OMG MORMONISM!
Mormons attend 3 hours of church every Sunday. The three hours are divided as such:
1.25 hours - Sacrament Meeting
1 hour - Priesthood [Males aged 12 to dead], Young Women’s [Females, aged 12 - 18], and Relief Society [Females, married and over the age of 18.] Children attend primary.
.75 Hours - Sunday School for everyone age 12 and over. Children are in Primary.
If you are over the age of 18 and not married, you would be encouraged to attend YSA, the Young Single Adult ward. Its members are between 18 and 30. It is essentially to marry off the younger members of the church.
During sacrament meeting, the program usually goes:
Announcements/Ward Business
Opening Song
Opening Prayer - by a male
Sacrament Hymn
Administration of Sacrament
First Speaker
Youth Speaker
Intermediate Hymn
Concluding Speaker
Closing Hymn
Closing Prayer - Done by male or female.
Please note: Sacrament is taken by all members every Sunday. The water and bread are blessed separately. Deacons [Males ages 12 and 13] pass it around the congregation. Priests [Males age 16 or over] bless it. After the meeting, Teachers [Males age 14 and 15] clear the remains.
Deacons, Teachers, and Priests are all interviewed and found worthy prior to being ordained.
A Mormon congregation doesn’t have a priest, it has a bishop. A bishop is usually a married male from the congregation.
Since most stories come from Brendon’s youth, we’ll cover that. He would likely have gone to seminary, which is either an early morning religion class or taken as an elective during school. His parents would’ve encouraged attendance and discouraged anything that would’ve hurt his attendance.
Practices for the band held on a Monday evening would’ve been a source of tension because that is Family Home Evening, a night which is set aside to spend time bonding with your family and strengthening family ties.
He would likely have been home every Sunday as anything other than church and visiting family and friends within their homes is discouraged. Once a month he would’ve had to attend a Sunday Evening Discussion or Fireside. It is generally an hour long where the youth of the church are spoken to regarding youth specific issues.
When Brendon decided to move out and turn his back on church, he decided not to serve a mission. If he were to explain what a mission was to someone, he would say it's going tracting for two years in another part of the country, or even another country.
Missionaries generally know about three months in advance where they're going and the exact date they will leave. Brendon wouldn't have even gotten his mission call because of a recent decision to raise the bar as far as who they would let go on missions.
If he were to have gone on a mission, he would've gone when he was nineteen and he would've to the MTC. It is not called mission school, it's called the MTC, which stands for Missionary Training Center. It's in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Had he made it through the MTC and gotten to go on his mission, he would've been with a companion the entire time. Generally the two companions live in an apartment. This brings me to my next point.
There are transfers every six weeks. Not everyone is transferred every six weeks. It's more common that they get transferred around the 12 - 18 week period. It's unlikely that any letters would've been marked Return To Sender. People can either post letters to the mission home, there's one in every mission, or they can post them to the apartment. Generally, around transfer times, the letters are sent to the mission home. Other than that, they're sent to the apartment.
Brendon likely would’ve followed the Word of Wisdom which includes refraining from any habit forming substances and substances which were harmful to his health, ie. Alcohol, Drugs, Caffeine, Tobacco, etc.
Sex. You knew we were getting to it. Brendon wouldn’t be allowed to have sex prior to marriage. So, his statement about giving up all sex except oral was definitely against church rules. Sexual contact of any form before marriage is a fairly serious sin. Up until marriage, kissing on the lips is essentially the only thing you can do. And the comment about his wasting a whole day with jerking off? Yep, another sin. Masturbating is a big
no-no.
Depending on how hardcore his parents were about corrupting influences, he may have only been allowed to watch movies with a rating of PG or lower. This may explain the fondness for Disney movies attributed to him. He wouldn’t have been allowed to swear at home. This includes but is not limited to: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Ass and any form thereof, Damn, Hell, God, Lord. Some parents are even strict about Shut Up, Stupid, and Jeez.
That about sums it up. If you’re unsure on some of the finer points, please don’t hesitate at all to IM either:
simplexmortal/break1ntwoveryou
notthegnomes/latenitesomeone
Seriously. We’ll love you forever!
1.25 hours - Sacrament Meeting
1 hour - Priesthood [Males aged 12 to dead], Young Women’s [Females, aged 12 - 18], and Relief Society [Females, married and over the age of 18.] Children attend primary.
.75 Hours - Sunday School for everyone age 12 and over. Children are in Primary.
If you are over the age of 18 and not married, you would be encouraged to attend YSA, the Young Single Adult ward. Its members are between 18 and 30. It is essentially to marry off the younger members of the church.
During sacrament meeting, the program usually goes:
Announcements/Ward Business
Opening Song
Opening Prayer - by a male
Sacrament Hymn
Administration of Sacrament
First Speaker
Youth Speaker
Intermediate Hymn
Concluding Speaker
Closing Hymn
Closing Prayer - Done by male or female.
Please note: Sacrament is taken by all members every Sunday. The water and bread are blessed separately. Deacons [Males ages 12 and 13] pass it around the congregation. Priests [Males age 16 or over] bless it. After the meeting, Teachers [Males age 14 and 15] clear the remains.
Deacons, Teachers, and Priests are all interviewed and found worthy prior to being ordained.
A Mormon congregation doesn’t have a priest, it has a bishop. A bishop is usually a married male from the congregation.
Since most stories come from Brendon’s youth, we’ll cover that. He would likely have gone to seminary, which is either an early morning religion class or taken as an elective during school. His parents would’ve encouraged attendance and discouraged anything that would’ve hurt his attendance.
Practices for the band held on a Monday evening would’ve been a source of tension because that is Family Home Evening, a night which is set aside to spend time bonding with your family and strengthening family ties.
He would likely have been home every Sunday as anything other than church and visiting family and friends within their homes is discouraged. Once a month he would’ve had to attend a Sunday Evening Discussion or Fireside. It is generally an hour long where the youth of the church are spoken to regarding youth specific issues.
When Brendon decided to move out and turn his back on church, he decided not to serve a mission. If he were to explain what a mission was to someone, he would say it's going tracting for two years in another part of the country, or even another country.
Missionaries generally know about three months in advance where they're going and the exact date they will leave. Brendon wouldn't have even gotten his mission call because of a recent decision to raise the bar as far as who they would let go on missions.
If he were to have gone on a mission, he would've gone when he was nineteen and he would've to the MTC. It is not called mission school, it's called the MTC, which stands for Missionary Training Center. It's in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Had he made it through the MTC and gotten to go on his mission, he would've been with a companion the entire time. Generally the two companions live in an apartment. This brings me to my next point.
There are transfers every six weeks. Not everyone is transferred every six weeks. It's more common that they get transferred around the 12 - 18 week period. It's unlikely that any letters would've been marked Return To Sender. People can either post letters to the mission home, there's one in every mission, or they can post them to the apartment. Generally, around transfer times, the letters are sent to the mission home. Other than that, they're sent to the apartment.
Brendon likely would’ve followed the Word of Wisdom which includes refraining from any habit forming substances and substances which were harmful to his health, ie. Alcohol, Drugs, Caffeine, Tobacco, etc.
Sex. You knew we were getting to it. Brendon wouldn’t be allowed to have sex prior to marriage. So, his statement about giving up all sex except oral was definitely against church rules. Sexual contact of any form before marriage is a fairly serious sin. Up until marriage, kissing on the lips is essentially the only thing you can do. And the comment about his wasting a whole day with jerking off? Yep, another sin. Masturbating is a big
no-no.
Depending on how hardcore his parents were about corrupting influences, he may have only been allowed to watch movies with a rating of PG or lower. This may explain the fondness for Disney movies attributed to him. He wouldn’t have been allowed to swear at home. This includes but is not limited to: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Ass and any form thereof, Damn, Hell, God, Lord. Some parents are even strict about Shut Up, Stupid, and Jeez.
That about sums it up. If you’re unsure on some of the finer points, please don’t hesitate at all to IM either:
simplexmortal/break1ntwoveryou
notthegnomes/latenitesomeone
Seriously. We’ll love you forever!