I have been working on writing a forward for a book for the past three months. They want 12 to 15 pages! (Fortunately double spaced, but STILL!) I've been trying to work on it off and on for about a week now, and have made about 5 pages of progress. It has been torture--I'm totally out of practice with writing, but am surprised at how fast the defense mechanism of procrastination kicked in. My office is now spotless, I've actually logged all my mail, and I started a frickin' BLOG--things that NEVER get done. Anyway, yesterday I had been working on the forward and had gotten into a writing groove when I got an email saying that there was a new story on the Norwegian mission website. And being a Norwegian returned missionary, I clicked on over there, only to be dismayed that it was a "faith promoting" story--BOOOORR-RRIINNGG. Since I had the writing bug, and I knew a much more interesting story, I decided to send out my own. Since I knew that the story would never be approved by the webmaster, I just emailed it directly to my mission contacts. While I won't go into the details in this forum, I'll suffice it to say that the story documented at least five breachs of mission rules--and not just the lame ones like "don't steal." It is one of my favorite mission memories, and from the responses I got from the people I sent it to, evidently struck a chord, as it spawned at least 30 replies back and forth.

Am I a bad Mormon or just a bad return missionary for reveling in the interesting and memorable stories and not perpetuating the illusion that 19 through 22 year-olds are saints? I'll just say that I'm doing my part to let people know that Mormon's aren't perfect, and when given an opportunity, could appear in the DVD "MISSIONARIES GONE WILD!" Which is probably the first thing people think of when they hear about Mormon missionaries, I'm assuming.