I wrote last week that I was worried that fed-ex had delivered my letter to the wrong address. They did a search for me and reassured me that they got my letter; Apparently so, because I sent it last Tuesday and Salt Lake called my bishop on Friday and he is filling out his part of the paper work. He asked me why I was leaving and I told him that I wanted to live an "authentic" life. I also told him that I have never believed in Joseph Smith I left out about a hundred other reasons and we spoke amicably.

My divorce comes next month. I guess you could say my life is a "do-over". Thanks for the help and encouragement I received.

Tell me about it Brandy. My divorce is impending - we just need to settle a few more logistics. I have been out of the church for years now, but finally got my official letter last month. I am 31, and feel like I am rebooting back to my early 20s.

Same boat here Brandy. You are maybe 4 months behind me. It is hard but so worth it in the end. The freedom is what will confirm you have done the right thing. The church and it's system will try to make you think you that you are the lost one.

It's hard to undo all the programming being raised LDS. It's very difficult because your thinking is molded from day one.

I cannot believe that I still have any feeling for that satanic, hateful, destructive, lying, inbred, snake licking, soul robbing sack of monkey shot so called church.

But here I am, still getting over it, and I am grateful to all of you for helping me.

Now, where are my pants...

Because the church has made me who I am, to think completely out of the box would take a lot of time and research.

"you are now instructed to change your pants to the right butt cheek preparatory to you entering in to the tavern of your choice. You may now make the change by removing your pants."

I'm just amazed that he would think that 10 PM is an appropriate time to call. Maybe it's just me, but that seems about an hour beyond what I'd consider polite.

and a dozen or so kids running around and AND all the duties of a bishop.. that 10:00 is the only time he COULD call without delaying the process by waiting for a more polite time when he is free... I've always felt bad for the majority of Bishops... a few yeah were just social climbers but I've always felt like the majority of them were just suckered into the absolute worst calling in the ward.

The current Bishop of the ward in which I reside is a friend of mine. I never considered him to be a social climber. He's just an all-around good guy, committed to the church, and would never say no to a calling. I sacrificed an hour out of my Sunday to be there at the service when the transition occurred. I could tell that he felt overwhelmed. All I could do was shake his hand afterwards and say, "I'm really sorry about this. Good luck." Everyone else was congratulating him. I agree with you, these guys truly are suckered into the worst calling in the ward.