. I slept on the floor with him for a long time when I nursed him, cause the floor wouldn't move when I tried to sneak away. The floor still works well now for that same reason. Plus I like the plush rug. On most mornings, he's tucked over on some corner of the shag carpet and I'm able to leave to make oatmeal, take carpool, and get kids off to school. And then some mornings, like yesterday morning, he is very comfortably asleep right on top of me. Good thing it was online Friday.
He was nestled right up between my legs. Pretty cute little guy. I'm glad he is still my baby sometimes.
Wesley made this cool house for his 3D design class. Wesley is going to become an architect and make me a beautiful home someday, and he's gonna give us a great deal on it too!
One productive (maybe) thing I did this weekend, was I went through my unread emails and was able to get it from 4100 to 2870. I'm almost as behind on emails as I am on the blog! (Confession: the day that I'm finally finishing this draft is March 15) But with this post completed, I am now officially finished with January, yay! Goodnight
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