So my TBM sister told me this story. It's been passed along a few times so the details might be off, but you'll get the gist of the story.
In fast and testimony meeting a man got up to tell this story of a co-worker's parents (or something like that). A senior couple decided to put in their papers to go on a mission. They marked that they wanted to stay in the states due to health reasons. When the call came it was to Russia. The couple declined the call. A year or so later they decided to try again. Again they marked their preference to stay in the states, and once again got called to Russia. They declined, only to have this happen a third time a few years later. The couple decided that if God wanted them to go to Russia so badly they would go.
Once the couple arrived in Russia, their first assignment was to serve in a prison (I don't even think missionaries serve in prisons-right?). While serving in the prison they were compelled to investigate a particular cell where the prisoner didn't speak any Russian.
To their amazement and joy they discover their long lost son who went missing 15 years ago while backpacking in Europe. He was mistakenly put in prison for a crime he didn't commit, but was unable to defend himself due to the language barrier. The couple was able to get him out of prison and safely back to the states where they lived happily ever after.
Sounds like a B.S. faith promoting story if I've ever heard one. My other TBM sisters and mom were totally eating it up to.
After 15+ years of total immersion, you learn. The brain is hard-wired to pick up language as a survival tool. H@ll, I was in Russia for a month. At the end of my stay, I understood much of what was said around me (receptive language) and I could speak quite a few Russian words and phrases.
There is simply no way that the man wouldn't learn even basic Russian in that time. Of course this story also functions on the assumption that Russians are uncultured, alcoholic idiots. In the real world, with so many fluent English speaking Russians throughout their country, it would have been a simple matter to find a translator. Probably a prison employee even. Also, Russian prison authorities would no better than to hold an American captive for so long without contacting the embassy.
It's just a fluff piece, no real substance.I don't think I would be able to resist pointing out all the plot holes. If my mil brings this one up, I'm prepared lol
Total BS. If an American would have been discovered in a Russian prison after going missing for 15 years, it would have been all over the news, especially Utah news. Where is the evidence for this story? You should ask for a name. Betcha anything they can't trace this story back to anything.
This sounds totally bogus! Why wouldn't they have tried to find him 15 years ago? I agree also that he would have picked up the language. Also, there is no way they would let the missionaries go to the cell area... Or even inside the prison.
Bullshit story, another one of those things ginned up around the myth that the united states is the only country where people don't go to jail all the time. Someone probably bit it off some other urban myth.
sometimes lurker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bullshit story, another one of those things ginned > up around the myth that the united states is the > only country where people don't go to jail all the > time.
Indeed and, funnily enough, the opposite is true. The USA has the highest prison population (as a percentage of population) in the entire world.......... Go USA!
So, what is the moral of the story? That you should never turn down a mission call? Think of the three extra years that poor boy had to spend in an awful Russian prison. Oh the guilt!
Why didn't god just 'inspire" the Russians to let him go instead of have his parents refuse a mission call 2 times, then finally go, and then accidentally find their son. Also, how did they get him out? Was their Russian so good that they could do all the talking that couldn't be done over the previous 15 years?
Amanda Knox was in an Italian prison and was speaking fluent Italian at her trials within a few years. 15 years in a Russion jail and no one can communicate with this guy and he can't skeap Russian? BS!
I swear, if god wanted a TBM to be 5 miles east of where they were standing, he would "inspire" them to walk west for 25,000 miles until they arrived at the spot that was 5 miles east of where they were before.....then the TBM would call it a miracle!
...some are just purpose-built BS in the tradition of Joseph Smith. I imagine the perpetrators, sitting back, sorting through various tried-and-true plot devices, coming up with little faux details and new twists, then trying it out on a test audience. I imagine them being thrilled when the story takes off, when they run into their handiwork on the other side of the planet.
Remember the almost instantaneous spread of the story about a mission meeting in the World Trade Center being relocated? Some unprincipled jerk must have been wondering, as the towers were falling, how he could exploit the 9/11 tragedy in the name of the LDS church. Yeah, it's what Mormon Jesus would want. What's wrong with a lie that brings people to The Truth®? That's what religion does, right? Or maybe the stories are created by people who just like to F with Mormons. Ha! Look what they're believing now!
If it were real, it would've been splashed all over Deseret News and the Ensign. The son would be on the fireside circuit. The faithful senior missionary parents would have written a book and be giving keynote addresses at Education Week and Time Out for Women.
However, this faith-inducing falsehood could still be worked into a General Conference address a la Paul H. Dunn.
MY Arizona aunt's friends son, on a mission to Mexico found the family's pickup truck that had been stolen the year before. Still had the US license plate. Supposedly the dad went down there and stole it back.
And my first thought was, what sort of lame-ass parents are sitting around thinking of serving a mission when their son was missing? The first time they applied was what...10 years after he disappeared. Let me tell you, I might have gained some sort of acceptance at that point, moved on a bit with my life but I sure as hell would still be directing every extra penny and ounce of energy toward finding my baby. I would NOT be going on a senior mission because my funds would have been wiped out by my constant searches and I would NOT stray from home, just in case. I would be looking for my son until the day I died.
This missionary couple does not sound like someone I'd like to know.
very fake story, the facts don't add up. like ca girl said, they shouldn't have the funds to go on a mission, cuz they should of spent their money on a P.I. what lame parents they are
Why in the world did they not find him before that?
Were they busy cleaning toilets?
I'm with everybody else. This is total BS. Why did not end up Good Morning America, with a book deal, movie deal, and his own product line?
In addition, I doubt they allow missionaries in to Russian prisons. And how did he NOT know any Russian after 15 years? Is it because he did not learn it on a mission? LOL!
An international incident of this proportion went completely unnoticed by newspapers everywhere? And no one can answer who was arrested, what crime they were accused of, which prison he was found in, what Secretary of State Albright did about it at the time, etc. etc. etc.?
Trouble with F&S meeting, you're not allowed to disagree or raise objections.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2013 11:22AM by crom.
I can't remember how long ago - my guess would be about 2 years or so. But I know I read this exact story on this board from somebody else who had heard it being passed around by TBMs.
It doesn't make any sense as being "true". It does seem to be an FPR designed to reinforce to TBMs that they do not know what is right for them and they should submit to their leaders in all things, regardless of the expected outcome. "Here is proof that you are incapable of running your own life. You must let us run it for you."
In the version I heard of this story, the missionary couple didn't speak the language very well and the son did, so the son was supposed to act as a translator between the couple and one of the prisoners and that's how they met up. That makes it more believable, but I'm still pretty skeptical of this story because I can't find any viable source.
Confident it is a fraud. Mormon missionaries are reduced to giving free English lessons in Russia, are you able to guess what is the subject matter of the lessons?
If they had enough money to go on a mission, the Russian goverment or Russian Mafia (same thing sometimes), would have found an English speaker to shake down the parents for a "fine" after the payment of which he would be released.