Elder Rasband sucks up to President Eyring on Facebook

[Not Buying It]

From Elder Ronald A. Rasband on Facebook:

Just recently I had the opportunity to accompany President Henry B Eyring as he rededicated the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. It was a blessing for me to be there with him and to feel of his powerful love for the Savior.

You may know that the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple is near and dear to President Eyring and his sweet wife, Kathleen. They attended the temple often when they lived in nearby Rexburg as President Eyring served as president of Ricks College—which is now BYU–Idaho.

During our time at the temple dedication and other activities, I was again impressed by President Eyring’s strong witness of the Savior. With each conversation he had with reporters or others, he continually focused his remarks on the Savior. Though I have long admired President Eyring, our time together in Idaho Falls was another witness to me that he is a called servant of God who loves people, loves the temple, and—most importantly—loves the Lord.

Geez Louise, I don't know when I have seen such gratuitous butt-kissing. Is this really necessary? Blech.

[Red Ryder]

Especially in June!

Rasband seems to want/have more celebrity status than the other two new guys. I'm wondering if he's pandering for position or just publicly announcing which alliance he supports. If the 12 are divided as some internet rumors suggest, then a Facebook post like this would be a simple way to say "I vote for Hal!"

A few months ago he was riding shotgun with Ballard.

[oliver_denom]

If you read his conference talks, reverence for the brethren are a central theme. I believe it was his first talk as an apostle where he carefully layed out the proper way to live and how it lead him to success. You closely watch the brethren, do what they do, shower them with praise, and try to be near them as much as possible. It shows humility and it's what makes a person teachable.

I think that's at least one reason why he constantly name drops and fills his speeches with anecdotes about general authorities. He comes off as a starstruck sycophant. Now that he's an apostle, he's more convinced than ever that this sort of hero worship is ordained by God.

[Linked]

Wow, that is impressive. If I recall Eyring is prone to do the same thing.

Is the Q15 just a bunch of guys publicly patting each other on the back?

[Korihor]

Is the Q15 just a bunch of guys publicly patting each other on the back?

Testimony circle jerk

[Not Buying It]

Especially in June!

Rasband seems to want/have more celebrity status than the other two new guys. I'm wondering if he's pandering for position or just publicly announcing which alliance he supports. If the 12 are divided as some internet rumors suggest, then a Facebook post like this would be a simple way to say "I vote for Hal!"

A few months ago he was riding shotgun with Ballard.

You do get the sense he loves the praise and attention he gets as an apostle. He does seem to be gunning for rock star of apostles. Too bad President Uchtdorf already has that title locked up.

[Corsair]

You do get the sense he loves the praise and attention he gets as an apostle. He does seem to be gunning for rock star of apostles. Too bad President Uchtdorf already has that title locked up.

Let's suppose he is an undercover reformer. I truly do not know the guy at all, but suppose he wanted to be Uchtdorf, part 2. What would you hope he does? I wonder how much leeway he has for speaking to people and saying transformative things. What power does the rest of quorum have for shutting him down? No apostle has been removed from office since 1943. Can his assignments be severly limited to keep him in line?

[oliver_denom]

You do get the sense he loves the praise and attention he gets as an apostle. He does seem to be gunning for rock star of apostles. Too bad President Uchtdorf already has that title locked up.

Let's suppose he is an undercover reformer. I truly do not know the guy at all, but suppose he wanted to be Uchtdorf, part 2. What would you hope he does? I wonder how much leeway he has for speaking to people and saying transformative things. What power does the rest of quorum have for shutting him down? No apostle has been removed from office since 1943. Can his assignments be severly limited to keep him in line?

I don't think there's any chance that Rasband is a reformer. He's the quintessential company man. Our only hope for reform is if Dieter Uchtdorf outlives Jeffrey Holland and then appoints a very young apostle who is also a reformer to succeed David Bednar. But even then, that young reformer would have to outlast whoever Nelson, Oaks, and Holland appoint. Knowing them, they'll also have their eye on the prize and will want to keep their ideology as entrenched as possible. It wouldn't surprise me to see a string of very culturally conservative apostles in their 40's and 50's.

[Mormorrisey]

Well, at least you can see how he made it to an apostle, but this has been quite the pattern for Rasband. The three times I heard him speak as a seventy he was grovelling up to somebody, and clearly this is how his apostleship is going to go. It's quite unseemly, as he's already made the pinnacle and he's STILL doing it. I wonder what TBM's think about his butt kissing - it's so bad even Sis. M has noticed this, and he even puts her off, and that's hard to do.

[Enough]

From Elder Ronald A. Rasband on Facebook:

During our time at the temple dedication and other activities, I was again impressed by President Eyring’s strong witness of the Savior. With each conversation he had with reporters or others, he continually focused his remarks on the Savior. Though I have long admired President Eyring, our time together in Idaho Falls was another witness to me that he is a called servant of God who loves people, loves the temple, and—most importantly—loves the Lord.

Granted, I am "past feeling" and was there without a (regular) Temple Recommend, but I was in the Idaho Falls Temple, for the (1st of 3) re-dedication services. I don't remember any emphasis (by Eyring or any other speaker) on Jesus Christ. I've heard that (either in the 2nd or 3rd session), Eyring spoke a lot about the breaking of the Teton Dam. Maybe he tied that into his testimony of the Savior??? IDK. Maybe he did most of his witnessing of Christ with the reporters??? Regardless, I didn't come away from the service with the feeling that any of us "love the Lord", as evidenced by Temple worship. Again, though, my attention was not pure-- I was focused on how many minutes it would take for Eyring to cry... (It did not take long). I can thank NOM for that (unintended) focus.

[orangganjil]

Granted, I am "past feeling" and was there without a (regular) Temple Recommend, but I was in the Idaho Falls Temple, for the (1st of 3) re-dedication services. I don't remember any emphasis (by Eyring or any other speaker) on Jesus Christ. I've heard that (either in the 2nd or 3rd session), Eyring spoke a lot about the breaking of the Teton Dam. Maybe he tied that into his testimony of the Savior??? IDK. Maybe he did most of his witnessing of Christ with the reporters??? Regardless, I didn't come away from the service with the feeling that any of us "love the Lord", as evidenced by Temple worship. Again, though, my attention was not pure-- I was focused on how many minutes it would take for Eyring to cry... (It did not take long). I can thank NOM for that (unintended) focus.

You don't understand. To them, the talk of how awesome the leaders are, how amazing temples are, why tithing is important, why the WoW is critical, etc. are all, to them the very same thing as talking about Jesus. To them, those things are the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus died so we can know not to drink coffee. You see, when Paul referred to Jesus' death and resurrection as the "good news" (AKA "gospel"), he didn't know what he was talking about. We needed modern prophets to restore to us the fullness of that gospel. Jesus didn't quite get it done.
[/sarcasm]

[rosebud]

Oh Elder Rasband! He was a HUGE shelf item for me.

While on my mission in a VERY poor Eastern European country we ran free English classes. The classes were open to anyone, we did not preach AT ALL, and the local people were so appreciative. One of my most special memories from my mission came from English classes when at the end of a session the entire class broke out into "For he's a jolly good fellow" (a version of this song in their language) to thank us for our service. Seriously brings tears to my eyes to this day to know how much those classes were appreciated by them.

From these classes we found MANY people to teach and MANY strong members were baptized. They would approach us and ask what we were doing in their country and why we were so generous with our classes.

Enter Elder Rasband who was a seventy at the time over this area. He decided that it was ridiculous to be teaching free English without teaching the gospel as well. He developed a whole new program for missions that taught English, standardizing the classes and requiring us to teach principles of the Gospel at the end of class. They even encouraged us to not give anyone the opportunity to walk out before we started teaching.

You can surmise what happens when your ulterior motives become so transparent. Our English class numbers plummeted to the point that so few people were signing up, and we as missionaries felt so icky about the bait and switch that we just stopped running them. I was so angry at Elder Rasband. I couldn't believe a seventy could be so obtuse as to not see the value of pure Christlike service.

10 years later or so he gets called as an apostle and my shelf creaked under the weight. This man, who was so uninspired that he single handedly destroyed one of the best methods we had of finding investigators was now an apostle??!! Then when he gave his "acceptance speech" (as my husband and I like to call it) in that first conference I couldn't believe my ears. Elder Rasband was what actually allowed me to think that the apostles may be no better than me at receiving revelation.

TL;DR: Elder Rasband was a seventy over my mission and his special project of revamping the English classes we taught locals fell completely flat and decreased baptisms in my mission overall.

[2bizE]

So, who do the newer Q12 suck up to most?

[document]

You don't understand. To them, the talk of how awesome the leaders are, how amazing temples are, why tithing is important, why the WoW is critical, etc. are all, to them the very same thing as talking about Jesus.

I know you wrote [/sarcasm] at the end (and with the entirety of the statement it would be seen as sarcasm by a member. However, the first two sentences are the LDS mentality. A believing TBM working describes Mormonism as all things point to Christ because of a single verse of scripture: John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments". Therefore, to attend the temple weekly, to pay tithing, to keep the WoW, to be a home teacher, even if you never mention Christ a single moment, the Mormon is not only doing the same thing as talking about Jesus, but they are doing more.

To the OP:

This was a shelf item for me towards the end of my Mormon life. General conference was only special because people were continually telling me it was special. The first year that I actually sat down and listened I noticed a trend. Most of the auxiliary speakers spoke of priesthood, most of the 70s talked of the apostles, most of the apostles spoke of the prophet, and the prophet was quoting dead prophets. There wasn't any new ideas presented. I'm not even talking about doctrine, but perspectives were regurgitated.

Listening to general conference reminded me of temple worship. I was told continually that I would learn something new every time I went to the temple. Well, I went enough that I had the entirety of the ceremony memorized (still do, actually) and I realized there wasn't anything else to learn. It was a simple ceremony and repetition wasn't going to make me "learn more". It was the same thing again and again. The only reason it felt deep at first was because everyone I knew and respected was telling me it was "deep".

[Rob4Hope]

This "brown nosing" stuff turns my stomach.

I heard Elder Anderson (before he was in the Q15) do the same thing to Elder Oaks. It was disgusting. This was one of the last regional conferences I ever attended. I wanted to go puke.

[moksha]

Geez Louise, I don't know when I have seen such gratuitous butt-kissing. Is this really necessary? Blech.

I imagine Elder Rasband has had the gift of schmoozing throughout his life. It has probably served him well in succeeding in life. It could serve him well in being called as a councilor at some future date. Elder Bednar, on the other hand, is most likely destined to be a future LDS President, but it will not be due to having a winning personality.

[oliblish]

While on my mission in a VERY poor Eastern European country we ran free English classes. The classes were open to anyone, we did not preach AT ALL, and the local people were so appreciative. One of my most special memories from my mission came from English classes when at the end of a session the entire class broke out into "For he's a jolly good fellow" (a version of this song in their language) to thank us for our service. Seriously brings tears to my eyes to this day to know how much those classes were appreciated by them.
...
Enter Elder Rasband who was a seventy at the time over this area. He decided that it was ridiculous to be teaching free English without teaching the gospel as well. He developed a whole new program for missions that taught English, standardizing the classes and requiring us to teach principles of the Gospel at the end of class. They even encouraged us to not give anyone the opportunity to walk out before we started teaching.

We taught free Enlish classes on my mission in Japan as well. It seems the leadership was very much against letting anyone actually getting something useful out of it. They didn't like that some students came for months but never wanted to hear any missionary discussions. So they decided to have a graduation ceremony to try to get them to stop coming.

At one point, we were told that we were only to use the Book of Mormon as an English textbook. Can you imagine talking to someone who learned English from the BOM?

[MoPag]

Geez Louise, I don't know when I have seen such gratuitous butt-kissing. Is this really necessary? Blech.

It's like no one told him he doesn't have to be a suck up 70 anymore.

I remember once when I was TBM I had to give a talk about one of his talks (he was still a70). And it was such a poorly organized talk that it didn't even really make sense. I thought this guys is not a very good writer. Then I felt really guilty.

Rosebud- that is some great story form your mission. Thanks for sharing it.

[Culper Jr.]

Can you imagine talking to someone who learned English from the BOM?

Yup- my father in law. He was from Mexico and learned english from the BOM. He always referred to his kids as his posterity. So funny to talk to, when he gave a talk it was hard to know when it was him speaking or when he was reading a scripture.

Then when he gave his "acceptance speech" (as my husband and I like to call it) in that first conference I couldn't believe my ears.

That's exactly what is was, an acceptance speech. I was so disgusted by that... I remember that conference there was a lot of hope that at least one of the three new apostles would not be a white guy from Utah. Nope. When I heard Rasband's talk I remember thinking, yup, basically be a suck up from the Morridor, usually related to somebody... that's the path to being an apostle.