Tapirs Abound

We have to apologize this week because we don't have our regular blog post this week, but enjoy some photos of our favorite horses... Tapirs!

Next week we'll be back with our regularly scheduled program and find out if Sparlock will be saved by his loyal tapir or if they'll both meet their untimely demise! Until then, enjoy the horse pics.

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If you are in need of help, you can reach us here.

If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or 1-800-784-2433.

If you are LGBT+ and need to talk, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or find them online here.

Know you are safe and among friends and we will do whatever we can to help.

Lastly, if you would like to be involved or volunteer, you can reach out to us here.

T is For Timothy The Tapir Touting Troubadour

"I just love being a snowflake. We may not all be unique but I'll be damned if we're not fun!" --Timoteo

My name is Timothy but I go by T like the initial (/u/T_the_initial). I was born and raised in a rural Utah town and come from a long line of Mormons. My ancestors were among the first to be baptized. In fact, my great-great-great-great grandfather, Lyman R. Sherman, was responsible for burning down a printing press in Kirtland when dissenters sought to use the office in opposition to the church. Lyman loved the saints but was having trouble with his own discipleship in the church and wanted to know what his duty would be. The answer came through revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1835 and is recorded in section 108 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

According to Wilfred Woodruff, “Elder Sherman sung in the gift of tongues & proclaimed great & marvelous things while clothed upon by the power & spirit of God.” during the Kirtland Temple dedication (Dean C. Jessee, “The Kirtland Diary of Wilford Woodruff,” BYU Studies,vol. 12, no. 4 (1972), 382. The meeting was held on January 8, 1837.) Lyman was later called to be an apostle but died before he heard the news.

Delcena Didamia Johnson was my great-great-great-great grandmother and was married to Lyman. After Lyman died, Delcena was married to Joseph Smith as his 14th plural wife. She died shortly after arriving in Salt Lake City in 1854.

I am the first member of my immediate family to leave the Church since 1832. I received my resignation letter on March 23, 2015 although I had been mentally out since my mission (2005-2007 Missouri St. Louis Mission). The last 6 months of my mission I read Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman and realized the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was not true.

Due to family and other social pressures, I continued to pretend and eventually married in the temple. After almost 4 years we divorced and I decided I wasn’t going to pretend anymore. I joined /r/exmormon in 2012 but lurked for years. About 4 months ago my last TBM friend cut me off because I shared with him how I thought it was weird for my wife’s work to share a quote from Spencer W. Kimball in a meeting. He blew up and told me that my wife is overly sensitive and needs to grow some “tough skin.” After this occurred, I realized I needed to find some new friends who understood what I was going through, so I started to become more active on /r/exmormon.

I have developed many friendships on /r/exmormon but quickly noticed as I got more involved that there were an alarming number of posts of people needing help and reaching out. Around this same time, /u/Hiking1950 posted and asked for a public list of volunteers. I really liked the idea of having a list so we could combine all of our resources and quickly help people who are in need. Three months ago, I sent /u/Hiking1950 a PM (private/personal message; in case you're older than dirt but somehow managed to make it here anyway) about someone who was feeling suicidal and the rest is history. We started working together and I was added as a mod on /r/TapirSignal shortly after. In the past few months, I have been amazed at how the exmormon community has rallied together to help people in need.

TapirSignal has helped me to keep the parts of my religion that I valued the most. Being part of a community that serves other people in need is something I loved about being a Mormon. TapirSignal has given me that community and the opportunity to help people. I have made some amazing friendships in the Mod group as well as with volunteers and those that reach out for help. The exmormon world is so unique and varied.

I really enjoy coming up with creative solutions to problems. Each TapirSignal case is like an intricate puzzle. Since every case is different, there are so many individual pieces that need to come together before we can see the bigger picture. Only then can I understand how to best help someone who is suffering. I love to decipher everyone’s individual needs and circumstances in order to build a solution, piece by piece. As the TapirSignal network continues to expand, our group becomes better equipped to help the exreligious community. Everyone that volunteers brings something to the table, whether it’s a unique location or new perspective. It is a very challenging and rewarding thing to be a part of.

After 183 years of family loyalty to the Mormon Church I have broken that loyalty and am going to be loyal to another community, the exreligious community. Providing a place where people can find a support and community outside of close religious circles is what makes me proud to be a part of TapirSignal.

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If you are in need of help, you can reach us here.

If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or 1-800-784-2433.

If you are LGBT+ and need to talk, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or find them online here.

Know you are safe and among friends and we will do whatever we can to help.

Lastly, if you would like to be involved or volunteer, you can reach out to us here.

Ruminating Over a Roasted Tapir

“I may listen to Pop music but that doesn't mean I can't be a good person still.'" --Hiking1950

I get asked this question from time to time: “What led you to create the Tapir Signal?” Here is my story.

About four months ago, I came across a post on /r/exmormon by a 25-year-old woman stating that she was trying to leave the church. She lived in Utah and didn’t have any money or a job, was depressed, and needed help. So I decided to create a list of a few volunteers from /r/exmormon who would be willing to help out in such situations. I planned to present the list to FearlessFixxer after his MormonLeaks website debut. Out of nowhere, around twenty people volunteered to help out any way they could.

So I created a post on behalf of the young woman who had sought help on /r/exmormon. In it I tagged all the volunteers and asked if we could help her out. Within an hour, several people had reached out to the user and had given her food and money. It was amazing to see.

I then came up with the idea of forming an informal public volunteer list that we could use to tag people when others need help. I asked for volunteers and the list just exploded. Every time I posted about this list, more and more people volunteered to help out in any way they could. The list took a completely new direction. Instead of a few people I could send to FearlessFixxer to help run the Underground Handcart Company (UHC), I ended up with around sixty people from all over the place volunteering food, shelter, money, a phone to text in an emergency, emotional support, etc.

A young couple was looking for a temporary place to stay until they could find permanent housing. Their parents said refused them shelter because they weren’t married. So I sent out an “Exmormon Bat Signal” to the volunteers and within a couple of hours, we had a hotel owner in the same town as the couple who helped them out with the temporary housing. Once again, it was amazing to see such a quick and generous gesture from a random stranger.

Since we joke about tapirs a lot on /r/exmormon a couple of people had jokingly posted a tapir-like bat signal graphic. Both of them were very cool, so I changed the “Exmormon Bat Signal” to the “Official Tapir Signal.” We link to this graphic every time we post and ask for help.

Shortly after that, /u/hasbrochem reached out to me and offered to help out. He’s very good with computers and programming (Editors Note: he's mediocre at best), so he created a Reddit bot that messages all of the volunteers when we post a Tapir Signal. The bot lets them know of the situation and points them to the person that needs support. /u/t_the_initial also reached out to me personally around the same time and offered to help take on the task of contacting people needing help, following up with them, vetting people who could potentially help out, etc. /u/hasbrochem and /u/t_the_initial will share their stories in future posts.

I continue to be involved with the Tapir Signal crew because I have seen how many times it has helped people out in a short amount of time. I’ve personally been told that people who have reached out in response to the Tapir Signal have saved several people’s lives. We have found temporary housing for people (also see here and here). We have provided a few days’ food for someone who couldn’t afford it. We have helped find jobs for people. We have even helped someone move from state to state. All of these things were accomplished through our volunteer network. That is why I do it: to give back to the exMormon community and help out the only way I know how… anonymously, online!

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If you are in need of help, you can reach us here.

If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or 1-800-784-2433.

If you are LGBT+ and need to talk, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or find them online here.

Know you are safe and among friends and we will do whatever we can to help.

Lastly, if you would like to be involved or volunteer, you can reach out to us here.

Tapirmon: Devourer of Nightmares

In Chinese and Japanese folklore there are tales of a creature called the Baku, a chimera composed of the body of a bear, the tusks and trunk of an elephant, the paws of a tiger, the tail of a cow/ox, and the eyes of a rhinoceros. It was made from the leftover pieces after all the other animals had been created. This magical guardian could be called upon in the dark hours of the night to devour and forever destroy nightmares and terrors, protecting children and adults alike. Amulets and talismans made in its form were also said to be good luck and used to ward off evil.

While the Baku is a mythical creation, the character for the Baku (獏 or 貘) is the same Japanese name for a real animal, the tapir.

Much like the Baku, the Tapir Signal is an amalgamation of people, all bringing their individual skills, talents, and resources to bear in our goal to help those who stand in need. While our mascot is not the prettiest of creatures, we work hard to make sure that we can ward off the nightmares engulfing those who call out.

Unlike a god who some may say:

“[Is] people tired. He’s blessing tired. He’s parable tired. He’s sermon tired. Everywhere he goes he’s tired. It’s people, people, people, problems, problems, problems – I can’t walk, I can’t see, I can’t hear, bless my child, bless my father, heal my wounds. He’s exhausted. At least he has to be to be sleeping through this storm...”

we do not sleep through the storm. When you scream into the void, we answer back. We will not leave you alone. The major difference between us and the Baku, which one must be careful not to summon too often, is that we are always ready and willing to help anyone who is in need, regardless of their faith, belief, or lack thereof.

While primarily started by a group of exmormons, we have made it our mission to help even those who firmly believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Salt Lake City-based LDS Mormon church with Thomas Monson currently at the head is God’s one true church or those Jehovah's Witnesses that hold the word that come from the Watchtower are what Jehovah wants them to hear. We are a diverse group that continues to grow as more people see the work we do, connecting with their own desires to change the world for the better. When interacting with those who think and believe differently than us, we try to be respectful. Helping other human beings is far more important to us than whether one has faith in the “correct” deity.

“When bad [people] combine, good [ones] must organize” --Edmund Burke

If you are in need of help, you reach us here.

If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or 1-800-784-2433.

If you are LGBT+ and need to talk, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or find them online here.

Know you are safe and among friends and we will do whatever we can to help.

Lastly, if you would like to be involved or volunteer, you can reach out to us here.