I am included in the E-mail distribution list for letters from my niece serving in California. I usually don’t read them, but I did today, and one part of it reminded me what an abusive mind game the “faith brings miracles” concept is, especially for missionaries.

I added my sarcastic commentary and E-mailed it to my wife, then decided it might be appreciated here, too. My comments are the bullet points

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“Wednesday we had Zone Conference and I learned so much! We talked a lot about Faith and how to better exercise faith. It makes me a little sad since I've taken this long to really try and apply what I learn to the work"

"President Hunt gave some awesome steps on 'How to Move Mountains'."

1. Believe that through the power of faith you hold the power to move mountains
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle, you don’t believe enough.

2. Faith can only be exercised on a foundation of righteousness
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle, you aren’t righteous enough.

3. Set specific, righteous goals, with pure motive
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle your motives aren’t pure.

4. Plead your case constantly to the Lord
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle you aren’t pray often or hard enough.

5. THE HARD PART - Commit to doing whatever Heavenly Father asks of us in pursuit of our desired blessing
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle you aren’t obedient enough.

6. Exert ourselves in Spirit and over a sustained period of time (continuous prayer in our minds and in our hearts)
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle you have failed to have a prayer in your heart continuously (which just so happens to be impossible, but that is beside the point).

7. Faith will always be tried
• In other words, if you don’t get you miracle it is because the real purpose of you mission is so that god can make you more humble so you can improve at all of the things listed above. This results in an endless cycle of making you believe it is entirely your fault that no miracles have occurred. After all, it is more important that you have trials in your life than having more conversions and baptisms, right?
• Perhaps the purpose of this life is not a test of personal righteousness as god leads us to believe. It is actually a test of credulity. The Sermon on the Mount should say “And he spoke unto them and said, “Blessed are the extremely gullible for they shall inherit the LDS church after everyone else has left.” As a side note, this will leave more guilt sticks per member. Bonus!

"I love these so much”

• Take note of her third sentence which illustrates my point, “It makes me a little sad since I've taken this long to really try and apply what I learn to the work.”

If she's in a nice spot like Santa Cruz or Ventura, good for her.

If she's rat hole like San Bernardino or Fresno, she didn't pray enough?

In other words, "It's always YOUR fault. Always."

This is classic Mormon stuff. Poor girl.

It's YOUR fault.

Always.

C2NR Wrote:
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> 1. Believe that through the power of faith you
> hold the power to move mountains
> • In other words, if you don’t get you
> miracle, you don’t believe enough.

She shouldn't feel bad. Bible Jesus never moved a mountain by "faith," either. Neither has anyone else. Ever.

Yet here's some MP insisting that they can.
When nobody ever has.

How about that -- make the poor starving mishies feel guilty for not believing enough when they can't do what nobody else has ever done.

Wow that IS something. LOVE your bullet notes! Too true.

Yes the fact that she 'feels sad' means she feels guilt as was intended by that asshat president Hunt. Because she hasn't been 'faithful enough' and as you pointed out, she never actually will be.

I mean NOBODY, NOBODY, NOBODY, not even Jesus Christ himself has EVER EVERY EVER EVER moved a god damn f'ing MOUNTAIN before!!

So why is that always the example given for what you can do with the 'right' kind of faith? Because it's bloody well impossible, therefore an unattainable goal to keep her and all believers on a god damn hamster wheel for eternity!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2017 06:55PM by shapeshifter.

Didn't the Romans do it, to build the ramp to Masada?

I dimly remember the weary Flavius Silva, played to perfection by Peter O'Toole, saying something like, "We'll have to move that bloody mountain, to build a ramp up there. Bring me ___________" (I forget the character's name, but he was played by Anthony Quayle.) Incredible Roman engineering - and it is still there.

catnip Wrote:
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> Didn't the Romans do it, to build the ramp to
> Masada?

Lots of people have done it. With human power/machines.
Nobody's ever done it by "faith." :)

"She shouldn't feel bad. Bible Jesus never moved a mountain by "faith," either. Neither has anyone else. Ever."

I beg to differ with you. I have a friend who with his two brothers and a D8 moved he mountain by their house into the valley by their house and made a very good farm from it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2017 09:00PM by desertman.

desertman Wrote:
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> I beg to differ with you. I have a friend who with
> his two brothers and a D8 moved he mountain by
> their house into the valley by their house and
> made a very good farm from it.

See above. :)

Your giving me memories of when i operated a D5 god i loved doing that more than any other machine besides the excavator those were the days.

And at the next zone conference, she will be excited to learn about the next gimmick of the month. Nothing will change because they fail to see that they're peddling a defective product that nobody wants. The guilt and shaming will continue because that's how missions work.

That's the rope they hang you with...or they give it to you to hang yourself....such cute little bundled up axioms implanted right between your ears like a million pig weeds...it'll take years to hoe them out and 50000 in tithing ...sowing daily sowing countless seeds of only ill

Never thought of it that way but makes perfect sense.

We've moved lots of mountains....of snow from our driveway! Does it count that those particular mountains are made of water and not dirt & rock? ;-)

I've moved mountains of snow with nothing but faith.

I had faith it would warm up again and melt the snow.

Im sold im joining whatever religion you are in

Oddly, i've never ever seen a mountain moved. All of the people and all of that faith and it is the one thing that has never happened. Unless someone is praying for earthquakes?

Here is the following weeks' letter. Once again a set up for failure, and as pointed out many times above, IT WILL BE THEIR FAULT. Mentally abusive, IMO.

"All I can really say is that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains. That is what the Fremont zone is going to do! Our inspired Stake President, President Perry, at the beginning of the year set a goal of 40 baptisms here in the Fremont Stake for the year of 2017. I know that he received that number of souls from the Lord."

"As of today we are at 10 baptisms and so that means we have 30 more to go. As a zone, we made a list of all the people we are currently teaching that each of us can picture in white. We came up with 50+ names! It was incredible! I know that as we work our hardest and rely on the Lord with everything we have, we will move this mountain and accomplish the goal of bringing 40 children of God back to him."

"And I, Moroni, having heard these words, was comforted, and said: O Lord, thy righteous will be done, for I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith;
For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove--and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith." -Ether 12:29-30

"at the beginning of the year set a goal of 40 baptisms here in the Fremont Stake for the year of 2017. I know that he received that number of souls from the Lord."

"The Lord" sure likes round numbers, doesn't he? You'd think that an omniscient god would know the precise number of prepared souls, like 38 or 41. After all, "The Lord" is supposed to be the one doing the preparing. Leave it to "The Lord" to provide a rough guesstimate.

IMO, moving mountains is to be taken figuratively, not literally. (That is, the person who doesn't budge when you have faith and teach him Mormon 'truths', suddenly changes his/her mind and converts--which equals (to the simplistic mind), that you have just 'moved' a mountain.

Mormon scripture disagrees with you:

"For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove--and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith." -Ether 12:29-30

Refers to a *literal* mountain and a *literal* moving/removing of it. :)

Which, of course, never happened...

Posted by: ificouldhietokolob ( ) Mormon scripture disagrees with you:

P: Thank goodness. Now I know I must be on the right tract.

" . . . accomplish the goal of bringing 40 children of God back to him."

I am so tired of this Mormon view that everyone but them is some kind of lost soul being batted about by the adversary and are in need of rescue. So arrogant. So judgmental.

Meanwhile millions of non-Mormons throughout the world are accomplishing wonderful things and boosting each other up having no idea they need to be saved by the Mormon missionaries.

First thing I noticed on my mission is that every one was doing very well without Mormonism. Still I wrote stupid stuff home like this girl is. I wanted to win the Mormon contest.