Moving back to Zion after an 11 year absence. I'd love to hear the experiences of those who have had this experience. Was it hard being around friends who knew you when you were LDS?

All I can say is: I feel sorry for you.

Yes, it would be hard to feel comfortable around old friends who are still LDS. Better make some new friends.

It's often possible and sometimes necessary to work out compromises with family members, but most so-called friends are just not worth it.

I live in Salt Lake City, and resigned from the Mormon cult about 9 years ago. I was active, an organist, a pianist, accompanied people, led the Christmas choir, taught the rowdy teen agers in Sunday school, was the Scout den mother, bla-bla, so I was "useful" in the ward. I thought I had lots of Mormon friends in our ward and neighborhood. Our children grew up together, and played at my house.

Instantly, after I resigned, I had zero Mormon friends. This shunning has continued for 9 years, and they don't even make eye contact with me at the grocery store--and our children grew up together! My children turned out really great. (probably because I took them out of the cult before it was too late.) I consider myself to be fairly normal and average--a career mom, not wild, moral and honest, a good citizen in the community. What I'm saying is that the Mormons had no reason to shun us, other than our leaving their church.

Anyway, don't expect to renew any old Mormon friendships, now that you are no longer a member. Don't expect to make many new Mormon friends, either. I still have a few Mormon friends from childhood, who were not born and raised in Utah. Old childhood friends seem to be more enduring. You might be luckier with Mormon family members. I've been very lucky--LOL--and most of my cousins and almost all of their children have left Mormonism.

Mormons will be nice to you at work, especially if you out-rank them at your job! Some might try to re-activate you, and take advantage of your temporary "loneliness", in moving to a new place. As soon as they understand you are not going to return, they will shun you. Unless you are a single man--and the Mormon women will bring you dinner and wash your shirts!

The good news is that Utah is becoming less and less Mormon! Over half the people are potential friend-material. Consider this a "fresh start". Instead of returning to your old life, you will be starting a new one, from scratch, and you will make new non-Mormon friends, just like any other normal human being would do.

Some areas of Utah are better than others, for normal social acceptance. I live in SLC, not farther south than 7200 South. Sugar House, The Avenues, Downtown, Federal Heights and around the U, the St. Mary's area, are all more non-Mormon than Mormon.
Sandy is not too bad, but Draper, West Jordan, and areas to the South are pretty dreary with Mormons.

Avoid Provo, if you can, though Orem is worse, and Alpine is insane.

Park City is ideal, and we spend a lot of time there.

To the North, Ogden is less Mormon-y, but the Bountiful and Farmington areas are worse than Provo. I won't even go to Logan or Brigham City, for personal reasons.

The smaller Utah towns, IMO, are worse, the smaller they get. I hear St. George is improving, as it is very fast-growing.

Utah is beautiful, as you know. My children and I love skiing, hiking, biking, boating, and all those fun outdoor activities. We don't need crowds of friends, to enjoy those things.

Thanks. My family knows I left the church. They are all friendly with me now, although it took a while for some. My aunt told me the house we purchased is in her ward. When I reminded her I'm not Mormon anymore she said I can still come sing in the choir.(I always enjoyed singing the hymns.)

In addition to what Breeze has said, which is warning enough, a lot of things just won't matter anymore. And once they don't matter, it can get annoying.

Seeing every church pronouncement on the news will seem crazy. How is that something on the news at 10:00pm?

Everything closing down on Sunday will seem weird. Though grocery shopping is easiest then.

Funny underwear and no cleavage will be noticeable.

As described by a never mormon professor of mine at the U, they will look like an ant colony. On Sunday morning, they will all go in a line down the street to a church, then later all come back like a line of ants. And a church in every neighborhood will seem strange.

etc. etc.

I haven't even moved back, but visiting is weird.

I always tell my new wife, who I took to the national parks in Utah, it's too bad that mormons claimed the most beautiful state in the country. It would be so great to live there if the mormons didn't claim it. What if just normal people lived there!

If ever I visit the US, I will definitely spend some time observing the Utah strange! Love the ant colony analogy...

Over multiple trips to Utah, the things that stood out to me as a nevermo were the ward buildings every few blocks in Sandy and Jordan, the LDS church items on the evening news, and the difficulty in obtaining alcoholic beverages (I brought mine with me after the first trip.) Almost all restaurant servers were great, but I remember one server looking at me as if I were a hardened criminal when examining my ID to get an alcoholic beverage.