Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:21:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Flippp <geatravel@yahoo.com>
Subject: True Companions Part I

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This is a fictionalized account of my experiences as a mormon missionary
in France and Belgium in the early 1970s. Though the circumstances and
events are real for the most part, it is fiction and represents how I
would have liked my mission to be.

Gary

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True Companions

Part I - Coming Together

I arrived at the gare (train station) in Liege, Belgium and found Elder
Millett waiting for me on the platform. He was my new senior. I just
transferred from Charleville in France. It was the middle of January and
the air was biting cold. I had been in the mission for about 5 months and
this was already my 3rd city, even my 3rd country. My first city was
Luxembourg but that's another story.

Elder Millett was from New Mexico. He was my height, about 6 foot, around
160lbs and wore a broad smile that welcomed me to my new companionship.
So far, I hadn't been too lucky in the comp department. My first city had
3 of us so one always was in the
apartment while the other two went out. My second companionship was with
a guy getting ready to go home who decided to break all tracting records
and worked me really hard while never saying a word in my direction. He
was dealing with some tough issues I guess. Here I was with my 3rd
companion and already I liked it a lot better. He wore the standard issue
hat which we were required to wear from October to April, had a long coat
on with a hefty scarf wrapped 3 times around the neck and tucked into the
coat.

"Welcome to Liege!" he said while extending a large hand towards me.

"Thanks", I responded while I drank in his blue eyes and friendly
countenance.

"Let's go get your trunk and we'll get a taxi to go to the apartment. We
actually live in Seraing which is a little bit west of town. Then we'll
have to come back and get your bike later."

We got my trunk filled with all my worldly possessions and grabbed a taxi
which took me to my new town, Seraing. Our apartment was on one of the
main streets down by the Meuse River nestled between two steel mills! It
was the only apartment on my mission that didn't have a shower or tub or
heat for that matter. We lived above a record shop that played French
music all day long.

We lugged my trunk up the steps and Elder M. welcomed me to my new, one
room, cold apartment. There was a small gas powered heater at the one
end, one wooden table, a wardrobe which we shared, two beds along one
wall that were end to end and a small rug. A small room was attached that
served as a kitchen. It had a sink and a two-burner gas
stove and some shelves. The toilet was down the hall. That was it.

Elder M. lit the heater and showed me my bed and my half of the wardrobe.
He took off all the outer layers and left his blue woolen sweater on over
his white shirt. Then, while I proceeded to try to
organize myself, he went in and cooked up the standard missionary fare of
pasta and hamburger with a white sauce, some green beans and bread. By
the time he was finished, the room had heated up and we
both removed our heavier sweaters. As he took his over his head, I was
pleased to see a well-built, slender body under the layers of clothing. I
was looking forward to seeing more!

We ate lunch and talked about our lives before Liege. He had been out a
year and was from Las Cruces, New Mexico. After a year at the Y, where he
studied biology, he came out to the mission field. He had a girl friend
back home (dang!) and seemed pretty normal. He grew up in the Church
unlike me, a convert at the age of 19 and a missionary when I was 21.
Consequently, though Elder M was the senior and
district leader, I was older than him by a year. The only other major
thing I kept looking at was Elder M's shock of red hair on the top of his
head! That and his freckles belied the fact he came from the
Southwest. And his smile! He was always smiling and spoke in kind, gentle
tones.

After lunch, we re-packaged ourselves and headed back out to Liege to get
my bike. He showed me around Seraing - not much to see. It was a dirty,
grimy steel town where you needed a handkerchief to wipe the grime off
your brow. It was located on a steep hillside along the Meuse River. We
took the bus into Liege and picked up my bike. Elder M had brought his so
the two of us rode around Liege and then on back to the apartment. We
didn't have any appointments so that night we went tracting. I was not
surprised to see that Belgians had the same
response to our door approach that the Luxemburgers and the French had
(Je suis Catholique et je rest Catholique!). It was cold. We returned
home with some frites (French fries) from a street vendor
and warmed up some milk and had our dinner.

After dinner, we talked some more then wrote some letters and got ready
for bed. The beds lined one wall with our heads together in the middle.
They weren't very comfortable but I was tired. Missionaries carried
blankets from apartment to apartment but there were a couple of extra
blankets as well. Elder M warmed up a large pan of water for
us to wash up with. The room was fairly warm with the heat and he
stripped down to his garments. One piece garments were always fun to
watch because the opening in the back almost always allowed some skin
to show if not a full shot of your companions ass. I noted he wore cotton
garments and carefully tried to not look like I was trying to see his
body. But I was. He was well built with strong arms from
working on his family's property in New Mexico. I watched him wash his
face and arms and brush his teeth at the sink. Then he put on his robe
and walked the 10 feet to the toilet down the hall. We were the only ones
to use this toilet so it wasn't much of an issue other than it wasn't
heated!!! When he came back, I had washed up and then went to the toilet.

When we were ready to go to bed, we knelt by his bed and had our first
companion prayer together. It was short and sincere. We knelt side by
side almost touching. Afterwards, who Elder M had taken up the habit of
hugging his companion, stood up and turned to me and with that broad
smile put his arms around me and told me he was glad I was his companion
and he knew we'd have success together. I was taken somewhat aback but
was thrilled to be in his arms with only our garments between us. As we
broke away from each other, I had to try to hide my tenting crotch. I
looked down at his genitals area and
could barely see the outline of a manly cock fully filling out his
garments. A nice patch of read hair poked out of the "smiling" top of the
garment.

We laid down to sleep, our heads near each other. I felt as though I had
finally found a companion I could be friends with and have the type of
experience that had led me to join the church in the first place several
years before - a spiritual bond between two men. We chatted a little
after the light was turned out and the heater turned down. Then we were
quiet, each with our own dreams and feelings to fill the black void. I
could hear the gentle snoring of Elder M. and my thoughts turned to home
and friends and what life could be.