JLHPROF Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 (edited) Just as a change of pace from the science/politics/sociological discussions: Article from last month in the Trib - http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/3832821-155/king-of-mormon-folklore-bert-wilson Famous collector of Mormon Folklore passed away. Got me to thinking. Which stories from Mormon Folklore are among your favorites? Which do you actually think/hope are true and which should be left to the likes of www.holyfetch.com? I've always been partial to the Zeke Johnson resurrection vision and the Mosiah Hancock vision. Edited May 25, 2016 by JLHPROF
mfbukowski Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 2 minutes ago, JLHPROF said: Just as a change of pace from the science/politics/sociological discussions: Article from last month in the Trib - http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/3832821-155/king-of-mormon-folklore-bert-wilson Famous collector of Mormon Folklore passed away. Got me to thinking. Which stories from Mormon Folklore are among your favorites? Which do you actually think/hope are true and which should be left to the likes of www.holyfetch.com? I've always been partial to the Zeke Johnson resurrection vision and the Mosiah Hancock vision. I much prefer my own, and I ain't telling. 1
jkwilliams Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 My favorite is the miraculous conversion of an entire Bolivian community to the gospel. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/069-14-20.pdf 3
boblloyd91 Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 I like dusting of the feet stories, as well as folklore involving the murderers of Joseph Smith. Also Cain as Bigfoot. Oh heck I like it all! 1
jkwilliams Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 1 minute ago, boblloyd91 said: I like dusting of the feet stories, as well as folklore involving the murderers of Joseph Smith. Also Cain as Bigfoot. Oh heck I like it all! In my mission, there is a place called Copacabana, which is on the shore of Lake Titicaca and is home to the holiest Catholic shrine in Bolivia. When I was a missionary, there were no missionaries and no members in Copacabana. The rumor was that the missionaries had been sent there years before and experienced such near-demonic opposition that the MP pulled them out and had them dust their feet off. Of course, it wasn't true, and I'm pretty sure there's a branch of the church there now. 2
The Nehor Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 The lost society living underground under the glaciers up North that still has the Priesthood. I spent way too much time trying to reason out how this society would survive without sunlight and food. 2
jkwilliams Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Another favorite is the people who think that there are shape-shifting reptilians who live in the tunnels under downtown Salt Lake City (I'm not making this up). Apparently, these aliens (AKA Illuminati) run the world through such nefarious organizations as the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the LDS church. When I first encountered people who believe this, I thought they were just playing a practical joke of some kind, so in a lighthearted response, I mentioned that I'd been in the tunnels many times when I worked for the church. Needless to say, there are some people out there who think I'm a shape-shifting reptilian alien Mormon. Hmmm. Maybe I am. 1
The Nehor Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, jkwilliams said: Another favorite is the people who think that there are shape-shifting reptilians who live in the tunnels under downtown Salt Lake City (I'm not making this up). Apparently, these aliens (AKA Illuminati) run the world through such nefarious organizations as the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the LDS church. When I first encountered people who believe this, I thought they were just playing a practical joke of some kind, so in a lighthearted response, I mentioned that I'd been in the tunnels many times when I worked for the church. Needless to say, there are some people out there who think I'm a shape-shifting reptilian alien Mormon. Hmmm. Maybe I am. I liked the idea of them hiding there led by the Quorun of the 12 Apostates and they meet monthly where Lucifer himself manifested and directed their activities. They were the puppetmasters of the Illuminati. Edited May 25, 2016 by The Nehor
JLHPROF Posted May 25, 2016 Author Posted May 25, 2016 13 minutes ago, boblloyd91 said: Oh heck I like it all! Me too. Mormon Folklore is fascinating. And apparently there are many more stories than I realized. This thread could get quite long (a very good thing) and be very entertaining. 1
JLHPROF Posted May 25, 2016 Author Posted May 25, 2016 There is a necklace supposed to have been given to Eliza R. Snow by Joseph Smith with Egyptian engravings, and one translation names her "member of the First Presidency of the Women of the Universe and keeper of the records". There is a picture of such a necklace in the archives that I have requested to see (but told "not yet") but estimates date it to 1870, far too late to have been made and given by Joseph. "Images taken in 2001 of a locket and chain reportedly belonging to Eliza R. Snow. Inserted in the locket at a later time were reproductions of pictures of Joseph Smith and Eliza R. Snow. The locket was manufactured by W. & S. Blackinton sometime after 1870." 3
jkwilliams Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Back when I was in grad school and a starving student, we received a manila envelope in the mail from my wife's aunt. Apparently, my wife's grandmother had left her 500 shares in a gold mine. We were pretty excited until I looked into the Salem Relief Mine. I think we probably still have the certificates somewhere, but it still makes me laugh to think about how we thought maybe it would help pay for grad school. 1
Ahab Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 1 hour ago, JLHPROF said: Which stories from Mormon Folklore are among your favorites? Which do you actually think/hope are true and which should be left to the likes of www.holyfetch.com? That when Enoch and the city of Zion was translated to heaven a big chunk of the Earth was taken up with them. That words from prophets and apostles must be canonized before they can correctly be considered scripture. That what is bad/evil is good, too, such that anything is good as long as there is somebody who likes it and thinks it is good. That at some point in the future everyone will agree with each other and be equally intelligent. Stuff like that, mainly. Things that sound good on some level which some people think are good ideas or good things to believe in, but in truth are only partially true, at best.
stemelbow Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Was it this guy who created that story about Joseph Smith being visited by God and Jesus? that was a good one that still sneaks its way into Mormon story telling circles.
Duncan Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Heavens to murgatroyd where do I begin!! but i'' start with this beauty My priest quorum advisor, like 20 years now went to the Cardston Temple and noticed some earth digging machines working. He asked the workers what they were doing and was told that during the Millenium the Saints would be required to live underneath the Temple and so they were digging that out for us to live in. Needless to say I didn't believe him. About 10 years later I overheard a similar idea when I was at a stake conference here. So I wrote the Cardston Temple and asked them what the dealio was and they sent me a letter that is apparently too big to paste on here.....but simply saying no, we aren't doing that! 2
flameburns623 Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 In 1979/80 I was told that there is a hall in the SLC Temple where portraits of the Prophets hang. Supposedly there was room for only one, or perhaps two portraits. Howard Hunter or Ezra Benson were slated to be the last reigning LDS prophets. Converging on this were apocalypse fans among the Evangelical crowd who said that because the Tribulation was gong to commence "within a generation" (estimated at 40 years)of the re-establishment of Israel, we could expect the rise of the Antichrist by the late 1980's. And a Nostradamus (or possibly a Father Malachy) had forecast all of the Popes up to the reign of John Paul II. Or, his successor, Benedict XVI. Anyhow, a lot of folklore pointing to the Eschaton somewhere between 1988 and 2000. 1
smac97 Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 On 5/25/2016 at 11:22 AM, JLHPROF said: Just as a change of pace from the science/politics/sociological discussions: Article from last month in the Trib - http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/3832821-155/king-of-mormon-folklore-bert-wilson Famous collector of Mormon Folklore passed away. Got me to thinking. Which stories from Mormon Folklore are among your favorites? Which do you actually think/hope are true and which should be left to the likes of www.holyfetch.com? I've always been partial to the Zeke Johnson resurrection vision and the Mosiah Hancock vision. Here are my top 3 guilty pleasures: 1. Cain as Bigfoot (or vice versa) 2. Zeke Johnson Resurrection Story 3. Yoda Modeled After Spencer W. Kimball (and the scene with Luke standing before Jabba the Hutt being modeled after Frieberg's painting of Abinadi before King Noah) Thanks, -Smac 4
cinepro Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Reminds me of this scene from The Singles Second Ward
ttribe Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 Forgot about this one (the Parson painting myth): http://holyfetch.com/Mormon_theories/painting.html
Scott Lloyd Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 I heard the story while on my mission in Sweden about the missionary companions who faked their weekly reports so they could go on vacation for two weeks and were busted after their landlady sent the reports out of sequence to the mission office. Supposedly it happened in my mission. It was several years later that I learned the story was folklore and there were reports of the same thing happening in widely disparate locales. 1
Duncan Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 I accidentally called the White House on my mission. It happened just prior to the whole Monica Lewinsky fiasco. I didn't know that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. was the USA's Place!!!! I have it written down in my journal, but no one knew about the Monica thing yet
hope_for_things Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 My Dad has a handwritten prophecy that supposedly was given to some of my ancestors in the late 1800s or early 1900s by an Apostle, and it was of a vision that this Apostle had. It contains a lot of end times predictions, and I need to ask him for a copy. The one I remember most says something about how we will elect a president of the USA that will be of a foreign ethnicity, and that this will usher in a world war which will lead to the apocalypse. When Obama first got elected, my Dad thought this was a fulfillment of this prophecy, but then later he told me that Obama didn't fit the vision, that the vision says something about the man needing to have some Israeli ancestry. Fun stuff!
Coreyb Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 2 hours ago, jkwilliams said: Back when I was in grad school and a starving student, we received a manila envelope in the mail from my wife's aunt. Apparently, my wife's grandmother had left her 500 shares in a gold mine. We were pretty excited until I looked into the Salem Relief Mine. I think we probably still have the certificates somewhere, but it still makes me laugh to think about how we thought maybe it would help pay for grad school. You can sell those you know.
jkwilliams Posted May 25, 2016 Posted May 25, 2016 2 minutes ago, Coreyb said: You can sell those you know. I don't think I could in good conscience. 1
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