I received the following as part of a newsletter directed to youth. I personally found this completely manipulative and guilt inducing - and I had to smile when it starts out with a disclaimer that it isn't church doctrine. Am I being harsh or is this as horrible as I think it is?


Note: This story is not official Church doctrine, but is our personal belief. We share it so that you can ponder what it might mean to you.

Before you were born, you lived with your Father. You have many, many brothers and sisters, and some were your special friends. You loved them and they loved you. You did things together all the time. When you heard about Father’s plan, you were excited. A special wish grew in your heart, and you shared it with your friends. They all wished the same thing.
After discussing it a lot, you decided to go together and talk with Father about it. And so you did. You asked if you and your friends could come to earth together and help each other through this testing time.

Father was pleased with your request. He agreed that you could come to earth together and told you some- thing more – He had a special provision in His plan that you could be linked together for all eternity. You could come to earth as a multi-generational family, and through temple ordinances you could be sealed together for eternity. You were so excited, because this was even better than you had hoped.

When it was time for some of your friends to go to earth, you all were called together again. “This family will come to earth at a difficult time,” you were told. “You will make it because you will help each other. But it won’t be easy. There is one big problem: most of your family will not live on earth when there are temples available to you. So someone will have to come later – someone you trust. That person will gather information about the rest of the family and take that information to the temple on your behalf.

“On earth you won’t remember this conversation, but prophets in the last day will tell you about this work, and by following their instructions, you will be able to do the work so that your whole family can be sealed together eternally. Satan will try to distract you and prevent you from doing this work, but with the Holy Ghost and the prayers from the rest of your family who go before, you will be able to do this.
“Now, who do you trust enough to do this important work for your family?”

There was a long silence as your friends looked at each other. Then they all looked at you. You looked back. Nobody said anything, but then everyone smiled and nodded. Yes, they all agreed.

You were the one chosen. You were the one they trusted to do this important work for the whole family.
Father talked with you specifically. “Because you have such an important work, you will be given special skills and talents. You will have access to everything you need, and people will help you. But most important, even though you don’t remember, you will have a special feeling as you set out to find your family members. When you discover information about them, you will have a special feeling in your heart – a memory of the love you shared before. That feeling will help you keep going when you might otherwise stop.

“You will discover many friends who have come before – they all depend on you because they know how much you love them. They trust that love will stay with you on earth, when you don’t remember anything that came before. They will be watching you; they will help you as much as they can. But you need to do this work for them. Will you do it?”
Your heart swelled until you thought it would burst. You were so happy, so thankful. Anyone could have done this task, but you are the one chosen! You loved your friends so much – this was your chance to show that love.

“Yes! I will do it! I will be so happy to do it! I promise – I’ll bring all your names to the temple and make sure every last one of you receives all the blessings. We will be a family forever – I’ll make sure of that!”

Now you are here on earth. You have no memory of what went before. There are so many interesting, fun things to do – it seems like there isn’t enough time to do them all. But sometimes, when you go to the temple, when your leaders talk about family history, you feel a little whisper in your heart. You glimpse in a small way the love you have for your family, and for Father, who makes this possible. Will you keep your promise?

If someone is from a multigenerational mormon family, hasn't temple work already been done? If the youth want something meaningful, sit down and talk with parents, grandparents and great-grand parents about their lives. Spend time with them in this life instead of focusing on the next one.

Oh wait, with the church pushing senor missions, I guess grandparents won't be around.

If the church was really serious about this work, they would shut the doors of the temples for a few months, and tell the members they would not reopen until until x-number of names were submitted, since they do the same "work" repeatedly.

Is this true?

I haven't seen 'The Hunger Games'. Is this the plot from 'The Hunger Games'?


:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Mormon temple work for the dead is some of the most clearly Mormon doctrine that is simple-minded and it breaks my heart that I have people I love who waste their lives doing this work.

Temples, baptism, genealogy and ordinances for entry are contrived teachings of the One True Church and paid entry for cult temple rituals. Else why should we do the genealogy work less we be able to enter the Temple of The Lord and perform ordinances for our eternal friends save our Heavenly Father will not allow them into the Celestial Kingdom for a bureaucratic paperwork issue.

Spiritual IQs of morons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2012 12:19PM by gentlestrength.

Soooo cheesy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's so funny how mormons looooove to be "chosen"!

The Pre-Existence!(tm) is of one of the stupidest aspects of Mormons beliefs. I thought The Plan of Salvation!(tm) was the process by which God became God, and that he was just one in an infinite line of beings to achieve Godhood. But wait! It sounds like The Plan of Salvation!(tm) was just a hare-brained, half-assed idea by the most recent God, our very own Heavenly Father!(tm). So incomplete was his plan for our salvation that he was taking advice from his own children, which is something you only do until they understand what patronization is or you have achieved senility.

Maybe this is why The Hinkster publicly backslid on the main prize of The Plan of Salvation!(tm), because it's completely contradictory, illogical, etc. The "couplet?" Yeah, that doesn't jibe with The Plan of Salvation!(tm).

It is a compliment to GBH to think he was aware enough to hedge. I think like most simple-mindedMormons he was able to answer plainly something that only makes any sense to people with years of cult programming.

Hinckley had no clue, quite a contrast to the fictitious BoM prophet character Samuel the Lamnite who stood on a Nephite wall preaching damnation. One of my more able moments with respect to Mormonism, knowing I knew Hinkley wasn't a prophet, but a fraud for a fraud, before he pulled that stunt.

I think they changed it to the Plan of Happiness(TM) now because either:
A: God changed his mind about the name
B: The prophet that called it the Plan of Salvation was speaking as a man
C: Public relations firms indicated it would be a good idea to not call one of your core doctrines the P.O.S.

The P.O.S.! LOL.

I don't know any teens who would have the patience to read through that whole sappy article. I think the youth of Zion are safe!

Oh, yes, I've heard that kind of story before.
It reminds me of something an AP 'shared' during a zone conf in the mish.

"A long time ago, in a smiliar place like this one, there were two missionaries who were having a hard time finding anyone to teach. But they stayed obedient and persevered and ended up meeting a dude that looked like a punk and lived in a dump of an appartment. But they overcame the first impression and started a conversation with him and he let them in.
The next time they went, the dude had cleaned up his place a bit. Then later on, when they go back he has cleaned himself up... etc. etc. And things looked better and better each time they went because the guy felt compelled to change his life because he could feel the influence of the Spirit accompanying the missionaries.
The missionary lessons were a succes and the guy got baptized.
And today that guy is our Hevenly Father."

Can you say lame?

Wait, so God had to be baptized? How did that work? Lol


I loved the family history/geneology lessons at church because it meant I could tune out. You don't have to be BIC to have all your family's temple work done already. You could just be the child of a really zealous family history convert. My dad took that "research out four generations" thing very seriously. By the time I got around to being mildly interested -- later, as an exmormon adult, I found the actual history part interesting -- he'd already gone back about seven generations. I had a nevermo aunt on my mom's side who was into geneology as a hobby and she'd done the same thing. I've verified some of their sketchier research, but now it's all just for kicks and giggles. There are no names to submit that haven't been already and anything prior to a couple hundred years ago is not or is barely verifiable. So when the topic came up, I'd zone out, having already mentally checked that little duty off my to-do list.

:-) Well yeah he had to be baptized... you know "As man is God once was..."
I know that they don't know that they teach that but it happened years before GH started to be such a pr guy.

Religious beliefs like this one and many others are in the thousands in the history of humanity.
Just because someone else believes the story, doesn't mean you have to.
Accept or reject it. It works for some people to give them purpose and a sense of serving a higher being.

"This isn't doctrinal, but we'll start singing songs from 'My Turn on Earth' and 'Saturday's Warrior', which are also not doctrinal, but we'll use them to make you feel like you've damned all of those pre-earth life friends for an eternity because you couldn't shut off the Facebook and the porn for a few gosh-darned seconds to do the tedious, tedious internet work that you could have done, you selfish fuck."

That's what I read. Is that accurate?

What a bunch of crap.

Instead of insulting their intelligence, why not talk about it in terms of researching the events in history that made your family who they are, finding out about your cultural heritage, the people you were descended from, etc. Oh yeah, because cults don't want you to have any interests from the outside world.

So who sent their "personal beliefs" that are not part of "official church doctrine?" Was it sent by someone representing the church in a church capacity?

Lead Area Family History Advisors for a particular temple district - husband & wife.

Just add in the phrase, "pay the money" or "for a fee" where appropriate.

...pay the money and go to the temple....

Satan will try to distract you and prevent you from paying the money and doing this work.

How could any teen-ager believe this garbage. There's a disclaimer, for heck sake!

I hated it when the Mormons would tell me how to feel: "Your heart swelled until you thought it would burst. You were so happy, so thankful. Anyone could have done this task, but you are the one chosen!" The Mormons use the same lines when they tell members to clean the bathrooms.