Soon after I was baptized, I was chatting with a classmate on my college campus. After he learned I was LDS, he asked, “Aren’t you the ones who can’t drink, or smoke, or be immoral or anything like that?” I said he was correct. He looked at me, puzzled, and asked, “Then what do you do for fun?” I laughed and described some of the recent activities I had done with my church Young Adult group, describing the hay ride of the previous weekend in detail. The more I talked, the more amazed he was. He explained that he couldn’t imagine finding such corny things fun unless you were drunk.
For instance, we still go to dances, but the music and the type of dancing is now different. Instead of drinking at parties, we talk and play games. We still go to movies, but have to search harder to find those that meet our standards.
It might seem, when you first join the church, that LDS fun is corny. It grows on you. You might at first feel like a tourist from outer space, but try to join in with a good attitude. Convince yourself it’s an interesting experience. When you start the activity with a good spirit and a determination to have fun, you are more likely to actually enjoy yourself.
Your previous fun was enjoyable because it was what you were used to. The more often you participate in traditional LDS fun, the more “normal” it will seem to you. You’ll learn how to have fun at activities you never before thought of as pleasurable. If you find yourself at a loss as to how to entertain yourself after your baptism, invite some LDS friends to come over one day and help you compile a Fun List. This is a list of things you can do to have fun when you’re with friends or alone. Friends with a sense of humor can make the activity more interesting. While you may find yourself consulting the list often at first, after a time, your old activities will seem pointless and dull to you. You won’t remember quite why you thought they were fun.
And better yet, when you do one of your new activities, you’ll be sober and able to remember how much fun you had.
The late Terrie Lynn Bittner—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend—was the author of two homeschooling books and numerous articles, including several that appeared in Latter-day Saint magazines. She became a member of the Church at the age of 17 and began sharing her faith online in 1992.
