High profile church leaders flew to Sweden in 2010 to try to answer difficult church history questions to Swedish Latter-day Saints. How did the meeting go? Hans Mattsson gives his impressions of the meeting.
Hans: First of all, it was a secret meeting. No one should know about it.
GT: Oh, it wasn’t public.
Hans: No. We had the New Area Authority Seventy Ingvar Olsson and he was inviting those that the bishops would [recommend] to have at the meeting, to straighten us out. I called him because I know him quite well. I said, “Hey, listen. I can help you. Because I knew all the people that you should have there.” He said, “No, I’ll go through the bishops and stake president.” We were there in the evening, a Sunday evening after everything was closed in the church. We were about 20 struggling, seeking-truth people. At the same time, they had also called bishops and stake presidents and some high councilmen and PR people from the Church. We were about 40-45 people, and also the Area President, Elder Kopischke came up from Germany. So there was quite strong leadership there. Elder Jensen went out and welcomed him and helped him. I said, “I’m glad to see you again. I hope you can give us some good answers.” They said, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here, Elder Mattsson. I’m glad, and you can help me.” I said, “Well, I only wanted to know the truth.” So, we started there. So anyway, we were into the meeting and Elder Jensen says, after we introduce ourselves, and told why we were there and who we are, Elder Jensen started the meeting by [drawing] on the whiteboard, making a line from top to bottom, divided in two sides. [On one side] was Jesus, God, and the Church. Another [side] was Satan and the world. He gave a lot of scriptures that proved that if you’re not in the Church, you’re in the world and in the hands of Lucifer. So, it was a very, very tough way to start with them. We felt like we were not here to discuss if we are Satan’s people, or if we are God’s people. We just wanted to know the truth. But it was very black and white then. After that, Elder Turley went up and we were asked what kind of questions we had, and they wrote it down, I think about 12 questions down. [The questions were about] the hat and stone, polygamy, polyandry. Do we believe in polygamy still? I can’t remember all the questions, but today [these questions] are very common. So, we really tried to ask questions, or discuss them, with them.
Find out what else went on during the meeting, and how it ended. Check out our conversation….
