Posted by:
mrx
(
)
Date: June 21, 2016 01:08AM
Went to church Sunday for sac meeting only. Exmormon and total nonbeliever since 2002. Wife is Primary President and from dedicated Utah Mormon family. 10-yr old son in primary.
At 11:01 the counselor started meeting (bishop out of town). Attendance at that time 44 people (many were children). The priesthood guys had not yet started the sacrament prep. I was told that most of the ward is late every single Sunday. It’s a full strength ward surrounded by other wards in the stake. Out of the hundreds on the list, a mere 44 are on time for the thing. Numerous people wandered in during announcements and opening hymn. When it was time for sacrament, they still didn’t have the water cups filled, so they delayed a bit and some still arriving.
SACRAMENT – not enough deacons, not enough priests. Old folks had to help bless and help pass. Too many inactives who simply don’t show up. This is a full-size ward! One deacon with “a bad attitude” untucked his white shirt, undid his tie so the knot was about a foot below neck and wore fancy tennis shoes. Nobody did anything, and the mom didn’t do anything. The Dad used to have some callings, but suddenly went totally inactive. Probably too much internet searches about Mormon history.
After Sacrament, a whole wave of people and families wandered in really late. Normal, I was told. First 2 speakers read the entire talk from printed pages. Ultra-boring.
The primary kids sang for Father’s Day and part of the song was “want to grow up to be just like Dad”. For my son, that would be total nonbeliever after extensive research of Mormon history and the full details of JS’s escapades and fraud and deceipt.
The final speaker was not there - - “hurt his back yesterday”. Coincidentally I hurt my back also Saturday and was taking pain pills & multiple hot baths and was in pain, but went to church anyway. The counselor babbled about nonsense for a while, then told the congregation to “sing slow” to fill up the time.
One time while a speaker was speaking, a weird guy who is old with ponytail and giant oxygen container moved up a few rows to chew out some 8 yr old kid for misbehaving. The mom did nothing but just sat there. The guy is a convert from a couple years ago, and is not really “all there” mentally. He’s a weirdo, and that’s the kind of converts they get.
Home teaching in this ward - - - hardly ever done. Our home teacher is the bishop himself. His companion has never joined him to visit us in 5 years. Comes about 3 or 4 times a year. Some ladies do visiting teaching, but they don’t even come close to trying for 100%. Just go around every once in a while.
The young men & young women are a tiny group because of so many becoming inactive. They have to combine with other wards to have a group big enough to do things. Hardly any boys go to scouts. It’s good that a few go, but more of the boys should go.
I saw a 10-yr old boy wearing shorts and sandals. (in the old days, only babies and toddlers wore shorts to church). A girl about 8 or 9 was wearing a bright purple mini-skirt, and I mean it was really mini. She was not just a little kid.
I guess missionaries are trained to discuss possible baptism on the 1st or 2nd or 3rd meeting with people. Since they never have multiple meetings with “normal people” they at least get to talk about baptism, although it’s obviously inappropriate since investigators know virtually nothing about the wacky religion.
One convert was baptized because Mormons regularly visited the jail where he was being kept. He had serious alcohol problems, and joined the church so he could try to stay sober. It worked because he gave up drinking for many years and stayed out of jail. The guy was really nice, and probably didn’t care a bit about the wacky teachings – he just wanted to stay sober and have some good people for friends.
All is well in Zion – except that the LDS church is slowly but surely crumbling and in 50 years things will be very different. In 100 years the church will still exist, but will probably be struggling to survive just like the RLDS church struggles and could disappear from the map at some point (now “Community of Christ” or something)
Another Utah prediction: in 100 yrs (or 200yrs) the Mormon influence in Utah will be minimal and active Mormons in Utah might be down to 10% or 5% of the population.
That’s all – over and out from Colorado