I remember how I didn't care at all when I was baptized/confirmed. I remember that I didn't care at all during the interview with the bishop, I focused more on my cool watch that I got for my birthday. Of course I never was obeying the church's set of super strict commandments anyway, which is probably a major point for me leaving now that I think of it. I guess it must be rare for a bishop to deny baptism for an eight year old.
I never liked the idea of going on a mission even as a kid. I am somewhat autistic, so the thought of going out to talk to people was not something I felt comfortable doing. I remember a primary activity where we pretended to be missionaries to some extent. Because my older brother, MormonDoubter, was also in primary, there were two "Elder XXXXX" name tags, which I thought was funny. I don't remember much else of the activity, probably because I didn't participate as much as I was supposed to.
I was lucky to be able to choose which of my divorced parents I wanted to live with for every school year. In the years that I lived with my father, who is an exmormon, I was never forced to go to church, which was nice. It is funny that I would choose to live with my mom who forced me to go to church, but I guess until I was a teenager would that start to become a problem. For a little while living with my father, MormonDoubter would force me to go to church and early morning seminary, but that didn't last too long, thankfully
One thing that really bothered me as a kid was when my mom (and even my grandparents) would badmouth my father because he left the church. I was annoyed by that hypocrisy since LDS are not supposed to speak Ill of others.
When I was around twelve, I remember going over the church history in my room, and I was justifying my belief in the church using the persecution as proof. I wonder if I was in stage two of faith loss at that point. I already knew I didn't have a testimony which was troubling me at that time, and I guess that was causing doubts.
When I was around seventeen, I was getting bored in the sunday school classes, which has to be very normal at that age. Of course Sacrament Meeting has always been a snoozefest to me, but fortunately my mom let me doodle since I would be halfway listening to the talks. I started to notice that the Sunday school lessons were all repeats of the same drivel, some of which annoyed me, especially the notion that you have to be absolutely perfect in order to get into heaven, and even one sin would prevent that.
Seminary was boring, except for one semester because I had a great teacher. When I was living with my dad who lives outside of Utah, seminary was insanely early in the morning. I did go a few times, but it is such a pain that even MormonDoubter had a hard time going, which was good for me. When I was with my Mom who live in Utah, seminary was during school hours. During my senior year of high school, I finally decided to quit going to seminary and instead use that time to work on homework. I know I was bored, and was already 18 at the time, but it was a really bold move. Fortunately, my mom was okay with it, though she was disappointed in me. I remember getting called by someone in the seminary program to get me to come back, but that was the only contact.
The decision for college and/or mission is usually a tough one. Fortunately, my brother was coming back from his mission to live with my father, so I decided to go to college there to be away from the pressure of Utah, and to be with my brother. I was never pressured to go to church or go on a mission there, so I was able to leave the church without any fuss. My mother still thinks (or forces herself to believe) that I am faithful and I will leave it at that to keep the peace.
