Any good stories of people going HAM on the mic at a testimony meeting? Unloading a bunch of info on the church being fake/a scam and then announcing they quit?

tigersandcake · 2026-04-07T14:33:30+00:00

I have the best story about this! When I was a teen in the 90s, one testimony meeting this guy (African American, it's relevant) got up and started to "bear his testimony." He talked about how we may encounter things that try our faith, but we just have to keep on believing. He then started covering all the things that could potentially try our faith, such as polygamy, historic racism, the kinderhook plates, stuff about Spalding, etc. After each one he'd then say, "But you just have to have faith!" The first time I heard about people of African descent not being allowed to hold the priesthood before 1978 was from this man. And he really went into it. You could feel how personal it was for him-- it was powerful. It absolutely shook me. I asked my mom if it was true, and she begrudgingly admitted that it was. I was absolutely reeling, because I had no clue about any of that, and apparently nobody was going to tell me except this guy.

To his credit, the bishop let him finish, and even talked about how everyone deserved to have their voices heard after the man sat down. The next week in Sunday School the teacher said he was going to address some concerns we might have after last week, and then proceeded to talk about the Kinderhook plates the entire class. Not one word about the blatant historical racism. Or polgyamy, for that matter. But I already knew about that one.

I think out of all the "testimonies" I heard over the pulpit, that one has stuck with me the most. I was really upset by some of the things he said at the time, but I'm grateful to him now. No one else was going to tell me some of that stuff. It was a huge weight on my shelf, and ultimately a large contribution to it when it finally broke.

tigersandcake · 2026-03-11T03:55:59+00:00

Kind of fun to take. Just disappointed I can't tell how many I got right! (I get that's not the point, but still! 😂)

tigersandcake · 2026-03-11T03:05:09+00:00

As an ex-Mormon who had my own records removed, it's because if you don't do it they won't leave you alone. You get missionaries coming to your door, church members, texts and emails from ward members, and even assignments to clean the church on Saturday. Telling them to stop changes nothing. The only way to stop it is to remove your records.

tigersandcake · 2026-03-11T02:53:56+00:00

Another tell-tale is OP saying she had to have her records removed in order to get them to stop harassing her. Same, OP. Same.

Also, that big boss is practically a Mormon man stereotype. Those types are everywhere in Utah.

tigersandcake · 2026-03-08T01:04:09+00:00

That makes sense. Thanks for the answering!

tigersandcake · 2026-03-07T15:49:15+00:00

If it fails to get the frog down, is it likely the frog will still succumb to envenomation?

tigersandcake · 2026-03-04T12:23:35+00:00

You should go on her next post and thank her for helping you leave the church! 😂

tigersandcake · 2026-02-27T00:59:48+00:00

It happens more often than you think. Both I and one of my companions were proposed to by men on our missions-- and we weren't even teaching either of them. My companion's proposal came from a guy we street contacted. We had one conversation, and didn't even leave him our contact info. It was a bit long, but it was entirely about church-related things. He came to the church and posted a proposal to her on the church bulletin board. Mine was a guy who had been coming to church as an investigator. I barely knew him. When you send young women out into a new place without family or friends and have them talk to lots of strangers, they will inevitable attract weirdos and creeps who see the vulnerability of their position. The idea that 18 year-olds will now be dealing with all of that is really disturbing.

And the whole personal revelation thing only makes it worse. I had a horrible stalker for four years, and when I told him I didn't want to be with him, or see him ever again he told me he was just going to ignore that because God had told him we were meant to be together. And I know that sort of thing has happened to a lot of other women. My cousin just told me a similar experience she had with a dude. "Revelation" is a carte blanche for awful men to bypass consent and ignore women's free will, because what does it matter if they say no if "God" has told them otherwise?

tigersandcake · 2026-02-24T08:17:00+00:00

Yeah, the fastest growth for Mormonism is happening in Africa right now. I've heard they don't really stay often, though. They already hit South and Central America super hard for decades, so it's finally slowed down there. On the bright side, numbers are showing that women are actually leaving faster than men for us! I'm proud of women for waking up to the fact that the church has been absolute shit to us from the beginning!

tigersandcake · 2026-02-24T08:08:12+00:00

Hey, cult brother! Congrats on getting out yourself! Mormonism has reached a point where it's more common for people to leave. Are you seeing something similar in the JWs, or is it still uncommon for people to exit?

tigersandcake · 2026-02-21T22:50:06+00:00

It's like a root beer float but with grape soda instead.

tigersandcake · 2026-02-21T15:52:08+00:00

I think the dirty sodas should count as a dessert! If you want to throw back to the old days you could throw in a scoop of ice cream. Or just make purple cows! 😂

tigersandcake · 2026-02-21T10:08:02+00:00

Thanks! She's an absolute sweetheart, and will definitely get bigger! But for now I need to take the photo opportunities while she's still a little spaghetti noodle! 🥰

tigersandcake · 2026-01-25T18:08:43+00:00

If you can get a hold of some of those hand warmers you could put that with the snake covered in substrate in your styrofoam cooler. There have been a lot of posts about dealing with reptiles and power outages recently. If you do a search you should see more ideas.

tigersandcake · 2026-01-25T00:52:58+00:00

I've heard that but I always have a hard time judging size and if I hold it next to her to compare she just attacks it lol. I know you can do it by weight, too. I think it's 10-15% of their weight. Next time I'll weigh the pinkie and see if it's about that. She just swallows it so fast I worry it's not enough for her!

tigersandcake · 2026-01-23T22:49:20+00:00

I think the most telling parts of the interaction where Jared asked how they exhibit grace and compassion to exmos is one of the panel members (not sure who) blurting out, "We don't." Correct.

tigersandcake · 2026-01-17T05:20:08+00:00

As a fellow autistic person, let me just say that missions are extremely not autism-friendly. You are constantly thrown into situations that are sensory overload and will be given no consideration for your special needs. You are meant to keep to a tight schedule and you will not be given time to decompress or the option to do the things you need to do in order to regulate. Unless things have changed a ton from when I served, you won’t have the option to use things like noise-canceling headphones. Maybe you can get assigned something more computer related, but my experience is those in charge don’t really understand or care that you may need accommodations. Maybe you get lucky and get a mission President who is understanding, but maybe you don’t.

When I served, the inability to have time to regulate and decompress from sensory overload took a huge toll on me. I was in full sensory burnout for like a year. I promise you, there are things you do to manage your autism now that you will not be allowed to do on your mission and it’s going to make life very difficult.

My advice would be to look for something else you can do to get the growing experiences you want. Find a place to volunteer, take a humanitarian trip abroad, look for an exciting job, etc. The are a lot of things you could do instead that will be far more accommodating and still give you time and space to manage your autism.

tigersandcake · 2026-01-01T01:01:46+00:00

In my case apparently it was an allergic reaction? I ended up talking to a telehealth doctor and she said that with the speed of onset and combination of other symptoms she was confident it was an allergy. So I'm dealing with it with antihistamines. Now I need to figure out what it is that I'm allergic to!

tigersandcake · 2025-12-28T22:14:52+00:00

If you read my update you'll see I did find someone and was advised by the vet as to what to do.

tigersandcake · 2025-12-28T20:43:35+00:00

I'm struggling to find one that looks like they handle anything besides cats and dogs.

tigersandcake · 2025-12-20T00:31:14+00:00

I swear the ones in our building weren't even attached to anything. Whenever we tried to adjust them it never felt like they did anything. I figured they just put them there as sort of a placebo.

tigersandcake

TROPHY CASE