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Re: Have you ever met a Mormon General Authority…

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 7:24 pm
by Tom
Kishkumen wrote:
Wed Apr 10, 2024 6:53 pm
These are cool stories, much better than mine. I have shaken a few GA hands, but that is about it. My closest encounter was an interview with a Seventy when I applied for a job at BYU. That was memorable.
Have you told that story here or elsewhere online? I hope it will be preserved in some way.

Re: Have you ever met a Mormon General Authority…

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 7:47 pm
by Morley
After the army, I worked for a drug packing company in Salt Lake City. My then-wife and I had our first, newlywed apartment on the lower avenues, where President Joseph Fielding Smith and his wife attended Sacrament Meeting every week. Once everyone in the congregation was seated, the couple entered through a door in the back to sit on the stand behind the bishop and his counselors. It was the quietest congregation I've ever attended, maybe because of JF Smith's silent and forbidding presence.

Smith never uttered a word nor changed expression. His wife, however, would randomly and extemporaneously spring up during the service. She'd walk up, whisper in the bishop's ear, and, following his approving nod, offer her thoughts about what the previous speaker had just said. She even sang once. She had a magnificent voice. She was a funny, charming, and winsome surprise. I never got tired of her.



added: She should not go unnamed. Her name was Jessie Ella Evans. What a shame that I just had to look that up.

Re: Have you ever met a Mormon General Authority…

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 12:54 am
by Moksha
I used to stop by Spence Kimball's house once a week to give a ride to his sister-in-law. The Kimballs would always invite me in and chat with me while we waited. They were very kind people.

One week there was some sort of threat (all I was told), so I was stopped at the door by a Salt Lake police officer. Another stepped from behind the shrub and walkie-talkied to a sharpshooter officer on the roof of J. Bracken Lee's house across the street. The Salt Lake police took seriously any threats against the Utah prophet.

Re: Have you ever met a Mormon General Authority…

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 4:32 am
by Dr. Sunstoned
I met SWK at 6:30 in the morning at the SLC airport. I was leaving to start my mission in Illinois. He spoke with me for a few minutes, was very polite, and asked me if I got the chance to meet with his son’s family who lived in a suburb of Chicago. I discovered later that this was the son who went inactive. I did meet his granddaughter, who was about my age. She was very pleasant but very in-active.

Re: Have you ever met a Mormon General Authority…

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 11:59 am
by Kishkumen
Tom wrote:
Fri Apr 12, 2024 7:24 pm
Have you told that story here or elsewhere online? I hope it will be preserved in some way.
I have recounted it is some form here, but I don’t recall the thread. Someday I may recount it in greater detail.