So I have a small rant to make... you can listen if you want but it's really just the same old argument again.
I hate when people say that you are stronger in the church if you live outside of Utah. I hate it because I really don't see it as true. You are as strong in the church as you want to be whether you live in happy valley or not. I've lived in Utah, Wyoming (briefly), Ecuador, Kenya, and stayed long enough in Germany to participate in their YW program and play the piano for their Primary a couple of times. There are "good" mormons in each of the areas I've lived in and "bad" mormons as well. The difference that I see is that in Utah there is more of a cultural pressure to attend church even if you don't live like a "good" mormon. I imagine that combined with the fact that you live farther away from your Ward/Branch members and so have fewer neighborhood disagreements and that you rarely see the "bad" mormons in sacrament meetings you have the feeling that you have a stronger testimony outside of Utah. I will give you an example that's opposite. In Bahia we had three hundred people on the membership list for the Branch... yes, Branch not Ward even with three hundred members... that's because it was a rare occasion that we'd be able to get over 90 people to our Sunday meetings. (We got 100 to come to the area Conference by visiting every single house and making personal invitations.) Most of the members still lived in the area. We even tried focusing on reactivation and retention instead of baptising... Maybe 30 of the people on the membership list didn't actually live in the area anymore... but the rest just stopped coming to church. The ones that came to church faithfully had strong testimonies... but does it make your chances of becoming a strong member of the church increase or decrease if feel more peer presure to attend meetings? I think of all the times as a teenager that I just came to church because my family was coming or because if I didn't my friends would ask where I was on Sunday. It bought me the time and put me in situations where I could build my personal testimony. And that's coming from the daughter of two good parents that taught her the gospel, and whose dad was not only a Seminary teacher since before she was born but also in the bishopric since she was 5. I don't regret being brought up in Utah Valley... in fact, I want to raise my children here because I feel like there are fewer physical dangers (at least from big cities and certain countries) and because they are going to have to build their own testimony wherever they grow up anyways... and because both my kids sets of grandparents are here... how often can you live within 10 mins of either grandparents house?
Rhees Family
This is such a fun family. They're sweet and playful. It's fun to get to know them and try not to freeze in the cold rain! It was...
4 comments:
It really bothers me when people say that...I love living in Utah. And I think that your kids do have a better chance here to find friends who share their values because it's a bigger pond and so you have more to choose from. I have met some of the most amazing people here. I have met amazing people in the mission field. It is a matter of commitment---not geography.
I'd have to agree. i have spent most of my life outside of UT and think where you live doesn't affect your testimony nearly as much as what you do. If you attend/read/pray/serve consistently it won't matter where you live. But I do think growing up in Utah or in a ward with a strong youth group has its advantages. Peer pressure can be good or bad. Here it is at least better. Where I grew up early sexual activity was the norm and expected. I think I am the only kid in my high school graduating class that did not do drugs at some point in high school. It was very hard. In the three years surrounding my age group at church only 3 of us did not go inactive for some period of time. I would much rather have my kids grow up where there isn't so much peer pressure to do evil.
Besides, eventually all of the righteous will escape/gather to Zion and we will be able to protect each other. For now we live where we live and try and gather the righteous into the fold-- even in Utah and even if they are already baptized members.
OMG I love this SO MUCH! You hit the nail right on the head Rosanne. I've never lived anywhere but here and Rexburg (which is basically the same thing) so I'm glad to hear someone who has lived so many diverse places say this.
And I too, would love to raise our children in Utah. We'd be fine anywhere really, but i'd prefer UT.
This is actually a weird problem historians are always trying to deal with. If communities have no pressure to curb behavior, people do not go to church as often. Does that mean they are less strong people in their faith when they do go? I do not think so but it sure makes you think twice about living in a community that has no such social controls and one that does. Frankly it is not hard to be a mormon here in FL. No one cares if I buy beer, whether its to use as fertilizer for flowers or to drink. I won't bump into anyone from church at the store. No one knows what being a mormon means. I have to drive 30 minutes to do my visiting teaching but I actually do it just as much as when I lived 4 blocks away from them in Utah. I still go the temple just as much (which isn't often - isn't that pitiful) but now I live 3.5 hours away. I think you are the same in your testimony where ever you are. I think its harder to be mormon in Utah because you cannot be 'where you are at' without feeling overwhelmed. Someone who is still growing in the gospel, learning to pay tithing, or trying to quit gets so much slack! I am amazed that our Utah neighbor hid his smoking habit from everyone for years because mormons view it as the worst sin. It is not that bad! Here no one would care. We would welcome him to church with all of us and let him feel welcome. I sit next to a gal that wears pants to church. She would have been told off by some old lady in Utah and quit coming by now. There is man that wears a skirt, 50 year old ladies with purple and green highlights in their dreds, and no one cares. I love that about FL. In Utah, either you are the perfect mormon, or you better pretend to be, or you just suffer in Utah. I think its a great place to raise kids but it is just as hard to be mormon there as anywhere else.
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