I saved enough money for my mission. The good part was that I left it in my parents hands and asked them to make sure they paid it every month.

By the time I was three months into my mission all of my family had left the church. This is one of the only good parts about my mission, they did not give the church any of my money.

When I came home I was worn out. I didn't want to talk to my family and I did't want to talk to the church. I just wanted some peace. I was still hoping that I had not served a mission for nothing. After all, this is when the girls will talk to you. There was the thought that maybe I could make it work, but I had so many questions that the church could not answer. At any rate I was bitter when I got home. But, you know what they say, the closer you are to god the more satan comes at you. What a nice god! HE couldn't just help me out a little. It felt like HELL had come down on top of me. It was two years of the worst times of my life! Or, so I thought. The next few years may have been worse.

I was surprised to find all my money where I left it, IN THE BANK! This did not set well with me so I went into settle up. One of the members at the time was head of the bank, and was the ward clerk. I really felt bad that the members would pick up the tab for me. When I went into talk to this guy at the bank, he told me that I should just use the money for school and if I really wanted to, that I should make small contributions to the mission fund. He said I had the rest of my life to help out.

I still paid 1500 right off, and then I moved to Utah. Utah was probably one of the best things that happened to me. I could no longer believe after seeing all the crap down there.

IT WAS $1500 TO MUCH!!!

F#%$ the church! They are just a bunch of liars.

$1500 to be free from the Morg?

You got a bargain!

On the upside, at least your family is out of the church, so you don't have to battle them. Going what you went through sucks, it hurts -- but in time you'll look back and realize that all the BS you went through will make you a better person. It's a necessary part of life.

O, the $1500 would have been nice. But, that is not what I am really mad about. There is a lot more to the story. There is so much more that I lost, but I don't have the time. I wouldn't give a bad penny to that cult. I would rather cut my own guts out with a rusted fork than give them anything else, and I would do it with a smile;)

A most unusual story. Only in Mormonism, eh? Keep your head up, you're a survivor.

When you feel like it, guy-who-got-screwed, post about it here. It's good for you to get the whole story out and obviously you have strong feelings about it.

Who knows? You could help some young kid who's lurking here, thinking about going on a mission, thinking, hey, it's just a church and they do a lot of good in the world.

Anagrammy

Dude I can relate. I know it stings but, you were actually lucky though. My parents and their stupid cult stung me for 5,500 hard earned $ in 1979/1981 for *my* mission.
that would be like 20 grand now. My leg up for the future ended up being an amputation. yah they needed me to go out and explain to the world how poor pervert Joe Smith got mistreated, after all the poor bastard *only* had 33 wives! before he pissed off enough ppl to get his ass shot dead. Then stupid shit Gordon Hinckley said it was all "non doctrinal" well I was a stupid shit too for trying to sell LDS Inc's stupid secret handshake!

it was my own damn fault that it took another 20 years to wise up enough to finally quit the MORmON cult. Be (SOOOOO) glad that you are out NOW at a young age.


*thanks* MORmONISM !

Be so happy you got out young. That number could have been 115,000. or more.
Not to mention the cost to your life.
I didn't get out until I was 57.

Ditto, Mia. I figure I paid in $100,000 and they got 40 years of my life. Sucks to lose what you did, guy, but I'm truly happy for you that you found out early, that your family is out, etc.

Reminds me of a hymn: "Count your blessings, name them one by one..." Comforting, no? Feel the spirit? Yeah, me neither.

ive payed a total of $450 in tithing before my mission. i had a former SP that new my fam was in hard times,pay for the mish. i was out of the TSCC one year after the mission. you would think i would be happy for getting away with so little invested right? i am still bitter to this day for the time the took away from me!

I have probably paid less than £1000 ($1500ish) in tithing in my entire life, and whilst I have wasted far more than that on other unwise decisions, this is the one that hurts the most. At least there was a chance I would win on the geegees; at least I had fun getting wasted in Spain; at least those jeans looked great on me.

Still, it could be a lot worse. I could have only just figured it out in my sixties having paid a hundred times that figure to the Morg. I know many well paid Mormons who give over half of everything they earn to TSCC today.

I have donated 150k in a wasted lifetime of attending and serving the cult. I sure could use it now. could have sent my kids to college, bought investment property, taken some and had a nest egg......etc, etc.

We grow too soon old and too late smart