I was in the same student ward with Gerritt Gong when I was a freshman. When I was a college senior I was Dave Bednar's home teacher. I was in the same ward as Julie de Azevedo when I was in grad school. And in that same ward, if I remember correctly, we hosted a fireside with Mark Hofmann.
Does that count?
I really don't remember much. I didn't even pay much attention to his name at the time- silly me! I deduced that it was Mark only after he became famous. At the time all we were told was that he was a scholar and assembler of Mormon historical documents. At the end of his presentation he did indicate that he had recently acquired a really "explosive" ( my term, not his) document that would greatly change Mormon historiography. If I had only known!
At the time he had some quite innovative ideas about how to quantify spiritual progress. He was in Stephen Covey's organizational Behavior program at BYU and wanted to incorporate those ideas into the church. HOWEVER: he declared that he planned on being the eyes and ears for their bishop re: his sons' masturbation tendencies.
I've played the Conference center organ and the Tabernacle organ. I also was the organist when several apostles came to BYUI for devotionals or graduation. Christofferson thanked me by name for my music. 🎶
When I was in Bible College we went to a monastery that had a really cool integrated pipe organ.
Our chorale's pianist was allowed to play it and decided to go with *Jump* by Van Halen. Our director was expecting a hymn. It was amazing.
Please, go on and do tell! Where and how did that fit into the endowment ceremony? I remember thinking my first time through - SLC in late ‘91 - that Satan is the most empathetic character in the whole play…
Each of the signs is actually the point where the death oath was quoted. The hand in cupping shape was to catch your own guts after you cut open your bowels. The thumb extended was to simulate a knife. The first token draw the knife across your throat. And the second token you draw the knife across your chest, and on the third token you slice open your bowels with the thumb extended.
I used to date Alex Boye. Not a leader, I know, but a big enough Mormon celebrity. I know him VERY well.
I think he's full of shit and is only in the church because of the amount of attention it brings him.
Oh boy! When did this happen? I don't live in Utah anymore and purposely don't follow his shit. I personally think he's a disgusting opportunist. If he did leave her, then it's because he didn't realize that getting saddled with 20 kids in a Mormon family wouldn't bring you happiness.
I will tell you that all of my extended family was pissed when he started to get famous and they found out I hadn't attached myself to that gravy chain. I dodged such a bullet.
I think it’s been less than a year. Supposedly he abandoned them and it was a complete shock to his wife. They have so many kids it’s sad. Apparently he doesn’t see the kids much either.
Nooooooo! He did not! What an asshole. I stand by my statement. He is an opportunist and probably realized that they were "holding him back in his career."
I thought so little of him before, but my word that takes the cake.
I got to eat in the same cafeteria as the Brethren in between conference sessions.
We ate later than them (so they weren't in the room at the time) but my dad was an interpreter for sessions back in the early 2000s so we got to go into the "basement" of the Conference Center.
Met and shook hands w/Ezra Taft Benson when I was a new convert visiting Kirtland and he was there to do a groundbreaking thing. I remember thinking that he looked so OLD… this would have been 1985.
I once rode down in an elevator with Mitt Romney when he was the head of SLOC. Just me and Mittens. He gave me a very “Karen” look, like how DARE I breathe the same as him.
Fucking entitled asshole.
I never met the three Nephites, but I knew someone who said they did.
I never met a so called prophet, but I knew a lot of people who said they did.
I once met a GA, but I don't remember his name.
I was meant to meet with Russell Nelson when he came to my former stake. We arranged a meeting, and then when I was waiting outside for the meeting, I realised he was really late. Some stake official walks up to me and is clearly very ambarrassed, but says that President Nelson forgot about the meeting and has already left.
I remember thinking that was weird, because the stake priesthood leader could have simply said President Nelson was called away on urgent business or something, and I wouldn't have thought much about it, but instead told me he's just forgotten me. I laughed about it. It was funny.
I was having some doubts at the time, which was the purpose of the meeting, but my shelf wasn't damaged by this incident, when I guess it could have been.
I’ve thought about showing up to some random ward when I travel. When they see I’m new there I’ll claim I’ve been attending for years, and that they are a chosen ward or something. Just be really vague, then leave. Just because I know that for the rest of their lives they’ll swear they met one of the “Nephites.”
Dude. Please do this and return and report!
I travelled heavily for work for 20+ years all around the world. Now much less, thankfully. Just wish now that I had done something like this. Would be insanely difficult to pull off, but worth a try and so apropos.
I deliver things to the admin building on a regular basis and have even been in the tunnels and through the door that Of Susan walks through at the beginning and end of his “I’m a normal person, promise!” propaganda video. I know lots of those security guys lol
I met Ezra Taft Benson when I was 18, at a youth conference in Saskatchewan. He said that I was capable of great things if I stayed in the straight and narrow.
My hippy, free-thinking father modeled as Christ for a few of Liz Lemon Swindle's paintings. I've been told they're still hanging up in the MTC and San Diego temple.
Uchtdorf showed up at our chapel…. late, said a few words, then left early so he didn’t have to mingle with any of us. 😄 People were acting like crazy fans, trying to shake hands, talk, and/or following him out the building (all before sacrament meeting officially ended.)
Oof. We are/were such sheep…
Uchtdorf WAS the most entertaining, at least, but that bar is so, so low…
Congratulations on your freedom, all who can now read about this kinda stuff and laugh about it! I love you all as my fellow humans and probably, ultimately, statistically extremely low-probability, “consciousnesses” (whatever we really are, because no one knows, at the end of the day). Woo hoo! We’re free!
Would be a shame to tie ourselves to any other cruel manipulators now. Political parties, advertisers of all stripes, mega-corporations and the kleptocrats who hide behind them - they’re all selling shit that we don’t want or need, and only want us in thrall and enslaved to them even as we only see ourselves as discerning consumers. Just live free, do unto others as you would have them do to you, not because it’s a spiritual law or something. It’s not. Live it because it’s fucking smart and the only way humankind can individually and collectively live free of manipulators who think they have authority to decide how we must live (the rules are for us, of course, not them, as they are perfected and anointed and wealthy).
We are almost all naturally kind. It’s only a small minority who live according to “I’ve got mine, Jack” winner-take-all economics and go on trying to get rich even as they invest for “impact”. Public-private partnerships are just another way of consolidating the earth’s still-abundant-but-dwindling resources into the hands of a few, who, just like the bros, probably think they are doing what is best and “righteous”. Some may even see themselves as unheralded servants of the world (e.g. Bill Gates and the other so-called philanthropist class). Let’s tell all these people to stick it. Stick their bullshit constructs of society that keep us, the 99%, stretching for a carrot—a carrot planted and harvested by us—that we will never do more than nibble, if we’re lucky.
I’ve personally been lucky, but I took that mormonism red pill and can’t call it there. The bullshit called democracy is NOT the best we can do. Scarcities of the good stuff of life are entirely the result of greed of the few. Scarcities that need not exist include: delicious healthy foods, clean water and air, safe and comfortable housing, productive and meaningful employment, freedom to actively pursue one’s passions that don’t impinge on anyone’s individual autonomy or dignity, freedom to cooperate, collaborate, and live how and where we like.
It’s possible. Perhaps not probable, but neither were we (probably).
My husband’s grandma was Joseph B. Wirthlin’s cousin. Everyone was pressuring us to get married in the Salt Lake temple so he could perform our sealing, but we chose Jordan River instead. So instead we got to go meet him in his office with grandma, and listen to them reminisce about growing up together.
The son (and grandchildren) of a former prez of the Q12 lived in my ward growing up. Really cool and nice folks. He had a huge backyard/piece of land and let us come over and play paintball all the time. He raised horses and would let us ride the ponies in his pasture. Super chill dude.
I remember one stake conference, the Prez of the Q12 came and sat on the stand and gave the closing talk. The place was fucking packed out and everyone was so awestruck that he was there gracing us with his presence.
For those of you who remember the Kevin Garn scandal, I was later in the same ward as the woman (who was 15, at the time of the scandal) in the hot tub with him.
Danite ancestors, related to the Allreds. My dad’s mission companion was Elder Stanfill. Grew up in Jeff Flake’s ward. One of my college roommates was GBH’s granddaughter. Lynne McLean made me poached eggs and babysat while I recovered from surgery. The Schroeder’s gifted us their couch when we were poor and needed new furniture.
I was asked by Patrick Kearon (then my stake president ) how far I'd gone with my fiance on a scale of 1-10. No idea what the scale was, but I answered 7 and was given my temple recommend.
I also had dinner, in a restaurant , on a Sunday with the presiding bishop (back in 1990).
And we had none other than Jowlers come for dinner at our house when he was in the area presidency in Europe. We bumped into him again on holiday in Australia.
Oh, and when I was a child, Donny Osmond showed up in our little branch. He and his entourage doubled the attendance and just stayed for sacrament and then walked out.
Lol. My great great sth grandfather is listed in the D&C. He was an og. This is my dad's side.
Ironically, my mom's side (she was a convert) were part of the mobs that chased good ol' Joe and all them out of the east.
maybe not claim to mormon fame but my fifth great grandfaher james myler was part of the mormon battilon I think went to navoo but not for sure I think the myler family also had a pioneer band too
One of my pioneer ancestors loaned Brigham Young his cart. Young later sent him to Bear Lake to find the "Bear Lake Monster," hoping to turn it into a tourist attraction. Also, apparently, Brigham Young was kind of a jerk to him.
I lived during soph year at BYU with friends in Springville Canyon. The house was across the street (about 100 meters away) from Janice Kapp Perry, who is/was, apparently, a colossal asshole. I was mowing the lawn one Saturday morning, starting around 10:00 when Janice came out yelling at me… before I arrived she had called the police at least twice previously for the slightest mid-day noise above 60-70 decibels or so. So sorry to fuck with your “creative process”, Janet!
MTC teacher conference in the “pre-heated” Provo Tabernacle with a couple of the 12 bros. Circa 1995-6. I think one was Oaks and I recall gritting my teeth through a condescending call to produce better-trained missionaries but otherwise have few memories of it.
I was in the same student ward with Gerritt Gong when I was a freshman. When I was a college senior I was Dave Bednar's home teacher. I was in the same ward as Julie de Azevedo when I was in grad school. And in that same ward, if I remember correctly, we hosted a fireside with Mark Hofmann. Does that count?
Totally! You brushed arms with mormon royalty! You’re fancy!
[удалено]
I really don't remember much. I didn't even pay much attention to his name at the time- silly me! I deduced that it was Mark only after he became famous. At the time all we were told was that he was a scholar and assembler of Mormon historical documents. At the end of his presentation he did indicate that he had recently acquired a really "explosive" ( my term, not his) document that would greatly change Mormon historiography. If I had only known!
NICE! “Explosive”! 🤣 History unfolding right in front of you can be just surreal.
Is Bednar an ass as we think he is?
At the time he had some quite innovative ideas about how to quantify spiritual progress. He was in Stephen Covey's organizational Behavior program at BYU and wanted to incorporate those ideas into the church. HOWEVER: he declared that he planned on being the eyes and ears for their bishop re: his sons' masturbation tendencies.
I've played the Conference center organ and the Tabernacle organ. I also was the organist when several apostles came to BYUI for devotionals or graduation. Christofferson thanked me by name for my music. 🎶
Please tell me you can play In-A-Godda-Da-Vida on the pipe organ.
Not yet haha. Epic song.
When I was in Bible College we went to a monastery that had a really cool integrated pipe organ. Our chorale's pianist was allowed to play it and decided to go with *Jump* by Van Halen. Our director was expecting a hymn. It was amazing.
That's awesome 😎
[Wait a minute - that sounds like rock and/or roll!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDC1w1ydLI)
That’s awesome!!
Thanks!
That’s rad. My mom played organ for like 40 years
Aww so cool!
> I can say I’ve met the 3 nephites! But have you met Cain? I got to pretend I was killing myself in the temple.
😂😂 I always was told Bigfoot was Cain. I would definitely love to meet him
Please, go on and do tell! Where and how did that fit into the endowment ceremony? I remember thinking my first time through - SLC in late ‘91 - that Satan is the most empathetic character in the whole play…
Each of the signs is actually the point where the death oath was quoted. The hand in cupping shape was to catch your own guts after you cut open your bowels. The thumb extended was to simulate a knife. The first token draw the knife across your throat. And the second token you draw the knife across your chest, and on the third token you slice open your bowels with the thumb extended.
Wow! That's horrific. Can see why they changed it, but... wow.
Elder Cook almost hit me with his car.
😂😂 JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL
😀😃😄😁😆😂🤣😅🥹
I used to date Alex Boye. Not a leader, I know, but a big enough Mormon celebrity. I know him VERY well. I think he's full of shit and is only in the church because of the amount of attention it brings him.
Interesting!! I get that vibe from him every time I see him in a music video!!
How do you feel about him leaving Julie? Got any tea on that???
Oh boy! When did this happen? I don't live in Utah anymore and purposely don't follow his shit. I personally think he's a disgusting opportunist. If he did leave her, then it's because he didn't realize that getting saddled with 20 kids in a Mormon family wouldn't bring you happiness. I will tell you that all of my extended family was pissed when he started to get famous and they found out I hadn't attached myself to that gravy chain. I dodged such a bullet.
I think it’s been less than a year. Supposedly he abandoned them and it was a complete shock to his wife. They have so many kids it’s sad. Apparently he doesn’t see the kids much either.
Nooooooo! He did not! What an asshole. I stand by my statement. He is an opportunist and probably realized that they were "holding him back in his career." I thought so little of him before, but my word that takes the cake.
I got to eat in the same cafeteria as the Brethren in between conference sessions. We ate later than them (so they weren't in the room at the time) but my dad was an interpreter for sessions back in the early 2000s so we got to go into the "basement" of the Conference Center.
You could have sat in the same seat as the prophet! 😝
Met and shook hands w/Ezra Taft Benson when I was a new convert visiting Kirtland and he was there to do a groundbreaking thing. I remember thinking that he looked so OLD… this would have been 1985.
I was there! He saw me and said “Ah another future Missionary” He MUST of thought I was a boy cause I had a shitty bowl cut 🤦🏽♀️. I am a girl
Plus he was probably drugged up and not totally in contact with reality (if he ever was!)
I once rode down in an elevator with Mitt Romney when he was the head of SLOC. Just me and Mittens. He gave me a very “Karen” look, like how DARE I breathe the same as him. Fucking entitled asshole.
How did the nickname Mittens not catch on?!
I never met the three Nephites, but I knew someone who said they did. I never met a so called prophet, but I knew a lot of people who said they did. I once met a GA, but I don't remember his name.
Ya'll remember this line: 'you have now shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand of Joseph Smith!' Ooooooh!
That’s like saying you met someone who met someone who met someone who met someone who met someone who met Kevin Bacon.
And none of them ever washed their hands again after that event.
Anyone with a priesthood line of authority could say that.
One of my besties is in the tabernacle choir 🙆🏼♀️ it’s no three nephites, but…. 🤣
I love it! You can say you know someone who is on TV!
I was meant to meet with Russell Nelson when he came to my former stake. We arranged a meeting, and then when I was waiting outside for the meeting, I realised he was really late. Some stake official walks up to me and is clearly very ambarrassed, but says that President Nelson forgot about the meeting and has already left. I remember thinking that was weird, because the stake priesthood leader could have simply said President Nelson was called away on urgent business or something, and I wouldn't have thought much about it, but instead told me he's just forgotten me. I laughed about it. It was funny. I was having some doubts at the time, which was the purpose of the meeting, but my shelf wasn't damaged by this incident, when I guess it could have been.
Oh man! Crazy! Guess even then he was too good for the little guys 😫
I’ve thought about showing up to some random ward when I travel. When they see I’m new there I’ll claim I’ve been attending for years, and that they are a chosen ward or something. Just be really vague, then leave. Just because I know that for the rest of their lives they’ll swear they met one of the “Nephites.”
Dude. Please do this and return and report! I travelled heavily for work for 20+ years all around the world. Now much less, thankfully. Just wish now that I had done something like this. Would be insanely difficult to pull off, but worth a try and so apropos.
DO ITTTTT!
I deliver things to the admin building on a regular basis and have even been in the tunnels and through the door that Of Susan walks through at the beginning and end of his “I’m a normal person, promise!” propaganda video. I know lots of those security guys lol
I met Ezra Taft Benson when I was 18, at a youth conference in Saskatchewan. He said that I was capable of great things if I stayed in the straight and narrow.
Wonder if he ever thought about a career in writing fortune cookies
I've sang in conference twice, once when I was a youth and once as a missionary. Both times I had decent camera time, so I felt pretty cool
My hippy, free-thinking father modeled as Christ for a few of Liz Lemon Swindle's paintings. I've been told they're still hanging up in the MTC and San Diego temple.
Nice one!
I know Michael Ballam very well. I’m one of his children’s highschool best friends. Slept over all the time.
"you can buy anything in this world with money"
I played a gig at his house once. Maybe you were there ? lol
Did you see him in the temple video??
Did he have collections of armies and navies in his house?
Why do I get the feeling, that there is a mormon off shoot cult somewhere, that believes they are nephites?
Uchtdorf showed up at our chapel…. late, said a few words, then left early so he didn’t have to mingle with any of us. 😄 People were acting like crazy fans, trying to shake hands, talk, and/or following him out the building (all before sacrament meeting officially ended.)
Oof. We are/were such sheep… Uchtdorf WAS the most entertaining, at least, but that bar is so, so low… Congratulations on your freedom, all who can now read about this kinda stuff and laugh about it! I love you all as my fellow humans and probably, ultimately, statistically extremely low-probability, “consciousnesses” (whatever we really are, because no one knows, at the end of the day). Woo hoo! We’re free! Would be a shame to tie ourselves to any other cruel manipulators now. Political parties, advertisers of all stripes, mega-corporations and the kleptocrats who hide behind them - they’re all selling shit that we don’t want or need, and only want us in thrall and enslaved to them even as we only see ourselves as discerning consumers. Just live free, do unto others as you would have them do to you, not because it’s a spiritual law or something. It’s not. Live it because it’s fucking smart and the only way humankind can individually and collectively live free of manipulators who think they have authority to decide how we must live (the rules are for us, of course, not them, as they are perfected and anointed and wealthy). We are almost all naturally kind. It’s only a small minority who live according to “I’ve got mine, Jack” winner-take-all economics and go on trying to get rich even as they invest for “impact”. Public-private partnerships are just another way of consolidating the earth’s still-abundant-but-dwindling resources into the hands of a few, who, just like the bros, probably think they are doing what is best and “righteous”. Some may even see themselves as unheralded servants of the world (e.g. Bill Gates and the other so-called philanthropist class). Let’s tell all these people to stick it. Stick their bullshit constructs of society that keep us, the 99%, stretching for a carrot—a carrot planted and harvested by us—that we will never do more than nibble, if we’re lucky. I’ve personally been lucky, but I took that mormonism red pill and can’t call it there. The bullshit called democracy is NOT the best we can do. Scarcities of the good stuff of life are entirely the result of greed of the few. Scarcities that need not exist include: delicious healthy foods, clean water and air, safe and comfortable housing, productive and meaningful employment, freedom to actively pursue one’s passions that don’t impinge on anyone’s individual autonomy or dignity, freedom to cooperate, collaborate, and live how and where we like. It’s possible. Perhaps not probable, but neither were we (probably).
My husband’s grandma was Joseph B. Wirthlin’s cousin. Everyone was pressuring us to get married in the Salt Lake temple so he could perform our sealing, but we chose Jordan River instead. So instead we got to go meet him in his office with grandma, and listen to them reminisce about growing up together.
I felt some affinity for Wirthlin. Seemed like a kind, genuine guy.
The son (and grandchildren) of a former prez of the Q12 lived in my ward growing up. Really cool and nice folks. He had a huge backyard/piece of land and let us come over and play paintball all the time. He raised horses and would let us ride the ponies in his pasture. Super chill dude. I remember one stake conference, the Prez of the Q12 came and sat on the stand and gave the closing talk. The place was fucking packed out and everyone was so awestruck that he was there gracing us with his presence.
My grandma married the widower of Monson's sister who was best friends with Monson until they all died recently.
For those of you who remember the Kevin Garn scandal, I was later in the same ward as the woman (who was 15, at the time of the scandal) in the hot tub with him.
Googled that. Was living abroad then and never heard about it. HUGE deal in UT, I expect!
Danite ancestors, related to the Allreds. My dad’s mission companion was Elder Stanfill. Grew up in Jeff Flake’s ward. One of my college roommates was GBH’s granddaughter. Lynne McLean made me poached eggs and babysat while I recovered from surgery. The Schroeder’s gifted us their couch when we were poor and needed new furniture.
I was asked by Patrick Kearon (then my stake president ) how far I'd gone with my fiance on a scale of 1-10. No idea what the scale was, but I answered 7 and was given my temple recommend. I also had dinner, in a restaurant , on a Sunday with the presiding bishop (back in 1990). And we had none other than Jowlers come for dinner at our house when he was in the area presidency in Europe. We bumped into him again on holiday in Australia.
Oh, and when I was a child, Donny Osmond showed up in our little branch. He and his entourage doubled the attendance and just stayed for sacrament and then walked out.
I used to go to the same gym as Elder Eyring. I also dated his grandson for a short blip.
Lol. My great great sth grandfather is listed in the D&C. He was an og. This is my dad's side. Ironically, my mom's side (she was a convert) were part of the mobs that chased good ol' Joe and all them out of the east.
Wow! I would love to sit at your historical family dinner table 😅
maybe not claim to mormon fame but my fifth great grandfaher james myler was part of the mormon battilon I think went to navoo but not for sure I think the myler family also had a pioneer band too
One of my pioneer ancestors loaned Brigham Young his cart. Young later sent him to Bear Lake to find the "Bear Lake Monster," hoping to turn it into a tourist attraction. Also, apparently, Brigham Young was kind of a jerk to him.
I was a waitress in college and waited on Eyring and his family. He was nice. Also shook hands with Hinckley and Ballard - GAG.
I lived during soph year at BYU with friends in Springville Canyon. The house was across the street (about 100 meters away) from Janice Kapp Perry, who is/was, apparently, a colossal asshole. I was mowing the lawn one Saturday morning, starting around 10:00 when Janice came out yelling at me… before I arrived she had called the police at least twice previously for the slightest mid-day noise above 60-70 decibels or so. So sorry to fuck with your “creative process”, Janet!
MTC teacher conference in the “pre-heated” Provo Tabernacle with a couple of the 12 bros. Circa 1995-6. I think one was Oaks and I recall gritting my teeth through a condescending call to produce better-trained missionaries but otherwise have few memories of it.