In a story on Morning Edition about Mitt Romney, the commentator said "most Americans don't know any Mormons because they are concentrated in Utah and Idaho." This shocked me. I grew up with several Mormon classmates in West Virginia.
ETA: There is a Mormon church one block from our current house.
yes, there have always been a number of them in my states (not utah or idaho). I will say they generally are some of the nicest people. I still think the book of mormon is crazycakes (sorry, I do).
Yes. There were many Mormon students in school growing up. They didn't stick out in any way except that in high school, they tended to be among the more clean-cut students.
DH has a lot of Mormon family. They live all along the gulf coast, from Florida to Mississippi. My sister is Mormon, she's in the military and has lived everywhere. Most of BIL's family is Mormon and they live in Washington state.
There are Mormon churches everywhere. I don't think people often make the connection that Latter Day Saints = Mormon. Also, most of the Mormons I know, if asked about their religion, would describe themselves as Christians, not Mormons.
Post by msamyfarrahfowler on Aug 29, 2012 9:25:59 GMT -5
My area was heavily Catholic, yet there were a few Mormon kids I went to school with. One of them went on to do missionary work in places like Kansas and Toronto.
I've only met 2, both in the state I went to college at. One of those two told me that not many Mormons lived in the state because it was a very conservative state. (Iowa and he was a transplant from Idaho, he actually ended up transferring to BYU-Idaho after a year in Iowa.)
Yes - a family I went to HS with and still keep in touch with, and a good friend who now lives in Kansas City (though I guess she's now RLDS, not really Mormon any more).
The Mormons passed through this area as they fled persecution. My new town has a street called "Mormon Trek". There's some interesting history in the area that I didn't really know about until my friend educated me.
one of dh's roommates senior year was a Mormon. Super nice guy with a crazy busy social calendar. He never once tried to evangelize to dh which kind of surprised me.
Now living in Utah it would be strange if I didn't!
But in when I lived in Arizona during high school, I knew only a few casually. When I grew up in northern Indiana I didn't know any at all and I really don't think there were any in our town.
Post by catsarecute on Aug 29, 2012 9:33:51 GMT -5
There were a lot of Mormons in my high school. A number of them were on the water polo/swim team so I spent a lot of time with them. They always created the most fun cheers for us to do before swim meets, stuff they said they learned during Seminary and other church events. I didn't envy that they had to wake up so early for that though. In high school, waking up at 5:30 a.m. seemed horrendous.