Subject: The Nun Who was Raised a Mormon
The Nun Who was Raised a Mormon

Some time ago, I was living in Darwin, Australia 2,000 miles north of Adelaide. I had been appointed IBM General Business Group manager for a 3-year assignment, which sometimes entailed travelling "south" to Melbourne & Sydney for new product releases and training.

On one occasion I flew to Adelaide for a meeting and stayed at the Hilton Hotel. The night before I was due to return to Darwin I phoned the Mission President, Richard Wells, to ask if he had any instructions for me to take back to the Darwin saints. (I was serving as the Darwin District President at the time). President Wells told me he had to fly to Alice Springs the next day so we could meet at the Airport for breakfast and visit before our respective flights. .

I checked out from the hotel early and when I arrived at the airport it was deserted, except for a nun sitting in the departure lounge. She was dressed in full habit and was reading a book. Now, I have always liked and respected nuns, I think they do wonderful Christian service. So I walked over and sat opposite her and said "good morning sister”. She smiled and as we chatted I learned that she had spent most of the night at the airport on her way to Perth. She belonged to an ecclesiastical order called Sisters of Charity, and told me that she had been called to serve in an elderly folks home run by the Order.

I detected an American accent and asked where she was from. She told me “Los Angeles”. I replied, "I served my church mission in LA !” She asked if I was a Mormon, and then she told me her family were all Mormons and that her brother had recently served a mission in Brazil. I was quite surprised, and asked more about her family. This was her story.

She had been baptized and raised as a Latter Day Saint, her family was from Mexico and her folks worked in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. Her father was a gardener and her mother worked as domestic help, They lived in a unit at the rear of a large home. Her family attended a local LDS ward when she was 13. Unfortunately, her Sunday school classmates teased her for being a poor Mexican so she vowed never to return to Church, much to her parents dismay.

While her family attended their LDS Sunday meetings, she would take long walks and often pass an eIderly folks’ home, run by some Catholic nuns. She would chat to the residents sitting in wheelchairs on the lawns out front. One morning the Mother Superior asked her in and offered her Saturday work. After a couple of years the nuns eventually invited her to join their order and she became a trainee, then eventually took out her vows of poverty ‑ this was about 6 years before accepting her assignment to Perth.

As we chatted the airport was filling up. President Wells, who was running late, arrived and I motioned him over and introduced him to Sister Imelda. We chatted for some time and then I got my boarding call for Darwin. I expressed my enjoyment in meeting her, gave her my IBM business card and invited President Wells to phone me if he needed to. I waved them both goodbye and left for Darwin.

The following day President Wells rang me and told me that he had chatted to her for about 20 minutes. Before he boarded his flight, he had written down her name and address. He then wrote to the Perth Mission President about her. President Reynolds in Perth then assigned a senior missionary couple to visit her at the convent. That was the last we heard of her until about 15 months later when President Wells received a letter from her addressed to us both.

In the letter she told us that she had been visited by an elderly missionary couple who had rung the door bell at the convent and that Mother Superior had invited them in, and then left Sister lmelda to chat with them. The missionaries offered to take her for a drive each week on her days off, and did so for many months. She started to look forward to their visits. At the same time this dear senior missionary couple gently taught Sister Imelda the gospel of her youth. She started to realize that she still had a testimony of the restored gospel. Sister Imelda eventually returned home, left the nun’s Order and was re‑baptized into the LDS Church. She was at that time actively attending her ward in California.

I treasure that letter, and I am so thankful that I played a small role in her eternal happiness.

Regards, Brother Phil Baker

I took the liberty of checking...President Wells served in Adelaide 1983-1986 and President Reynolds served in Perth 1983-1986. It seems foolhardy to make up a story like that and use real names. The story does seem suspicious and too good to be true but stranger things have happened.

Interesting. I doubt it's true, but nice faith promoting story.

How beautiful, they converted her from being a caring, selfless Nun into a 10% paying supremacist.

Good job...

explain this story? Nothing to explain.

Taking the story at face value, this is someone who *really* left because they were offended..... and probably never took the opportunity to actually look into mormonism deeply.

The person's psychology was already primed to accept the main missionary psychological trick of 'the burning in the bosom'.

the way I would explain it, is this:

People is people and does weird thing.

But is it a true story?

AnonExMo Wrote:
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> But is it a true story?

One of my colleagues tells of the night she spent with John Barrowman (famous gay actor)
It's plausible, because she had a BFF who worked in theatre (behind the scenes) and would sometimes attend theatre parties.

Is it true?
who cares? it's a good story and doesnt affect me either way

There was a very similar story told by a former Nun at a Stake Conference I attended in Toronto.

There was a Brother Phil Baker in the Adelaide Stake . As far as I recall he MAY have served a mission in the US. He affected an American accent for years after his mission as so many Australian RM's did regardless of where they spend their missions.

He was a typical Peter priesthood who would no more have spoken to a nun than he would have respected the work she did.He would ,however, tell a good faith promoting yarn like this, true or not.I would call BS on the story.

There are also several linguistic inconsistencies in this story which point to it having been authored by an American NOT an Aussie eg "visit with at the airport". Australians only use this verb in the sense of a specific journey to someone's house. The American sense of the term-to socialise informally on possible neutral territory, such as visiting in the foyer after sacrament meeting is never used in Australia.

The Adelaide airport would not have been deserted-it serves a city of over 1 million & it is not a little hick airport.

Nuns in Australia have not worn habits since Vatican 2 in the late 1960's.

Nuns are not "invited" by other nuns to join them, an individual must convince an order that she has a "vocation" & ask to be admitted to the order.

Need I go on?

Also, she would have had to have been a catholic for a time (probably at least a year) before they would have even considered letting her join their order. Then, even after that, like you said, there is an even longer time while they and she discern whether or not she has a vocation. She wouldn't have just hung out with them and then joined up one day

Well when Marion G Romney was an apostle his sister was a nun down at the Cathedral in SLC....lol True story

Explain what? I'll gladly assume that every word of the story is the truth. It's the story of a religious nutcake who was working with a certain religious group. She was courted by two religious nutcakes from another group. After awhile, she decided she liked the second group and joined it. She remains a religious nutcake throughout the story.

Obviously, the point of the story is that Mormons know they are better than Catholics. They are more persuasive nutcakes.

seems kind of stupid to post a story and demand an explanation.

for hells sake, you posted the damn thing, you friggin explain it.

libby Wrote:
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> seems kind of stupid to post a story and demand an
> explanation.
>
> for hells sake, you posted the damn thing, you
> friggin explain it.


I couldn't explain it, that's why I posted it. Sorry.

I'm confused (sadly, not an uncommon state of mind). You're posting on a Recovery from Mormonism board that you're happy that you played a part in someone RETURNING to Mormonism? Did I read it wrong?

who's happy to have played a part...not the poster.

Wow, color me impressed.

She probably prayed about it and the voices in her head told her it was twuuuuu.

Just for the sake of argument, let's say that the general story line is accurate.

Is it all that amazing that someone who was raised LDS and blew that off in order to signed up for an even more hardcore cult experience, wound up blowing that off and going back to her first cult?

You know, Martin Harris kept signing on with different religions all his life.

I'd bet that you could find lot's of examples of LDS that go and get all FLDS and then later 'return to the fold'.

Obviously this woman likes to have other people micro-managing her life. Her choice of a Mommy Superior to replace her birth parents is some what telling -- particularly when seen in light of her re-converting due to yet another Mommy/Daddy thing with the Elder Mishies.

Pulled out of the arse.Kinda like the tostinos pizza I had tonight

Philip Baker was a Darwin Branch president in 1982. I can't find any other Mormon news item with his name on it. It is a bit of a leap to move from Branch president to District President in one year and it surely would have been an item in the Mormon Church publications. His being a Branch President in 1981-1982 was noted in magazines and the internet. There is not enough information in the story to document it. This is probably very purposeful. You would need the name of the person, then research what that person was doing now. You could probably do a search of where the person is living, but So Cal is a pretty big area. The story came out 30 years after it occurred. Nothing in this is solid enough to ring true. This is faith promoting crap.

I can find documented story going the other direction
http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon640.html

Philip Baker Feb 1982
The missionaries’ adjustment to these living conditions has been somewhat eased, however, with living quarters erected by members of the Darwin Branch, under the direction of President Philip Baker, Darwin Branch president, and with a modification of the usual missionary attire. They live with the members of the Warramunga Tribe, but obtain groceries from the local store in Elliott, cook their own meals, and sleep in their own living quarters. Instead of regular missionary suits, they wear levis and “work” shirts most of the time.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=418faeca0ea6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

The only other thing I can find is he was the Public Affairs director for a period of time and represented the Mormon Church in religious round tables.

The elderly couple almost certainly used the rest of her family to persuade her. They probably even contacted the family and told them that they had found the "lost" sister and that she needed encouragement.

Then they would have lovebombed her until she felt that they were her only source of love and acceptance. They would have used her previous mormon experience as a springboard for teaching her and convincing her that she had felt the spirit as a child and that she was still in love with the church and that her aging family would love her again if she would just please return to her place in the church.

I imagine that the story is true, but I seriously doubt that it was a case of simply meeting these two elderly members who sat down and the spirit testified so strongly that she ripped off her Habit and reenlisted.

I haven't visited here for a couple of years, but the time I spent reading and talking with other ex-Mormons reaffirmed what I'd already come to understand. Mormons have absolutely no understanding of any other Christian denomination. They present religion as a choice between chocolate and vanilla. As another poster noted, one doesn't just wake up one day and decide to become a nun. To become a practicing Roman Catholic, one doesn't just decide to do so. This story is pure fantasy. I can see a Catholic who didn't understand their religion and who has serious problems with the conduct of church officials and who are looking for a simple (and simplistic) road to salvation becoming a Mormon. Or perhaps it's a person who needs to feel special--above his or her fellows--joining a narcisistic cult, but Christians who understand Christ could no more be a Mormon than a Mohammeden (which, BTW, the Mormon Church has most in common with in terms of tenents).

These faith building stories go back to my childhood. I remember one story about an adopted child who wondered about his "real" parents and who was told "you are extra special because we chose you." It was told as truth. Years later I saw the movie.

combination of pieces of information that is used to promote some kind of faith promoting story for Mormonism.
Totally, factually true? Probably not.

Who cares if it's true or not? Mormons convert to Catholicism all the time as I'm certain the opposite is true. If a person is searching their heart and sole for answers, one religion may take precedent over another and fulfill them.

But...I find it arrogant once again that, based on this story, the Mormons feel the need to convert a person that already is performing a religious duty. Power in numbers I suppose. Is that why large families are still encouraged in the Mormon faith? What about the toll that takes on the existing people and earth?

christieja Wrote:
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> Who cares if it's true or not? Mormons convert to
> Catholicism all the time as I'm certain the
> opposite is true. If a person is searching their
> heart and sole for answers, one religion may take
> precedent over another and fulfill them.
>
> But...I find it arrogant once again that, based on
> this story, the Mormons feel the need to convert a
> person that already is performing a religious
> duty. Power in numbers I suppose. Is that why
> large families are still encouraged in the Mormon
> faith? What about the toll that takes on the
> existing people and earth?


So it's arrogant to become LDS but it's not arrogant to become some other religion?
Wow. Just wow.
Religion really does make people arrogant, I guess. :-)

Sadly, this is not the first time something AnonExMo has posted something and left me wondering if the intended handle was really ANonExMo.

corrodedinnervessel Wrote:
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> Sadly, this is not the first time something
> AnonExMo has posted something and left me
> wondering if the intended handle was really
> ANonExMo.


I have Mormon friends on facebook and one is a stake president who always sends out messages like this to everybody. I don't always read them but I read this one. I thought somebody might have some other perspective on it. It was originally published in Meridian Magazine. My handle should really be Anon-on-the-way-out-but-mostly-ex-mo.

I didn't write this story. I just c&p it from my facebook. I am not Phil Baker.

I served a mini mission under that mission Pres Renyolds
of Perth back in the 80s. They called him the Renyolds
robot and all misionaries under him Robots also.
He was a mighty man, that went crazy to succeed at the
highest amount of baptisms in one year but most soon
left the church not long after. Some had discussions
and baptised the same day, as numbers was what it was
all about...

The FEELING in mormonism, the bible says the heart
is decietful and cant be trusted..

There was no need to take this good nun woman out
of true charity service. I should know I converted
a nun in one of my marriges and it ruined her life.

She was more loving as a catholic converted. But now
she is lost cause with god and christianity confused
what to believe as truth.

That wonderful feeling we all had in mormonism is nothing
more than a virgin seeking in his vonerability to get
malested by the spiritual vampire system of mormonism
and the occult..

Larry.

The story may have a few factual components but it is a lie - or what Mormon leaders would call a faith-promoting story.

In other words, they tell lies to promote faith in Mormonism.

What does that tell you about Mormonism, which demands strict honesty from its rank-and-file members ?