We live in Utah County which is predominantly LDS (Mormon). I'm just being descriptive, not judgmental. Many people wonder how/why we ended up here, as opposed to Salt Lake County which is more diverse. There's a dividing line between Salt Lake and Utah Counties commonly referred to as "point of the mountain". Salt Lake City is in Salt Lake County - north of point of the mountain and Provo is in Utah County - south of point of the mountain. When Chris took the job that brought us to Utah we were directed by friends, both LDS and not, where to house hunt - Salt Lake County. Chris' job was in Provo at the time so living north would have meant more of a commute.
Eventually we stumbled on the little town where we now live in Utah County. It's beautiful here. The home we purchased was a spec home and the builder, his agent, and our agent, told us how diverse this community was after we expressed concern about being the only people in the neighborhood who weren't members of the Mormon church. Belief systems that are different from ours aren't a problem, but we'd always lived in neighborhoods that were "melting pots" - people from different places, single people, married people, one child, several children, retired people, people who went to church, people who didn't - so to live in a community where everyone was part of something that we weren't was - well, different.
We moved in and...guess what? It's not that diverse here. Duh. Wasn't a problem at first, after six months it felt a little funny - isolating (I truly believe we went through a mild form of culture shock), then time helped us adapt to and understand the root of some of the differences. We realized it was nothing personal towards us - people here have full dance cards with church responsibilities and activities. We're accepted by our community (we blend in like white on rice though) and people go out of their way to make us feel welcome and included. Sometimes we still feel like "outsiders" but for the most part we're part of the fabric. Kinda.
SO, a neighbor and friend stopped by the other day to say hello. We hadn't visited in a while so we caught up about kids, summer plans, who's hosting Bunko when, etc... It was nice. She said she'd been busy lately making dehydrated hash browns for food storage. I said wow. Impressive. She said she should have called me so I could get in on it. I said that would be great but I wouldn't be storing them - just eating them. I told her (like I tell all my friends who store food) that we're relying on she and the rest of the community to feed us in the event of a major disaster. This is all spoken in a good-natured tone and with smiles.
She didn't miss a beat and with her big grin said, "That's the way it's supposed to work! And we know you'll bring the beer and chocolate!"
It works REALLY well here for us.
