Former LDS Church Members out there?

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a_soft_answer said:
I hope I didn’t come across as I was going by emotions.
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I don’t think that you did.
That has been a huge battle to overcome in leaving Mormonism for sure. There have been many times I have found myself being lead by my emotions and I have stopped, stepped back, and let things cool down before making my next move. I just know that what I am learning of Catholicism speaks to my heart.
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The big habit to kick is interpreting your emotions as Mormonism interpreted them for you.

Ask yourself, how do I feel, and what those feelings mean to me. Rather than someone telling you, when you feel X it always means Y. The latter is ingrained in Mormons and Mormon culture, that is, telling other people what their own feelings mean.
I have discovered 1010 am, though I have been wondering if sometimes they don’t broadcast because, at least up here in the Ogden area it sounds like it is stuck between 2 stations sometimes, and other times it is loud and clear. I usually just download Catholic Answers Live podcasts and have learned so much from them.
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Two additional resources:

Intermountain Catholic (Utah’s official Catholic newspaper) is here.

A good Catholic blog from a Deacon in SLC is here.
 
Hi, Person in Ogden when I was talking about emotions I didn’t mean you. I meant how the Mormons tell you if you read the Book of Mormon you will know it is the truth. I prefer the Catholic dogma of fact and then mix it with the joy of learning. I know so much about the Mormon Religion because all of my family and their families are in it. When my Grandson went on a Mission 2 yrs ago he commented about how the Catholics he was evangelizing weren’t even on the same page with each other. He was so right because we need to take the responsibility of learning the message Jesus left for us. Joseph Smith’s witnesses to his so called revelation that he read out of a hat recanted several times. Christians gave up their lives to testify to the truth while J Smith had no evidence. The early people of the Book of Mormon that lived here in our country have not left any evidence. As time goes by the doctrine has closed up a lot of the gaps but under investigation it isn’t there. If u are LDS you have to say Christ let his Church be lost and a new one was started. I don’t think Christ could ever be thought of as making mistakes and having his Church lost. I get a little bitter and my husband has helped me see the good that they do.
 
a_soft_answer said:
But as life progressed and my faith grew I found myself longing for a true communion with God. I of course looked forward to the temple, thinking that is where I would find fulfillment. As a youth I did baptisms for the dead weekly trying to seek that closeness to God. And then of course I received my endowments and was married in the temple. And I was VERY disappointed in the experience. (I wasn’t too wigged out…I’d done some online reading prior so I knew it would be strange, plus I had a temple prep class that probably crossed the lines of what should be shared about the temple). I just did not understand how going and sitting there watching poorly produced film was supposed to bring me closer to God, and by the end you are out of time before you have to get back to real life, so even sitting to pray in the Celestial Room wasn’t fulfilling in any way, and it is hard to concentrate when you are wearing all that extra stuff, esp the head piece.
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You have to admit, though, the guy who played Satan (Michael Ballam) in the temple movie was kinda hot. 😉
a_soft_answer said:
Now I understand what I am longing for - and that is the real presence in the Eucharist.
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The more time you spend on your knees simply kneeling in front of the true presence of Christ, either in formal Eucharistic Adoration or simply kneeling in front of the tabernacle of a Catholic church, the closer you will become to Him, and get to know Him as He truly is. I cannot recommend eucharistic adoration enough. You may want to pick up a copy of “Jesus Our Eucharistic Love”, or you can read it online for free, although I would highly recommend not wandering past the book on that particular web site.

One of the things that I had to learn how to do when I first started getting serious about becoming Catholic was learning how to pray. “Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this nice day” prayers were not going to work this go-round. So I started spending time keeping Him company as He waits in repose in the blessed sacrament and just talking to Him - telling him about my day, my worries, my fears, my joys. I just practiced talking to Him like a dear friend. Now I spend time every day doing something that Catholics call Mental Prayer or mediation, and as often as I can I do this in front of the tabernacle at my church.

In a nutshell, mental prayer is putting yourself in the presence of God and spending time with Him to get to know Him better. Here’s a fantastic homily about this type of prayer from one of my favorite sites, Audio Sancto. It walks you through how to practice mental prayer.

The Power of Prayer and How to Do It
 
waves Me!

Well…I left, then got rebaptized, and am working on leaving again. It’s a long, complicated story that boils down to the LDS church feeling “safe and comfortable” during a rough time or two.
 
Oh, forgot to mention a quick thing -

As others have mentioned, we aren’t required by the Catholic church to formally resign from the LDS church. HOWEVER, the LDS church is notoriously ruthless in counting inactive and “members-on-paper-only” as being actively a part of the church. That is part of the reason why the LDS church membership number is so high (not just my opinion, I’ve read stats. I would be happy to dig them up later, but can’t now).

So, it’s one of those things one must decide for themselves. If you don’t mind them continuing to count you as part of their flock…

Personally, I haven’t decided what I am going to do…Part of me wants to stay on the records “in case”, but then again…

Ugh…
 
When I let it be known I didn’t believe in the LDS religion anymore it took about a year and then I was called about setting up a meeting with the Bishop etc to be excommunicated. I told them I was not interested because I didn’t believe in it. I think probably my family started that action. I have been a source of sadness to my parents. After being Catholic and learning so much from the Bible especially about our life in the next passing on I can’t believe I thought all the Celestial Kingdom stuff was true. It seems so far fetched to me now as one writer said." Running about Heaven to be a God and reproducing all these spirit children". Immaculate Radio at 1010 AM shares with another radio station starting about 7 PM and it has poor reception until 7 am. Mother Angelica wanted to help them I think. That is what they told me. When I get insomnia at night and it is to annoying I listen to Divine Office.org produced here in SLC. It is the Liturgy of the Hours all taken from the Bible with Cathedral Hymns.and other great music. I have a iPod that I down load the podcast from iTunes. I find this is a blessing to pray to. YOU can read the psalms or I listen to the voices mostly. Before I got a iPod I just found it on the internet and it comes right up
 
I’m another former Mormon. Raised LDS and now in my 40’s. Lived in Provo area for many years, but recently moved out of Utah for a new job. I will be baptized Catholic this Easter. Its been a difficult journey, but well worth it.
 
nevadaborn:

Welcome home! 👍

I would love to read your journey. Have you thought about posting it?
 
Thanks for the welcome! Maybe I can post my story sometime after Easter, things are a little busy right now. Really, my story is simiiar to many others. I became disillusioned with the truth claims of Mormonism for the typical reasons that many exMormons give. I moved towards Catholicism because of the Church Fathers, the historical continuity of the church, the simple reasonableness of the faith, and of course the guidence of the Holy Spirit.
 
nevadaborn said:
I’m another former Mormon. Raised LDS and now in my 40’s. Lived in Provo area for many years, but recently moved out of Utah for a new job. I will be baptized Catholic this Easter. Its been a difficult journey, but well worth it.
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Welcome Home! Nice to gain another former LDS.
 
nevadaborn said:
I’m another former Mormon. Raised LDS and now in my 40’s. Lived in Provo area for many years, but recently moved out of Utah for a new job. I will be baptized Catholic this Easter. Its been a difficult journey, but well worth it.
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Welcome home!.

I, too, former Mormon. Lived many years in Provo. Also in my 40’s.

God Bless. We are here if you need us. We know the journey. 🙂
 
blueadept said:
Since you are in the heart of Mormonism, I would tend to believe your RCIA classes would be careful not to step to hard on any LDS toes in preaching the Gospel. When I went through the RCIA experience as a Catholic a few years back, I knew my wife would never like the class since crass remarks occasionally dropped about those non-Christian Mormons. Hmmm…😦
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I’ve seen quite a few crass remarks from LDS about Catholics too, NOM has recently had postings about Sacrament meetings with ugly comments about Catholics, would your wife see those comments as acceptable? What about LDS presidents commenting on and defining non-LDS symbolism, or misrepresenting Trinitarian beliefs in general conference talks. Would she object to that or just assume that what the prophet said was true? LDS leaders speak far and away more on Trinitarian beliefs than Catholic leaders speak about LDS beliefs. They like to pretend they are attacking no one because they attack a general belief. I have never in my entire life heard a Catholic priest speak about any other religion in a homily, from LDS people I interact with this is not the case in sacrament meeting. It is also not the case with the LDS missionaries who have come to my house, from my experience their main purpose in knocking on my door is to tell me my beliefs are wrong.
 
Just got back from my first ever Palm Sunday Mass. Powerful! This is how Holy Week should be celebrated. To think I’ve been missing out on all this for 40 years!

I just wish I could share the experience with my wife and children. Maybe someday, if the Holy Spirit works a miracle.
 
nevadaborn said:
Just got back from my first ever Palm Sunday Mass. Powerful! This is how Holy Week should be celebrated. To think I’ve been missing out on all this for 40 years!

I just wish I could share the experience with my wife and children. Maybe someday, if the Holy Spirit works a miracle.
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I remember my first Holy Week, esp Triduum, a year before I became fully initiated.

I was blown away. I had never ever worshipped like THAT before. I had been converted to what it is truly meant by “worshipping Christ”

Have a most Blessed Holy Week. Enter into the mystery of this most Holy Week of holy time filled with grace.
 
nevadaborn said:
Just got back from my first ever Palm Sunday Mass. Powerful! This is how Holy Week should be celebrated. To think I’ve been missing out on all this for 40 years!

I just wish I could share the experience with my wife and children. Maybe someday, if the Holy Spirit works a miracle.
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Just back as well. My family is atheist, with no desire to hear me go on and on about Palm Sunday.

[BIBLEDRB]Luke 2:19[/BIBLEDRB]
 
RebeccaJ said:
Just back as well. My family is atheist, with no desire to hear me go on and on about Palm Sunday.

[BIBLEDRB]Luke 2:19[/BIBLEDRB]
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I attended three Palm Sunday Masses. One Sat vigil Mass OF, one OF and my normal FSSP parish for a Sung Mass…and I thought the Passion Gospel reading was long in English! :eek:

Its been alternating between rain, HARD rain, snow and hail here all weekend. Im glad the one priest who decided to actually do a procession was my “home” priest, by which time the precipitation had cooled off a lot! :snowing:
 
TheExorcist said:
I attended three Palm Sunday Masses. One Sat vigil Mass OF, one OF and my normal FSSP parish for a Sung Mass…and I thought the Passion Gospel reading was long in English! :eek:

Its been alternating between rain, HARD rain, snow and hail here all weekend. Im glad the one priest who decided to actually do a procession was my “home” priest, by which time the precipitation had cooled off a lot! :snowing:
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The Palm Sunday Passion reading is one of my favorites. When we all kneel at the death of Our Lord, I could just stay there. So, I spent some time afterwards in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

The bad weather made it so we didn’t have a procession, but I was prepared with an umbrella. It was really coming down, a mix of rain and snow.

(Holy Week will have my knees worn out! 🙂 )
 
nevadaborn said:
Just got back from my first ever Palm Sunday Mass. Powerful! This is how Holy Week should be celebrated. To think I’ve been missing out on all this for 40 years!

I just wish I could share the experience with my wife and children. Maybe someday, if the Holy Spirit works a miracle.
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Palm Sunday is truly powerful, but wait until Holy Thursday, and Good Friday.

Holy Thursday always leaves me with a big lump in my throat.

You my friend have just experienced the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
 
RebeccaJ said:
(Holy Week will have my knees worn out! 🙂 )
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Attending my EF parish is wearing my knees and my back and my hips out.

I did Stations of the Cross for the first time a week ago Friday. THAT night wasn’t SO bad but the next 3 or 4 days…OUCH! Its like a physical workout and a spiritual workout all in one!

Today was my first sung mass ever. Do they have the EF in SLC. If so, where at?

Charles
 
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