ariel yeah nice to finally meet you do you know who owns this construction no you just
picked a random place and you have no idea who these guys are i just thought this was kind of
a neat place because you can't hardly see from the road yeah yeah you can't what can we help you with
uh i just wonder if you guys could help me um go away from the flds so you want to leave yeah
i want to leave because i don't like i don't want to live that way i don't want to live
the flds way my name is ariel i am 18 years old i'm part of the affiliate church i have
two mothers my mom is the first wife she has 13 children and my second mom has five children
growing up in the flds church was fun it was fun because we were taught when we were little
to be kind and sweet obedient so obeying was easy for us us girls grow up being taught we're gonna
become a mother in zion we were taught that if we don't have a sister wife then that family's not
complete and we can't reach the highest degree of glory the reason why i want to live is because
it's not the same it's not like it used to be warren jeff's to me is my prophet but
there's some things i wish that didn't happen that he had have happened
the things that have changed children are not allowed to have toys there's no marriages
there's no intimate relationship with the man and wife that are married
you're not supposed to give hugs you can only shake hands
one of the big things that's happened splitting up families what about your dad where's he um he
got kicked out he lives in colorado so what do you mean he got kicked out he's going to repent
a few months ago my dad got a call from lyle just lyle just is the bishop
my dad was told that he was supposed to go on to repentance and we don't know why or
how long he believes he's gonna come back and see his family again but some fathers
that go under pencils never come back it made me mad i was just like why did he have to go
i do believe in heavenly father but the flds religion is testing my faith what kind of religion
takes a father away what kind of religion breaks up a family our family isn't the same there's no
joint jointness there's no happiness anymore right now to me there's nothing to look forward to there
i love my family i don't want to leave them but i want to get married i want to have children
but i don't see it happening there any time soon so in order to have those you have to go
where is your sister vana she's at work right now so we have to drive up there she's going to come
out around the building you're smiling jump in and then we can not interrupt there's a couple
trucks up there so if you guys can scoot this way a little bit so this mattress coming down here
oh my god we got go we gotta get out of here now members of the flds are everywhere especially
in utah if ariel gets caught trying to leave then they could take her away and
hide her so she doesn't leave and nobody knows where she's at not even her parents
no no we're almost there can you come out and talk to us as soon as we get
there are you nervous or are you um hi
is she looking forward to leaving she's nervous really yeah
ben has expressed to me her concerns about any of the children or mother shown up as we're leaving
because the only thing that is holding that up back is my family
let's go meet her by the road she's gonna be coming out of this spot
do you see her um she for sure wants to go right
ariel's arranged this meeting and vanna's still on the fence about leaving
we don't know what she's gonna do
oh she's right there
hi we need to hurry up and get away from this place okay i'll just follow you
okay i gotta change so why do you change why don't you just go home like um
don't they know that you have an outside job yeah but mother doesn't like it and just to respect her
she knows that she wears him like this but she don't like her to come home you know yeah my
name is vanna i'm 21 years old me being raised in the flds the religion in my life was every day
we had teachings of the prophet every single day morning and night i'd also go to church on sundays
warren jeffs i believe his words and his teachings are straight from heavenly father
my father was send away i have no idea why or the reasons but because something he did
in his life that needed a repentance of that heavenly father knew about
so heavenly father talked to uncle warren and they decided that it would be best for him to move out
because he thought it was the right thing then so did i i feel responsible for my family because i
am the eldest daughter of my mother and so i was responsible for all the little guys
which makes me practically the children's mother practically raised those guys like my little
brother no okay he has down syndrome ever since he was born i always had him with me we do stuff with
him for him and because of him it tears my heart out to leave him but the sibling i was closest to
is my sister ariel our relationship with ariel is very strong we've done everything together
i can't remember not doing something with her ever not ever since i was little so
the thought of ariel saying i'm going i'm torn apart in two different places the reason this is
really hard for me is because i don't want to lose ariel and how can i stay here without her wherever
she goes i go it's just the family it's just not seeing my siblings it's not saying that every day
so what are you guys thinking what is the plan um we want to do it tomorrow in the morning tomorrow
okay about 11 30. mom's gonna have she has an appointment so how soon do you think someone
is going to be there about 12 o'clock our siblings come back at home for lunch
so we only have like a half hour yeah yeah the building here people are looking at it in the
road can we maybe move over here for sure it'll be safer for you guys is there anyone else who
could potentially be there there's a lady that teaches a classroom there so there's going to
be school like while we're trying to get you out yeah if they came out what would they do
call the bishop's office and tell him then he would definitely send people to come over so we
just need to do it fast this is the one time that is going to work because they don't want their mom
there they don't want their siblings there so we have a small window the mom leaves at 11 30 a.m
the children come home at noon and the house is already full of kids in one classroom but we just
have to we're just gonna have to do it i think it's awesome that you guys want to leave together
we're half sisters but we have full sisters that are out too and it's nice having somebody to go
through it with you it'd be kind of weird if like only if i was going i mean i want her to
come so i'm glad she is is there anything that can happen tomorrow that would make you guys change
your mind that we need to be aware of i don't know my worst right now is not seeing the kids
i think that's gonna be the hardest i can relate to vanna being unsure about leaving
this is what happens in polygamy they've taught her she's the oldest so she's the caretaker in
her family and if she goes who's gonna step up and take care of her younger siblings i felt
the same way as the oldest sibling in my family i was conflicted deciding whether i should stay
and continue to be a caretaker or if i should leave and make a life for myself i felt guilty
leaving
you