Did You Know This On Your Mission?

[_Aristotle Smith]

I find it fun to read Amazon reviews. For some reason I landed on the review page for Grant Palmer's "Insider's View" book. I generally find the one star reviews the funniest, so I went directly there. While there I found a review by "Michelle Larsen "C.M.L"".

Here's the link (scroll down to find her review):

http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-View-Mor ... addOneStar

Allow me to quote one of the paragraphs of her review

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. 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; the so-called "spiritual eyes" theory regaring the witnesses of the gold plates; the Book of Mormon-DNA debate, and the whole episode regarding Joseph Smith as a "gold digger." We also know the sources that debunk, or better explain, each of these. In his book, Plamer seems to suggest that these items are being hidden from the "rank and file" members of the LDS Church. Sorry Mr. Palmer, but we're not as brainless as you and your followers think we are.

Apparently Michelle was one of the most well read LDS missionaries in history. That or she happened to attend Sunstone 2nd ward while growing up. I know none of this pre-mission nor during my mission. So my question to MD readers: Did anyone of you have this level of knowledge on your mission?

I do realize that one could always say that Michelle is not directly claiming to know this on her mission, but if that's not what is meant, then one has to assume that full-time missionary service somehow predestines you to find out this stuff later in life, more so than those who did not serve a mission. If this is what she was saying, that's truly bizarre.

[_Darth J]

I had read something or other about the Kinderhook Plates, but I did not know "the whole story." That's it for what is on the list here.

But one of my companions had those Joseph Smith talks by Truman Madsen, and we used to listen to those. So of course I knew everything there was to know about Joseph Smith.........

[_Shulem]

When I went to London England in 1982 I knew nothing other than the official First Vision account touted by the church. I had no idea that there were multiple versions with conflicting views.

I never even heard of the Kinderhook Plates untill long after my mission and that was through the Internet.

And as far as Joseph Smith being a gold digger, my understanding was that he was accused of being a gold digger but never really was involved in that kind of thing.

Paul O

[_maklelan]

I knew the basics of all those things, although I've become much better versed since then. On the other hand, it's a lie that all, or even most, missionaries had any degree of competence with those questions. Most know very little about that kind of stuff.

[_Darth J]

And as far as Joseph Smith being a gold digger, my understanding was that he was accused of being a gold digger but never really was involved in that kind of thing.

This.

[_moksha]

Maybe the missionaries received this knowledge in LDS Seminary classes.

[_Infymus]

Meh, this is claptrap coming out of Peterson, Wyatt or MGF to try to more inoculate the members. If any real member knew this kind of information they wouldn't be on Amazon spouting how they "knew all about it".

Bunch of BS.

My neighbor is as TBM as they come. July 4th on a Sunday? His fam with teenagers have the lights OFF and doors locked at 8pm. They obey the Prophet. They haven't got a CLUE about any issues. They obey.

Big deal apologists. While you might make one questioning Mormon stay in the cult, we bring dozens out.

Suck it.

[_The Dude]

I must have heard rumors of those things while serving a mission in '91-'93, but only in the context of supposed lies and slander about the Prophet. I certainly didn't know that those things are/were matters of historical fact. I would have been troubled to learn of them, no matter that more knowledgeable members manage to deal with them by seeking deeper background and broader context, as Michelle suggests in her defensive "review". That knowledge would have given me more troubling things to deal with.... As it happened, I caught a whiff of the temple ceremony having a connection to Freemasonry, and my mission president was strangely evasive about my questions. Oh if I had only known about Kinderhook, multiple "1st" visions, spiritual-eyes, that Joseph Smith really was a gold digger, etc. Might have saved me a whole year of dithering in the mission field.

[_Sethbag]

I didn't know that stuff, and thought I knew more than I really did. I knew there was anti-Mormon lies out there about Joseph Smith, and I probably would have assumed all this stuff was a part of that body of lies.

I guess I was too intransigently ignorant, as Scotty Lloyd might call me. Rather than go out and read all the books the intransigently-well-informed-yet-believing members read, I stuck with the approved stuff like the scriptures, "Marvelous Work and a Wonder", "Doctrines of Salvation", "Articles of Faith", etc. I too listened to the Madsen tapes on Joseph Smith the Superman, McConkie's talks, etc. I was too intransigently holding to the rod with all my might to have run across all the really good stuff.

[_Eyepatch]

Germany, Hamburg '87 - '89

I must, with great shame, state that I knew NOTHING of these issues on my mission. That's why I'm so pissed off now...I feel that the higher-ups, who definitely DID have knowledge, used me as cannon-fodder. My ignorance was cruelly used by the "management" to squeeze out a few more convert baptisms.

I hate the Mormon church.