Apartment life was getting old and we were starting to get the vague idea that we'd like to have children soon so we (well Christy mostly) put us on the path to home ownership.
We decided on a home in a small subdivision full of older houses with about half original owners, now empty-nesters, and the other half younger couples with younger children. This was a fresh start in a new neighborhood and the perfect time to jump back into activity.
Our first week attending the bishop pulled us into his office to welcome us into the ward and he was probably itching to give us callings right then. See even though we're smack dab in the middle of zion the church has this funny idea that they'll divide and subdivide wards until there's just barely enough active members to run the ship. It gives impetus to attend every week because if you don't there's no one there to do your job and they're banking on the guilt you'll feel if you miss a week.
Beyond that they also guilt you with re-activation of less or inactive members to fill in the ranks. If only you'd get 100% home-teaching you or your wife wouldn't have to hold two or three callings that consume your free time during the week. I doubt any of this is intentional at the local level, the leadership is just trying to make it easier on their ward. I blame area presidencies and the first presidency for not consolidating wards that are smaller than some branches.
Of course I didn't see any of this at the time, I just felt good for getting back to doing what I was
supposed to be doing. The ward had some enthusiastic gospel doctrine teachers that made me sit up and pay attention for the first time in my life. They didn't read the lesson verbatim out of the manual and brought in outside sources for some of the information presented. I'm certain a few of them were NOM or at least sunstone types.
I was asked to teach a lesson in elders quorum for the first time, as well as speak in sacrament, within the first few weeks attending. I was naive enough to make the comment that teaching the lesson wasn't all that bad and landed myself a monthly teaching rotation. Then I replaced the EQP secretary, and finally they just called an all new presidency and I was made a counselor.
The guy who was called to be president was the sunstoney gospel doctrine teacher and I liked him quite a bit. He was human and bitched about people he didn't like in the ward, but was also a hard worker and is one of those types that can fix anything. He's there in a second if you call on him during a crisis. He came right over when we broke the water main junction trying to turn off our sprinklers one late fall. It was freezing outside and he was there all evening until it was fixed and the hole was filled.
The presidency thought it'd be a great idea to attend the temple once a month with our wives. Christy and I hadn't attended the temple since our own wedding so it was odd to go back at first. I don't know that I ever got over the oddity of seeing friends and neighbors in temple garb but you start to get used to the routine of going through a session.
We hit it off pretty well with a younger couple moved into the ward. He was a seminary teacher and she was a pharmacist and they were pregnant with their first the same time we were. He was one of the most charismatic teachers I'd ever listened to and he probably helped me to reach my highest point in mormon-brand spirituality. He seemed like he knew it all and caused me to want to learn more.
Now that I think about it (right this second as I'm typing this) he probably set the stage for my downfall. Before, I was just another one of the shambling masses. He engaged my mind and got me to start paying more attention to things for the first time. Paying attention is a bad thing when it comes to the history of Mormonism.
Soon after, the sunstone EQ president moved out in a mass exodus of older couples which painfully reduced our pool of weekly full-time attending ward members. I was called to be finance clerk with the dismantling of the EQ presidency. This new calling, and all the meetings it entailed, made me privy to the nuts and bolts of the ward. I discovered the inspiration for most callings came from the fact that the person being called didn't currently have one.
I also noticed that in our monthly statements we didn't have a running balance that we were drawing from, just a total amount paid out for the month. Not that that should be suspicious or anything, right?
During this time Christy was getting callings where she had to prepare weekly lessons. As this went on she began to notice inconsistencies in the stories given in the manuals and would ask me about them. I was at the height of my "I don't know but we'll find about it later" phase and none of the questions really phased me.
Then I come to work one early morning in January to an e-mail from my sister-in-law saying that their dad has left the church, their mom is having a hard time with it, but don't tell Christy before either of them do.
I had to re-read it a few times because I couldn't quite believe it. Christy's dad was my escort through the temple, was one of the most well-read and intelligent men I knew. If he was leaving the church it had pretty big implications for me. That's not to say he directly caused me to leave, he just helped me give myself permission to question things for the first time.
I've decided to split this out into one more part and speak about my feelings during the period of deconstruction and rebuilding of my worldview in part 4: The One Behind The Wheel.
