As I was just arriving at conference myself, I immediately noticed these energetic young men, and actually asked them if I could take their picture and share it; they were happy to oblige!
Being the social media enthusiast than I am, I posted the picture on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, immediately! A lot of us were pulling for these guys, hoping that someone would come along and give them an extra ticket or two.
I mean, look at them!!!
Since then, not just one or two of you, but many of you have asked about them -- wondering if I ever heard if those cute Brazilian boys got a golden ticket? And frankly, I'd actually wondered myself....
Strangely, these two cutie-patooties had captured our hearts! I realized this fairly quickly, because as I was listening to President Monson announce the new temple to be built in Rio de Janeiro, my mind soon thought about those boys and how much I hoped that some angel of mercy had answered their fervent prayers, and that they were able to be inside the Conference Center for that historic announcement. What a tender mercy that would be! Right?
I then thought how fun it would be to later run into them and get to hear the exciting followup story, and get to tell you all about it -- oh the tears of joy!
Ah, but no! Instead, it seems as though I may very well have been majorly set-up! That's right. And you along with me. Uh huh. I, being the naive, fairly new conference attendee from SoCal, may very well have fallen for a conference-ticket-beggar-SCAM-artist! And a very proud one, or two... at that!
Here's how the heist (alleged) went down...
I then responded to confirm that indeed it was 'he' and asked if 'they' got tickets?
He replied: that 'they' indeed did! And not only that, but that they got THREE tickets for ALL sessions!
Me: I thought WOW! There has got to be some AMAZING story that I must find out! And so I asked him if I could 'friend' him on Facebook to obtain the entire story? And he agreed. Whoopee!
Next: We took it to private FB inbox messaging and this is what I found out... (posted with permission)
- Conversation started Wednesday
Douglas
Hi Kathryn, thanks again for the posting.
Are you related with elder Skaggs that served mission in Brazil?
Kathryn Skaggs
Hey Douglas,
I'm Kathryn, I'm the one who took the picture of you guys and the blogger on A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman Facebook Page who posted the picture!Where did you see the picture? I have lots of questions about how you got your ticket... who from? I'd love to know more about you guys?Were you excited to hear about the new temple in Brazil?Anyway, since I'm a blogger and all my followers were so interested in your story I'd love to tell them you got tickets and anything else you guys would like to share about yourselves.Kathryn- Kathryn Skaggs
Ha ha! We must have been writing at the same time! lolI have bunch of nephews. Maybe? First name? - Douglas
Dan - Kathryn Skaggs
Yup! That's my nephew! How do you know him? - Douglas
We served Santa Maria mission together in 2005 - Kathryn Skaggs
Oh cool! I see that you are friends here on FB.Small world!So how in the world did you score three ticket to all sessions of conference? Who found you and did that? - Douglas
Well...lets start like this... - Kathryn Skaggs
? - Douglas
Since three of us Victor, Alessandro and I leave here in the US for a few years, we were not able to get ticket with our passaport. Then we decided to ask for tickets, but we didn't want to be like everyone else [with one simple piece of paper], so we exaggerated a little. Actually, we spent a few hours preparing the signs. After a huge brainstorm, we decided on those signs. Some of those included: "Mr Booggieman ate my ticket''. "Aliens seeking tickets" "3% OFF on your tithing for a tickets" and so on... - Douglas
... - Kathryn Skaggs
lol - Douglas
Probably 15 min after we were standing in the crowd next to the police and anti-Mormons, this beautiful blond woman came to me and gave us three tickets [of course I gave her a hug]. Since we had time, we stood there just for fun, when out of nowhere, another blond [Brazilian] gave us 2 tickets for the afternoon session. From there and on, we got one by one. Oh I can't forget to mention that I run into this elder from my previous ward back in Oregon [I was his scout leader], and he had an extra tickets as well. We had so much fun standing there asking for tickets. We felt the spirit and were very happy because we were in the same room as the prophet. When the Rio de Janeiro temple was announced, the started to high five each other - it was kind of fun. Best of all, with some of those tickets, we got plaza. And with a little bit of Brazilian way, we sit just a few rolls in front of the prophet - we didn't even had to watch the conference through the screen. As a result of our fun and 'accomplishment', we will repeat it next conference...with a little bit more salt and pepper. - Douglas
Oh Alessandro had your picture in his timeline - Kathryn Skaggs
What a wonderful story.
Now tell me... what do you mean when you say, "a little bit of Brazilian way"? and "a little more salt and pepper"? - Douglas
It's confidential.just kidding...Well, since we were in the plaza and there was some sits available in the front, we sit there. Alessandro and I were joking about going dressed as the pioneers or like captain Moroni... just a thought. - Kathryn Skaggs
Ha ha! You guys sound like a fun bunch of characters! I knew it when I saw you and that's why I stopped to take your picture!
Well, I don't know if we were all scammed or not (Because Doug and his buddies are just way too fun, and cute, to be scam artists -- right? Who knows, really, perhaps I'm being scammed again, right NOW, and they just want their 10 minutes of fame on my blog and indeed they never even got tickets at all!), but I'll be more skeptical when I see cute young Brazilian young men, with clever signage hanging out on the corner; trying to get tickets for General Conference next time around. NOT going to fall for it!
But Douglas, if you see me up at General Conference in six months... let's just say... you don't want to see me on that corner in six months...
tDMg
Why Prophets to Proclaim TRUTH? If NOT a People Willing to Obey?
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