So, our new neighbors hate us.

[Guest]

Maybe "hate" is a strong word, but all seem genuinely disappointed that we're LDS. Well, except the ward members next door. :)

We just moved a street over, where we had a couple of neighbors who hated our Mormon-ness (hate is not too strong a word there), and one of the things we were glad about was that we would be moving away from them. Now we have even more neighbors around us who are of religions who, around here at least, are typically somewhat anti-Mormon. They've all asked where we go to church and all their faces seem to fall when we tell them.

The good thing is, there are plenty of friendly ward members within walking distance. I guess we just try to be the best neighbors we can and prove the rest wrong. :shrug:

[TalkativeIntrovert]

I find it interesting that religion comes up as a topic of conversation!

Hope all works out for you.

[Guest]

It is weird! And strange that people will base how they feel about you on where you go to church.Thankfully we've been in this ward and neighborhood for a long time, and already have friendships and such established. We'll be okay if none of them ever accept us, but of course we prefer to be friendly with our neighbors.

[Gretchen]

Just show them that you are nice people, smile and wave and say "hi neighbor!" when you see them. After a while, they'll start to think of you as "that nice family who goes to that crazy church", and things might change for the better.

[Lakumi]

Canadians aren't as upfront with religion, even in a religious town like this... No one has ever asked me where I went to church, (my reply normally would have been "I don't" but since yesterday...that's not true anymore)

I actually like my neighbours, which is rare since in the past I have disliked neighbours fiercely

[Guest]

My best neighbor (whose kid practically lives in my house) is from a Church that teaches the LDS Church is a cult with all the negative things that come with it. The kids go to the Church's School and it's cool that when they have these "Mormon discussions" the kids tell them - "my neighbors are Mormon and they're not like that".

[NeuroTypical]

Baptists at our Barbeque is a pretty good show. The guy moves into town, and the sheriff asks him about religion. He says he's LDS, and the sheriff spits and swears and gets all upset, because now "the balance is all out of whack". The town had been pretty equally divided between the two, and both of them would work full-time on the one undecided family.

[Guest]

The neighbors at the old house that actually hated us were Baptist. We live in a strongly Nazarene town and we mostly live around members of that church now, except the Romanian Christian couple across the street, who are very nice but were noticeably disappointed when we answered them about where we go to church. Maybe they all think we'll be throwing BoMs at them. Like the advice above, we just try to be friendly and be good neighbors. Hopefully over time they'll be more comfortable.

[NeuroTypical]

One of my wife's friends would pet sit for us. She actually took a few steps backwards, and said "oh no" when we told her we were Mormon. It was like she expected us to attack her or say we couldn't be friends any more or something.

After one trip, we came home, and she was very, very apologetic that one of our dogs had gotten out and run around the neighborhood for an hour. Like, waaay too apologetic. Finally, my wife said "Well, it's good that [dog] is ok, because it's against our religion for you to lose our dog." The petsitter ducked her head like she'd just been given a harsh reprimand, then after a second or two finally got it, and then we all laughed and things were a little better.

[Iggy]

Shortly after moving to Arizona to live with new husband, I started looking on-line for a home to retire to OUTSIDE of Arizona.

After 6 years, I found one right back where I came from: The Central Oregon Coast.

I drove up on my own to take a look at the house and neighborhood. Found out it is the little trailer park owned and managed by a guy I knew from living here before. (from 1978 to 2004 to be precise)

The park is old but it had been kept up nicely. There was only one young family. They are in their early 40's with a teen boy. It was quiet, friendly (the couple next to us asked if we were church goers. I said yes, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he nodded his head, looked to the end of the cul-de-sac and said, yep, so are the kids. (meaning the young family)

That was in 2010- October. It is now 2013 - July and it is not quiet anymore. It is not nice looking anymore. Two of the homes are now occupied by an elderly couple that don't give a crap what the outside looks like. They collect trash and people. Next door to them is their single mother daughter. She is just the same. Only she is LOUD. She also collects people, from age 12 on up.

Across the street the park maintenance dude is a meth addict. Sells the crap. Cars were coming here all night long. Then next door to him is the trash/junk collector. An older man who claims to be on Medical Marijuana, except he isn't. He is also on morphine. Since his youngest son got out of prison a year ago - he has been living there also. This kid is nuts.

He is also a hater. He hates Jews. He hates Mormons. He also believes that Jews and Mormons are the same. He often puts up homemade signs that say: Death to Mormen Jews. Yeah, well, he is an uneducated white trash red neck.

The next sign he puts up gets photographed by me and the pics sent to the sheriffs office. Two of the deputies are Jewish.

None of us here own our land. We own our homes. Well, some are tenants. They rent house and land. The daughter rents - allegedly she is to pay the land owner the back taxes on the house (he bought it off the elderly couple who owned it - they both were too ill to be living alone. So they *sold* it to the land owner for the back taxes. Those taxes have yet to be paid.

The meth addict/dealer across from me: He doesn't own the house either. He pays rent on the house in sweat equity plus some cash. He took a dilapidated trailer house and made it habitable. BUT since we moved here, he has not done his maintenance jobs.

The morphine/medical pot dude finally had all of the trash (bagged garbage) hauled off because I threatened to turn him into the health dept, solid waste department, etc. and the landowner has enough black marks against him from those two departments that he is scared of them.

The landowner is experiencing some health issues. He doesn't deposit our lot rent checks in a timely fashion - I actually think he forgets he even has them. He doesn't take care of the park business.

As for the rest of the neighbors and their thoughts on what religion we are - I could care less what they think. Keep your dogs quiet, scoop their poo and please provide litter boxes for your cats as my flower pots are off limits.

[Drpepper]

Reading some threads like this just makes me think "what the"?

[Lbybug]

I thought of Baptists at our barbecue when I read this thread too.

Other than when I was a kid, I can't recall ever really being asked what my religion is in conversation. Small town southern Alberta is pretty close to the bible belt of the states. The town I just moved out of, you were either dutch reform, Mormon, or an outcast. You didn't get asked what church you went to though, just if they didn't see you in their congregation, they assumed you were part of the other two options.

[bytor2112]

Pshh...living in the deep south everyone is non-mormon and maybe that is not why they hate you.....

[Guest]

Well, smart donkey, when things are all happy and friendly until church comes up, and then they go cold, it's a pretty sure bet why.

[Lakumi]

church or hockey, here its hockey (this city has over 50 churches-and that's the Christian ones only, so yeah you'd be lucky to find someone who goes to the same one I'd imagine)

[bytor2112]

Well, smart donkey, when things are all happy and friendly until church comes up, and then they go cold, it's a pretty sure bet why.

Smart democrat is an oxy moron ....you know....

Edited July 24, 2013 by bytor2112

[Guest descartes]

It is weird! And strange that people will base how they feel about you on where you go to church.Thankfully we've been in this ward and neighborhood for a long time, and already have friendships and such established. We'll be okay if none of them ever accept us, but of course we prefer to be friendly with our neighbors.

You think that's weird, I met a Mormon girl and one of the first questions she asked me, just because I was dressed for church, "are you a returned missionary" as if that would say something about me as a man right?

[wyarwehere]

My mom's neighbors hate them, but, they hate pretty much anyone who has a job. Out of about eight families, my mom and her husband are the only ones who have jobs. She tells me stories about her neighbors, and she could live here,(and I live in the ghetto part of the city). She lives in a borough tho, it shouldn't be as bad there.

The latest in their neighbors' drama, mom and her husband called the codes officer on one of their female neighbors because she has these brush piles that have been building up for two or three years and is calling all sorts of creatures(including poisonous snakes--bear in mind my folks have an 8 and an 11 year old girl at home) into their yards and calling it a garden. The codes officer sent an order for her to clean it up. She is now taking them to court saying that they're harassing her because they made the police write her up. So they go to court in about two weeks. Now the irony in all this is that my folks are friends with the cops, and everyone is getting a good laugh out of this.