Bednar talk on missionary callings

[wtfluff]

If mission calls became more automated, what would Elder Oaks do with his Magic Wand/Priesthood Antennae?

[consiglieri]

I listened to the Mormon Discussions / Radio Free Mormon podcast review of GC this weekend, and their analysis was exactly this. The idea that missionaries somehow carry a "burden" for decades after their mission assignment was changed is a bogus red herring when they don't want to talk about or even mention the possibility that the prophesying-seeing-revelating process of calling missionaries might be defective. There were several talks where they did this kind of misdirection. They are the masters of double speak.

fh451

Great minds think alike, it seems.

[consiglieri]

If mission calls became more automated, what would Elder Oaks do with his Magic Wand/Priesthood Antennae?

One wonders what it is exactly the fellow sitting to the left of Elder Oaks is there for exactly . . . ?

Is this like the "advisor" that sat next to President Eyring while he was doing his family history?

I mean, in addition to the "advisor" he had on the phone at the same time?

[2bizE]

I think on the computer screen with Oaks, the white data fields are spots that need to have a missionary. The black areas may be the missions and the aqua blue color is missionaries already assigned. Oaks' goal is to match a missionary with a mission needing a certain number of spots. The guy next to him is likely driving the mouse, while Oaks points with his magic divining rod (aka sprout.) Maybe it is the divining rod used by Oliver Cowdrey.

[Unendowed]

This was a very interesting talk, but only after going beneath the banal surface.

I have never encountered any RM who felt guilty that, due to circumstances beyond his or her control, did not end up serving a mission to the area originally called.

If Bednar had any compassion he would have addressed the epidemic of young missionaries returning early for mental issues instead of this made up problem of missionaries feeling guilt for having their mission changed. The poor young men and women who come home early are having to live with guilt for rest of their lives the become second class citizens because this church has pressured them to do something they were not mentally prepared to do. I see this happening all the time now and it is messing with these kids heads. Unfortunately the brethren are too damm full of themselves to reverse the harmful policy of sending 18 year olds on missions. They would rather thousands of young people feel ashamed and guilty than let on that the policy may not have been inspired. Cowards!

[Abinidied]

Had a good friend who had a fine missionary son send in papers. Unbeknownst to the 12 oracles, my good friend moved his family to St. George before they got the call. Son received said call by said oracles to serve in the Utah St. George mission. My friend has had little to do with church because of this and the fact that his patriarchal blessing was revoked because the patriarch had dementia and had trouble stringing together enough words to form a legible sentence. He got a second opinion which he read to me which sounded a lot like mine because it came from the same patriarch (not the one with dementia) that gave me mine. I figured out then why they don't want us to read our p. blessings to anyone else. A lot of members would be accusing each other of patriarchal blessing theft if they did. Hey! Idea . . . Why don't they call a presiding patriarch to draft an eloquent blessing, send it to Pres. Monson for approval and cc the membership with a form blessing personalized with your full name and middle initial (even better if your middle name is your given name and you can put the initial in front a.k.a. D. Todd Christofferson, L. Whitney Clayton, C. Scott Grow (seriously??), O. Christmas Tree, Y. M. C. Alabama, etc.). I digress.

[Random]

Had a good friend who had a fine missionary son send in papers. Unbeknownst to the 12 oracles, my good friend moved his family to St. George before they got the call. Son received said call by said oracles to serve in the Utah St. George mission.

Well, maybe the father was inspired. I mean, the kid wouldn't have to pay rent, etc. if he lived at home. Not sure what to do about his companion, though. Btw, what happened? Did the kid serve here or did they issue a new call?

[Abinidied]

Well, maybe the father was inspired. I mean, the kid wouldn't have to pay rent, etc. if he lived at home. Not sure what to do about his companion, though. Btw, what happened? Did the kid serve here or did they issue a new call?

My friend? Inspired? Where they chose to live had el zippo to do with soliciting deity for direction so I doubt it. And yes, he was issued a new calling addendumbed with something like, "Your initial letter was a convincing forgery sent to the Q12 by one Mark Hoffman. The brethren apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and assure you that it was the still small voice that enlightened our understanding revealed to us using some special tokens only we know how to use. Rest assured our decision to reassign your son to Colorado (you don't have any immediate relatives there, do you?) had nothing to do with you informing us of our initial assignment . . . I mean Hoffman's forgery." At the time, I knew this would be very challenging for my friend to remain faithful. Now all I can think about is, "Lucky bugger". He had a legit reason that exposed the truth about just how inspired these callings are. I'm super pissed I got sent to Montreal and don't see a speck of magic pixie dust in the entire process. There was a postal strike so the most convenient thing for the church to do was send a bunch of us to montreal to avoid a postal strike problem.

[Random]

Well, maybe the father was inspired. I mean, the kid wouldn't have to pay rent, etc. if he lived at home. Not sure what to do about his companion, though. Btw, what happened? Did the kid serve here or did they issue a new call?

My friend? Inspired? Where they chose to live had el zippo to do with soliciting deity for direction so I doubt it.

I was being rather facetious, tbh, though I thought it would be cool if he'd accidentally been inspired. I mean, the odds of living at home as a full time missionary . . . still, it was fun to think about.

And yes, he was issued a new calling addendumbed with something like, "Your initial letter was a convincing forgery sent to the Q12 by one Mark Hoffman. The brethren apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and assure you that it was the still small voice that enlightened our understanding revealed to us using some special tokens only we know how to use. Rest assured our decision to reassign your son to Colorado (you don't have any immediate relatives there, do you?) had nothing to do with you informing us of our initial assignment . . . I mean Hoffman's forgery."

At the time, I knew this would be very challenging for my friend to remain faithful. Now all I can think about is, "Lucky bugger". He had a legit reason that exposed the truth about just how inspired these callings are. I'm super pissed I got sent to Montreal and don't see a speck of magic pixie dust in the entire process. There was a postal strike so the most convenient thing for the church to do was send a bunch of us to montreal to avoid a postal strike problem.

I think, more and more, people are seeing holes in the armor. I believe that, finally, only diehard followers will be left, and they will be very, very few - if any at all. And I'm not thinking about history, but about the current facade of perfection in the leaders.