After a series of armed clashes with the local population, at the request of the state government, the Mormons were forced to leave Nova. Under the leadership of Bryam Yong, recognized as Joseph Smith's successor, the Mormons finally left Nova in 1846 and settled in 1847 in the desert valley of Salt Lake in the Indian part of Utah, where the bulk of them arrived in 1848 after a difficult journey. Firmly held together by brutal discipline, the Mormons soon turned the vast wilderness into a region of high culture. Extensive missionary work attracted tens of thousands of converts from Britain and other countries. During the 33-year reign of Brigham Yong (1844–77), the sect grew and prospered. Serious trials for the sect began in 1870, when the central government of America decided to destroy the main domestic basis of the Mormons – polygamy. During the lifetime of Yong, who had 25 wives, these attempts were unsuccessful, but under his successor, John Tahlor (1877–87), Congress passed a law prohibiting polygamy, and when it proved insufficient, a new law (1877) greatly increased punitive measures. Talor's successor, Wilfred Woodref, openly obeyed the law. Then about 2000 fanatical polygamists moved to Mexico. Those who obey the law view their obedience as an unwitting apostasy, and Mormon leaders continue to secretly adhere to polygamy.

The teaching of the Mormons, the foundations of which are laid in the writings of the founder and first "prophet" of the sect (the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrines and Covenants, a collection of speeches and revelations), developed on the Salt Lake into a vast system, in some parts eclectic, but in the main points very original and definite.

Only matter, which consists of eternal atoms, really and really exists; "non-material" means non-existent; "pure spirit" is pure nothingness; Christians who worship God as a spirit are atheists, idolaters.

Matter has various states; That which is called spiritual or divine is a special state of refined matter or ether.

There are many gods; although they are immortal, they do not exist from eternity: only matter is eternal. As a result of the process of complex interaction of atomic forces, the supreme deity, the androgyne, who resides in the center of the world on the luminary Kolob, appeared in time. This deity successively gave birth to all the other gods and goddesses who ruled the suns and planets. The god that Mormons worship is not a supreme deity, but a special god of planet Earth. He is a material being, a corporeal organism that exists in space and time and cannot be in two places and in two moments at once. Although Mormons use the Christian formula of the Trinity in the short creeds, it is explained in the doctrinal books that there are two divine persons in the god of the earth, the father and the son, and the third is only an impersonal energy emanating from both. The god of the Earth, from his union with the goddess of the planet Venus or Lucifer, had another son, Lucifer, but he lost his divine dignity and became an evil spirit. Once upon a time, God the Father decided to populate the entire planet Earth with people and, foreseeing their future sins and untruths, began to consult with his two sons. Lucifer said, "Give me honor, send me to correct and teach people," and Christ said to his father, "Thy will be done, and thy glory forever." God entrusted the work of salvation to Christ, and this caused the rebellion of the jealous Lucifer, who carried away a third of the gods and goddesses.

The ancestor of the human race was the god Michael, called Adam in his incarnation. An important place in the teaching of Mormons is the theory of angels and spirits, which should not be confused with gods. Spirits are pre-existent people who have to incarnate on earth and thereby receive the fullness of being, and angels are the souls of those dead people who, although they had the right faith and led a virtuous life, did not fulfill the main purpose of man: to have wives and children in order to contribute to the incarnation of as many spirits as possible, future gods. Lonely people will not be resurrected in real material bodies, but will remain ethereal angels and, although they will enter the future kingdom of God, but only as domestic servants to the saints – which is understood by Mormons in the most real sense.

Mormon ethics are very simple: the only virtue that makes all others unnecessary is unconditional faith and unquestioning obedience to sacred authority. The only important sin is distrust and disobedience to a prophet or seer who receives revelation from above.

Mormons recognize four sacraments:

1. Baptism – upon reaching the age of eight through complete immersion. The Mormons have a wonderful substitutionary baptism for the dead. A Mormon whose loved ones have died "pagans," i.e., outside the sect, after his own baptism, can also be baptized in the name of such persons, for each individual, and thus give them the opportunity to participate in all the blessings promised to the faithful;

2. Ordination to sacred offices. The priesthood is divided into two ranks: the highest or inner, the Melchizedeks (with two degrees: high priest and elder), and the lower, or outer, Aaronic (with three degrees: priests, teachers, and deacons);

3. Marriage. Marriage (sealing) among Mormons is twofold: either only for earthly life, or heavenly, not abolished by death. Women may, in addition to their husbands, marry with deceased men through vicariousness: the deputies are either the chief chiefs of the sect or persons appointed by them;

4. Communion – with bread and water.

The Mormon social system is a despotic theocracy. A prophet or seer, as one who receives direct revelations from the deity, has unlimited power. The supreme council of three (one with the title of "patriarch") assists him in discussing matters, but does not bind his decisions. Judicial functions are performed by bishops appointed from among the high priests of the order of Melchizedek. For the execution of secret death sentences, there has been, since the time of Smith, a detachment of avenging angels. In spite of the material well-being and external culture, the life of the sect, based on boundless despotism, testifies to the moral savagery of this society-sect.