I became inactive at around 15. My parents still wanted me to go on a mission. Mother had this hope (still does) that I would drink the kook aid. Not going to happen I told them. I am starting to tell them how their faith is a cult, etc.
I also told my bishop not to tell anyone I'd put my papers in. He ignored my request and told the ward. My dad was a non-member and my mother didn't think women should go on missions. I did go on a mission but I learned not to tell bishops anything.
I refused. When I told my mom that I was not planning on going on a mission, her response was all those sons and no missionaries. Yup, the morg is more important than your children.
When I got home from Ricks in '67 dad asked if I wanted to go on a mission and I said no. End of discussion. Not really a refusal. Dad, I'm sure knew my answer before he asked the question.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2018 09:46AM by Lethbridge Reprobate.
Tried a couple of semesters at Brigham Young Indoctrination Center-Rexburg at 18, became inactive at 19, resigned and joined the Navy at 20. So yes, I refused to go on a mission.
I really wanted my dad (who really didn't want me to go) to squeeze my hand in that dreadful MTC farewell room and tell me that it was ok if I wanted to walk out the door with them.
Unfortunately, my TBM had already bought the "My Son is serving a mission" t-shirt mindset. She was looking forward to the 2 year bragging right of putting up the missionary photo with the address on the ward bulletin board (as well as the obligatory sacrament program).
She would have been royally pissed had I walked out of the MTC with them.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2018 03:06AM by messygoop.
Yes. This was in the '60s and "every young man must serve a mission" mentality hadn't hit yet.
I went to a university that had a Lambda Delta Sigma fraternity (that's Greek letters for "LDS"). I lived in the frat house. It was only for RM's and prospective missionaries. I was a "prospective missionary."
Living there I began to notice something about my roomates that shocked me. The RM's were pretty much arrogant, self-absorbed assholes, while the prospective missionaries were pretty much nice guys. "Gee," I thought to my young self, "I thought spending two years close to the gospel of Jesus Christ would make you a better person, not more of a jerk." This really took the shine off my desire to go on a mission.
Also being away from home for my freshman year at college was incredibly educational--in every sense of the word. I was meeting ideas that I'd never knew existed. I was quickly learning that the nice, tidy Mormon world I'd grown up on was not how things really were. If the Church had lowered the age to 18 back when I was a kid I probably would have gone. That year away from home at college, when the Church has no hold over you, is too illuminating. That's the reason they lowered the age--get 'em before they have their eyes opened.
So when it came time to decide, I decided no. It was over a decade later that I finally allowed myself to realize that the Church was bogus.
My father arranged for me to have lunch with a family friend when I was of mission age. We were sitting in his office when his assistant called to say Paul H. Dunn was in the reception area to see him. I soon realized that I had been ambushed. Dunn spent the next hour letting me know it was my duty.
I never did go on a mission. A year later, all the lies that Dunn had told over the years became public. It was never again a topic discussed with my parents.
I refused. When I turned eighteen, my Bishop talked me into filling out the paperwork so we could send it in at the right time so I would get my call right about my nineteenth birthday. I didn’t sign the papers yet as It still was early and I still had to graduate. One day at school a Navy recruiter came in and showed a cool video about aircraft carriers. I forgot all about the mission. Two weeks later I joined the Navy and three months after graduation I was at Boot Camp in Orlando, Florida. Never looked back.
I remember feeling some pressure at the time, but I think the branch president recognized my family didn't have the money. But boy oh boy did they pressure me even more to do a stake mission later on. I was near tears from the pressure.