Corn Soup Open House

After attending the worldwide missionary broadcast Elder Jeppesen and I determined to move ahead with an idea presented by having open houses in our Cattaraugus Meetinghouse.  I was not optimistic we would draw anyone in but was willing to try on the hopes of finding more investigators.  Elder Jeppesen and I spent considerable time gathering information for a historical summary of the Branch and of the Meetinghouse.  I typed these up and mounted the information and photos on a large foam board.  As we gathered this information I learned that there were three phases of construction making up the lovely little meetinghouse and that these were paid for in large part by the making and selling of corn soup and corn bread on the reservation.  We ordered a sign that said “Open House, public invited,” put a notice in the Pennysaver, and started having open houses at the church on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 2-8 pm.  The open house was barely attended at first but it made the Branch Presidency start talking about ways to entice people to visit.  President Jones had often told us how much the Indians like their traditional corn soup, always stating in the same breath, it’s not easy to make, but the people love it!  One evening President Jones taught we six missionaries how to make corn soup.  It’s a long, laborious process involving cooking Iroquois white corn in boiling water filled with ashes from hard wood trees for hours until the outer shell is dissolved, then scrubbing the corn with serious muscle power until the eyes are all removed.  After this, a lump of salt pork and a few kidney beans are added and it is cooked again for several hours.  With this new idea, a free bowl of corn soup for everyone who visits, the open houses began to draw a few more visitors.  We had a new sign made to add to the former.  This one saying, “Corn Soup, free.”  Hopefully, the attendance will continue to grow.  Our plan is to make corn soup and have the open house on Fridays and Saturdays every weekend.  Already we have seen our corn soup open houses show results.  Who knows where it will lead.  We Just tell our visitors, “This nice Meetinghouse was built with the sales of corn soup.  Now we want to say ‘Thank You’ back.”  It seems to be an effective, enticing angle.