Just recently my
wife and I had the missionaries over to eat. I asked the Sisters how much of
their time was spent tracting. They looked at each other and giggled. They knew
what it was, but as of yet had not spent a single minute of their time in this
endeavor. They carried their tablets and explained that missionary work was
done electronically now. I was jealous since tracting was a way of life for me
as a missionary 37 years ago. I devoted thousands of hours to this cause with
only one baptism for all my efforts. It is through tracting though, that
treasures have been discovered, and not just in the form of baptisms. It was
missionary Vern Thacker, who was tracting in Anaheim, California in 1946 that
discovered the original prints for the construction of the Nauvoo Temple. He
was able to purchase them and donate them to the Church. It was because of
these prints that the Church could replicate the Nauvoo Temple when they
re-built it. What did Lorenzo Sorenson and his companion stumble across while
tracting in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1902?
a.
Brigham Young’s cane
b.
A gun owned by Porter Rockwell
c.
Joseph Smith’s sword used while the Commanding Officer of the
Nauvoo Legion
d.
The tar bucket and lantern used the evening that Joseph Smith
was tarred and feathered
Yesterday’s answer:
a.
Mittens, socks, and apples
A small
congregation of 27 Saints in the Andover, Ohio, congregation stretched to send
contributions. Their sacrifices were carefully identified in a letter with the
names of those who donated, along with a note explaining that they hoped to
send more later. They contributed twenty dollars in cash, thirteen and a half
yards of cloth, a skein of yarn, a quit, three skins, two pairs of boots and a
pair of shoes, some socks and mittens, and twenty-five pounds of apples.
James M. Adams to
Joseph Smith, 16 November 1842, Whitney Collection, Brigham Young University.
Quoted in Donna Gill, Joseph Smith: The
First Mormon (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1977), 294-5.
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