I just reconnected with my friend from high school who converted to Mormonism. I lost contact with her many years ago, and it took a long time to find her once again. She is the person who sparked my lifelong interest in all things Mormon. She is the person who, without knowing it, sent me down the rabbit hole. Indirectly, she sent me here. I always knew that Mormonism was not for me, but my conversations with her back in the old days were both enlightening and interesting. After she went to BYU, we went our separate ways. I figured that she was temple married, and settled in Utah with her RM and a passel of kids.

Much to my surprise and delight, she is OUT. Out, out, out, out, out.

The church excommunicated her years ago. They tracked her down relentlessly to do so, using the sorts of tactics that we know all too well. I'm sure that in the minds of church authorities, there were very good reasons.

We would simply call it, "living your life." The Mormon church excommunicated her for living her life.

During her younger days, she personally knew some of the biggest, best known personalities in the church -- names that appear on this board with regularity. One of them, a very charismatic man, was responsible for her conversion. He used to drive her to early morning seminary.

But that is long ago and far away. Now she is out. I am so glad for my dear friend. She deserved far better than what the church had to give her. She is a good, decent, kind person. She is inclusive and tolerant. She is a feminist. She is real.

Hooray for my friend! Hooray for life. One more person out. One more person who has dropped the shackles in favor of freedom.

I am so happy. :)

Awesome!

Wow, Summer! I'll bet the two of you have a lot of talking and catching up to do. Give her a big high-5 from all of us here. If she's willing, it would be interesting to hear why she converted. Best wishes, Boner.

HI! I also found a high school friend a few years ago who was out. He joined in high school and the last I heard he was going on a mission. Found him on FB a few years ago - from his post and pictures I realized he was gay. Finally sent him a private message. He did go on a mission, but then realized it was all a sham...so happy for him!!

Now if only my life-long friend would realize the sham also -giving so much of her life and her kids' lives to the church!! Makes me soooo sad!

I had not heard of the church relentlessly tracking someone down who'd gone incognito, just so it could excommunicate that person.

How awful for her to have been subjected to that. If anything though it would reinforce her decision for leaving on her own.

Glad you were able to reconnect!

They track people down relentlessly not usually to excommunicate them, but just to track them.

When they discover a person is "living in sin" then there is a fairly good chance they can be "ex'ed" at least it was in the past - unless they are able to have the person resign, which I understand is their latest approach, so that they don't have to go through with excommunication, whether it's from the extra time and work involved or the negative publicity that can bring.

Freedom is a beautiful thing -

Awesome story. There is a friend I knew when I met my now-husband. We both became engaged at roughly the same time, at BYU, went on double dates, and were friends after our weddings. She threw my first baby shower for me and my ward helped organise her wedding reception, as she had little family support.

Twenty years later, I have lost touch with her and cannot find her. I have discovered through Facebook that her husband is married to someone else, it looks like with their kids. Her cousin says she hasn't heard from her in some time.

I wish I could reconnect with her and share our stories, but suspect that she's out of the church, and I fear that she so reluctant of remaking old church connections that she is hiding from them.

Maybe someday!!!

>> Twenty years later, I have lost touch with her and cannot find her.

I realized that what I had been doing wasn't working (my friend has a rather common name.) It didn't matter how many times I searched for her name and BYU and our high school. Nothing came up.

So I took a different approach. I searched for her mom. Once I found her mom, it was easy to find my friend.

She had a Principal Rooney as a bishop?

Another soul saved from the cult. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

I have yet to see any "friend" from high school leave the church. They are all now over the top TBM that it is vomit-inducing. My hope is that someday my daughter will leave the church.

THIS IS GREAT, but, yes, they do hunt them down. They were hunting down my ex.

I've got some that are officially out and a whole lot more who haven't gone to church in 40 years. All good.

I can see why you are happy. Great news.Hope you will share lots of experiences with each other.