I just read an article on the church website that you can find here. In it, Primary General President Camille N. Johnson tells a story in which an anonymous temple worker who she does not know whispers something to her in the temple that only her dead father would have said. She takes it as a message from the Savior Jesus Christ, and/or “The Spirit” (which is, presumably, the Holy Ghost), but also from her dead dad, I think, through this temple worker.

While I am glad that Sister Johnson had what must have been a very comforting and spiritual experience, I can’t help but wonder about the logisitics of the whole thing. The way the story is written, it makes me feel like she and we are supposed to take it all to be an objectively true event, but to me it is most likely only subjectively true and a creation of her own mind, which in my opinion can still be special, helpful, and meaningful.

In order for this story to be true in objective reality, I guess her dad must have told Jesus something and then Jesus told The Holy Ghost and then the Holy Ghost told the temple worker, who then told Sister Johnson. Or maybe her dad told Jesus something and then Jesus skipped the Holy Ghost and told the temple worker directly, who then told Sister Johnson. Or maybe her dad told the Holy Ghost something and then the Holy Ghost skipped Jesus and told the temple worker directly, who then told Sister Johnson, but Jesus got the credit for it. Or maybe Jesus or the Holy Ghost came up with something on their own that only Sister Johnson’s dad would have known, and then one or both of them told the temple worker, who told Sister Johnson. The chain of custody on this spiritual message is a little confusing to me, but regardless of who told who what, one thing is for sure – her dead father had a message for her, so why didn’t he just tell her himself? Or, why didn’t Jesus or the Holy Ghost tell her directly instead of telling the temple worker to tell her?

There are lots of stories throughout Mormon history of people from the spirit world appearing to people in the temple – why not just have her dad appear to her in the temple and give her the message in person?

After all, I know someone who believes that her dead father appeared to her and told her the sex and hair color of her unborn child, so why would he get a hall pass to go do that but Sister Johnson’s father wouldn’t? If Sister Johnson’s dad had the time and ability to give Jesus or the Holy Ghost or both of them a message so one of them could tell the temple worker who then told Sister Johnson, then why didn’t he have the time and ability to just pop in to the temple and say hi to his daughter directly?