My favorite mishie get transferred to another city.

Pretty cool guy for a mishie.

Primarily because they always 'forgot' to prepare a lesson and we ended up just shooting the bull for a couple of hours.

The Junior comp moved up to senior comp. Which should be interesting, because he hasn't said ten words since I met him.

Hope they don't send one of those hardline, gung ho types.

They said they knocked on every door in the valley where I live–I believe it, there are less than 1000 people that live here. Someone real 'gung ho' will piss people off around here real quick...

To be honest, the friendship I shared with the missionaries is one of the things I missed most about being a member of the church. For most of my time in the church, my social circle really was the missionaries who would be assigned to my town. I would drive them to appointments, show them the sites in my area (I live in an area that has a fairly large Amish tourist city. I don't think much of it, but I always enjoyed taking the elders down there for dinner and to get gifts for their family). I also just enjoyed goofing off with them - they always knew that they were welcome at my house and that my computer was always at their disposal to e-mail or instant message with their family. Usually after I'd finish classes for the week, I'd go over to their apartment and we'd play Risk or Monopoly. I never really realized it until after I was out of the church, but I really became a part of the culture of the mission. The mission president and his wife were very good friends of mine and always made it clear that I was welcome at ANY mission function.

Out of all the things about my time as a TBM, this was actually what ate up the most of my resources. I spent a lot of money on gas and food, but I am really happy I was able to do it. This is a very unfriendly area for LDS missionaries, and it really isn't fair that the church forces men who should be off having a laugh with their mates at college to follow such a strict code - I'm glad that I was able to offer them a break from that.

I think that a lot of times people forget that the missionaries are really just kids - and most of them are away from home for the first time. I don't envy that, and I'm glad that my brief time in the church didn't include a 2 year mission.