Posted by:
Mike T.
(
)
Date: September 20, 2016 07:54AM
The first mission president of my mission, the Italy Mission, was a man from my own ward, chosen because he was instrumental in bringing Mormonism to Italy. After just 2 years, though, he angered The Brethren, who thought he was too loose and allowed the missionaries to commit too many high-jinks. Harmon Rector became the provisional mission president. He was sharp, exceedingly well-dressed and handsome, with a charming drawl and a lovely wife. He had also burned up the carpet on his brisk walk from convert to general authority. The man was on fire, and destined for Great Mormon Things.
The boring but pliant Levitt Christensen took the helm almost at the same time I showed up in the mission, replacing Rector as the next MP. But Rector remained actively involved, and continued to show up every few months to speak and to conduct interviews, and to be fitted for new, bespoke Italian suits. He interviewed me within a week of the end of my mission, challenging me to be married within 6 months. He was glorious in his new blue suit--an athletic fit 3-button jacket with split vents, and pants riding low on the hip. My 6-month challenge didn't pan out, but I do credit him with a sex-fed rush to marry far too early, at a tender 22 years, a good part of which was spent in poverty.
But it turned out that Rector was a Mormon "leader" like so many other Mormon "leaders," consumed with thoughts of easy wealth, becoming a participant in a Ponzi scheme for which his friend and associate Brad Kitchen received a 51 month prison sentence. His other partner, the infamous Rick Koerber, was indicted on similar charges--mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud--but Judge Clark Waddoups tossed the case out on prejudice; Koerber is walking free.
So even my erstwhile personal hero turned out to be made of the same simple stuff that Mormon leaders, going all the way back to Joseph Smif, are made of. Rector, in short, was just one more of a long line of hucksters.