Exmormon Foundation 2015 Conference

Hans Mattsson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1950. He has a twin brother and two older brothers. The whole family were faithful Latter Day Saints. Hans is third generation LDS, and he graduated from College in 1969.

Hans served as a missionary for the LDS Church in the Birmingham England Mission, 1970-1972. He also served in the Swedish armed forces in Gothenburg, and it was during this time he met his future wife Birgitta, who had converted to the Mormon faith when she was 16 years old. Birgitta and Hans were married in 1974, and sealed in the Swiss Temple. They now have five children and 12 grandchildren.

Hans started his career in sales, working for IBM. His professional career has been within sales and information technology, and has held many managerial positions. He ended his carrier as a partner in a Swedish IT-company.

As a very active LDS member, Hans served in many church positions such as branch president, bishop, high council member, stake presidency, stake president, and mission presidency. He followed all of those with a calling as area seventy in the Europe Central Area, headquarters in Frankfurt Germany. He served from April 2000- April 2005. In this position Hans worked with several general authorities and with one of the apostles. Birgitta was very supportive during all his callings and also served in many church positions at ward and stake level.

After some health issues, including a heart bypass surgery, Hans and Birgitta decided to move to a warmer climate and made Spain their home in 2013.

David C Nelson received his Ph.D. in History from Texas A&M University in 2012, a M.A. in History from Texas A&M in 2000, a B.A. in French from the University of Houston in 1997, and a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Oregon in 1975. David received the Juanita Brooks Award for the best graduate student paper presented at the annual conference of the Mormon History Association in Aalborg, Denmark for The Hubener Syndrome: How Mormons Remember Church History in Nazi Germany. He has received research grants from the European Union Center of Excellence and from the Texas A&M History Department. David has studied German at the Goethe-Institut in Munich and at Texas A&M, and he holds a certificate in business French from the Chambre de Commerce and de l'Industrie de Paris.

David became interested in the Mormon Church and the Nazis during a previous marriage to a LDS member whose son's questions sparked years of research into the subject. As a historian, he specializes in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and concentrates on the relationship between small religious denominations and totalitarian governments. He has a secondary research interest in the history of the Mormon Church. David travels the world as an airline captain, and served 6 years as an officer in the Marine Corps. He lives in College Station, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Brief Description: This presentation will look at common issues that come up after leaving Mormonism. We will discuss common pitfalls in dealing with family members across religious and faith boundaries and the need to rewire certain though processes that may continue to impact our functioning and communication after leaving.

Bio: Peter Danzig, LCSW is a therapist in private practice in Salt Lake City specializing in working with individuals and families around faith transitions. He has deep experience both personally and professionally working with families, individuals, and couples around these issues. He graduated with a masters in social work from the University of Utah in 2004 and began his career in a small rural community in Utah where he became the lead therapist on the local drug court and represented the mental health agency in community interdisciplinary teams. He relocated to Salt Lake City in 2008 and has worked as a counselor at Primary Children's Outpatient Mental Health Clinic and currently manages the Prevention Therapy and Case Management team at the University of Utah HIV/AIDS Clinic. His Blog and information about his private practice are located at www.PeterDanzigCounseling.weebly.com.

Earl Wunderli grew up Mormon in the Avenues in Salt Lake City, back in the thirties and forties -- one of six children. They were a happy, close family, and although still close as brothers and sister, as adults they have gone their separate ways. Two of his brothers are still in the church.

Earl graduated from East High School and went on to the University of Utah, where he met his future wife, Corinne Nelson. They both graduated from the U in 1956. He majored in philosophy and went on to the U's law school, graduating in 1959. Earl practiced law with a firm in Salt Lake City for three years before joining the IBM legal department in 1962 in New York City. IBM (which then stood for I've Been Moved) transferred him to Owego, New York, for two years and then to Bethesda, Maryland for two years before transferring him back to one of its many locations in the New York City area. Earl retired as Associate General Counsel in 1993 and he and Corrine moved back to a suburb of Salt Lake City.

His avocation during all the time outlined above was researching the Book of Mormon, which resulted in the publication in 2013 of my book "An Imperfect Book: What the Book of Mormon Tells us About Itself".

Stephanie Lauritzen grew up in Holladay Utah. She is the oldest and most well- adjusted of her parent's five children. After barely managing to graduate from Olympus High School due to excessive truancy, she managed to receive a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Utah, and later, a Master's degree in Arts and Teaching from Westminster College. She currently teaches AP U.S. History at a nearby high school. Somewhere in the flurry of advanced education, she met and married her husband Dan, and they welcomed their first child, Clara, in 2012.

While working part-time after Clara's birth, Stephanie accidentally organized the now infamous Wear Pants to Church Day, which gained unexpected amounts of media attention, and forced Stephanie to realize orthodox Mormonism wasn't for her. She has been on sabbatical from Mormonism since 2013, but still enjoys singing hymns and mastering all the recipes from Ann Romney's cookbook. Stephanie and Dan are expecting their second child in January of 2016, and Stephanie is once again working part-time. She is vaguely afraid of what sort of trouble she'll get herself in this time, but hopes two children will keep her out of trouble online.