Today marks the 12 year anniversary where I was freed from my two year indoctrination boot camp sentence in the Iowa, Des Moines mission. What a wonderful day that was. I remember eating at Rodizio for the first time after leaving the airport and then driving home to Cedar City with my parents. The next day I got in my dad's pickup and drove up Highway 14 ALL BY MY FUCKING SELF! When you are generally an introverted type person the edict to never be able to be by yourself at all for a solid 2 years is hell. I heard some people talk about feeling panicked or weird when they got released from their missions and were alone for the first time. Not me. It was one of the most incredible feelings I have ever felt in my life. I remember driving up Highway 14 and just doing this weird loud scream of indescribable joy lol. It's a little sad it took me another 7 years to figure things out and leave the cult and basically go on to waste all of my 20s on that lie. Se la vie. Anyway, Happy Holidays, all of you exmo heathens!

I'm a nevermo, but I can identify with needing/wanting just some solitude, and never being able to get it. GRRRR! The anger and sadness build up in you until you get relief. So congratulations to you on your anniversary, and Happy Holidays, if there are any you still celebrate. I'll go with Happy Yule, Happy Solstice, Yo Saturnalia, and for sure, Happy New Year! :)

Happy all those things to you too, boilerluv. You can even tell me Merry Christmas! I don't believe in the Jebus anymore, but I sure do love Christmas! Oh, and Happy Smithmas today, everybody!

Congrats! It was miserable being both an introvert and a missionary. It was torture. Nightmares of a 2nd mission lasted more than 2 decades.

Nice to have you here.

I had those nightmares as well, but not nearly for two decades! That's rough. Nice to have you here as well!

Thank you. To this day I still don't know how I made it through!

I left the MTC in part because after five weeks of having ZERO alone time I was getting stressed out. The prospect of having to put up with that for two full years was too overwhelming for me.

Congratulations my tuberous friend. I will toast you with a rum and Coke shortly.

Thanks, Ron! Hope all is well up there in Canada!

Snow covered and cold....but otherwise OK....got a houseful of family so it's good.

Nice going! Hwy 14 is a beautiful drive. Did your folks ever figure it out and leave too? Siblings?

It is a beautiful drive. Even with all the stupid Mormon crap I grew up with I still yearn for my southern Utah home. Unfortunately I am the only person in my immediate family out. I have cousins, aunts, uncles, and other distant relatives that are out, but nobody in the immediate family. My TBM dad did just discover a couple of months ago that my TBM mom had been fucking another dude for a little over a year, so there's that! Still devout TSCC goers, though!

Okay, that is always shocking for me when I hear of a TBM couple where one was cheating on the other.

Mormons are supposed to be above the fray. I've come to the conclusion that trying to be perfect for the course of a lifetime makes it next to impossible for most folks to live up to just being good.

Mormons are set up to fail, IMO. The religion makes martyrs of them over and over again.

Is your parents marriage going to survive? The betrayal of trust would be too much for most couples to overcome.

It's hard to say at this point. My dad wants to make it work, but he is having a REALLY hard time with it understandably.

Trust will be the hardest thing to restore once it's lost.

It will really depend on both parents. How much your mom is vested; as your dad in their relationship.

How nice to hear from somebody who has genuine and legitimately positive things to report on "Smithmas!"

Merry Smithmas to you, caffeind!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2017 07:02PM by caffiend.

How about them Taters! Awesome, Bro! You figured it out a lot earlier than me. Cheers!

Boner! Always good to hear from you, my phallic friend!

Congrats on your anniversary and to personal FREEDOM to decide for yourself what to believe and what works for you.

I can't imagine two years of having zero privacy either or down time. Eek!

I wasn't even a candidate for church college, let alone going on a mission. Since I knew that in advance I didn't get sucked into either - but the prospect was real.

Even the singles ward at the college I went to was suffocating enough to convince me I made the right choice.

Thanks, Amyjo. Glad to hear that you were smart enough to dodge the bullets that I took squarely lol.

Couldn't you still live in southern Utah as an ex-Mo?

There's a fantastic ex-Mormon meetup group there you could participate in that meets monthly; and from there you could network.

I would love to live in southern Utah still. I actually still do live in Utah, but moved up north of the Payson-Dixon line for better economic opportunities.

I love southern Utah also.

I understand about the economic market there - given it's mostly a service oriented economy.

Still am hoping to be able to retire there eventually.

It has its pros and cons for sure. The milder climate and proximity to national parks outweigh the drawbacks IMO.

Southeast Utah, just stay away from Monticello and Blanding. The Redd and Black Boner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2017 11:33PM by BYU Boner.

Are you a Moabite, Boner?

Alas, in SLC. Et tu, Brute?

Great story! Freed from prison. If I hadn't wanted to gamble getting to go abroad (from a self-inflicted poor family) I would never have wanted to go on a mission. I know the feeling. What was strange was living with my family again. I had gotten used to them not being around.