Yesterday, a few stakes in our area had a special stake conference with Elder Holland. I thought some folks here might be interested in hearing what he had to say.

First of all, the spirit was super strong, stronger than I had ever felt before. In this instance, the spirit felt really hot, humid, and sweaty. Everyone around me could see how much I felt the spirit by the sweat stains in the arm pits of my shirt. Of course, that may have just been the result of cramming way too many people in the church.

A member of the 70 spoke first, asking members to give more fast offerings. What shocked me was when he talked about members in Africa who took the counsel to fast for two meals at face value. Since they only ate one meal a day, members ended up fasting for 3 days! He mentioned it as an example of their great faith, but if I was a church representative, I would have been ashamed to bring it up.

Elder Holland then spoke. Overall, his delivery was good. He was humorous, and at the right moments (from an entertainment perspective), emotional.

Elder Holland said that the biggest challenge the church had was dealing with phenomenal growth. He then talked about the many stakes and missions that have been created in the past few years. He also said that they expect the number of missionaries to level off at 100,000 in 4 years.

Delving a little bit into science, Elder Holland said that there were more temples now than at any other point in the earth's 6000 year history.

At that point, Elder Holland prefaced his additional remarks by saying that someone in the audience needed to hear it. I thought it was a great tactic. That way, any one to whom the message pertained would think it was a message to them directly from God, while those that were bored could be consoled with the thought that they just didn't happen to be the person to whom the remarks were directed. Elder Holland then emphasized the following 3 points.

1. You can't deny or argue with the evidence. I agreed with this, until I realized he was saying that the evidence supported the veracity of the church and book of Mormon. He said he wished he had 5 hours to talk about the evidence with us. I would have loved to have heard it, except that he probably would have had to talk very slowly to fill up 5 hours with any purported evidence. He also asked "how hard must a heart be or how calloused must a soul be not to care", referring to the book of Mormon. Yep, I appreciated him characterizing me in that manner to my family.

2. In this church, you get more than you bargain for. I can't argue with that, except, of course, he meant that you get more good things than you expect when joining the church.

3. You can't kill this. Again, he was referring to the church. Almost sounded like a challenge.

It was bad enough getting there an hour before the meeting, sitting in cramped quarters on hard metal seats in a stinking, hot cultural hall for a total of 3 hours, but the clencher was my wife's reaction last night. She was ticked off that I couldn't feel the spirit during the meeting, as though that was somehow my fault. Yeah, that made it worth it to support her by going to a meeting I didn't want to be at in the first place.

Nice to know that Holland is using the same tactics in his fraud as do cheap, two-bit psychics.

Please don't lump us psychics with Holland. Holland is a liar and scammer and has no integrity. Unfortunately, you are not aware everyone has psychic capabilities ----- just don't know how to use/develop them. In the next life you will probably be more upset/concerned with your failure to use the amazing abilities/including psychic abilities versus being a Mormon for X years.

Thanks for reporting!

All I can say is, "Wow. Just wow!"

Yep! The ever, super-dooper, extra special "Pray, pay and obey!"

Plus the bonus prize of "It's true!"

Too bad he didn't have the time to share the evidence. Maybe next time.

Growth?

What growth?

I gasped out loud when I read in your post that Holland actually said "6000 years" when referring to the age of the Earth. I'm guessing this is full doctrine now? I always had the feeling that it was just fundies who adhered to the 6000 year old Earth. We had the whole, "who knows how long Adam and Eve were in the garden" thing. Oh well.

I would like to see a direct comparison to the evidence it is all true to the evidence it is not. There is no way any apostle is going to go there with any verifiable evidences that truly exist. It is all if I say it then it must be so cause I am an apostle of The Lord.

Wundervoll! This... your review of a Holland spiel.

Wherein, the pompous old puppet wishes he had 5 hours to discourse on all those evidences of the BoM!

Had he his wish, the hollow, slow and sonorous five-hour list of bogus proofs would have left the congregation unfed and sound asleep.

He's got it wrong... The Book of Zelph is true!

It does indeed look as though Holland is doubling down on the full fundie approach. He has to realize that eventually leads to a dead end.

And he claims that could have spent five hours giving evidence for the BOM, but couldn't take five minutes to bring up one or two examples? Anyone who can't see that as a red flag is hopelessly, wilfully ignorant.

The "someone in the audience needs to hear this" line is EXACTLY the one used by snake TV preachers right before they ask for money.

Let me guess... there was no Q&A session afterward.

We need to hear reports like this. Thanks for taking a bullet for us.

OMFG

>>>Elder Holland said that the biggest challenge the church had was dealing with phenomenal growth.<<<<

Liar. Not just spin, but an out and out lie.

Maybe he didn't finish the sentence.... that the biggest challenge the church has is with the phenomenal growth --- of anti-mormon information that's readily available.

Regardless, when the some of the true-believing sheep hear the other side of the story, they don't walk away quietly. Being overtly lied to, and deceived, tends to make people angry. The elect are leaving the building, and those remaining are the ones that happily consume the pablum.

That's some phenomenal growth, all right.

"The elect are leaving the building"--how sad, how true.

We've all seen the BBC program where Elder Holland is actually called out on his lies. He is a man of zero credibility and no concept of truth.

WHAT!!! No talks about masturbation and self-abuse! How dare he leave THESE out! The whole church is going to hell because it's making the bald bishop cry and still no talk! Doesn't he know that strangling the chicken turns men into homosexuals! How dare he leave monkey-slapping out when he knows that EVERY man needs to hear the voice of authority demanding that this hideous practice stop before it too late! This is what we've become, a church that's politically-correct and media savvy. KNext time there's a special conference, send Boyd! The Boner.

BYUboner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WHAT!!! No talks about masturbation and
> self-abuse! How dare he leave THESE out! The whole
> church is going to hell because it's making the
> bald bishop cry and still no talk! Doesn't he know
> that strangling the chicken turns men into
> homosexuals! How dare he leave monkey-slapping out
> when he knows that EVERY man needs to hear the
> voice of authority demanding that this hideous
> practice stop before it too late! This is what
> we've become, a church that's politically-correct
> and media savvy. KNext time there's a special
> conference, send Boyd! The Boner.

Don't forget that in January of 1982 (over 32 years ago) the
First Presidency declared that oral sex between husband and
wife was an "unnatural, unholy or impure practice" and would
disqualify you for a temple recommend. That was a generation
ago. Oral sex has become WAY more widely practiced since
then. If there were ever a time that the big 15 needed to warn
the membership of something it's now. However, I can't recall
any mention of it since that First Presidency letter went out
over 32 years ago. Could it be that (1) that was just the
opinion of a bunch of old men? or (2) that the Lord has changed
his mind on oral sex? Or is it (3) the leadership is just
letting thousands upon thousands of members go through the
temple in an unworthy state?

If you're a concerned Mormon the situation sucks.

Just as I suspected, TSCC is slacking off again. Not only does this suck, but men and women and even gays need to know that oral sex is totally inappropriate for the passions that the organs' lust for each other generates.

How else would one explain the blessed writings of romance novels when they speak of "His pulsating manhood thrusted deeper into her most innermost desires."

Oral sex sucks! Pure and simple, if not, I'm not the Boner you all love and worship...

...and this was after only one beer!

The Dodo does it again!

I bet Holland didn't open it up for Q&A, f-ing coward.

anon333 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> 1. You can't deny or argue with the evidence. I
> agreed with this, until I realized he was saying
> that the evidence supported the veracity of the
> church and book of Mormon. He said he wished he
> had 5 hours to talk about the evidence with us. I
> would have loved to have heard it, except that he
> probably would have had to talk very slowly to
> fill up 5 hours with any purported evidence. He
> also asked "how hard must a heart be or how
> calloused must a soul be not to care", referring
> to the book of Mormon. Yep, I appreciated him
> characterizing me in that manner to my family.

The "a priori" personal attack on the character of someone who
disagrees with your position is the mark of a charlatan,
crackpot or con man. It has no place in honest discourse.

My only question is, will Elder Holland give me 5 hours to
present the opposing viewpoint? Or is this only going to be a
one-sided debate with no time for rebuttal or for the other
side to be heard?

Any 'evidence' of the BoM (in the Ensign) should reference the results of scientific research, not LDS supporters with 'Black Box' information that can't stand verification.

5 hours? that's an outright lie, I hope someone calls him on it; IF he responds, it will be with suppositions, speculations, and opinions, not 'cold hard facts'.

Did he really say ..."6,000 year history"?

As an apostle this knowledge should be made to the world. The Ensign is an official Church publication, so what's the problem? I would love to see his evidence.

Technically, he said "...the earth's 6000 year history."

teleprompters?

did you time his speech/talk/remarks?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2014 10:53PM by GNPE.

No teleprompter, or notes as far as I could tell. He wanted us to think the spirit was telling him what to say, although it was obviously a rehashed speech. He spoke for about 45 minutes, and the delivery was actually pretty good -better than his talks in general conference.

"At that point, Elder Holland prefaced his additional remarks by saying that someone in the audience needed to hear it."

It's like doing a horoscope. Make it broad enough that most people can find something that agrees with or correlates to their life, and you can get them to think that the WHOLE thing was meant JUST for them.

The man is a fraud.

If there is a hell, he will be in there.

For Times of Trouble with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: http://youtu.be/rQi4FtsdDew

24 seconds, al you need to know about his fake spiritual ity and heartsell

Don't Mormons have to be young earth creationists due to the revelations given from god to Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants? They don't talk about it much but they kind of have to beleive it or else Joseph was wrong. I don't see a way around this unless they spin it somehow. It seems in this instance Holland is being consistent albeit wrong.

OMG I got an actual mailed invite for a super special stake conference with Elder Christofferson! Wtf is going on?

Kris Kristofferson is a General Authority?