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He was set apart that his guardian angel would be with him night and day on his mission, directing him.
Being set apart for the mission he was told it would be just the first of many missions.
He reflected on how we should all seek to serve the Lord in missionary ways all through life, not just reflecting back on 2 years of youthful service as the best two years.
One missionary would bear testimony on doorsteps until people were in tears.
One young Elder wanted to see the devil. he suddenly went blind and only in sincere prayer was the curse lifted. We should not seek such things.
He wanted to go without purse or scrip. This was done in Christ’s Church and in the D&C it says to do this. He was blessed to do that, he prayed for it and got it.
Oscar McConkie was his mission president, he was praying about how to get more baptisms in the mission and the spirit told him to send out his elders without purse or scrip.
It may seem difficult to proselyte without a place to stay or food to eat or money or two coats, but it is the Lord’s commandment and he will provide as we have faith.
The missionaries had to ask people to stay at their house and for food; they showed their certificate that they were ministers and the people graciously allowed this, many of them offering recurring lodgings and provisions.
Note- it seems that we must go wherever is best for our family mission even if the economics don’t make sense with mortgages or poverty or whatever it is because our top priority is doing the Lord’s work, and the Lord can provide.
Hungry having gone without food all day, towards the days end there was a dollar bill planted in the ground.
Missionaries were able to get a free ride on a bus.
There was a mission rule that at the house you’re staying at you leave the house when the man of the house does.
They did street sermons picking a busy street, getting up and just starting preaching.
Many of the missionaries didn’t want to do it.
Many of the pastors he encountered seemed to know nothing of the Bible and were very closed to spirituality in general. There were a few that were also quite good and sincere, and some who were decent folks but wouldn’t give up their salary as preachers.
Some thought that preaching without purse or scrip is impossible these days, but the Lord always provides a way; sometimes there were weird city ordinances about tracting, once they were arrested but he pointed out that the ordinance was flawed, and they were let go. They were also encouraged to carry around $10-$20 at any given time so they wouldn’t be thought to be bums.
When traveling home he no longer had his Minister certificate and was no longer considered a full-time missionary, and he needed somewhere to stay, so he went to a jail and asked for a bed there for the night, they let him have one, and he shared pamphlets and messages with the others that were in the jail; he called this his time preaching to the spirits in prison.
They were at a Catholic church, there was a wall where pamphlets were being distributed in little bins, one of the bins was open so he put Joseph Smith pamphlets in it.
A father called on them to minister to their sick child rather than calling for a doctor; he had complete faith in their administration, and the boy was indeed healed.
Their usual manner of travel was hitch hiking.
He said “Put all your faith into getting us a ride in ten minutes.” a few hours past, they exhausted all their faith, they were going to get a bus, then someone came to offer them a ride without their thumbs even being out. At times they waited for rides, it was purification time.
One was impressed to turn around and give them a ride who had never given hitch hikers a ride before, they said it was because she was the most honest person the Lord could speak to to help them get to a baptism.
It was against church rules to creamate a dead person.
They were fed pie at a Catholic home, they prayed over the pie to bless it, it was their family business to sell pie, and after that prayer the family gained large contracts for their pie and prospered. They were baptized, knowing that prayer brought these blessings.
When his clothes wore out, he prayed for more and they came.
2 Chron. 16 tells of one who trusted in doctors rather than the Lord and died.
He wouldn’t take medicine.
Members fed him greasy foods, this was a cause of ailment, one who discovered this, a chiropractor, fed him juices for a time, and he recovered. Before this a doctor thought he needed penicillin which he refused, as well as another doctor who wanted to give him many other drugs which he refused.
One Elder drown. Several had dreams of it before it happened. He was a good Elder. He was determined to go into that canal to swim. It was his destined time to go. All his siblings had patriarchal blessings of temple marriage but him.
Just short conversation with some lead to conversion.
He prayed for a mission without purse or scrip. The day he got there that policy began in the mission. The day he left a new mission president came in, and the policy was banned. His prayer was answered to the day.
