Faith promoting rumor alert - have you heard this one?

[_The Dude]

I got this in my email a few minutes ago. Has anyone heard a story like this?

A marvelous story was shared in yesterday's meeting as the Spiritual Thought. A senior couple related this in Heber, Utah. The couple had applied for a full-time mission call, but because of the wife's health they had to stay in the U.S. - the Church is very respectful of such requests, especially from Senior Couples. The call came saying they should go to the Ukraine! They asked the Missionary Department to reconsider because of her health problems - the 2nd call came saying they should go to the Ukraine! A third time they asked the Missionary Department to reconsider because of her health problems - the 3rd call came saying they should go to the Ukraine! They decided they better accept the call to the Ukraine.

Eight years prior to their application, one of their sons had disappeared, and after seven years of fruitless efforts to locate him, they had held a funeral for him.

After they had been in the Ukraine for a while, they felt impressed to visit a local prison to see there was anyone who would be interested in hearing the gospel (as far as mom and I know, this is not standard procedure). They received permission to do so, contacted the prison authorities and asked them if they had any prisoners who spoke English (this missionary couple could only speak English). They were told that there was one prisoner who spoke English, and a meeting with the prisoner was arranged. When the prisoner entered the room, the wife fainted ....because the prisoner was their missing son. The US State Department has since gotten involved, and the son has been released from prison and has returned home!

Surely the story above was not a coincidence, but was also inspired.

Surely the story above, if true, could be a coincidence. But I kind of doubt whether it is true....

[_Joseph]

How about names, dates and locations?

Or is this like the military guys who all agreed on what a true church should be and 20 years later all found they had become Mormons?

Or like the baloney of a gate called the 'eye of the needle' that all camels have to kneel at to bring trade goods into the Holy City?

More baloney is what it sounds like.

[_The Dude]

How about names, dates and locations?

Or is this like the military guys who all agreed on what a true church should be and 20 years later all found they had become Mormons?

Or like the baloney of a gate called the 'eye of the needle' that all camels have to kneel at to bring trade goods into the Holy City?

More baloney is what it sounds like.

It sounds like baloney because it is missing details that would help it ring true.

Why was the son missing? Was he traveling in Eastern Europe when he "disappeared"? Why was he in jail? How did the US State Department magically get him out?

The author admits that it is abnormal for missionaries to visit prisons, but then goes right along with the story.

The missionary couple was proselytizing in the Ukraine but they could only speak English? When I was on my mission I had one companion who was a real simpleton. He always wanted to do dumb things, believing that it would turn into some fabulous story like this. He would stand on a corner and close his eyes and wait for inspiration. "Hey, lets go to the police station and see if anybody in jail wants to hear the gospel. Oh, but they have to speak a totally different language from everybody else in this country because, you know, we are trying to make this a special experience. I'm sure you understand."

[_Bond James Bond]

The epilogue is only partially correct. The long lost son was imprisoned because he committed the vicious double murder of two capitalist business magnates in an ill fated attempt to start a class war aimed at bringing about a Communist revolution with the ultimate aim of recreating the U.S.S.R and the Warsaw Pact. He was only being held briefly in prison though, he was about to be transferred to an insane asylum due to certifiable insanity. But at least he saw his mom and pop.

*Now that's a real rumor!

[_Inconceivable]

What BS.

Who would they speak to at prison that would even know English? The Ukraine is BFE. Why would the prison be willing to permit anyone to contact this perp if they never alowed him to contact anyone for 7 YEARS?? Prostyliting prisons is forbidden - period.

So did God kill the mom yet?

They only aspect of this story that may be authentic is that the older couple didn't know a lick of Ukrainian. My mom and husband went to an Eastern Block country to serve. They never learned the language.

[_Quasimodo]

I can't find anything on Google about this. It would have been a big news story, if true. Especially if the State Department was involved.

It says a lot about a person who would make up a story like this to promote the "true" religion.

[_zeezrom]

Here is a sort of similar one I just heard:

A missionary just returned from a mission to Taiwan and related this story in his homecoming talk: A missionary in Brazil felt inspired to go tracting down a particular street one morning. At on of the houses they tracted into, the missionary (to his great surprise) found that his long lost sister opened the door. This sister had run away from home years before. They were reunited! The church really IS true!

First of all, I really love how this missionary decided that his own experience was so boring he needed to rely on someone else's to make a point.

This story was told to me with great expectation of a reaction from me. When I didn't react, the story teller's voice was obviously full of disappointment.

Dude, maybe I need to share your story on Facebook. I'm feeling like I've been too critical of late. I need some points for the other team.

[_Buffalo]

I knew a guy in the MTC who frankly said something like, "all those inspirational stories you hear in church are fake. I'm going to make up one and tell one in the next testimony meeting." And that's exactly what he did.

[_Quasimodo]

I knew a guy in the MTC who frankly said something like, "all those inspirational stories you hear in church are fake. I'm going to make up one and tell one in the next testimony meeting." And that's exactly what he did.

I do know some interesting coincidence stories that I know are true. None involve the Mormon Church.

[_Dr. Shades]

My mom and husband went to an Eastern Block country to serve.

Why did the church allow your mom to serve with your husband? I thought missionary couples had to be married to each other.