I just want to do an Aussie shout out, to see if there are many new Aussies about RFM. I know there is Me and I have noticed more recently.
I know what it’s like coming out of Mormonism in a place that really doesn’t think its that big of a deal. Non-members dont get it at all because religion is pretty much a non-issue over here, but Aussie exmormons often lose a life time of friends and are pretty unsure what to do socially outside of the mo.
In recent weeks I have found a great family I grew up with on RFM and hope to catch up soon. Soooo how many more are lurking around?
I’m in Melbourne, anyone else out there in the land of OZ?? Let’s have fun having a laugh about our uniquely Aussie experiences! My email is ivawillow@hotmail.com if you don’t feel comfortable outing yourself on here! Im thinking of starting a Private facebook group for us, invite only, to help people keep on the down low :D

Just bumping up as I posted this 2am aussie time last night... not smart if I was trying to reach my target audience!

I had a couple of college mates that served their missions in Australia in the late 60's.....any chance they converted someone you know? They were both from Idaho....and they were brothers in law.

Ron Burr

erm kiwi here :)

I'm an Aussie! And I agree it is hard when you start to loose your TBM friends and people in the real world have no idea what you are going through, especially when most people don't know what are Mormon is.

Livin' the dream, Sydney style.

Me too! Live in SA. From NZ and now proud Aussie citizen since 2001.Love, love, love Australia. I posted my story recently (The church is the same wherever you go) so probably don't need to say too much here about my Aussie/Kiwi experiences that I haven't already written there.

One thing I can add though that still cracks me up, is that I genuinely believed my experiences in TSCC were unique to NZ/Aus and that the church would NEVER accept that sort of behaviour in the US. It was only coming to RfM that I realised my experience was very much mirrored in the States and I honestly couldn't believe it.

Maze I actually find your remark about how you thought your experiences were unique in aus/nz until you came here rather rude. Maybe for you, yes, but for me no. I have been reading this board for 10years, and I don’t feel that way, good for you that you do, but I don’t. Others maybe feel the same way as I do, and they are the people that I am reaching out to. I don’t like your dismissive attitude towards the way I feel. And to be perfectly honest I actually don’t feel that the Aussie and NZ experience is the same either, that I won’t go into here. But the foundations and religious history of the two countries is very different and so is the attitude towards religion. The church maybe the same everywhere, but the context to one’s experience maybe very different because of where its lived and where you exit.

I'm in SEQLD. It's difficult to connect over such huge distances. Perth is twice as far away than NZ.

It seems like people here who no longer believe just stop going without much thought. I think I ended up hating the cult and doing more research into it because of the way it made me hate myself for being gay.

Now I want to expose this cult for the lie it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2012 12:41AM by ozpoof.

Hi - Melbourne, eastern suburbs heading out towards Mt Dandenong and pretty close to Wantirna (Melbourne temple).

I think I can see your house house from where I am.

Cheers!!

I'm in Adelaide, originally from Alberta (Utah-of-the-north)

We have an ex-mo Facebook group of 10, mostly from the same stake and we get together regularly to speak ill of the Lord's self-annointed and drink Pay Lay Ale.

Howdy!.....where in Alberta are you from?

Ron Burr

Oz woz, NZ iz!

i remember when we had a temple and Oz didn't. All the lame "reasons" why, when it was really because our population was so much more gullible and vulnerable to flattery. In the Pacific, being a Lamanite is cool. That loathsome stuff goes right over every head. I say that as the daughter of a Lamanite.

Nobody would ever have said "there are no temples in Australia because there are not enough punters to fund it". No. We got told the Oz federal govt demanded free access to temples and denied freedom of religion.

Hi Larry… Im a girl :D I used to be pretty good mates with some Perth ppl well known Italian family from over there…
Hi Roxy! You can pretend to be Aussie if you like… haha. I actually have an Auswi child. ½ wellingtonite :D
Hi free! It was actually your posts that prompted me to start this post, so good to have you out. Say hi to mystymemories if you see her on here, she followed her husband out 18moths ago, she is from down south.

Hey anti, nightmare or dream in syd mate?? yeah melb is better blah blah blah haha. But go Swannies for the ALF grand final :D

Maxxed I think we have talked b4….Im in Port Melb at the moment, but grew up in whats now braeside… do we know eachother?? Im 36…
Canuck, can you add me to your group? Email is ivawillow@hotmail.com, you should be able to find me on FB by that!



I think Ozpoof kind of nailed it on the head with one of the feelings I have about the church. Most people go inactive, don’t really believe and just get on with life; it’s pretty accepted over here. They are inactive members, not exmormons. I’m pissed off, I actively dislike the bullshit. I have some friends I grew up with that are like that, live normal lives, but if you bring up the church with them they don’t want to say it’s not true, they don’t want me to 'bad mouth' the church...'specially at the pub after a few drinks, it’s not pretty...
I guess one reason for this is because I got married at 18 in the temple. So my commitment to the mo was much greater than theirs and has forever changed the course of my life, as I had a baby 10 months after marriage, like I was counselled to. I had been inactive as a teenager moved out of home at 15, did some pretty crazy stuff. At 17 1/2 I moved home and felt all my problems would be solved through the church, as that’s what I was counselled by my mother and all the people i had respected when I was growing up. I was married a 25yr old RM less than a year later, he asked me out on our first date for my 18th birthday…nice.
I had never even thought about having kids, I never was one of those molly girls who fawned over babies.
I was counselled over and over to be preg straight away. I was the toast of the ward. It ruined my body in a way I can never fix. I love my son, but its been 16 years of battles with myself and my ex-husband. I'm pissed off. I’m smart; I didn’t know that really, I get High Distinctions at Uni. I know I would have been a totally different person from the one that sits here today if I had not gone down that path.
I have huge gaps in my social history, small things that remind me of those horrible years. Listening to pub bands, I don’t know years of the classics, because I didn’t hear them. I didn’t do the gap year

Hi Mon

I've been Maroondah Stake pretty much the whole time but was in the old Fairfield Stake a little while. I've got 12 years on you so our paths may have just crossed in YSA. Have your email though now. It's not really known I'm anything other than inactive at the moment.

Best wishes

Hello from Victoria, Australia. I've lived in every Eastern state. My wife and four kids are all out of the church. My parents joined in the 1950s..

not from aussie but when i was a teenager i thought of moving there. visited oz and nz for the rugby season though.

can't wait to go back next year to enjoy the beer, meat pies, and some footie with the boys!

Hey DJ

It's the pointy end of the footy season now. You can be down here for the finals next weekend. Tonight in prelim finals it's Melbourne Storm playing Manly sea eagles in rugby league and Collingwood (melbourne team you either love or hate) playing Sydney.

And the beer is back up to 4.9% alcohol content! VB I think it was dropped the content to cut tax (but kept the price up) and it was a dismal failure so they've apologised and upped the alcoholic content. I'm a bit vague on this one - have been a non-participatory member for a number of years and still have not had a drink.

Anyway, you'll probably have to get a slab and watch this all on ESPN

Many, many fond memories of Adelaide! Lived there for a couple of years when I was 19-21 ... joined the LDS church there in fact ... left just as the stake was being created in Adelaide [1965?] to attend the temple in NZ. Marion and Prospect Branches while I lived in S.A.

Once I went to the temple, it was all downhill from there! Back in Canada ... convinced atheist ExMo!

Apikoros, I think I know you.Are your initials HLT??????

served my mission in sydney 1979-1981. I currenly live in Brisbane and have lived in australia the last 5 years (originally from Portland Ore)

Brisbane here. I used to haunt this site when I first discovered it about 17 years ago, it was like joining the church; I'd found a home. Was pretty active on the site for about 5-6years. Now I just browse from time to time. The issues remain the same so it gets a bit tiresome for oldies but never for the newbies who make their own discoveries about the church. Going to an LDS funeral on Monday. An old 'friend' whose husband was my best friend but he told me that under the circumstances we could no longer be friends when I came out and was exec 30 years ago. They mentored me in my early years and I eventually served on 2 Bishoprics with him and on the Stake High Council. But the years dim the memory and we had a nice chat on the phone yesterday when I rang to offer my condolences; he said he was looking forward to seeing me again.
The passing of time does ease the anger and I love running into LDS people I know but I'm still pretty pissed over what they did to me and my family and I don't regret one second of my time out or coming out. Best thing I've ever done.