Lars Pauling Nielsen

In a family of ten children, I was technically the second born—arriving less than five minutes before my twin brother. As part of my birthright, I became the namesake of my great-great-grandfather, Lars Peter Christian Nielsen, who emigrated from Denmark in the mid-19th century to join the Mormon movement. Having been born of thoroughly Mormon parents, I identified with their high-demand belief system throughout my youth—most of which I passed in Modesto, California. From January 1998 to December 1999, I served as a missionary for the Brighamite sect of the Mormon church in Sonora, Mexico. Returning to the States, I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry after which I moved to Boston for graduate studies, earning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry as well as an MBA. In 2009, I left Harvard University for Minnetonka, Minnesota, where I have worked for both non-profit and for-profit corporations in the healthcare sector.

While raising my three little girls, I felt a profound desire to make sure that I never taught them anything that was not strictly true. For better, and for worse, I allowed myself to study Mormon history from academic/“uncorrelated” sources, which inexorably led to the unweaving of my rainbow. I resigned from the Mormon church in 2010. Ever since, I have been intrigued—and even fascinated—by just how distortedly the contemporary Mormon church continues to whitewash its own history. Over a period of about fifteen years, I conducted my own research (and sometimes furtive investigations) through which I discovered the true sources of inspiration for what later became The Book of Mormon.