How a JW was instrumental in deconverting me from Mormonism

Noggin

I used to be able to state, with clear emphasis... and a straight face, that I KNEW the Mormon Church was God's ONLY true church on the face of the earth. I used to be made up of a highly Polarized Mormon Mind Set . I knew what I knew, but how did I know it? Turns out that my premise was extremely tenuous and unproven. It is amazing the level of confidence one can achieve from such unproven and unreliable context. As a Mormon missionary, I asserted to literally thousands in Europe that Mormonism was God's only true church. I have long suspected that the faith taught to me was not all that it was cracked up to be. My doubts started to increase to unavoidable levels about 10 years ago. In truth, my suspicions started in the midsts of my early Mormon Seminary experience when I encountered some pretty strange doctrines and inconsistencies within the Mormon structure. However, I was taught that The Spirit was the Testifier of ALL truth. I was taught that if I felt good when I prayed, nothing else mattered. This feeling was testifying to me that Mormonism was The Truth. I became confused when I would talk to my religious friends of other faiths who also felt "The Spirit" at their churches. I rationalized this to mean that they only had "part" of God's Truth but that Mormons had "All" of it. That worked for years but left me wanting. I embarked on a Mormon 2 year mission to Spain, Barcelona. In Spain I encountered all kinds of religions. Roman Catholics, Baha'I, Spiritualists, Kabbalists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals... it was fantastic. I recall one experience in particular where my companion and I thumped bibles with Pedro the Jehovah's Witness. We walked away from our discussions that took place over three different days quite perplexed... at least... I was. Clash of the Titan Ideologies: Pedro was just as convinced he had God's Truth as I was. There was no mistaking it. He called me on the carpet. I was in error according to him. He discussed the concepts of Paradise and also JW Armageddon with me and my missionary companion. He told me that I was wrong about God. I showed him passage after passage where he was wrong. We were at complete loggerheads. Thus began my fascination with religious ideology. I have always remained intrigued, to my religious undoing, as to how people believe what they believe. So we parted ways with Pedro, the Jehoavah's Witness. We had testified through the power of the Spirit that Joseph Smith was God's prophet who restored God's church on earth in our day. Pedro had rejected this firmly. We walked away satsfied that we had done our Mormon duty in warning Pedro. We knew that he would one day stand before God and be accountable for his rejection of our message that day. I distinctly recall joking with my missionary companion about an uncomfortable "what if" scenario. What if, like, when we died and went to stand for judgement before God, we stood there before him and God sadly looked at us. What if he called Pedro to our tribunal? Pedro, did you not explain to Noggin and his companion that the watchtower society was my truth? Yes, God, I did. Noggin, did you accept the message from my servant, Pedro? No, God, I did not. I am sorry, Noggin, you will not qualify for heaven. You chose to follow Joseph Smith. Oh we had a good laugh about that. My missionary companion and I laughed and laughed. A hearty guffaw. So convinced were we that Mormons had the truth that it never entered our minds that our basis for Truth was just as sketchy as Pedro's. We further imagined how angry we would be with God for deceiving us. But no, God did give us a chance... did he not? He did send Pedro to witness of the Truth. Each time I encountered another Jehovah's Witness with a different missionary companion I would run the same scenario by him and we would have the same hearty guffaw. I never forgot that scenario. In later years it served me well to start fostering some critical thinking skills and eventually paved the way for me to exit the faith of Mormonism. I am now out. I am free from any religion. Thanks, Pedro, wherever you are. Noggin

KW13

thats a good story, i liked it.

juni

Good afternoon Noggin,

I am glad to hear that you are in a good place now w/yourself. A person has to be free to check out what they have been taught for it really to be their "own".

Did you have to pay for your trips to Spain,etc.? Atleast you got to see some beautiful countries.

Juni

Double Edge

Welcome Noggin. It's nice to have person who has been a Mormon. I have many Mormon friends and have been to their congregations. Although some of their doctrines are rather odd, as a people, I really enjoy being around them. (I like their social functions, especially the softball games and bar-b-ques). Even though you're "out" of the religion, it will be nice for someone who was once a member to chime in once-in-a-while and dispell some of the crazy misconceptions people have about Mormons....

Saru

Noggin,

Your story was enjoyable & I hope Pedro is kicking back somewhere in Spain post exit the wt & being thankful for his encounter with you. Maybe you did something for him as well. A q for you. Do you still believe in God ? I ask because there are quite a number of people that are now aetheist after going through all of that. Just curious. Thanks again

Kero-kero

That was a great story, I really enjoyed it......Thanks

love2Bworldly

I like your story very much. Just goes to show how all cults are similar in their tactics.

M.J.

Interesting situation here at work. There's a hardcore mormon, just a few years removed from his 2 yr mission in S. America, sitting in the same office as an ex-Mormon who is now a total Baptist. They seem to get along ok.

Qcmbr

Hi Noggin,

What do you believe now? Do you reject all the supposed truth of Mormonism or just parts of it?

Genesis

Thanks a lot Noggin for the Polarized Mormon Mindset transcript. I read it all and that was insightful.

A few questions :

1- Do your study on religions (and cults) worthed it ? It seemed to be very interesting (especially in non Judeo Christian faith like Eckankar and Scientology).

2-You seemed to still believe things that you have gathered from numerous cults (like Astral Projections and Astral travels), how do you put all that in one explanation ?

3- Are you now an atheist or you still believe in something higher ?

No mistake, I dont want to preach, im more atheist than anything else now (I exited a cult...) and would like know the views of someone that has seen many religious groups and practise critical thinking and rationnal analyse.

Thanks in advance,

Joff

How a JW was instrumental in deconverting me from Mormonism

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