An Israeli Mormon asks Holland a question
 

I thought this was entertaining:

I'm not sure I followed that. The question was how do I follow prophetic counsel to marry in the church when there are so few members here, I think. The answer was, there are lots of places where there are few members, for example my grandson is the only deacon in his ward, so we all just do the best we can?

I guess I don't know what else could have been said. If I'm the guy asking the question I go away thinking "well, he didn't tell me it was okay to marry outside the church, but he also told me to do the best I could. I guess that means I keep trying and if she is a non-member, so be it."

Did Holland say something like, "I said I wasn't going to take any personal questions"? How was it in any way a personal question?

He sounded like a politician dodging that question. It seems like I've heard counsel from authorities that in those situations marrying a gentile is acceptable, so I assumed that's what he'd say.

This was a Mormon in Israel. I don't think most of the women he associates with would appreciate being called a "Gentile."

That's a tough position to put a leader in. Advice is given to the membership as a whole. However, there are numerous situations where the advice doesn't apply. You don't like to publicly give an out for not following general advice. There is a fear if you give one person an out you are giving everyone the chance to consider their situation one of those out circumstances.

I know someone who married outside the church against a lot of advice not too. His wife is awesome and now an awesome member of the church. I am sure there are example where it didn't work out either. Heck there are probably some members who marry each other and it works and some where it doesn't.

I guess you should take the advice into consideration, but not worry too much you are automatically doomed if you don't take the advice.

And how could that possibly be a bad thing? Of what good is agency if even the consideration of alternatives is discouraged?

funny thing, I go to my youtube account and find out that my recent video from BYU Jerusalem center with Hollan was already linked somewhere. The guy who asked a question is me. SoonerCoug how did you find it at all? In tags section I just put Fireside, only in discription I wrote about BYU center in Jerusalem...
Well, UtahDan, you got it all right. The answer wasn't clear at all, basically things like: "hey theres a lot of situations like yours so just be strong..."
Marsupial, you're right, jewsih girls cannot be considered gentiles, they're the chosen ones of Heavenly FATHER as the rest of the jews.
ilmf, yes elder Holland asked no personal questions, mine wasn't personal since it's related to ALL israeli lds YSA age group and not directly to me. On the 22-nd we're going to have Christmas Fireside, all are invited! of course I'll upload some more videos from the BYU JC later on.
BYU71, nice avator looks sporty to me ;)

galapagos, how did you come to join the church? Was it as a student outside of Israel?

On my mission in the late 1980s we had one of the first Israeli (Palestinian descent) missionaries ever called and also couple of the first Lebanese elders (brothers who were professional tennis players) ever called.

http://www.cougarguard.com/forum/member.php?u=556

You look like a handsome guy. You should have no problem finding a nice secular Jewish girl.