Dear Believers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

In regards to The Plan of Salvation, what is the point of testing someone if you begin the test by erasing their memory?

I’ve often heard it said in The Church that Heavenly Father took our premortal memories because he wanted us to have to rely on our faith in order to be accurately tested and to qualify to return to live with him again. But if all our memories were erased and we were all born into a great variety of different circumstances beyond our control, where we were subject to a great variety of different influences that were beyond our control, many of us would never have an equal opportunity to learn about and develop this all-important faith that is the supposed reason for which we all lost all memory of our premortal life together in the first place. Were all premortal memories taken from all of us so that only some of us would have the blessing of using faith to pass our test?

I’ve also heard it said in The Church that in his great wisdom Heavenly Father removed our memories of premortal life because he knew that if we remembered what it was really like, we would all kill ourselves to get back to it. One problem with this theory is, wouldn’t we also remember how we all shouted for joy in The Grand Council when we learned of The Plan of Salvation? Wouldn’t we also remember how badly we wanted to come to Earth, and then realize we can’t kill ourselves, and so go on with our mortal probation?

And where did all those premortal memories go, by the way? If God removed them, where is he storing them now and when and how will we get them back? Will they be AirDropped back into our minds after we die? Sounds shocking. To have millions of memories of premortal experieces to which you have no prior connection suddenly show up in your head? Maybe if they slipped them in slowly over time the feeling of being posessed would be a little easier to deal with. On second thought, maybe it would just last longer.

And at what point do people who die get their premortal memories back? I would think it would be right away or at least sometime soon after they die, but what about the billions of people who still haven’t had their temple work done for them? If they get their premortal memories back before their temple work is done for them, isn’t that sort of an unfair advantage over everyone back on Earth who has to go without? On the other hand, if the dead get their premortal memories back at some point after their temple work is done for them, after their faith on the question of their temple work has been tested, what are they told in the meantime? Do they even know they’re dead while they’re waiting? Maybe they know they’re dead but they’re quarantined somewhere and only fed information on a need-to-know basis?

If I die tomorrow and I pass into the so called “Spirit World,” if and when my premortal memories come either flooding or trickling back into my mind, how will I know if they’re my authentic premortal memories if my premortal memory was erased? In other words, if you completely erase someone’s memory and then an entire lifetime later you give it back, how will they know it’s their memory when they get it back if they don’t remember anything about it? Especially when they’ve developed an entirely new and separate sense of identity and whole lifetime of memories in the interim.

Members of The Church are often taught that they attended a big meeting in Heaven before everyone was born, a “Grand Council,” and that’s when Jesus volunteered to be our Savior in The Plan of Salvation, and we all voted for him and got really excited about having our memories erased and being turned into single-celled organisms…wait, I mean, we all shouted for joy. Well, the sons of God did I guess, but it doesn’t say anything in Job 38:7 about the daughters of God.

Much is often made in The Church of this premortal Grand Council in Heaven, and there is usually some emphasis placed on the idea that we all freely chose and freely agreed to follow Jesus and The Plan of Salvation, and that many of us were even premortally ordained and trained for special jobs in The Church on Earth. This apprarently all happened before our memories were erased and we were turned into single-celled organisms.

“And we will prove them herewith,” as the scripture in Abraham 3:25 goes, “…to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;”

But again, I ask you, what is the point of testing someone if you begin the test by erasing their memory? And besides, if you take all of a person’s memories, what is there left to test against? Without any of the premortal memories, only the mortal can be tested, but then why send premortals to be tested as mortals if you’re just going to test the mortal, indeed can only test the mortal?

What kind of all-knowing God holds mere mortals to a plan and agreement they don’t remember making, especially if he is the one who completely erased all of their memories and prevented them from remembering the plan and agreement in the first place?

Brothers and Sisters, my dear friends (as Edler Uchtdorf would say), we can know something is wrong when someone tries to control us by telling us that we already planned and agreed to obey them before we were born, but that we just don’t remember doing that because our memories were erased.

Why would anyone be required to voluntarily agree to have their memory erased before taking a test, especially with eternal consequences hanging in the balance?

Sincerely,

Mormon Mouse