NOM

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:36 am There are 4 ways to handle this:

1. Go to the meeting
2. Ignore the texts and don't go
3. Respond via email directly to the bishop and offer to go to lunch with the bishop on you.
4. Respond via email directly to the bishop and tell him you're doing fine and prefer not to meet in an ecclesiastical manner at this time.

I've used them all in the past.
3 and 4 are very effective at not being contacted again.

Emower wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:30 am Let us know how it goes. Maybe you are being recommended for your second anointing?

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:59 am We've all been here before.

If you go as a pretender I've found it best to say very little. Give him one thing he can't resolve such as "I find the temple to be creepy and weird..." Then sit back and stare at him in silence. He won't know what to do with you.

Linked wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:38 am UPDATE

The meeting with the new bishop went pretty well. He said that he uses the list of endowed people without recommends to identify people who he might be able to help, then asked about my lack of temple recommend and if there was anything he could do to help. I sat for a moment, then decided that it wasn't worth rehashing with him and responded that it is just not something I want to do right now, and that I appreciate his offer for help and won't be shy if anything changes. He more or less took it in stride, though a couple times he said that anything said in the office won't affect relationships or anything outside the office (this is not true, and I am glad I have enough experience to realize that).

He's a good guy, we were in a sunday school presidency together so we know each other pretty well. He seems like he is going to be a good bishop that actually wants to help people, not the kind that asks if you are sure you have confessed everything then gives you stink eye in silence for 15 seconds. I guess I won't be pushed out for another 5 years...

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:54 amOne Bishop at a time. I'm on my second Bishop post disaffection and am currently feeling out the situation. I think you handled it well by not divulging issues. I have found it amusing to let them speculate.

Linked wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:38 am UPDATE

The meeting with the new bishop went pretty well. He said that he uses the list of endowed people without recommends to identify people who he might be able to help, then asked about my lack of temple recommend and if there was anything he could do to help. I sat for a moment, then decided that it wasn't worth rehashing with him and responded that it is just not something I want to do right now, and that I appreciate his offer for help and won't be shy if anything changes. He more or less took it in stride, though a couple times he said that anything said in the office won't affect relationships or anything outside the office (this is not true, and I am glad I have enough experience to realize that).

He's a good guy, we were in a sunday school presidency together so we know each other pretty well. He seems like he is going to be a good bishop that actually wants to help people, not the kind that asks if you are sure you have confessed everything then gives you stink eye in silence for 15 seconds. I guess I won't be pushed out for another 5 years...

shadow wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:39 pm What in the world were you doing in the Sunday school presidency that facilitated your getting to know your now current bishop so well?

Linked wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:38 pm

shadow wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:39 pm What in the world were you doing in the Sunday school presidency that facilitated your getting to know your now current bishop so well?

Hahaha, that's a really good point! He was the SS president and actually held regular meetings. That was about it.

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:32 am That sounds exactly like the same speech our stake president gave about getting to the temple.

The canned wording is a symptom of the culture.

I recently had a chat with my bishop about ordaining my son. He said, Red, what are you scared of in the temple?

I said, an old geezer groping my sack with his shaky oiled up hand! He said, that can't happen anymore because the initiates wear a jump suit.

I said, well, then I'm afraid Satan will jump out from behind the curtain with a drawn sword, a sack of potatoes, and a butcher knife and start harvesting the hearts and minds of God's children!

He said, what's the sack of potatoes for?

I said, haven't you ever been to a Mormon funeral before?

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:32 am I said, an old geezer groping my sack with his shaky oiled up hand! He said, that can't happen anymore because the initiates wear a jump suit.