Sister Piss and Vinegar

No, I am not blogging about offensive, blasphemous, modern art. I'm blogging about the unkind, mouthy people that exist in some wards-a minority in my experience. The ward I met Sister Piss and Vinegar in was broken and saddled with literally 20-30 times the social problems that surrounding wards had. We got extra missionaries, but little other consideration of the special needs of our congregation from the institutional church. This was a time in my life where many things were not going well and I wound up living on the wrong side of the tracks so to speak. It's terrible when you are treated poorly just for the perception others may have of your poverty based on a mere address.

Sister Piss and Vinegar went out of her way to be unkind, most notably in terms of my calling, humble as it was, of scheduling the missionaries meals. Our bishop did not want the missionaries eating with the stalwart active families, he wanted them with the shut ins, the less fortunate, the part member families and others. Thus, I scheduled the meals with these folks, when a family couldn't afford the meal, I would cook or get other sisters to contribute and the missionaries would carry it over. Sister Piss and Vinegar just never did get over me taking away her weekly dinner from the missionaries and was quite vociferously nasty every opportunity she had.

The funny thing was, that after a while it no longer bothered me and I even began to feel a bit of tender mercy toward her constant ascerbic behavior. Towards the end of my tenure in that ward, her husband lost his employment and I could palpably feel her fear about that situation. And, surprisingly, I felt compassion for her. That was one of my turning points in dealing with offensive remarks by offensive people at church. I think it was a blessing of truly magnifying that calling to handle the missionary dinner calendar that has carried me a long way over the years.

However, lest you conclude I have deemed myself lifted above others, I shall forever refer to her as Sister Piss and Vinegar-unrepentantly.