With all the talk of resigning I was wondering if anyone delivered their letter in person? I thought about it but eventually mailed mine.The cost of three stamps was worth it!
Ours were hand delivered, five seperate letters for five adults in our family. We wanted to be sure they were received, so my husband went along after SM and handed them to the bishop. As there is no letter box at the chapel building and the bishop had moved house three times in four years we felt it was the surest way of knowing he had received them.
You could have done it by email to Greg Dodge, Dan...saving the cost of postage. Not saying you will not hear from a bishop. Some do, some don't. Wording about no further contact does not matter to the lower, volunteer neighbor...known as a Mormon bishop. Basically, taking it to the COB would only be handing it to a greeter or possible volunteer. You could have hand delivered it to that volunteer I mentioned above (bishop). No matter how you quit, you quit when you decide, not how long they take to process their internal business.
When my wife and I resigned, we hand delivered a copy to the bishop right before church started one Sunday. We walked to the front of the chapel where the bishop was sitting, handed him a copy of the letter, and let him know we were resigning. My wife gave him a hug (he was sortof stiff and awkward about it). Then we left, and dropped a copy of our letter off at the post office.
My wife had previously met with the bishop a number of times over the course of her developing disaffection, so in person made sense for us.
he'd also been our neighbor for four years after all and pretty much left us alone when we'd stopped attending. So I just showed up a little before church started, knowing he'd be in the office, and handed the letter to him, chit chatted for a few minutes and said goodbye.
My Wife and I hand delivered our resignation to the Bishop right after our last SM. We went up to him on the stand shook hands and told him we had a resignation for him. He teared up told us he wished we would chande our minds but that he understood it was our choice and there was nothing he could do about it. We shook hands and exchanged final pleasentries and left the building. The CCs had been sent to the SP and COB the previous day via certified mail with signature required for delivery.
The bishop was a good guy. A few years before we had a frank discussion with him, and he left us alone after that. We were getting ready to move, and wanted to get the resignation done before we left. I called his house, his wife said he was not in, and he would call back. An hour or two later the doorbell rang, and the bishop was there. He came in, we talked for a little bit, and I handed him the letter. He said he'd heard we were moving and thought that resigning was why we wanted to see him. Less than three weeks later we had the Greg Dodge letter.
The bishop's wife and a few others even threw us a going away party and invited most of the neighborhood. They were good people.
I sent our resignation letter via certified mail, return receipt required. When I got the signed receipt in the mail a few days later--I knew I was free! Legally, your relationship with TSCC is severed when the COB Membership Dept receives your letter.
After that, TSCC put us through the torture of a couple of bishops interviews (at our house) to try to convince us that "Joseph Smith was one of the most wonderful human beings who ever lived" and that the church is true.
We didn't receive our confirmation of resignation letter for about 9 months. I had to call Greg Dodge twice, and the last time, I threatened to go public with our stories of abuse, and to sue TSCC for damages.
The knowledge that we were not longer members, and that the Mormons HAD NO POWER OVER US helped us withstand the threats and nastiness. If we had known how nasty Mormons could be, we would have left sooner!
I hand-delivered mine because I knew they would just send the bishop to my place anyway. Might as well play their little game and get it done faster. I audio-recorded it as well, for "legal purposes."