...on the premise that gentiles, exMos and apostates are good people?

For the record, I went on a mission. I hated every living second of it and now consider it the most wasted two years of my life, ever. At the time, I myself was so brainwashed I couldn't have cared less what some stranger thought while I was on my mission. What made me leave the cult later was the unendurable idiocy of the doctrine and the obnoxious behavior of the membership in general. It was the very early 1980s, so I had to figure it all out on my own.

Looking for true stories here. No FPRs, please - I've had enough of those to last me a Mormon Eternity.

:-)

It was during the second year of a mentally oppressive mission. I was trying to convince a perfectly happy woman she couldn't possibly be happy without the One True Gospel®. I suddenly realized the One True Gospel® was making me miserable and depressed. Hey, wait, what's wrong with this picture? I thought about all the other happy, decent "gentiles" I had known in my life. I wanted to be more like them. It was another step down the road that led away from the LDS church.

Just myself.

While tracting on my mission, I bore my testimony to a really nice man, going on about how the spirit had borne witness to me. He listened, clearly interested, and then said, "I don't doubt you felt something, but how do you know it was not just something you worked yourself up into? Something from the subconscious?"

Hi manner was not confrontational. Looking back, I think he really was just trying to get through to me.

When he asked that, for the first time in my life, I dropped my mormon guard and allowed myself to see that he was right. I knew I did not know. I was still brainwashed enough to shelve it, but it registered monumentally with me and he opened a door that made it possible to start thinking for myself.

I would give anything to be able to thank him. I would love to believe that eventually I would have pulled the trigger anyway, but he definitely was the one to get the gun cocked--to give me back my honesty.

There were a lot of times on my mission that I was having serious doubts. However, to give it all up, and accept it wasn't true was too frightening of a proposition. I was thousands of miles from home, was under tight control by the cult, and the only people I had contacts with were all also either under the direct influence of the cult, or in enough contact that it was impossible to escape.

There was a preacher who was bashing with us one time, who suddenly got all serious and said, "You know if any of you boys have doubts and want to get out of the church, we would be happy to help you find a place to stay, and to help you out until you could make other plans. We'd even help you get home if that was what you wanted."

This terrified me, because the guy was a stranger, and it made me realize how hard it would be to escape. I actually went home and made a plan on how I would leave, just in case. I would wait until the middle of the night, sneak out of the apartment, find a cab to the bus station, then get a bus home. However, this only would have worked because my father had provided me with a debit card hooked up to an emergency account that I could access. I was too afraid to use my church account if I left, since I was worried they might trace that. Should have gone through with it, or better yet, taken the minister up on his offer.

I wish someone I had tracted out would have made me that offer. I would have taken it.

He got one to go home and was working on a second one.

There are a lot of missionaries who leave early now any way and might appreciate some help. Just offering one use of a computer that isn't monitored could push him over the edge.

About four years ago my girlfriend and I would have missionaries over every week. Now I was raised in a TBM family and had left the church shortly after moving away from home so I knew the ins and outs of the church from an insider's and outsider's perspective before our talks began. I initially looked at it like: wow that could be me (I was missionary age at the time.)
So we'd let them come and hang out and eat pizza. I made it clear from the first night that they had no hope of converting me, I'd already been down that road. But, they were more than welcome to come over and hang out and talk. We had many open dialogues on our views on religion and philosophy as well as other not so heavy topics like video games and other nerdy stuff. One of the missionaries was a really cool dude, fairly liberal and I could tell he really appreciated the refuge from normal missionary life. Luckily he stuck around for a very long time and his companions were the ones who always got transferred.
I can't say that we deconverted him necessarily. That was certainly never our intention. I do know we made each other take long hard looks at our own beliefs, and the talks certainly helped cement my current views as an atheist.
Anyway, last I talked to him he had stopped believing in the church but was waiting till he graduated from BYU to come out and be done with it. I have to say, I am proud to have helped in any small way I could to get one person out of that awful organization. And it has given me hope that through open non-confrontational talks that maybe one of my own family members will eventually see their way out.

We used to have the missionaries over a lot. I think our house was a favorite place to go.

I would give them great food, free haircuts, let them play on our trampoline, and petition the MP to let them travel with us to out of area places like Kirtland. Even though we took them to mo historical sites, the day was filled with things they didn't usually get to do, like traveling, going to restaurants, and staying out later than normal. We'd go to amish country, and a lot of interesting places.

Two elders got the ok to go to washington DC with us. That was amazing.

One of the elders moved back to our area after he got off of his mission. He left the church after that. I know we had a huge influence on him. He worked for my husband, who basically gave him training and an occupation. He bought a house just blocks away from us. He still works in that field, and makes a good living.

I sure tried to several times. Being raised in SLC in the 60s and 70s during the sexual revolution, I always tried to seduce them when they showed up at the door. I know I would not have really gone through with it (probably - there was one who was so cute and so innocent he would have been real fun), but it sure was a blast.