All day I had the nagging feeling that I’d forgotten something. I double-checked my calendar, scavenged through piles of notes from school, searched my foggy brain and even called Erik saying, “Is there something going on tonight that I’m forgetting?”
“No more than usual. Don’t forget to take Stefan to tennis.”
At 5:00, I pulled sleepy kitty into my lap, picked up the 3rd Fablehaven book(if you haven’t read Fablehaven yet, treat yourself and get them right away!) and settled down to be lazy for a bit.
The doorbell rang. And there stood the answer to my nagging question: the missionaries were coming for dinner.
Erik DID tell me. As I was leaving church Sunday, teetering on my unusually high heels, juggling my books and scriptures with the four little ones pulling on my arm and telling me what they’d learned, I do recall a faint voice saying, “I invited the missionaries over for dinner on Tuesday.”
I invited them in but they declined, “Mission rules. We can’t come in unless your husband is home.”
So they sat on the front porch for 30 minutes while Erik sped home and I pulled dinner together. At least it wasn’t raining.
Erik screeched into the driveway , then ushered the missionaries into the house. One was from Nashville and one from Finland where Erik served as a missionary 20 years ago. At nineteen, they are still teenagers, kids, and here they are representing the word of God. It’s truly a wonder. Ben will be out there in 2.5 years. If he knocks on your door, please give him a drink of water.
Finally, we made it to the table with the kids asking,”Why are we eating sooooo early?”(does anyone know why missionaries have to eat at 5 p.m.? I’ve never understood that.)
Erik prayed and broke the silence with, “I bet this happens all the time! Do people forget that you’re coming pretty often?”
“Hmm, I think some people forget. But no one’s ever forgotten when I called them the night before.”
Me– “They called you last night?”
“Um, yeah. I guess they did. Sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Ah, it hardly matters, I probably would have forgotten anyway.
Jan Russell
Oh funny! And I am impressed that you still pulled off dinner for two more on the fly like that! We had some missionaries at our old house, and I invited them in for caffiene free Coke and a loooong conversation with my dh 😉
Blue
That happened to me in Vermont once…but since Doc wasn’t coming home any time soon, I gave them 20 bucks and told them to have dinner on me somewhere. I felt bad, but under the circumstances there wasn’t much else i could do!