Favorite Folklore

[Jeanne]

3 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

Maybe for faith promoting purposes like you said, similar to Paul H. Dunn's baseball and war stories.  There was usually something in them to promote faith.  

How about the cricket story in our pioneer history?  Or the story about people seeing Joseph Smith in Brigham Young during a sermon and they knew he was supposed to be the next prophet?  These stories are what I remember  being taught as a child.  But now I believe they were not exactly fact, only faith promoting, like the myth I found recently about the elevator shafts being built before anyone knew what an elevator was.tc

Oh man...I told that elevator story to every young man I dated years ago... You mean....it's not true???  I have had a lot of people tell me stories of the 3 nephites in Tooele County.  They have fixed tires and done all sorts of things on their way to Provo during the Temple dedication there.  I like the stories..!

[halconero]

19 hours ago, boblloyd91 said:

A great place for Mormon folklore is from missions. There was one from my mission (Iowa) where supposedly a Pentecostal faith healer healed a missionary in my mission from a hurt leg while they were walking down the street and talked to him. However the mission president found out and had to cast a demon out of the Elder's leg because the demon was the source of the healing. I understand other missions may have similar stories 

I've heard that one with Spanish missionaries, but the preached being an Aztec shaman or something.

[ERMD]

23 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. 

I had never heard about this.  Been doing some reading on it.  Quite the story.

[Tacenda]

1 hour ago, Jeanne said:

Oh man...I told that elevator story to every young man I dated years ago... You mean....it's not true???  I have had a lot of people tell me stories of the 3 nephites in Tooele County.  They have fixed tires and done all sorts of things on their way to Provo during the Temple dedication there.  I like the stories..!

At one of my baby's church blessings, a man that no one had ever seen before walks in that chapel and sits on the stand.  I remember commenting that it might be one of the three nephites, lol.  

[CV75]

On 5/25/2016 at 2:22 PM, 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 seem to have a "folk-dar" that goes off whenever I hear something like that (call me skeptical), so I can't really remember any (unless prompted by this article, for example), though I know I've come across it (word of mouth only, as I've  never looked for it).

But now that I think of it, I've experienced some things that might have become folklore had they ever gotten any traction!

[boblloyd91]

4 hours ago, halconero said:

I've heard that one with Spanish missionaries, but the preached being an Aztec shaman or something.

Missionaries have a tendency to tell sensational stories to each other I've noticed😄

[The Nehor]

7 hours ago, Tacenda said:

How about the cricket story in our pioneer history?  Or the story about people seeing Joseph Smith in Brigham Young during a sermon and they knew he was supposed to be the next prophet?  These stories are what I remember  being taught as a child.  But now I believe they were not exactly fact, only faith promoting, like the myth I found recently about the elevator shafts being built before anyone knew what an elevator was.

The cricket and seagull story probably happened but only in some areas and probably not as dramatically as in that old Brigham Young movie.

I consider the Brigham Young as Joseph Smith reports to be accurate.

The elevator story is popular but.....no.

[JAHS]

Jaredite barge discovered in Lake Michigan:

"A CNN article described the boat-like object as “an oak construction the size of a bus and shaped like a zeppelin.” ('Monster' in Lake Michigan is man made, but just as mysterious”,  CNN, 26 Jan 1999)
Conversations between Mormon's spread wildly around the internet and within local congregations claiming that the discovery of this ship was proof of the Book of Mormon authenticity.  Others were more skeptical as to how a wooden barge could have survived at the bottom of the lake for more than 3000 years and in such an odd place as lake Michigan. The entire waterway area where the wooden object was found is a much modified and dredged zone. The chance of any object more than a century old existing intact in such a busy commercial spot is virtually zero. Also according to most lds scholars the Jaredite barges would more likely have been found off the shores of Central or South America. 
The excitement would come to an end when Michael Tym VII, the 64-year-old son of the inventor of the ship, after reading a Tribune article about the unidentified object, went to look for old photos of the barge taken on the day it was tested. He believed it looked remarkably like the strange barge his dad had built during the war.
Then on February 8, 1999 the Chicago Tribune reported that it was actually a floating fuel tank built by Ukrainian immigrant Mike Tym in 1942, designed "to reduce losses of shipping from torpedoing, bombing and shelling,"  The tank was to be towed by boats.
But despite successful testing, the prototype never went into full production, and mysteriously ended up at the bottom of Lake Michigan.  (Answers Surface For Lake Enigma, Chicago Tribune, 8 Feb. 1999)

[consiglieri]

21 hours ago, Jeanne said:

Oh man...I told that elevator story to every young man I dated years ago... You mean....it's not true???  I have had a lot of people tell me stories of the 3 nephites in Tooele County.  They have fixed tires and done all sorts of things on their way to Provo during the Temple dedication there.  I like the stories..!

It seems clear from this thread that many members have no trouble identifying folklore that has accrued over the past 186-years in Mormonism.

The interesting part is that the same members would likely have difficulty accepting the idea that any folklore seeped into the telling of foundational events of the Restoration. 

 

[longview]

20 hours ago, Tacenda said:

At one of my baby's church blessings, a man that no one had ever seen before walks in that chapel and sits on the stand.  I remember commenting that it might be one of the three nephites, lol.  

Or John the Beloved.  He still walks the earth.

[longview]

17 minutes ago, consiglieri said:

It seems clear from this thread that many members have no trouble identifying folklore that has accrued over the past 186-years in Mormonism.

The interesting part is that the same members would likely have difficulty accepting the idea that any folklore seeped into the telling of foundational events of the Restoration. 

The difference is the Restoration has been vetted by many witnesses and bearing lots of "good fruits."   

Edited May 27, 2016 by longview

[consiglieri]

3 minutes ago, longview said:

The difference is the Restoration has been vetted by many witnesses and bearing lots of "good fruits."   

I would suggest that the story of Peter, James and John restoring the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph and Oliver bears all the hallmarks of Mormon folklore.

Any takers? 

 

[Jeanne]

56 minutes ago, consiglieri said:

It seems clear from this thread that many members have no trouble identifying folklore that has accrued over the past 186-years in Mormonism.

The interesting part is that the same members would likely have difficulty accepting the idea that any folklore seeped into the telling of foundational events of the Restoration. 

 

Never thought of that...this is true! 

[saemo]

23 hours ago, Jeanne said:

Oh man...I told that elevator story to every young man I dated years ago... You mean....it's not true???  I have had a lot of people tell me stories of the 3 nephites in Tooele County.  They have fixed tires and done all sorts of things on their way to Provo during the Temple dedication there.  I like the stories..!

I heard it was for plumbing, electrical and HVAC. 

[Johnnie Cake]

On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 1:04 PM, The Nehor said:

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.

It was a widely held belief in the 19th century that the North Pole was a tropical island paradise, including unique tropical animals surrounded on all sides by miles of ice fields.  It wasn't until the loss of the USS Jeanette and her crew in 1878,which failed to break through this field of ice, that this belief came under greater scrutiny and fell into disfavor...

Edited May 27, 2016 by Johnnie Cake

[JAHS]

1 hour ago, consiglieri said:

I would suggest that the story of Peter, James and John restoring the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph and Oliver bears all the hallmarks of Mormon folklore.

Any takers? 

 

Nah. That was too important of an event to be called folklore. Besides it's in the scriptures(D&C 27: 12, 128: 20)

 

 

[Jeanne]

33 minutes ago, saemo said:

I heard it was for plumbing, electrical and HVAC. 

Well you know, I didn't have to worry about dates stopping because of flat tires and being out of gas...I imagine they are a jack of all trades!

[saemo]

On May 25, 2016 at 1:04 PM, The Nehor said:

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.

...and they have lost scriptures that will be restored to everyone after the polar ice melts.

[consiglieri]

8 minutes ago, JAHS said:

Nah. That was too important of an event to be called folklore. Besides it's in the scriptures(D&C 27: 12, 128: 20)

 

 

You are aware the names of Peter, James and John were added to D&C 27 some years after it was originally received?

[saemo]

42 minutes ago, Johnnie Cake said:

It was a widely held belief in the 19th century that the North Pole was a tropical island paradise, including unique tropical animals surrounded on all sides by miles of ice fields.  It wasn't until the loss of the USS Jeanette and her crew in 1878,which failed to break through this field of ice, that this belief came under greater scrutiny and fell into disfavor...

There is also the "Lost Horizon" story, where a hidden tropical paradise (Shangri-La) exists in the Himalayas, and the inhabitants are near immortal.   The movie was popular in 1973 when this folklore was making the rounds in The Ward. 

[jkwilliams]

My mission had a lot of folklore, and when I was assigned to go through the mission history and files, I found out most of them were true.

[Rock_N_Roll]

On 5/25/2016 at 5:05 PM, boblloyd91 said:

A great place for Mormon folklore is from missions. There was one from my mission (Iowa) where supposedly a Pentecostal faith healer healed a missionary in my mission from a hurt leg while they were walking down the street and talked to him. However the mission president found out and had to cast a demon out of the Elder's leg because the demon was the source of the healing. I understand other missions may have similar stories 

I heard this same story on my mission in Japan.  Only the healer was of the Soka Gakkai religion. 

[Jeanne]

2 hours ago, consiglieri said:

I would suggest that the story of Peter, James and John restoring the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph and Oliver bears all the hallmarks of Mormon folklore.

Any takers? 

 

Consig, I am still deaiing with the first vision!

[JAHS]

46 minutes ago, consiglieri said:

You are aware the names of Peter, James and John were added to D&C 27 some years after it was originally received?

Better late than never. 

[JLHPROF]

2 hours ago, consiglieri said:

I would suggest that the story of Peter, James and John restoring the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph and Oliver bears all the hallmarks of Mormon folklore.

Any takers? 

 

 

49 minutes ago, consiglieri said:

You are aware the names of Peter, James and John were added to D&C 27 some years after it was originally received?

That may be true, but unless Joseph and Oliver were lying, John the Baptist told them BEFORE " that he was acting under the direction of Peter, James, and John, the ancient Apostles, who held the keys of the higher priesthood, which was called the Priesthood of Melchizedek. The promise was given to Joseph and Oliver that in due time this higher priesthood would be conferred upon them".

So for those like yourself who think the whole of Mormonism was made up sure.  But for those who don't, P/J/J were named before they ever appeared in 1829, not a retroactive addition.

But I've always thought the lack of information on the restoration of the Melchizedek PH comparative to the Aaronic PH to be odd.
I also find the fact that they were ordained apostles with no sealing keys to be an interesting ordination since we currently equate the sealing keys with the apostleship.
Different degrees of apostles maybe?

But now I'm derailing my own thread.