Life Outside of Utah

[Guest bren1975]

Apparently many LDS are reluctant to leave Utah. I've heard from a reliable source that some businesses no longer recruit new employees at BYU because they can't get them, or their wives, to leave Utah.

This is unfortunate because Utah doesn't need you. The Church needs strong members in so many areas, and there are more opportunities to serve in callings outside of the LDS-saturated areas. The draw to be close to family is strong, yet the blessings of making new friends and helping LDS-weak areas grow can be equally as wonderful.

Plus, I've found that living outside of Utah, I am out of the "loop" and don't hear about the scandals, fights, and garbage in the media by the anti-LDS. Out here, the Church is treated very respectfully. Non-member neighbors are politely curious. I can take cookies to a new neighbor and they don't think I'm trying to convert them. Meeting a ward member at the store is a treat! My kids grew up in a minority and sometimes had to defend their beliefs.

Thoughts?

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

I've known many people who find it easier to be active in the church outside of Utah.

[Truegrits]

Not that I would wish to live in Utah, but I sure do envy the many Temples there.

[Guest bren1975]

Not that I would wish to live in Utah, but I sure do envy the many Temples there.

Oh, I agree. We live fairly close to ours, but to be able to visit a variety would be fun.

[Bethie]

Utah is the best place for me....as an investigator...to be. I am SO grateful to be here. I never knew any Mormons (besides "Donny and Marie") before I moved here.

I am blessed.

[ldsdizzle]

This is a very interesting topic. I lived in Utah back in the mid 90's as a non-mormon and didn't pay much attention to the church. I converted to LDS about a year ago with the thought of living in Utah fresh in my mind. I recently (2 weeks ago) had a chance to visit Salt Lake City, now being involved with the church. Going back to visit, now as a member, I found a great deal of comfort and self awareness that I did not have before. It was more of an experience for me. Like I was closer to "family". I feel that this is why Mormons won't leave. The core "family", and where Mormon roots took hold, is there in the Salt Lake Valley. Most people, in my honest opinion, wont move away from what they find familiar and comforting. Just my two cents.:)

[funkymonkey]

OK, I just moved to UT 3 months ago so my first impressions might be a little inaccurate but this is what I've seen so far...

With the exception of a couple of "transplant" states (california, florida, New York, colorado)... people generally set up roots in the region where they grew up. I don't think it's really an issue of religion why they stay in UT, but more of just being with family and the friends that they know.

If you're comfortable and happy somewhere then why move?

I personally think Utah needs just as many strong LDS people as any other state... the last I heard, 75% of the state is LDS and I'd guess probably 50-60% of those are actually active (unless you live in Provo and the membership is probably like 90% active).

I've spent a lot of time roaming around my new town and I think there's still work to be done here too. People here don't need to fight so much for what they believe in every single day...because Utahns already know what Mormonism is. So it can be a lot easier for these members just kind of relax and be casual in their membership...(very tricky strategy for the adversary I think.)

There are missionaries all over the place here, just like anywhere else (allthough I do feel bad for the guys who get called here...they were probably hoping for some kind of an adventure like europe or S america.)

The one thing I have noticed that really bothers me is that you go to work or school and people start having these casual religious conversations just assuming that the whole group is active LDS. (kinda like those questions "where did you go on your mission?" "what temple did you get married in?"

I dunno, I really get bothered when people start talking about that stuff in front of just anyone... there's a time and place to be debating deep church doctrine and it's probably not on the lunch break.

I also don't understand why the LDS and "non-LDS" have to be so segregated here and polarized?

My sis moved here from Virginia (everyone in the neigborhood brings you goodies and smile) and was wondering why none of her neighbors came over to welcome them?? The response she got was "you'll meet your neighbors when you go to church". WHY? Why can't we just walk accross the street and say "HI. wanna come over for a BBQ?"

We went over to our next door neigbors when we moved in and they were outside smoking and they looked at us like we were insane for wanting to introduce ourselves.

But I do love it here. This is coming from a Coloradoan...Utah has killer recreation and it totally rivals CO. (and we just happened to move here for work!)

There isn't really anywhere else that gets this much sunshine and still has a winter. We do have some family here which means that we have a support group, but they still live far enough away that they can't do the "pop-in".

There are a lot of family friendly things to do and there are plenty of little kids running around for your kids to hang out with.

Going to church doesn't take 20 minutes anymore...it takes like 30 seconds. A trip to the temple is not a 1 or 2 or 3 day endeavor, (members in Utah really don't have good excuses for not going!). You get BYUtv for general conference so you can just stay in your jammies and watch...and little sermons on Sundays (really nice for those of us that can't get to church all the time).

The traffic isn't as bad as other places I've seen.

The recreation here is top notch. Some of the best skiing/snowboarding (only 30 minutes from us, YEAH!), best rock climbing in the world...so much climbable rock that most of it is still undeveloped. This state still has a ton of BLM land where you can go explore (a TON of Colorado mtns are bought up as private land, so exploring isn't quite the same). There are more lakes here than in CO too... Lake Powell ROCKS....should be something everyone experiences in UT. And there's moab, and Red rocks, etc to the south.

all-in-all Utah is a pretty great place! I don't blame anyone for wanting to live here. :)

[Misshalfway]

Hi Bren, How are you?

I was raised in Utah and am now raising my family very near where I grew up. Being from such a LDS concentration has its benefits and perhaps its disadvantages. I sometimes fear that perhaps I have developed certain blind spots with regards to other ways of thinking and interacting inside the LDS culture and without it. I also feel so very blessed to have grown up with youth who for the most part shared my values....or at least I knew their parents did. :) I never had to deal with temptation on a large scale. If someone wanted those sorts of activities, they could find them. But it was also easy to find loads of fun with kids who weren't interested in breaking commandments.

The Utah LDS culture/church has its challenges. Things are more gray. Perhaps that is a symptom of this modern world at large. Good starts looking less appetizing and bad is portrayed as good. It is all quite confusing somedays as being PC or looking "current" is more important than walking the straight and narrow. I think Satan will use whatever he needs to, including our weakness and vulnerabilities, to lull us and flatter us and lie to us. Sometimes I feel as if I need to be more on guard here because of the subtlety of the temptation and influence. I have many concerns about the Saints here in Utah. There is much in those gray areas and in the areas where culture and doctrine collide, that sobers me.

So...does the mission field need good strong members? I would answer yes. It is clear to me that many are lead to other places to help build up the kingdom. But I would also say that good strong members are needed in every part of the vineyard and that God sometimes tells his people to say put.

[Moksha]

I've known many people who find it easier to be active in the church outside of Utah.

Some say there is better fellowshipping outside of Utah. My guess is that Provo, Utah is ground zero and it gets better the further away you get.

[pam]

Hey I volunteer to leave Utah!!! Pick me pick me.

[Kirajo]

I didn't grow up in Utah, I moved here from Idaho (Not much difference, but I somehow dislike Utah a great deal and still love Idaho haha).

That being said, I've always envied members that have lived outside these bubbles and grew their testimonies in places where they were really tested in teaching by example. I've always felt that their testimonies were much firmer and stronger than mine (Not saying that's the sole cause for my weaker testimony, just something I've noticed).

My kids will actually grow up most likely in New York or North Carolina and then move back to Idaho when they're around 10 or so years old. I once heard a story about a girl that moved from the East to the West and she was told that where she was moving there would be tons of LDS kids her age. She got so excited and said that she'd be able to guess which ones were LDS just by looking at how they acted and the examples they lead. She was dead wrong when almost all the kids acted the exact same...and not in a good way. It dissapointed her beyond belief.

So, I too wish that if it is true that Mormons in Utah refuse to live outside this little bubble atleast for a little while, they could open their eyes and see the great possibilities and experiences they could gain. Me being one of those bubbled up people, I'm nervous to move away but I'm really excited to feel the difference and grow up a little so to speak. :)

[Islander]

A family friend of ours just returned from UT this week after 2 years living there. They were around Logan and they found it difficult to adjust. They returned for work reasons but they were having problems with fellowshiping and making friends up there. It could be just them but I found their experience interesting.

I like missionary work. I enjoy talking to people and sharing the Gospel. I would find it difficult being someplace with 90% membership.

[dazed-and-confused]

i have only visited utah...but i can see some pro's and cons....i guess the first pro would be the commeradery, or how common LDS members are there, and as was stated earlier, the multitude of temples.......but as another mentioned briefly....i can't help but think that there is a con to what might be percieved as a kind of being sheltered from having to deal with life in an environment that was not so concentrated with members.....i believe the challenges are shaded a bit differently....but while i was there i did think it was a beautiful state

[MarginOfError]

In the interest of full disclosure, let me just say that I despise Utah. So go ahead and take anything I say with a grain of salt.

We have a lot of people come to live out here for school (Dental, Medical, and Law) and the thing that really gets me is how much the Utah people complain about having to drive six miles (10 minutes) to get to Church. It level of annoyance rises as their level of sincerity rises. There are some people here that hate being here solely because it's so far to Church. Yet, in the area I grew up, we had to travel 40 minutes to get to Church, and that was if the guards at the border didn't require us to stop. I drove 25 minutes every morning to get to Seminary, and I had one of the shorter trips. Stake Conference and any Stake Priesthood meetings were almost two and a half hours away. And the temple!? Try 13 hours. So really, don't complain that it's more than two blocks to the chapel...those of us outside of Utah have no sympathy for you.

If I can get past that issue with the Utards, then I usually get caught on issue number two...they can't stand the place because the Church doesn't necessarily function like they saw it function in Utah. When i moved into my current ward a year ago, I wanted to get involved in Scouting. The ward here has two young men, and the scouting program was falling apart. The Bishopric asked for my advice and suggestions on how to put it back together, so I looked at the available resources and recommended that they shut down their scouting program and join an active troop sponsored by one of the local communities (the ward here has all of two young men, one of whom has no interest in scouting). But a lot of people freaked out about the idea, saying that we couldn't possibly go to a community troop because the Church has to run scouting in order to involve the Gospel element of it (which, by the way, is totally false). As a result, the ward is now trying to maintain a scout troop for 1 boy in this ward and three in a neighboring ward with almost zero budget, next to nothing for leadership, and an entirely untrained team of leaders. So far it's been a disaster, and two of the boys have left the troop to join a community troop.

And the last thing that really gets me, in all this scouting fiasco, I joined a community troop. I just decided I wanted to do it, so I went and did it. I didn't get one dirty look or complaint from any of the ward members (who I thought would criticize that I should be helping the Ward's troop), but I did get dirty looks because, as they put it, "you're doing something without a calling?" Imagine the shock that a person could volunteer to contribute something to the community without being asked by the Bishop!

Okay okay okay, not all of the people from Utah are these kinds of Utards, and I've got some wonderful friends from Utah. But they recognize that it is possible to live outside of Utah and be happy. I just want the Utards, while they're here, to keep their mouths shut and get back to Utah as soon as they can so I don't have to deal with them.

I might say more later, but I have to go eat breakfast and get my lunch ready. ciao!

[Gwen]

Hey I volunteer to leave Utah!!! Pick me pick me.

i pick.......pam! .....how soon can you move? we are getting ready to play musical chairs again so the sooner the better... :)

[Guest bren1975]

Interesting input, everyone!

As I said before, I LOVE Utah. Most of my relatives are there and nearly everytime I visit, I think about moving there, till I come home and remember I could never leave the beauty of the Northwest, and the ocean.

One thought for Utahns. Many of you have family close by. But not all do. When you get together with relatives on holidays or whenever, please think about your friends who may not have family near. Maybe include them occasionally. I've heard from more than one, that living in Utah without extended family, is a lonely place. Out where I live, I'd actually rather get together with friends than with family, as our family is . . . shall I say . . . complicated. But that's another thread.

[Spacemecha]

I grew up in Vegas, and moved to Orem seven years ago. It was a world of different. I hated it. Nothing was open past 11 if even open till 10. Grocery stores don't count. I hated not being able to go and get something to do around midnight or even later, but I got used to it. That was my biggest problem in my mind at the time. Over a year ago I graduated college ~ Stevens Henager, and got a job with the federal government here in Michigan. From Good to sort of ok, to what the heck was I thinking... Each place so far has its pros and cons for church, community, lifestyle, and other conditions. One thing I've realized by this is that there are to many variables between where I have lived for me to make a judgement on what's worse and what's not, so I don't think it's my place to say if any one location is better or worse.

[Moksha]

Hey I volunteer to leave Utah!!! Pick me pick me.

Let's get our handcarts ready!

[Still_Small_Voice]

I lived in Utah for a few years. The way people drove in Utah really bothered me. I thought they were the worst drivers in the nation until I just visited Massachusetts. Oh my heck! The way the people drive in the cities at Massachusetts is even worst! They pull out in front of you and cut you off. Very rude. Saw it happen several times while visiting there for about a day.

[Over43]

I used to love Utah, and then Money Magazine picked Utah Valley as one of the top places in America to live. (As someone has already stated.) And then the developers and real estate agents showed up. More homes, more cars, more people. People are fine, as long as I don't have to listen to their toilet flush while I live next to them. I live in a nice rural area now that is looking to go "big time". Too bad. Montana or the Dakotas are next. The way this works, who knows, I may end up in White Horse.

Jon

[Fiannan]

You know, I am from Oregon and there are many people who would never dream of leaving Oregon. So what is wrong with people desiring to live in Utah?

[rastler000]

Montana or the Dakotas are next. The way this works, who knows, I may end up in White Horse.

Jon

Montana and the Dakotas are too brutal in the winter. That will keep the numbers from getting out of control.

[NeuroTypical]

My wife and I are very happy since we left Utah and set up shop in Middle-Of-Nowhere, CO. We anticipate getting snowed in at least once this coming winter.

LM

[Misshalfway]

My wife and I are very happy since we left Utah and set up shop in Middle-Of-Nowhere, CO. We anticipate getting snowed in at least once this coming winter.

LM

If you don't mind me asking LM, why are you glad you left Utah? Was there something in the Jello? J/K. Seriously I would really like to know.

[Wingnut]

I lived in Utah for a few years. The way people drove in Utah really bothered me. I thought they were the worst drivers in the nation until I just visited Massachusetts. Oh my heck! The way the people drive in the cities at Massachusetts is even worst! They pull out in front of you and cut you off. Very rude. Saw it happen several times while visiting there for about a day.

Massachusetts drivers have a nickname in the Northeast. I won't 'say' it here, because I'd probably get in trouble, but it's a bad word preceded by the letter 'm' and the start of it sounds like the start of the name of the state. Let me tell you...they earn the nickname. No offense intended to anyone here from Massachusetts. I just lived in Connecticut long enough to dislike drivers from both Massachusetts (jerks) and New York (too slow).