Skip to content
Main Street Plaza

A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

Main Street Plaza

A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

A great missionary memoir in the New York Times Modern Love Column!

chanson, October 30, 2009January 15, 2011

All I Wanted Was a Hug.

The story explores the crazy rules of homo-vs-hetero public displays of affection among missionaries — and it was written by one of the stars of the last Sunstone Symposium! check it out!

Testimony

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Related Posts

Testimony

Dallin H. Oaks & LGBTQ compromise: Mormon apostle shucks accountability

November 22, 2021November 23, 2021

“It’s a study of power.” That’s how Taylor Petrey sums up his fascinating book on sexuality and gender in modern Mormonism, and that’s the phrase that kept going through my head as I listened to six hours of Mormon Stories podcasts about Dallin H. Oaks’s November 12 talk at the…

Read More

The Coffee or the cup?

October 20, 2021November 7, 2024

A couple of years ago, I ran across an invitation to the reception for a couple who were to be married in the Provo Temple. In the obligatory picture, the man stood stone-faced, dressed in the usual church attire, while his fiancé was grinning ear-to-ear, kicking up a stiletto heel,…

Read More

Those BYU Volunteers

January 23, 2012January 23, 2012

Since McKay Coppins reported about the Romney campaign’s efforts to energize the South Carolina primaries with volunteers from out of state Mormon colleges, which has been linked by Profxm, I thought that a quick note to put the event into context might be in order. Every campaign is trying to…

Read More

Comments (5)

  1. LdChino says:
    October 31, 2009 at 4:37 am

    My guess is that this good sister’s plight was probably exacerbated by the realities of serving (i.e., living) in Asia.

    I’m a fairly standard-issue American male and can count the number of times I’ve shed tears on one hand. One was when I returned home from Brazil and realized how cold and uncommunicative the people of my country of birth suddenly seemed to me. The other was after about six months into my first stay in Taiwan. I love my life here, but it is a much less expressive culture than even that of the US. Adapting takes time and, unlike the easy adaptation to the greater warmth of a Latin culture, finding one’s place in a colder society like Taiwan’s can often feel like compromising one’s humanity.

    Thank God for my Taiwanese wife, her intellectual curiosity, and her dedication to living a polyglot lifestyle.

  2. profxm says:
    October 31, 2009 at 5:29 am

    Looks like a good book!

  3. visitor says:
    October 31, 2009 at 10:46 am

    The coldness of that relationship where someone who “loved her best” would only allow her to touch his sleeve when he clearly knew she was in real distress is stunning!

  4. chanson says:
    November 1, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Visitor — right, but you have to understand that in that culture, he would see his refusal to comfort her as being a noble sacrifice.

  5. aerin says:
    November 3, 2009 at 10:05 am

    Loved this article, well-written (congrats holly). Thanks for the tip chanson.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mormon Alumni Association Books

Latest Comments:

  1. Anon on Collecting Nominations for the 2025 Brodie Awards!!December 12, 2025

    Most humorous episodes Britty the Apostate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYqwEy6rhk Best new humorous/satirical channel: Britty the Apostate https://www.facebook.com/people/Britty-The-Apostate/61579368354784/ https://www.tiktok.com/@brittytheapostate https://www.youtube.com/@BrittyTheApostate

  2. chanson on Collecting Nominations for the 2025 Brodie Awards!!December 10, 2025

    Abstract Atheists for best new channel 2025.

  3. chanson on Collecting Nominations for the 2025 Brodie Awards!!December 10, 2025

    I've found two for a new category of personal survival stories (if we get one more, we can make this…

  4. chanson on Collecting Nominations for the 2025 Brodie Awards!!December 10, 2025

    For best history (or narrative nonfiction) book: The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the…

  5. chanson on Collecting Nominations for the 2025 Brodie Awards!!December 10, 2025

    Thanks for the great nominations so far!!! I'm going to add some nominations here myself. I'll consolidate later. For Best…

8: The Mormon Proposition Acceptance of Gays Add new tag Affirmation angry exmormon awards Book Reviews BYU comments Conformity Dallin H. Oaks DAMU disaffected mormon underground Dustin Lance Black Ex-Mormon Exclusion policy Excommunicated exmormon faith Family feminism Gay Gay Love Gay Marriage Gay Relationships General Conference Happiness Homosexual Homosexuality LDS LGBT LGBTQ Link Bomb missionaries Modesty Mormon Mormon Alumni Association Mormonism motherhood peace politics Polygamy priesthood ban Sunstone temple

Awards

William Law X-Mormon of the Year:

  • 2024: Nemo the Mormon
  • 2023: Adam Steed
  • 2022: David Archuleta
  • 2021: Jeff T. Green
  • 2020: Jacinda Ardern
  • 2019: David Nielsen
  • 2018: Sam Young
  • 2017: Savannah
  • 2016: Jeremy Runnells
  • 2015: John Dehlin
  • 2014: Kate Kelly
  • 2013: J. Seth Anderson and Michael Ferguson
  • 2012: David Tweede
  • 2011: Joanna Brooks
  • 2010: Monica Bielanko
  • 2009: Walter Kirn

Other Cool Sites!

WasMormon.org
©2025 Main Street Plaza | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes