Lightloch's Domain

On every October and April of each year, the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a General Conference where both members of the church and people of all faiths can hear the enlightening words of the church’s leaders. This wonderful event frequently coincides with reunions from the various missions of the church from all years past, where returned full-time missionaries and friends can catch up (aside from the usual Facebook discourse!) and eat a week’s worth of food at the same time. This weekend I had the pleasure of attending such an event for my own mission in Paraguay from 2005-2007.

Reunions of any sort tend to be very similar. People you probably haven’t seen for awhile show up and naturally you engage in the standard small-talk traditionally required at such events. With the more casual acquaintances, however, the conversation can quickly turn awkward as you run out of things to say. Often these encounters are alleviated by others entering and subsequently hijacking the conversation, or by a subtle comment such as “well I’m just gonna grab some more food here real quick,” or perhaps by some random introduction of them to another friend or acqaintance. Sometimes there are people present that, for one reason or another, beknownst to you or not, you just didn’t quite click with originally, yet magically in the present with who you are able to hold a meaningful conversation and try to build some bridges. On at least a subconscious level, you might be startled with stark contrasts to your own situation, such as when a friend shows up with not only his or her spouse, but also with a munchkin in a baby carriage!

You might also learn things during these events that you never quite knew about people, either! My mission president, for example, is apparently a gun enthusiast, which led me to not only be able to show him my own firearm, but randomly set an appointment to go range-shooting together. Towards the close of the evening I also reacted to a spontaneous invitation to go see Ice Age 3 (my third time seeing it, for some reason) at the dollar theater with some of my closer friends. 

In any case, despite my thorough social analysis of this pleasurable event, I can honestly say that I enjoyed the time I had to catch up with old friends. If you ever have an opportunity to attend a reunion of your own for whatever past event (school, groups, etc.), please take the opportunity to show that you care by visiting! There are great benefits to re-building and strengthening friendships.