I'm the first to admit that I can be a smart aleck and perhaps overly critical of church leadership. That said, they have a hard job to do and I wouldn't trade places with them for the world. So, in honor of General Conference weekend, I'd like to open up a thread to catalog your positive experiences with General Authorities. No bitching and moaning about the time your cousin got stiffed when he delivered all those pizzas to Paul H. Dunn's house. I'm more interested in those little stories that are illuminating and positive. I realize that there are probably lots of stories scattered all over the site, but this could be a place to gather or retell them.
Let's not obsess over whether something sounds like a humblebrag or not.
My own stories about encounters with GAs are pretty limited. I do remember meeting Elder Kikuchi once in the hallway of a church building. For some reason, it was just me, and the soon-to-be Mrs. Harry Tic, and him. Nobody else around. We ran into him at the drinking fountain and, as he bent down to get a drink of water, he winked at me and asked, "So, did you ask her to marry you yet?" That stopped me dead in my tracks, since we were in Future-Mrs. Harry Tic's hometown and we had only gone there so I could ask her to marry me, which I had intended to do later that evening. It was both a delightful and unnerving experience.
I did once have a non-trivial, albeit brief, conversation about R-rated movies with President Eyring. He told me that he is sometimes surprised at the capacity of his brethren to find things of value in things that he would not have chosen to see himself. It was interesting to hear him confirm that members of the Q12 have their own different standards and that they obviously respected each others' differing views.
Mrs. Harry Tic thinks the world of both Pres. Faust and Pres. Hunter. Once when she was a YW, she was a little bit upset about having to work in the nursery so that all the adults could go hear Pres Faust speak (this was back in the day when they had nurseries at the adult sessions of stake conference, I guess). She was right at the age when she really wanted to hear a GA speak. Anyway, as soon as he was done speaking, he made his way back to the nursery to visit with all the unsung and frazzled heroes and thank them. It really caught her off guard but it was immensely touching.
Same kind of story with Pres. Hunter. She ended up serving him a meal when he was visiting the Jerusalem Center, along with some other visiting church leaders and other dignitaries. Quite a few of them seemed to regard the serving staff as pretty much furniture, which is probably par for the course in settings like that. But President Hunter went out of his way to thank the students who were serving and visit with them. It really sent her over the moon when he gently held her hand and told her how much he appreciated her.
Let's not obsess over whether something sounds like a humblebrag or not.
My own stories about encounters with GAs are pretty limited. I do remember meeting Elder Kikuchi once in the hallway of a church building. For some reason, it was just me, and the soon-to-be Mrs. Harry Tic, and him. Nobody else around. We ran into him at the drinking fountain and, as he bent down to get a drink of water, he winked at me and asked, "So, did you ask her to marry you yet?" That stopped me dead in my tracks, since we were in Future-Mrs. Harry Tic's hometown and we had only gone there so I could ask her to marry me, which I had intended to do later that evening. It was both a delightful and unnerving experience.
I did once have a non-trivial, albeit brief, conversation about R-rated movies with President Eyring. He told me that he is sometimes surprised at the capacity of his brethren to find things of value in things that he would not have chosen to see himself. It was interesting to hear him confirm that members of the Q12 have their own different standards and that they obviously respected each others' differing views.
Mrs. Harry Tic thinks the world of both Pres. Faust and Pres. Hunter. Once when she was a YW, she was a little bit upset about having to work in the nursery so that all the adults could go hear Pres Faust speak (this was back in the day when they had nurseries at the adult sessions of stake conference, I guess). She was right at the age when she really wanted to hear a GA speak. Anyway, as soon as he was done speaking, he made his way back to the nursery to visit with all the unsung and frazzled heroes and thank them. It really caught her off guard but it was immensely touching.
Same kind of story with Pres. Hunter. She ended up serving him a meal when he was visiting the Jerusalem Center, along with some other visiting church leaders and other dignitaries. Quite a few of them seemed to regard the serving staff as pretty much furniture, which is probably par for the course in settings like that. But President Hunter went out of his way to thank the students who were serving and visit with them. It really sent her over the moon when he gently held her hand and told her how much he appreciated her.
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