From my perspective, an amazing (page-turning!) journey through the missionary application process, the MTC, and the experience of being a missionary is an extremely poor country.

I came to this book with at least some real world background: time I spent working in Colombia (which was always sad and often horrifying to me, even though at least part of my experience there was the "best" Colombia had to offer). HEAVEN UP HERE is about runtu's missionary experience in Bolivia...and it is several times worse in all kinds of ways than anything I experienced in (fairly "nearby," by South American standards) Colombia.

So many things I have wondered about (what is it like to go through the MTC...and to learn a foreign language at the MTC?), some of the missionary jargon I had puzzled over for a long time (and didn't understand even when it had been explained to me here on RfM), and the cumulative emotional and physical freight you take on when you are a missionary forced to spend all of your time with all kinds of people you don't necessarily have anything in common with, I now understand...at least as much as anyone can "understand" something they, themselves, have never experienced.

The insights he gained are spot on and tremendously important to those of us who have never been missionaries (or missionaries in Third World countries). I will never forget some of the things I read.

The details are here, explained if necessary, and not glossed over. Because of this book, I think I now DO "understand," to the fullest extent this is possible for someone who did not have these experiences.

I am very glad I read this book.

Thank you, runtu, for writing it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2013 07:33PM by tevai.

Where can we get the book? I would be interested in reading it.

Link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Up-Here-ebook/dp/B005WYQ7SI

You might be interested to know that he married the sister missionary in the book and she is still TBM.

That was hard for me to believe--that anyone could see a loved one go through what John did and then still write those emissaries of Christ a check every month.


We love runtu and miss him. Hope he checks back in soon to catch more good buzz on his book. Be sure and write a review because they do age off.


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