Former Mission Companion Asked Me if Rumors were True

[Guest]

Less than 40 minutes ago (10:55 MDT) a former Missionary friend of mine stopped by my office to confirm whether the rumors that he had heard about me were in fact true. We had both served as AP’s in our mission at different times although we were never companions. He said that he had heard from mutual friends and former missionaries that I have had my name taken off the church records and couldn’t imagine that this was true…knowing what he knew about me.

I got a huge smile on my face and chuckled at the thought of the things Mormon’s talk and worry about and then thanked him for coming to my office and asking me point blank rather than assuming or being afraid to ask me his question.

I then confirmed that it was true, that I am no longer a member of the church, that I had a faith crisis years ago that resulted in my loss of belief. I informed him that I had met several times with our former Mission President who had also served full time as a General Authority…but that he had been unable to successfully resolve my crisis. That as a matter of integrity…I could not live what I had concluded as a lie just to please others…and that I’ve found happiness living authentically as a non-Mormon. I offered to go into any details of how I had come to my decission but he unsurprisingly declined my offer.

He’s a good man and I appreciated him having come to me rather than taking the easy way out and just passing along the rumor…at least he can now say…Yes its true, I’ve heard it directly from his mouth, he's happy and I respect his decision cuz I know it came from a place of honest study and a desire to maintain his integrity….whether I agree with him or not.

[_CameronMO]

Nice story, Craig. Thanks for sharing.

Did he give you a reason why he didn't want to hear your reasons for finding happiness?

[_Craig Paxton]

Did he give you a reason why he didn't want to hear your reasons for finding happiness?

All he said was that he understands...and that he knows of lots of people that have also taken the same path...

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

We had dinner with a couple last night. He's a RM, templed married, etc...

They have a lot of issues with correlated Church, and are basically spiritually unfulfilled. It's apparent they and many others in their Ward are disaffected. The essays didn't help, either.

- Doc

[_Yahoo Bot]

Another severely apostrophe-challenged opening post. Do apostates just "loose" half their brain cells?

[_Bazooka]

Another severely apostrophe-challenged opening post. Do apostates just "loose" half their brain cells?

No, we gain half a brain and realise the Church isn't true.

[_Quasimodo]

Another severely apostrophe-challenged opening post. Do apostates just "loose" half their brain cells?

One has to be very confident in one's own grammar to make snide comments about another poster's misplaced apostrophe. Generally, it's best to assume that grammatical errors are typos or auto-correct mistakes (unless you are addressing ldsfaqs, in which case you will always be correct).

I will be watching your own posts for errors from now on. By the way, did you mean lose instead of loose in your post or was that intentional? Hard to tell.

[Guest]

Another severely apostrophe-challenged opening post. Do apostates just "loose" half their brain cells?

Considering the source of this comment...I'll take that as a compliment...but you can still "kiss my ass"

[_CameronMO]

Another severely apostrophe-challenged opening post. Do apostates just "loose" half their brain cells?

One has to be very confident in one's own grammar to make snide comments about another poster's misplaced apostrophe. Generally, it's best to assume that grammatical errors are typos or auto-correct mistakes (unless you are addressing ldsfaqs, in which case you will always be correct).

I will be watching your own posts for errors from now on. By the way, did you mean lose instead of loose in your post or was that intentional? Hard to tell.

Quasimodo, you should check out Bob's blog. He has entire paragraphs of one sentence. He should really learn how to use bullet points.

[_Quasimodo]

Quasimodo, you should check out Bob's blog. He has entire paragraphs of one sentence. He should really learn how to use bullet points.

I'll have a couple of classes of wine to fortify myself and then I will have a peek.