Really enjoyed these latest chapters. As an atheist with LDS friends, it’s a fascinating (and a little scary) look into the Mormon mission world. I’m also impressed with your ability to empathize with and accurately characterize a teenage male’s sexual drive!

I went back and read the whole thing together in one sitting. I like how you show Elder Hobbs’ inner dilemmas. This last part ranks as my favorite in this whole series.

Of course Spencer is going on a date with Tanya to reconvert her to the gospel. He’s totally not rationalizing his deep desire to bone her. Nope. Not at all… [...] I just loved that particular passage because you so perfectly captured the process of rationalization.

I just finished reading through several chapters of this book, and they are really funny (and kinda disturbing at the same time)!

I especially liked the illustration of the difficulty of having any sort of conversation while juggling toddlers. It really strikes home =)

I hope you enjoyed Bordeaux Mission — a novella we’ve been serializing here over the past two months. The above are some of the comments posted by readers (and, of course, you can read the earlier reviews here).

If you haven’t read it yet, it’s all there! (Well, except the “Easter Egg” I might link to later…) It’s just four short chapters that you could probably read in one sitting:

1. The last P-day of my mission
2. Not some dorkaziod missionaries!
3. Even if the church is perfect, the people aren’t
4. It’s not that simple

Feeling the light breeze on my face, I looked out at the water. The edges of the moving water between the feet of the bridge curled into little whirlpools here and there. I tried to drag up all the rusty memories of my former life in Orem, back when everything was so much simpler. I was so faithful then, what had happened to me?

Picturing my home and my family, my youth and my old ward, I started to feel like a good missionary again. I kept all of these pleasant images in my mind until it was time to go get Nick and go to my interview with the Mission President.

When it was my turn, the Mission President shook my hand and started asking me all of the familiar temple recommend questions: Read the rest of the story »

Friday morning I gathered my things and Elder Beaverton helped me carry them to the other side of town to the mission office. Elder Beaverton didn’t have to move his own things this time — he just had to gather up his new companion, Elder Wilson, and bring him back to the apartment. Read the rest of the story »

On Wednesday morning we were having about the same luck as Tuesday morning. We were wandering around the Place Gambetta, thinking about finding some lunch, when we heard a familiar voice: Read the rest of the story »

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 fact, better than a referral, one of the local members had invited us to dinner to give the first discussion to her sister. Read the rest of the story »