Well, let me be clear here, not to take one particular side. I think there will be expectations and a downside to anywhere. I have myself seen this in the UK. When we got to the UK we loved it. I loved the faith of members not caught up in a culture of dominance. I loved the fact that things were so friendly and kind. People actually talked to you on a bus, everything seemed lovely, enough so that for at least five years later we still miss it.

Now on the same token, Welsh people would ask two questions:
Where are you from?
Why on earth are you here?

In other words to a Welshman and woman their own country did not compare as favourably as Canada. I had people go on and on about things in Australia, Canada and the USA. They saw grass and felt it was greener. Maybe they were right, I will not judge anymore. I suggest Utah is not dissimlar. It is what is your cup of tea. I know people who love it and people that hate it. Some who have been there and some who have not and both of these groups represent the hate/love aspect.

Jon’s OP, however, is something I almost never see — an expression of understanding why those of us who make Utah home *are* at home here. There is indeed a unity here among the Saints. It’s the same unity I found growing up in Las Vegas, where the Saints knew and supported each other while surrounded by everything that makes Las Vegas what it is. Here in the Salt Lake Valley, while surrounded by the jaded, the whiners, the cynics, and the non-Mormons. We not only find the same unity that other Saints do elsewhere, but we do it where we have ready access to everything the institutional church has to offer.

Now I seek to find Zion in my home stake in Florida.