Try living in east Mesa. Talk about being surrounded! I'm actually considering moving to the west side because I can't stand the high concentration of TBMs over here. Although having grown up in the east valley, I sort of have an uppity attitude about the west valley (that I'm really trying to overcome).
Ron~ I used to live at 43/Thunderbird until '93. I remember AGSIM. Has the name changed? I wasn't aware of any mormons in my neighborhood at the time. Or Catholics. Or Jews. Or JW's. We were all just neighbors and part of the community. I live in the EV now, and get so tired of hearing "Do you know so and so? They're in my ward" Ugh....
Yep, it's now The Thunderbird School of International Management (no longer AGSIM). We lived on Olive @ 59th is some rathole appartments. I don't remember much except that's where we were when SWK and the boys issued the "no oral sex" letter which flew like a lead balloon. It was quickly retracted.
My wife at the time was (and still is) uber-TBM and said as we exited our TR interview (where the SP asked if we partook of oral sex) "that's total bullshit!". I almost peed my pants laughing.
I live in Phx, but pretty close to Glendale. Sounds like you had a stroke of bad luck in picking your neighborhood... :/ I don't think most of Glendale is like that?
I would say so. Not a lot of LDS in the Phoenix area or the west valley. They tend to stick to the east valley. But thankfully they are moving away from the older neighborhoods in Mesa and out to Gilbert and Queen Creek.
Temples have nothing to do with the membership. Most sit unused. They are real estate investments. As far as membership use, the Phoenix temple makes as much sense as building a temple in Rome. Oh wait...