1. The last P-day of my mission
2. Not some dorkaziod missionaries
3. Even if the church is perfect, the people aren't
4. It's not that simple

• (character chart)

1. Young Women's
2. Youth Conference
3. Saturday's Warrior
4. Brigham Young University
• Gratuitous Love Scene
5. Polygamist
6. Temple Wedding
7. Orem High
8. Bordeaux Mission
9. Exmo Conference

I wasn't about to fall into such a simple trap so easily. I casually walked to the passerelle where she was standing, holding the book over the water as if to drop it in. Then I stepped onto the passerelle and calmly took the book out of her hand.

"I wasn't going to drop it in," she said.

"I know that."

"You've gotten pretty far away from Elder Beaverton there -- aren't you going to get in trouble?"

"I can still see him from here," I said. I raised my hand to signal Elder Beaverton and he nodded in response. He had moved to a park bench with Kim and Andrea where they all appeared to be having a lively conversation. He was probably doing his comedy routine known as the first discussion.

"So you read that?" she asked. "I guess you must speak French pretty well."

"My French is excellent, if I do say so myself," I said.

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"Ah, I wish I could say the same!" said Tanya. "It's been my favorite class all through high school -- that's why my parents gave me this trip as a graduation present -- but then I've gotten here and..."

"You find you can't communicate with people?"

"Je me debrouille. [I get by.] Maybe a little better than I expected, but not as well as I'd hoped. I can carry on a one-on-one conversation without too much difficulty. Of course I've improved dramatically in just the short time I've been here."

"I've really enjoyed learning French myself," I said, leaning on the railing of the passerelle. "Actually it surprised me how much I enjoyed learning it and how naturally it came to me when I first started studying French in the MTC."

"Why did it surprise you?"

"Because I'd never done anything like it before, and I'd never really thought of myself as much of a scholar..."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," I said. "I guess schoolwork wasn't really important in my family. To my dad, football is everything and everything is football. So of course I was on the team in high school, but I wasn't all that into it, and I was never really a star. Not like my brother Matt, who was Mr. Football."

"And now Sam, too..."

"Exactly," I said. "I was always more into wrestling -- I was the captain of the team -- and my dad was pleased about it, but didn't care about it like with football. Then, the fact that I always got better grades than my two brothers counted for even less in his book than wrestling. So, since I was obviously no Einstein, I never put much effort into my schoolwork or really thought much about it. Then when I got to the MTC and surprised myself by being the best in the class, and later when I had such a great time reading some Asterix comics in French that my first companion had clandestinely purchased, I began to feel like maybe I'd been selling myself short."

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