Some Stake Boundaries Are Bigger Than Others...Even In Utah

 If you live in Utah and if you are part of the predominant religion, where you attend church is almost entirely decided by where you live. Like most organizations, large groups are divided up into smaller units. In the case of the LDS church, areas are divided into stakes. Stakes are made up of smaller congregations called wards, and even smaller units called branches. 

There's usually somewhere between 8-12 wards/branches in a stake. The size of branches, wards, and stakes are based on the number of members living in a particular area. In Utah, there happens to be a lot of members of the church so that means the areas of branches, wards, and stakes are small...

Or, most of them anyway.

A year ago we moved from the most populated county in the state to one of the lesser populated ones. Box Elder County where we now live has one big city, a few smaller towns, then a lot of open space, especially to the west. There's just nothing out there, or very little. The other day I was bored so I looked up the boundaries of the stake in which we now live.

Needless to say, it's huge.

When I served my LDS mission I lived in Denmark. The entire country has two stakes. I've lived in areas with big stakes boundaries, and small. In Farmington Utah, where we used to live, there's close to ten stakes in that small area alone. It's unusual to have such a large stake in Utah. Just another way life here is a bit...different

I Really Don't Know Much About Horses...

 A few months ago I decided getting more exercise is something I needed to do. As far as where to get exercise, I chose close to home. The hillside is a perfect place to take a walk. The second or third time I ventured north, I spotted a couple of horses. They were in a corral, but I didn't get close. 

I really don't know much about horses.

A week or two later I was chatting with one of the locals and I asked about the horses...I wanted to know who owned them. Turns out, the man with whom I was chatting was the owner. I asked if it would be okay to go near the horses, maybe pet them. He said it was fine if I did--he only asked that I not hand feed them so they wouldn't get used to having humans hand feed them.

No problem.

On my next hike, I walked over and introduced myself. The horses were a little skittish, but they came over as I talked to them. I did not, however, touch them them. I stayed a few feet away just to make sure I didn't spook them. I finished my walk and didn't think much of the horses after that.

Until, the next time I headed up the hill.

I spotted the pair, and as I got closer, I noticed that they saw me and once they saw me, they walked to the edge of the corral. They continued watching me as I approached until I reached them. This time, they did not timidly walk over as they did before. They were excited to see me. I even got to pet them. What surprised me is that I thought they'd react the same way they did before, but I guess they recognized me and wanted me to come over and say, "hi."

Many in my family are "horse people." They've lived and worked around horses all their lives. My dad and mom grew up with horses...they helped them literally survive. I grew up in a different world--one pretty much without horses. Hopefully, I'll get to know those particular horses better as time goes on.