RELEASED FROM MISSION PRISON At long last the happiest day I have ever known came. It was the last day I had to spend in the Virginia Roanoke Mission. That day was Friday, April 13, 1979 and for me, it is a date that lives in infamy. My sentence in this mission gulag was over. Friday the 13th was my lucky day and I have celebrated every April 13th as a personal holiday. I remember clearly how
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My fellow exmos. I have posted the story of the happiness I felt on the last day of my mission. It was April 13, 1979. And even though it was 45 years ago, I celebrate April 13 as a personal holiday. This April 13 I decided to post my story again but in 2 parts so it would fit on the Recovery board. They are titled “My mission and coming home part 1” and “My mission and coming home pa
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THE DROOLING ANGRY MISSION PRESIDENT Four months before I was to go home from the Virginia Roanoke Mission in 1979, at my last Zone Conference, I had the usual interview with the Mission President, Good old Frank A. Moscon. But as the usual "blame the Elder" one sided interview commenced, the MP became unusually hateful and vindictive toward me because this time he stood up from behind
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summer, a post of my last day can be found here. https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2471706,2471706#msg-2471706
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gw, I also had similar feelings as you did. The start of my mission (1977) pre-dated when the domestic elders went to the MTC in Provo. So, I spent a week in the SL Mission Home in Salt Lake City before flying off to Virginia to be a door-to-door salesman for Joe Smith. I never had a worse week in my life. The warm loving “Jesus loves me” church I grew up in, warped into a mean-spirited churc
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It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt to search for info on the Mormon church. For amidst all my anxieties, I had never as yet made the attempt to Google the Church. After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled
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Today, April 13, marks the happiest day that I have ever had in my life. It was the last day of my mission. For those of you who served missions, do you remember your last day and how happy you felt knowing that you were done with it all? No more being a slave to numbers, hours, charts, and graphs? No more setting unattainable goals to brown nose the mission president? Being able to restart your
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One of the "glorious" milestones on the Mormon conveyer belt to prepare me for a mission was to receive my own endowment at the Oakland Temple. This was in the late 70's. I was told that this was to be the crowning spiritual experience to sustain me throughout my mission and to give me a greater insight and testimony into the workings of the almighty God. At last, I thought, I would
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What an experience you have been through. I am happy that you got to be with the one you loved but sad to hear that she passed away so soon after winning her back. 4 years is way too short of time. Yes, cancer is so evil. My last marriage also ended in the death of my wife in 2013. It was a wonderful marriage for 23 years and then one day, my beautiful Malaysian wife just collapsed to the f
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I do remember reading your story Jaxson. I salute you for having and exercising such courage to tell them where to shove it. I think you should have sued them for breaking clergy confidentiality. How long did you stay at home after your father wanted you to leave? Did you go stay with friends until you were on your own? Sounds like your mother was the only one who cared about you. The close
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My answer would have to be from a 19/20 year old perspective and not one who is now in his 60's with much more an abundance of maturity and courage and has lost his fear of man. At 19, I was still dependent upon my parents. I never wanted to disappoint them. I never really cared what the ward thought about me. I had no fear of my parent's disowning me. I had put a lot of effort and money in
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While I was serving my "best 2 years of my life" sentence as a missionary in the Virginia Roanoke mission (1977 to 1979), I was hoping I could find in myself the courage to just leave and go home. Every day, I fantasized about ways I could secretly escape and work my way back home to California by some combination of bus, train, or plane getting as far away as I could before my abse
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Today, April 13th, is the 42-year anniversary of the day I came home from my mission. Every year I have celebrated April 13 as a personal holiday. A day that brought me so much happiness, I still cannot find the best words to describe those feelings of happiness and joy I felt knowing my mission prison sentence was done. I invite all of you to celebrate with me the day of my release from the h
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One MIA night when I was 14 (early 70’s), the MIA was having a dance. I and 2 other friends decided to have some fun by turning off the main power switch to the church building. We drew straws to see who would be the “Son of Perdition” to lead the entire MIA into outer darkness. The straws were pulled and it fell upon me to perform this transgression. The Main power switch was located on
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Why do Mormons always bless the refreshments after firesides or other functions? I did not know that Punch and Twinkies could be given “divine” attributes to “strengthen our bodies and do us the good we need”. The most ridiculous and funniest prayer I ever witnessed was at a fireside where someone gave a closing prayer and blessed the refreshments to “strengthen our bodies”. Little
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In my posts about the end of my mission and this one about the beginning of my mission, I came to realize that my condensed narratives may have misled many about my pretty Asian wife that was mentioned. This is due to the fact that the post length limitations of this board prevents me from tying it all together in one post. For this, I apologies for I did not mean to mislead anybody. To caffie
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My fellow Exmo’s. I have posted many times about the last day of my mission and how happy I was to be done with it all. That post was on April 13. Today I thought that I should post this narrative about the beginnings of my mission, and the misery I endured as a missionary. This will give a glimpse into why I was so happy when my mission ended. ********************************************
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Aaron, I never said I was "cooler" than the others. I am just saying what I saw. Whenever I saw missionary behavior that repulsed a non-member, it was always from a missionary from Idaho or Utah or Arizona. Any California missionary I had experience with, did not behave as though their "royal Mormon pioneer" lineage made them superior. I even experienced these "factory El
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Thanks for your kind words, Presleynfactrock. My account is very condensed and shortened due to the fact this board has a limit on the size of posts. I can see that you wished you could have tried harder to keep your children from serving a mission and to keep them out of harms way and have regrets for not doing so. In similar fashion, my mother (may she rest in peace) also kicked herself v
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Today, April 13, marks the happiest day that I have ever had in my life. It was the last day of my mission. For those of you who served missions, do you remember your last day and how happy you felt knowing that you were done with it all? No more being a slave to numbers, hours, charts, and graphs? No more setting unattainable goals to brown nose the mission president? Being able to restart your
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We all have read about people resigning their church membership at many stages in their lives and for many good reasons. I have always wondered if a fed up missionary ever walked into his mission home and handed the Mission President a letter of resignation and then just walked out and went home? That would be a fun story to read. Has anyone ever heard or know of a missionary doing this
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Thanks for celebrating with me today. I am BBQ'ing a rib eye steak for myself tonight. Spent some time thinking of all kinds of dark, unholy, and impure thoughts of the Mormon church this day. And it was fun! Bring your drink of choice to the house and I will BBQ a rib eye with you tonight. :)
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I would have just gone to the airport immediately and slept there.
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Mother-who-knows, I did survive the 2 years and to this day, I don't know how I did. For much of the mission, Kathy was the only tether keeping me in the world of the living. I do keep great memories of my Asian wife. There is nothing sweeter, than the love from an Asian woman. The hardest thing that I ever had to do, was to watch her pass away knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop
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I am honored by the toast that ye have given me, zenjamin. Dilly Dilly! May your Un-missionary adventure this day be fruitful.
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This Friday, April 13th, will be the 39th anniversary of the day I came home from my mission. Every year I celebrate April 13 as a personal holiday. A day that brought me so much happiness and joy, I still cannot find the perfect words to describe the feelings of joy and happiness I felt knowing my mission prison sentence was over. What say you my fellow RMs? How do you remember the last d
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Yes, serving a mission was a total waste of time. Especially in the US. You don't even come home having learned a new language. All I did for 2 years was knock on doors and try to convince people, that they could become happier if they alienate themselves from extended family and friends, gave up 10% of their paycheck, sacrificed their free time to perform smothering religious duties from end
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It was the last day of my mission that I quit wearing white shirts. I was at the Roanoke airport with some time to kill before my plane was to depart and I wanted to purge myself of any appearance of being a missionary. I already tossed my nametag and white bible into the trash. So, to complete the purging process and eliminate any look of a missionary, I went into the terminal restroom, which wa
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My fellow RMs. How happy were you when the last day of your mission arrived? Did it seem like the weight of the world was lifted from your shoulders? Were you elated that you did not have to endure the ranting’s of an abusive mission president anymore? For me, I was so happy to know that I would never have to go out and knock on another door and try to convince an already happy person, that
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One MIA night when I was 14 (early 70’s), the MIA was having a dance. I and 2 other friends decided to have some fun by turning off the main power switch to the church building. We drew straws to see who would be the “Son of Perdition” to lead the entire MIA into outer darkness. The straws were pulled and it fell upon me to perform this transgression. The main power switch was located in
Forum: Recovery Board