The best part of the evening was that the whole point was to ask all those questions that are usually taboo in our society. You have to admit, Americans don't often converse openly about religion, at least not in a safe, casual environment that is not emotionally charged. To help us along in our quest for mutual understanding and common ground, there were little question cards on all the tables that we could pick up at any time to start a discussion, such as, "What aspects of your faith do you think get more attention than they should, and which get less?" and "At what point in your life did you become an adherent of your religion?"
They were all interesting questions. And you should have seen everyone's jaws drop when Jeremy picked up a card and (pretended to) read, "Which is the one true religion?" Ha ha.
The other highlight of the evening was when Magdalena dumped a cup full of hot chocolate all over my lap. And I do mean that it was FULL of HOT chocolate and she dumped it ALL OVER my lap. I had already endured the indignity of having her shred my dinner roll to pieces and sprinkle the crumbs all over the tablecloth and ground, but I didn't even see the hot chocolate mess coming. At least it spilled on me and not anyone sitting next to me, because what an introduction to Mormons (and their kids) THAT would have been. I sat there for the rest of the dinner with my skirt soaking wet. Fortunately, our table mates were good sports about it (and just FYI, we had cleared bringing our kids with the event organizers, and we weren't the only ones there with kids. Lest you think we are one of those people).
But really, I did enjoy being able to ask all those dumb questions you sometimes have about other people's religions but are afraid to ask. We certainly fielded quite a few as the representative Mormons at our table. I think we can consider the I Believe In dinner to have been a great success. Except for that part with the spilled hot chocolate.