My eyes have been opened to the fact that the church is not true and that Joseph Smith is a false profit. Anyway, I submitted the letter to have my name removed from their records thanks to the template on Mormon No More. I got a letter from the records dept dated March 15th, but it said this is a matter that must be handled by the bishop.

Despite the no contact demand in my letter, members have stopped by my apartment 2 times. I didn't answer the door. Then the bishop called. I didn't recognize the number. I usually don't answer the phone when that happens. Anyway, he said he wanted to talk to me, and I just said no it's no a good time and hung up. I should have said, "What part of no contact did you not understand?"

I just want them to take my name out of their records and send me confirmation this has been done. I have a bad feeling the bishop is going to ignore my request and try to use my mom to get me to change my mind because she's a member too. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

The response that you received from Membership Records is the standard reply. You do NOT need to talk to the bishop. But one option if he calls again would be to simply state that yes, you want to resign, and that he should go ahead and process the paperwork with all due speed.

If you haven't received your final "out" letter within 60 days of receipt of your resignation by Member Records, contact that department. They will complete the process even if the bishop chooses not to.

And by the way, it was not a "request." You TOLD them you were out. And the minute they opened the letter and read that...you were. You are already out. :)

I could not let it go that I got the round around when I sent my resignation letter. Last week, I got fed up and sent a letter, along with a copy of my original letter and a copy of their reply, threatening to sue the church if I didn't get confirmation that my name has been removed within 30 days. I got confirmation that my name was removed this week. SUCCESS!

Good to hear. Congratulations!

"I have resigned from your church and I want you to remind the bishop to please process my paperwork. Can I expect my final letter within two weeks or do I need to contact a lawyer?"

Anything similar to the above message will do. Or you can simply give it more time and hope they will process your resignation sooner rather than later.

Good luck.

I had sent a letter to the local bishop and had no action for a couple of months. I then called the Church HQ member department and inquired about my request. I told them I had sent a letter to the bishop. About a week later I received my official "if you want to come back letter." It may have been a coincidence, but I feel that HQ contacted the locals and they finally processed.

(This was 10+ years ago.)

Email a copy of the resignation letter. Say you have been harrassed by the local membership contrary to expressly written request.

Any further action or delay in your resignation will result in legal recourse.

You'll be out in no-time.

The con-game at work again.

The cult thrives on dishonesty and cunning, conning behavior.

It expects and demands that people respond quickly and bow down when a bishop or a stake president calls. Just ignore the bishop's call. The call to you is rude in the first place - do not feel that you are being rude in not responding.

Email method for resignation (updated Feb. 2012)

"Many people have reported that they have been able to resign via e-mail directly to Membership Records. If so, this greatly simplifies the resignation process. Your e-mail should include identifying information and a mailing address for the confirmation letter. The following is a suggested form (omit the bracketed material if you do not have it available):

To: Confidential Records: msr-confrec@ldschurch.org
Subject: Resignation of membership in LDS church

My full name is ______; my date of birth is ____________ . [I was baptized on ___(date). My membership number is ______.]
My residence address is _______ [in the ________ ward/branch].

I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, effective immediately, and request you to remove my name permanently from your membership records. I wish no further contact from representatives of your church except to confirm that my name has been removed from your records. I expect to receive that confirmation within a reasonably short time.

*****
Once you send it, you ARE legally OUT. You are not ASKING them for a damn thing, you are telling them.

Thanks for the replies. I wish I never got involved with that wicked church. I know I know. The church has a lot of good people, but that doesn't change the fact that any works based salvation doctrine is false and evil because it sets people up for failure. Salvation is by grace through faith, NOT OF WORKS! Accept Jesus Christ as your savior and be happy in the knowledge that once you are saved, you are saved for the rest of your life! Salvation is not a process. It's done 1 time and you are secured as a child of god forever. The Mormon church can go to hell! Jesus Christ is my savior not any 1 church!

OK, I'll step off my soapbox now.

I could not let it go that I got the round around when I sent my resignation letter. Last week, I got fed up and sent a letter, along with a copy of my original letter and a copy of their reply, threatening to sue the church if I didn't get confirmation that my name has been removed within 30 days. I got confirmation that my name was removed this week. SUCCESS!

Sounds all too familiar. On Feb, 20th 2016 I emailed the above form email to these assholes in membership records. No response. After a week and half later sent another email, less freindly, Even included a copy of my orig Email. Same result. I Called again a week later and some dumbshit said it wasnt official because it wasn't "Notorized" and how do they know I am serious or who I say I am, no dumbass I am giving you all this info and dates about my Baptism at eight years and my other info just for fun. couple weeks later I sent again by email with mention of legal action if no results. so after 3 emails, and four calls now, one today, I get the word that by the end of April, I will get my wish. And people get upset when I call TSCC the Cult of personality? It really is a crapshoot how it will go. I guess with thousands of resignations a month, they have to try to make it tough, maybe a few will give up. Not many, but maybe a few if they drag there heels deep enough.

I did it in November via email.
I just put my name in and my ward. I also told
them that if this took longer than two weeks I would
email them once a week until I recieved my resignation.
I got it back in two weeks.

What susan says is very true. once you send in your
resignation you are out regardless of how long they
drag their feet about it.

You are not a slave you are a human being that is leaving the church. They have no right to stop you.

Don't let them bully you. Its illegal.

Oh it gets better. The missionaries called yesterday. I just said I'm no longer a member of the church, hung up, and then blocked the number they called from. I also decided to tell my mom I left the church. I tried warning her that the church is not true and that Joseph Smith is a false profit. Fortunately, she took the news better than I thought she would. She said it's my choice what religion I belong to. I doubt she will ever leave the church, but at least I tried to warn her.

I have my doubts about this being over. It's possible she played it cool to make me let my guard down and eventually she will try to get me to come back. I also anticipate that members of the church will try to pressure her to get me to come back. I hate the Mormon church. If I don't get confirmation that my name has been removed by next month, I will send another letter to member records this time threatening legal action.

Upset & Leaving Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just said I'm no longer a member of
> the church, hung up, and then blocked the number
> they called from.

I think exmos should consider adopting the phrase "I'm not mormon". It's just as true and twice as strong.

Once you send the letter, you are out of the church. They have no right to deny your request because you have Freedom of Association and Freedom of Religion. Their letter is just to acknowledge that they have adjusted their records.

Your name is not removed; they merely update your records to say that you have left. The old terminology was voluntarily excommunicated. The name has changed but the procedure is the same.

axeldc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Once you send the letter, you are out of the church.

Ok. I guess I just wanted to satisfaction of them acknowledging that I am gone. I may never get that. Oh well. God knows I left a church that teaches works based salvation. In the end that's what's important. Time to move on with my life. Goodbye, Mormon church! Thanks for help, everyone!

Ignore them. You are no longer a member when they received your email. You are done done done!

They are not sitting on your request unless it has been over 60 days since they received your resignation. It can take up to that long before a court is going to agree that they are taking an unreasonably long time to process your resignation. Lots of things, such as product rebates, typically take 6 to 8 weeks to process.

As for the bishop contacting you, he has a right to do that. You have a right to ignore him if you wish. The least aggravating solution IMHO is to pick up the phone when he calls, tell him you resigned and to send in his paperwork, and hang up. Should take about 15 seconds, and you probably won't hear from him again.

If you prefer, you can just ignore the calls or visits. You may get multiple calls in that case, which I would find very irritating. That's why I would just answer the phone and tell him to get on with it.

In any case, you should have your final letter within 60 days, often less.

If you don't have it within 60 days, call member records and ask what the holdup is. If they don't get it to you in very short order (a few days) after calling, THEN they are sitting on your request and legal action is warranted.

Member records is pretty efficient but local wards are not. I did my resignation entirely through Member records in Salt Lake City because I did not have a resident address where they could contact me and no phone number. I just had a Post Office Box.

Just contact Member Records and let them know you are getting the run around by local leadership. They will call or contact your local leaders and put a fire under them. You'll get your letter that you are no longer a member but you are officially out as long as you have proof they received your resignation letter. Your proof is that they are contacting you about it. Just tell them, if they keep contacting you, that you are out and why are they dragging their feet with the acknowledgement letter? That's the least they can do for you and tell them that.

There were about 58,000 resignations in 2015. I chose to cut them some slack in SLC last year. I was lucky enough not to get local people involved, though. Mine took 45 days.

If you had read some more, you might have seen that this is a boiler plate response they send to everyone as a perceived legal matter. But the truth is, as soon as they received you letter, you were legally out of the church.

PS: Do not use or say the terms, "have my name removed," or "having one's name removed," or "name removal." The correct term is "resign my membership," or--if you're pressed for time--"resign."