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Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category

Update on Mishies in Switzerland!

07.21.2011 · Posted in Europe, Mission, Mission Field

You may recall that recently Switzerland recently stopped the practice of routinely issuing visas to [foreign] Mormon missionaries (i.e. mishies from outside the EU). And — if you’re like me — this may have left you full of questions like: What will the CoJCoL-dS do??? Do they have enough European mishies to keep the mission ...

Happy Birthday, Deutschland!

10.03.2010 · Posted in Birthdays, Changes, Europe, Germany, Mission, Nostalgia

On a sunny winter day of 1985 or 86, I was waiting in the entrance of the Nuremberg train station when an elderly gentlemen with an Austrian accent addressed me: “When I see how beautifully Nuremberg has been rebuild, I feel encouraged that one day our Germany will be united again too.” That was an ...

Temple Marriage, Civil Marriage, and my marriage

12.17.2009 · Posted in Europe, Law, Marriage

When I got married — back in 2000 — the “gay marriage” issue was hardly on my radar. Ever since reading Stephen J. Gould’s Creation Myths of Cooperstown essay (back in my BYU days), I’ve tended to be wary of “just-so stories” that give an instantaneous creation point to something which, in reality, evolved over ...

To stay and build up the kingdom

09.29.2009 · Posted in Bordeaux Mission, Europe

By the time Elder Beaverton and I got back to our apartment, it was past 18 heures (6 p.m.), so p-day was officially over, and it was time to get back to work. The cool thing was that our work for the evening was hardly work. We finally had a referral for once — in ...

The last P-day of my mission

09.22.2009 · Posted in Europe, Literature, Mission

I was back home fishing. The morning sun was filtering down the canyon as I rowed my boat out to the middle of a calm lake and started preparing my lines… Not really. But in my mind I was already gone. Anywhere but wasting the last P-day of my mission watching the rest of the ...

Oldies but Goodies: Testimony of a Dissident

A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some ...