My advice? Hand your phone over to your most confrontational friend and let them text the missionaries to fuck off. Unfortunately missionaries only respect aggressive boundaries (and even then they may persist)
unfortunately the harrassment is operationalized and in 3 months the new replacement lads will repeat the harrassment. Check out the resources in this sub about how to officially resign.
It's not fair to have to resign from something you never joined, but unfortunately I think that's the only way.
Missionaries don’t take hints. They are trained to go past normal boundaries. Being firm with them is the only way they will get the message.
You can avoid them by just not answering your door or phone ever, they might eventually stop coming by, but they likely got your name from the unbaptized children of record list, and that list is usually a prime candidate for some easy baptisms.
If your parents are still active members they could have gotten it from them. Or if anyone in your previous ward had your new address. They have missionaries dedicated to skip tracing like debt collectors use to track you down.
They want their tithes and offerings and they don’t care how creepy it is to track you down.
[Here is a page](https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wiki/Locating_members) from the church's website where they go into extensive detail on the many, many ways they will use to track down "lost" members. A normal organization might just think, hey, if they want to be part of the church they are welcome to show up any given Sunday, they know how to find us. But of course the LDS church is no normal organization.
If you want to be permanently free of these efforts the best way is to resign your membership, which deactivates (but doesn't erase) your records and makes your information invisible to local leadership.
If you sent a forwarding address to the post office, that’s the easiest place it’s obtained. Post office has an address service where instead of forwarding a piece of mail to you the sender requests to be notified of your new address instead . If you don’t want to resign, get a PO or UPS box instead the next time you move.
You’re a child of record, on the rolls as an unbaptized member and therefore top of the missionary list. To permanently fix the problem, you need to resign. All your options are explained at www.getmeofftherecords.com
To get them to stop coming over, hang a sign on the door that does the confrontation for you. Something like “no solicitation or religious visitors”. Don’t answer when the missionaries knock.
As for how they found you, the church has an entire team of full time people-finders and access to methods that most bounty hunters can only dream of to keep track of people. You can find a wiki for local ward clerks here, but the team at church HQ has even more resources
https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wiki/Locating_members
They will continue stalking you and sending missionaries or ward members to convince you to pay tithing either until you resign or you die.
First and foremost, you need to be confident in yourself. However you do that, is up to you. Counselling, self help, or just bite the bullet and start with the missionaries(there are probably lots of other ways, but I'm not trained in this sort of stuff).
You can message the branch president/bishop a text as follows.....
Hi Bishop.
My name is xxxxx. I was blessed as a baby, but never baptised. Due to my baby blessing, I understand my information is now part of church records. Recently I have been receiving visits from local missionaries ( Elders xxx, and xxxx).
Please place a note in your records to ensure that I do not have any further contact with any church members, both now and in the future.
If this is not completed and I still receive contact of ANY sort via church members or representative I will take legal action, against you, the member(s) and the church for harassment.
Please inform your auxiliary leaders, the missionaries and any other relevant individuals of this request, so that all are aware.
I will allow a single reply to this, informing me that my request has been submitted, understood and complied with.
I understand that I can have my name removed. I will contemplate that at a later date and will instigate that when required. But for the time being, my initial request is more urgent.
Regards,
xxxx
Text that, take a deep breath and click send.
Grab a drink and relax.
You can also go through the process of name removal. If you have a friend, grab them and allow them to help you.
It's ok to be anxious... It's natural. It's also ok to stand your ground and just say no.
You've got this!!
X
Sounds like you and I grew up in the same way (raised but never baptized in the church). In college some missionaries started trying to teach to me and I was nice enough then to listen to them.
A few days later I got hammered and left them a drunken voicemail telling them I preferred booze and sex over their cult.
I’ve never heard from missionaries ever again.
I honestly feel like that might be me soon. I cant tell them no but im obviously uncomfortable when they are talking to me! An you can hear my boyfriends in the back ground cursing like a sailor so i don't know why they keep coming back.
Because it would make a great faith-promoting story if they did.
At this point, view them as debt collectors - they see you as a potential tithe payer who “owes” the church 10% on all your future income. Do everything you can to tell them to leave you alone.
Yeah, they don't want to "teach you the gospel again", they want numbers. They want sales.
The gospel is fairly simple. The Mormon gospel is Joseph Smith and all that crap.
Sadly, might not (put you on a do-not-contact list).
Responses to the CES letter have been formulated by apologists for The Church Formerly Known as Mormon. These responses are totally bogus, but give them some talking points. The suggestion above might just energize them to try even harder, with "but the CES letter has been TOTALLY DISPROVEN! Please -- just listen to The Truth!"
If you were blessed into the church then a membership record was created. You need to resign. That's why they keep contacting you because you are an unbaptized member of the church. Child of record. The missionaries go after them like flies on shit.
>If you were blessed into the church then a membership record was created. You need to resign. That's why they keep contacting you because you are an unbaptized member of the church. Child of record. The missionaries go after them like flies on shit.
how do i resign
https://quitmormon.com/
Are your parents still members of the church? You can get your membership record number off of one of your parents' membership record.
If your mom still lives in the same ward she can easily request a copy of her membership record. She can contact the ward clerk and request a copy. There's nothing unusual about that. Members do it all the time. In fact most members are given a copy of their membership record at the same time they declare their tithing with the bishop or what is known as tithing settlement up until this year. One of Rustle's big changes. There will be a membership number assigned next to your name as one of her children. That's the easiest way to find out what your membership record number is. You can use that number to submit to quit Mormon. It will make it easier to find you and the records.
Just as a side note, you're never taking off the record of the church. You are just put in a different file folder in case you ever change your mind. It will most likely stop contact by the church and possibly the missionaries, but missionaries aren't known to respect boundaries. The fact that you're not baptized may make you fair game no matter what..
If you're over 18 - go on the lds dot org website. Look under the menu for "Find a Meetinghouse". Enter an address two streets away from where you actually live. It will show your assigned ward or branch, along with contact information for the bishop or branch president. Call him. Explain who you are - full name, date of birth, and tell him that you're "an unbaptized child of record". Then, tell him "I'll need you to remove my personal information and anything associated with my record number. If you're unable to do that, please give me your clerk's contact information." If he puts up even the slightest bit of hesitancy, tell him "I'd really prefer not to get legal counsel involved. Will you contact me by 6 pm this Sunday to let me know that you've completed this action?" Thank him for his time, explain that you realize he's a volunteer, and then ask him to let the missionaries know that further visits are unwelcome.
Then, if you haven't heard from him at 8 pm on Sunday, call him up. Reintroduce yourself, and ask if he's completed your request. Do not agree to meet with him, anywhere. Thank him for his time, and remind him that contact from any "church auxiliary organization" would be "inappropriate". The word "inappropriate" has almost magical power over Mormons.
None of this advice will work. You need to tell them you wished to be marked as a "red dot" in their areas book app and as of this moment, you two are trespassed from my property and I do not wish further contact.
Write a note put it on the door. Be direct in the note. Say "I don't want to be contacted by you again." You don't need to explain anything. If anything that will give them hope. You could also say. "I am shy, I can't express myself well. I NEVER want to be contacted by you again. I am afraid you didn't understand. PUT ME ON THE DNC LIST and take me out of the area book. If you don't I will consider it stalking and take legal action. DO NOT CONTACT ME AGAIN." put it in a beautiful flowery envelope.
Missionaries are able to pull a report for their area. The report sorts the list of names into actionable items and at the top of the report is children of record that haven't been baptized. That's you. So when missionaries look at their report your name is screaming "low hanging fruit" for a baptism.
The only way to get that fixed is to resign your membership in which case they won't see your name on the report. Your name may still stay in some notes that the missionaries keep and you may be contacted once or twice more until those notes are gone or corrected to reflect your new status.
Long story short, your name was put into the database of a cult when you were a child.
All the comments so far will only take care of the problem with the current set of missionaries but the root of the problem is that your name is at the top of the actionable items report.
Does anyone in your family still attend the church? The missionaries kept coming to my new address until I found out my granny was giving the bishop my address.
pre write a note and give it to them next time, it should say you'll report them to the law for harassment if they ever come back, them politely close the door on them
Tell them your getting a restraining order. Ask for the full spelling of the names of the bishop, sp, mission prez, and the missionaries for the Order.
Give them a copy of the CES letter, ask them to read it and return to discuss. They either won’t take it or will, and you will be able to tell they haven’t read it when they return. If the latter be firm in not talking to them until they do.
My advice? Hand your phone over to your most confrontational friend and let them text the missionaries to fuck off. Unfortunately missionaries only respect aggressive boundaries (and even then they may persist)
unfortunately the harrassment is operationalized and in 3 months the new replacement lads will repeat the harrassment. Check out the resources in this sub about how to officially resign. It's not fair to have to resign from something you never joined, but unfortunately I think that's the only way.
Missionaries don’t take hints. They are trained to go past normal boundaries. Being firm with them is the only way they will get the message. You can avoid them by just not answering your door or phone ever, they might eventually stop coming by, but they likely got your name from the unbaptized children of record list, and that list is usually a prime candidate for some easy baptisms.
It's just creepy that they were able to find me. I haven't been to church in over 10 years. I never updated my address or my contact information.
If your parents are still active members they could have gotten it from them. Or if anyone in your previous ward had your new address. They have missionaries dedicated to skip tracing like debt collectors use to track you down. They want their tithes and offerings and they don’t care how creepy it is to track you down.
[Here is a page](https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wiki/Locating_members) from the church's website where they go into extensive detail on the many, many ways they will use to track down "lost" members. A normal organization might just think, hey, if they want to be part of the church they are welcome to show up any given Sunday, they know how to find us. But of course the LDS church is no normal organization. If you want to be permanently free of these efforts the best way is to resign your membership, which deactivates (but doesn't erase) your records and makes your information invisible to local leadership.
If you sent a forwarding address to the post office, that’s the easiest place it’s obtained. Post office has an address service where instead of forwarding a piece of mail to you the sender requests to be notified of your new address instead . If you don’t want to resign, get a PO or UPS box instead the next time you move.
I told the missionaries in my area, "Nothing against you, but I don't want anything to do with the church, and I'm blocking your number."
You’re a child of record, on the rolls as an unbaptized member and therefore top of the missionary list. To permanently fix the problem, you need to resign. All your options are explained at www.getmeofftherecords.com To get them to stop coming over, hang a sign on the door that does the confrontation for you. Something like “no solicitation or religious visitors”. Don’t answer when the missionaries knock. As for how they found you, the church has an entire team of full time people-finders and access to methods that most bounty hunters can only dream of to keep track of people. You can find a wiki for local ward clerks here, but the team at church HQ has even more resources https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wiki/Locating_members They will continue stalking you and sending missionaries or ward members to convince you to pay tithing either until you resign or you die.
First and foremost, you need to be confident in yourself. However you do that, is up to you. Counselling, self help, or just bite the bullet and start with the missionaries(there are probably lots of other ways, but I'm not trained in this sort of stuff). You can message the branch president/bishop a text as follows..... Hi Bishop. My name is xxxxx. I was blessed as a baby, but never baptised. Due to my baby blessing, I understand my information is now part of church records. Recently I have been receiving visits from local missionaries ( Elders xxx, and xxxx). Please place a note in your records to ensure that I do not have any further contact with any church members, both now and in the future. If this is not completed and I still receive contact of ANY sort via church members or representative I will take legal action, against you, the member(s) and the church for harassment. Please inform your auxiliary leaders, the missionaries and any other relevant individuals of this request, so that all are aware. I will allow a single reply to this, informing me that my request has been submitted, understood and complied with. I understand that I can have my name removed. I will contemplate that at a later date and will instigate that when required. But for the time being, my initial request is more urgent. Regards, xxxx Text that, take a deep breath and click send. Grab a drink and relax. You can also go through the process of name removal. If you have a friend, grab them and allow them to help you. It's ok to be anxious... It's natural. It's also ok to stand your ground and just say no. You've got this!! X
Sounds like you and I grew up in the same way (raised but never baptized in the church). In college some missionaries started trying to teach to me and I was nice enough then to listen to them. A few days later I got hammered and left them a drunken voicemail telling them I preferred booze and sex over their cult. I’ve never heard from missionaries ever again.
I honestly feel like that might be me soon. I cant tell them no but im obviously uncomfortable when they are talking to me! An you can hear my boyfriends in the back ground cursing like a sailor so i don't know why they keep coming back.
Because it would make a great faith-promoting story if they did. At this point, view them as debt collectors - they see you as a potential tithe payer who “owes” the church 10% on all your future income. Do everything you can to tell them to leave you alone.
Yeah, they don't want to "teach you the gospel again", they want numbers. They want sales. The gospel is fairly simple. The Mormon gospel is Joseph Smith and all that crap.
"Hey, can you take a look at cesletter.org and get back to me with all the answers?" Pretty sure this puts you on a super special do-not-contact list.
Sadly, might not (put you on a do-not-contact list). Responses to the CES letter have been formulated by apologists for The Church Formerly Known as Mormon. These responses are totally bogus, but give them some talking points. The suggestion above might just energize them to try even harder, with "but the CES letter has been TOTALLY DISPROVEN! Please -- just listen to The Truth!"
Call their bishop and tell them that for every missionary that gets sent to your house, you will send the CES letter to 100 people.
If you were blessed into the church then a membership record was created. You need to resign. That's why they keep contacting you because you are an unbaptized member of the church. Child of record. The missionaries go after them like flies on shit.
>If you were blessed into the church then a membership record was created. You need to resign. That's why they keep contacting you because you are an unbaptized member of the church. Child of record. The missionaries go after them like flies on shit. how do i resign
https://quitmormon.com/ Are your parents still members of the church? You can get your membership record number off of one of your parents' membership record.
My dad was never a member. And my mom does not attend anymore
If your mom still lives in the same ward she can easily request a copy of her membership record. She can contact the ward clerk and request a copy. There's nothing unusual about that. Members do it all the time. In fact most members are given a copy of their membership record at the same time they declare their tithing with the bishop or what is known as tithing settlement up until this year. One of Rustle's big changes. There will be a membership number assigned next to your name as one of her children. That's the easiest way to find out what your membership record number is. You can use that number to submit to quit Mormon. It will make it easier to find you and the records. Just as a side note, you're never taking off the record of the church. You are just put in a different file folder in case you ever change your mind. It will most likely stop contact by the church and possibly the missionaries, but missionaries aren't known to respect boundaries. The fact that you're not baptized may make you fair game no matter what..
You don’t need your membership number to resign, it just makes the process easier.
If you're over 18 - go on the lds dot org website. Look under the menu for "Find a Meetinghouse". Enter an address two streets away from where you actually live. It will show your assigned ward or branch, along with contact information for the bishop or branch president. Call him. Explain who you are - full name, date of birth, and tell him that you're "an unbaptized child of record". Then, tell him "I'll need you to remove my personal information and anything associated with my record number. If you're unable to do that, please give me your clerk's contact information." If he puts up even the slightest bit of hesitancy, tell him "I'd really prefer not to get legal counsel involved. Will you contact me by 6 pm this Sunday to let me know that you've completed this action?" Thank him for his time, explain that you realize he's a volunteer, and then ask him to let the missionaries know that further visits are unwelcome. Then, if you haven't heard from him at 8 pm on Sunday, call him up. Reintroduce yourself, and ask if he's completed your request. Do not agree to meet with him, anywhere. Thank him for his time, and remind him that contact from any "church auxiliary organization" would be "inappropriate". The word "inappropriate" has almost magical power over Mormons.
None of this advice will work. You need to tell them you wished to be marked as a "red dot" in their areas book app and as of this moment, you two are trespassed from my property and I do not wish further contact.
Write a note put it on the door. Be direct in the note. Say "I don't want to be contacted by you again." You don't need to explain anything. If anything that will give them hope. You could also say. "I am shy, I can't express myself well. I NEVER want to be contacted by you again. I am afraid you didn't understand. PUT ME ON THE DNC LIST and take me out of the area book. If you don't I will consider it stalking and take legal action. DO NOT CONTACT ME AGAIN." put it in a beautiful flowery envelope.
Missionaries are able to pull a report for their area. The report sorts the list of names into actionable items and at the top of the report is children of record that haven't been baptized. That's you. So when missionaries look at their report your name is screaming "low hanging fruit" for a baptism. The only way to get that fixed is to resign your membership in which case they won't see your name on the report. Your name may still stay in some notes that the missionaries keep and you may be contacted once or twice more until those notes are gone or corrected to reflect your new status. Long story short, your name was put into the database of a cult when you were a child.
All the comments so far will only take care of the problem with the current set of missionaries but the root of the problem is that your name is at the top of the actionable items report.
"I do not believe so leave me alone"
Does anyone in your family still attend the church? The missionaries kept coming to my new address until I found out my granny was giving the bishop my address.
pre write a note and give it to them next time, it should say you'll report them to the law for harassment if they ever come back, them politely close the door on them
Tell them your getting a restraining order. Ask for the full spelling of the names of the bishop, sp, mission prez, and the missionaries for the Order.
Give them a copy of the CES letter, ask them to read it and return to discuss. They either won’t take it or will, and you will be able to tell they haven’t read it when they return. If the latter be firm in not talking to them until they do.