Dumbest LDS Urban Legends

[Scott Lloyd]

Wasn't there one going around that there was a missionary zone or whatever meeting to be held that was canceled on 9/11, thus saving all those missionaries' lives?

Yeah. Why a missionary zone conference would be going on in one of the towers was never made quite clear.

[SlackTime]

Yeah. Why a missionary zone conference would be going on in one of the towers was never made quite clear.

My own little 9-11 story and a point about Urban Legends vs. the more general genre of Faith Promoting Stories.

In Sept of 2001 I had a son living in New York City. He lived in Queens and worked off broadway in a building north of wall street. (I didn't work there so I can't specify the building any closer than that). Typically he rode the bus from his home to the Flushing subway station, then caught the subway to the Bowling Green station then walked up to his building. I worked for a 3-month gig in a building just off the Bowling Green Park myself. Anyway, the buses in New York won't stop at a bus stop if they are full and no-one has asked to get off there. So it does happen that a bus will go by without stopping. However, on the morning of the 11th, my son waited at his stop while 2 busses passed him by, and they did not appear full. The third bus picked him up. Buses run about 15 minutes apart, so 30 minutes was gone from his commute. The train to the Bowling Green station passed beneath the twin towers, and because of the attacks, he was forced out of his train early. I believe it was Grand Central that he departed the train at. However, had he been on the train 30 minutes earlier, he could have been under the towers at the wrong time. As it was, he walked out of Manhatten that day.

Now, my story is true, factual, and complete. A simple narrative of events. It becomes a faith-promoting story if I add that I believe God protected my son by having those 2 busses pass by even though they were not full. And yet, is it not the penchant of any faithful believer to give God thanks when a loved one is spared? Certainly, you can tell me that it was coincidence, and maybe you can come up with a logical reason for those two non-full busses passing by. Maybe the bus drivers just didn't see him or something. But I can choose to believe and thank God for his safety. Now that I have shared with you the story, if you repeat it, and pull my name off from it, so that it is unsubstantiated, it becomes an unsubstantiated rumor. At that point it is a faith-promoting rumor, but has not achieved Urban Legend status. As these things change over time, I could see the story a year or two later, resurface, and reattributed to a GA, maybe Elder Packard, or President Hinckley. Whoever it is then issues a statement declaring the story false. Or their family declares it false if the GA is now dead. Now the story has achieved UL status.

Anyway, yeah 9-11 was a time to try the heart of any parent whose children worked in the big apple. And a time of sorrow, and heroism. Urban Legends and faith-promoting rumors are born in events like that, no doubt about it.

- SlackTime

[selek]

Very well put, and very well thought out, Slack Time.

I'm glad your son was at the mercy of public transit that morning.

Glad he came home safe.

[Traela]

How about the ones about entire units from Utah escaping combat in Iraq/Afghanastan unscathed, while units from other states are decimated ... a la the Stripling Warriors?

That one's actually based on truth, except it was a Utah National Guard unit in Korea. I just watch a documentary on it a couple weeks ago.

[charity]

My own little 9-11 story and a point about Urban Legends vs. the more general genre of Faith Promoting Stories.

Anyway, yeah 9-11 was a time to try the heart of any parent whose children worked in the big apple. And a time of sorrow, and heroism. Urban Legends and faith-promoting rumors are born in events like that, no doubt about it.

- SlackTime

One of my sons-in-law was supposed to be in a meeting in one of the twin towers. But the meeting was cancelled when one of the other attendees missed his flight that morning. So he wasn't in the building.

These kinds of things make me a little nervous talking about, however. So why were our family members spared, when many others weren't? Do we have a time set for us to go?

[SlackTime]

One of my sons-in-law was supposed to be in a meeting in one of the twin towers. But the meeting was cancelled when one of the other attendees missed his flight that morning. So he wasn't in the building.

These kinds of things make me a little nervous talking about, however. So why were our family members spared, when many others weren't? Do we have a time set for us to go?

I understand the concern. In giving thanks that my son was spared I do not imply in my thanks, that another who died was "less worthy". My belief would be that God has a timetable, and an understanding of our mortal sojourn that we but guess at. Many who died may have been more worthy than many who lived. Hopefully all of us who continue to live will do our best to improve the time and gift given, that we may return the Lord's investment with interest, ala the parable of the talents.

- SlackTime

[SeekerB]

A man is burned in a fire and has severe burns everywhere but where his garments covered him.

I was in the Seattle temple in 1983. A worker there told me that it happened to him.

[Scott Lloyd]

Very well put, and very well thought out, Slack Time.

I agree. And some of what Slack Time said could have application to accounts of miracles in the earlier days of the Church -- such as the crickets and the seagulls -- that some critics like to dismiss as coincidence or naturally occurring phenomena and to discount an element of divine intervention. I have no doubt that the event was powerful enough to people living at the time that the story was handed down through generations, not just recorded in some journals of the time. I'm confident that one day, when all the facts are known, we will see that the story as we have heard it through the years was substantially accurate and was indeed an instance of divine deliverance.

[Flyonthewall]

I was in the Seattle temple in 1983. A worker there told me that it happened to him.

And I have a friend that took a radiator cap off and was sprayed with hot coolant, and received second degree burns, except for where his garments were...but it was not the "magical" properties of the garment that protected him, but the extra layer of clothes that kept the coolant from his skin.

Yes, if he was not wearing his garments then he would have been burned there too, so in that manner, it provided protection, but not in the "magical" sense. It was his obedience to the covenants he made, that had him wearing his garments, that offered the protection.

[ebeddoulos]

In Star Valley Wyoming there used to be a sawmill called Star Studs which manufactured 2x4s and 2x6s. I had a job there "tailing the scragg". This was a large saw which made the initial cuts through the logs. My job consisted on toppling and separating the large cants and making sure they were on the rollers headed toward the smaller saws which cut them into the smaller sizes. After being in use for a while, the scrag would build up a collection of scrap wood and sawdust which hindered its operation. The sawyer would shut off the saw. I would fold back the covers (which triggered the killswitch), climb into the chamber and clean out the debris. One day, the sawyer, thinking he was being funny, decided to mime that he was going to turn on the switch. Being male, I mimed back my intentions if he did. Long story short, he flipped on the switch, the kill-switch did not work and the saw turned on. I do not know how but the next thing I remember I was outside the saw, the saw was off and I was going after the sawyer. The guys restraining me were laughing because the thing I was mad about was the condition of my pants. The only thing the saw damaged was a brand new pair of Levi jeans which the saw cut from just above the knee to within an inch of certain anatomical parts that some say the loss of gives a man the ability to sing at a much higher pitch. It did not break a thread or put a scratch on my garments. Now you can call that a lucky coincidence or miraculous intervention. Personally, I choose the latter. Don

[SlackTime]

I want to thank all who contributed to our little discussion of Mormon Urban Legends and Faith-promoting stories. I enjoyed learning a few stories new to me.

- SlackTime

[Duncan]

We had ward conference on sunday and the Stake President told us about the Japanese missionary being sent to Guatemala-in other versions I have heard Brazil and Colombia. Anyways this missionary is so perplexed as to why he got to go to Guatemala because he speaks Japanese and knows Japanese culture. So nearing the end of the mission he is at a train station and he meets an elderley man and it turns out he is Japanese. Long story short the missionary baptizes this man and 63 members of his family. Wait there's more. It turns out the man had a copy of the Book fo Mormon given by the Japanese missionary's father some years perviously. According to holyfetch.com it is very loosly based on a real story about this Japanese elder being sent to a South American Country and baptized a man who had some connection to the elder's father or at least thats a possibility of where it originated from. The Stake President heard it from an Area Authority 70-granted they hear all kinds of stuff too and it doesn't make them less inspired.

[Zakuska]

Some women in the relief society in <insert name of random po-dunk town in the mission> were anointing their sheep with concecrated oil and performing priesthood blessings.