I've met a number of GAs, but the most disappointing was Hinkley.

I was on a date at a ballet performance and he and Mrs. Hinkley got up to leave during the intermission. He made his way up the row while people were gasping with excitement. My date was beside herself with excitment. His wife got held up talking to people as he walked into the row behing me. So, I turned and said, "President Hinkley" and shook his hand. He was Profit, Seer, and Revelator at the time, so yeah, BIG TBM moment.

When I shook his hand it felt incredibly soft and cold. He had a distant look, and turned his head away from me without saying anything.

I had just shaken the hand of the Profit/Prophet! But, it was a major disappointment. My date was so jealous, she didn't get the chance as he quickly got out of there.

As a TBM I remember making so many excuses for this amazing moment. He had to be very tired, and it wasn't a church event, blah, blah, blah...

The clarity is more amazing to me now. It was an old, egocentric man who was tired, and couldn't give two shits about me. It was nothing special at all, but in my mind I made it special so I could tell people, and convince myself it was special.

It wasn't.....

I'd like to hear others stories. . . .

I've posted this before.

Back when Tom Monson was still an apostle, my family was holding a reunion in Midway, Utah. We were at the Homestead resort, taking advantage of the mineral baths, etc. My brother and I were in the men's locker room, where we were changing clothes. The place was almost empty. Tom Monson came striding by in his giant swim trunks.

I had no interest in meeting him, but my brother wanted to. He was disappointed because Tom never looked at him. He just seemed to be scowling and unhappy and in a hurry. And he was totally out of shape. He was just plain fat, and very white-skinned. (The whiter you are, the more righteous you are, so I guess we can forgive him for that)

Maybe he was embarrassed to be seen (almost) naked.

My sister and I were walking through Temple Square and happened across Elder Ballard. He asked how long we've been married.

Maxwell visited our mission in the Dominican Republic and gave a pretty cool talk. He was Q12 at the time.

After his talk me and my companion wanted to meet him and he seemed annoyed.

Its so redic how I bought into the whole "apostle" thing.

GAs. . . What a buch of idiots. . .

I can't remember the guy's name, but I think he was a 70. I know I'd heard of him at the time.

He came to talk to us while I was working for the Church. He may well have to take some responsibility for me leaving the Church.

My testimony was already hurting, due to the fact that I couldn't understand why morale was so low when one worked for the Church. I guess I had expected it to be wonderful, working among the Saints.

He basically lectured us in the meeting. He said that performance review time would be coming up. He told us what was expected of us. Then he said that if we received a bad review, we would be responsible for bringing down the overall score of our entire team.

In fact, if our office received a low score because of us, our office would bring down the score of the entire region and we would therefore be hurting other Church offices in the area.

But why stop there? If we received a low score, which would bring down the score of our office, which would bring down the score of the entire Region, then we would be hurting the score of our entire country!

It was such a horrible guilt-trip. You could just see the faces falling. There would be no morale booster shot for us and that was so badly needed. I came away from that meeting feeling sad and also a bit angry.

I think that was the beginning of the end for me and the LDS Church.

Too many of these guys are mean SOB's. Crabby, some foul mouthed as sailors and don't seem to like those who want to meet or greet them.

A few are sincere but they are hard to find.

I remember someone telling me that they overheard a GA, after a similar meeting as the one I mentioned above, referring to the members as "the little shareholders."

It really is all about the money.

we never even got a vote like the littlest company shareholders do...

I saw Quentin Cook at a stake conference. He reminded me of a congressman trying to butter up his constituents, not a spiritual man. The talk he gave was full of subtle manipulation too.

Merrill Bateman told me to put on some clean clothes and better represent BYU... until he realized I was part of the maintenance staff doing electrical work in the admin building and I'd just gotten off shift.

He should have known that by "Divine Inspiration" ;-)

With Gordon B. Hinckley at the dedication of the Spokane Temple. I was so excited to hear a Prophet in person! All I remember is how grumpy and tired he sounded, and the only thing I remember from what little he had to say in our session was how the Angel Moroni statue looked like it was on backwards and needed to be fixed. That was it. Then he just sat there and someone else ran the Temple dedication session. Talk about a huge letdown!

I also served on the High Council in my Stake. At Stake Conference, we had specific people from our Stake assigned to make sure visiting GA's are not "bothered" by common members coming up to talk. No time for people when you are a GA.

Howard W. Hunter

It was in the late 60s and I was trying to gain a testimony.
I'd read the BOM and prayed about it but all I got were cold
prickleys, not the warm fuzzies I was supposed to get. I was
BIC and this was not what was supposed to happen.

I was living in a foreign country and spent a LOT of time
hanging with the missionaries at the mission home there. HWH
came by to give each of the missionaries their personal
interview with the visiting apostle and the mission president
said it was OK for me to be "interviewed."

I was hoping an APOSTLE could give me some clarity or
direction or inspiration or something in my desperate search
for a "testimony."

When it was my turn I told him I wasn't a missionary and he
told me how busy he was and really didn't have the time and I
told him the MP said it was OK, but I'd leave if he wanted me
to.

No, he'd let me stay. Then he asked why I wore a beard and I
said I like the beard but also it's difficult for me to shave
given no hot water and a communal bathroom for the whole floor
where I live. He mentioned that he also had a tough
face/beard combination to shave.

Then I mentioned my "problem" gaining a testimony--getting the
answer I was supposed to get. He asked if I was "keeping the
commandments" and I said yes and he said to keep on keeping
the commandments and pumped my hand with a handshake as he
ushered me out the door.

I was out in the hallway, kicking myself because I felt I had
failed to properly make my case--I had blown my one chance.
The whole thing felt like an interview with a busy bureaucrat
and not at all like dealing with a religious, much less
"spiritual" person.

It was only later that I was able to put the whole experience
into perspective.

When I was a YW leader in Provo in the 70's we arranged for the YW and YM to have a day in SLC. Rented the bus, did the Beehive House and Temple Square but the supposed frosting on the cake was that it had been arranged for the group meet Sterling W. Sill (I think that is who it was) in his office. All the kids were quite excited about it. The only think I remember about that encounter was that he lectured on how busy the GA all are and basically how they were taking up his valuable time and don't do it again. Very nice.

Gordy Hinkley spoke to my mission in the early 80's.

He said that we missionaries would never reach a higher level of spirituality than we did on our missions.

Nothing like a so-called apostle dumping a sh!tload of guilt on the susceptible volunteer force.

I HATED him for saying that.

I made him a liar with my own life.

Did he mention that he never went on a mission? I'm guessing not.

No he did not!

Moira:

I believe you may be mistaking Monson and Hinckley. Hinckley went on a mission to England, Monson did not serve an LDS mission as a young man although he became a very young mission president.

Disappointment in each case.

ETB - I was 15 years old. Going to hear ETB speak at some dedication in Nauvoo. Super excited to hear THE PROPHET speak to us. I couldn't wait to hear what ultra inspiring things he would say. Well, he had nothing interesting to say. He clearly had nothing prepared and I think he was bearing his testimony or something, however I got the impression that he was just a confused, senile old man. He just kind of rambling and kept saying he loved us over and over again. It was kind of awkward. I didn't think God would let his mouthpiece speak like the old senile guys in my home ward.

Ballard - I was in the church office building while on my mission and some guy excitedly told us to come wash THE APOSTLE's car because he was coming soon! As we were washing his car Ballard came out of the elevator, walked right past us with a slightly cranky look on his face, got in the car and drove off. No hellos, no thank you's for washing his car, not even a smile. Not what I expected from an apostle of the Lord.

Hinckley - Shook hands with him when he visited and spoke to our mission with Mike Wallace. I was at the end of the rope at this point with my testimony. I basically tried everything in my power to believe in the church but no longer believed in it (I studied the truth while on my mission and was just riding it out at this point). I was hoping that MAYBE it was just a trial of faith and that MAYBE something inspiring might happen when I meet with THE PROPHET! Well I waited in line waiting to shake his hand. In naive, wishful thinking I was hoping that he would shake my hand, look me straight in the eye and say, "I know your struggling elder, but hang in there, the church really is true." Well, I got to him shook his hand and nothing. He just looked like some old man going through the motions and didn't say a word to me, hardly even looked at me.

Maxwell was our mission representative. He was kind, humble and seemed like a true believer (pre-internet, so maybe he was). Met Monson twice, both times in college. He asked about my major (unconventional by Mormon standards) and encouraged me to pursue it; I thought that was pretty cool. Later, at a corporate Christmas dinner, he sat with his back to me and I heard him complain about all the "rubber chicken" he has to eat at meetings. I actually thought that was pretty cool, too. Most of the 70s I've met at leadership conferences seemed like ass-kissers to me.

At Christmas time in 1970 my YW leader arranged for our group of girls to take a basket of fruit to the home of then president Joseph Fielding Smith. He was living in an apartment in SLC. As we were standing around him introducing ourselves, he pointed to me and said,"what's in your mouth!" It wasn't a question, it was a startling accusation. I swallowed my gum and replied, "nothing". After we sang a few Christmas carols and were making our exit, his wife came up to me and whispered, "he never got used to people chewing gum, it reminds him of chewing tobacco". I was 15 and I remember how threatened I felt, not love, not peace, not acceptance. I then wondered why a prophet of god would even consider that a 15 year old girl would ever come into his home chewing tobacco! Surely no seering going on there! Earlier that same year, I think it was in the summer, a member of the church YW presidency spoke to our stake YW. I remember her saying that no matter what the leaders ask you to do, you must obey. She even went so far as to say that if they ask you to only wear white shirts and black skirts, you must obey. That was a pivotal year for me, a few months later I was asking deep doctrinal questions that burned in me for the next 26 years until my final break with the church.

It was my first semester at BYU and my family home evening group set up a trip to SLC to visit an apostle in his office. At the time I had hoped it would be Sterling W Sill only because I thought that at least he read other books that were not just scripture. I think he was indisposed and now cannot remember who it was we met in his office but once there he started in on how we should not wear short skirts ( none of us WERE wearing short skirts -- it was not even the fashion ) and then he went in about facial hair with the guys. We had a couple of guys in our ward who were Utah Tech so it was okay for them to have mustaches and they were pretty nice guys. When we left I could feel that all of us were somewhat depressed about the experience. Someone tried to explain it away that the old fart had bad eyesight. In my own head I wondered why he would take up time to discuss something ultimately so unimportant. It was more like a Disney executive lecturing his employees on how to look. I could not imagine someone like the pope or Billy Graham taking up time about such an unimportant matter or even noticing if his visitors were properly dressed. I had started the disillusion process the day I drove into Happy Valley but this was certainly a contributing incident.

It was the mid 1970's and he was assigned to visit our stake. How convenient that his married daughter lived in that ward. He got an all expenses paid trip on the member's dime.

That Sunday evening several of us were invited to her home for a quiet social, with daddy included, of course. I now wonder how my TBM Ex rated being chosen.

Anyway, as a relatively new convert I had no clue about him. I proceeded to make a comment on all the excessive rain in that area, and how it could sometimes be inconvenient to get around in. He proceeds to make a loud announcement in front of the the whole group, that,'I Don't let the weather get in the way of my plans!' No matter that I was a new mom pushing a stroller, and he had fine accommodations. At the time, I just thought that he was rather abrupt and unfeeling.

I think he is buddies with Glenn.

All he would do is comment on the art in the hallway...I don't think he is very bright.....

He spoke for about 5 minutes at the open house about how great Kimber Academy was... I think it sucks!

On my mish, Elder Razband came and spoke......it was a big conference with tonz of members, and I remember him telling about how his son had just come to him and confessed that he had looked at some porn online.....his son was sitting right there, and I was thinking, holy crap I would kill my dad if he did that....poor kid, to have his dad publicly reveal that!

I realize dozens of people have stories to tell about this particular GA. I have two.

Long ago in a land far away, a mission almost fell apart. The mission president had been pushing his kids farther and farther into proselytizing techniques that a lot of us thought unethical, even evil. There was something of a rebellion, and the mission president prepared for extreme action, then got nervous and asked Kikuchi to interview a handful of us miscreants one by one. Each of those interviews went basically the same way. The missionary told Kikuchi what was happening and how wrong it felt. The great GA wept with empathy and promised that he would reverse the policies that were so obviously wrong. Then, a short time later, Kikuchi came to our mission for a conference and doubled down on those exact policies. Those of us who had recently shared tearful hours with him watched from the audience, mouths hanging open incredulously. Here was a general authority who had, in apparently full sincerity, lied to each and every one of us. More than one missionary left the church over that betrayal.

Well over a decade later, I come home from work one day and my wife tells me that Elder Kikuchi had called and wants me to phone him in his office in SLC. It turns out that one of those rebelious missionaries had gone to the Church Office Building, met with Kikuchi, and told him among other things that he owed me an apology. Having heard my stories of the man, though, my wife says that when she picked up the receiver and heard him introduce himself, she froze. Apparently Kikuchi was displeased by her attitude because every time I called his number over the next few weeks, his assistant said she'd see if he was in and then came back on the line to tell me that he was out of the office. I ended up writing him a letter telling him that he was a coward for not taking the call that he had asked me to place, and he replied by writing that as a servant of the Lord he was really busy and that, anyway, he knew nothing about the bad things that happened in our mission.

What was fascinating was that parts of his letter responded to points I had not even raised in mine. Evidently, he had just cobbled together defenses that he'd already written to other people. So there you have it. Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi is a liar and a coward who is still trying to rewrite history to hide his own misconduct.

A big part of what ultimately drove me out of Mormonism was the realization that the church is just Kikuchi writ large. What differentiates him is not his lack of character but the fact that he is more transparent, more tearful, and a bit more pathetic than most of the other LDS leaders.

We missionaries went all out when we received notice that our new mission president and new regional rep (a member of the Quorum of Seventies) would visit our tiny, isolated branch in South America. We stirred up enthusiasm among the church members, our investigators and as many potential investigators as possible. In addition, the members invited many of their friends to the special presentation.

Imagine our excitement when it came time for the new rep to speak. But we ended up being deeply disappointed.

He lambasted the Catholic Church, using the Book of Mormon references about the “whore” of the earth. And believe me, he got specific. He pointed in the general direction of the local cathedral and said we were going to destroy it, literally crashing it to the ground.

His presentation was awful, as embarrassing as it’s possible to imagine. “It seems like the spirit was lacking,” our branch president, a local member, said afterward.

A book that was popular about that the time, “The Ugly American,” described just how naïve and harmful Americans could be when they were abroad. The Seventy was a good example of the premise.

Another time, he told a group of us missionaries that the Salt Lake Tribune was an “enemy” of the church. His “proof” was the fact that the church sometimes sent the Tribune press releases first – before they were sent to the Deseret News. And the Tribune didn’t always run stories based on the releases.

Here is an experience I had, that has been posted previously:

I was working for Zion's bank in the early nineties as a teller. It was at the main office near the COB. It was a church payday and therefore, very busy. At lunch hundreds of COB employees would come and cash their paychecks. The line was out the door and down the block. We were down two people and the manager was even helping out from her desk.

Anyway, I'm heading to the vault to get some more cash when all of a sudden some lunatic is screaming at the top of his lungs, "Do you know who I am?". He must have screamed this 10 times. He then started demanding to speak with "Simmons" (the CEO at the time). He couldn't believe that he would have to wait in line. The manager had to run out and sit him down and personally help him. He then left in a huff.

Well, it was L. Tom Perry. He threw the biggest tantrum I have ever seen in front of at least 30 people whining about how an apostle has to wait in line. Asshat. Everyone looks sweet in GC. Real life is very different.

I met Perry at Ricks when I worked there. He was just a big, tall grump.

I've met about eight of the apostles and they were all grumpy and dismissive except E.T. Benson. It probably made a difference that I was introduced to Benson by two of his granddaughters.

LOL! No way! You would think he would have thought he's got a reputation to uphold and to not look like a child throwing a tantrum.. but NO. ICK. WHAT A BRAT... If I was his mother he'd get a swift kick to the butt.

Yeah, he was a mission president in my neck of the woods. He and his wife still call people up here when they need to know something, or they need a favour.

Edit: Or I guess I should say his wife did. I just remembered that she's gone now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2013 11:31AM by Greyfort.

I have posted this before. We had one of the 12 visit our mission (Brazil, Joao Pessoa circa 2000). I think it was Scott, although it could have been Holland. As you can imagine the whole mission was buzzing with excitement, I was lucky enough to be a zone leader in the stake he spoke in so I got to see him once when he addressed the mission and again when he spoke to the stake conference.

He spoke to our mission in Spanish, so much for the gift of tongues... The room full of hundreds of Portuguese speaking elders just sat there and listened for an hour. What’s funny is the meme soon spread that his message was extra spiritual because nobody could understand it with our earthly ears… crazy. I have to credit this moment as the first major crack in the armor I had built against considering that the church wasn’t actually true.

The next day he spoke to the members at stake conference, this time through a translator. He talked for about 15 minutes about how if the members want a temple within a days drive they better pay more tithes and offerings, and that the temple density reflected the willingness to sacrifice among members. Now, I had not grown up rich, on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, but by Brazilian standards I had a silver spoon in my mouth and could drive to a dozen temples within a day.

It floored me to hear this apostle of the lord tell these people, many of whome lived in abject poverty, and were willing to sacrifice a months pay to take a bus to the temple once a year, that they needed to pay more in order to have a temple built within a days drive.

I was trying to find answers to "save" my gay boyfriend. A good friend had read the talk "to the one" given by Packer. He suggested I write Packer. He was a bishop. I asked my own bishop. He thought it would be fine. I had been suicidal for months--trying to find some REAL answers. The reply I got was that he had no time for me as he was too important to be bothered. He berated me for even thinking I had the right to write to him. The letter caused so much cog dis, I eventually burned it--couldn't just throw it away.

I wish today I still had it--as evidence. If my sister and BIL hadn't been there when I opened it, I tend to wonder what I would have done to myself.

Back in the 80's I was waiting for the elevator in the Wilkinson Center at BYU. Thomas S. Monson walked up and when the elevator opened he walked in, followed by his body guards. One of the body guards looked at me and without saying a word let me know that I wasn't welcome on that elevator.

I was one of those snotty pricks who lived at the Mission Home and ordered everyone around like I was god's personal bitch.

Neil Anderson came and visited the mission, he was still a Seventy at the time. I was impressed by how little he knew about everything and how uninspiring his advice was. He was uniquely underwhelming.

A few months later Dallin Oaks came and I was impressed by how self important he thought he was and by how unprofessional he was.

Perhaps the least impressive person that came was Daniel Peterson. He was at the time the biggest tool that I had ever met, he even had the balls to insult the MP's wife, who happened to be a wonderful person who really cared. I wanted to kill him.

Back when Monson was an apostle, I went to go hear him speak at a theater. I was probably about 11. I was disappointed to hear him tell that awful story about how he gave his pet rabbits to some kid to eat back in the day. I had heard that story before a few times in church and it always upset me.

Anyway, when he was done, there was an announcement that children were welcome to meet the apostle. I thought this was so cool, I was going to talk to a real apostle! It made up for the horrible rabbit story. I lined up with the other kids and watched him shake hands with about 20 or so. He decided he was done after that. Guess who was next in line to shake his hand? I was so sad, he just walked off without even saying anything.

Due to information about questionable missionary tactics sent back to Salt Lake, a mission in So. America was visited by Bruce R. to investigate in the 70's. Bruce, the Mission President and a friend of mine (missionary) traveled the entire mission and spoke at four regional conferences where Bruce interviewed the missionaries as part of his investigation. The friend of mine, who traveled directly with Bruce and the M.P. during all four visits said Bruce basically ignored him the whole time and essentially acted like he didn't exist...he was an A.P. at the time. Arrogance would be the most apt description.

As a former missionary in Utah, I had several encounters with GAs. I might be a bit unusual, but I never really was in awe of them. I was an 18 year old convert and had met "important" people while I was growing up...politicians, sports heroes, etc. Anyway, Paul Dunn was the GA rep for our mission and I toured through Southern Utah with him. After listening to his same talks, and the question and answer sessions with the missionaries, I was bored. Finally I decided to ask him a technical question. "Elder Dunn, how did you grasp the baseball in order to throw your most effective curve ball?" I think I threw him a curve. He kind of stuttered and stammered while giving me an off the cuff BS answer. I met several other GAs as well. We tracted out one of the future presidents of the church (one of the 12). He met us at the door, in his pajamas, in the afternoon. He and his wife invited us in and it felt like I was visiting my grandparents. I met President Kimball too. He was at a family birthday celebration. He was very nice. He grasped my hand, pulled me to him, and kissed my neck. I also met Willie Mays while working with one of the stake mission leaders. They were in a “business” relationship. I wasn’t impressed with him either…he could tell and was a little miffed.

A week after I got off my mission, a friend from my mission took me to a fireside with Elder John H. Groberg (of "The Other Side of Heaven" fame). After the fireside, my friend (who was a particularly confident and bold individual) said "Let's go up and meet him." I resisted at first because I thought GAs are too important for me to waste their time, but my friend started walking up and said "Come on!"

We get up there and wait for him to be done talking to some people, and my friend says, "Hi Elder Groberg, my name is xxxxx and this is my friend xxxxx." Elder Groberg shakes our hands and says, "Hi - have you guys seen xxxxx?" He was looking for someone that had spoken just before him - someone neither of us had ever seen or met before. My friend looks around and goes, "Um, no sir." Then Elder Groberg just walked away without a word.

Apparently my feeling that GAs are too important for me to waste their time was spot on.

I had only one positive experience with a GA. Rex D. Pinegar visited the mission home when I was there overnight (can't remember why that was), in the morning we were at the MP's house, Pinegar come in, asks where the dishes are, and starts setting the table. I was so used to the idea of self-important GAs that I was blown away to see him helping with breakfast.

I was friends at BYU with one of Pinegar's children and he was always great.

When I left on my mission we spent a week in the SLC mission home (back in the day). On a break a group of us encountered David O. McKay in the barber chair in the Hotel Utah. We all gathered around, and then spontaneously started singing 'We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet'. He seemed so genuinely touched and kindly greeted us, and thanked us. We went away walking on air feeling like we had truly been in the presence of a prophet.

A few months later E.T. Benson visited our mission and conducted individual missionary interviews. One by one we were led into a small office to meet him. When my turn came I went in and he was scribbling some notes from the previous interview. Brusquely told me to sit down and immediately launched into a few questions: 'Do you masturbate', etc. (of course I lied), and then I was abruptly dismissed. We never made eye contact, no hand shake, connection, smile - nothing! He could have been talking to a mannequin. That really affected my perception of 'inspired leadership'.

Then later at Ricks College Joseph Fielding Smith and his wife came and spoke. She talked about how she 'sacrificed' a budding singing career because she was asked to sing in the Tabernacle Choir. It seemed so self-adulating and self-serving. Then old JFS rose to speak and I was so dismayed to hear his criticisms, his seemingly narrow-minded views of people - but he didn't hesitate to brag on his own accomplishments. I left thinking "Wow, I sure hope he never becomes Church President", and of course it wasn't long after that's where he was! Oh well.