Not much to tell. I’m almost done with my 40s, have way too many kids, and live in the Washington, DC, area. I write for a living, but unless you consider technical writing creative, this is the only creative writing I do. Recently, I published an article in The Human Prospect and a book chronicling my experiences as a Mormon missionary in Bolivia.
Runtu's Rincón
popular culture no longer applies to me
Blogroll
- Eight Hour Lunch
- Emerging from the Ashes
- Equality Time
- erlybird online
- Kam’s most excellent blog
- LDS Stake Medium Council
- Letters from a Broad
- Life in the Fast Lane
- MagicCicero’s Odyssey
- Mild Mannered Musings
- Mormon Blogosphere
- Musings of a Licked Cupcake
- My Thoughts
- Reformed Egyptian
- Sideon’s Sanctuary
- Sister Mary Lisa
Site Meter
- The Lily Pad
- Todd’s Hammer
- wry catcher
Runtu…please update my blog to be zackc.wordpress.com. I’ve stopped doing my Seer’s Stoned blog (sadly). If you want to that is. I mean alot of LDS stuff is over at that blog and it will stay up…whatever you wanna do.
Oh yeah…delete the above comment (and this one as well) if you want to.
Please post a photo of yourself as a missionary in Bolivia. I’m trying to remember your face but, it’s been so long ago.
I’m really enjoying your stories. They bring back so many memories.
Cheers, Alice (Harline) Davis
Thanks. You’re a gifted writer. Your respect for the the people connected with your mission is refreshing. I’ve been trying to make sense of my mission to Finland (1980-82) now that I’m not a believer, and your insights have helped me. Did your RM friend from Finland stay active. You were right about the seldom teaching or baptizing.
I love your mission stories; and I plan to make my kids to read them before they go (if they go). Kicking back in the south of France in the early 90s, a year or so after Cumom, I didn’t experience the extreme poverty and health issues that you did in South America, but the emotional manipulation and guilt complex issues were much the same. It’s always disturbed me that the only mission stories TBM pre-missionaries generally get exposed to are devoid of any information about the physical and emotional dangers of missionary service.
You would do a great service to the LDS community if you were to assemble these stories as an ebook, or even a dead-tree book, which I think would be a viable seller if you could connect with the right publisher. Potential missionaries, and their parents, would be much better prepared to deal with these issues (assuming they choose to go at all) were they to read your stories. The overall tone of your narrative is perfect for connecting with a thinking TBM audience–not strident; not “anti”; just telling it how it was.
If you do publish these, I’d suggest leaving the temple entry out, or at least toning it down a little. A large number of TBMs who see specific temple ceremony details in print will shift immediately into “anti” mode and disregard the underlying message. This would be unfortunate–no matter what your personal feelings are about the LDS church, your message is important enough that I think its worth soft-pedaling the temple issue in order to reach a larger audience.
Thanks again for writing these stories.
Zeezrom on the NOM board
Yeah, I’ve gone back and forth about whether to explain the temple. I put it in because I felt like it explained a lot about why I felt such guilt and pressure after I went through it. It really isn’t entirely necessary, though. I’ll have to give it some thought.
I added your blog to my site aggregator. Could you please help to attract new users to the Mormon Blogosphere aggregator?
Copy and paste the following code into your HTML/JavaScript widget, then take out the # signs:
Thanks.
http://mormonblogosphere.blogspot.com/
Dr. B.
Hello, I liked your information about the seer stone. Is it the same stone that is in the Manti temple?
Do you know of a timeline of all the activities Joseph engaged in throughout his life? I would love to see a complete one. I think if church members had one, (that was factual of course), it might help them to see things more clearly. When you are thinking of events that happened so long ago, it is easy to mix up the dates, giving him the benefit of the doubt that if anything unsavory happened, it all happened before the church really got moving, so to speak (except of course for polyandry).
By the way, one argument that explains everything away that just drives me up the wall is, “That happened when he was acting as a man, not as a prophet”. If you’re a prophet shouldn’t you choose to let that role define you – if you are truly a prophet, I think it would.
Have you ever posted on NOM? If not you should as many would appreciate your contribution and support.
http://forum.newordermormon.org
Runtu,
Great writing! Great blog! I am trying to find a story (an allegory) about the boy in the cardboard box. I’m sure I’ve seen this on your site but I am unable to find it. What archive is this story in?
Thank you,
Darwee
Here it is: http://runtu.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/the-parable-of-the-cardboard-box/
“Those who oppose and find fault will not find joy in their opposition. Those who criticize and seek to destroy the influence of the leaders of the Church will suffer the result of their wrong-doing.
If you will follow the leadership of the Lord, and those whom the Lord sustains, you will not fall away into darkness, lose the light, transgress the laws of God, and forfeit your privileges that he is so anxious that all of us should enjoy.
There is only one pathway of safety for me in this day and that is to follow those whom the Lord has appointed to lead. I may have my own ideas and opinions, I may set up my own judgment with reference to things, but I know that when my judgment conflicts with the teachings of those that the Lord has given to us to point the way, I should change my course. If I desire salvation I will follow the leaders that our Heavenly Father has given to us, as long as he sustains them.”
George Albert Smith
Council of the Twelve: A group of high-level bureaucrats who hold meetings dressed in Masonic robes weekly and travel the world as “special witnesses of Jesus Christ”
Runtu, you might edit this to reflect that the Apostles are not “witnesses to the NAME of Jesus Christ”, and have no requirement to have actually seen or talked with him. Kind of like being a witness to the name of Charles Manson or Marilyn Monroe?
John, thanks for your book, which I just learned about, and saw it was published in November. It interested me because I’ve been writing about my mission too. I think it’s in the air, and lots of people will start writing actually. I chuckled every time I came across something in your book that I’ve been writing about too (I’ve finished a first draft and hope to have it complete in a couple of months); even though I was in another place, there are so many universals it’s amazing. So maybe we need only one book. But the particulars everyone has are pretty good too. Anyway, best wishes.
Hi John, thanks for your book, which I just finished. I noticed it because I’ve just finished a draft of my own mission memoir, and I had to chuckle every time I read something in yours that I treated in mine too: there are clearly many universal themes: Maybe we need only one book! Well, all the particulars are interesting too. My first words are even similar: this book isn’t an exposé or an apology, it just tries to convey how it felt. I think a lot of people will start writing frankly, it’s sort of in the air. We’ll see. Thanks again, best, Craig H.
Sorry for the double post! The first one didn’t show up when I clicked Post Comment, and so I wrote another, but I’m the same guy, with the same dumb name that I can’t get rid of on Word Press! CH
Hi John — I saw that you’re part of a couple of very interesting presentations for the upcoming Sunstone symposium. I’d like to interview you for City Weekly — could you send me an e-mail? Thanks, and sorry to contact you this way!
I have a brother-in-law who joined the Mormon Church, He lives in the now. Has been divorced several times and refutes the Christian of the Bible but finds himself still unfulfilled spiritually. Point get the beam out of your group’s eye before you deal with the splinters in the Bible-believer’s eye.
I have no idea what you mean. Are you suggesting that I am defending Mormonism and attacking Christians?
Hi Runtu.
If you still keep up with what’s happening in La Paz, you should check out page 6 of the Toronto edition of 24-hours:
http://eedition.toronto.24hrs.ca/epaper/viewer.aspx
I have a question about your writing about “Dr” Todd Coontz. Please email me privately.
Hello John,
I am a journalist (international media outlet) and I would like to talk about your book and your experience. Please email me privately. Thank you.
Hello John,
I am hoping you could take a few minutes to speak with me. I have some information that perhaps should be shared and was hoping you could steer me in the right direction. Please email me privately. Thank you
Hey Runtu!
Working to launch MormonDiaries.com, and wanted to invite you to drop by and see if being an ongoing contributor might be of interest to you. Pretty please… if it looks interesting to you at all.
I want to create a really great multi-author ad-free blog with ex-mormons’ thoughts and observations about the Mormon church, kind of blog/journal style.
Any interest?
Dan