- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Sure, next time I’m in our storage area I will dig it up, scan it, and post it. SilentDawning wrote:
Side note — I have a dream every now and then that I was called on another mission when I was in my late twenties and early thirties. I don’t baptize anyone in it, but I get brownie points (internal ones) for serving a second mission as a young man. Strange dream. Freud would have a field day with it.
That’s funny; I occasionally have a similar dream, even though it’s been a full 40 years since returning from my FTM.My Patriarchal Blessing says I will serve another mission with my wife for a long time when the Earth is ripe for destruction. However, that doesn’t sit comfortably with me. My first mission was mostly an unpleasant experience, so I rather think I have no intention of subjecting myself to a repeat of it.
I used to consider stake patriarchs to be prophets in their spheres of responsibility. I have since grown to know two in my stake who, as somewhat openly flawed individuals, tarnished that idea for me. I’m left suspecting that much of the content of my patriarchal blessing is “aspirational.” Thanks for the seeds of opportunity; I think I’m good.
Carburettor wrote:
My Patriarchal Blessing says I will serve another mission with my wife for a long time when the Earth is ripe for destruction. However, that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
I recently had occasion to do some research on my wife’s family tree. They have a copy of an 1868 patriarchal blessing that says “You shall behold the destruction of nations, kindred, tongues, and people, and you will rejoice that you have a mountain home among the Saints.”
I can understand the millennial end-of-the-world viewpoint and the idea of escaping the coming apocalypse was a fairly sizable part of the push to gather the saints to Utah. However, it is clear that none of that predicted destruction took place (thank goodness).
P.S. Sometimes people will try to explain promises made in patriarchal blessings as something to be fulfilled in the millennium or in the afterlife. This specific passage seems particularly hard to justify that way.
Very interesting. All I can say is Wow. Roy wrote:
I recently had occasion to do some research on my wife’s family tree. They have a copy of an 1868 patriarchal blessing that says “You shall behold the destruction of nations, kindred, tongues, and people, and you will rejoice that you have a mountain home among the Saints.”
And did they live through either the first or second world wars? I mean, those would qualify, right?
I’m playing devil’s advocate, of course.
As I understand it, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have in the past set multiple dates for the end of the world. Each time it failed to happen, they simply celebrated that God had heard their prayers and spared them. Nice one. Can’t go wrong with that.
:crazy: Roy wrote:
Carburettor wrote:
My Patriarchal Blessing says I will serve another mission with my wife for a long time when the Earth is ripe for destruction. However, that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
I recently had occasion to do some research on my wife’s family tree. They have a copy of an 1868 patriarchal blessing that says “You shall behold the destruction of nations, kindred, tongues, and people, and you will rejoice that you have a mountain home among the Saints.”
I can understand the millennial end-of-the-world viewpoint and the idea of escaping the coming apocalypse was a fairly sizable part of the push to gather the saints to Utah. However, it is clear that none of that predicted destruction took place (thank goodness).
P.S. Sometimes people will try to explain promises made in patriarchal blessings as something to be fulfilled in the millennium or in the afterlife. This specific passage seems particularly hard to justify that way.
The history of the church in my rural area in the Northeast US basically goes back to the 1960s. Stakes, wards and members were few and far between. There was some growth in the 1970s, and even more in the 80s. There are (were) some members of my ward (branch in the early 80s, ward in the late 80s) who were native to the area and had been around for some time. One particular family (three men, two women) were baptized in the late 60s and had formed a core of the early branch, travelling many miles each Sunday before the creation of the branch (and before the meeting block). In the 70s there was a patriarch in the region who apparently liked to give blessings promising members they would witness the second coming in the flesh, and all of these siblings had that promise except one as far as I can tell. They are all dead now except the youngest who is in her late 80s. Even after seeing that none of her siblings had that promise fulfilled, she clings to the idea and literally thinks the second coming is any day now (and she is not senile). I’ve heard the apologetics (seeing it in the flesh could mean as a resurrected person, etc.) and I understand that at some point patriarchs were encouraged not to make such promises, but nonetheless, there it is. My own patriarchal blessing is fairly generic, but I take none of it literally and all of it with a big grain of salt.
DarkJedi wrote:
My own patriarchal blessing is fairly generic, but I take none of it literally and all of it with a big grain of salt.
I got mine on my 16th birthday and I had never met the patriarch before.
Mine advocates about D&C and the “living the health code (in terms of what I eat)”. At the time I thought it was odd – and hoped it was “prophetically odd” not “odd-odd”. Now, I am curious about whether the patriarch himself or someone he was close to was battling health problems at the time, and that bled into my blessing.
I have always had weird food sensitivities and food restrictions, and I have dealt with carefully/sustainably expanding my diet to include more foods over the past 10-15 years. That blessing doesn’t touch on any of that, just offers generic advice.
Minyan Man wrote:
Have you been in conversation with another member of the church & they admitted that they wish theyhadn’t gone on a full time mission?
Please forgive me! A few responses back, I referred to some text in my Patriarchal Blessing about serving a mission with my wife. This seems to have derailed your thread about mission regrets.Humble apologies. This is my attempt to bring it back on track.
The primary regret I have felt about serving a mission is that no part of it was a genuinely pleasant experience. It felt to me like military service for pacifists.
I had dreams for several years that I was back in my mission. Carburettor wrote:
It felt to me like military service for pacifists.
Yes, the experience of “waking up” as a missionary again felt something like waking up on the start of a two year deployment.
I went on a mission somewhat because I wanted to be a RETURNED missionary with all the perks, respect, and attentive young women that typically accompanied that position. It took a little while being out there before I figured out that the purpose was to serve God not to become an RM. I was also in that brief era of 18 months service, but had no choice in the matter. It changed back to 2 years very shortly after I returned. I have never regretted going and I think in the long run it was probably good for me. I likely would not have married who I did had I not served. Learning a new language was also nice and gave me confidence. I also better learned how to study and learned some leadership skills as I was called into missionary leadership roles pretty early, which likely related to the change to 18 months.
I definitely have regretted some of the things I did while a missionary, though I sincerely felt like I was doing the right thing at the time. I was not particularly sensitive to the culture, even though I thought I was because the MTC did provide some cultural training. I also pressed people, and especially young people towards baptism when they were not ready and were not really aware of what they were getting into. To my defense, I really didn’t know what I was in either.
Upon returning, I felt I would eventually go back as a senior missionary or mission president. After getting married, I pushed that long term goal a bit–to be a senior missionary with my wife–but she was less enthused. She really didn’t want to go to some faraway country. Fortunately, now neither of us has any interest whatsoever in serving a mission. We’d much prefer to be able to spend more time with family, kids, and grandkids. Even if we were both still true believers, I doubt she’d ever want to go on a mission. Fortunately, none of our kids served and they are all out. Our daughters felt no community social pressure to serve as far as I know, but our son certainly did. More than we realized. We never pressured him, but well-meaning bishops, friend’s parents, YM leaders, and others did. We would have supported him had he wanted to, but he never ever had interest in going.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.