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Last night I was remembering and pondering some missionary experiences and I remembered a story. The discussion was in reference to shaking the dust off your feet after being rejected as the D&C instructs. We were told as greenies that to shake the dust off your feet is a priesthood ordinance that is currently restricted to mission presidents (possibly with 1st presidency approval). The Elder telling this story continued that the only recent performance of this ordinance occurred in Florida. A local college sorority made having intercourse with a Mormon missionary and bringing back his garments for proof an initiation requirement. The mission president performed the rite, and shortly thereafter the sorority house burned down.
I recognize that several elements to the story are questionable and the mission environment is fertile soil for this type of legend.
My question is twofold:
1) Does anyone know anything about the “ordinance” of shaking the dust off your feet?
2) Do you have a Mormon legend that you would like to add?
I hate anecdotal stories. Most of them are patently absurd – like the sorority one. Shaking the dust from feet is not a Priesthood ordinance. It’s a symbolic action that used to be performed anciently and in our own history. It’s NO different than the pracitce of washing one’s hands of something. It’s a way to say, “I’ve done what I could do, so I’m not responsible for whatever happens.” Imo, that’s all it is – and I personally wouldn’t consider doing it on my own. I’m not opposed to someone else doing it, but it just doesn’t have symbolic meaning FOR ME – and I certainly don’t believe it has negative consequences on those toward whom it is directed.
Old-Timer wrote:I hate anecdotal stories. Most of them are patently absurd – like the sorority one.
Like them or hate them these stories are part of our culture. I think they played more prominance in the past than they do now (3 Nephites sightings). Yet, as missionaries we listened wide eyed to a number of these.
I remember one about someone who was in a house fire and suffered terrible burns but the burns stopped completely at his garment line (I bet he was wishing he had been wearing the long john version).
Whatever the protective qualities of garments, they are not dog proof. A dog bit right through my pant, garments, and into my thigh. Ouch!
😮 False and apostate religion. Complete waste of memory space. Roy wrote:Old-Timer wrote:I hate anecdotal stories. Most of them are patently absurd – like the sorority one.
I remember one about someone who was in a house fire and suffered terrible burns but the burns stopped completely at his garment line (I bet he was wishing he had been wearing the long john version).
Here’s another one to hate:My step-dad was a professional welder working on an Arizona ranch (Morrison Brothers). He always wore heavy clothing to protect himself from the sparks & bits of steel that sometimes fly off. One day he was cutting old barrels and one of them still had some oil in it. It blew up in his face, sending him to the hospital. His upper arms, neck and lower face were burned severely. No burns where his garments were, though the garments themselves were burned up.
For what it’s worth, I’m a witness. You could clearly see the line at the upper arm/shoulder, and lower neck. I don’t know whether it’s a miracle or not, but you won’t catch me making fun.
HiJolly
I agree with HiJolly completely on this one. I also know personally of some experiences that others would laugh off as silly. I don’t dislike inspirational stories; it’s the anecdotal ones that come to us from way beyond first person that bother me. I should have made that clear in my first comment.
There is more going on around us than meets the eye. Wishing evil on anybody is false and abominable religion as indicated by Jesus when the apostles suggested calling fire down from heaven on a town that rejected them. But miracles happen all the time.
I heard a different version of the Florida dust shaking. Not nearly so shocking, and the guy who told it was known to like to pull a leg and tell a story with a wink at the end. He served in Tallahassee and claimed that there was a town in Florida where all the people were extremely rude to the elders, slamming doors in faces, etc. The elders were discouraged, so the one elder out of spite shook the dust from his feet, and they quit working that town. A week later the town was slammed by a hurricane. Could it happen? Sure. OTOH, it’s Florida! The whole state is slammed by multiple hurricanes annually. Personal story along these lines: I volunteered to help direct traffic during the Christmas season this year at the Wash DC temple. They have a very large and active visitors center, and they really put on a first-rate seasonal show / experience, hosting choirs and musicians, a live nativity scene, and have spectacular holiday lights. TONS of people come through to see it.
So …
I was standing out there in the cold waving a light stick, talking to the guy I was paired up with (apparently the missionary companion thing applies to traffic directing as a priesthood assignment in the Church too). There’s a row of houses across the street from the temple property. He says “wouldn’t it be great to live in one of THOSE houses?” with a sort of vocal wink-wink, like I knew what he meant.
I say “Yeah, sure. I bet they keep up their property values nicely, and the view is quite nice.”
He says “No no, wouldn’t it be great to be THAT close?” (like I knew what he was thinking)
I say “Sure, you’d be real close to the temple. Right? So you could go whenever you want. It would be a spiritual place to live … I guess.”
He says “No, wouldn’t it be great to live there for the PROTECTION?”
Me still being dense, I say “Uhhh … right. You mean like, it’s a real sturdy building made out of reinforced concrete, like if some natural disaster was going to happen?”
He says “No, for the PROTECTION…”
I FINALLY get it! He is thinking that the temple emits some bubble of protection around it, probably making the houses nearby a little safer. The temple can’t possibly be destroyed because God would protect it. So the houses in the adjacent land lots probably also receive some protection, or you could quickly run across the street and get under the divine force field.
I said “Ohhhhhh, uhhhhh, yeah. I see what you mean I guess.” And sort of let it drop. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that temples in earlier Church history didn’t have a great track record to base that on. And certainly Old Testament temples fell into that same poor insurance rating category…
Ok, so I will try to limit myself to things I didn’t read about in spam forward emails. 🙂
Brian Johnston wrote:I FINALLY get it! He is thinking that the temple emits some bubble of protection around it, probably making the houses nearby a little safer. The temple can’t possibly be destroyed because God would protect it. So the houses in the adjacent land lots probably also receive some protection, or you could quickly run across the street and get under the divine force field.
My FIL works in the church office building and he told us in a family gathering how the SLC tornado a few years back jumped the SLC temple doing damage to either side. I must admit though, when I saw a picture of a temple up in flames (Tonga?), I was taken aback, as though it just wasn’t supposed to happen that way.Roy wrote:
Whatever the protective qualities of garments, they are not dog proof. A dog bit right through my pant, garments, and into my thigh. Ouch!😮 Yowser!
I have a story I got from a friend who is serving in the Leeds mission. There is a story going around there about a Laundromat which missionaries used in the past. The elders had to leave their washing behind for a bit because of something that came up. When they returned, the owner had hung their garments in the window with a note: “Mormon Monkey Suits”.
They gathered their belongings under a lot of mockings and called their mission president. The president then went to the Laundromat and ”shook the dust of his feet’.
Within a week the Laundromat burned down.
True or false? I don’t know. I just think it’s quite a sensational story people feast upon and change over time
True or false? I don’t know. Sensationalized and not accurate, I would think – but I just don’t know. I don’t doubt it could happen, but I’ve read too many distortions on a theme that I just don’t trust them. RMsister wrote:True or false? I don’t know. I just think it’s quite a sensational story people feast upon and change over time
And again, feasted upon and spread by nothing but the most evil part of the human heart. People honestly don’t realize the evil power they are accessing when they feast on this stuff.
That Leeds story is old, old, old, and I’ve heard it set in at least 2 other global locations – Philippines was one I think. Anyway, more Mormon folklore.
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