Someone posted on RfM this letter (below) from a Stake Presidency to ward leaders in anticipation of Elder Bednar’s Oct. ’08 visit to their stake. I did not manage to keep the link (sorry) but I was so amazed that I kept the post.

Remember that this letter was sent to the ward LEADERS, not to the ward members.

***************

I [one of the stake presidency] spoke this afternoon with Elder Bednar's secretary about a couple of issues. In the conversation she indicated that Elder Bednar has commented that two things make such a difference when he speaks to a group of people.

Those who focus and truly spiritually prepare for a week or two prior to the meeting have a more powerful experience and are touched and moved by the Spirit.

The thing that facilitates this experience at the meeting is for participants to be reverently and quietly seated prior to Elder Bednar's entrance into the room so that the spirit that they bring and the spirit that Elder Bednar brings is not lost by noise, distraction, and confusion. Those who are quietly studying their scriptures have a profoundly enhanced experience.

We need to help our people to be reverent and quiet when they arrive. This will be a bit challenging with small children. Perhaps we could communicate with our members this week and pass along this insightful information before they arrive.

In addition, the Church Audio Visual Department is sending a satellite truck to carry the broadcast from [Bldg A] to [Bldg B] so the quality of both sound and picture will be high. A temporary receiving dish will be set up at [Bldg B]. The satellite truck will be at the stake center. Two cameras will be used. I feel that we can now assure a very high quality experience for those at [Bldg B]. Some with small children may even wish to go to [Bldg B] because they will not need to arrive so early to get a good seat. [Bldg B] may actually be the building of choice for many families. Also, the young single adults will have spent an evening with Elder Bednar, in person, on Saturday night. They may wish to go to [Bldg B] to allow others to be in the same room with the Apostle. Please help our people understand that far more important than being in the same room with Elder Bednar will be his message and the Spirit that will teach us.

All of that said, we need to urge our people to use the pass-along invitations and bring friends. I think we can assure a high quality experience in Harmony. We hope that every family will bring someone not of our faith or someone who has been less active. This will be a life-changing experience for most who attend and for all who prepare. This will be the greatest single gospel-sharing opportunity in our stake in the last 25 years! Let's use it and invite everyone!!

May each of us act in faith and do ALL that we can to be ready, expecting a life-changing experience; and may our Heavenly Father bless us with an outpouring of His Holy Spirit so that we have a new heart and a new determination that will sustain us in the challenging times that are now upon us.

With gratitude for your attention to this urgent request,

President [Name] for the stake presidency

He came here a few years ago and they read something very close to that. Thankfully I had to work. Afterward it seemed like a lot of people seemed rather put off by his whole presentation.

Got to love that double bind.

Does this guy want a goddamn fucking red carpet and a fanfare when he comes in or what? This sense of entitlement makes me so fucking mad my teeth are grinding right now.

GayLayAle Wrote:
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> Does this guy want a goddamn fucking red carpet
> and a fanfare when he comes in or what?

==============================================

Yes.

At our stake when the "man" visited...I observed 8 large red

traffic cones taped off saving the sacred spot next to the

door ..even the night before . And it came to pass the VIP

could be whisked into spirituality before the common folk .

As I recall there were some security there as well.

Ohh the perks!

Hey, the head pickle is quite proud of him humility!

His "entrance"?? WTF? Does he think he is the damn Queen of England? People are "in the presence"??

Sounds like psychological BS that something like a real estate investment seminar would be using to hype people up. The more hype you need, the more BS it is.

It shows that they also know how Cognitive Dissonance works. The more you invest personally, the more you will convince yourself that it was awesome in order to justify your time commitment, and make it all not a big waste of your time.

What a big giant manipulation.

In the now closed thread on Bednar,Redwing commented that Bednar has served his mission in Southern Germany, and commented "'nuff said". What's that supposed to mean? I served in the same mission, but some years later. I like Germany and Germans; especially the fact that they are not very religious and have great food and beer.

I believe the southern Germany remark is a reference to the Nazi movement starting in Bavaria.

WiserWomanNow Wrote:
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> The thing that facilitates this experience at the
> meeting is for participants to be reverently and
> quietly seated prior to Elder Bednar's entrance
> into the room so that the spirit that they bring
> and the spirit that Elder Bednar brings is not
> lost by noise, distraction, and confusion. Those
> who are quietly studying their scriptures have a
> profoundly enhanced experience.
>

Uh..the "Spirit" is SOOO sensitive that any undue or random loud noise will scare it away??

Nothing like having a completely setup White-bread audience TRAINED on how they should act when this guy is there.


Boy them mormons sure are full of themselves....

The controlled conditions will ensure a productive seance.

Last year my stake had its first visit ever from an apostle. I absolutely HATED having to stand up when he came in! But TBM DH made us do it. GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Then afterward my DD had the opportunity to shake the apostle's hand. Later I asked her what it was like and she said, "He's like any other person! What's so special about him?"

I love how these local priesthood leaders always go into panic mode when a GA visits. I mean in reality, these guys would be nothing without the members themselves. Bednar would be just some educator in a university somewhere pretty much off the radar of anyone.

I suppose such a visit does increase a SP's stress levels. After all, higher-ups may expect all his stake "numbers" to go up after the holy visit. He needs to work the visit with the rank and file to the max to optimize his efforts to raise the vital numbers, so he will look good enough to promote. If the numbers don't change upward, it reflects badly on his administrative abilities, and his progress up the multi-level ladder will end.

WiserWomanNow Wrote:
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> All of that said, we need to urge our people to
> use the pass-along invitations and bring friends.
> I think we can assure a high quality experience in
> Harmony. We hope that every family will bring
> someone not of our faith or someone who has been
> less active. This will be a life-changing
> experience for most who attend and for all who
> prepare. This will be the greatest single
> gospel-sharing opportunity in our stake in the
> last 25 years! Let's use it and invite everyone!!
>
This reminds me of the temple open-houses..... the members are happy and proud and impressed, and the non-members are, "okay, whatever." Same thing here. "Life changing?" The reality is people who aren't conditioned and trained to respond like mormons will most likely be bored - at best. At worst, "cult!"

I disagree with most people here. There are many reasons not to go along with the arrogance and self-aggrandizement of GAs, but this is not one of them. A little bit of discipline can indeed help an audience to get more benefit from a lecture, tutorial, sermon, concert, play, movie or other performance. Especially in TSCC in my area, all the noise, child play, and disruptions from latecomers can be very distracting and disturbing.

I'm sure a lot of the people on this forum will disagree with me, but bear in mind that in this part of Europe, the noise and interruptions at church functions are even worse than in Utah.

I quite agree with you, although it is hard to believe church meetings can be any noisier than the many I've sat through in the mormony Western United States.

The OP quoted a request for a "week or two" of study before Bednar's speechifying, the content of which they have undoubtedly heard umpteen million times previously and will again, the same amount.

Bednar must live in a bubble if he thinks it's appropriate to make requests like that.

You're right about the noise. Mormons are the most irreverent church goers ever...and the church leaders know it.

I don't know much about Bednar, but his name sounds like he's related to the Coneheads.

Does he consume mass quantities? (of pickles?)

We got the same hype for his visit to Alabama in 2010.

> The thing that facilitates this experience at the
> meeting is for participants to be reverently and
> quietly seated prior to Elder Bednar's entrance
> into the room so that the spirit that they bring
> and the spirit that Elder Bednar brings is not
> lost by noise, distraction, and confusion.

Cripes the Mormon Holy Ghost is such a scaredypants. "Be very, very quiet or you might scare him away."

I don't know whether this is restricted to the LDS church authorities. Whenever the Dalai Lama visits anywhere, similar restrictions ensue. Everybody seated before His Holiness enters (what would we do if Pres Monson required us to call HIM His Holiness?). For any leader of any religious group, reverence is pretty much standard procedure.

I agree that Bednar is above himself and is quite a creepy individual. But let's not throw stones at just the LDS group. All authoritarian groups are this way.

got it anon, but When Joseph Wirthlin visited my stake when I was a teen, I don't remember the pomp and circumstance. AND... I really like throwing stones. what's wrong with that? eh? eh?

Does the URL say recoveryfrombudhism.org?

I've been to one of Bednar's steak konfernses. He will never fail to remind his kongergeyshen at least three times that "I am an apostle of JuhEEEzus krist". He's quite likely to mention "repent now, I'm an A P O S T L E, don't forget to repent." He will never fail to point out "I am very spiritual bcuz, hello, APOSTLE, apostolic blessing, apostolic wtf, repent, namejeezuschristamen".

I've heard some horror stories over the years about local people who are "blessed" to have the holy ones and their wives stay at their houses. Apparently GAs are very high maintenance.

The last time a GA came out here there was much talk that there would be a temple built here. My brother said conference had a huge turnout. Even hard core jack mormons showed up. He asked me why I didn't go and I told him I'm not a jackmo.

And everyone was disappointed that there was no temple being built here anytime soon.