Had the missionaries over again on Saturday.
They told me that there was a woman a few years ago who was VERY anti-lds. They said she tried to bring the church down, she even had a fake temple recommend. She apparently gave out anti mormon literature and was generally a pain to the church in the UK.
They said that one day she came to the mission home with piles and piles of anti mormon literature and handed them to the mission president. She was in floods of tears, saying how wrong she had been, and begged the stake president to baptise her.
Me and even my best friend who was present who is super TBM called BS on this one.
The missionary said he tried to get in contact with her so she could speak to me but he can't find her (convenient).

Has anyone else heard this before? Is there any truth behind this or is it just another one of those mormon myths?

Even if it's true, she sounds like a bit of a nutcase anyway, so hardly someone you'd want to highlight in a 'faith promoting story'.

I'd press the missionaries for more info on who this person was. Partly because if they cannot follow through it exposes them as feeding you BS.
I agree with sherlock though, even if is true all it proves is there are some people who are as nutty as a fruitcake.

Even if it were true, even if she weren't nuts, even if she was the prime minister of England, it wouldn't matter.

It would be anecdotal, and they'd be making an appeal to celebrity/authority status. None of this yields any evidence.

But I agree, force the hand of the missionaries. I bet they're lying.

I don't understand why you're torturing yourself like this. The missionaries are salesmen and it's their job to try and appeal to your emotions to bring you back. That's what they're out to do. They're spending 2 years of their lives as recruiters for their organization.

If their current tactic isn't working, they'll try something else. When I was still Mormon, I spent 2 years trying to bring a member of ex-Mormons for Jesus back into the fold. It worked. A lot of us worked on this guy and he came back, bringing his previously non-Mormon/anti-Mormon wife with him.

I will always feel guilty that I participated in that. At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing, as I really cared about this person. Now I cringe at the thought. But a lot of it certainly did involve an appeal to emotions.

He'd been born and raised in the Church and we knew he really missed being a part of it, so of course that's the angle which was worked on.

The missionaries will seek out your troubles with the Church and work to weaken you in those areas. It's their job, Hon. That's what they're there to do.

I'm hardly torturing myself.
There is ZERO chance that I'm going to church let me tell you. I mean that. I KNOW they're trying to get me reconverted. I told them there is no chance that I'm going to get back in that font, they still wanted to come round so I said yes.
If they want to waste their own time it's fine by me. I quite enjoy the discussion.

whats the opposite of the 'appeal to authority' fallacy?

this seems like an 'appeal to the crazy'

I'm not in the UK but it does sounds like a tale. Most of the missionaries stories start like that "there was a <woman or man>.." followed by some great story. I used to believe them until little by little I realise how you could almost never verigy the people in the stories.

You could tell the elders, 'you know, there was a young man who was called to serve a mission, here is his story' and hand them a printed copy of flahsh's posts about his mission. =)

Good luck,

Ignore it. There are countless myths that circle among missionaries. Totally ignore it and all other missionary stories without proof.
And in this case, even were this story true, it shouldn't change your decision, as there are millions of mormons out there who will tell you the same story about how they had their "Eureka!" moment and gave up their agency to the morg. Just as there are millions of jehovah witnesses, muslims, catholics, etc, who will say the same of their respective choices.

The church would promoting this lady in a video or The Ensign if she was real, dontcha think? Unless, of course, she's the cat lady from 'The Simpson's', and crazy enough to swing from clinging from one strong emotional attachment to another....

Mormons got tons--or in your case tonnes--o' this stuff. This is doubtless a regurgitation of another schit story told by someone else. They probably even believe it and are quite possibly sincere. Everyone has a similar story.

If I was you, I would contact the Mission Office and enquire as to the validity of the tale. They will be unable to confirm the details at which point you can ask what their stance is on Missionaries telling lies to people to try and get them in the pews.