Memoir · Book Three · Elder Magidov series · Drafted, not finished
A Gay LDS Missionary Memoir — from a Ukrainian Orphanage to the England London Mission
A boy with no family joined the church to find one, and for two years, it worked. Known on the mission by his nametag — Elder Magidov.
2002–2004, England · drafted, not finished · no publication date
Not the story you expect
Most memoirs about growing up gay and Mormon are about leaving — dismantling an inherited faith, naming what it cost. This one is the opposite direction. Vitaly wasn’t raised in the church. He joined it, at seventeen, with no family and nothing to lose, because it offered him one. For two years as a missionary in England, it delivered exactly that — brothers, structure, a place to belong — before the part of himself he couldn’t fit into it caught up with him.
What this one is made of
An orphan with no relatives of his own, adopted into a structure of companions, mission presidents, and members who called each other brother and sister and meant it.
Two years in the England London Mission — door to door, companion to companion, baptism to baptism. Not a story about doubt. A story about it functioning.
A patriarchal blessing that promised a family, and a testimony given honestly, while carrying something the blessing didn’t leave room for.
What happens after two years of it working — not on page one, and not the whole book. The trap this book refuses: making the mission only the setup for the pain.
From the manuscript
Pulled directly from the working draft — unedited, chapter and register noted.
“The icy fingers of winter caressed my face… Every knock on the door echoed with the rhythm of my heartbeat, a moment of stark anticipation.”
“A kind Scottish landlady, Ma Hansen, came to my rescue. She gave me her son’s navy duffle coat, which kept me warm and dry through the dreary days. Later, I discovered that her son had been killed in…”
“As the Patriarch spoke, he said I would have a family. I had always wanted this, but I knew deep down that I was attracted to the same gender.”
Setting
The book opens in western Ukraine, six hours from the Carpathians and the Romanian border, a city that has changed hands across empires more times than it has kept one name. It moves to England in 2002 — cold, damp, unfamiliar — and stays there through September 2004, the length of the mission.
Is this for you
No date promised
It ends on the morning somebody gave me a gold ring — which is where the second book gets its title, and neither book explains it on its own. Leave an email and I’ll tell you when this one is out.
Read these first