Did You Know This On Your Mission?

[_Aristotle Smith]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

I do have to issue one correction. I had heard about Joseph Smith's treasure digging prior to my mission. I remember I read Hugh Nibley's The Myth Makers when I was 18. The book dismisses Joseph' treasure digging in a very slapdash way, but the accusation is in there. The whole thing made such a small impact on me that I didn't remember it until just now.

[_Jason Bourne]

First of all, just about anyone who has served a full-time missionary for the the LDS church, like myself, knows that Joseph Smith wrote more than one account of the First Vision.

No I did not know this.

We also know what those accounts actually say and in what context they were given. We also know the whole story about the Kinderhook Plates;

Never heard of Kinderhook plates tell at least mid 30s.

the so-called "spiritual eyes" theory regaring the witnesses of the gold plates;

Yes

the Book of Mormon-DNA debate,

I served 1979-1981 so this was not an issue anyone knew about back then.

and the whole episode regarding Joseph Smith as a "gold digger."

Yes

[_Fifth Columnist]

As a missionary, I knew there were multiple accounts of the first vision, but that they were easily reconciled. Also, I knew that anti-Mormons told lies about Joseph Smith being a treasure digger.

The only unapproved book I owned as a missionary was Darrick Evenson's (i.e., Dahesist) The Gainsayers. My area included Nauvoo and we were running into trouble countering some anti-Mormon stuff (evangelical anti-Mormonsim) so I bought this book at the Nauvoo book store.

The Gainsayers talked a lot about evangelical anti-Mormonism (i.e., who is interpreting the Bible correctly) and said the rest of the nasty things people said about Joseph Smith were all lies. It also talked a lot about the Godmakers, which I thought was the pinnacle of anti-Mormonism. After reading The Gainsayers, I remember thinking that the Godmakers was seriously lacking. I also remember thinking that if this is the best the antis have, then the Church has nothing to worry about.

[_Morley]

the Book of Mormon-DNA debate,

I served 1979-1981 so this was not an issue anyone knew about back then.

It was a precursor to some of today’s DNA research, what was known then as the Diego Blood Group, that nailed the coffin for me in the mid-1970s. However, I think you’re right in saying that this wasn’t widely known.



edit: It's funny that I didn't think I could trust Brodie or the Tanners but I could rely on science.

[_consiglieri]

I served in Japan from 1979 to 1981, so no hint of DNA stuff at that time.

As to the other items on the list, I had no knowledge of any of them.

And it was not for lack of study.

I read Mormon books voraciously from the time I was baptized in June of 1978 until I went on my mission in November of 1979.

Among others, I read TPJS, Marvelous Work and a Wonder, The Book of Mormon, the New Testament, Since Cumorah, The Great Apostasy, Articles of Faith, and a slew of others I cannot recall at present.

In all my study, I somehow missed these controversial issues.

I will say, however, that I did see the early First Vision movie starring Stewart Peterson (?), but it was only after my mission that I learned the twig snapping episode right before the darkness descends was not simply directorial license, but a borrowing from one of the other non-1838 PGP versions of Joseph Smith's First Vision account.

It seems the reviewer wants to leave the impression that all these controversies are common knowledge among pre-mission Mormons, that they are frequently discussed and easily dispensed with.

In short, she wants to leave a false impression . . .

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

The only unapproved book I owned as a missionary was Darrick Evenson's (i.e., Dahesist) The Gainsayers.

Thank God for Darrick Evenson.

[_ludwigm]

Hungarian members know nothing about those. Were they on mission, or not, just the same.
I didn't talk anybody who know something.
True, I groped very carefully. (Like the porcupines during sex.)



Or, I didn't met them because they are no more members...