For fast offerings! Even if you don't show up at church, they'll come to your door asking for money! Stupid cult! No "sorry we missed you at church line", just hands my TBM dad the envelope and leaves.

The Sunday before April conference....same question.

Cue spooky music: Whoo-whoo-whoo.

Well my TBM dad told me a few minutes ago "it's a regular Sunday at church this week". He was really tired and depressed from work so we stayed home this week. Our ward's fast Sunday is supposed to be October 12 since general conference is next weekend.

I think you might be expecting too much from deacons. They're only 12 and 13 year old boys. They just go to the addresses on the envelopes. They don't select the members to visit. They're doing it because they've been told they're supposed to.

And let's be honest; it's just as annoying to them as it is to everyone else.

Try to be nice to a kid who is just as much a victim of the organization as I - and perhaps you - were at one time.

ditto that

remember being especially creeped out when we had to knock on a barely mo's door and disturb their Sun morn reverie.

I remember that screwed up practice, among others. Sending boys to beg for money at people's doors is about right for a loopy cult like Mormonism.

When my boys, now 40 and 36 years old, were deacons (and no longer TBM either), we lived in the middle of TBM land in Sandy, UT. Given that, there were lots of totally inactive members and my boys hated going to their homes to collect Fast Offerings because so many of them would pretend not to be home or say "come back another time".
By the time of my last 2 years in the church, I was ward finance clerk. Lots of members donated FO in their weekly or monthly envelope. Still wasn't a big amount of money.

They never did come all the way out here for fast offerings....I might have given a couple of empty beer bottles they could cash in....

Ron Burr

When we lived in Utah County they came to our door once. They just stood there staring at me and didn't say anything. I had no idea what they wanted. Luckily my ex-Mo husband came over to see who it was and told them we're not members. They left quick. It was probably kind of scary for them. We were probably the only evil people they had ever met.

I'm sorry to say that once upon a time I was one of those deacons.
I would watch in horror as impoverished little old ladies would put two dollars into the envelope.

I detested knocking on doors to collect FO's when I was a deacon. I seemed to always be assigned the homes of the elderly and poor families and I knew those few dollars could have been better used by them to provide for themselves than given to a fucking church. I resolved to never donate a cent to the Mormon church and never have. I went out maybe twice to collect FO's and then refused to go again.

Ron Burr

Do you think any unauthorized boys have ever gone around collecting "fast offerings" and then kept them? That would be a sweet racket!

I used to feel so sorry for those boys. I never allowed my own boys to go out and beg for money. It used to piss me off to see these very young boys come to my door while their fathers sat in the car.

I started baking cookies on Sunday. Sure sign of a bad mormon if you bake on Sunday. I would give the boys a warm cookie, but not one for the adult waiting in the car. The kids weren't afraid of me. I didn't mind giving a couple bucks for FO, as I knew it at least went to people who needed it.

I stopped the FO giving when I found out it was going to my looser neighbor for his house payment. He'd squandered everything on a MLM scheme. He'd previously been a bishop, was from Utah, and his house that he loaned against had been given to him by the ward. No way was I going to give this guy a nickel. Not only that, he was the worst neighbor i've ever had. He stole things from us (including a boat, we took back)and bad mouthed us to everyone in the ward.Eventually he went back to Utah. And that was the end of fast offering.

Now I donate to the local food bank. I'm sure they have their scammers too. So be it. At least I don't go to church with them and have them looking down their nose at me every Sunday.

One good benefit of having lived out of major mormon areas - the kids don't come buy on fast Sunday like they do in Utah and similar areas.

Years back we moved to Utah and I was surprised to find these little jerks waking us up to beg for money one Sunday morning.
Worked nights and just got to sleep when they came by. Has never seen that before in CA and Oregon where we lived.

If I want to donate, I'll donate. Don't send little beggars around to try and guilt me into it.

They came this week because next week is general conference instead of fast Sunday.

And for what it's worth, when I was a deacon, we collected (or tried to) on Saturdays, because it was considered inappropriate activity for the Sabbath. My, how times change.