I thought the same thing about shallmenno (and its related “ellemenno” from the Alphabet song) and “round young virgin” just made sense to me for some reason — probably because I grew up thinking that a virgin was a pregnant woman, since that’s what Mary was. I also wondered why we shouted “yoo-hoo” unto Jesus (I think they changed the words of that hymn).

Not LDS-specific, but several funny ones from my wife: she was working at a finance company and wrote on a form “tax ride off” because she always thought it was a saying like taxes rode off into the sunset. She also thought people got off “scotch free” (without any sticky tape) and that we lived in a doggie-dog world (as opposed to dog-eat-dog).

By the way, Fen — maybe you already know this, but this is how John Johnson came up with the phrase “medialogical legends.” A grad student was talking to him about etiological legends in the media, and — well — you know John — he heard what he heard and he loved it.

Name:: Angela Cooper

Permission: Yes

Text:: My husband and I are the parents of four children, three sons and a daughter. Recently my five year old daughter was robustly singing “I Am A Child of God”. I listened admirably until she got to the verse “…has given me an earthly home with parents kind of dear…”

Name:: Gary Hale

Permission: Yes

Text:: My 2 year old son is way into the Thomas the Train series of videos.
Much to our suprise during October General Conference during the sustaining of the General Authorities, he pipes up and says Gordon! Thomas! James! All three are very popular trains and also the names of the First Presidency. Now when he prays to bless Gordon, Thomas, and James we just smile and are thankful for trains and prophets.

Name:: Reed Andrew

Permission: Yes

Text:: Years ago, teaching Old Testament in Gospel Doctrine class, I made reference to 2 Kings 19:35 and read the curiously-worded verse, “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early
in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” A hard-working and sleepy-eyed young father called out, “I know the feeling.”

Name:: Reed Andrew

Permission: Yes

Text:: I took two of my sons to Chichen-Itza in the Yucatan in the spring of 1980. As we explored the ruins I overheard friendly interpersonal family conversation among a nice-appearing young man and his wife and children. I thought, perhaps it’s an LDS family visiting Book of Mormon archeological sites. Not wanting to just begin humming “Come, Come, Ye Saints” or using some other little ploy, I asked the youngest of their children when his family had gone on a little way, “Do you know anything about the Nephites?” He looked at me in wonder and said he didn’t…but that they were going to see the bull fights. It amused us to consider what the youngster had imagined knee fights could be.

Name:: Kate

Permission: Yes

Text:: When my brother was little, he loved to say the family prayer. The problem was that he was also going through a “Peter Pan” phase. Almost every time he said the prayer, he would get mixed up and the end, and combine Jesus Christ with Jimminey Cricket. So his prayers would end, “Jimminey Christ, Amen.”

The others were just so darn cute. The Thomas Trains — I can just imagine my 3 1/2 year-old’s face light up if he made that connection.

There was a kid in my ward growing up who, instead of amen, used to say m&m. He knew what he was doing, though.

And after getting involved in the Young Adult program, I used to hear a lot of people say, “So and so is up at the Y.” I couldn’t quite figure out why Mormons spent so much time at the YMCA.