Of course, living in Tennessee, I’ve heard both, but I never made the connection that it might be regional thing.

Ardis, I like this story. Thanks.

Thanks, Ray and Tatiana, for your recognition of the story.

You mean “goose bumps,” right? [grin]

I don’t want to threadjack this excellent post, but from what I know of the young man who was jailed recently, I have no doubt Elder Kjar is looking on with a smile on his face. I don’t doubt this good man is doing all he can to share the Gospel wherever he is, to whatever extent he can.

It was also reported over at T&S, that the missionary was preaching to a fellow inmate, and the fellow inmate was relocated as a result.

I was going to copy/paste Ray’s comment here, but I’ll leave that to Ardis.

Elder Kjar, and the Cincinnati elder, join a list of notables, including the Apostle Paul, the Prophet Joseph, and many ancient prophets and missionaries, who were imprisoned for, essentially, preaching the gospel, and thereby are given more opportunities to preach.

Steve, I don’t know of any followup to this, although, of course, once somebody is on my radar, I’ll recognize the connection if I ever run across one. Wouldn’t that be one of the best stories for someone to tell today when people compare notes about how their families joined the Church? “Well, my great-grandfather jailed a missionary/talked to a missionary through a prison wall/found some Mormon pamphlets under his pillow when he was sent to jail.”

Thank you, Hunter. As you so often do, you look deeper into the story than occurred to me. You have a way of lifting something out of the realm of “interesting anecdote” and raising it to the level of “gospel principle.”

Which brings me to the other point that stood out: Elder Kjar was obviously bold and unafraid, and his zealousness in sharing his witness and the literature is remarkable. But that one line about the co-prisoner really seems to get to the essence of who he was. After his two hour conversation, the woman prisoner said the expected and possibly obligatory response that she would be interested in learning more about the Church, yadda yadda. But then, she says something more, and it indicates that she must have had some sort of change of heart: “[S]he said it was her intention to . . . try and live a good life hereafter.” To me, the fact that the woman prisoner’s heart was softened during their conversation, and above and beyond his strong defense of doctrinal points, is evidence of Elder Kjar’s Christianity.

Thanks for this.