LDS Freedom Forum

I saw a post on this part of the forum that is getting a lot of interest by thestock about missionaries, and I have been thinking of posting more full time mission experiences. There were many, and no, I don't feel like I am the center of the universe, but I have some great(in my opinion) stories and I think it will be good to put them up here. I've got some funny ones as well. Hey, I have read plenty about criticism on experiences that some think are "glories of the past" and not current enough, or unverifiable.
I posted this a few days ago as an answer to that. Well, I post with sources. I post often with more that one source for the same experience. These are direct witnesses. The three and the eight witnesses.of the Book of Mormon never, (even though some became estranged from the Church) recanted their testimony, sometimes under threat of death by the mobs. I have posted many, many times on them. Oliver Cowdrey came back into the Church, which in my opinion debunks anything you claim, and in my posts on these witnesses, I often include deathbed statements and interviews. And if that is not enough for you, I have put up many experiences of those others like Lucy Mack Smith, Emma Smith, Mary Witmer, and a boat load of others who also saw a great many things relating to the Plates. That about covers it.
So, in coming days, the personal stories I mentioned will start being posted. Comment, share your stories, ect.. I have some good stuff. I will need to spill the beans, many of my stories relate to what I am about to post. I was a Zone Leader in Kirtland, and an A.P. in Westlake under R. Phillip Rassmussen. I saw the mission end to end, have tons of stories. We need lot's of faith promoting stories put up on this forum. Also, I know a lot of good hard working missionaries who were never leaders.

Time to get started on this. My Mission Call Letter arrived on Christmas eve., very sweet. Some of what I will write may help any prospective missionaries out there. I think everyone will find some amazing stories mixed with some humor also.
I took a mission prep. class. I think they are great. When I arrived at the Provo M.T.C. I had two discussions down word for word. That was a big help. I would come home from my job, and read my big stack of books recommended by the mission, and the scriptures. I also rode around on my 185 Suzuki street/dirt bike for fun. I would do wheelies while riding through Holiday Utah(I shouldn't have on the road, I know) and could climb most of the way up Widow Maker right at the spot of the world famous hill climb.
I had been blessed with some powerful confirmations from the Lord about the gospel, some of them while reading the scriptures. I studied hard. Then off to the M.T.C.. English speakers were not there long. On P. Day we wrote letters, did laundry, and went to the Provo Temple. One of the Elders in my group, and I went to the Temple to do an endowment. We decided to stay and do a second one. The Elder who went with me was Elder Erbe. When we came out of the Temple, he said that he had went there with a question and during the second session, he had it answered(interesting that it was after giving more effort, after he went through a second time, I have often thought about this) . He looked happy and satisfied. He told me more about what happened, but I won't share it on the forum. There is plenty more I will share.
At the M.T.C. I met my best friend through out my mission, Elder Langley from the central part of England. He had family in the U.S. who were members. The missionaries were invited into his home(he was from Leichester). As they taught, he told me he knew what they were saying was true. He was shocked when his parents disagreed with the missionaries at first, and said "mom, dad, I know it's true".
Due to the Lord, and E. Langley's encouraging letters, and their own studying, before the end of his mission they were baptized. England has very strong tea. When people give it up they often go through withdrawals including head aches. This was only one of the probably lifelong habits they had to give up or change.
Now, to switch gears, I never had a very direct confrontation with Satan or his followers in the mission field. My good friend who served in the Boston area, and my daughter who served in the Central Philippines did. That and more coming up, as well as a visit from the spirit world for the wife of the Branch President in my first area, Ashland Ohio, on my next post.

I served in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission from 2001-03. One day my companion and I were riding by an abandoned house circa 1890. Two women were standing outside going through furniture that was outside. We felt prompted to help. These women were sisters who used to live in the house. They both had moved out years prior and for some reason the parents just left everything in the house. They were rummaging through stuff to sell so they could pay for medical expenses. We asked if we could help to which they were very thankful. The inside was full of trash as drug addicts had moved in. The whole house was unstable and my companion fell through the floor. We then decided to get the whole district involved. We dug through trash and found 30 pieces of antique furniture. In one of the drawers was 10,000 dollars that was placed in a cabinet by the father. Keep in mind these women were in there 80' s. They both told us we saved there life as they could now get treatment they needed. They were so kind. I always wondered how much they sold the furniture for. I was also bitten by several spiders in the house. One of them was a brown recluse. I never fell ill.

The East Wind wrote: ↑October 16th, 2019, 6:40 pm I served in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission from 2001-03. One day my companion and I were riding by an abandoned house circa 1890. Two women were standing outside going through furniture that was outside. We felt prompted to help. These women were sisters who used to live in the house. They both had moved out years prior and for some reason the parents just left everything in the house. They were rummaging through stuff to sell so they could pay for medical expenses. We asked if we could help to which they were very thankful. The inside was full of trash as drug addicts had moved in. The whole house was unstable and my companion fell through the floor. We then decided to get the whole district involved. We dug through trash and found 30 pieces of antique furniture. In one of the drawers was 10,000 dollars that was placed in a cabinet by the father. Keep in mind these women were in there 80' s. They both told us we saved there life as they could now get treatment they needed. They were so kind. I always wondered how much they sold the furniture for. I was also bitten by several spiders in the house. One of them was a brown recluse. I never fell ill.

Great story! As you know, the brown recluse is a nasty very dangerous little troublemaker. Wow, did what you guys do help them out a boat load!

Re: Ohio Cleveland Mission Experiences of you guessed it, kirtland r.m.

One day late last century, I was riding the escalator in the airport there, and my home teacher, suddenly appeared, behind me. Another time I went through a long line in Honolulu and exactly intersected my lovely auntie and uncle. That was before things really got weird, for the second time ...

MMa is the first decAde in the second millennium.
or MMaLLyyy is more precise. L is for Leap Year, so to keep things reasonably short.

Next decade is MMaa.
And, MMaaa Marks 2030.
Each decade we’ll go up a notch.

Leap Day is the best day to surprise someone with .
Flying colors revealed amazing glimmers of gold, where I had seen none.

Time for another post. By the way, at the Provo M.T.C. you could take the bus to the big mall in Provo on p-day with at least one more missionary of the same gender, lol, so I went once. There in the music store window, I saw for the first time, a pic. of Boy George, hummm! In the missionary store there, on one wall, were many dear john letters to elders, some pretty funny I guess.
We had two young Jewish converts teaching a class, and I remember them saying, that when they went to the Temple for the first time, how the clothing they saw there was quite familiar to them, coming from their Hebrew culture. If you haven't seen this info. yet, on what B.Y.U. found in an ancient Christian burial site in Egypt, it is most interesting. Early Christian Textile Markings from Fayum Egypt.http://www.templestudy.com/2008/03/21/e ... yum-egypt/
Now, first area, Ashland Ohio. First, I said I would put up some information on the spirit world. When I was serving later in Warren Ohio, we had an Elder in Our district that was serving across the state line in Sharon Pa.. He told us that while he was teaching an older lady with his companion, she stopped and looked at them, asking if they could see the "Angel" who was present. This had also happened to a fellow ward member of mine in Utah, who while teaching in the E.Q. said that while visiting an investigator, in his either a Spain, or Portuguese mission, I can't remember, the investigator told them that he had seen a bearded man standing right behind the Elders. The Branch President's wife in my first area, had told some that her father had visited her from the spirit world, to give her a message, telling her that the Church was true. I don't think she openly talked about this often.
Now, about something else I have mentioned, the reality of Satan. My daughter served her mission in the Central Philippines. She had some run ins with at least one malevolent spirit, one one occasion she was scratched hard across the back, leaving wound opening scratches(yes, they can do that). A best friend of mine growing up had served a mission in the Boston Mass. area. One day he, and his companion were invited in to talk to someone. He said that all of the sudden it began to get very dark in the room. This person said, "oh, that's my mother" and said she sometimes comes to visit me. The elders said, "that's not your mother" and cast the bad spirit, or spirits out of the room. Next in a week or so, I will tell you about what else happened in Ashland.

Ashland Ohio had about thirty thousand people living there. I think we had the entire county as well. The average baptisms per mission was, I was told, the third lowest mission in the U.S., with three to four per missionary. Thankfully, things were about to heat up. The Lord would soon bless the Ashland branch(which met in the W.M.C.A., now they have a building) with seven new souls.
I had seen info. which claimed that for every new convert to the Church, about a thousand doors would need to be knocked on(I am assuming that means actually opened). In the very small town of Nankin Ohio(so small there was no mail delivery) lived Bob M.. Bob had been visited by a set of our missionaries years before. They had seen a birth notice of one of his children, and had stopped to visit him. After a quick hello, those elders were sent on their way, never knowing in this life, how important that visit would be.
Bob had not forgotten the visit. He noticed that in the Ashland paper, along with about thirty other churches listed for Sunday worship, was our branch. He also knew that the branch President was a Chiropractor in town. One week day, when Bob would normally have been at work, my trainer and I were out knocking on doors in this little town and he answered the front door.
He said that if his wife had answered, we never would have got in. The sounds of Abba were rolling threw the house as he opened the door. He recognized us as Latter Day Saints, and we had a good visit. We soon began to teach him, and he would set on his front porch, waving at the neighbors driving by and listening to us, looking at pictures from our flip chart, and asking questions. Just weeks later, he would load up his family in his car, and follow us over to Wooster, where we had a building and a font, and we would baptize and confirm him. Shortly after this, his remaining family members(5) would come into the Church.
We had a great new member who had his friend taught in the member's home as well. This friend was also baptized. I had been told that one out of every three persons who was taught the discussions in a member's home would be baptized. Our experiences were !00% of these non members taught in member's homes were baptized. We can thank the Lord for that and we did.
We had in that area, a minister who was really a great guy. He was very impressed as he learned for example, that we anointed the sick with oil, and gave them a blessing(he knew that our doctrine was sound, and it impressed him). He had us come on a Sunday to teach the entire adult Sunday School, which we did on the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, and the Book of Mormon. It was really awesome. We sometimes attended a meeting here and there at various churches, it got us seen and opened some doors. This was always a very good experience and created some good will. Always a good experience except once in the Kirtland area, which I will relate later(lol). Lot's more experiences and stories to follow.

Thanks for sharing!

While Bob M. was having continued spiritual impressions from the Holy Ghost(he once told me to hurry back so that we could help charge up his spiritual battery), not far away in Massillon, in the same Canton Zone, Elder Langley had an investigator who had a big burst of light during one prayer as she was investigating the church, and asking if it was true(she soon would be baptized). She told Elder Langley that she had never felt anything like that before in her life.
Two witnesses from the spirit, in somewhat different ways. Both confirming the same information. Spiritual experiences can be a whisper, or more intense. I know this for certain. Another thing that absolutely comes with real revelation, and that is real intelligence will be communicated, although some things may not be understood until a later time.
A major thing that happens over and over as some people visit Temple Square is that they feel the spirit. Some claiming that they felt so wonderful when they entered the gates, and while they were there, and asking what was that? And also wanting to know more about that special feeling. I have seen hundreds of comments from filled out visitor's cards. A number of them had these kinds of comments. I was a guide there, in the first half of the nineteen nineties. I've got stories. I will do a thread on this in the future.
Another friend in my mission about the same time as I was relating earlier, was having his own interesting experience with an investigator. He was in Cleveland. He and his companion knocked on the door of a man, and placed a copy of the Book of Mormon. This guy just seemed somewhat interested, and they made an appointment to come back. These new investigators often have very little understanding yet, and can't comprehend exactly what it is, that is being given to them.
The Elders dropped back for the second appointment hoping for the best, only to find that he had burned through a large part of the Book of Mormon, and started to understand what it was they had brought him, and was spiritually on fire. They gave him a copy of the D.&C. on the second visit. When they returned for the third time, he was quoting D.&C. verses to them. He was soon baptized. He told my friend, that he had two new goals, to help convert everyone in his family, and to help convert everyone on his block. More to follow, thanks for reading. Funny stories will be in next post.

Now for some funny stuff. Several months before I arrived in Ashland, a youth minister from another church had backed into or Elders parked car. This would have made great National Enquirer headlines. "Minister in a fit of jealous rage attacks fellow minister's car".
At a conference at Hyrum Ohio, in the John Johnson Home(a very famous place from church history), I ran into an Elder I had known from earlier in the mission. He had a reputation for very, very bad gas. He disrupted the missionary meeting, oh did he ever. People spoke his name in derision. He then looked over at me, remembering past days, and said "yep, same gas" with a big smile. This same Elder loved to quote lines from Star Wars, and Star Trek. He was so good at doing James T. Kirk, that when he would cock his head, raise an eye brow(he even looked like him) and delivered his lines, it was mind blowing.
Later he actually lived in my Stake, and was a High Council Rep.. He came over to my house with another member of the Stake. I reminded him of his awesome recitations from the big screen. He seemed embarrassed, and told the other guy with him that he was very young then. "Young he was" as Yoda might say, but very talented.
One day as we were out working, we felt we should stop by an older sister's home. When she answered the door was she ever glad to see us. She had invited in two J. Witnesses(older women) and did she ever look relieved. As we sat in her front room, and had a conversation, we began to talk about the post earthly spirit world(which they don't believe in). They believe that when you die, your spirit is not active, until the moment you will be resurrected. We reminded them also that some in the Jerusalem area had been resurrected just after the Lord's resurrection.
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Matthew 27:52,53
One of them told us that these were just bodies which had just rolled out of the graves, and had not been resurrected yet. Now, when I tell these kinds of stories, I am not mocking these folks, I am just pointing out the many beliefs that are out there from reading the same Bible scripture, and the need for a restoration of the fullness of the gospel. We had a convert who had been a big regional leader in that faith, he had prepared some material that we had been given the green light to pass out to J.W.'s we came into contact with. I will add more as I have barely scratched the surface on these goofy stories, check back in a few days.

You never know what is going to happen when you are out knocking on doors. I was given a statistic once, that the missionaries would need to make a thousand door contacts, for every baptism. We had a survey that we would use to find some souls who had been prepared, and had echos of the eternities in their hearts. At a baptism in Cleveland, I had a sister approach me(I am pretty sure she was a convert and in her twenties), and she said, "I have always believed that we could become like our Heavenly Father". Some prepared souls already believe things that are right and true and beyond the veil to a degree.
Now, about those doors. our Mission Pres. would read the weekly letters the missionaries would send him. Then the ones that were not sensitive, were split up, and given to the two A.P.'s to read getting a little bit better of a picture of what was happening throughout the mission. While in Ashland, I wrote about the Goon Family. One A.P. couldn't resist, and wrote "hey, no name calling" across my letter.
One Elder wrote in about how a guy who was out working on his car turned the hose on them. Later in the mission, when I worked in the office, an Elder(a very funny guy) who came out with our group from the M.T.C., and was then a Zone Leader, went out on a split with me for a few hours. Later, he wrote to the M. Pres. that he had enjoyed it, particularly that he enjoyed hearing me "standing on door steps, expounding wild doctrines" to those we contacted. Very funny, I hope the P. knew he was kidding!
West valley City, in the Salt Lake Valley, is a little more hard boiled shall we say, than most of Utah. I had a great companion in Cleveland, Elder Warr. He one day, was about to hear about every bad word he may have ever heard mentioned in his hometown in one five minute period, as we knocked on the front door of a man, who as soon as he saw us, started swearing a blue streak, and didn't slow down until we were off of his porch and down the street.
When I think of that day, I am reminded of this story.
Wilford Woodruff – Humor in Adversity

We got up in the morning and walked in the rain twelve miles to the house of a man named Bemon, who was also one of the mob from Jackson County. They were about sitting down to breakfast as we came in.

In those days it was the custom of the Missourians to ask you to eat even if they intended to cut your throat as soon as you got through; so he asked us to take breakfast, and we were very glad of the invitation.

He knew we were “Mormons,” and as soon as we began to eat he began to swear about the “Mormons.” He had a large platter of bacon and eggs, and plenty of bread on the table, and his swearing did not hinder our eating, for the harder he swore the harder we ate, until we got our stomachs full; then we arose from the table, took our hats, thanked him for our breakfast, and the last we heard of him he was still swearing. I trust the Lord will reward him for our breakfast.
Leaves from My Journal: p. 18

However, we did even get breakfast.

Now, one day in Ashland I was on a split with our Z.L. from Canton. We went down to the back of a street, and saw some extremely run down, not much more than shacks. Some of the West Virginia folks, often quite humble, would come up to Ohio looking for work. I had the impression as I saw a group of children there, that that might have been the case with them. As we came closer, I watched a girl about thirteen, take a look at us, and gasp "Mormons"! Ha ha, it was as if she had seen a couple of ghosts.
While on the subject of ghosts, one guy excitedly told us one day after we knocked on his door, that years before, two of our missionaries stood at his door and told him the the Holy Ghost was right there with them at the door. He was quite amazed at that pronouncement.
Once we knocked on a door, and two big Great Danes came from around the back of the house to greet us. Once a guy answered his door, took a look at us, and said "I should have known there would be trouble when I saw there were two of you out here". I reminded him that "the Lord had said to go two by two into every city", he muttered it back to us as he walked off. Some people are busy, and tired, and don't want to be disturbed. If they could only grasp what it was we were offering, some of them would give quite a different welcome.
One day in Ashland, a dear old man answered a knock at his door, and spoke with us. Before we left, he had given us a handful of nice ties. What a sweet guy! I still have one of those ties.
We had many spiritual experiences as we taught. However, one evening a cute little dog of an investigator, came into the front room. It wasn't feeling well, and wolfed it's cookies right there in the middle of the carpet. Oh well, life goes on. Our new Mission President R.P. Rassmussen(Pres. Young had just completed his Mission) drove down for a "cottage meeting", about thirty people in a new member's home. The new convert, Bob M. looked him over, and said after singing a hymn, "he knew every word of that song".
At one door, I noticed a lady had some letters in the little mailbox, ready to go out, on the front of her house. I said to her that I had noticed the stamp on the front envelope, had a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on it(some part of a nice historic American stamp run possibly. She said that Mormons were just fine, as long as we stayed out west where we belonged.
Last story, while on a split in the Kirtland Zone, we knocked on the door of a nice lady. She said that she had known a very nice neighbor at one time who was a member of the Church who she was quite impressed with, and that the missionaries could come back and each her about the Church.

Part way through the mission, I was transferred to Warren Ohio. It's a blue collar town, not far from Youngstown. Ohio had been in the "rust belt" and during W.W.2 it's citizens had been a reason why the allies had won the war. They were still making a lot of cars there in the 1980's. My companion, Elder Marlar, was transferred there on the same day. We had little to go on, both brand new to Warren, it was winter, we had bikes, so what. We had a ward list, and after praying, we saw that the Bruce F. family lived who on the other side of town, was a part member family.
We visited that house maybe three or four times before we got an answer to our visits. Sister F. was an inactive convert, her husband was a non member, and they had one young son. We began teaching them, and Bruce looked at us one day, and asked, "so you believe you are the only true church". We said yes, and gave him a copy of this on cassette tape.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTk-LebVUO817 Points of the True Church - Floyd Weston. He loved it, and made his own copy. If you haven't heard it, here is a description.
In this classic talk, Floyd Weston recounts the extraordinary experience of five college friends. Using only the New Testament as their guide, Floyd and four of his friends from college identified the key doctrines and organization of the Church established by Christ. Separated by the events of World War II and the pursuits of careers and families, the friends re-unite and discover that in their individual quests to find the true church, as described in the New Testament, each had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An inspiring and faith promoting story.
He was baptized in just a few weeks, and he was ready. His family became active in the local ward, awesome!!! They treated us like visiting royalty, and we had many great dinners.
We needed more teaching appointments, so we asked members if we could come over and teach them the discussions in their homes, and they could invite anybody to set in if they had anyone they could invite. This resulted in one baptism in another part member family. We also had another single sister come into the church and be baptized just after I was transferred out later to Kirtland.
A few more experiences, My comp. Elder Marlar, was a recent convert. He had said to me later after Bruce was baptized, "I wondered why we kept going back there" meaning that we were not finding them at home for a first visit. I didn't wonder, lol.
This was the area were we had the Sharon Penn. Elder in our district who while visiting an older lady, was asked if the Elders saw the angel who was there as they spoke to her. I have more, but will finish. Next post, it is off to serve in Kirtland.