I am certain some of you already knew the information in the title of this piece. I did not know until my spiritual journey during my 40s (I am now 57) led me to wonder why the religion of modern Mormonism did not match the religion of early Mormonism. It also did not match up with the theology of the Book of Mormon. Just to be clear I believe the Book of Mormon to be not just another witness of JESUS, but the best witness of Him. I do not believe the veracity of the book is a reason to join any version of the Mormon Church.
After figuring out the big ideas did not match up, I resigned my membership. I then accidentally discovered that the new names given before a Mormon goes through the temple for the first time are not random. So there must be roughly 365 names for men and the same number for women? Wrong again. Since 1974 the LDS church uses a simple card that has 31 numbers on it to match the days of the month, and this card has 31 female names and 31 males names. Talk about a bunch of lazy asses. There was ten year period of time from 1965 to 1974 that the church used roughly 350 names for each day of the year, minus the days they knew the temples would be closed. Less lazy, but still silly.
I am wondering if some temple worker who got the name card for the first time has ever put two and two together and walked right out of his or her local great and spacious building. If it has happened, the church would cover it up. If would make for an excellent clip on YouTube.
My wife's temple name of Huldah was been mothballed for obvious reasons, but it used to be given to women going through their first endowment on the 6th of any month. The church has added the names of Heber and Hyrum to their latest group of the "not so special, special 31." I would be honored to have Hyrum as a name, and ashamed to have Heber. There was a biblical Heber, but his claim to fame in the Book of Judges was that his wife was awesome, so maybe Heber would actually fit me. I am fairly certain that LDS Inc. picked Heber because of Heber C Kimball. Anything to semi-secretly perpetuate their misguided goals of eternal adultery.
When you met GOD again, He will give you whatever name you merit, and it will not be shared by anyone else he talked to that day. GOD is certainly a GOD of order, but He has not boiled down all the important names in world history to just 31. My wife is very grateful that no one is going to call her Huldah ever again.