The fatal LDS disease

Someone asked me recently what my most unique missionary experience was. I would have to say it is one I had about 7 years ago:

I had been working some really long weeks back to back and one weekend it had reached a point where I knew I would have to work all weekend so I chose to go in and work right from the information technology center (Basically where we kept all our servers and the mainframe) which at the time was located in a different building, man that was a long time ago. There were always people there that are monitoring things. The weekend crew this particular weekend were two people I got along with pretty well so I knew it would make it a bit more bearable. We always found something to laugh about and have very similar senses of humor. Saturday had been a long and painful day (12hrs of things breaking repeatedly) so when Sunday rolled around I really didn’t want to do anymore work but knew I didn’t have a choice in the matter so I drug myself out of bed. I don’t remember the exact conversations that were had that day or the ones on Saturday but I apparently had said the phrase “being LDS…” more than once. I don’t think anything of it but forget that a lot of people don’t know what LDS stands for and apparently it stuck with the two that had been working but they never asked me about it.
I had gotten up to stretch my legs for a bit. When I got back I decided I could finish the rest of what I needed to do from home so I was getting ready to leave. Well I look over and The one guy working was writing something in the air to his female coworker and I figured I was the brunt of yet another joke. This is nothing new with this crew. We have a good time with our jokes. I have been in tears from laughing so hard down there and this time was no exception. They turn to me and say that they need to tell me something. I am thinking, “oh no here it comes”. Well apparently as soon as I had left the room to go for my short walk One coworker turned to the other and says with all seriousness and concern “What is LDS? I know it is some kind of disease but I am not sure what it is.” The other coworker just as concerned says, “Yea it is a disease but I don’t know what it is either. I hope she is going to be okay.” One of them quickly gets on the phone and calls his wife to see if she knows what this terrible disease is and the other gets on the Internet to find something on it. Then the light goes on for theone searching online when she found the church’s website.
They initially were not going to tell me but decided that they would. They go through the whole story and how they really thought I was really sick and possibly had a fatal disease. When they were done I just burst out laughing and so did they. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe, and tears were rolling down my cheeks. I assured them despite what my mom thinks it isn’t a disease and I will not die from LDS. One of them had already known I was a Mormon but the other didn’t so after the laughter died down we talked about it for a little. Now the joke in all of this didn’t die here and actually 3 weeks later it was still very much alive. Occasionally they would call to ask how my fatal disease was. Well when I got home that day I sent an email to them both titled “Yes I confess I have LDS” and it read as follows… The only major flair ups I have had recently are when I am at the ITC on the weekends. I believe you both may have contracted this disease also. Please do not worry though because although Laughing Doubled-over Syndrome is contagious it is not fatal. I believe we will all be fine. Thank you both for your concern though. I am deeply touched.
Well one of the two had to see if anyone else could figure out what it was. So she was asking everyone and then explaining the story sometimes she would make him or her call and ask me what it was. So I got all sorts of weird calls and even a couple joke get well soon cards. The fun thing is I get to tell all these people something about the church. A few weeks later one of the other women that worked with this crew called me. She was telling me she thought about me and my fatal disease when she went for a trip to see her cousin. She said when she went down to visit her cousin she passed “The Emerald City” (The DC Temple) she had asked her cousin about it and found out it was the LDS Temple. Jokingly she asked if that is where we go for treatment and my response was that it is the place where we send people that have really bad cases so it doesn’t matter and is actually a good thing if they further infect others. When someone reaches this stage of the disease the best treatment is to surround themselves with people and things that further spread the disease. I talked to her for about 25 minutes about the Temple and she made sure to visit the visitors center on her next trip down to DC.n I told her to look for the Missionaries because they are “volunteers” who like to pass on as much information as someone wants on this “disease” and how it affects the lives of those it “infects”.
So I guess this just goes to show that missionary opportunities can be given to us in many forms. I feel it is quite fitting that this one has such a good joke tied to it.