I've become intrigued, in light of Elaine Dalton's quote, about the content of patriarchal blessings, and the differences between the blessings given to men and to women. I'm pretty sure, having not read mine for some time, that it talks nothing about a career, but I know my husband's does.

I would dearly love if any of you still have your blessings and would be willing to email them to me. I plan to write a piece about it and I'd like a nice sampling of them. I still have mine and my husbands, but I really need more to do an effective piece. Feel free to black out your real name if you like, but I'd appreciate if you leave the date, stake, and name of the patriarch. Don't worry, I won't look you up. I also will not use any names in the piece I'm writing.

To email me, just click on my name. I have my RfM email listed.

I thought I had ripped up all of the copies of mine, but I found one I missed, so I'm emailing it to you. I had mentioned my educational and career plans of becoming a teacher to the patriarch, and so he put in my blessing, "...if you desire to teach, you shall be blessed in your ability to impart the knowledge of gospel principles..." That's it for a career.

Gotta find it first. Then, no problem. I'll see if I can find my deceased parent's blessings too.

Thanks to both of you! Happilynotmormon, it never bothered me, the huge Q&A session my kids went through with the patriarch before getting theirs. That is, until I left the church and I noticed that "psychics" do much the same thing, putting out feelers. Very interesting.....

I would love to send you a copy of mine but it is in Colorado. I do recall it saying "if you choose to get married and have children". That made me think - out could say it ultimately led me out. I have a choice?

It also said I would be a great teacher. I don't remember much more about it.

I'll see if my husband will scan it and send it to me and then I will forward to you.

Librarykim2

Thanks! Very enlightening.

Mine specifically mentioned employment, but in a rather vague way and yes I'm male. It actually influenced the subjects I chose to study in school.

My Patriarchal blessing is what kept me in the church for as long as I was. The Patriarch didn't interview me or ask any questions beforehand, and we had never met. Yet in the blessing he quoted word for word things I had asked for in a prayer the night before while I was alone. The only explanation I have is that he was influenced by a spirit, good or bad, that told him what I needed to hear. In the blessing though he said that I would come to know the general authorities and see the church change. Later in life I did come to know the truth about them and how uninspired they really are, plus I've seen the church change along with the rest of the world to become more popular. So who knows, maybe my patriarch was one of the real ones??

I, too have spiritual experiences which cannot be explained away. It doesn't change the facts and history about the church. I also thought I could never doubt because of them, but truth is truth.

Too new to the mechanics of these sites so I'm clueless where to click on your name. Mine was quite long; you'd think I needed a lot of admonishment to get along. Very lttle of it came to pass. Guess I wasn't TBM enough. After 6 yrs (May) a lot of these practices tend to remind me of the movie Spies Like Us. A couple of TB suckers who in the end saved the world in spite of their bumbling.

To click on my name, just click "recovery board" at the top of the page, and then look for twojedis. My name should be blue; click on that.

twojedis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I, too have spiritual experiences which cannot be
> explained away. It doesn't change the facts and
> history about the church. I also thought I could
> never doubt because of them, but truth is truth.

That's exactly how I feel. Glad I'm not the only one to admit having explainable experiences. But I was looking for more truth and I found it, even though I didn't like it. If I ignored it I'd loose any integrity or honesty that I might have had.

I had an x-ray and CT scan that showed bone cancer in my knee, went home and had a priesthood blessing, went for a bone scan the next day and it was gone. It still doesn't change the facts about the church, therefore, there must be another explanation than the LDS version of priesthood blessings. Do I know what the explanation is? No. Do I need to know in order to accept that the church is false? No.

My mother never had a priesthood blessing for her cancers. Twice she had cancer and defeated it on her own by sheer determination. She just decided it. Twojedis, I'm sure glad to know you here. I will send a copy of my Patriarchal blessing when I find it.

Were the word-for-word quotes commonly used phrases in church or in patriarchal blessings? If you google searched them, would your results be mostly Mormon websites?

twojedis, I found my patriarchal blessing and I'll be glad to send it you.
In fact, I'm coming out of lurkdom to do so ;)

I haven't introduced myself to you previously, but I've been on the boards for a few years now, mostly a silent lurker these days but I have followed your saga (and sithlord's) for some time and am amazed at your combined resilience, insights, introspection, and your grace under pressure in dealing with the extroardinarly challenging learning curve that's been thrown your way recently.

Two things never cease to amaze me: the caliber and quality of the people that leave the LD$ church. Truly, they continue to hemorrhage the best and the brightest. And secondly,the UTTER bassackwardsness of the vast majority of Mormon leadership in their handling of, and even moreso, HASTENING of, the continuing exodus.

In any case, you both have my deepest admiration and respect, and a belated welcome from two of Boyd KKK Packer's biggest nightmares,
the "Intellectual Feminist" ;)

Wow, I'm so very touched. I don't even quite know what to say except thank you for your kind words and your help on my project!

You can rest assured that any personal or confidential information stays with me.

I have two, about 20 years apart. Would you like both?

My DH was a convert. He got his blessing about the same time I did, from the same patriarch. He told me I could send his also.

I think I know where they are. I may have to do some digging.

That would be awesome, Mia!