![]() ![]() The ‘yes’ answer, for me, brought with it too much wasted emotion, too much frustration, too much revulsion, too much embarrassment, and too many worn-out follow-up questions that become exhausting to answer (How many wives do you have? You have never tasted beer or smoked a cigarette?). I knew at that moment that I never wanted to answer that question in the affirmative ever again in my life. There was no middle ground on whether one was a member or a non-member in my mind, it was either ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. To make matters worse, I had served as a membership clerk for the church. Are you a Mormon? There is no way to avoid it. I looked around at the faces, the question hanging in the air I realized that no matter where I went on the face of the earth the question would continue to come up. As I sat there in that tent in Peru, the experiences of the last two years of my life and my startling discoveries flashed through my mind. Are you a Mormon? Lee responded in the affirmative, and since our guide knew we were brothers, he then turned to me and asked the same question. The next question was not a big surprise. Lee said he lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our guide, being very cordial, was asking the group, who were all US citizens, about our home states. ![]() It was the first day of the trek, and we had stopped for lunch. I was with my brother Lee and some friends hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. ![]()
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