My folks pulled strings with a local senior GA and family friend (now in the 12) to get permission for me to leave my mission and fly home alone for a couple of days to attend university interviews.

I was very fortunate and it's made a positive difference in my life, but I'm under no illusion that if it wasn't for the family connections, this would never have even been considered, let alone permission granted. In fact I have a TBM friend that wasn't even allowed to leave his mission to attend a parent's funeral.

I don't mention this to brag - just to say that like many other organisations, I'm afraid there is definitely a sense of 'it's who you know' & 'one rule for one...'

Has anyone else here benefitted from any personal connections or seen others that have?

I think some Osmonds might agree with you.

deco Wrote:
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> I think some Osmonds might agree with you.


"So, Donny, where did you go on your mission?"

Of course the real question is "who the hell do they think they are?" holding people hostage while on a voluntary activity. Freaks

I have witnessed a similar phenomenon.

In our stake (in the South), we have a family friend of Bednar. He (the family friend) is very strange and I credibly socially awkward. When Bednar came and split the stake, guess who--at a very young age--was called as (weird and awkward) bishop?

But it gets better. A year later guess who is called into the stake presidency? Yeah.

I really could not care less, but it's clear the stake pres wants to be seen as a player.

Sure. I haven't told this story for awhile. Way back when I was getting ready to go on a mission a family friend and neighbor was the GA in charge of the missionary department. He really was a friend, even us kids called him by his first name. He told me not to send my missionary papers in as usual, but to give them directly to him. I did - I dropped them off at his house. When I handed them to him he asked "where do you want to go?" I said "New Zealand would be nice." Less than a week later he stopped by the house on his way home with my call in hand. It was to, yup, New Zealand. Just a coincidence I am sure.

It is definitely who you know in Moism.

Kia ora,

Where were you serving in NZ?

Kia Ora.

I was in the Auckland mission. I got around - various places in the Auckland area, and from Gisborne to Te Kuiti to Whangerei. Whangerei was my favorite. I was there for about 6 months and had 2 companions that were related to half the town, so by the time I left people were calling me "cuz". I was even named an honorary Ngapuhi - one of the greatest honors of my life.

Loved the place and people. Hated being a missionary.

Are you Kiwi?

Of course I know it's truly 'who you know, but I love the real life examples! Would like to hear more and copy to in laws...

She had an issue with missing a couple of classes to travel to CA for a consultation with a specialist due to a life-threatening health condition. Were it not for my dad's friendship through the CES with someone who is now an apostle and due to the man's intervention, my wife would not have graduated with her law school class.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2013 01:29AM by scmd.

How pathetic that adult volunteers think they need permission for something like that.

I had tried for many, many years to get a temple divorce from crazy, abusive RM, who was nice during the 6 months I knew him. His uncle was a famous Mormon GA. This GA was preventing my divorce. The wife-beater remarried the day our civil divorce was final, but when I wanted to marry another TBM in the temple, several years after that, I was still denied the clearance for a temple marriage. This was the beginning of my new husband's dis-belief in Mormonism, which led me out of the cult, too. So the story has a happy ending for us. I happened to mention I was divorced, to my new hairdresser, who was 21. She told me she had married an RM in the temple, and they loved each other, but just weren't right for each other, and didn't feel like being married anymore. She said she got her temple divorce in three weeks, because her father was a Regional Representative, and a close friend of GBH. Afterwards, I drove up into the canyon, and screamed as loud as I could.

My friend's deceased parents had been friends with a very old GA, in ailing health. My friend visited him (it took some effort for her to break through the bodyguards and servants) and told the GA to his face that unless her son got a call to France, that he was not going on any mission at all. Yes, France for him. France for our extremely wealthy neighbor's son. France for the daughter of a prominent CES educator. I was happy to hear that France has turned out to be not so great for missionaries, after all.

Joy Wrote:
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> but when I wanted to
> marry another TBM in the temple, several years
> after that, I was still denied the clearance for a
> temple marriage.

And they go around saying stuff like, "We discontinued
polygamy 123 years ago, so why do people still discuss it?"


> I drove up into the canyon, and screamed as loud as I could.

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt.