Comments on: “The Mission Field” (ouch!)

By: TStevens

TStevens — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:26:43 +0000

I think Bednar has youth and stamina on his side and would totally outlast Eyring in a showdown to be the LAST person on earth to say there is no missionary work to do in Utah.

Maybe BCC can do a poll on it when the warrior one is done.

By: TStevens

TStevens — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:23:26 +0000

Actually I think a vast majority of us would say when people from Utah separate themselves from us with a turn of phrase (i.e. mission field, zion) it IS terribly offensive; but when we separate them from us with a turn of phrase (Utah Mormons) they CHOOSE to be offended.

Almost what you said, but this way I am still an okay guy.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:22:32 +0000

I heard Pres. Eyring say this just today on his CD, “To Draw Closer to God.” I found it humorous.

The fact that he was from the East and self-identified as being from the mission field puts a different spin on it though. Maybe it was after he moved to Utah that he picked up that lingo, but nonetheless, he still self-identifies with it.

And I think he would be the last person on earth to say there is no missionary work to do in Utah.

By: Bryce

Bryce — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:28:56 +0000

So to sum up everything here we can all just say “I chose to be offended by something”?

By: MCQ

MCQ — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:55:21 +0000

Worse than this terminology, in my opinion, is the tendency for Utah Mormons to call Utah “Zion.”

Yeah! Everybody knows Zion is in Missouri.

Also, I don’t give a damn if your mountains are “real” mountains because they have rocky peaks.

“…to crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:11:40 +0000

“I grew up in Southern California at the time there were more mormons there than in all of Utah.”

That would be a moment in imaginary time.

By: sam

sam — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:07:16 +0000

Worse than this terminology, in my opinion, is the tendency for Utah Mormons to call Utah “Zion.” Growing up in the East, and living in an area which saw a large number of Utah Mormons transfering in for their jobs, I had more than my share of this mentality. Guess what…the Church in other parts of the world does not need Utah Mormons coming in as outsiders and telling us how it should be run. Also, I don’t give a damn if your mountains are “real” mountains because they have rocky peaks. The Appalachians, with their sensuous curves and lushly forested slopes, are home to me. Please don’t mock it for what it isn’t. Maybe if you try hard enough, you’ll actually see the beauty in the differences.

By: Ugly Mahana

Ugly Mahana — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:51:28 +0000

One of my favorite mission memories is hearing a senior (couple) missionary from Idaho sputter when, immediately after beginning to note some differences between “Zion” and the location of his missionary service, the good brother was interrupted by our mission president. Quoth the president: “THIS is Zion.”

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:11:03 +0000

In context, when the elder Eyring (justaposed against Elder Eyring) and his family were living in Princeton, The Church had one ward east of Denver – in Washington, D.C. They may have attended a branch in Princeton, or the Church may have been even less organized. With some certainty, Princeton was part of a mission district, and not part of a stake.

I’m sorry to come late to this comment, but there are some errors that should be corrected. For some context, Henry Eyring (President Eyring’s father) was at Princeton from 1931 to 1946. President Eyring was born in 1933.

The New York Stake was organized on December 9, 1934, when President Eyring was less than two years old. That stake reached far beyond the city limits–I don’t know if it reached as far as Princeton.

If it did, then the small branch in Princeton that President Eyring speaks of was part of a stake from the time of his earliest memories.

And there were surely more wards than one in the Washington, D.C., stake which was organized in 1940.

So, President Eyring may not have lived in the “mission field” as it seems to have been defined here (as outside of an organized stake) except for the first eighteen months of his life.

By: Thomas Parkin

Thomas Parkin — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:52:52 +0000

Oh, and #45. That’s beautiful. ~