Posted by:
I must be anon for this one
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Date: December 02, 2018 07:08PM
So, Joseph knew the woman the man was with, and assumed it was her fiancee, whom he had heard about. Probably Joseph heard the jingle of money in the man's pocket. JS's holy ears were in tune to the sound of money! As the years went by, the story became more embellished and more amazing, even to the point that Holy Joe knew the exact amount in his pocket. Leave it to Joe to take every last penny in that man's pocket, for something stupid, when most the pioneers were in a state of poverty and starvation.
It would have been more faith-promoting, if Joseph had given the man food, or aid, and a kind word--that that was not in Joseph's character to do so.
True story, in testimony meeting:
A very wealthy, influential, famous Mormon neighbor hiked off the trail, which, in that area was against the law. The mountain is behind our neighborhood, and is very dangerous. During the hike, they couldn't find the trail to get home, and darkness was setting in. They knelt down in a clearing, and prayed. While they were praying, their dog ran off, and disappeared. When they scrambled back to the trail, it was too dark to look for the day, and they had to abandon him, and go home. The next morning, the wealthy man woke up at dawn, with the "impression" that he needed to go to the exact spot where they had prayed, to find the dog. He did, and there was the dog, in the same spot, waiting for him! The man even got back home in time to get to sacrament meeting on time!
I was in this testimony meeting, thinking how irresponsible he was to take his little kids and their dog along in such a dangerous area in the first place. I knew the area he was talking about, and it can be seen, at some distance, from the trail. It's the only clearing in an area of trees and cliffs. The man claimed that God had spoken to him that morning, telling him exactly where his dog would be.
Follow up--I couldn't make this up:
A few weeks later, there were helicopters flying around the mountain, all night long, shining lights onto the mountain, which we can see from our house. The next day, on the news, the same Mormon neighbor had gone on another hike to the same dangerous place, and had taken along the child of a friend, and his single mother. That child fell from a cliff and was killed!
Um, hey, if God spoke to this man, why didn't this man get the message?