Sometimes you just have to laugh, even at your Bishops.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

Today, my wife had to be set apart for a new calling. So our Bishop, who is my daughter’s, brother-in-law, asked me to assist. When he asked for her full name,was, she told him, “Pamela Laverne Lee”. So he said, “like the TV show, Larverne and Shirley”, to which she said yes. So, he begins with her name to set her apart, and says, “Pamela Laverne Shirley Lee”, so we start laughing, and at first he did not know why, then he started laughing. So, on his second attempt, since we have known him since he was 10 years old,  he then says, “Pam Laverne Lee”, so I had to correct him again, so we were all were all laughing once again. 

It was fun

[Prof]

I'm glad that he could laugh at himself! Its good that he has a good sense of humor!

[MorningStar]

Hilarious! My husband accidentally blessed our daughter with my maiden name. That's because her middle name is my mom's name.

[Stargazer]

My brother has a friend who is trans, and a former member of the church who had sex reassignment surgery.  I can't remember if he is a she or she is a he, but for the sake of this story (and pronouns), I'm going to say this person is a trans woman, i.e. she was born a man.  

Anyway, this friend still attends church, and my brother is her unofficial ministering brother.  Recently she asked him to give her a blessing (she still has a testimony of the gospel), and my brother asked me how he should proceed, since he wanted to have another priesthood holder with him for the blessing, but knew that her status as trans was something that she didn't want to make a public thing about at church, so which name does he use in addressing her, and if he used her female name and not her birth name would the blessing still be efficacious?  I told him that he could use whatever name she wanted him to use, because God knows who she is.  For an example I used the fact that when I baptized my 8 year old stepchildren I used my surname rather than their birth surname.  The baptisms were not invalidated due to this.  In the records of the Church, they are all listed with their birth surnames, but at that time their "preferred names" had my surname, and to the ward members they were all appeared to be my children.  This was done so as to avoid silly questions.  

In my humble opinion, the only thing that would invalidate a blessing or a setting apart would be that the person acting as mouth didn't have the authority to perform the ordinance.  We try to get the name exactly right, for the sake of completeness and accuracy, but God knows who everyone is.  In the temple when we do proxy ordinances, frequently the complete name is not known.  So we use what we have, and the ordinances are nevertheless efficacious.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

On 7/31/2019 at 1:28 PM, MorningStar said:

Hilarious! My husband accidentally blessed our daughter with my maiden name. That's because her middle name is my mom's name.

I did that the first time I gave my daughter a blessing, about a month after she married. So, I just added her married name at the end of her middle and maiden name,  without skipping a beat. I also remember when she got a calling, when they said, “Sonya Bush”, I whispered in my wife’s ear, “why does that name sound familiar”? My wife told me, (back when I could hear a whisper), “it is you daughter, moron”. I then looked around to see my daughter standing, and felt like a moron. But after 26 years, it took a while to think of her with any other name than my surname. I still at times wonder who they are speaking of when they say, “Sister Bush”, as there are so many in our Ward, as she married into a large family, many of whom we are in our Ward.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Bill “Papa” Lee