Meet Larry, from Southern California and a Mormon family. Despite a relatively normal upbringing, Larry began noticing the differences his faith brought into his life. Larry enjoyed a balanced childhood, all while Larry harbored doubts about the truth of Mormonism. His doubts deepened when a Patriarchal blessing of protection for his family during his mission was shattered by his brother’s tragic accident and subsequent death. These doubts were dutifully shelved until 2016 when his daughter revealed shocking discrepancies in church history she learned while at BYU-Hawaii. This revelation led Larry to discover the controversial church essays, and within weeks, he was out of the church. Larry and his wife resigned in 2017, prioritizing facts over faith, and found happiness outside Mormonism.
Relocating to Utah, they embraced a large post-Mormon community, building genuine friendships unbound by religion. Larry and his wife have found solace in their journey and he hosts the podcast “Nobody Knows Your Story,” where diverse guests share their life experiences, providing therapeutic conversations. Embracing a life full of discovery and acceptance, Larry and his family are making the most of the time they have, content with the uncertainties of what lies ahead.
Aloha, I’m Larry. I was born into the religion of my parents, Mormon. I grew up in Southern California and really didn’t notice I was that different until Jr High. I should mention my parents were pretty normal. On Sunday we went to church, but we changed out of our Sunday clothes, watched TV, listened to music and could have friends over. I love my wife, my kids, Hawaii, the outdoors, softball and I was a mormon.
I believed the church was true but NEVER said I knew it was. Why? Because I never had a prayer answered, and I specifically asked if it was true.
I had shelf items that began on my mission. You see, right before I left, I received a blessing and was told my family would be protected while I was away. About a year in, my younger brother Jeff broke his neck on a trampoline and was rendered a quadriplegic. He died at 28 due in part to his accident. Huh, what about the promise in the blessing? Yeah, this is where my shelf began to bow.
In 2016, our daughter came home from BYU-H for Christmas break. She asked to speak to us, started crying and asked what we knew about the church essays. We had never heard of them. She said they had been studying them in her religion class, and what they said was very different than what we were told growing up. She said she Googled lots of factual mormon history and no longer believed. Pretty shocking.
The next Sunday, sitting in Sacrament meeting, I went to lds.org and eventually found the essays. I read the first vision essay, saw that the 1832 account was the only one in Joseph’s handwriting, and that it was vastly different than the 1838 version I had been taught and that I had taught as a missionary. I clearly remember thinking, “Well fuck me”. This was January of 2017.
I immediately went to the internet, found several articles, and the Mormon stories podcast. I was out in 4 weeks. I mentioned the podcast to my wife, she listened and asked for a few books like “No Man Knows My History”. We resigned in June of 2017. We’ve never been happier. Facts over faith!
We relocated from Hawaii to AZ just before leaving mormonism. But, we didn’t feel comfortable around our former church friends and decided to move back to UT where we hadn’t lived since 1983. It’s kinda funny moving to cult central after making our escape. We ended up in the St George area, and discovered a large post Mormon community. We have developed several “real” friendships that are based on things other than religion. We love it here!
I should add that in September of 2018, our second child Dusty passed away at 31 from a spontaneous dissection of the right iliac artery. We were (and still are) devastated. We no longer believe in god, but we hope we will see our son again. I have a podcast, Nobody Knows Your Story where my guest shares their life stories. Ive had quite a variety of guests share their stories which has been very therapeutic.
We love life and are ok not having all the answers. We feel so lucky to have discovered the truth related to mormonism, and are ok not knowing what lies ahead. Nobody does. As my favorite beer maker (Kona) says on its can , “One life, right?” We’re making the most of the life we have left.
Larry
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The “was Mormon” population seems to be growing pretty rapidly, both in Utah and here in the South where I live.
We recently had a sacrament program canceled so that our stake president could come talk to us about the dangers of leaving the Church.
The next few years should be interesting to say the least for the Church.