It's a small world....

[beefche]

Got the song stuck yet? 

What weird small world examples do you have?

I have one from church....a friend and I were vacationing in Florida and went to church on a Fast Sunday. One of the women who bore testimony mentioned that that day was the anniversary of when she entered the MTC. When she said that, I remembered that it was the same anniversary of my MTC entrance, so we entered on the same day. After the meeting, I went up to her to thank her for her testimony and tell her that she and I share the anniversary. She then said, "Wait...didn't you serve a mission in Bulgaria?" Found out that she and I were on the same floor in the dorm at the MTC. She remembered me because I would lead singing time in the evenings on our floor (our floor would gather together and sing hymns before lights out). Weird!

My other weird small world was on my mission in Bulgaria. My companion and I tracted out a woman who had a friend over. They invited us in to hear us and as we were talking about ourselves, I stated that I was from Indianapolis. The friend said that her best friend growing up moved to Indianapolis because her father became the priest at the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Indy. Well, that priest was the same priest who baptized me as a baby (I was baptized in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church not long after I was born) and I remembered him as the church was literally down the street from where I grew up and we attended a few functions on occasion.

Let's see what ya'll have!

[Grunt]

My most impactful small world experience was my trip to San Diego.  I won't bore everyone with the details again, but it played a role in my decision to be baptized.  

[Vort]

My wife and I were from opposite coasts, yet we met by being in the same BYU ward. When I saw her, I burst out in song: "I've seen that smile somewhere before..."

[beefche]

41 minutes ago, Grunt said:

My most impactful small world experience was my trip to San Diego.  I won't bore everyone with the details again, but it played a role in my decision to be baptized.  

Do you have the link to that or direct me where to find it? I don't remember your story. 

[Grunt]

I went to San Diego on business.  The people I was in the conference with decided to have a night out, but I decided to go see the Temple instead.   I spent a long time there and had a great chat with the missionaries, which also led me to overcome some doctrine issues I was having.  The missionaries were really stressing that I visit the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.  It was almost time for it to close, but I decided to swing by real quick since they made such a big deal about it.

I arrived there just before it closed and was the only one there.  I felt bad because they were all in the entry, obviously thinking about closing up.  They were really friendly and wanted me to see the tour.  For those that haven't been, it's an interactive tour and very well done.  

We went through the first room, watched the films, and headed into the second.  While in the second room, someone else slipped in the back and we continued the rest of the tour together.  At the end of the tour,  the elder missionary asked us where we were from and what brought us there.  We both answered "Boston" as people from my region often do because it's the only thing in New England most people actually know.  He went on to say he was in the area for work and thought he should come.  I told them I wasn't actually from Boston, I was from NH and was an investigator in a small ward there.  

He asked which ward, and I assured him he'd never heard of it, but told him.  He asked if I knew "this guy".  Turns out "this guy" was his Brother-in-Law.  

"This Guy" was my closest friend in the Ward.  His wife is good friends with my wife and our children love each other.  They are the family that bought Quads for my wife and I as investigators.  They moved to our ward from Utah a month or so before I began investigating.  They felt prompted to move but didn't know why.  Immediately after we met his wife was convinced they were sent here to help us.  I love this family with all my heart and am blessed to have them in my life.  

The week or two before this happened, "This Guy" was trying to help me with a difficult doctrinal issue I couldn't overcome (but resolved on that trip), and he told me that I really needed to meet his brother-in-law, because he was really smart and would probably be able to help me.

This same Brother-in-Law that lives within an hour of me that I met as far from NH as I can get and still be in the continental US in a tour that was getting ready to close and we were the only two people on.

Now talk to me about coincidences and tell me God doesn't work to help us when we need it most.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Grunt

[Traveler]

Last year while traveling with my wife we decided to attend church in down town Seattle in the chapel where I once served as a missionary.  My wife recognized a good friend of ours at sacrament meeting that was also visiting.  Our friend was there for a Laural reunion.   It seems that there was a particular close Laural class that among other things fellowshipped one of their friends into the church.  We will never guess the missionary that taught the friend?  Though I had forgotten (I have a good excuse) and though she was not there (passed away) but others that had come remember me from 50 years ago.  For all these years of friendship our friend and I never made the connection.

 

The Traveler

[lostinwater]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Last year while traveling with my wife we decided to attend church in down town Seattle in the chapel where I once served as a missionary.  My wife recognized a good friend of ours at sacrament meeting that was also visiting.  Our friend was there for a Laural reunion.   It seems that there was a particular close Laural class that among other things fellowshipped one of their friends into the church.  We will never guess the missionary that taught the friend?  Though I had forgotten (I have a good excuse) and though she was not there (passed away) but others that had come remember me from 50 years ago.  For all these years of friendship our friend and I never made the connection.

 

The Traveler

Wow - neat story.  

#RippleEffect

#PositiveImpression

[Fether]

My best friend went to serve a mission in Puerto Rico. After a month, I saw him outside his house working on his car. He came home early due to anxiety and depression. He told me of one missionary that was his hero on the mission and wished he would have been companions, if they had, he would have stayed  (I won’t question the morality of his claim). His mission president even said the idea of putting them together crossed his mind.

3 years later I start a job up at college and become close friends with one of my co-workers. Turns out he is the elder that my best friend claimed was his hero.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Fether

[Guest MormonGator]

The father of one of the missionaries in our current ward knows one of the missionaries that served in our ward in NH. Crazy! 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, beefche said:

Got the song stuck yet? 

Nope.  I'm compensating by humming 

Try getting THAT out of your head.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Guest

[beefche]

Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Legolas sucks? I think we need to ban you for even posting that offensive piece of mistruth and lie!

[seashmore]

We had a YSA group on a church history tour invade our Sunday meetings (they literally doubled our numbers). Afterwards, the girl I sat next to and I started talking to the two visitors in front of us. The other two had some connection over the Lagoon, but the girl I was talking with mentioned she had cousins in the same stake I grew up in. She talked about having gone to our girl's camp one year, the year that her cousin put the whole camp into a panic because she disappeared for a couple of hours. I remembered that. She also mentioned remembering how someone's tent had flooded. I didn't remember that, so when I went home I pulled out my camp journals and....turns out it had been my tent that flooded!!

A few years ago, I had a good online friend get sealed in SLC. Her HT in the YSA ward out there had been in my Omaha ward while in law school, and he was gracious enough to pick me up from the train station. Oddly enough, we were both skipping his old roommate's wedding in favor of the SLC one. (I was only acquainted with the roommate, and he had a new family of his own.)

Edited March 14, 2018 by seashmore

[anatess2]

Here's one from my neighbor in Ohio.

So, this Filipino guy from Ohio goes to university in Australia where he met a Filipino-Australian gal.  They fall in love and got engaged and he takes her to Ohio for a wedding.  Well surprise, surprise... the girl's mother arrived from the Philippines to stop the wedding.  Come to find out, she's not her real mother.  They adopted the girl as a baby and the real mother is the sister of the guy's mother.  So they're first cousins.

 

[Guest]

As a missionary, I got a referral from Church headquarters.  It took forever to get in contact with this guy.  He was just never around.  I began losing hope. But one day we received a message on our answering machine (yes, we had those back then) from him saying he'd like to make contact.  We kept playing phone tag for weeks.

He finally called us up the night before I was being transferred.  I was the one who answered.  When he said who he was, I felt I should hand the phone over to my companion since I was being transferred.  But for some reason he stopped me.  He apologized for not being available earlier and actually felt like he should talk to me rather than my companion.

I thought that was odd, but continued.  As we spoke we realized we were both from the same hometown.  He asked if he knew some other Mormons in the area.  Some I knew and others I didn't.  He eventually said,"Well, you have to know the..." He said my family name.  

"Yes, that's me."  I repeated my name.  

He was stunned at the "coincidence".  He told me that he was childhood friends with my oldest brother.  He always thought highly of my family and that was one of the reasons he decided to look into the faith.

We closed the call because he had called to let us know he was going to be out of state for about three months.  But he wanted to exchange contact info.

Fast forward about 9 to 10 months.  I'm now serving in a Spanish speaking area.  He's moved to the neighboring mission.  But he still wanted to call me to get the lessons.  He actually left a message in Spanish on our answering machine.

We made contact.  He drove an extra hour out and hour back to meet in our apartment to receive the discussions.

The Saturday before I went home, I got to baptize him in a chapel as close to the next mission as possible.  The APs from the other mission were allowed to come over the mission boundaries to do the proper paperwork.  They also got the bishop from the appropriate ward to come to the baptism to welcome him to the ward.  It was special.

[anatess2]

I'm wondering how many pages it will take for somebody in this thread to say they're related to Kevin Bacon.

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Here's one from my neighbor in Ohio.

So, this Filipino guy from Ohio goes to university in Australia where he met a Filipino-Australian gal.  They fall in love and got engaged and he takes her to Ohio for a wedding.  Well surprise, surprise... the girl's mother arrived from the Philippines to stop the wedding.  Come to find out, she's not her real mother.  They adopted the girl as a baby and the real mother is the sister of the guy's mother.  So they're first cousins.

 

[Vort]

1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

Here's one from my neighbor in Ohio.

So, this Filipino guy from Ohio goes to university in Australia where he met a Filipino-Australian gal.  They fall in love and got engaged and he takes her to Ohio for a wedding.  Well surprise, surprise... the girl's mother arrived from the Philippines to stop the wedding.  Come to find out, she's not her real mother.  They adopted the girl as a baby and the real mother is the sister of the guy's mother.  So they're first cousins.

I'd have married her anyway. First cousin marriages are not nearly as big a deal as some make them out to be.

[anatess2]

16 minutes ago, Vort said:

I'd have married her anyway. First cousin marriages are not nearly as big a deal as some make them out to be.

They did!  It was quite a scandal!  I attended their wedding.  But they moved to New Jersey to get married.  Do you know that you can't marry your first cousin in Ohio but you can in New Jersey?  And what's more - if you're first cousins and you get married in New Jersey, Ohio doesn't recognize your marriage as legal?  So yeah, they can't just go to New Jersey to get married and go back to Ohio and file their state taxes as married!  Yes, I learned all about those state laws because of those 2. 

P.S.  They could've got through the adoption loop-hole (legal mother is not related) but the mother was totally against the wedding and they didn't put it past her to go to the courthouse and object to stop it.

 

Edited March 14, 2018 by anatess2

[Vort]

11 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Do you know that you can't marry your first cousin in Ohio but you can in New Jersey?  And what's more - if you're first cousins and you get married in New Jersey, Ohio doesn't recognize your marriage as legal?  So yeah, they can't just go to New Jersey to get married and go back to Ohio and file their state taxes as married!  Yes, I learned all about those state laws because of those 2. 

I am extremely surprised to hear this -- to the point that I'm not sure I believe it. One of the foundations of US law regarding marriage is that any marriage legitimized in one state must be recognized by all other states. I'm no lawyer, but that has long been my understanding.

[Just_A_Guy]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

I am extremely surprised to hear this -- to the point that I'm not sure I believe it. One of the foundations of US law regarding marriage is that any marriage legitimized in one state must be recognized by all other states. I'm no lawyer, but that has long been my understanding.

Yeah, that sounds like a full faith and credit clause issue to me . . .

[anatess2]

3 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Yeah, that sounds like a full faith and credit clause issue to me . . .

Dunno what this is but yeah, that's what they told me as to why they moved to New Jersey and I had to drive there if I wanted to attend the wedding.

P.S. This was back in 1992.

P.P.S.  This was also the same in Florida about gay marriage - they don't recognize gay marriage as legal even when legal in the state it was performed.  But then the SCOTUS sat on that law.

Edited March 14, 2018 by anatess2

[Vort]

3 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Yeah, that sounds like a full faith and credit clause issue to me . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause

Quote

Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, known as the "Full Faith and Credit Clause", addresses the duties that states within the United States have to respect the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state."

 

[anatess2]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause

 

So how is DOMA legal?

[Guest]

Quote

Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, known as the "Full Faith and Credit Clause", addresses the duties that states within the United States have to respect the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state."

Yes, but there is a loophole.  I'm not an expert in marriages. But I do know about Engineering licenses.  And there is some restriction that can be placed on licensees from other states.

If I got my license in Texas, I can apply for reciprocity in California.  But in CA the exam has three parts.  The first part is the same national exam that TX uses.  But I'd still have to pass the other two exams to get a license in CA.

I cold potentially lose my license due to malpractice in CA while maintaining it in TX due to differing laws regarding malpractice.  And in such a situation, CA does not need to recognize my license from TX.

For the marriage situation,I can see that they'd honor the "ceremony" part.  But if they did not satisfy the relationship clause, this could very well be cause to not recognize the marriage.  Gay marriage gets around it because of the political impetus behind it.  But cousin marriages -- or brother/sister marriages for that matter would not have such political motivation to support it.

[Vort]

30 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

So how is DOMA legal?

As of 2015, it is not.