It really sucks. I moved here in ninth grade. High school in a mormon dominated town is not the place to be if you are not of that religion. I didn't have a girlfriend in a single year of school until the end of my senior year when I met my fiance. About 10 percent of class everyday would wind up being a class discussion of church happenings across the innumeral wards in my town. Walking down the halls of my school at lunch wouldve been unbearable for anybody with low self esteem.

Here in springville the population is split between Mormons(id have to guess 90% of the people) and the "bad people". If you are not mormon then you are "bad people" to 90% of your neighbors. How many times can a person be asked "what ward are you in". I had friends before I moved here. I was a popular kid in Mesa Arizona because i worked hard to gain that popularity. I came here and I had nothing again, but no amount of work could get me a friend. I got one, by luck, who is my best friend now, my only friend in utah. We were shunned by everybody less the few other nonmormons in my school.

I tell everyone I can to not move to utah. This goes double for anybody with kids. A nonmormon family with two kids moved into a house across the street from me once. The kids wanted to find friends in my neighborhood and so they walked around trying to play with the few kids who ever roam these empty streets. The responses from the neighborhood kids ranged from being told they couldnt be friends, to name calling, even an incidence of these poor children having rocks thrown at them.

Mormons are not a people of tolerance or love. They are a people of cruelty and slavery. Despite the absence of R rated movies their children learn intolerance, hate, and violence at an age younger then ive ever seen. I am very thankful that I met someone here who I love, who loves me back with an equal passion. And I am happy that she wholeheartedly agrees with me that our children will not be suffer from the isolation that I felt living here. Our children will not be outcast because of beliefs which they do not even understand. They will have parents and friends who love and accept them. They will not live the way their parents did, hiding in the shadows from the people known as the Mormons.

Have you considered moving? Colorado is nice, and there are NoMo parts of Arizona. Even the Salt Lake City area has a signifigant number of NoMos.

Anthony, you are so right about being nonmormon and living in Utah. I was a mom of young kids....6 and 8 yr. olds when we got there-10 and 12 when we left. I felt hrrible for my kids. They were ignored....like they did not even exist. We were military so they had a couple friends from the base but in our neighborhood- no!Only one Korean family was normal. All the others just kept their kids away from mine. I tried to get to know the moms in the neighborhood. They were not interested. They are aloof and very judgemental people.... judging people (us) who they don't even know. They use one criteria- are they Mormon??? IF not, then they are bad and you must stay away. My take on it is they woud be "told on" if they allowed their kids to play with mine. The whole thing is so bizarre. Allowing a "church" to determine who is a good playmate and who isn't is just sick!!!

And I know my daughter who was in 7th grade near the end of our stay there,did hear many stories of Mormonism expecially that final yr. She would come home and tell me. Well, my daughter is very outspoken and she gave them her views and then fireworks began. I was so happy to get out of there. My kids did not deserve the treatment they got.No way would I advise anyone to move there even if there are pockets of civility here and there. I hope you do move and get in a community where your kids can grow up normally and not be asked all the time- "Are you Mormon?" K-garteners asked my youngest that as their first question when meeting her. They don't care what your name is....nope- just if you are Mormon.

Growing up in NM, I found the Mormons treated me the worst. My dad wouldn't let me have non-member friends so I understand the isolation. :P Very glad my kids don't associate with that group.

I'm so glad you survived this. My children survived, because there are more non-Mormons in SLC. They missed their friends, growing up in another state. By the time they graduated high school and were at the university, they were happier socially. They had friends on their sports teams, in their non-Mormon scout troop. My sons joined fraternities.

Looking back, I'm glad my children didn't associate with the Mormon kids. A Mormon family of boys was selling drugs from their house down the street, and we live in a "good" neighborhood. The Bishop's son was a child-molester, and his daughter took a gun to school and threatened suicide. There was a real suicide, of my HT's son, which no one ever talked about. The Stake President's son got a girl pregnant, but he went on his mission anyway. The baby was adopted away through LDS Social Services. Mormon kids got on drugs or alcohol, and had to go to rehab. parents ended up "disowning" their kids (How do you do that?)

When my daughter grew up to be very beautiful, she was invited to several of the parties given by the "popular" Mormon kids. She didn't want to go, and I gave her a hard time about not being friendly, and she told me there was just too much drinking and sex. Their lifestyle depressed her. My sons agreed with her. My kids were interested in getting good grades, laughter, sports, the outdoors, etc.

Your experience in Springville must have been very painful for you; however, it was probably very advantageous to you to be "isolated" from so many idiots. I think that Mormon parents don't supervise their children enough. They are smug, thinking that the cult will raise their kids for them. If their children err, they turn a blind eye in denial.

Have a happy life! You deserve it, after what you've been through!

...I felt the same way you did Anthony M, still do. Even as a little girl, before moving to Utah, I remember having a lot of friends. Then when we moved here, and I had hardly any. Both because I was shunned and because I could never stand the judgmental attitudes of the others. I longed for the day in which we would move out of Utah. We never did.

Like you, I am still here dealing with the horrible behavior of the mormons......

I'm from there too (til I moved back east). I never felt like I fit in. I too noticed either you're mormon and go to church and you're a great person or if you arent/don't you must be "trashy and junky" and "drink and smoke" and in a way it was true...there's very little room there for "nice normal non-mormons" and that's what I hated. That's a very wrong situation to be in.

So sorry you had to deal with that. My husband was rasied in Spanish Fork as a mormon and I was raised in Orem but never mormon. He realized it was all a scam at 16 and resigned at 20.

Growing up as a non-mormon in Utah County is a nightmare and a lot of people who haven't done it just don't get what the big deal is. When my daughter was born we knew we absolutely would not raise her there. We left Utah and moved to Texas with no jobs and knowing no one. It was the best decision we could have made.

Living in Utah made us miserable and we're so, so happy to be out of there. If you're not out, get out and stay out. I haven't been back since we left and I hope we never have to.