I walked away from TSCC a year ago, and haven't been back since. Mormonism no longer has any relevance in my life, and it's quaintly amusing that sending me a paragraph from Monson's FP Christmas devotional is supposed to overcome me with warm fuzzies and send me running slo-mo through a meadow full of flowers, tithing check in one hand, toilet brush in the other as I race eagerly back to: "rededicate myself to the principles taught by Jesus Christ" (pay my tithing),
"lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness" (harass people who want to be left alone),
"calling our families together" (pressure your inactive spouses and family members),
"forgetting self and finding time for others" (cleaning toilets on Christmas day),
"discarding the meaningless and stressing true values" (read, think, and do only what Big Bro......oops, I mean "The Church" tells you too.
Well, number one, I'm not going to meet with any bishop, and number two, it's time to make things official. I want to happen as smoothly and swiftly as possible; I've heard you can resign through email now, and am thinking of going that route. Any ideas or suggestions?

You can send it to your bishop, or to Greg Dodge in SLC.
The email for Greg Dodge is on RFM, someplace....

Here is the Phone And Fax Number:
Member Records Division
801-240-2053 - Phone
801-240-1565 - Fax
1-800-453-3860 ext 22053 - Toll Free
Email:
dodgegw@ldschurch.org

http://packham.n4m.org/leaving.htm

Love your "translations" of Monson's "inspiring message," intellecturalfeminist!

Thanks SusieQ#1 and Wiserwomannow for the contact & resignation info. As for translating monson.....;P

intellectualfeminist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks SusieQ#1 and Wiserwomannow for the contact
> & resignation info. As for translating
> monson.....;P

The long letters many write (mine was about a page long) is mainly, in my view, for us, not the LDS Church. Frankly, I don't think they care why we leave. They might care on a local level, but for SLC COB, membership records is only concerned with processing records aka computer clicks! :-)

I have had the experience in years past as a member, of assisting members to resign their membership. It included about two sentences or so. That did it.
It's all handled on a local level now. GA's don't get involved in processing membership records.

Now that email is considered a legal document and used in courts, it's an easy way to resign membership in the LDS Church.

Yeah, I don't intend to write a novel or get into personal details, but I will give a brief written nod to BoydKKK for hammering the final nail in the coffin at Oct. Conference. They may not care, but I want to make sure they know that miserable, hate-filled old cretin has cost them another tithepayer as they process their records with their computer clicks.

My advice: Show up with a large foam rubber hand that's flipping the bird. Be strong. Say something to him that will send the message that Monson is a very, very creepy individual.

"lift the lives of those who live in loneliness" (Mormons with no real friends)

"calling our families together" (and making sure they know the truth and where the best books and websites are for Mo cleansing)

"forgetting self and finding time for others" (what I do on this board...ignoring my chores and hanging out with a cup a joe)

"discarding the meaningless and stressing true values" (read factual history, think, meditate, keep my time and money for myself and the ones I love or care about.)

Yes, indeed, refreshing just to think of it.



Anagrammy

Quote in LDS Apostle Russell Nelson's article, "A Treasured Testament", in the July 1993 Ensign (the article is online at www.lds.org; use the Search function to find it):

"Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man."

Why hasn't the LDS Church taught members and potential converts about Smith's 'magical'-rock-and-hat BoM 'translation' technique? The answer is obvious: Who would remain a member and who would join if they knew the truth?!

Why were the gold plates even needed, since Joseph Smith's 'peep' stone clearly did the job as far as 'translating' the BoM is concerned?! The huge problem is that it says in the BoM (and LDS 'prophets' have taught for generations) that 'the Lord' commanded BoM 'prophets' to keep an account of what was going on during their lives as well as teachings and doctrines.

But according to the quote in Nelson's article, there was no gold plate in JS' hat, only the 'magical' rock ('seer' stone) that mysteriously emitted "something resembling parchment" upon which one character at a time would appear. There are 1,150,219 characters in the BoM, which means that it took JS nearly a year (at eight hours per day) of putting his face in his hat and calling out the characters to his scribe to 'translate' the BoM. Why don't church pictures show him doing so?

Also online is "A Seer Stone and a Hat - 'Translating' the Book of Mormon" (ref. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPnu0bx3oWg)

1,150,219 characters in the BOM. 1,150,218 spell out "And it came to pass". That phrase irritated the stuffing out of me. Petty, I know, but that phrase, more than the actual boring stories, is what made it impossible for me ever to read all the way through. Didn't Mark Twain say something to the effect that, "Without 'and it came to pass', it would be the Pamphlet of Mormon? If he didn't, he should have.

As I recall this is common historical knowledge.

1,150,219 characters in the BOM. 1,150,218 spell out "And it came to pass".

So does feces.

Take a bucket and place all things "Mo" in said bucket:

BoM, D&C, pictures of GAs, keychains, etc.
Temple garb
Cleaning supplies
Your name and copy of email resignation letter.


Done!

LOL! These are all good :D
As for the bishop himself, as far as they go, he's about as good as you can get. I know I've been talked about at those ward council meetings or whatever they're called where you discuss the 'inactives' and try to figure out how to "love" them back to church. But for an entire year, until December, I've been almost completely left alone. I suspect that's because Bishop L. has told people to back off and not press the issue. I had VTs drop something yummy off months ago when I wasn't home, and got an email invite in Nov. to go to a crèche festival the local stake does each year. I used to be one of the featured singers at that event, so it was probably seen as a non-threatening gesture, but no one has harassed or pressured me to come back. When a person who's been a faithful member for 22 years is suddenly and completely gone........they may not know what to do, and I think it's finally beginning to sink in that I really have moved on. Now I just need to make it official.