There are several instances where a Mormon will meet with their bishop (or branch president or other ecclesiastical leader) and have an interview wherein they answer a series of questions. For example, there's tithing settlement (which occurs annually), temple recommend interviews (biennially), and baptism interviews (usually once, sometimes more, a lifetime).
The questions are more or less set (the baptismal interview questions, for example, are published in "Preach My Gospel") so the interviews aren't...surprising. Our family has a bit of a running joke whenever anyone meets with the bishop for an interview. We'll remind them that the answers are yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, and yes. Whether or not our yeses and nos align with actual questions is irrelevant; we still think we're funny.
Miriam met with the bishop for her baptismal interview this past Sunday.
At lunch we were joking around with her, asking her whether she had "passed" and whether our little cheat sheet (Y, Y, Y, N, Y, N, Y, Y) had helped her.
"Actually, no!" she said, not quite catching on that we were all kidding. "There weren't any questions like that at all! It was more like...incomplete sentences."
"The bishop gave you a fill-in-the-blank interview?!" Rachel gasped. "That's rough. My interview was yes/no format."
But apparently Miriam did very well in her interview...at least as well as one can do at a baptism interview (it's not really something one excels at; it's really just a conversation about your testimony, your understanding of the gospel, and your desire to make and keep the baptismal covenant (to take upon the name of Christ and keep his commandments)). Perhaps I should say that she conducted herself well throughout her interview and both Andrew and the bishop were impressed with how she answered each of the questions presented to her. She was quoting scriptures to back up her thoughts and everything.
She's pretty excited!
The questions are more or less set (the baptismal interview questions, for example, are published in "Preach My Gospel") so the interviews aren't...surprising. Our family has a bit of a running joke whenever anyone meets with the bishop for an interview. We'll remind them that the answers are yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, and yes. Whether or not our yeses and nos align with actual questions is irrelevant; we still think we're funny.
Miriam met with the bishop for her baptismal interview this past Sunday.
At lunch we were joking around with her, asking her whether she had "passed" and whether our little cheat sheet (Y, Y, Y, N, Y, N, Y, Y) had helped her.
"Actually, no!" she said, not quite catching on that we were all kidding. "There weren't any questions like that at all! It was more like...incomplete sentences."
"The bishop gave you a fill-in-the-blank interview?!" Rachel gasped. "That's rough. My interview was yes/no format."
But apparently Miriam did very well in her interview...at least as well as one can do at a baptism interview (it's not really something one excels at; it's really just a conversation about your testimony, your understanding of the gospel, and your desire to make and keep the baptismal covenant (to take upon the name of Christ and keep his commandments)). Perhaps I should say that she conducted herself well throughout her interview and both Andrew and the bishop were impressed with how she answered each of the questions presented to her. She was quoting scriptures to back up her thoughts and everything.
She's pretty excited!
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