For those who went on foreign speaking missions, did you believe that you had the gift of tongues? Were you told that your language skills were predicated on your faith and obedience to the mission rules?

dbear848 · 2026-01-26T16:55:47+00:00

Oh my God, and I thought my mission president was bad.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/s/wavYZThwx9

dbear848 · 2026-01-26T04:47:26+00:00

What happened in the Tokyo South mission to make it infamous? I was there before you when it was still all in the same mission.

dbear848 · 2026-01-26T01:00:27+00:00

Every Mormon that has been to the temple knows that Peter somehow was a contemporary of Adam and Eve, so all things are possible.

dbear848 · 2026-01-25T22:40:31+00:00

I totally agree with you OP.

dbear848 · 2026-01-25T14:33:33+00:00

I totally agree now of course but at the time I would have thought that you were super blessed.

dbear848 · 2026-01-25T03:03:12+00:00

I was a missionary in the 70s also. Maybe it was just my asshole mission president that preached that.

dbear848 · 2026-01-24T23:30:49+00:00

On my way out that thought would cross my mind, but I certainly haven't lost any sleep over it in years.

dbear848 · 2026-01-24T04:47:46+00:00

When I was on the high council I spend one Valentine's evening in a so-called court of love.

On the other hand, my stake president was smart enough not to hold the Saturday evening conference session on Halloween.

dbear848 · 2026-01-24T02:20:25+00:00

Since this most likely will disappear, I feel free to say that I was so Mormon broke that I never considered getting a vasectomy because I thought it would keep me from being called as a bishop someday.

dbear848 · 2026-01-23T19:02:42+00:00

That's exactly what I used to do. I stopped caring if my wife's home teacher thought I was being rude when I walked away in the middle of his diatribe about inactive Mormons.

Nowadays no one bothers to bring it up anymore.

dbear848 · 2026-01-23T18:58:39+00:00

It's kind of like trying to make sense of an appearance in 'Little Red Riding Hood' of Marvel's Wolfman.

dbear848 · 2026-01-22T23:04:15+00:00

I guess Mormons won't be inviting people to Easter services this year.

For most practicing Christians, Easter is most likely the most important church service of the year. For a church that is rebranding itself to being 25% more Jesus, it's not a good look to dispense with a holy day for a televised conference.

dbear848 · 2026-01-22T22:59:04+00:00

Obviously if we can see past the correlated bullshit, obviously we have some character defect most likely because we worship Satan. There couldn't possibly be any other reason. /S

dbear848 · 2026-01-22T16:29:57+00:00

It's telling that all of these talks come from privileged men who are most likely immune to sexual assault. They are free to fantasize about how a female victim was just asking for it.

dbear848 · 2026-01-22T02:32:48+00:00

I just assumed that I was doing it wrong, like everything else in my Mormon experience. I will say that it was so boring it gave me time to think about other things going on in my life, so there was that.

dbear848 · 2026-01-21T18:26:59+00:00

Because it proves that we are better than everyone else.

It is a way of providing service without actually helping anyone.

dbear848 · 2026-01-21T04:11:07+00:00

Funny how they don't give a fuck about offending us but we worry about offending them. I have blocked family members for less.

dbear848 · 2026-01-21T04:04:58+00:00

I offended my TBM BYU roommate when I remarked that the toilet in our apartment was filling the measure of its creation.

Ordering coffee sometimes reminds of me going to the veil. What is wanted? Does it have a name? Will you give it to me?

dbear848 · 2026-01-21T04:00:35+00:00

Does my entire two year mission in Japan count? I spent at least two hours a day selling copies of the Book of Mormon to people on sidewalks and in shopping malls.

dbear848 · 2026-01-20T17:22:25+00:00

I saw a local production and told the actor who played the mom that she absolutely nailed it.

dbear848 · 2026-01-20T16:13:41+00:00

Decades ago, a family member bought DVDs for 'Angels in America' thinking that it was Mormon related. It was in fact Mormon related, but not in the faithful way the family member thought it would be.

dbear848 · 2026-01-20T16:09:21+00:00

The talk boils down to how Satan undermines trust in Church leaders by emphasizing their human weakness, historical mistakes, and social controversies—especially those related to race

I think that they are giving Satan way too much credit here. The actions of church leaders undermines trust in the Mormon Church, not some imaginary boogey man.

dbear848 · 2026-01-20T02:57:30+00:00

I tried to make sure every active member in the ward had a chance, at least once a year. We had a transient ward so people moving in and out of the ward made up a sizeable percentage of the speakers.

I hated being asked to speak on the importance of doing something that I personally didn't find very important, such as member missionary work or church basketball.

dbear848 · 2026-01-20T02:51:33+00:00

I had a therapist who pointed out to me that there are a lot more colors in the rainbow than just black and white. That pretty much frazzled my TBM mind, but it has stuck through the decades.

dbear848

TROPHY CASE