There is a regular contributor here who occasionally mentioned things that caught my attention and made me think, "That totally reminds me of so-and-so!" After this happened multiple times, I found myself searching through this individual's past posts in hopes of gleaning more clues...

"Is it possible? Could it be?!" I eventually concluded that it was not and was surprised at the intense emotion I felt -- I was crushed. lol I really, really wanted it to be this person.

Do y'all ever find yourselves doing things like that?

Oh come on, I know you do! 'Fess up! ;-)

yup

I did discover that another poster is someone I knew from my TBM past. Another friend I know told me he lurks here. Not sure if he's ever posted, though. A number of other people from one of my previous wards eventually left the church. Must have been something in the water. Because it's happened before, I'm always trying to see if other posters seem familiar.

I actually go to great lengths to disguise my identity so that no one I knew as a Mormon will find out who I am. For instance, people probably think I'm a gay white male returned missionary living in the northeastern United States. I'm actually a heterosexual female native of Mauritania with impeccable English-as-a-second-language skills, currently on her second husband.

But don't spread it around. ;)

There have been a couple, and one confirmed, but that is all.

I've done that - looked through someone's past posts til I read something that lets me know for sure that the person isn't someone I know. When I post, I do change certain details about my life though to make it harder to figure out who I am but nothing big. I really do have two kids and we really are Broncos fans but if I'm talking about someone in the ward or something, I might change the number of kids they have or where they went on vacation as long as the story remains the same. I may not like certain ward members but they do deserve some privacy and I try to remember that. So when I'm trying to figure out if a poster is someone I know, I look at the big stuff and assume maybe someone else is doing the same thing I am about the little stuff.

I've never found anyone I know but a couple of people have really gotten my hopes up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2013 10:31AM by CA girl.

I'm surprised you don't hide that you're a Bronco's fan ;)

Well, it's the closest thing I have to a new religion so I have to come clean about that. :) Are you suggesting there is a better team to root for? I'll give you the New Orleans Saints too, but after that I have a list in descending order of preference.

I know a poster here.
After reading between the lines for a while, I decided I knew her and sent an email.
She remembered me, from her TBM days. We have lunch once in a while.

My apostate family members have all gotten back to me at one time or another and told me how so and so figured out it was me on here.

I've learned from this that the shear number of people who left the church from my stake is amazing. The other thing that impressed me is that the ones who left, that I know of, were the people in the church who were highly regarded for their wit and intelligence. The church is not just hemorrhaging members, it is loosing its best and brightest.

No, because there seems to be so few ex-Mos from my area. There must be ex-Mos from around here, but they don't seem to hang out on-line.

Greyfort, it's likely that we know each other. I mostly lurk. I think you posted once that you lived in Vancouver and that Ryan Gosling would show up at Church occassionaly. I was attending the Vancouver Ward during that time as well and was in the YMP.

alcoa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Greyfort, it's likely that we know each other. I
> mostly lurk. I think you posted once that you
> lived in Vancouver and that Ryan Gosling would
> show up at Church occassionaly. I was attending
> the Vancouver Ward during that time as well and
> was in the YMP.

Hi alcoa. I'm actually from Toronto, although not living there right now.

When Ryan would show up occasionally in church, it was when I was living in Burlington, Ontario. He was away a lot, filming in Vancouver, but his Mom and sister were in church every week.

He was considered to be the star of the ward and all the girls had actually scribbled his name in their scriptures. LOL Naughty girls.

He wouldn't remember me. He was a teen at the time. But I worked in the Primary with his best friend and everyone would ask him how Ryan was doing.

I don't think he considers himself to be a Mormon at all now though.

I've never been to Vancouver, but I have non-Mormon family in Victoria. I bet it's really beautiful out there.

I sometimes wonder if any ex-Mos knew me from my LDS chatroom days, but no one has mentioned it. I had the same screen name back then. It would have been from about '98 to 2000.

ps. I used to live in Burlington, but years ago. I'm in SW Ont. now.

I don't think it would be right for me to tell the details but some folks recognized each other each not knowing that the other was out. Warms my heart to hear it repeated. Perhaps the players will relate it again here.

Yes, and I actually found an old friend I grew up with, out of the blue! It was wonderful to reconnect with someone who grew up and experienced the same , or many of the same things I did. Made my year :)

Yes, that was a happy day! Love ya!

Nope. It doesn't seem likely that anyone I knew from church would ever make their way out. All of my real friends were non-members, so if someone I knew from church showed up on this site it wouldn't be a big deal to me.

If some of my friends from the mission showed up, though, that would be awesome. CA-San Diego '03-'05 shoutout!

Yup, me too. I'd feel less isolated and alone if I knew some of my former friends/ward members/acquaintances were here (especially since I have to remain mostly in the closet IRL).

I try to disguise myself, so the chances of them recognizing me are probably pretty low.

Nope. They'd have to mention Northern Nevada before I'd even try to piece anything together, and I don't ever remember anyone else here from that area.

Southern and sometimes Central Nevada here but we sometimes visit the beautiful city of Reno.

Carol

Ah darn. Lovelock mainly here, and I knew several people in Fallon too and maybe one or two in Winnemucca.

I'm always wondering and hoping. I have a load of cousins, I keep wondering if any of them are on here. I have a lot of cousins i've never met that are from Utah, I wonder.

I find it difficult to believe that i'm the only one who has left.

I have a couple cousins who probably left too, but we're not close enough that I'd likely know who they were here. One got married too young to a guy just because he was mormon and getting a professional degree. She had to talk herself into marrying him even tho she didn't love him, and most the time it sounded like she didn't even like him. She was unhappy because they had a ton of kids and he was bishop and between job and church spent no time with her or them. So she ran off with some guy and lived in sin with him for awhile. That's pretty much the last I heard of her. She either left the church, or she went back hardcore. Hard to know which fork she took.

I'm sure some of the people who I went to church with in high school also left, but again I didn't stay in touch and wouldn't know who they were unless they posted the town we grew up in.

I have reconnected with someone I grew up with thanks to this board. This person recognized details from my posts and figured out who I was. It's very comforting to find childhood friends and acquaintances who have also left. I have since reconnected with a handful of former school mates who are also former mormons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2013 12:23PM by Queen of Denial.

There are two posters on this board who served in my mission the same time I did. I talked with one of them off-board, and it was very validating to learn that I'm not the only one who thinks my mission president was a controlling, narcissistic ass. There is also someone who knows my family here, and I try to make sure I get my stories straight for his benefit. :-)

I must not be trying because there are people here I know, but they figured out my identity first. Hi, guys.

I often wonder. Especially since I grew up in the morridor

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner.......

and from the UK - there are few posters, here, from the UK and fewer still from my area.

However, I have seen a couple of posters in other forums that I knew as TBM's (and are now Ex's)

I was reading a post about a year ago and the poster described in detail the chapel I had attended as a child. I called a friend that I know sometimes posts here and told him that someone else from our old ward is also posting. He then told me that he had changed his name because of a ciber stalker and the poster was actually him.

I wish I could find someone I knew on RfM! That would be so fun, but so far no luck. . .

I was very lonely trying to leave the church. I wish I knew ANYONE who had left willingly. It would have helped a lot. Hopefully people I know or knew lurk here and will see my name. Hopefully it will make someone's passage easier than mine.

ya... a couple of times... I found out I knew the person. Also, a couple of relatives recognized me and also left the church.