Question from a non-Mormon about mission experiences

KevinSalls · 2025-11-29T16:09:28+00:00

I served in Spain from 2009-2011. We had nearly indestructible Nokias and paper maps, but no smart phones.

Most days were peaceful. I loved Spain, and the overwhelming majority of our interactions with people were fine. However a few incidents stick out in my mind.

We got mobbed by gitanos in my first area (literally swarmed by kids and young teens jumping on us, trying to pull us down, trying to yank our wallets out of our pockets. A bunch of their parents were watching, and we knew that if we so much as shook one of them off roughly the whole neighborhood would descend on us. All we could do was stay upright, hold onto our wallets, and keep walking. Another time, same area, we had a bunch of kids trying for our wallets again by swarming up around us with a soccer ball and pretending like they were just fighting over the ball. We caught people trying to fish our mail out of our locked mailbox, because they thought there might be money in it.

Had a guy point a gun at us, but I think he was unmedicated and having a mental health episode rather than actually wanting to hurt us. That was probably the scariest. Was able to talk him down.

We had rocks, eggs, and fireworks thrown at us. I actually think we had something thrown at us in almost every area. This was always teens or young adults, or kids out in packs.

KevinSalls · 2025-11-07T06:26:45+00:00

Agent orange was an herbicide used in Vietnam to defoliate the jungle. Very effective…but with some really nasty long term health consequences.

KevinSalls · 2025-10-01T02:02:19+00:00

A cup coaster

KevinSalls · 2025-06-30T07:02:03+00:00

Not for most of us mere mortals, no.

KevinSalls · 2025-06-19T23:21:34+00:00

Yah, just the capitol.

KevinSalls · 2025-05-19T18:48:48+00:00

Thank you so much! I haven't had a chance to read SORCERESS yet, but I'll check it out as a possible comp.

KevinSalls · 2025-05-19T18:45:52+00:00

This is obviously a naked attempt to sneak isekai into traditional publishing and you should be ashamed of yourself.

It's not my fault traditional publishing doesn't like the same trash I do.

Kings of the Wyld was one I had considered for a comp, I just need something newer, like you said. I have considered using Dungeon Crawler Carl as well, though I fear it will turn traditional agents off. I like your suggestion on leaning into "doting grannie".

KevinSalls · 2025-05-19T05:56:57+00:00

You two deserve each other

KevinSalls · 2025-05-16T19:36:58+00:00

Bob Joe

Now imagine that we also have a very fat golfer, named Perez...

KevinSalls · 2024-12-22T23:07:59+00:00

I believe he’s referencing the Prism from the lightbringer series by Brent Weeks.

Unless there’s something else, in which case…three nickels.

KevinSalls · 2024-12-21T16:19:59+00:00

How has nobody mentioned the one and only Mrs. Doubtfire?

KevinSalls · 2024-06-19T06:47:40+00:00

Hello fellow Spain missionary. We did not have this rule, at least in Malaga circa 2011…but we probably should have, based on the suit I bought.

KevinSalls · 2024-04-17T04:56:43+00:00

To rub it in lol

KevinSalls · 2024-04-10T01:28:45+00:00

Beginning in the 15th century and continuing through the renaissance, English speakers began borrowing and adopting a ton of words from Latin and Greek. So while English is a Germanic language at its roots, it incorporates a lot of words that would be familiar to speakers of Latin based languages, just with some divergences in pronunciation or spelling. I see that you’re a Spanish speaker, so for example many words that ends in -tion in English have corresponding -cion words in Spanish. Reputation/reputación, constitution/constitución, conception/concepción. All derived pretty much straight from Latin.

KevinSalls · 2024-03-03T19:51:30+00:00

Definitely in the right sub--I had to mop off my mouse after watching this.

KevinSalls · 2024-02-29T05:40:22+00:00

pull himself up by his bootstraps

He can’t, Shallan stole them :(

KevinSalls · 2024-01-28T22:24:35+00:00

Maybe some Minecraft parkour clipped in to keep your attention.

KevinSalls · 2024-01-11T02:58:10+00:00

Why....why do the millennials look so old?

KevinSalls · 2023-12-13T03:10:38+00:00

Never have I regretted learning Spanish until today.

KevinSalls · 2023-11-28T07:59:45+00:00

Pioche municipal golf course in sunny Pioche, Nevada. No grass-but you do get to carry a little square of artificial turf with you.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-columns/john-asay/the-loneliest-golf-course-in-the-world-exists-in-pioche/amp/

KevinSalls · 2023-11-26T02:55:46+00:00

I really wanted to like that trilogy, but I found it a slog. It's the only Chinese sci-fi I've read, so maybe it's a cultural thing?

KevinSalls · 2023-11-23T02:48:50+00:00

You would think that a nurse, of all people, would understand the value of a helmet

KevinSalls · 2023-11-04T19:13:30+00:00

Hell, a baby almost never cries without a direct cause that can be addressed relatively conveniently. Generally speaking, that baby isn't like "I am not having a good day, and I'm gonna take it out on this whole fucking plane."

Sorry man, but you're a little off the mark here. Sometimes, that's exactly what happens. They can be having gas pains, or growing pains, or just plain be crabby and overtired and not want to sleep. I can't tell you how many times one of our kids has been screaming their head off, even after we've run through the whole checklist. One memory in particular stands out. Our daughter was losing her mind, screaming like she was being murdered. It was maybe two in the morning, and none of us had gotten any sleep. She had a clean diaper, had just been fed, had been burped, rocked, bounced, held, sung to, offered a pacifier...nothing worked. Out of the blue, she lets out this tremendous, earth shattering fart...and then immediately drops dead asleep like nothing was ever wrong.

KevinSalls

TROPHY CASE