I thought it may be fun to see if anybody posts here from my ward from 50+ years ago. Oh what the hell, my mission as well...

Midvale East 4th Ward

South Africa Johannesburg/Cape Town
(Glorious 18-month mission 83-84)

Molo, buthi!

[Or]

Molo, sisi!

Sandy, UT 6th Ward although the actual # changed a couple of times. It was still the 6th ward when about the time my parents moved out of there finally, about 1978.

Brasil Central Mission 1968-1970

Clayton Valley 2nd Ward, 1970s to 1990s, Concord California East Stake (now Walnut Creek California Stake)

My family lived in a Concord ward when I was in first grade. That was the year we were sealed in the Oakland Temple. I went to two schools the year we lived there.. don't remember the names of the elementary schools, only my first grade teachers names because they're hard to forget.

Mrs. Mudd, and Mrs. Olive. :)

Actually, Clayton Elementary school rings a bell. That may have been one of them. I just checked Google, and there still is one on Clayton Rd, there in Concord. We lived down the road from it. So yeah, at least I remember one of them. :)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2019 09:10AM by Amyjo.

I was born in Walnut Creek, but we moved away when I was really young so I don't know what ward we attended.

At BYU , 79th ward

Lethbridge, Alberta 3rd. The ward was created in about 1954. My parents lived in that ward until they died. My only other ward (when I still attended) was at Ricks in the 60's....attendance was mandatory even for non LDS students as I remember. I hated going to church in the Idaho gulag.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2019 01:56PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

Hey Ron: I'll be Lethbridge the May long weekend -- you still hanging around at the same coffee shop on the south end?

It closed in January...but we can do coffee somewhere else for sure.

Taylor Ward up to 1970

New England Mission 1970 - 1972 (Under Paul H. Dunn)

I'll bet you had many near brushes with death and were only saved by your garments.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> I'll bet you had many near brushes with death and
> were only saved by your garments.

Oh Lottie. Funny!

Aren't you the missionary that died in Dunn's arms only to turn up many years later living happily as an ExMo?

Why, I remember it like it was just yesterday.... How we all stood in awe when President Dunn single-handedly saved all of the maple syrup trees in New England.

It was a bitterly cold day in October when a faithful Latter-day Saint maple tree tapper came to President Dunn begging for a miracle. A rare type of pestilent pest had begun attacking all of the maple trees on one of the most successful maple syrup farms in the region and it was feared that the pestilent pests would soon spread throughout the region and then spread to Canada and beyond. Future generations would never experience the joy of eating pancakes soaked in a gallon of maple syrup.

President Dunn said that we should all go home and get some rest because he had long night of praying ahead of him and needed to be alone.

The next morning he called us all up to the mission home, so that we could all go together to the infected maple tree farm.

When we got there, I was surprised to see President Dunn strip off his street clothes until he stood before us dressed only in his sacred temple garments. He then pointed to me and three other guys and said: "You guys grab one side of my garments. One of you grab up high, one of you grab around the middle and the other grab around the bottom."

As soon as we had our portions of his garments firmly in hand, President Dunn ran off around the perimeter of the entire tree farm. It had never occurred to me that temple garments could be that stretchy.

Soon he had encircled the entire tree farm three times with just the temple garments on his body.

We still held firm and once he had reached the limits of the garments' stretchiness, he could no longer move. He then instructed one of the elders to sprinkle consecrated oil on the south, east, north and west sides of the newly established garment perimeter. As soon as that was done, President Dunn raised his arm to the square and commanded the pestilent pests to die in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood.

After that we just stood there and nothing happened...at first. But after 15 minutes had passed, the pestilent pests began screeching in agony and soon all of them fell to the ground dead.

We then helped President Dunn to slowly unwind, lest unassisted his neck be broken by the kinetic force that would otherwise be unleashed in an instant as the result of an overly rapid and uncontrolled retraction of the tightly wound temple garment.

The maple trees of New England--and most likely of the whole world--had been saved. Maple syrup, one of Gods' finest creations would continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

The Osmond family was invited to come to the mission one week later to sing a special song to commemorate the event. They sang a number of their popular songs, including "Yo-yo", "Sweet and Innocent" and "We All Fall Down" with lyrics slightly altered to commemorate the "Maple Tree Miracle" as the event had come to be known.

Those were days of wonder and miracles, the likes of which are rarely experienced by mortal human beings in their journey through this vale of tears and struggle.

And to this very day those maple tree varmints are commemorated on Trax stops on South Temple street in Salt Lake. Next time you at at those Trax stops look closely to see if you can spot the tiny statues of the varmints.

LOL, Wally! That was terrific!

Wally Prince Wrote:
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> Why, I remember it like it was just yesterday....


Walls,

I think it would be really fun to think like you!

Thank you for the story!!!!

:)

Sawubona, kunjani!

Fair enough. I couldn't give two shits if anybody knew I posted here or was out of the church. But I understand situations vary for everybody

Thanks.

Ugly Ties Wrote:
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> Sawubona, kunjani!


:D

With your home ward and mission, pretty easy to identify someone.

There are people who hang out here as church assigned spies. Sounds paranoid but it happens.

What is the danger in being identified if the person is an ex-Mo?

Are we still perceived as that much of a threat to TSCC that they would spy on us for an agenda? It isn't like we can get in any trouble even were we to ID ourselves (come out) in exposing what we know about TSCC.

If one is still in the cult then I could see that as posing a problem. Or not wanting to be Id'd by family or friends still in the cult.

But TSCC spying on ex-members? I don't get what the point of that is for - this is an open forum. It isn't like they can excommunicate ex-Mos or threaten them with disfellowshipping yada yada.

Potential Trouble Sources?

Although I am married to an exmo and was deeply involved with Mormonism for a number of years because of my DH's associations, I never became a Mormon. (DH has never posted here). After DH left Mormonism we moved across the country from Utah. DH had his name removed and we rejected all attempts of contact from the local Mormon church.

I have been posting on this board off and on since it's beginning. A number of years ago I visited a small genealogy page maintained by a distant relative of my MIL (who I wouldn't know if I tripped over him and presumably neither he me). I made a post on RFM complaining about the fact that a TBM site had my husbands name and personal info publicly posted(of which I did not give the specifics of at all). I had the very strange experience of another poster replying to that RFM post identifying the site I was talking about. He claimed he helped run the site. While I don't recall all (or many) of the circumstances, I can say it was a very odd and chilling experience. I have reason to believe that if you are very vocal about your exit and happen to have rabid TBM familial connections, you may very well be spied on.

I am not generally a paranoid person but it does stick in the back of my mind that if one fights back too much, one may be watched.

Las Vegas 2nd Ward, The Fighting Tapirs! 1954 to 1965, when I was dispatched to the Mexican Mission (1 of 4 at that time.)

Great Ward: great people, good times!

I enjoyed my almost 17 years of living in Las Vegas, but think I would have liked it more back in the days you describe. Not necessarily because of the church, but before Hollywood and Wall Street got to it.

And I still miss it. I am SO tired of Utah winter.

See, that is what I fear about moving when I retire to either the Salt lake area or back to southern Idaho. Is those darn cold long winters. I've lived in upstate NY for decades, grew up in SE Idaho. So I know what winters are like there. My grandmother and later mom lived their lives in Ogden where the winters were long and cold and dreary.

I'm so tired of winter too. One of the women where I worship would go with her husband to SLC though for fifteen winters in a row just to go skiing! Not Park City, just the skiing around SLC. She and her husband loved it there. And they are from upstate NY of all places. Most folks here at their age would go snowbirding somewhere warmer. They chose SLC to winter.

Not me. I don't ski, and don't plan to start anytime soon.

Lived one year as a young child in Las Vegas. What I remember is how warm it was, and we lived in a good neighborhood. Back then there were all mostly good neighborhoods. Nowadays not so much. My mom worked for a local radio station and would bring home still photos with autographs of some of my favorite tv stars like the Three Stooges, Roy Rogers, and the Mousketeers.

As for what ward we lived in, I was too young to remember and our family was mostly inactive then. I do remember going to primary once and being really shy. I was led up to the front to pick a song from the flannel board which turned out to be "Popcorn popping." It kind of helped bring me out of my shell a little.

I grew up on the road with wards in Oregon, California, New York and Pennsylvania. 8 wards, 8 schools by the time I finished high school. Miserable.

The more liberal Mormons were the eastern Mormons. Easier to get along with, yet still frustrating and stiff-necked. Mormons.

Really? Some of the worst Mormons I've had the misfortune of coming across was here on the East Coast. And of those the majority have been converts (not all though, just most.)

They were the reason that led to my resigning when I did. Even were it not for the factual history of TSCC that counters everything we were taught growing up Mormon, the behaviors and poor manners and outright arrogance of some Mormons here has been repulsive.

And now I can add some of my own family members to that mix, sadly, that I wouldn't have counted before my brother's funeral last year. My late brother was a mensch. Not his spouse, nor his biological children. They are entitled, pampered, spoiled and thoughtless. His adopted children behave better than they do and show more compassion. They take after my brother more than his bio children do. His bio children take after their mother.

Another TBM brother who tried to steal my babies from me when he and his wife were infertile, and caused me problems with one of my children years later as an adult I will never forgive. I forgave him once, and that was too much because he betrayed my trust again. He's very two-faced and passive-aggressive.

Garvanza Ward in Highland Park. Loved it, loved the people. It was a great ward to grow up in.

Idaho Falls Woodruff Ward, Ammon West Stake

Hello neighbor. I grew up in the Ammon Third Ward, in the then Ammon Stake. Don't know what they're called now.

The old church house is still there (it was new then.)

:)

Amyjo Wrote:
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> Hello neighbor. I grew up in the Ammon Third Ward,
> in the then Ammon Stake. Don't know what they're
> called now.
>
> The old church house is still there (it was new
> then.)
>
> :)


I know that neighborhood well, all of my cousins attended at that building and lived just down that street. I spent most of my summers at the ammon swimming pool nearby!

Ammon 2nd ward. I remember when that building was built. I remember when the Ammon pool was built too. I guess my age is showing!

I grew up in an inner city Salt Lake ward which was sold to another religion and then demolished to make way for an apartment complex.

Us young whippersnappers called it the "newly wed or nearly dead" ward.

The Joliet (IL) ward!

I was 'tized in Duluth, MN branch, my 1st ward wss Seattle 10th.
My longest was the Carnation, Wa., abt 20 yrs.

Grew up in the Santa Monica 2nd/3rd Ward

Was called to the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission. I walked out of the MTC after five weeks.

Bellevue First Ward, Seattle East Stake

Nibley Park Ward, on Sixth East just down thre road from Nibley Park Golf course. (What was the Nibley family doing with something as time-wasting as golf?_

I was told loudly and often that THIS was the ONLY TRUE CHURCH.

I often thought how convenient it was that I lived within walking distance of the ONLY TRUE CHURCH.

I felt sorry for the other church goers who, no doubt had to come a LONG WAY to attend THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH.

I remember asking someone once, what exactly did we Mormons believe?

I was told that we believed in whatever was TRUE. If something was TRUE we believed it. If something WASN'T true, we didn't believe it.

Okay. That is an idea I can get hehind, as long as I am the one who gets to decide what is TRUE.

As H.L. Mencken said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you Silly Putty."

He was right.

I spent two years in that ward. It was there that I started discovering things about the church (and my wife) that became unsettling to me.

My neighbors were good neighbors but as someone said earlier, it was a kind of "newlywed or nearly-dead" ward.

Tempe,AZ 4th ward in the 60s and 70s. We were kind of a big deal. Lots of doctors, dentists, lawyers, uni professors. A bunch of farmers and dairymen who turned into builders and got super wealthy.

Warm Springs Ward, Fremont, CA
Mission - Germany, Munich

Orem Sharon Stake 31st Ward then South Sharon Stake 1st or 3rd Ward. I can't remember. I starting doing drugs about that time.

Various wards in Chandler and Mesa, then park village and 12th in Gilbert. 80th in BYU.

All I'll say is Sevier County, UT - South Sevier HS when they finally brought back Football.
Seminary, mission,BYU and callings up to Stake level - now completely out.

Some nice folks in that area but "pride of ownership" in the homes there is non-existent. That area of SoUtah is so dumpy that many Real Estate agents in Richfield won't take listings along Hwy89 going South.

Never so glad to finally get away from a place as SoUtah and Utah in general.

Holladay 27th Ward, Salt Lake City from 1969 to 1981. I was the first person baptized in the building.

Perth Branch, Scotland, UK.

I was baptised at 18, left 11 years later.

Many speak fondly of the early wards with their "fun" activities and close friendships. I didn't like it then and I'd certainly hate it more now. If fact I think I'd be in loony bin somewhere if I hadn't left as a young adult.

Cheryl Wrote:
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> Many speak fondly of the early wards with their
> "fun" activities and close friendships.

I barely got enough to eat. Ward parties were a boon. I loved being in the road shows. I loved the Halloween parties. I loved The Christmas dinner and Gold and Green Balls.

Most members I didn't like or were indifferent to but a few stars stuck out and cared for me a bit. A particular primary teacher was kind and had candy. Another young mens teacher was kind, funny, and died when I had barely left that program.

Scouts was a nightmare. Most people saw me as a rug rat from the poor family with a powerful pedigree. We were only poor because my parents hoarded cash to adopt more kids.

In some ways the ward when I was kid fed and clothed me with anonymous donations on our doorstep. Our shed was filled with them and our old clothing that was so out of date and homemade to make us too eternally embarrassed to wear it.

The homemade clothing was made by our mother. She never followed a pattern but thought she could make shirts and dresses by sight alone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2019 02:24PM by Elder Berry.

There were individual mormons who were kind to me also. Someone donated a used slightly rusted and chipped trike to my dad so I'd have something for Christmas one year when my mother was laid up with pins in her leg on a hospital bed in our home. Without that kind gift my Christmas would have been very bleak and sad. I loved that tricycle and must have spend hours every week whizzing up and down the sidewalk on it imagining I was part of all kinds of wonderful adventures.

I think there are nice people like this everywhere not just in mormon communities. In fact since I don't know the donor it could have come from a non-mormon.

Everett 1st Ward (Everett, WA)

East Millcreek 6th, by Wasatch Jr HS.

Snowflake AZ 1st & 3rd wards

Mission - Brasil, Porto Alegre Sul ('93-'95)



Would love to find someone on here from my hometown or mission!

Kaysville UT 1st ward. In the old Kaysville tabernacle, one of the more unique churches. It had big stained glass windows and a star of David on the front that made it look like a synagogue. They remodeled the interior and ruined it.

Hanover (New Hampshire) ward, in the 1980s. At the time we met in the local elementary school. A lot of folks associated with Dartmouth College/Dartmouth medical school. There have even been a few relatives of Utah/Mormon royalty who have passed through the ward while getting their "Ivy League" credentials to take back to the Morridor. That ward is now officially the Lebanon ward, which then later split and a new Hanover ward was created. The original Hanover ward used to be part of the South Royalton (Vermont) ward, which is located on the church property that straddles the Sharon, VT border and is home to the Joseph Smith birthplace memorial site. I was actually baptized in the chapel at the Joseph Smith birthplace Memorial in the late 1970s, just before the ward split.

Dundee 1st Ward, Dundee Scotland Stake

Tiny teeny branch in Eccles, Manchester, England. Part of the British North Mission then. Changed to England Leeds Mission then Manchester Mission. Now a ward and i think its called Swinton Ward, still part of the Manchester UK stake.

Tucson 2nd

Concord Second, Concord, California