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I posted this on the Thoughtful Faith Facebook page, but I thought I would share it here too. I was driving one of the youth home from a temple trip last night and he told me the most fantastic story.
Apparently a couple of missionaries were tracting and passed by a burned down house. Both of them got the impression to go knock on the door, where they found an elderly lady who let them teach her the first discussion.
They returned a week later to find that she had read the whole book of mormon and wanted to get baptized. A while after her baptism, the missionaries stopped by her house again where she asked them to read her patriarchal blessing to her. They politely refused as the blessing is personal. She then told them her story of how she had been blind since age 6, but when they gave her the book of mormon she miraculously could see and read the book. That gift was gone now, so she needed them to read the blessing to her. They read the blessing to her.
As they read they discovered that she had been told in her blessing that she would have been baptized many years earlier, except that the missionary who was supposed to baptize her hadn’t gone on his mission.
I responded with a “What?” of disbelief. I feel bad because what I really should have done with then told him that if he goes out of the MTC dorms at night you can see armies of angles defending the missionaries from evil spirits.
Or maybe I should have told him about the time the sister missionaries knocked on the serial rapists door. When asked why he didn’t attack them, he answered that he didn’t want to mess with the 3 big men standing behind the sisters.
Lord, forgive my disbelief.
This could be an interesting topic and there are a ton of rumors out there but under my current state of mind and the recent training that I have been giving the various SS staff from my stake about not teaching faith promoting rumor, I will pass on sharing. I do agree that it is a fun topic to talk about as long as it is clear that these are rumors and not taught as truths. Frankly, I think there are some “legitimate” cases of things that are hard to explain (based on personal experience), mingled with lots of crap that is urban legend. I try not to scoff at most things, even if I don’t believe them – but sometimes that’s impossible to do.
These faith-promoting rumors are the supplements necessary to maintain a shallow faith. And I’m not saying that to disparage anyone — these types of stories are often found being swapped at EFY dorms, on missions, at Ricks College, etc., among those who haven’t had the life experiences and opportunities to truly ponder God and their faith. That being said, some of them are awesome.
GAS ARE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE FOR THIS!!! Why? Because in most the stories they never mention names, places or dates!!!
What about this howler? Gospel Principles, chapter 22. NZ is an English speaking nation, just about all Maori speak it, more so than their own tongue.
Quote:, President David O. McKay had a great desire to speak to the Saints in New Zealand without an interpreter. He told them that he hoped that the Lord would bless them that they could understand him. He spoke in English. His message lasted about 40 minutes. As he spoke, he could tell by thE expression on many of their faces and the tears in their eyes that they were receiving his message. (See Answers to Gospel Questions, 2:30–31.)
Old-Timer wrote:Frankly, I think there are some “legitimate” cases of things that are hard to explain (based on personal experience), mingled with lots of crap that is urban legend.
I try not to scoff at most things, even if I don’t believe them – but sometimes that’s impossible to do.
You have a knack for summing up things wisely, Ray… this is my position in a nutshell.
Miracles happen, but not usually in cheesy ways like the serial rapist story. That said, it’s amazing HOW FEW awful things happen to missionaries. Murder and kidnapping etc rates are below what they could be. Maybe someone does look out for them after all. (Except for the guy chained to the bed in England perhaps)
Old-Timer wrote:I try not to scoff at most things, even if I don’t believe them – but sometimes that’s impossible to do.
That is a good rule to live by and kind of reminds me of something my cousin said.
“I try not to make fun of people’s testimonies, but sometimes they give me way too much to work with.”
The part of my story that put me over the top was the ending where I expected the one arm man from Arrested Development to pop and say:
“And that is why you don’t opt out of serving a mission.”
Let’s analyze that story: Here what I think REALLY happened.
* Missionaries tract street, knock doors etc. Everyone’s out working, except little old lady.
* Lonely lady invites them in, and actually likes what they say. Particularly being reunited with late hubby, sis and family.
* Plenty of time on her hand, reads large print BoM really quickly, which surprises her since her eyesight’s been failing for a while.
* She gets baptized, receives her PB.
* Can’t read PB because in smaller print. This surprises missionaries.
* Says she wish she joined when younger.
* Missionary says, “Maybe someone was supposed to, but you weren’t around or they weren’t around.”
* She says, “I’ve always felt this was right”
* Dies shortly after.
Kinda retroengineering here, but I think this sounds a more convincing story.
I read somewhere that these stories in a missionary setting fulfill some sort of subculture social need. They help to bind the group together, share group values, assimilate newbies, etc. I know that I accepted most of these things as true on the mission and saw our MP as the only reliable arbitrator for all things doctrinal. Unfortunately sometimes people’s testimonies are interwoven with these types of stories. If they felt “the spirit” confirm to them that what they were hearing was true and they later find that it was just a faith promoting rumor – what does that say for their ability to discern truth from falsehood? For these reasons and others, it can be kind not to call them out on it.
I like that alternative rendering, Sam. The telephone game and all. Roy, I agree – especially about challenging people’s believes or “calling them out on it”. I would add this is true particularly because some stories that seem far-fetched to some people actually might be accurate and factually true. I know I have had experiences that others have dismissed and ridiculed, and it didn’t help our relationship in any way.
Roy, I think something can be true even if it is not a fact. Now I know this sounds like doublethink, but there are many things which are true principles, but not factual. The above story even if untrue (or derived from real events as I describe), contains several true principles – the lady needed the missionaries and they helped her; they fellowshiped her and looked out for her; she got a new circle of friends (the blind and elderly are often isolated)… but it’s a pity it couldn’t have happen earlier. This is without the spiritual stuff.
Old-Timer wrote:Frankly, I think there are some “legitimate” cases of things that are hard to explain (based on personal experience), mingled with lots of crap that is urban legend.
I try not to scoff at most things, even if I don’t believe them – but sometimes that’s impossible to do.
I agree. As hardened as I am, I have to admit I’ve seen a lot of things… personally… that are really really hard to explain as sheer coincidence. Yet, I don’t tell these stories to people… not even close friends or family. They are mine and mine alone. As soon as you tell a story, and somebody retells it, it is automatically suspect. Telling it cheapens it.A lot of urban legends have probably grown out of some true basis, but grown over time to ridiculous levels… not because of any malicious intend, but just because that is the nature of people. Many other urban legends are just made up… and then perpetuated by believers.
I can give an example of an urban legend (thought not faith promoting) that springs from reality.
The story goes… a companion of mine was in a ward (Spanish speaking mission) and there was a new sister missionary straight from the MTC. The Bishop, conducting the meeting, asked the new Sister to come up and introduce herself. When she got to the pulpit, she was pretty flustered, not being able to speak Spanish, so she said, “Estoy embarazada”. At this point, laughter ensues, because while she was trying to say “I’m embarrassed”, what she actually said was “I’m pregnant”. But then, she turned to the point to the Bishop and said, “And it’s the Bishop’s fault!”
I’ve heard this story told many, many times… only slight variations… sometimes “I’m VERY pregnant”… sometimes it’s not the Bishop’s fault, but usually, it is. The funny thing to me is that every time I hear this story, it really happened, in my mission, my companion, etc. The fact is, I’m sure variations of this have happened plenty of times, because it would be a very easy mistake for an English speaker, new to Spanish, to make. I made plenty of language-based mistakes, one in particular that was beyond the pale and I was very embarazado, but I’m not going to mention it on this forum because this is a family show. So bottom line, the story is clearly based on fact, or at least the common error, but has grown into canonical nature.
I think it’s a good idea not to ridicule the faith of others, no matter how justified. For those of us that work with youth, I think it’s a good idea to encourage them to seek truth. A great way to do this is to talk about the faith promoting stories of Job and Noah… They are sensational stories. If we look at them as fictitious, we can actually learn more than if we look at them as factual… because then we can examine what the intent of the fictitious story is, and it is more easily layered onto our own experience in life. Having this kind of dialog is a way to challenge youth not to take everything on its face value.
I agree that you can’t mock someone’s spiritual experiences/stories, but if someone can’t source their story any closer than knowing the individual involved then I take it with a good dose of skepticism and put very little value on the story. The simple facts (like the likely possibility outlined earlier) just become too convoluted through the telephone game. Does anyone think there might be a correlation between accepting these kinds of stories at face value (as well as other gospel mythology) and the size of the impact when/if a faith crisis hits. It seems a good bit of critical thinking could be great preventive medicine.
The bigger the bubble, the more the pop will hurt. Seems better to have the bubble of faith promoting rumors burst than a bigger bubble built on complex layers mythology.
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