Posted by:
1997resignee
(
)
Date: May 03, 2021 01:21AM
Absolutely. I had academic scholarships that were paying for my undergraduate studies. Before I turned 19, the bishop kept hinting that he expected me to submit my paperwork. A year later, he called me into his office and, I suppose, in his own way called me to repentance, told me god didn't need me, and that I was setting a bad example to all of the younger men/boys in the ward for not having submitted paperwork to go on a mission.
I was livid. I simply responded that I never presumed god needed me and told him in no uncertain terms to never call me into his office again - that if I decided to go, I'd let him know.
Eventually, around the middle or end of September back in 1987 I completed the paperwork and told the bishop to his face that I would appreciate it if he would expedite so I could leave in December of January so it would cleanly fall between semesters at the university. The asshat sat on the paperwork and I ultimately ended up leaving to the MTC at the end of March in 1988 - the middle of a semester. This meant I would return in the middle of a semester.
When I returned, the asshat bishop assigned the topic of tithing for a homecoming talk making up some story that too many missionaries were returning and that everybody was tired of traditional homecoming talks. That might've made sense in Utah, but, I lived in Austin, Texas.
To this day, I still resent that asshat for intentionally sitting on the paperwork because it prevented me from completing the spring semester before I left, and prevented the same upon my return. So, from my perspective, the 2 year culturally pressured servitude unnecessarily delayed my undergraduate studies... I was three years behind my colleagues who weren't stuck in a cult. Additionally, I forfeited the academic scholarship funding due to the stupid mission obligation (you know - the duty they told me I had agreed to do while in the "pre-existence" from my toddlerhood through elementary school middle school, high school, and four years of mind numbing LDS early morning seminary indoctrination).
I could have completed my undergraduate studies three years earlier, gone to graduate school three years sooner, and began a professional career three years earlier (and conceivably, retired three years earlier than I did).
The Portugal Porto Mission was interesting (especially dealing with the mission president who eventually left his wife for the mission home maid...), but, I am now embarrassed to have been in a cult, and totally regret wasting two physical years (and three academic/professional years) as the result of trying to be what the cultist told me I was supposed to be. I'm so glad I've been cult free for nearly 25 years now.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2021 01:34AM by 1997resignee.