Instead of the American missionaries that I had expected (there are some in the city, but I've never met them), Valya came over last night with a guy who studied English at University.
He sat, looking slightly bored, as Valya told me all about God and Jesus, that God is displeased with the evils in the world, that the end time is coming soon and that I should prepare my soul for it, all suppported with passages she that read from her bible.
Whenever she said a word I didn't know, I would glance at the guy, who would translate the word into English. Mostly. Very often he'd have to look it up in a Russian/English dictionary, and I was kind of proud that the words I didn't know were the same ones a University-level English speaker didn't know. So I know now, among others, the Russian words for Salvation, Soul, and Worship. I find it really ironic that the word for "worship" is Poclonitsya, the root being the sound "clone". I doubt they're etymologically related, but it's a good mnemonic and really funny that to "worship" something is to make yourself a clone.
I also found out that they are Jehova's Witnesses, a denomination I find fascinating. When you get a religion degree at a Methodist University--despite Methodists being regarded as fairly liberal--you realize that while you know a lot about theology, world religions and bibilical history, you know NOTHING about other denominations. Maybe they're scared you'll get lured away.
For the record: one grandmother was Catholic, the other was Baptist, and I've never been able to fully shake of the beliefs of either on my path to be coming a narcisist agnostic (my term; it means I believe in God because I want to be important to a higher power, but everything else is still in doubt).
So because of this lack of extra-denominational education, I was thrilled (I know, I'm weird) to have Mormons coming over two years ago to give me their official 12-lesson introduction to their beliefs. Sadly, they were dissapointed when I declined to join their faith, but were probably happy to get out of that den of iniquity.
Two times of their discomfort come to mind. They once asked me if I would forsake smoking. Yes. Alcohol? Since I didn't drink at the time, I again said yes. Perhaps feeling they were on a roll, they asked: Sex? At which point, my then-girlfriend--who was reading a book on the couch --rather forcefull said "no" without even looking up. The other was when my flamboyantly gay roommate--who spent a lot of time leering at these two clean-cut eighteen year-olds--was in the room when they were about to leave and asked if we needed them to do anything. By that they meant chores, something they asked every time they came over. Before I could say something, he said: "I've got something for you do" as he leaned back and regarded them, biting on the tip of his finger. I quickly pushed their mouth-agape selves out the door before they either started spouting scriptures or took him up on it.
And now I get to learn first hand about the beliefs of the Jehova's Witnesses, who I also know have some unique ones: the non-celebration of holidays, the fact that everyone who is going to heaven is already there (saved souls go to some happy limbo), and that they won't accept blood transfusions because they believe the soul is in the blood.
They're coming back over tonight. Should be interesting.