Elder Holland shares 'the missionary speech of all time'

[_DarkHelmet]

Sounds like total BS to me. It has stereotypical evil things: tattoos, biker gang, southern California, dobermans,or was it rottweilers? Of course someone like that can't be even moderately successful, with a nice apartment, or home. No, they live in rented home in a run down part of town. And of course a biker with tattoos can't own a lab or golden retriever. No they own dobermans, or was it rottweilers? Of course dobies and rotties can be sweet dogs, but the stereotype is they are killers, so let's go with the stereotype. It's also odd that a poor biker living in a dumpy neighborhood could afford an expensive breed like dobermans or rottweilers, and not just one, but two. And of course bikers are so hard core they don't even call their mom on mother's day.

[_Equality]

One night the young man stormed out of the house and set off to join an infamous motorcycle gang.

He lost me at this. Dude's just sitting there chilling at home in Pocatello, where love abides and only the best of feelings are felt, and suddenly jumps up and "storms" out of the house to join an "infamous motorcycle gang. Yeah, I'm sure it happened just like that.

[_Fifth Columnist]

This reminds me of a story a TBM told me. He went on a mission to southeast Asia and while there, the area he was serving in was hit by a cyclone. He told the story about how they met some people who were in the house next to a flooded ravine and then later learned they their house had been swept away and they died. Anyway, somehow that strengthened his testimony. I felt like he had to really twist it to turn it into something faith promoting.

Anyway, his story ended up in one of the church magazines. His comment was that the published story wasn't exactly an outright lie but it was pretty close. Somewhere along the lines it had become much more faith promoting. I didn't look up the story so I don't know what changes were made. I remember being struck by how this guy, a faithful believer (who still is a believer), recognized that the story had changed dramatically by the time it was published. I suspect something similar here.

[_sunstoned]

After the BBC "I'm not a dodo" interview and the "church is growing by 10 stakes a week" talk, I can't believe anything that comes out of this guy's mouth. If fact, I look at Jeff Holland as a sadder, more jowly version of Donald Trump.


ETA: Jeff does have better hair.

[_Dr Exiled]

I predict that there is correlation between g.a. b.s. rising as the number of people leaving rises.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Great point.

[_Gadianton]

And of course bikers are so hard core they don't even call their mom on mother's day.

Yeah I was thinking about that. Once a guy joins a motorcycle gang all he can think about is randomly hurting as many people as possible.

One day he was passed out in the front yard of the home the Hell's Angels have in L.A California (a place to dry out if you are too wasted to drive), and some Mormon missionaries came walking up their street. He started mocking them, because he used to be Mormon and thought these elders were so naïve. They had two dogs in the yard that were trained to attack and kill anyone who tried to come into the yard,

Wondering how the guy could have thought Mormon's are naïve...

[_Craig Paxton]

I'm calling Bull crap on this story. There's a thread started on "That other Board" asking Scott Lloyd if he did his due diligence and confirmed the truthfulness of the story. He wouldn't even engage in the matter. He reported the story in desnews, but wouldn't follow-up and investigate if the facts were true.

Note the differences in the story with each retelling. Seems like it gets more embellished with each retelling...reminds me of the first vision story. In one version he's from Pocatello in another he's from Idaho Falls...in one they're Rottweiler's in another its just 2 dogs and in a 3rd version its Dobermans. In one version we don't know the Temple the supposed sealing took place...in others we do...

Hat Tip to JulieM...for some of these quotes:

Here is where Kim B. Clark related it:  

"Before I go I want to tell an amazing story we were told at the devotional last night by Kim. B Clark of The Seventy. He said there was this man who grew up in Idaho Falls in a faithful Mormon family, who ran away from home when he was 14 and went down a dark path of life. He joined the Hell's angels and got heavily into drugs and alcohol. One day he was passed out in the front yard of the home the Hell's Angels have in L.A California (a place to dry out if you are too wasted to drive), and some Mormon missionaries came walking up their street. He started mocking them, because he used to be Mormon and thought these elders were so naïve. They had two dogs in the yard that were trained to attack and kill anyone who tried to come into the yard, so he wasn't too worried about them trying to preach to him when they walked by. But then when they got to the end of the street, they talked for a minute and turned around and came back to the Hell's Angels house. The dogs started growling and acting like they were going to attack. But as soon as the Elders stepped foot on their sidewalk, the dogs walked away and laid down and went to sleep. Then one of the elders came up to the wasted man from Idaho, and said, "What's up?" The man said, “Oh, nothing,” and then the elder asked, "Where are you from?" and he said "Idaho Falls." Then the elder said, "No way! Me too! Do you happen to know the So-and-sos?" And then the wasted man said, "Yeah, they're my parents." Then the elder said something that changed both of their lives. "They're my parents, too."

It was the Hell's Angel's younger brother, all grown up and called to serve a mission in California. The elder said to his older brother he never knew what happened to him, but that he knows that God sent him there to bring him home. He ended up helping his brother turn his life around, go back to church, find Jesus again, move back home to Idaho, and reconnect with their parents. He ended up getting married in the temple five years later. The Hell's Angel ended up being in the Stake Presidency (local church leadership) with Kim B. Clark, which is where he learned the story from." http://hermanaalisonknight.blogspot.com/2015/11/one-month-down-17-to-go.html
 
And. here is where Elder Holland told the story another time:

In our many discussions at the seminar, Elder Holland shared an account, not too dissimilar from that of the prodigal son we read about in Luke 15.  He told of a man that was born and raised in Southern Idaho, who had grown up in the Church, and had all the blessings of the gospel laid before him.  In his late teens he decided he wanted his inheritance, of which there was none, jumped on his motorcycle, and moved to the Big Apple to find a more thrilling and better life.  Never to think of family and home again, he was done with what he was taught to be true.  Upon arriving in New York City, he began to sow a lifestyle of immorality, drug abuse, tattoos, and worldliness beyond reproach.  While not necessarily happy, he supposed it was better than anything better he could be doing, so he sank deeper and deeper into a pit.  

One morning he woke up and decided he'd had enough of New York and that he'd make a new start on the sunny beaches of Southern California.  He rode his motorcycle on the long journey and intentionally drove as far away as he could from his small town in Idaho.  Along the way he hooked up with a new motorcycle gang, and upon arriving in California, continued the party lifestyle, added more tattoos, and distanced himself further and further from who he had once been.  

A few years went by and he made his home in a shabby part of town, guarded by his two Rottweilers, up to no good.  One day a pair of Mormon missionaries were walking past his house, and as trained, the two vicious dogs leapt from the front porch and raced towards the sidewalk, only being held back by long chains around their neck and a fence that surrounded the yard.  The dogs came barking, with teeth baring, saliva flying, and eager to keep all away.  As wise missionaries, they of course avoided this particular house, no need to risk life and limb on trying to get into this door.  

As they walked down street, some thirty yards down the road now, the senior companion looked at the junior and said, "we have to go back to that house."  The junior companion, thinking his senior companion was absolutely insane, reluctantly followed his companion back towards certain death.  As they approached the fence, the Rottweilers sprang from the porch and went into their usual attack mode.  This time however, instead of trying to break the chains that held them back, they came to the fences edge, turned around, and went back and sat on the porch.  
Seeing the dogs retreat, the emboldened elders passed through the gate, walked up to the porch, and knocked on the front door.  The now heavily tattooed, twenty years older, and worn down by life man, opened the door and stared down the two missionaries.  Unfazed by the image of the man in front of them, the elders began with the message they had come prepared to share and before they could get much out, he asked them where they were from.  The junior companion said he was from a town in Utah, and the senior companion said he was from a small town in Southern Idaho.  Surprised that this Idaho missionary was from the same part of the world he was from, he asked the missionary the name of the town, and was even more surprised to hear they were from the same town!  Now interested, the man asked if the missionary knew about such and such a man from this small town.  The missionary responded that he did know him.  The man then said, "that is my father", and then the elder smiled and said, "he is my father too."

Elder Holland then went on to tell us that he's kept track of this man.  He's now returned to Southern Idaho, tattoos and all, married, and soon to be sealed in the temple.  His point in telling us this story was to remind us as mission presidents that God, not only knows his children, but he continues to watch over them.  He stated, "Imagine what the transfer board in heaven must look like and what it must have taken to get this young elder, at this time in his life, to a place where he could rescue his brother.  Imagine the prayers that came from his parents, who for years, had never given up hope.  Imagine the inspiration that must have come to a mission president who knew where to assign a missionary to this particular area.  Imagine what had to occur for the Spirit to prompt this senior companion to heed a prompting and return to an undesirable task." http://www.texashoustonsouthmission.com/weekly-presidents-pen/2016/4/25/presidents-pen-4-25-16
7

From DESNEWS Article:

Elder Holland closed by relating a story — being careful to protect the privacy and anonymity of the participants — of a young man from southern Idaho. One night the young man stormed out of the house and set off to join an infamous motorcycle gang. He succeeded in that resolve and for 20 years became immersed in a culture “of temptations yielded to and degradations explored,” never contacting his parents, who feared that he was dead.

Eventually ending up in Southern California, he one day was sitting on the porch of a rented home when he saw two LDS missionaries making their way up the street.
“With a rush of memory and guilt, regret and rage, he despised the very sight of them,” Elder Holland recounted. “But he was safe, because he kept all visitors at bay by employing two Doberman Pinschers who viciously charged the gate every moment that anyone came near.”

The dogs startled the missionaries as they passed by and continued on, “our man on the porch laughing at the lovely little drama he had just witnessed, wishing only that the gate hadn’t restrained his two dogs.”

Then, the two elders stopped, looked at each other, conversed a little, “likely said a silent prayer,” then turned around and approached the gate.
“The Dobermans on cue charged the gate again, hit it, snarling, frothing, and then stopped in their tracks,” Elder Holland said. “They looked at the missionaries, dropped their heads, ambled back to the front steps and lay down.”

The man on the porch was speechless as they missionaries opened the gate, walked up the path and greeted him.
“One of the elders said, ‘Are you from this part of California?’

“The man said, ‘No. If you want to know, I’m from Pocatello, Idaho.’

“There was a pause. ‘That’s interesting,’ the elder said. ‘Do you know the [such-and-such] family in Pocatello?’
“With a stunned look, our biker paused, and then, in very measured words, said, ‘Yeah, I know them. They are my parents.’
“ ‘Well, they’re my parents too,’ the missionary said. ‘God has sent me to invite you to come home.’ ”
The younger brother had been born after the older boy had left home. The elder brother did not even know of him.

“Mom and Dad have been praying for you every morning and night for 20 years,” the younger brother said. “They were not sure you were alive, but they knew if you were, that someday you would come back to us.”

The wayward son invited the two in, and they talked for the rest of the day and some of the night. He did return home, returned to Church activity and, in March 2015, was married and sealed in the Boise Idaho Temple.

Commenting on the account, Elder Holland said, “This is a story of the role of Almighty God, the Savior of the World, and the Holy Ghost involved in the work of the ministry to which we’ve been called.

“The Holy Ghost prompted those parents to keep praying, to keep believing, to keep trusting. … The Holy Ghost inspired that rebellious boy to come to himself like the prodigal he was and to head for California. … The Holy Ghost influenced that younger son to serve a mission and be willing to accept a call to Southern California. … The Holy Ghost inspired one of my brethren in the Twelve, who was on the assignment desk that Friday, to trust his impression and assign that young man for service not a great distance from his native-born state. The Holy Ghost inspired that mission president to assign that young missionary to that district and that member unit. The Holy Ghost led those missionaries to that street, that day, that hour, with big brother sitting on the porch waiting, and, with Doberman Pinschers notwithstanding, the Holy Ghost prompted those to elders to stop, talk and in spite of their fear, to go back and present their message. …
“And, through the elders, the Holy Ghost taught repentance and brought true conversion to one coming back into the fold.”

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

You know, for a guy who went to Yale he sure does lack a certain amount of situational awareness one would think one possesses being an Ivy Leaguer and all. It's almost as if he doesn't quite grasp the Internet, Google, and that fact checking is virtually instantaneous these days.

- Doc

[_Lemmie]

Hat Tip to JulieM...for some of these quotes:

And maybe a hat tip to Julie M. for reading here! Those same two links and stories were posted here about an hour before she posted them there, even though there are a number of versions fond on various mission blogs and sites. She was kind to their sensitivities apparently, and left out the Hermana's credulous

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!

[_Mormon Think]

I heard this same story growing up except without the dogs. It's like the 'ole vanishing hitch hiker tale told again and again by someone who 'knows' it is true.

Bill