Recovery from Mormonism

from: questioner Nov. 2011

I was baptized in 1985 aged 10 going 11.I never knew or heard of any temple garments that mormon wear until I was aged 15,yet I was active until that time.It was not until 1996 aged 21 when I left Mormonism that I learnt that mormon wear garments to be worn in order to receive a temple recommend by their bishop etc.
So garment wearing is essential for salvation to be saved in the celestial kingdom and become a god,according to mormon doctrine. I had been active all those years and did not know until leaving the church. I thought it was a choice to wear garments.

How little did you know about this when you joined Mormons or were active for years?

Mormon mishies never inform converts or investigators as far as I know.

blindmag
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
Not unless nudged. I did some nudging.

Cheryl
What a shock for converts.
They join what seems to be a pleasant friendly mainstream church and end up being told how to think, what to eat, how to spend time and money, and what underwear to put on every day and sleep in every night.

European View
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I'd been a convert about five years before the bishop told me about garments in a discussion about the temple - why I couldn't go being married to a non-member. (This was the early eighties).

At first I thought this was some odd joke of his, I really took some persuading that members actually wore knee length underwear because of the temple.

You're right Cheryl, I thought I was joining this family friendly church and then then the control tightened and the weirdness showed itself.

freeman
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I'm pretty sure I knew my parents did before I was baptized, aged 8.

angsty
I can't remember not knowing
My parents were open about their garments and my mother breastfed a lot of kids after me, so it was hard not to notice. I remember when I was old enough to start 'helping' with laundry, my mother taught me to treat the garments with special dignity and I remember helping her cut the markings out of the ratty ones. She taught me not to let them fall on the floor, to always fold them carefully and neatly and to let her know if any of them were ratty so she could repair them or dispose of them properly, etc.

Those lessons really stuck with me. I did not feel special wearing garments, I felt suffocated. But my mother did feel special about them (how sad is it that THAT is what made her feel special?). When I left the church and was getting rid of all my g's, I disposed of them 'properly' just for my mother because I'll never forget how she felt about them-- although I never felt that way myself.

Misfit
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I was baptized as a convert at the age of 14. Didn't know about the garments until I was 19 and getting ready to go on a mission. I'm still wondering why I didn't bolt as soon as I found out about them. I'm pretty sure my eyes were wide open and my jaw was hanging open when my sister first told me about them.
My son, 14 at the time, had the same expression on his face when i told him about the special undies.

jan
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
Interesting comments. Several never-Mo friends of mine have asked me if I wear the special underwear; I thought garments were common knowledge, both within and without the organization.

imalive
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I joined in my mid teen years as the only member in my family. I do remember once I turned 18 and was in RS tht I first learned about garments, etc. It wasn't until I got my own endowment in my mid 20s that I ran smack dab into the whole garmie thing. I've worn them so much that it's become a habit.

Bill
Re: How long before there are no garments?
The garment's have changed over time and with more and more exposure the day will come when they will no longer be required.
Like throat slitting, polygamy,priesthood for the blacks,etc.etc.

ginger
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
As far back as I can remember, my mom would wear them around the house all the time. I thought they were ugly, especially as I got to be a teenager. I knew I never wanted to wear those things.

unworthy
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
My parents wore them sometimes. Never made a secret of them. As I grew older and my parents distanced themselves from the mormons,,they quit wearing them. I always considered them ugly and restritive. Never wanted to have anything to do with them. Still think they are a joke.

jameswilmons
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
My parents were open about them from the beginning. Probably because my dad walked around with no shirt over his garment top at night.
I remember being in the MTC when the MTC presidency told us that we were breaking our temple covenants if we walked around the MTC dorms without a shirt over our garment top. I actually got into an argument with the "district" leader over it. I was raised in a home where that wasn't an issue and garments were never talked about on Sundays during any of the three meetings I went to as a kid.

I guess that Provo air soils the markings.

SilkRose
SIL was getting ready to be sealed in the temple. WE went to the distribution center...and I saw ALL of the temple crap. I was like WTF is that!?!

ex-DH grew up mormon but didn't think to tell me about this crazyness (he hadn't been through the temple but he knew about garments).

I said NO WAY would I ever go through or wear those. They were UGLY and in my opinion at the time, the markings were satanic.

Cali SAlly
Don't remember how many years it was but as a convert I felt deceived
A non-member boyfriend of mine, while we were in college, (he was living with an LDS family) talked to me about garments and we both were clueless. So he sneaked some garments from his friend (the male version) and we looked at them together. What a strange way to find out. I guess I wasn't supposed to know until I got married or went on a mission....even worse!

Bro.R.H.
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I was born and raised in the church, but didn't find out about garments until I was 14 or 15. My best 'church friend' (I had a best 'school' friend and a best 'church' friend. I'm sure that means something, but I've never self-analyzed myself over that) was much more into Mormonism than I was, and he happened to mention to me once, when we were cutting Sunday School no less, that he was wearing garments. I do recall wondering how I could have been in the church so long without ever knowing about them. I also remember having a 'WTF?' moment when he said they could protect him from bodily harm.

axeldc
18 years
Neither of my parents had gone to the temple, so I didn't know until I was 18 and at BYU. I had seen my grandma wearing them, but I thought they were just old lady underwear.

sam
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
My mom wore them around the house--I thought they were weird but I was kind of conditioned to think that most people wore these. I especially thought they were weird when I was in high school

deconverted2010
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
When I was listening to the missionaries someone mentioned that they wore special clothes underneath their own clothing. I understood they wore undershirts, no big deal to me since my father and brother usually wore undershirts underneath their dress shirts. As years went by I'd hear members talk about their garments and having to dress modestly for them, no big deal either. Then I went to the temple and first of all it was very shocking having to put these things on, which by the way the first pair I bought were at least two sizes too big, then before the endowment session a sister sits me in a room and explains how they are to be worn and to say goodbye to my regular underwear. I was very uncomfortable. It was until my own going through the temple that I learned the truth about garments.

D

BahBahBlacki
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I can't remember exactly when I found out, but not soon enough apparently. One time, I found these short-like-slip things that I thought were ugly, but more comfortable to wear than slips under my skirts. I went on for years wearing magical underwear (just the bottom part) without knowing. It took my exmo Mom to say, "Better not let Grandma see you wearing her garments" for the truth to be revealed.

At the time, I thought I'd be struck by lightning or something. Nothing happened, of course, but I never used the magical underwear as a slip again.

It's fun to look back on and laugh!

WiserWomanNow
What a surprise to find out that ‘garments’ referred to UNDERWEAR!
“Garment” means an OUTER article of clothing –to everyone but Mormons!

I knew that Mormons wore white clothing to the temple. I would hear RS sisters talk about "temple dresses" and "temple garments," and I thought the two terms were synonymous.

Around the time I was taking the temple preparation classes, I had a convoluted conversation with a RS counselor. I was thinking “garments=dresses” and she was thinking “garments=underwear” until we figured out what the confusion was!

Lucky
about age 1 year maybe
yah, I learned to walk one night while being baby sat.
when my parents picked me up, the baby sitter said: I didnt know he could walk. My mom said: "he cant".
the baby sitter said: well he can NOW! I could not speak the english language but I knew very well what they were saying and remember the occassion very well.

My male parent would always just jump in the shower with out any preparation and then at the end of his shower open the bathroom door and then yell at the top of his lungs
through the house calling out my mother's name & announcing the fact that he needed some clean garments,which he expected my mom to fetch. funny thing, while yelling he would often alter his speech pattern to say the word *garment*, because garments are sacred and even the word too. I quickly learned
that if I tried to relay the message to my mom, that as a child I wasnt allowed to say the word *garment*, because it was too sacred. yah, about as soon as I could understand the language. yah, thats how messed up my MORmON upbringing was.

Unapproved Message

nickerickson
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I knew from a young, young, young age and remember seeing my parents in them and being told how they were sacred and I remember watching my mom burn the sacred symbols she cut out of old garments on a piece of aluminum foil atop the stove. I never heard my parents say they were magical, but they did say it helped you to remember your vows. Which I find funny. Garments are just as much a reminder as a ring or the fact you said "I do" to whoever or made a promise to someone to be faithful. In fact, garments can come off just as easily as regular underwear and t-shirt now days.

Just saying.....

sgc
That's funny, In 1975-76, when Mormon missionaries came to my house, I found their story very interesting
and went through the six "lessons". I read the BOM scripture passages they advised and prayed whether the BOM was true, but I never felt anything. They did indeed tell me about eternal progression, but explained that they didn't usually share that with investigators, and gave me the, "milk before Meat" line. They also explained about the garments and told me some garment miracle stories. I guess they weren't following missionary protocol. Anyway; I wasn't convinced and never converted.

blindmag
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I always knew about them kind of as my parants alwlays had thairs in washing baskets and around the house. If it was in the washing pile infront of the washing machine we had something else down like a towel before the garments went to the wash pile.

My mother and sister tried to get me into thongs and lacy undies before the garment stage but I found I coudnt stand diffrent underware after I got used to deacent fitting stuff so i'd have gone insane with garments.

Every Member a Janitor
I wore a garment top as a t-shirt in Jr. High P.E. Class. Thought those markings were odd. 

SpongeBob SquareGarments
I was in my 20s
I had no idea until I was listening to a radio broadcast with two missionaries in my home and a caller asked about the magic underwear. I asked the missies what he meant and they enlightened me - saying it was no big deal.

transplant in texas
i grew up helping with laundry and always knew
so it wasnt weird at all to me. we left in 2007 and a few months ago my daughter found an old pair at the bottom of the laundry basket and when i told her about them she started giggling uncontrollably and saying "magic special underwear, magic special underwear..." she still thinks they are hilarious. good thing that happened after we got back from visiting the bro in Utah... =0) she is so smart!

andyb
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
Probably when I was 10, about 1958 when my Mom converted, my folks started goin' to the Cardston temple and they started wearin' the Rocky Mountain Surf Shirt.... thought it was damn strange lookin' underwear then...still do....

Nealster
Re: How long were you a mormon before you knew Mormons wear special garments?
I'd been in the church about 15 months and was already on my way out (although at that time I didn't know it).

One day, 5th November 1991 to be exact, my Mother had been talking to some of her work collegues (my mom was not a member) about mormonism and someone told her about special underwear, and in turn, told me. I actually laughed about it, thinking it was just anti-mormon rumor.

Later that evening, I was at a bonfire/fair on a park in the city I live in. 1000's of people there. I bumped into one of the members and asked him what I'd been told. Instead of answering my question, he said to his brother "Nealster knows about garments" then turned to me and said it was something I shouldn't worry about.

I didn't learn about the full details until I found this site however.

"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"