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I have been a member of this site for a few weeks now so I guess I’d better introduce myself. I was raised by an inactive father and a non-member mother, I was also an ‘army brat’ I had no inkling of what a Mormon was until I was 10. My father was serving in Viet-nam and I was living in Fresno, Ca. when I was baptized. I went to church until the baptism then I stopped going.
When I was 12 I moved to Price, Ut. (my father’s hometown) My father was stationed in Germany at this time. I started going to all the church meetings, was ordained a deacon, teacher and went to mutual but I hated every minute of it. I was bullied in school and a lot of the bullies went to my ward and so I stopped going after a year or so.
When I was 14, my parents divorced and remarried, my mother to a lumberjack. so we all moved (thankfully, if there is a blot anywhere on this earth it is Price, Utah) I moved to Portland, Ore. but soon my joy turned to utter horror as my stepfather was a pretty abusive drunk. I wrote letters detailing what was going on to my father (still in Germany) and he decided to take me in. The only stipulation was that I attend Church. My father had remarried an inactive lady and even though they were both inactive at the time, they wanted to make a go of it (my stepmom wanted to be married in the temple) and so I went, I resisted going to church at first but soon grew to really enjoy it. I was the only teenager in the branch and my dad was the branch president so all the servicemen kind of took me under their wing in a very cool big brother sort of way and I grew to love everything about the church.
after I graduated from high school, I moved back to the states, back to Price, Ut, and bounced from one job to another, Price hadn’t changed that much and I soon moved to SLC. I lived in an apt. across the street from the LDS business college and soon got a job at the COB in the geneological library as a copy boy, and also I worked as an orderly at the LDS hosp. I had great freinds, went to a great singles ward, and things were pretty cool. My two best freinds went on missions and it was then I decided to go too. I got my call to the Australia Sydney mission and what should’ve been a situation where my testimony would grow became a nightmare to me.
My mission sucked. I was constantly being told I was going to hell because I was’nt the ‘fired up’ type of missionary the mission president wanted. I broke a few rules here and there but nothing major. I also got sick of knocking on doors day in and day out but I kept going because that is what was expected.
The straw that broke the camels back was when my mission President was disfellowshipped and sent home. apostle Monson came and told everyone that he was sent home and that it would be business as usual, I finished my mission but when I returned, I joined the Navy and stopped going.
My inactive period lasted for 27 years. I finally decided about 6 years ago that even though I was inactive I still had a testimony and so I went back to church. I had, at this point, been married and divorced twice. When I started going back to church I soon met a good mormon girl who happened to live here in australia and so I moved here and we got married.
It was about two years ago that the second faith questioning experience I had happened. I had read the book, A Gathering of Saints, about the Mark Hoffman murders. This was a touchy subject for me as one of his victims was a cousin of mine (I was even named after him) The thing that really got me was how the leadership of the Church was so bamboozled by this cretin, even more startling was how the Tanners could see this guy was a fraud and tried to warn the leadership of the Church. After this I started to look at all the exmo websites and really started to express some doubt and was close to throwing in the towel when I read the essay on why I should stay lds. I was so relieved wehn I realized there were so many people like me, and that I didn’t have to give it all up.
So there you have it. I am glad I am here and I hope to get to know all of you . hope to hear from you soon.
Life is an interesting ride, is it not? What an amazing journey you’ve had. Welcome, officially.
🙂 Interesting story. Yes, there are many of us… Welcome.
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Welcome! Welcome! I just got back from Australia. They got me hooked on Auzzie Rules football, then said Collingwood Magpies are like the Yankees, you either love them or hate them. I love the Yankees, and so I now like the Magpies. Glad you’re here!
G’day cobber. What a journey! Welcome! One thing I had to learn as a convert was to stop having unrealistic expectations of leadership and yes, even their discernment, in spite of how many other people want to hold on to those idealized expectations. It’s really not fair to ourselves or to them. I also learned to trust more in my own personal spiritual experiences and revelation. When you ended back up in Price, did you run into any of the bullies and did they apologize or acknowledge their bullying ways from the younger years? I always wonder if bullies grow up and realize at some point they are bullies. yankeedownunder wrote:When you ended back up in Price, did you run into any of the bullies and did they apologize or acknowledge their bullying ways from the younger years? I always wonder if bullies grow up and realize at some point they are bullies
I ran into a few of them. No apologies but they treated me ok too, no hard feelings etc…
sorry for the repeat, I’m new to this sort of thing, message boards and such.
No problem. I fixed it. 
afterall wrote:What a journey! Welcome! One thing I had to learn as a convert was to stop having unrealistic expectations of leadership and yes, even their discernment, in spite of how many other people want to hold on to those idealized expectations. It’s really not fair to ourselves or to them. I also learned to trust more in my own personal spiritual experiences and revelation.
Love this post above…love it
Glad you’re here! Quote:Collingwood Magpies are like the Yankees, you either love them or hate them. I love the Yankees, and so I now like the Magpies.
Actually, Collingwood are the club that Bogans are famous for following. They are famous for choking in championships. so much so that the term ‘collingwobbles’ was coined just for them. If any club is universally loved or hated it’s Carlton, they even have the same color scheme. so go Carlton.
Welcome. Yankeedownunder, a very interesting & detailed introduction. Thank you. Many of us can relate to your experiences.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts.
Welcome.
Mike from Milton.
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