Heavenly Father instead of The Heavenly Father, for an example.

Now, there is use of 'our God' & 'your God', also. The missionaries I've met also say things like 'bishop says' instead of 'the bishop says'.

Seems to me like there is a significance here. What is it?

Jim C.

Mormonism does have some peculiar speech patters that have developed because of the hundred years of near isolation the Saints experience in Utah from 1850 until 1950.

Heavenly Father doesn't strike me as particularly odd, but that is probably because I was a Mormon for ten years and used that construction. I have heard Christians do the same thing with "Holy Spirit" ("Holy Spirit showed me...").

Some of the most common "Utah diction oddities" are to substitute the sound of "ar" for "or," as in "a fark in the road" and "the stores in the sky." I also hear, "sell" for "sale" (they are having a sell at J. C. Pennys). They also sometimes use an odd sound of double "o," making "food" sound more like "foood."

I am posting this on my site and I hope others will contribute examples. Maybe it will grow into its own page.