Congratulations!!! So well written. I like it when people really express themselves well. (I love story's and experiences like this) It makes me feel more or less normal. Ha!
Your comments about the elder caught my eye as you said............" He wasn't used to being treated as an equal and didn't like defending his silly answers. He must have said '40' years five times, like that means anything,"
My particular Elder really struggled with his feelings of "outrage", as I sat easily on the floor of my apartment and asked how they came by so many doctrines, parallel prophecies, ...........you name it. When I jumped up and showed him my Revelation Study book. He just dismissed it as no longer valid and told me it was now defunct. (not his words but the gist of it) He told me to throw it away as it was not important to understand this book anymore. I told him........"..just as well, because it's so badly written that it would never make it to the first rung of the ladder in "publisherland"
His wife looked aghast, nervous, very subordinate.........all of the above and more.
He took my comment very personally, it seems that I was not entitled to make observations............ challenge his sense of importance as an elder. He was angry. Really. He had trouble holding back from telling me off.
His position has given him a sense of self worth that supplants any potential for thorough research, both secular and religious. I swear to god, he was so ready to put me in my 59 year old place.
I felt sorry for his wife and wondered if we should both have head covering and remain physically lower than him, so as to show our submissiveness. He was bloody arrogant. He still wants to come back though..........with his wife of course