I was born into this psychotic cult, oh I'm sorry, I mean RELIGION!!! HA! Somehow though, I was lucky enough to know from a very early age, say about 5 years old, that this whole thing was a bunch of bull, and I vowed to myself I would leave before I turned 18. There was no way I was going to get stuck in Relief Society for the rest of my life. All those old women were just too serious, and too crazy.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2014 05:24AM by germanyonmymind.
My dad was overseas and my mom made friends with my brothers coach who was LDS (jackmo, but still made the impression how "awesome" the church was). I guess my mom was seeking, my dad wasn't and my siblings and I weren't even thinking about religion (we were young). So the missionaries became our babysitters (no literally, the male companions) and a constant in our home. My dad came home, took the discussions in a week (much pressure from my mom) and we were baptized at the end of that week. I recall having my pre-baptism interview with the missionaries and they asked me why I wanted to be baptized and I said, "Because my mom says we have to." I was 10.
It's kind of a long story. At the age of 13, I began attending the Baptist Church after a friend and I both had a dream about the Second Coming. We decided that we should start going to church and a classmate invited us to Bible study at her church.
About a year later, the Pastor stood up and started naming other churches, like the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church. I didn't even know what a Mormon was.
But he was saying things like, "Don't you pat them on the back and say, 'God bless you,' to those people." I was appalled. I left. The friend I'd begun attending with left a few months after I did, after she had a nightmare about the Baptists chasing her in black robes, trying to run her down with a lawnmower. LOL
About six weeks after that, my friend told me she had a secret. She said that she'd been having discussions with the Mormon missionaries and she felt that I should come and listen too. I said, "Don't you remember the Pastor telling us that they're a cult?"
She said, "No, no. It's nothing like that. It's just a church and the people are really nice. You should come with me."
The first time the missionaries told me about the First Vision, I remember that I raised an eyebrow and went, "Oh, yeah?" I thought it was crazy.
However, I was a very shy kid who was bullied in school daily. The Mormon kids didn't bully me. I was finally part of a social group, where the kids had the same sort of morals that I had. I was never taught those morals. I just seem to have been born with them. It was like I was born to be Mormon.
It still took a year and a half and about five sets of missionaries to finally get me into that font, but that was the beginning of a 30-year struggle to find a true testimony - one which went beyond just hoping.
After 30 years, I realized that I never did have a true testimony. What I had was a hope.
At the time the missionaries showed up, my friend and I had thought that it was God guiding us to where we should be. It turns out that her family were long-time inactive Mormons. So when she'd left the Baptist Church, her mother had called the missionaries and told them that her daughter needed some religious guidance.
Born into it. However at a young age realized I didn't belong, or want any part of the mormons. I went along to get along. Had good understanding parents. A week after graduating high school, left town. bailed out of the mormons as soon as I hit Salt Lake City.
One of my parents was an alcaholic. The other parent was addicted to both drugs and alcahol. The whole thing about no drug or alcahol use by anyone sounded pretty good to me at the time. Little did I know the church trades one addiction for another.
I was a "Basketbal convert" at 17. The church actualy had a program back in the 60's and early 70's to attract kids into church with baseball and basketbal. I was fellowshiped by kids my age, especialy girls... and was baptizewith my parents concent or approval. I had no idea what I was really doing or what the LDS church relieved or taught. i wasn't even given all the 6 standard lessons before baptizm back then. That happend a lot back in those days
I had my parents' consent. They were concerned, because they didn't know much about the Church. But they were just so happy that I'd become involved with a group of good kids, so they consented. They even attended my baptism and gave me a charm bracelet, with a little praying hands charm as a baptism gift.
Stupid great great grandparents that probably never even read the BOM. Each generation having been brainwashed and told not to dare question our ancestors hardships and to believe because I told you its true, now finally now its my turn and I can finally say its all make believe, JS made it all up, Now my quest is to find that long ago ancestors grave and crap on it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2014 11:47AM by dirtbikr.
Pity those ancestors. They were probably really good yet gullible people and they didn't have readily available info that we have. If you want to crap on graves JS and Brigham would be more deserving.
Really nice people welcomed me and gave me a group to belong to. I loved the idea that god spoke to a modern prophet. I still (mostly) respect the members but I can't stand the doctrine.