New Friends

[tjohnson]

Hello...

First let me start with a brief history... I was baptized at age 8, but did not seriously attend church until I was 17. I was married to my wonderful wife in the Temple at age 18. We have been very happily married for almost 14 years. We have three wonderful children. We attended church almost every Sunday and were involved in many of the activities. We stopped all Church activity almost a year ago. It's amazing how much "free" time we now have... to be with our children, our family, etc.

However, the biggest problem we are having is finding "new" friends. As other people on this forum have mentioned, most of the people you thought were friends no longer call or want to be associated with you. Many of my collegues still think I'm an active member because I'm worried what will happen with those relationships as well. We live in a community that is 50% Mormon.

It's almost as if we are caught in the middle of two worlds... we don't currently attend any church, yet we don't go out drinking either...

So how do you find new friends?

Travis

[silverfox]

Hello...

First let me start with a brief history... I was baptized at age 8, but did not seriously attend church until I was 17. I was married to my wonderful wife in the Temple at age 18. We have been very happily married for almost 14 years. We have three wonderful children. We attended church almost every Sunday and were involved in many of the activities. We stopped all Church activity almost a year ago. It's amazing how much "free" time we now have... to be with our children, our family, etc.

However, the biggest problem we are having is finding "new" friends. As other people on this forum have mentioned, most of the people you thought were friends no longer call or want to be associated with you. Many of my collegues still think I'm an active member because I'm worried what will happen with those relationships as well. We live in a community that is 50% Mormon.

It's almost as if we are caught in the middle of two worlds... we don't currently attend any church, yet we don't go out drinking either...

So how do you find new friends?

Travis

You make a very valid point about friendships. We have neighbors across the street who in the summers sit outside and drink their beer. As active members we pretty much avoided them other than saying hi or can I borrow an egg. But they were always friendly, etc. After our apostacy we found it easier to be open to different types of people. These neighbors have become very good friends but only because WE allowed the friendship to blossom. We had boundaries up before that didn't allow us to embrace others who were not members. I've made several new acquaintances but it is slow. There really are opportunities around us all the time to make new acquaintances.

I think with forums like this one it opens up opportunities to make friends who are in similar situations. This forum is pretty new but as time goes by and as more people join I think you will see a world of opportunity open up.

Some forums have monthly get togethers at a restaurant, etc. This gives people like ourselves a chance to meet and develop new friendships. And we have a special bond because we are all experiencing the same transition from being TBM to non believers.