Some on the board suggested I should post my story regardless of errors in grammar or misspelled words. They would be interested in the story.
OK – here we go.
Consider your family values before you join a cult.

I was about 6 when my parents where hit by Mormonism like an 18 wheeler run over them. I can’t really remember. The Story starts in the 1960ties in Germany.

I was in fist class school, proud that I can spell my own Name and read more or less the “Fibel”, the first book in school for this age back than. Time has faded away so many things.
Who are we? Well my father a great guy that worked so hard to make ends meat. Then there was my mom she also had to work to pay the bills. My parents went bankrupt with a little company that worked not so good out than they thought it would. No - in Germany is not such a thing like declaring bankrupt. So they had to pay, penny by penny until they paid the depth off and would have done it 10 years earlier without tithing.

Well and than I had 2 Sisters, younger than I. Actually we are all 12 months apart. This is who we are.
It was a fast start into the church. My parents threw themselves into it. My father had never the big calling. Well he was a blue colored man. He left that was I call Home at 5 am. and came home at 8 pm. Well mom left the Home at 7 am and came home at 6 pm.
We were key-kids as so many in this time. Key Kid means that we had the House Key hanging on the neck.
Well Grandma and Grandpa came often over to se how and more what we are doing.

Ah yea I was 6 yr. Well I was Catholic like all the other Kids around me. Even the Italian family living down the street was catholic. Everybody knew everyone and I was not called Joe back than. The neighbors called me Eddies Boy because my dad’s Name was Eduard and short Eddy.
Well I loved the catholic boy scouts. I was in the cath-church children’s choir.
That all ended in a big bang. Catholics are evil from the prospective of Mormon sight.
There was no real replacement back than. Children in the Mormon Church? Well a view but mostly girls and when you 6 than girls are baaehhh. The closest other Mormons back then lived about an hour away but they had no children.
There was no real Boy Scout group in Church. One guy, who came back from his mission, was the scouts’ leader and we were 5 Boys in really different ages (between 5 and 14 years). Nothing compare to the boy scouts group I went before with an own flag, singing songs, Uniforms and many, many kids.
Needless to say, that all our family members didn’t like us. At least I thought so. Even my most admired uncle Mark didn’t show up anymore and we did not visit all the Uncles and Aunts. They just diapered completely out of sight. It took me years to find out that they didn’t abundant us, we abounded them.
My friends from the neighborhood all of a sudden were bad people. Well it was not as bad as its sound, because mom and dad were not home anyway, but I started to lie to my parents what I did during the day. There was a playground and a park. Well all the kids back than, went to the playground but this park and playground belonged to the Catholic Church. Not that ever anyone cared about that fact but my parents did.

Until then when my parents get hit by Mormonism we had a really good family. Money was tight but otherwise.
Slowly we became a dysfunctional family. As older we children were as more we lied to each other. We had to find Church god and our friends’ evil. We couldn’t tell what we did during the day and started to make stuff up. The entire family deal became a kind of plastic. We were pretending that we love things that we actually hated. Don’t think we hadn’t tried to explain. Every time that we tried to tell the truth it became a big issue. I remember when I was 12 yr I just refused to go to Church. I wanted to go back to the Catholic Church were my Grandparents and all my friends went. I wanted to play with my friends. This was a big deal. Interrogations started immediately by my parents and the home teacher. Even one holy man of the Bishops office had to talk to me. He told me how evil they all were. They all following Satan. I told him there is not such a thing than Satan because my Grandpa said so. He said my Grandpa was an old man and did not know what he is saying. I said if there is a Satan than he should show me where in the Bible is such a Person and that even Moses did not know such a thing. This is was my Grandpa told me. He went to the Catholic Church because it was culture but he always told me, there is not such a thing like a Church of God or even the one and only Church.

Well it’s true. It was not my wisdom it was this was my Grandpa told me. But the outcome was devastating. This holly man slapped me in the face, gapped my ear, twisted it and pulled me out of his office to my dad. Than - dad and this holy man had to talk. The ride home from Church was very quiet. When we were home my dad took his belt and I was beaten like I had never seen it in my lifetime. My sisters went in their room and cried. I’ll believe if my mom would not interrupt him he would have killed me in his outrage.
Our family became from dysfunctional to very, very dysfunctional. The entire family situation was a straight lie. We pretended we all were so happy but my parents lost the trust of their children. Oh we were happy and in Church we were such a wonderful family. Oh even in our home, we were pretending, the gospel, the wonderful truth was so fulfilling. Especially this being a Patriarch of the family was eaten up like honey by my dad.
Two things happen at this time. We were not allowed to see our Grandparents anymore. This was a devastating experience for us kids. This were the point when I kneeled down and honestly prayed to little Jesus because I loved my Grandparents dearly.
There was a big fight (yelling) between my Grandpa and my parents. It went on for hours. From this day on I saw no one from my family anymore until I was about 16 years old and this with the highly disapproval from my parents.
The second thing what happened was that we were no Children anymore. No playing outside Church activities. A so called sister (we kids called her “The Beast”) was there when we came home from school. School ended at 12:30 p.m. and we were home at 1:00 pm. Sister “The Beast” was already there. First we did our homework from school and than Church teachings up top 6:00 pm. Every freaking day, besides Saturday and Sunday. But this was not much better, than on Saturday we cleaned the house going grocery shopping and preparing for the big Sunday. We had to go twice on Sundays. Saturdays we had to repeat what we had learned past week.
Yea for sure we were visited by home teachers too.
Well I made some progress in Church. I learned to keep my mouth shut head down and pretend I knew and I had gained a testimony. But as more I had to pretent as more I hate everything what is related to Church.
I can’t remember that anyone asked me ever if I would be baptized. I remember only I was wet, than the heavy hands on my head and than my Testimony that “The Beast” had implemented to me.
The entire deal was so unreal so plastic.
Well it worked with one of my sisters well. She knew it all. She looked forward to get married to a returning missionary. My little sister did not believe a thing.
The next biggi was when my youngest sister had a problem one day in church. She was 14 and was forced to Church. No one knows what would happen in our harmonic little left over family if she would not go. We were all so happy in the family. Lies over lies and not only in Church pretending and making stuff up.
It was during the week on an evening. I don’t really remember what kind of event it was. My little sister had to wait until one of our neighbors picked her up from church. No this woman did not belong to church but she was so kind to pick her up.
My sister waited after class or whatever event it was in the church. All the others left already. One of the Church big shots how I call it, one of those who are so holy, gave speeches for an hour was still there too (I don’t remember what position he had back than). I don’t how it went ugly but it ended up that my sister jumped out of the window and broke her left arm. Yea sure she jumped 9 Feet down just for fun. My sister said he had molested her and jumped out of the window.
Well - he said that my sister had sexually attacked him (55 years old 5.5 Ft and 200 pounts).
No charges were ever filed. My dad apologized for his daughter in front of all the people in church and gave his testimony that he knew bla, bla. It was pitiful. The end was that my sister had sexually attacked this holly 50 years old man. I never was ashamed for my dad but in this moment I was ashamed for him. My sister never gained trust to my parents at all. She become very quiet and was scared to go to Church. Today I can not even imagine how she felt to go back to this place. It must be torture. She never spoke about it and today I feel guilty that not even I spoke up against my father. I was 16 back then and I feel still ashamed to let my sister down.
It was may be 6 months later, I can not really say how much time went by, but it was may be 6 months later that the same guy was attacked by a other 15 year old girl. Right before Sunday school. There was a storage building behind the church. There was old furniture and the bicycles from the missionaries stored.
Two sisters heared a women which cried out loud for help, so they went to the storage and opened the door. The 15 year old girl laid between the bicycles and the holy man was caught with his pants down.
This parents pressed charges. Her father called the police from the church phone and the holy man was taken by police directly out of church. No not in handcuffs Germans don’t do that this way. It was more a urgent invitation to take a seat on the back seat of the police car.
The family of this young girl left the Church and was never seen again. Well they was converts anyway and not this long in Church.
The guy was back next Sunday and he felt not ashamed at all, at least it didn’t look like he was.
I don’t know if he had to stand a trial of law or what happen. In Germany there is not such a thing than a sex offenders list.
But I’ll think everyone has enough imagination what kind of gossip stories where invented to protect the guy and way it was not his fault and so on.

It is not even really important what happened. I did hear a story like this again. And yes it could be that this was an insulated incident whit only one sick man.
But it teaches something else. Never disagree or criticize one of the Cadillac’s in the ward. If you have a problem with the Cadillac’s, you have to back down, apologize and belittle yourself or you leave the church. Cadillacs never defend or fight for themselves, all the TBMs will take the fight against you. Everyone comes up with an explanation why you are wrong and the Cadillac was right. You never make a dent in the masquerade of Cadillacs.
If problems come up, you can call your familymembers liars or you leave the church.
It’s always the same story. You and your family loose and they win. So simple can LDS be.

Well when I was 19 I left home. I had do go to the military for 18 months. You know the Germans have the draft. My middle sister married her dream, a returning missionary in the temple and left the church about 5 years later with her entire family including her husband.
Well when I was gone and my middle sister was gone, my parents focused than all on my little sister. She escaped by marring (under heavily disapproval of our parents) the next best non Mormon, when she was 18 years old. It didn’t last but she was out of the cult and out of the family. She died in an accident in 2002. She never could gain trust in anyone, because of her childhood. She was married 3 times in her short life.

The outcome of all this? Well the LDS destroyed our little family because of a believe system and ridiculous rules.
We siblings did not have contact to each other over a time of more than 10 years. Lies, disappointments, pretending and hurt feelings needed time to heal. We all had only sporadically contact to our parents, blamed our parents to force us in a dysfunctional and distrust environment and a stolen childhood.

I have friends which left the Church too and they tell me the same thing. Dysfunctional families, may be not to this extent, but one way or the other. Pretending to know what no one on earth really can possible know, makes people not only in Church to pretenders but in their families as well. Pretending in the family is the end of the family. Just think.

Remember how often you had a real good feeling about something that becomes a nightmare. If you join this cult please leave your children alone. Take them with you to Church but make sure that they have contact to their friends and all the extended family. Make sure they participate in activities outside the Church too, so they become not isolated from the real world out there. Make sure they can really decide what they want. Remember to make a decision you have to have all the facts from all sides. No one on earth is always right and always wrong. So make sure they hear the other side as well.

Childhood is only once in a lifetime. Don’t mess it up for a cult that only wants your money. I promise you when you in this Church and not paying in full, they outcast you immediately at least you become third class members almost instantly.

Sometimes when I walk the dog, I pas by little Houses like ours long time ago and I see Children behind the window, I often think: “I hope that this house is free of a cultish dysfunctional environment”.

Thank you for reading my story. Yes I know my English. English is not my native language but I thought I have to tell you, when you investigate the Church, how harmful this Cult can be for you family. I often think what our family would become when my mom never opened the door for the missionaries.
Would we happier? I don’t know but one thing would be a true statement. We would be never as dysfunctional as we had become. We would not have to lie to each other and we would had trust in our parents.
We would have been in the middle of the extended family not out casting our self’s for some Church reasons and special believes.
My sister would not be molested and afterwards, as the sugar crème on top of it be blamed for it.
My dad had no choice. He could stand up for my sister, than he had to leave the Church or stay with the Church and drop my sister. Don’t ever question or disagree with the Cadillac’s in the ward.
Is always about choices and sometimes we handle things how we feel, out of fears or other reasons and it becomes really bad.
Just think. Do you really believe that you need some special Handshakes that God loves you? Does this make sense to you at all?